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When God Calls You by Name

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 14-15

The Israelites are finally fleeing Egypt after watching God repeatedly pouring out His judgment on the Egyptians. He has proven to them again and again that He makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. (Exodus 11:7)

And yet, God has led His people right up to the edge of the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army, including at least six hundred chariots, is on their heels.

“And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.””

Exodus 14:10b-12 ESV

Poor Moses. Doesn’t your heart just break for him? Leading is hard work. When the people following you are happy, that’s great, but what about when the “sheep are restless,” when they’re arguing and complaining and blaming you for everything.

But, God. God is growing Moses’s faith, too. Listen to how Moses replies to the Israelites.

“And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.””

Exodus 14:13-14 ESV

And He does.

And He uses Moses to do it. Moses is the Lord’s chosen vessel. Moses is who God has called to lift his arms that the Lord would drive back the sea that the Israelites could walk through on dry land … and to lower his arms that the water covered the chariots and the horsemen and the whole host of Pharaoh’s army. (Exodus 14:21, 26-29)

“Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.”

Exodus 14:30-31 ESV

I keep thinking about when Moses said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” (Exodus 4:13 ESV)

Friends, God had purpose for His servant, Moses, and God has purpose for You. The good works He has prepared for you may not look like Moses’s, but God has purpose for you nonetheless. (Ephesians 2:10)

And sometimes doing those very things that God wants you to do is going to result in persecution, ridicule, or disagreement.

  • Your boss might not like the high-standard of honesty and integrity that you are determined to maintain. Keep it anyway.
  • Your kids might not like what you’re telling them to do. Tell them anyway.
  • Your parents may not agree with you even when you speak in the most humble, loving. honest way. Be willing to risk it for Him.

God’s ways aren’t always easy. Sometimes being His vessel is incredibly joyous, exciting, and totally awesome, but sometimes being His vessel gets you thrown in a well or a prison. Either way, it’s an honor and a privilege to be a servant of the living God.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, What an honor it is to be love and used by You. It is glorious to be Your workmanship, to know that the God who put the stars in place calls me by name. As You had special purposes for Moses, You have a special purpose for me. Please lead me and guide me. Give me the wisdom and hunger for righteousness that I need to follow You fully. I love You, Lord. I want to follow You on that straight and narrow path all the days of my life. In the Name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and my Lord, I pray. Amen.

The Lord uses His chosen leader, Moses, to part the Red Sea

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14 ESV)

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12 ESV)

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39 ESV)

God Has a Purpose and a Plan – Trust Him

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Read Through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 13

Over my 27 years of motherhood, I’ve had countless opportunities to make decisions that my children don’t understand.

  • Sweetheart, I need you to put on your shoes and socks right now and go collect the chicken eggs.
  • Honey, grab your backpack and stick it in the car. We’re going to need it later.
  • Hey, sweetie, hurry and finish up your chores. We have to leave in five minutes.

Maybe I know something that we have planned for later that day which my children are unaware of or maybe I’m looking at a bigger, longer-term goal that my children just aren’t ready to understand. But whatever the reason is, I want my children to obey “promptly, cheerfully, and completely,” because they trust my judgment. I want their first response to be obedience, rather than their debate. I want their initial thought to be, “My mom’s pretty good at this mom-stuff, I ought to do what she says,” rather than, “Why is my mom always telling me what to do? Can’t she just leave me alone?”

I was thinking about this as I read about God leading the Israelites out of Egypt.

“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war
and return to Egypt.”
But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.”

Exodus 13:17-18 ESV

God knows men’s hearts, and God knows the future. In His perfect wisdom, He always knows what is best.

He always has purpose in the path that He choses for His children. Sometimes He wants us to walk through the darkest valleys and sometimes He wants us to joyously dance over the mountaintops, but either way His purposes are good.

He is worthy of our trust.

Let’s pray.

Oh Lord God, You are good and perfect in all Your ways. Help us to trust You. Help us to follow You promptly, cheerfully, and completely, even when we don’t understand, especially when we don’t understand. May we have unwavering faith because You are an unwavering God. You always keep Your promises. When the way looks dark and scary, may we reach out our hands to You and trust that You are there. In the Name of Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, we pray, Amen.

A Heart for the Nations

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 12:29-50

I love the end of Exodus 12 where the Lord explains to Moses that strangers can join in with the congregation of Israel by choosing to be circumcised. It may not be easy, but it can be done. God has always had a heart for the nations and He always will. Do we?

“If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”” (Exodus 12:48-49 ESV)

Acts 3:25 — You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’

Galatians 3:8 — And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

Colossians 3:11 — Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Heavenly Father, I pray for all the nations of the world to know you and to worship at your feet. I pray that you would use each of us to share the gospel with those in our corner of the world and around the world. Make us herald and ambassadors of the good news. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Passover through Christian Eyes

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 12:1-28

I usually just pick one thing to focus on in a chapter, but today I couldn’t. There’s so much contained in the this one chapter of Exodus 12. In fact, I only made it through about 2/3 of the chapter – come back tomorrow for more. ☺️ I sincerely hope you’ll get your Bible out and study it yourself.

“This month shall be for you the beginning of months.” (Exodus 12:2a) This reminded me that the birth of Christ also began a new era. B.C. and A.D. are split by the birth of the Lord. Likewise the Passover establishes the beginning of every new year. Also, the Lord’s Day, Sunday, is the beginning of every new week. Wow!

“Every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.” (Exodus 12:3b) There was to be a lamb for each household according to their fathers’ houses. God has always intended families to follow Him together with their whole households, led by a father. Fathers are designed to train and nurture and disciple their children.

“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old.” (Exodus 12:5a) The lamb is to be without blemish, a male, and one year old. God wants your first and your best. You can’t give Him your leftovers or rejects. And just as God created humans male and female, He also created animals male and female. He wants the offering to be a male, a one year old male. Not a newborn knock-kneed baby, but also not an old worn-out one.

Jesus, the once for all Passover Lamb, was a sinless male in the prime of his life.

“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.” (Exodus 12:7) Each Hebrew father had to take that lamb’s blood and smear it onto the doorposts and the lintel of his home. Simply killing and eating the lamb wasn’t enough. Simply being of Hebrew wasn’t enough. God required each family to make an active choice, a choice of faith, to be saved from this tenth plague. Like Hebrews 11:28 says, “By faith [Moses] kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.”

“You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever.
And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service.

And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’
you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt,
when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'”

Exodus 12:24-27a

God wants this week-long Passover ritual to be a lasting rite for the Hebrew people, lasting even after they have entered the promised land, so that their children yet to be born will ask why it is celebrated … and the fathers can explain God’s awesome rescue … So they would be prepared for His Son, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Yahweh is the Great I Am – the God who was and is and is to come. He knows what is to come in the future and He wants our children’s children’s children to know Him. And He allows us as parents the PRIVILEGE to have a part in that! Wow!

But don’t miss those words, 

"He passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses." (Exodus 12:27)

Let those words sink in and humble you.

God didn’t pass over you because you were sinless. God didn’t pass over you because you had shed your own blood and painted it on your home’s doorframe.

No, God passed over you because you chose by faith to obey Him and trust in the sacrifice of an innocent lamb.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, Your mercy humbles me. Your grace humbles me. Your love humbles me. Why did You forgive me? Why? I don’t deserve it, Father.

Thank You for sending Your own Son to be that perfect Passover Lamb for me, that His blood would cover the sin in my heart and make me clean. Thank You that when You pass by me, You see the blood of Jesus and accept His sacrifice on my behalf. Thank You.

I pray that my life would make my children and my children’s children ask questions, “Grammy, why do you go to church? Why do you read the Bible? Why do you tell other people about Jesus? How can you be so patient when I’m naughty? Why, Grammy, why?”

And I pray that I would be faithful to tell my children and my children’s children about that first Passover and that perfect Lamb who took away the sin of the world by His death on the cross. It is in the Name of Jesus Christ that I can pray to You, knowing that You hear me and love me, Amen.

With Your Sons and Daughters

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 10-11

When I was a teenager I was afraid of little babies. I didn’t know how to handle them and I worried that I’d hurt them or something. I wanted to adopt all my children so I could get them when they were say about 2 or 3 years old, already potty trained and talking.

Now as a mom of four – including one who was adopted as a 6-month-old – I see the incredible value of the training that happens even in those first two years. Even the youngest child is learning how the world works. They are learning that their parents love them and take care of them – or not. They are learning that they are not the center of the world – or they are. They are learning to be patient, obedient, and quiet – or not.

I am certain that God has a plan and purpose in having new babies born helpless and needy. God could’ve designed new lives to begin already grown and wise, but He didn’t. God intentionally places children into families for the good of the children … and the parents.

So, it’s no surprise that Pharaoh doesn’t want the Hebrew children to go worship with their parents, and it’s no surprise that Moses insists that they must.

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them,
“Go, serve the LORD your God.
But which ones are to go?”

Moses said, “We will go with
our young and our old.
We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds,
for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”

Exodus 10:8-9 ESV

Don’t underestimate the importance of taking your children to church, of leading them in worship at home, and of including them in your family holiday celebrations. Your toddlers and preschoolers are learning more than you may realize.

Heavenly Father, we pray that we would be faithful stewards of the children that You have entrusted to us. I pray that we would train them up in the way that they should go and that when they are old they will not depart from it. Help us as parents to have obedient hearts, obeying You rather than the world. Lord, You love children and You have placed them into families on purpose. Help us to include them in our family’s worship at home and at church. Help us not to underestimate what our children are learning and the eternal impact that these young ones can have for Your kingdom. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

My children reciting Psalm 139 from memory

Deuteronomy 31:10-13 ESV — And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Psalm 148:12-13 ESV — Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV — Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV — And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Psalm 78:2-7 ESV — I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;

Pharaoh and the Parable of the Four Soils

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 9

Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” …

But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

Exodus 9:27-28, 34-35 ESV

Reading Pharaoh’s emotional reaction to the seventh plague followed by a total change of heart, I was reminded of the parable of the four soils in Matthew 13 which we read last month.

In this parable, a sower scatters seed in a variety of soils. Some soil is so hard that the seed never even begins to take root, and the seeds are eaten by birds before they even sprout. Other soil is rocky, but there’s enough good soil there that the seed begins to grow but it can never put down solid roots and persecution and tribulation causes these seeds to die. Still other seeds are scattered among thorny ground where the seeds are able to put down roots and even begin to grow, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the plant’s growth so it never bears any fruit. And then there’s the fourth soil, the good soil, that allows the seed to put down strong roots and bear fertile fruit, yielding thirty, sixty, or even a hundred-fold multiplication. (Read it for yourself in Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23)

First, let’s remember that these seeds were all scattered by the same sower. It’s not about using better techniques – speaking more eloquent words or drawing better diagrams. It’s not the fault of Moses’s faltering speech that Pharaoh is not truly repentant of his sin. Yes, get trained to share the gospel … But don’t blame yourself when the seeds don’t take root.

The words of the man who shared the gospel with me took root and bore fruit – not because he spoke “just the right words” – but because the soil of my heart was finally right.

If you share the gospel with someone and they aren’t brought to repentance and salvation, don’t be discouraged. Keep sharing. Keep scattering seed. You might be preparing the soil for the next sower who comes along.

Secondly, remember the importance of continued outreach and discipleship after the seeds are scattered. Unfortunately, it seems that many people have misunderstood the Great Commission as being simply a charge to “preach the good news” rather than “go and make disciples.” Preaching the good news is the first step in making disciples, but our job doesn’t end there. Matthew 28:19-20 goes on to say that disciple makers are to baptize and teach the new disciples.

I believe that one reason why thorns grow up and choke out the growth of those newly planted seeds is the lack of continued discipleship. New believers need to be encouraged and taught so they can bear fruit and keep those thorny cares of the world from choking them.

Finally, remember that we are working together as fellow workers, fellow laborers, fellow gardeners in God’s fields. Like Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.”

God is ultimately who gives the growth. Keep scattering. Keep watering. Keep going out into those fields with eyes open to the harvest, but remember that it is God who makes the soil, and the seed, and the sower and it’s up to Him to make it grow.

Would you like to learn more about how to make disciples and be co-laborers in the harvest? Check out No Place Left for some great tools to help you!

That All the Nations Might Know the Lord

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 7:14-8:32

I’ve always had a heart for the nations. As a little girl, I wanted a “rainbow family” of a dozen children adopted from all different nations. As a middle schooler, my closest friends were from the Middle East and the Far East. When I graduated high school, I spent a month in France putting those four years of French classes to use.

But all those years I was an atheist. I wasn’t trying to share the good news with anyone. I just liked traveling and trying new and interesting things.

Fast forward to my present stage in life, and God has fanned into flame my heart for the nations – because it’s His heart, too. Our Father God loves people from every different tribe and nation and tongue, every hair color and skin color and eye color. All are equally sinners in the sight of a perfectly holy God, and all are equally precious in the sight of a perfectly loving God.

“The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

Exodus 7:5 ESV

God has dual purposes in bringing the plagues upon the people of Egypt. He is going to rescue His own people out of slavery, but He is also going to show Himself to the Egyptian people – that they will know that He is Jehovah, the Great I Am, the Lord God Almighty.

God has purpose for everything He does. Sometimes we can be so self-focused that we think that the things happening in our lives are all about us, forgetting that God is also showing Himself to the people around us through the trials and joys that we are in.

For me, losing a baby wasn’t just about me. It was also about my husband, and my older daughter, my in-laws and my neighbors, my friends at church and the people I’d meet twenty years later at the grocery store, and especially about a little boy who was going to be born halfway around the world and need a family.

Friends, if you know Jesus, then your life is no longer your own. You’ve been bought with a price so you can glorify God in your body. You have been made holy and acceptable to God through the sacrifice of His son, now let your life be a living sacrifice – an offering that keeps on offering itself day after day – back to Him, that all the nations might know that He alone is God. (See 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Romans 12:1-2, 1 Kings 8:60, Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:19-20)

Let’s pray together.

Heavenly Father, what a blessing and honor to be called Your child and to be used by You to accomplish Your purposes here on earth. Help us to remember that we are no longer our own, that we have been bought with a price – not with worthless things like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God. We love You and we thank You for your mercy and grace. We pour our praise back to You with hearts full of gratitude. In the Name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

O Lord, Why Did You Ever Send Me?

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Read Through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 5:1-7:13

People have often asked me my thoughts about sharing the gospel in places where there is a very real risk of persecution. My response has always been something along these lines, “This world is not our home. We are all just sojourners, passing through a foreign land on our way to our final destination: heaven or hell. We have to stop being so earthly minded. We have to fix our eyes – and our minds – on eternity. We have to be faithful to share the gospel and make disciples of all nations like Jesus commanded in Matthew 28.”

I was thinking about that today when I read,

Then Moses turned to the LORD
and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Exodus 5:22-23 ESV

Do you believe that heaven – and hell – are real? Are they eternal? How is a person’s final destination determined?

The answers to those questions will determine the answers to these questions —

  • What if I study the Bible with someone and they end up losing their job because of their faith?
  • What if I tell someone about Jesus and their husband ends up leaving them?
  • What if I share the good news with someone and they end up in jail?

I’m not saying we should be reckless, cavalier, or foolish. But I am saying that if God is calling you to share the good news – which He is – you should be more concerned about the results of your disobedience to Him than the results of your obedience to Him.

Indeed the Israelites faced greater temporary trials as a result of Moses’s confrontation with the Pharaoh, but the much greater long-term joys of freedom were coming!

Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, You have told us to go and make disciples of all nations. You have promised that You will be with us. Please strengthen those who are living in dangerous lands, and please strengthen us who are living lives of such comfort and ease. Help us to know You more and make us willing to suffer for the gospel and for our brothers and sisters who are in harm’s way. Please protect us all from the enemy’s schemes and to keep our eyes fixed on You. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Please, Lord, Send Someone Else!

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 4

Have you ever felt inadequate? Incapable? Inept? Have you ever felt like there was no way you could accomplish the task that has been set before you? Maybe you feel that way right now.

Maybe you can relate all too well to Moses’s words,

“Oh, my Lord,
please send someone else.”

Exodus 4:13 ESV

As a new homeschooling mom, I struggled for years with those kinds of feelings. “God, I can’t do this! It’s too hard! I don’t know what I’m doing! I’m going to ruin them! They’d be better off at school!”

So, every spring I’d make an appointment to go visit the local Christian school, and my husband and I would reconsider sending our kids there. But every spring we instead chose to recommit ourselves to the task that the Lord had given us to disciple our children at home.

This spring marks my 21st year homeschooling. I’ve successfully graduated my oldest three children, and only my youngest one is still home. I no longer visit the local Christian school every year and I no longer struggle with those feelings of inadequacy when it comes to homeschooling my son.

The Lord has grown both my skills and my faith. And the Lord has proven Himself so very faithful to give my family what we need to complete the tasks that He has given to us.

But, friends, what if I had chosen to send my kids to school? What if I had complained and complained and complained and refused the task that the Lord had called me to? What then?

Well, here’s what I think — I think God would’ve sent someone else. Like God sent Aaron to help complete the job, God would’ve sent someone else to teach my children. My kids would’ve learned to read and write and spell under someone else’s instruction, and I would’ve missed the blessing of having discipled my kids hour after hour and day after day and year after year.

My children would’ve missed the blessings of figuring out how to get along with each other. My children would’ve missed the blessings of doing chores together and memorizing the Bible together and singing off key together. But they would’ve gotten through school somehow.

God would’ve made a way, because He is God, and my children are His workmanship.

Listen, friends, if you don’t tell that person at the grocery store about Jesus, God will send someone else. If you don’t share the gospel with that lady sitting next to you at your son’s Little League baseball game, God will send someone else. If you don’t raise your children to trust in Christ, God will send someone else. I’m walking proof of that.

  • Jonah tried to run, but God sent a whale to change his mind.
  • Pharaoh tried to kill all the Hebrew baby boys, but Moses was spared.
  • Saul tried to wipe out the Christians, but God chose to open his eyes and open his mouth and make him His mouthpiece for the gospel.

God’s purposes will stand. No purpose of His can be thwarted. (Job 42:2) You aren’t that important. You aren’t that powerful. You can’t stand in God’s way.

But, friends, the joys and blessings that you’ll miss!!! Oh, to look back on the fullness of the last 21 years! To remember how the Lord carried us. To see how the Lord worked in me and through me, growing me and growing my kids – I would’ve missed it. To see people that I’ve discipled grow in their faith, there’s nothing like it. I don’t want to miss fulfilling God’s calling … and neither do you!

So, friends, let me encourage you — don’t be like Moses, complaining that you can’t do it and begging God to send someone else.

Rather, remember the words of Mordecai to Esther,

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Esther 4:14

Isaiah 14:27 ESV — For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

Daniel 4:35 ESV — all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Proverbs 19:21 ESV — Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, What a blessing it is to have a purpose in this life. What a blessing it is to be Your workmanship and to know that You have prepared in advance good works for me to do and that I can walk in them by Your Spirit in me. What a blessing it is to be Your child and to serve you! I pray that I will be faithful to accomplish each of the tasks that You have given me to do. I pray that my eyes will be fixed on You, the one who is able to do more than I could ever ask or imagine, the God of the impossible. Help me not to trust in my own strength or my own abilities, but to trust in You who is able to do all things. It is in the mighty name of Jesus Christ that I pray, Amen.

Names – Of Moses and the Great I Am

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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Exodus 3

Each of my children’s names have special meaning for me. My oldest daughter was named after my dad. My oldest son’s name was chosen to reflect his Russian heritage. My youngest daughter’s name was chosen to commemorate her Christmas birthday and my youngest son was named in honor of a man of the Bible who was faithful to God through the hardest trials.

Today when I was reading Exodus 3, it jumped out at me that God called Moses by name when He spoke to him out of the bush. “Moses! Moses!” called God. (Exodus 3:4) Moments later Moses has a question for God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God’s answer is both simple and deeply proud.

“I am who I am.”
…
Say this to the people of Israel:
“‘I am’ has sent me to you.”

Exodus 3:14

Imagine being sent by the great “I am” Himself. The unmoved mover. The uncaused cause. The origin of all things. The Alpha and the Omega. The self-existent One. The One who spoke the world into existence. The One who breathed life into man. “I am” is speaking to you. The One who was and is and is to come. (Revelation 1:8) The unchanging God.

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Psalm 90:2 ESV

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”

Isaiah 44:6 ESV

“”Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.”

Isaiah 48:12-13 ESV

“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 4:8-11 ESV

The Great I Am knows Your name and He wants you to know Him, too. He is speaking to you. Will you listen? Will you obey? Will you follow Him? It’ll be the best ride of your life.

Names of God – Laurell Hubick