Second day of this journey, and when I opened up the bible this morning, I wondered what if I don't get anything today like I did yesterday, should I still come here and write, and I think I should.
Discipline doesn't come with feelings or revelations; it comes through the grueling ordinary, through normal's mundane.
So here we go!
In the beginning of Exodus 2, a boy met a girl and married her. Their second child was a boy, and remember that they were under the mandate of killing all the Hebrew boys. But the mother couldn't cast him off into the Nile to die. Instead she kept him for three months, and when she couldn't hide him anymore, she hid him among the reeds in a sturdy basket.
His sister, however, couldn't let him go. She stayed nearby and came in close when the pharaoh's daughter found the baby boy among the reed. The sister then proposed that she find a nurse for the child, and the pharaoh's daughter agreed, and the mother and the baby are united again for a little while.
In the Daily Grace Co. devotional, she wrote that the pharaoh set out to kill the sons but underestimated the daughters, and that truth just warms my heart. And not only that, but there's nothing that can take us out; there will always be a way out for us. In this case, the women were the way out of the pharaoh's cruelty.
However, I want to land on the incredible sacrifice of the mother: she had to let go of Moses twice in hopes that he would have a better life away from her. She couldn't envision what would come of her baby boy; who would have thought that her son would be adopted into royalty, into the same royal family that demanded his death?
No, in her reality was certain misery if Moses would have stayed with her, that's what she knew for sure. But the rest was faith and hope.
To let go is to be filled with faith and hope that on the other side of the unknown is better than the known and even the imagined that's in our heads.
Exodus 1
Thursday, December 20, 2018
I'm doing a bible study from Daily Daily Co., and I thought that sharing on here what I'm learning will help me be consistent in both my devotional and my blog.
Today, I delved into Exodus 1, where the Israelites settled into Egypt after a famine nearly wiped them out. In this next phase, they grew into the promise of God, fruitful and multiplying in a land that was not their own.
And the pharaoh, who did not know the Joseph who saved the nation, nor the God who blessed the Israelites, peeped this progress, noticed the fulfillment of the promise, and grew fearful. Because he did not know God, he became afraid of what God was doing in the Israelites and was convinced that their growth would be detrimental to Egypt, not realizing that he took a step towards completing the self-fulfilling prophecy when he enslaved the foreigners.
Yet, they just grew even more under the oppression. As the Egyptians watched the Israelites' multiply, the pharaoh came up with a more sinister plan to cripple the Israelites: kill off their baby boys.
All this because he saw their potential, he saw God's blessing although he knew nothing about God or His plan.
And this moment in their history wasn't the only time that the enemy had a better gauge on what the Israelites could do, or what God could do in them.
In Numbers 13, the spies were convinced that they were like grasshoppers to the giants that occupied Canaan.
Yet a few chapters later, the Moabites looked over the cliff and in every direction, the Israelites camped out on every inch of the sand that the land could not be seen by the Moabites.
In Joshua 2, the two spies went into the fortified city, Jericho, and found that they were terrified of the Israelites; God wasn't telling a lie: Jericho was theirs for the taking.
There are many instances where the Israelites underestimated what God could do through them; but not their enemies.
The enemies saw clearly; they sometimes had a better vantage point than the Israelites and tried their hardest to throw them off track. The Egyptians threw everything at the Israelites, and God still blessed them through the hardship, through the oppression.
The king of Moab paid someone to curse them, and God gave the man words of blessings to speak over the Israelites.
God can still bless you in the unexpected place and in the hard place. Your oppression and difficulties do not and cannot stop Him from doing a work in you.
When it's hard, it is not silly to believe that He can still do exceedingly, abundantly more than you can ask or imagine.
Yes, in the impossible place, in the discomfort between the rock and a hard place, God will meet you here, guide you here, help you here. He'll save you here.
Today, I delved into Exodus 1, where the Israelites settled into Egypt after a famine nearly wiped them out. In this next phase, they grew into the promise of God, fruitful and multiplying in a land that was not their own.
And the pharaoh, who did not know the Joseph who saved the nation, nor the God who blessed the Israelites, peeped this progress, noticed the fulfillment of the promise, and grew fearful. Because he did not know God, he became afraid of what God was doing in the Israelites and was convinced that their growth would be detrimental to Egypt, not realizing that he took a step towards completing the self-fulfilling prophecy when he enslaved the foreigners.
Yet, they just grew even more under the oppression. As the Egyptians watched the Israelites' multiply, the pharaoh came up with a more sinister plan to cripple the Israelites: kill off their baby boys.
All this because he saw their potential, he saw God's blessing although he knew nothing about God or His plan.
And this moment in their history wasn't the only time that the enemy had a better gauge on what the Israelites could do, or what God could do in them.
In Numbers 13, the spies were convinced that they were like grasshoppers to the giants that occupied Canaan.
Yet a few chapters later, the Moabites looked over the cliff and in every direction, the Israelites camped out on every inch of the sand that the land could not be seen by the Moabites.
In Joshua 2, the two spies went into the fortified city, Jericho, and found that they were terrified of the Israelites; God wasn't telling a lie: Jericho was theirs for the taking.
There are many instances where the Israelites underestimated what God could do through them; but not their enemies.
The enemies saw clearly; they sometimes had a better vantage point than the Israelites and tried their hardest to throw them off track. The Egyptians threw everything at the Israelites, and God still blessed them through the hardship, through the oppression.
The king of Moab paid someone to curse them, and God gave the man words of blessings to speak over the Israelites.
God can still bless you in the unexpected place and in the hard place. Your oppression and difficulties do not and cannot stop Him from doing a work in you.
When it's hard, it is not silly to believe that He can still do exceedingly, abundantly more than you can ask or imagine.
Yes, in the impossible place, in the discomfort between the rock and a hard place, God will meet you here, guide you here, help you here. He'll save you here.
The Wilderness, The Desolate Places
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
I've been reading through the Gospels the past few weeks- well to the best of my abilities. Sometimes I would stop halfway through a book because responsibilities pulled me away, but there's been a recurring subject that has been catching my eye: the desolate places.
It felt as though every chapter we would find Jesus in a desolate place, praying and resting. Before He started His ministry, the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Jesus is not afraid of the wilderness. Time and again, we will find Him in a place of seclusion to be recharged.
But I don't think it really sunk in how much- dare I say it- how much God loves the quiet place until I skimmed through the first two verses of Luke 3.
Whenever I see a list of names in the Bible, my eyes glaze over. I am not the one to look through genealogy. If there's no story, I won't stay.
Yet this time I did- I lingered, I stayed- and I learned something.
The first two verses hold six names: Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias and Annas.
These aren't just any six names; these six names represented men who held power in the time right before Jesus was baptized. These men had the authority that shaped the climate, the rules of Israel. And I'm not the only one who bypassed them. God did too.
God's word didn't stay and announce itself to any of those leaders. It went over all their heads to get to John the Baptist in the wilderness.
No red tape for God. He didn't ask for permission or go through the correct channels to speak to John. If God can get to John in the desert, He can easily get to you.
God knows how to find you. He doesn't have to go through people to get to you or ask for permission. And neither do you. You don't need to be in position of power or authority to receive God's word.
No seminary necessary. No ministry required. No seat in some church committee needed.
You can meet Him on the outside. God doesn't mind.
He will meet you in the wilderness. Outside the hustle and bustle. Outside of the city. He will meet you in the quiet of your room. In the wreckage your worries left behind. In the mess, in the misery.
Our God can even meet with you in the graveyard.
God wants to meet with you- out in the margins.
The outskirts, the desolate places are not beneath Him. Even there He will be.
The only position you need is the position of your heart: are you willing to listen, to obey? If so, there He will be.
It felt as though every chapter we would find Jesus in a desolate place, praying and resting. Before He started His ministry, the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Jesus is not afraid of the wilderness. Time and again, we will find Him in a place of seclusion to be recharged.
But I don't think it really sunk in how much- dare I say it- how much God loves the quiet place until I skimmed through the first two verses of Luke 3.
Whenever I see a list of names in the Bible, my eyes glaze over. I am not the one to look through genealogy. If there's no story, I won't stay.
Yet this time I did- I lingered, I stayed- and I learned something.
The first two verses hold six names: Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias and Annas.
These aren't just any six names; these six names represented men who held power in the time right before Jesus was baptized. These men had the authority that shaped the climate, the rules of Israel. And I'm not the only one who bypassed them. God did too.
God's word didn't stay and announce itself to any of those leaders. It went over all their heads to get to John the Baptist in the wilderness.
No red tape for God. He didn't ask for permission or go through the correct channels to speak to John. If God can get to John in the desert, He can easily get to you.
God knows how to find you. He doesn't have to go through people to get to you or ask for permission. And neither do you. You don't need to be in position of power or authority to receive God's word.
No seminary necessary. No ministry required. No seat in some church committee needed.
You can meet Him on the outside. God doesn't mind.
He will meet you in the wilderness. Outside the hustle and bustle. Outside of the city. He will meet you in the quiet of your room. In the wreckage your worries left behind. In the mess, in the misery.
Our God can even meet with you in the graveyard.
God wants to meet with you- out in the margins.
The outskirts, the desolate places are not beneath Him. Even there He will be.
The only position you need is the position of your heart: are you willing to listen, to obey? If so, there He will be.
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