|
Post Date: |
Friday, 2017-03-03 |
| SCRIPTURE | |
|
From: |
Exodus 5:1-2 (TLB) |
|
Text: |
1 … Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh. They told him, “We bring you a message from Jehovah, the God of Israel. He says, ‘Let my people go, for they must make a holy pilgrimage out into the wilderness, for a religious feast, to worship me there.’”2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is Jehovah, that I should listen to him, and let Israel go? I don’t know Jehovah and I will not let Israel go.” |
| OBSERVATION: | |
| Pharaoh challenged Moses and Aaron as to why should he obey the commands that their God sent them to convey to him. In not knowing the same God that Moses and Aaron knew, loved and worshipped, Pharaoh refused to obey what the two brothers relayed to him from their God. After all, why should an unbeliever obey a god that they don’t know, and that we feel is genuine? | |
| APPLICATION: | |
| To tell someone that I met for the first time, that I have the best wife in the whole world, they may look at me and admire how well programmed I am to say those words to even a stranger. To tell that stranger that my wife said that they must not eat certain foods because it will destroy their bodies, they may look at me like I’ve really lost my mind, or perhaps ask me to get out of their face. However, if my healthy looking wife walked into the room and became acquainted with them and answered their questions about nutrition and how she attributes her great health to certain diet restrictions that she follows every day, the stranger may become more apt to accept what she says – listen and obey. As I read this Scripture this morning it was like God stopped me and made me ponder for a while that aren’t Christians doing the same thing as Moses and Aaron> Think about it, we become very spiritually fed during our weekend services and as we enter our weekday we try to share, or some may even demand some of the scriptural commands on those we work with, or come across during our day. If they don’t know God, why would they listen to us or consider obeying what we try to convince them that God said? I am very convinced that the most important thing Christians can do for unbelievers is to live life in total obedience to God, so that we can convince them that God is impacting our life. Secondly, don’t ‘beat around the bush’ about why we act the way we do, or why we attend church, or why we don’t care about their crude jokes, or why God is so important in every decision we make. When a person’s heart is touched by the Lord, THEN and only THEN will they want to hear what God has to say to them. Let’s remember, we are not in the sales business, we simply bear witness to the Truth, and He will do the convincing. Remember, He intricately designed the heart, and He knows exactly what it takes to reach that heart with the love and acceptance of Jesus Christ. When we go over and above what God intended, or leads us towards, we actually cause walls to be erected by the unbeliever. Are you meeting many folk like Pharaoh? How’s your witness for our Lord, convincing to the unbeliever? Remember, God is the One who does the convincing and the saving, we are merely the earthly vessels that He might use to help in that process. Let’s not get the order messed up and confuse the unbeliever as to who brings salvation into their lives! | |
| PRAYER: | |
| Lord, You’ve shown us through the story of Pharaoh how challenging it is to obey Your commands if we don’t know the Commander personally. Please forgive us for often reversing that order and expecting our friends to like the things we like or go the places we go, when their hearts are often polluted with so much of the world. Please continue to work on believers so that we may simply desire to be conduits through which You can share Your love, Your salvation message, and Your grace, so that others may see and believe. I am anxious to be used by You through circumstance yet unknown today. May Your will be done, oh Lord, my Rock and my salvation, AMEN! | |
| FOOTNOTE: | |
| There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us! | |
Tag: Humble obedience
Freed To Receive From God
May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Pretty amazing that our awesome God would consider feeding even us with His Word! May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for a blessing, friend!………
Today’s Bible Reference: 1 John 3:20–22
Today’s Bible Text: God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him.
The Bible Translation: The Message (MSG)
My Take Away: Often Satan will bind us so tightly to our sin, that we feel that it is impossible for God to look at us through a lens of holiness and forgiveness, even when we seek His face and plead before His throne for His forgiveness. Friends, these verses that we are looking at today assures us that when we truly surrender our sin to God, accept His forgiveness and personally forgive ourselves for having allowed Satan to control our lives, that it is then that God takes charge of our lives and ask us to step aside from our weaknesses and our sin, and allow Him to be God – our God; our Deliverer; our Savior; our Master and our King. I believe that often our challenge is attributed to the fact that we might allow outside pressures to control our mouths and our actions. Parents are famous for trying to get their kids saved, and that is admirable, but we don’t just want our kids to say the words, or do something just to please us. As in any personal relationship, it must be a personal decision, a personal experience and a personal commitment. Let’s remember, it is God who draws man to Himself, not mom or dad or anyone else that pushes us towards God. Another aspect of life, is that we tend to be harder on ourselves than anyone else that we know of. That’s why many procrastinate in their decision to follow God, because they feel like there is so much that they must personally clear up first, before God would ever accept them. Friends, if we were able to overcome our sin personally, there would be no need for a Savior, and we would have done it a long time ago. Only God can forgive us of our sin, and only He can strengthen us, and help us to overcome our sinful actions/habits. Let’s work at the unfortunate habit of beating up on ourselves and, instead seek God’s face and accept His precious love for us. Only then, through His power and His grace, we will have the power to overcome our sinful actions and receive what we ask of Him, because we are doing what He said and what pleases Him.
Prayer: Father, it is very easy for us to disqualify ourselves from approaching Your throne, because we know deep inside how awful we have been. Please open the eyes of those that still feel like they must clear up certain sinful actions before they personally seek Your face. Please open our eyes to our inability to do anything about our sin, without a righteous and all-powerful God. It’s You that we need first, oh Lord, then all these things that seem impossible to us, will become very possible in and through your grace. Thank You Lord for Your love, Your grace, Your power, and Your forgiveness. It’s only because of this that I am a confirmed child of the Kind, who still needs you every hour of every day. Please open the blind eyes of my family and friends who still need Your precious love and forgiveness in their lives. Please touch the lives of those that will read this devotional today, for like me, they need Your awesome power also. I ask these things in faith and in the confidence of the Savior of this world, Jesus, my Savior and Lord, AMEN!
Footnote: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!
2016
Recognize God’s Objection
THE HOLY BIBLE – 31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him. 32 “Why did you beat your donkey those three times?” the angel of the Lord demanded. “Look, I have come to block your way because you are stubbornly resisting me. 33 Three times the donkey saw me and shied away; otherwise, I would certainly have killed you by now and spared the donkey.” 34 Then Balaam confessed to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I didn’t realize you were standing in the road to block my way. I will return home if you are against my going.”
~ Numbers 22:31-34 ~ New Living Translation (NLT)
THOUGHTS: In my reading of God’s Word yesterday I read about God becoming angry with Moses for not carrying out His orders as instructed. Moses got so angry at his people that he was leading that instead of merely speaking to the rock that would produce water for them, like God instructed, he actually struck the rock twice. I can picture Moses being angry and/or disappointed enough to do this, but it was a vivid reminder that God, nor His Word, requires any additions by us. Because Moses subjected himself to adding this special emphasis, God punished Moses by telling him that he would never personally enter the land He had prepared for Moses and his people. I’m sure this taught Moses a lesson, but remember that this is included in God’s Book of instructions for us, to show us the importance of obedience, right down to the finest detail. In this story today, Balaam had already received instructions from God on why He didn’t want him to follow through on king Balak’s request, yet when Balak insisted by sending an even larger crowd of messengers to plead with Balaam again, Balaam went before the Lord a second time. Surprisingly God agreed with him this time, but He gave Balaam specific instructions. Now although it is not specifically detailed in scripture, I believe that God knew full well that the head nodding that He received from Balaam was not sincere, because He sent an angel to reinforce what He wanted Balaam to do. Very interesting story, but as in the case of Moses, God showed us again in the case of Balaam that He knows our heart and our very intent. He is not pleased when we say ‘yes’ to Him, then leave His presence and do whatever we want to do. Friends, I believe that it behooves us to quickly recognize that God is God, and we are not. It is better for us to disappoint our boss, or our spouse, or our friends and be obedient to whatever God has called us to do. Doing anything else could very easily bring undesirable consequences, as God redirects us into the path He has set out before us. May I encourage you to not question why, and never feel like you have a better way than God? If you are His child, then more than any earthly father, my God knows what’s best for you. Trust Him and be obedient to His call, and to His directions. He will never lead you astray nor lead you wrongly. We are His chosen vessels and He is preparing for our arrival into heaven, so of course He will watch over us and protect us while we are still on this planet.
PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for being patient with us while we try to be so independent, thinking that we have this thing called ‘life’ under control. Moses accomplished a lot more that we could ever dream of, yet You disciplined him severely for ‘doing his own thing’. Please help us to not question, nor try to prove our insignificant abilities, but to be obedient down to the finest detail when we hear a word from You. We are so needy, and You are so worthy. Please help us to spend our days seeking Your face, praising Your name and worshipping You, so that Your commands will naturally lead to our obedience and not our questioning or modifying. It’s the power of God that saves souls, not any abilities of ours. I ask these things in the name of Jesus, my Savior, knowing that it is only through His name that souls are saved and lives touched for the kingdom of God, AMEN!
FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!
Nuggets From God's Word 