Thoughts

Exodus 12:14-13:16




Heb 11:6 NIV  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

1Ch 28:9 NIV  "And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

Mat 6:33 NIV  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Luk 16:20-31 NIV  At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores (21)  and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. (22)  "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. (23)  In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. (24)  So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' (25)  "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. (26)  And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' (27)  "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, (28)  for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' (29)  "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' (30)  "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' (31)  "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

I’ve put together the above scripture passages because as I read about Moses and Pharaoh, the above verse or verses come to mind.The evidence of God, His Power, His Lordship over nature is all around us, it envelopes us and it speaks to us through His Creation; yet most, like Pharaoh, hang on to their defeated gods.  Why?  What is it about us that cause us to be so rebellious and self-deceived despite all evidence to the contrary?   Not only were the Egyptian gods who ruled over land, sea and air utterly useless in the presence of God, the Pharaoh, who considered himself a god, and the people as well, could not keep his own first born safe.   His power was false at best and delusional at worst because he had nothing of the Devine in him. .  The only power he had over the people came from fear. 

Rom 1:22-25 NIV  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools  (23)  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.  (24)  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  (25)  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

I find today's readings are making me sad, very sad even though there is preparation for a liberation celebration.  

Throw Down in the Desert: Part II

I’m still reading about the “Throw Down in the Desert” and decided to do some WEB research on the Ten Plagues and what they meant  and which  gods of Egypt (also can substitute – gods of this world) were attacked.  I used “10 Plagues of Egypt” as my search phrase and got a lot of hits but I’m posting a link to the one I found, at least for me, that integrated most succinctly what was being attacked and why  (Make sure you scroll all the down to see what links the writer attached to his/her article).  I also come across a writing that compared the plagues to what will be released upon the earth In the Last Days as per the vision John saw and wrote about in the Book of Revelation.    The person who did it provided his comparisons as a Word Document and a hope the link to his word attachment can be accessed.

In keeping with my theme of Cloaks, the God of the Universe is stripping the gods of Egypt, thus of this world, of their supposedly superior cloaks. I guess like the little child in that children’s story, The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson (is it really a children’s story or is it a parable?), will we recognize they really don't have any clothes on?

The Throw Down in the Desert

Today I’m reading about “The “Throw Down in the Desert,” my previous readings of this story, prior to this year, focused on the conflict between Pharaoh and Moses or between God and Pharaoh, but now I’m seeing this is the conflict between those who believe in a God other than the one in the Bible and God  Himself.   I’m making a distinction between two types of believers of God, the ones who make up their image of God based on what they want him to be and those who spend time searching the scriptures and finding and discovering the character, personality and true power of God.

Each of the 10 plagues that Aaron and Moses participate in bringing against Egypt, are all myth shattering confrontations against the gods we “worship” other than the true God.  This battle will continue until the end of this age.  As the gods we hold dear are eviscerated by the actions of the One True God, we must choose which one we will serve. A listing of the gods worshiped in Egypt.)  If you look closely to their gods you can see what belief and what deity, God was striking down.

In truth, the Egyptians were meeting the true God in His works and power. They also saw how the people He gave the cloak of Favor to had fared throughout the entire ordeal, but most refused to switch from their “false” gods to the true one.  So it is today. 

This passage from Romans just became clearer to me on how people exchange the truth they have seen and know, for a lie:

Rom 1:20-32 NLT  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.  (21)  Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.  (22)  Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.  (23)  And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.  (24)  So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies.  (25)  They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.  (26)  That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.  (27)  And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.  (28)  Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.  (29)  Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.  (30)  They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.  (31)  They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.  (32)  They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

 I think they, the Egyptians, let the past they thought they knew about the Israelites, their slavery, color their thinking about the God of an enslaved people, color their reasoning of who this God really was.  The knowledge they had about the nation of Israel was faulty because a Pharaoh had come to power who knew nothing about Joseph. 

Patterns and Principles

Patterns and Principles in the life lived as a Believer in Jesus Christ, can be, should be seen as I read the Old Testament, especially in the Hebrew Torah, the first Five Books of Moses and today I saw a big one.   We come to Christ, we hear how our salvation in Christ will bring us a better life and we hit obstacles, we become stressed and our stressed by others and we say, “Lord, what happened, what am I doing wrong?  Have You moved, are You even up there?” And the list of panicked and petional prayers goes on and on.  Sometimes we walk away and declare, “There is no God.” 

But God’s M.O. Mode of Operation, can clearly be seen in the Old Covenant if I only take the time to look.   Looking at what happens when Moses steps back into Egypt after God calls him to lead his people out wasn’t a picnic.  Just because Moses wore a clock of God’s Authority didn’t mean that everyone, even the people who he was called to lead, would accept that authority. Exodus 5:22-6:13,7:1-25.  Yet, he was called and the people he was called to lead became even more stressed and abused after he told them and their abusers what he was there to do.

My son worked as a “Stress Analyst” in other words, he broke things then studied them, he studied their breaking point, he studied different materials, combination of materials to see if they would meet the physical specification and needs to hold up in flight without coming apart.  We never know what we can withstand unless we have been stressed.  And when you come to your breaking point, does that mean you’ve hit the wall?  No.   I’ve experienced that breaking point with my exercise program.  When I first began in 2006, I did 15 minutes of exercise and needed one hour to recover.  I can now go 3 hours straight doing a combination of aerobics, anaerobic and stretching and only need four/five minutes to recover. Time, patience, and a spirit of not-given up made me stronger while I built up my body. 

God has put me, His Child, on a path to a fabulous end but to get to that goal, testing, trails and resistance are placed before me, just like the exercise program builds me up, strengthens me and keeps me flexible does for my physical body, the path between when I began my walk with God and the goal, my purpose, becomes a room filled with exercise equipment.   

1Co 10:6-11 NLT  These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did,  (7)  or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, "The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry."  (8)  And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.  (9)  Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites.  (10)  And don't grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death.  (11)  These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.

Like Joseph, no matter the cloak you wear, no matter the color or colors that designate the Favor of the Father, your position, my position, will be tested and oft times by the One who gave you the Cloak.

What Is In My Hand?

Within this passage, Exodus 4-5:21, there seems to be a statement God makes to Moses but in reality it speaks to us to me, "What I have to be successful is not in someone else's hand but it is in mine.  The everyday things I handle, the things that are close to me the ones I discount are the things to use to take me where I need to go.  The question God ask me that I need to answer is, "What is in your hand?" (Exodus 4:1-3).

That same principle for failure also lies within me, within my cloak (Exodus 4: 6-8).  The thing I use to cover myself  with, the leaves I have plucked off the trees to use to cover my "nakedness," so I think.  Like Adam and Eve, in the garden, once I fail to face up to my real character flaws and blame the "women/man/friend/relative you gave me...the snake...the devil (Genesis 3:11-13), I am doomed for failure.  Yet, the consequences of my cover-up can be reversed because of the Mercies of God which are new every morning by going back into that same cloak of excuses and coming out with realities.   

New Discovery, For Me At Least

Mat 17:19-21 NLT  Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, "Why couldn't we cast out that demon?"  (20)  "You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible. "  (21)  [But this kind of demon won't leave except by prayer and fasting.]

I think, no I know, that there are many Pentecostal Denominations that using "fasting" as a means to gain God's power, and I'm not going to get into the doctrinal rights or wrongs of it, but I think we have missed the boat.

The ass-u-me tion is that the prayer and fasting was suppose to be exclusive done by the people trying to "cast out the demon."  But is this correct?  Something I just learned about is here, and here,

This was something throughout the ages, yet it seems to be played down today, why?  Or could it be this  just wasn’t known by me? 

New Look at Genesis

In my reading of Genesis I've gotten a new fresh look at Family, Adam, Eve, Abraham and Sarah, down to Jacob and Joseph.  Before all I saw was treachery, deceit, lies and looking out for number one, now I'm not only seeing the mercy, grace, and love of God in all their stuff, which encouraged me greatly, but "types" of God's Love, Mercy and Grace, within their stuff. In spite of their faults, there were parts and facets of their character that reflected God back at me.

I don't know how people can think they’ve read the Bible once or twice and think they know it.  I've been doing this, reading God's Word though the entire year-sometimes using two/three reading plans at one time, and I still 1) don't get things, 2) discover things, and 3) rediscover things I thought I already knew but in a deeper level or from a wider perspective.   It is Amazing.  I know that the Wisdom of God trumps the greatest and wisest man on the earth who doesn't believe or depend on the wisdom of God.  

I will be going through the Old Testament looking at the "Favor" of God as a cloak, literally and figuratively, like the one given to Joseph by his father, Jacob.  The cloak that represented the favor of the Father, the cloak that said, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased,” the cloak that showed the world how the favorite is looked upon by the Father.  However, it is also the cloak that others in families, communities, and the world will try to strip from the favorite.  But when we remain steady, committed and obedient to the father, we will be given another cloak and a crown at the end.  Just like the coat of many colors Joseph was stripped of by his brothers, like the cloak he was stripped of when he went to prison, and like the cloak he was given when he became the second in command in Egypt. The cloak is a “type” of God’s Favor so the adventure continues.   

A Day to Start Something New

Blogging is all new to me so I'm a little apprehensive. My spelling is bad, my grammar is so-so and I usually pick up my errors one to two weeks after I've written whatever I've wrote. But here goes.







A friend at church suggested I Blog my thoughts and discoveries as I study God's Word, the Bible, thus the title of my Blog, Adventures with God. I seem to to through a season of dryness of insights and thoughts as I journey through the entire Bible over the course of a year, something I've been doing since about 1985. Or thoughts sweep over me like gigantic waves and I feel like I'm drowning as they come crashing over me.






This Blog will be an attempt for me to have a place to capture those thoughts, write them down and make sense out of them as I try to apply what I've discovered to my life. Will it make sense? Probably not all of the time, heck probably most of the time I'll be scratching my head. But hopefully at least 10% of what I put done in cyberspace will impact my life as I struggle to let God's Words and the words spoken by others in His Book speak and direct my heart.

Now the journey begins as I start this new adventure.