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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends. . .it’s the WEEKEND and I hope you can find some time to ‘BE STILL’ and rest your weary mind and heart from the frantic craziness which seems to be consuming our world. Don’t just ‘be still’ for stillness sake, ‘Be Still’ alone with God, for the purpose of re-aligning your soul with the heart of God! Consider Psalm 46:10 & 37:7 which both speak about being still with God.
As I write this, in the pre-dawn stillness of a new day, I am thanking God for this very early morning time of stillness. It’s a cloudless morning, the stars are brilliant, just a very faint warm breeze, not even the birds seem awake yet. In this moment, in this place, it’s easy for me to BE STILL. Do you have such a place and time when you can focus your quiet heart on God and LISTEN to what the Holy Spirit of God wants to speak into your life before another busy day starts?
In these days almost all the information which floods our ears and eyes is ‘bad news’, awakening near hysteria in many parts of the world. Who would have imagined when 2020 began, that the first six months of this year would be what we have experienced? So what habits have you developed to get away from the noise, the ‘bad news’ and BE STILL with God, and bring the focus on your mind, heart, and attitudes in alignment with the heart of God?
All through Scripture and history I see a pattern. May I draw your attention to a very good example which I think fits well with what we are experiencing today. Moses was attempting to lead about 1 million Hebrew slaves rushing out of Egypt. Exodus 14 describes their remarkable rescue in the Red Sea miracle! In Exodus 15 they begin their trek into the desert and soon they run out of the water they have carried with them out of Egypt. In that desert heat, it doesn’t take long and they are desperate! And then they see the sunlight shimmering on the surface of water in the distance. Let’s run along with them friends, frantic to plunge your face into a lake that appears so inviting the closer you get.
Take a deep gulp or two… oh no… it’s the worst water you’ve ever tasted, and you spit it out immediately. It’s Salt Water, like the ocean or worse, the Dead Sea! Now your mouth has this horrible salty taste and you REALLY need some fresh, cool water…but there’s nothing but sand and salt water as far as we can see. Can you hear the desperate screams of 1 million thirsty people?
Look at Exodus 15:25 “Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” Now go ahead, plunge your head into the lake and drink your fill. God heard their desperate cries and led Moses their leader to God’s solution to their problem! It was only a piece of drift-wood… but I wonder if maybe it was in the shape of an old rugged cross? Was it a forward pointing picture to the day Jesus would hang on a cross in response to the desperate cries for God’s help from a world dying in their sin?
Now look at what happened next, in Exodus 16. As they traveled they began to run out of the food they had carried out of Egypt, and because they are in the desert, there’s virtually nothing available for 1 million people to eat! If you read the first few verses of Exodus 16 you’ll see the people are grumbling and then starting to act like the rioters we’ve seen on TV, shouting accusations against Moses “…you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Ex. 16:3) This time God didn’t wait for Moses to ask for help. God saw the situation was getting ugly, and so God initiated His solution: “The LORD said to Moses: “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. I will test them to see if they will follow My instructions…”
There’s an important lesson here for us this weekend, my friends. While God is fully aware of ALL that is going on in your life, and He is more than capable of meeting whatever the need is that you have right now, God is also looking AHEAD, to next month, next year, 10 years from now. God is looking to see what you and your descendants will be facing in the future…and watch this: God is working today to prepare your character for being able to face what HE knows is coming tomorrow! So let’s learn this lesson well my friends: every challenge, every problem we face is an opportunity for God to do two things simultaneously… He can help us in our time of need and He can develop our character for being a stronger, better person in the future!!
As you know Exodus 16 is the story of the Manna…a daily, miraculous, bread delivery which fell from heaven for 40 years, for more than 1 million people!!
But finally, let’s look at what happened next. Exodus 17. Once again as the people are traveling in the desert, they run out of water. This time as far as they look in any direction it’s only sand. No shimmering water anywhere. Remember my friends, the people are not traveling aimlessly. They are following the cloud of God by day and the pillar of fire in the sky by night. That means they are exactly where God has led them… to a place with no water, and they are running out of the water they are carrying. The angry people shouted: “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” (Ex. 17:3)
Can you feel the tension in the air, the angry crowd getting larger and louder? “Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to kill me.” Can you feel things reaching a point of explosion? Now watch very carefully what happened next, for this is what I want to urge you and me to consider, even this weekend.
“The LORD answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile river and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” (Ex. 17:5,6) My friends, I see several specific things God instructed Moses to do which I believe would be very good advice for you and me this weekend. First… get away from the noise, the crowd, the ‘bad news’. How? Well first, turn off your TV! Maybe even several days. You’ll be amazed how different you feel if you shut off the noise & constant bad news! Stop looking at Facebook or allowing phone conversations to drift into agitating discussions about the mess of our world.
Second, if possible, get away. Now that may be something as simple as getting up while it’s still dark and sit outside in the quiet and watch the birth of tomorrow, starting about 5:30am! It will overwhelm you as you watch the power of God push back the darkness as daylight approaches unrestrained! Have your Bible in your hand, so when it’s light enough to read, God can speak to you through His Word. Go to Psalm 19 or Psalm 139 or Psalm 46, or your favorite Scripture. As you read, listen to what God says to you! I like to take my ipod or cell phone and sometimes listen to some worship music.
Third, did you notice God told Moses to take the staff with him with which he had struck the Nile river, turning it to blood, as the first plague? (Exodus 7) That staff was a tangible reminder of the miraculous power of God and how God had specifically unleashed His power into a specific situation. You’ll remember Moses had stretched out that staff, at God’s instruction, over the Red Sea, and God then parted the Sea and 1 million slaves ran through a tunnel of water walls to freedom. (Exodus. 14) Moses’ staff was not magical, it was a symbol of the power of God. So what do you have, that is something tangible, practical, that is part of your past miracles with God? A picture, a medical report, something that I call ‘miracle debris’ that is the evidence of a miracle of God in your past? Take it with you, when you go to meet with God. Hold it in your hand as a reminder… God hasn’t changed, and He knows your need, everyday!
Fourth, if it’s possible, even in this Coronavirus quarantine time, get together with one or two or three friends who really know God well, and spend some time together, with your Bibles in hand, sharing with each other the great stories of God’s work in your past lives. Remind each other what God has done miraculously in your lives. Then pray together, bringing to God the issues that are pressing on you and them. Then sit quietly together and listen to what God says to you. Give each other permission to share whatever the Holy Spirit impresses on your heart. Pray for each other, and watch God unite your hearts with each other and in fresh alignment with His heart.
I do this every Thursday morning with a few guys. We meet before daylight, and watch the sunrise together. With a cup of coffee in one hand, our Bibles in the other, we talk about our journey with Jesus and we share what God is teaching each of us. We sit quietly, we pray. Oh my friends, it’s a very powerful time of ‘re-alignment’, every week, and I urge you to try something similar.
Now think for a moment, how many other times in Scripture people got away from the crowd, the noise and meet with God first privately and then with a select few other followers of Jesus? By my count, Moses went up Mount Sinai 8 times to meet with God and Elijah hiked 40 days to get to his mountain encounter with God (1 Kings 19). Even Jesus, several times, got away from the crowd to meet with His Father (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12; Matt. 14:13 & 23; Matt. 26:36-46). I wonder if you’ve noticed that each of these are very significant, even strategic moments in the life of Jesus and His disciples.
Throughout history it has been vital for men and women, who long for their lives to be in ‘lock step’ with God, to get away from the noise and engage with God. Without that, have you noticed, even God’s people find themselves caught up in the fray of whatever it is that is captivating society. Right now… America and our world need God’s people to think wisely, speak carefully and truthfully, and be Ambassadors of Jesus Christ faithfully, in a time of global crisis.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: Psalm 37:1-11; Psalm 46. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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