Moses

What’s Your Red Sea?

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:13-14 ESV

One of my professors at Bible college often said that the Christian life wasn’t just hard to live, it was impossible! The Red Sea for Moses was his place of impossibility. His story of Moses and the experience of the children of Israel leaves us an encouragement that God choses to work the impossible by His miracle grace.

Maybe an impossible situation is looming on your horizon like a dark cloud. Maybe right now you feel like you are facing the Red Sea ahead and are hearing the footsteps of your enemies right behind. Naturally we all begin to panic, but in that in that moment we it is vital to remind ourselves that God Himself has led us to that shore. One of the fears we face is the the unknown. We can’t imagine how our life will be if x, y or z happens. But God specializes in doing his best work in our hearts when we don’t understand (Which in my case is often!). So if it helps think of this test of faith like surgery. Usually during an operation we will be asleep and our confidence in the outcome doesn’t lie in being able to direct the surgeon’s hands. We are simply satisfied that he is operating for our good. In fact, we will never have a greater opportunity to trust God than at the shore of our Red Sea. Nothing has happened to us by chance in the battle we are in. We haven’t taken a wrong turn and this is not a dead end. We are in exactly the right place because God has brought us here. It is impossible for us to accomplish anything without the miraculous grace of God, so stand strong with expectancy and discover what only God can do!

Mercy for Today

/ pastorpete51 / 7 Comments

O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14 KJV

Often when we ask God for mercy, we are asking for a past sin to be forgiven. But mercy is about more than sin and more than just about what is past. We often think of the Psalms as being a book written by David but many were written by Asaph, two by Solomon and Psalm 90 was written by Moses, as a prayer for mercy. Interestingly he first asks for mercy early. If you are like me you might want to try this. It doesn’t take me long into my day to mess up! But he is not here simply asking for God to forgive past sins. Mercy is also a cry for undeserved help in every area of our lives.

What are you facing today? Is it physical weakness or disease? Are you struggling in a damaged relationship, financial pressures or unfair accusations? God offers His mercy “early”. He anticipates our need before we even ask. He knows about the storm even before we hear the weather forecast. He sees the test results before we get the mail. God has already looked through our empty cabinets before we make our grocery list. He stands at the door of our room and watches us as we sleep, and then greets us as we wake. In the old covenant days God’s special holy place in the Tabernacle was called the mercy seat. Today, this very morning Jesus is sitting at that same spot and offering His mercy before we even speak a word, make our coffee or begin our work. He knows what will unfold and lovingly gives us mercy and all we need to do is ask!

A Journey That Never Ends

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” Deuteronomy 34:4 ESV

If we look at the life of Moses we would see that he spent his entire life first preparing for and then finally fulfilling his calling to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. He spent forty years as a shepherd until God appeared at the burning bush and then another forty leading the Israelites through the desert. But when it came time for Moses to get to the river and cross over, God told him that he would not be able to do so. As I come to the end of this year I think I know how Moses might have felt.  God has been at work throughout the past year; both in victories and defeats and has guided our family even when we have been unaware of His presence.  But as we approach the end of this twelve month journey I wonder what lies ahead.

God didn’t allow Moses to go with Joshua when the Israelites crossed the Jordan. Instead He called Moses to look from the top of a mountain to see the land that he had waited for eighty years to enter. It seemed like a bum deal to me.  But God never forgot His promise and one day when Jesus climbed a high mountain in Israel, the scripture says that Moses appeared to him with Elijah. It took more than a thousand years but Moses did get to enter God’s Promised Land. In the same way with us as we finish our own journey the eternity that holds our promised land will only be beginning.