Jewels From Exodus 12

This morning was delightfully quiet. My children are all away at their Mamaw and Papaw’s house for a nice visit. Selah… I can breathe and pray and praise. This should not be the exception, but all too often it is.

As I sat in the quiet, I asked the Lord to delight me with His Word. This is absolutely my favorite thing to do in life. I LOVE the Word of God and studying it is akin to panning for gold. The treasure hidden therein is beauty beyond compare, and we miss if it we are not intently searching it out. And, as the good and mighty Abba Father that He is, He did indeed delight me again.

I read the following section of Exodus 12 regarding the Passover:

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 This month shall be to you the beginning of months, the first month of the year to you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel, On the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb or kid, according to [the size of] the family of which he is the father, a lamb or kid for each house. 4 And if the household is too small to consume the lamb, let him and his next door neighbor take it according to the number of persons, every man according to what each can eat shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb or kid shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; you shall take it from the sheep or the goats. 6 And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall [each] kill [his] lamb in the evening. 7 They shall take of the blood and put it on the two side posts and on the lintel [above the door space] of the houses in which they shall eat [the Passover lamb]. (AMP)

It fascinates me how the Lord uses the very physical events and descriptions of the Old Testament to teach spiritual truths, and these 7 short verses are packed with those multi-faceted spiritual gems. They are dazzling to the eye when viewed through the eyes of Christianity.

First, we are told that the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt. Think of this, the Lord God communicated with man in the place of his bondage. Spiritually speaking, we are slaves to whatever and whomever and wherever we are before the deliverance achieved by the Lord on our behalf. He met them where they were, not where He ultimately wanted them to be.

Also, He communicated to them specifically what He needed for them to do in their present situation in order to work a miracle to serve as a witness to His greatness. I heartily dispute anyone who claims the Lord stopped speaking as soon as John put down his quill at the end of Revelation. My God does NOT change. He has not stopped performing miracles and He has not stopped talking. Tragically, those who say He no longer speaks are those who have stopped listening. Nowhere in the Bible does it in any way indicate that He would stop speaking and in fact we are told, the Holy Spirit gifts some to be pastors, some to be teachers, and some to prophecy (Matthew 23:24, John 8:47, John 18:37, 1 Corinthians 12:28-29, Ephesians 4:11). Why in the world would we continue to have pastors and teachers, but not prophets? In such an instance, we are not taking God at His word, but rather picking and choosing what we will believe. He said what He meant, and He meant what He said. But, I digress.

He prefaced His words to them by telling them that this command that He was about to give them was so profound that it would change the way they recorded time. It was to become an entirely new reckoning of time. It was a new Beginning.

3 Tell all the congregation of Israel, On the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb or kid, according to [the size of] the family of which he is the father, a lamb or kid for each house.

The father of each household was to choose a Lamb for his family. Though it is socially unpopular, one cannot escape the command of the Lord for the father to be the spiritual leader of his home. This verse is only one of many that corroborate the importance of his role to the spiritual health of the family. It is God-ordained. Many volumes can and have been written regarding this subject alone. But again, I digress.

Each house was responsible for accepting the Lamb into their home. All of Israel corporately as a nation was commanded to perform this task, yet each family was responsible for their own portion. Each family, with father as head, had a role to play. And, father had to be mindful of the size of his family. He was responsible for each one having sufficient food.

4 And if the household is too small to consume the lamb, let him and his next door neighbor take it according to the number of persons, every man according to what each can eat shall make your count for the lamb.

If there was going to be any left over, they were to share with their closest neighbor, every man according to his appetite. This verse is so very rich! First, if we have more of the sacrifice than we are able to consume, we are to share it! Not only are we commanded to share it, we are told to share it with our nearest neighbor or those closest to us. They were not to go across the camp and share it with someone on the other side, or to search out their relatives. They were to share it right there where God had planted them. We have become a church obsessed with foreign missions.

Please do NOT misunderstand me. I totally support missions here and ABROAD. Everyone should have the opportunity to hear the Great News of the Gospel of Christ. But even the Lord said,"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8) He started in Jerusalem.

There are people right next to us who need to have the soul satisfying supper. They are our responsibility. We should not be so concerned what someone is eating across the camp (globe) if our neighbor is starving for lack of the sacrificial Lamb. Those foreign believers have neighbors and responsible to share with each other as well. However, as I said, if the Lord has instructed someone to go, then certainly go. Let’s just not ignore the widow next door in order to do it. In my humble opinion.

“…Each man according to what he can eat…” Isn’t that amazing? Our Heavenly Father intends for us to be completely satisfied and has indicated that the portion that satisfies us in entirely individual!

A very dear woman of God said to me early in my walk, “You can have as much of Jesus as you want, pray that He always keeps you thirsting and yearning for more.” And so, I have. I believe I could eat the whole Lamb myself! And each time I hunger after Him, I am filled. But, though I am filled does not mean in any way that there is less for anyone else in the family, for all appetites have been considered and the Lamb is sufficient for us all! Just like the miracles of the loaves and fishes, no one who comes to the table of the Lord need ever walk away hungry.

At the same time, we are cautioned to let NONE go to waste. And again, just as he portrayed in the miracles of the feeding of thousands, the remains were collected so that “none would be lost” or wasted (John 6:12). What a tragedy it would be for any of Christ’s sacrifice to remain unconsumed and thus be tossed aside as so much refuse. God said He would not allow His Holy One to see corruption. It is incumbent upon us to be sure that each of our neighbors has been offered to partake.

5 Your lamb or kid shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; you shall take it from the sheep or the goats. 6 And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall [each] kill [his] lamb in the evening.

We who are in Christ know that He alone was the Lamb without blemish. He was the only sinless, spotless sacrifice ordained from the foundation of the earth. There is no other. He was set apart or sanctified for the work of God. And He was indeed killed by the congregation of Israel. I have had readers on this blog from every part of the world, so no matter where you are, please hear me… I am not anti-Semitic. Jesus was a Jew! They were His chosen people and He loves them, and so must I. Just as the Passover Lamb HAD to be sacrificed in order for the blood to be applied and the Angel of Death to pass over, so too did the Lord Jesus Christ HAVE to be sacrificed. What the Jewish leader of Jesus’ time did was ordained by God.

7 They shall take of the blood and put it on the two side posts and on the lintel [above the door space] of the houses in which they shall eat [the Passover lamb].

I think the King James Version is a bit more descriptive in this verse. It says that they were to “strike” the door posts.

Imagine the scene with me, if you will. Each family is standing together at the door. Each person dressed in their traveling clothes, as if ready to leave in a moment. They are about to embark on a journey. They have some place to go. Once the miracle of passing from death to life has been accomplished, we begin to move toward the Promised Land. He does not save us from slavery in order for us to stay there. He does not free us, only to have us remain in that place. We are ready to move with Him and on the way we will see the works of His mighty hands! He will rise up on our behalf and show us His power along the way! Oh what a sweet journey! Hard, very hard, but oh so amazing!

So, there they all are at the door of their temporary abode, dressed for the journey. In one of father’s hands is a bowl of blood and in the other is a small bundle of hyssop. As commanded, he dips the hyssop in the blood and strikes or slaps the first door post. Blood is dripping and upon impact with the post, spatters. He dips again and…splat… hits the other door post. More dripping, more spatter. Gravity carries the blood to the floor. Again he dips the hyssop and slaps it upward to the top beam. I wonder how much of the blood is now splattered, splashed, and dripped on father. Scripture does not specify how much or the blood must be used, but I imagine it was messier and bloodier than we initially tend to think.

In your mind’s eye look left, then right, then up, and now down. There is likely a pool of blood across the bottom as well. There is a cross of blood, is there not? Do you see it?

The precious Blood of the unblemished Lamb in a perfect cross on the door posts of your temporary abode, so that the Angel of Death will pass over you. Once you have partaken of the sacrificial Lamb, you are prepared to embark on a journey with Him of Biblical proportions. You are immediately freed and you flee from the oppressor and run with Him, as He escorts you from the place of your bondage to the Land of Promise, the place He has prepared for you. Oh SELAH!

Blessed are You, Oh Lord of all creation! You and You Alone are worthy to be praised! How delightful is Your Word! How amazing! Father I pray that each and every soul who reads these words will be blessed by them. I pray your hand on each one that you will show them the freedom of Christ, if they do not already know Him. I pray that those who do know Him will be brought into fresh remembrance of the beauty and awe of Your Word. Thank You Father for this opportunity to gaze into the record of Your mighty work on our behalf and see You again for who You Are! Thank you for dazzling us with brilliant, vivid jewels You have hidden for us and then reveal to us! Praise You, Father!

Spiritual Discouragement and Neglect

Our natural Florida every-afternoon-rainstorm weather had caused my cucumber plants to mold. Over several weeks, I had spent considerable time tilling soil on a patch of earth covering approximately 75 square yards.

I tilled it, weeded it, planted it, hauled nearly 50 large wagons full of compost to it, watered it, and otherwise tended it. All the while, I prayed that the Lord would bless my effort. After all, I reasoned, I was doing important and useful work. I asked Him to send rain and a bountiful harvest.

And rain, it did. So much, in fact, my crops were drowning. The worms, on the other hand, were not. Nor did they respond in any appreciable way to the pesticide we applied.

As discouragement set in, I responded by grumpy neglect. The Lord has shown me again that my best efforts can do nothing to bring the harvest. Only the Lord of the Harvest can do that.

Today He led me, scissors in hand, to my cucumbers. They were a tangled mess of molded vines and soggy leaves. Slowly I began to snip away the dead leaves. This gave way to clipping entire branches. Ultimately, I uprooted entire plants. In the end, all that remained were the few plants which were actually bearing fruit.

I was reminded of my favorite section of scripture, John 15 where our Lord describes Himself as the vine and us as the branches. How like My Father to reveal Himself through a physical picture of a spiritual reality. When we allow the enemy to take a foot hold through discouragement and neglect, we are left with a moldy mess of twisted dead branches that are good for nothing. We do not reap a harvest and eventually bring forth no good thing and must be uprooted.

I noticed as well, the tendrils of the good plants had grabbed hold of the dead plants. When the dead rot was stripped away, the healthy plants suffered some damage. We must be careful to not become entwined in the sin, corruption and dead works of those closest to us. They will ultimately cause us injury.

It was truly a disgusting endeavor. Upon completion, my hands and clothing were covered with nasty grime. It was slimy and putrid and in all ways revolting. How good of our God to be our vine-keeper. How sweet of Him to tend to us in our corruption and slime. How marvelous that He would care to tend us and lift us up out of the muck and mire, clean us up and set us to good healthy growth.

Lord, please protect me from discouragement and neglect of my spiritual life. Please prune me Lord, so I may bear much fruit for the good and glory of Your Kingdom. Help me Lord to remember I have work to do, but only You can grow me and prosper me, only You can bring a harvest. I must do my part, but ultimately You are the vine. I am but a branch

A Life of Regrets

Live in such a manner that when you are old and looking to finish well, you will have no regrets.

But what do you do with a life of regrets at 45? How do you turn that bus around? What do you do when you have backed yourself into a corner hemmed in by consequences of life choices that preclude you from stepping forward into your calling?

I keep being told that nothing in life will satisfy me if I don’t live my calling. I KNOW!! Trust me! I know!

But what do I do now? I have made decision that cannot be unmade. I have put myself in a position where I am unable to do that which I feel called to do and I am unsatisfied. Now what?

Any ideas? Any suggestions? I know there are people reading these posts. I can see the numbers. I really covet YOUR advice… Please feel free to comment.

As a reminder, if you are reading this in an email, you need to click the link (the blue underlined web address) to get to the actual blog. If you comment or respond only to the email, it will not reach me.

A Prayer for Young Adults

If I may be so bold, might I please offer a bit of advice to those readers who are on the cusp of leaving the nest?

There was a time in the life of each adult that we were where you are. I think it fair to say, each of us made some mistakes along the way that we have learned from. I think it equally fair to say that we wish we had listened to those older folks who tried to warn us of the pitfalls before we fell headlong, but didn’t.

As I reflect upon those decisions that were life altering and filled with regret, I can say one thing with a certainty:

PLEASE prayerfully consider what the Lord is calling you to do and then do it, regardless of what you deem the cost to be.

From the bottom of my heart, I warn you that no matter what you do in your lifetime, if it is not what the Lord has planned for you, if it is not His perfect will for you, it will NEVER bring fulfillment to your heart.

“For I know the plans I have for you…plans for a hope and a future…”

Father I pray from the depth of my being that any young person reading this post will take it to heart. I pray that you would reveal to them in clear and certain ways what is Your good and perfect will for their lives. Lord, I pray that you would give them the strength and wisdom to follow where You lead, and protect them from the evil one who would try to steal Your best from them. I pray that you would guide them with Your righteous right hand and prosper them as they follow You in obedience. I pray that You would bring people across their path to mentor and guide and direct them to You.

I pray that they would pursue Your will and plan passionately all the days of their lives and turn not to the left hand nor to the right, Lord. Whisper in their ears, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” And grant them ears that are hearing and attentive.

 May they walk with You and serve you every day for the rest of their lives, so that one day they may hear from You, Father, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” AMEN and AMEN!

God CAN Use Me!

My appologies ahead.... The word I is used in the message many times. But, please hear my heart. It points to Him...

I am SO excited! I never cease to be amazed at what a Mighty God we serve!

I so yearn to be of service to Him!

A few months back, I felt the Lord confirm to me that He would indeed use the least of these (lil' ole me). I felt He was impressing on me that, although I am in a season of life which requires me to be almost constantly devoted to family matters, He would show me a way to serve from home.

Very shortly after our "conversation," I was asked by our pastor to be the "Prayer Ministry Coordinator." How exciting! I am able to be involved in a ministry I believe is vital. I am so humbled and awestruck that the Lord would find me useful to His Kingdom in this way.

I love to pray for others and I LOVE to hear when prayer is answered. And what better way for a homeschooling mother of 4 under 9 to be involved than to begin interceding for the needs of others in the deep quiet of sleepless nights or in the middle of the day when I'm up to my elbows in dishsoap or over a load of laundry that needs folding? I AM USEFUL!

And THEN...

I recently (through a very convaluted set of circumstances) came in contact with a gentleman from a ministry called "Deliver the Difference." They are an AMAZING group who package food for the hungry. There programs are so very far reaching it would be difficult to list them all here.

Just a few examples:

• They have food packing events, where they assemble food in packages that contain 6 servings of nutritionally complete meals. In other words, one package gives 6 people the nutrition required for an entire day! These meals are provided for those locally with need as well as in countries all over the world.
• Further, they coordinate with local restaurants and food stores to freeze leftover food and distribute it to local homeless shelters and soup kitchens.
• They also provide weekend meals to the 3,500+ homeless children in the Central Florida area. These kids wouldn't normally eat from Friday lunch until Monday, except that this group packs backpacks of 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 2 dinners and 2 drinks for each child to take home with them on Friday! Absolutely ASTOUNDING!

After 2 failed attempts to get there and physically help out, I explained to the man in charge that I so desparately want to be involved, but am finding it most difficult due to family circumstances. I further explained that I would love to pray for them.

Well... can I just tell you! He was so excited to tell me that just last night he and some other men were on a conference call regarding a new international program they are launching. While on the call, they began discussing that what they truly need is to pray for pray-ers! They prayed the Lord would raise up prayer warriors to pray over every aspect of their programs, the food distribution networks, the people with boots on the ground in some very dangerous places getting the food to the needy, and so forth!

I AM USEFUL!

Isn't He AWEsome?! Isn't He wonderful! Oh, I love Him so!

Love Does Not Look Away

Life lessons often come to us in the strangest of places or the strangest of ways.

I recall several years ago, I was standing at the kitchen sink up to my elbows in bubbles, when I noticed a bee trapped between the window and the curtain. After several minutes of struggle, it fell to the sill unable to fly any longer.  I remember thinking I should take it outside, hoping it would fly away and recover from its injury. But, the Lord impressed upon me, “No, I need for you to watch.”

I tried to avert my attention from the battle-weary bee back to the task at hand, but He said again, “I need for you to watch.” So I watched as he struggled.

After several minutes, I was again overwhelmed with the feeling that I should DO something. “Perhaps I should put the poor thing out of its misery?” I suggested. “No, I need for you to watch.” Again, I watched.

Over time, his movements began to slow. His intermittent times of struggle became shorter and the times of no movement became longer. My heart was breaking for this poor being on my window sill. I so desperately wanted his pain to stop and yet, I felt a higher authority staying my hand. And so, I watched, unsure why a loving God would require what I felt was an unloving response to the spectacle unfolding before me.

I felt horrified watching his final moments. I felt as though I were watching a sacred and personal moment when created prepared to meet his Creator. I felt as though I were intruding, as though I should have either some action to avoid the certain conclusion or given the bug his privacy. And yet, I was told no.

When it was finally over and the remains of the bee lay lifeless before me, I asked again, “Why, Lord? Why would you have me only watch such suffering and not DO something?!” And then came the gentlest of answers, “Because love does not look away from suffering.”

I heard very clearly and yet I did not understand.

A year or so following, a dear and sweet loving friend prepared to meet her Creator. She was delivered into His presence following her second battle with cancer.

During her battle, I had the privilege of spending a few nights by her bedside. I did not know the depth of her struggle, she hid it well. But through that time I was reminded that love does not look away.

When one shares the love of Christ with people, one must at time look suffering in the eye. In order to be the hands of our Savior in a sin sick and dying world, one must not recoil or run. One cannot comfort the hurting unless one is close.

Take and hold someone’s hand in the depth of their most frightening moments. This is what Christ the Lord does for us. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” He promises us in His Word to be there in our darkest hour.

May we be His love to others even in the hard times.

Milestones and challenges

Several weeks ago, I was informed that my writing is neither engaging nor interesting. In fairness to the person who shared this, I did ask their opinion as they are what I hope to be, a professional writer. Over the weeks since, I have gone through moments of "giving up" and moments of "thank you for being honest so I can make efforts to improve."

It is my sincere goal to make what you are reading here interesting. I try to write about wat interests me most, which is Jesus Christ and things I learn from studying God's Word. My aim was not just another "surfacy" devotional, but real "meat." I love to learn new and deep things about our Lord and when I do, I can't wait to share it. Perhaps I am just a boring person, because what I write about is what I find interesting, and I am not sure how to make it more interesting, but I do promise to try.

Anyway, after much internal debate, I checked my stats (they tracks views to my blog) this morning and was humbled to see that my blog has hit a new milestone. It has been visited more than 1000 times (not including the people who read it by email)! This week alone it has been visited by people from The US, Australia, the UK, South Korea, Nigeria, Russia, and the Ukraine!

How very exciting! That means over 1,000 times people from all over the world have come to read what I have to share! That means that I have an opportunity to share with the world the things that excite me about God's Word!

Praise You Father for this AWEsome priviledge! Thank You for allowing me to share You with others! Lord I pray that as I move forward You will show me what YOU would have me share. May I speak (write) words that bring You praise and honor and glory.

Father, please bless each and every person who has visited this site, as well as each and every person who will visit. May each one find peace and comfort here and increasing knowledge of You, the One and Only Way to eternal Life! AMEN