Bibledoorajar Speaks of Faith's Direction

     During the past week, I have been helping my eleven year old great niece think through her speech topic for the  Leadership Training conference coming soon in Dallas. The topic the participants were given was "Give It Up" based on the passage in  Luke 14: 33 in which Jesus details the kind of disciple He desires. As she developed her speech she focused on making decisions that would be in God's will and that would bring glory to Him. What if she had to select one activity over another? How would her faith and her walk with God be involved? Which way would bring glory to God?
      In the story of Moses, we are reminded of how God is involved in matters and of how the way we attempt to handle something may have to be "adjusted".  The book of Hebrews says that Moses accepted his fate with the Hebrews by faith. But faith in God got adjusted when he chose to take matters into his own hands. God had to act to protect His own glory and He did this by allowing not only the Egyptians to know that Moses had gone about suffering with the people the wrong way. but  also the Hebrews. 
    This brings up the difficulty Christians sometimes have of choosing the best route: waiting on God in faith. Waiting on God is hard sometimes. Especially if it becomes apparent that you are not going to get to do something for Him or His kingdom in the way you thought it would happen. Once Moses became aware that everyone knew what he had done he fled. We get to see just where God took him to wait and just how long it would be before God would be ready for Moses to take action in the way that God wanted it done. God's action would not involve murders or assassinations, but the people would go free in a way that they nor the Egyptians would ever forget.
     Faith's direction often involves waiting to see just what God needs from us and just when will that be. The human tendency is to think that time has past, but rather it may be to our advantage to wait for time that is right. Only God knows how to develop the servant that He desires. What is the servant willing to give up? There is probably not anything more fulfilling than waiting to see how God will work something out in our behalf but allowing time after time to pass is sometimes hard. We have a tendency to think that nothing is happening; we are doing nothing for God. But faith's direction is often quiet and internal. And then, just when unexpected, faith presents the opportunity for service and we can accomplish something that brings glory to God.

Bibledoorajar: Staying in Faith Character

Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us about the Pharoah of Moses' time. You know, the one who ordered all the male children to be thrown into the Nile. Josephus tells us he had only one daughter and that she had no children of her own. What a situation for God to use. He moved the daughter's heart to save Moses and bring him to the very palace where her father lived. And further, he moved the heart of Pharoah to allow him to be brought up in the wisdom of the Egyptians and to enjoy all the pleasures of royal living. Perhaps he thought that he could by his will bend the will of Moses to become an Egyptian through and through. But Pharoah did what many people do; he discounted God. For Pharoah allowed his daughter to bring in a Hebrew to care for the child and God saw that that Hebrew woman was Jochabed, Moses's faith driven mother. So now we have moved from throwing the baby back into the Nile, to rearing it in both Egyptian and Hebrew ways. Once again, God turns the wisdom of the ungodly into foolishness and defeats the ways of his arch enemy Satan. In his great sermon, Stephen says that Moses learned the Egyptian ways well and became very learned. Without other children Pharoah would surely offer him succession to the throne. But Stephen says that Moses's heart was somewhere else. It was with the people of God who were being held in bondage. He had faith to believe what his parents told him: that the time was coming near for the people of God to be delivered. Faith character loomed larger and larger in Moses. But one day, he fell out of character and without God ordained authority he killed an Egyptian who was mistreating a Hebrew. Here is the human character at work: "he quickly looked this way and that and saw that no one was looking..."
Moses fell for one of the biggest temptations of most of us--taking the situation out of God's hands and into our own. He tried to get rid of the evidence by burying the man. Later the next day, he tried to appeal to the better nature of two Hebrews who were in fisticuffs. What he got in response was a revelation that there were witnesses to his own sad behavior and thus he was not qualified to judge them. The response: fear. Run.
Perhaps staying in faith character is the hardest thing for a Christian. Our weak humanity prevails too often. Like Moses, we have a hard time waiting for God to act. I guess that is why patience is listed as a virtue in the Bible. It goes hand in hand with having a will to wait upon God. Moses was a good forty years ahead of God's deliverance plan and lost his faith to no avail. These things were written as an example for us. Jesus said if you must, turn the other cheek while you wait for God to prevail. That is true faith character at work and the challenge is to stay in character. The good news is God still went on to use Moses and He will still go on to use us in spite of our human failings. God is faithful, even when we cannot be.

Bibledoorajar: Occupied With The Future

Jochabed had delivered a boy baby at what seemed like the wrong time. The Hebrew boys were all being taken to the river and killed by Pharoah's decree. Evil had spoken, but so had God. The battle for the future was on. Pharoah had no idea that God had spoken that His people, his fledgling nation now captive to Pharoah, would be delivered. A deliverer would come. Count on it!  For some Hebrews this message was received by faith--they heard the word and believed it. We know that Amram and Jochabed were among those who heard and believed because Stephen includes their acts of faith in his speech to the Sanhedrin (See Acts 7). Everything that happened at home after Moses was born, everything that happened at the river after he was placed there was a result of faith in a God who had said and was saying that His people would have a future. Amram and Jochabed hid Moses at home until he could no longer be hidden there. During that time, they prepared a safe ark for the baby to rest in for they would take to what seemed a place of death. Think of the bravery it took to carry the baby filled ark to the river, the place of death. A nervous bravery to be sure, but nevertheless one so occupied with the future that it compelled them to action. Since the Word assures us that faith comes by hearing, the family (at that time Aaron and Miriam, Moses brother and sister were at home) must have heard and believed that God would provide a Deliverer. Compelled, they placed the baby safe in the ark in the bull rushes near the palace at a place where Pharoah's daughter bathed. Miriam was placed nearby to watch and to provide a critical step in the plan. Think of the faith this young girl had to already be occupied with the future, to realize how important deliverance was.  No dawdling, no "I forgot". just bravely staying at her post.

I remember seeing the Nile river for the first time. It was truly a place of "death". I saw people relieving themselves as others were bathing, washing and brushing their teeth as dead animals floated by. We were warned that the river was full of disease and to be cautious. Only in a safe ark would we go in that river! And then it hit us. We were all at the place of death in our sins, when we were saved and placed in THE ARK. We had all become occupied with the future at the moment of our delivery. Indeed, we (a ministry team) were in Egypt because God had transferred us into His future occupied kingdom and by faith we were to minister life in that place of death when everything about us said home was calling. It was definitely a hard time, but also thrilling to realize how great salvation is and how wonderful it is to spread the good news in places of spiritual death. Look; it's all around us. Are you occupied with the future?

Bibledoorajar: By Faith and Unafraid

                           "Fair and balanced, and unafraid"

                              Brett Baier, Fox Evening News

In the evening I usually listen to Brett give the news. At the end he reports his commitment to continue a certain kind of presentation. He will attempt to be fair and balanced in his reporting and he will be unafraid of any repercussions. It is a noble commitment in these times of political correctness in which we live and I am compelled that unbiased reporting is his goal. Noble goals have a way of catching our attention, don't they?

 In the midst of everything God was having to listen to as Pharoah continued his quest to foil the growth of the budding nation of Israel, we find noble thoughts. After Pharoah's attempt to use the midwives to kill the boy babies failed, he turned to all the people and declared that they must throw every male child into the river as but refuse. But even in this climate of groanings and weariness, people were still looking for love and the comfort of family. And, more importantly, they were looking for love and comfort of family blessed by God. Such a couple were Amram and Jochabed. Amram was from the tribe of Levi which we know from Scripture was the tribe from whom the priests would later come as the nation developed. Amram, being a Levi, also chose a woman who was a Levite--spiritual calling out to spiritual. Into this family unit, God would place children that would be impacted by the priest like behavior of godly parents. Moses parents loved and served God in a time when many of the Jews were turning to serve other gods as life became more difficult. The children of Amram and Jochabed were the great grandchildren of Levi. Remember that at first Levi exhibited anger toward his father, but when Israel blessed him he included Levi being scattered among the brethren channeling their strong nature for their brethren. Thus, began a family line of service to honor God and to lead His people back to their spiritual nature. This is the kind of family into which God placed Moses. His parents had faith that led to action in difficult times and 2)  they were unafraid in difficult times. See Hebrews 11:23. It was by faith in their God and their willingness to see in Moses potential for God that led them to take courageous action. Later in the life of Moses, we will see just how right his parents discernment was that led them to making the sacrifice by faith and without fear.

In Colossians 3:23 Paul encourages the Christians to in every work they do, to do it for God. Our challenge is not just do this when it is easy but to include those tasks that call for faith without fear. Amram and Jochabed shine a light on such noble sacrifice letting us know that faith without fear is within the realm of possibility because God listens to such noble thoughts and extends His help.

Bibledoorajar: Honor

You were not a mistake,
for all your days are written in my book.
Psalm 139:15-16

For them that honor Me, I will honor.

1 Samuel 2:30

As the children of Israel bowed to their taskmasters' requests they continued to be the people of God. As such he honored them with homes with children. When the Pharoah saw that in spite of being "worked to death" the Israelites continued to have children, he was perplexed. Well over two million and growing. Wow! That Pharoah had no idea of why God was growing such a large nation. He knew nothing about the bounds of iniquity that God had set for the Amorites and that the nation which was the seed of Abraham would swell in number and be used of God to put down that powerful enemy.  So the evil Pharoah hatched another idea. How about killing all the boy babies during the birth process? This would seriously hamper the growth of God's people and help the Pharoah stay in control. But what the Pharoah could not see was that the plan would also hamper God's plans. Such action, if successful, would disrupt the line leading to David whom God intended to honor as the progenitor of the family line of Jesus.

Two Jewish midwives were instructed to not let the baby boys live. However, these two brave midwives honored God more than Pharoah. They knew children were not a mistake in God's eyes. Who knew who in the community might give birth to the promised Messiah? The women feared interrupting the plan of their God (even though all the dynamics may have not been fully understood) more than they feared Pharoah. And what was God's response to such honor and respect? The Word says that He blessed them personally with homes and children. 

Honor. Our military preaches it. A good soldier,  sailor or Marine is one who honors the goals of his branch of service and respects its leadership. He obeys. If he does not, his discharge from service is dishonorable. Children of God, soldiers of Christ, we absolutely cannot be a part of disrespecting God and His purposes. We must trust and obey. Who knows what purpose we were called to either carry out or "birth"? We are not a mistake. Stay true to the One who knows the plans He has for you.

Peal out the watchword! Silence it never!
Song of our spirits, rejoicing and free;
Peal out the watchword! Loyal forever!
King of our lives, by Thy grace we will be.

     
                                                           Frances Havergal  1878