2.1.14

Exodus 15:9-10 "The enemy boasted, 'I will chase them and catch up with them and consume them I will flash my sword; my powerful hand will destroy them.' But you blew your breath, and the sea covered them, they sank like lead in the mighty waters. 

My Thoughts

Wow! I love this! Things looked impossible.... The enemy looked  stronger, bolder, bigger! Yet  all God had to do was blow His breath!   Years later when David was king he would remind the people of all that God had done when the Israelites left Egypt ... The reminder helped to strengthen them. We need to keep these stories in our heads too. To remind us of how situations in our lives that seem impossible to us are easy, easy for God. When we put these remembrances in our hearts it makes us more aware to call on God. These verses were in a song that was written to serve as a reminder of God's greatness, a reminder of what God had done and of what God could do. I am sure if we know this song from our Bibles that it was sang over and over and over as a reminder to those very people, to their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. And if we put this in our hearts it will be a reminder to is too. A reminder that our problems, our battles that are too big for is are as simple as blowing out a candle for God. 

1.31.14

Exodus 12:42 On this night The Lord kept his promise to bring his people out of the land of Egypt. So this night belongs to him, and it must be commemorated every year by all the Israelites, from generation to generation. 

My Thoughts

God always keeps His promises! Always! The question is do we always stop and take time to realize just that ?God has done and give. Him the credit?  I know I don't....I need to take time to commemorate all that God does in my life. I know that I have thanked God on occasion for Robby's job which provides us with so much. But I have never picked up his check in Friday and looked up to Heaven and said, "Thank you God!"  I know that in big moments, like Madison finally getting home safe from the snow storm on Tuesday after hours upon hours in traffic, climbing over a concrete median, riding with strangers , and a neighbor then picking her up at a gas station...after prayers going up all day from me and her dad, and from my friends and their friends....I thanked God! But there are so many times I just go about, too often taking the credit myself instead of giving God the credit. I must do better...all victory, no matter how small it may seem in our day, belongs to God.

1.27.14

Exodus 3:21 And I (God) will cause the Egyptians to look favorably upon you. They will give you gifts when you go so you will not leave empty-handed. 

My Thoughts

Colossians 3:23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. When I read about the Israelites leaving Egypt loaded down I thought if this verse. Later we learn that every Israelite, man, woman and child was loaded down with treasure, yet they did not even stumble under the weight of it. See that worked hard,as if they were working for The Lord eaten as slaves and God made sure that they were rewarded. 

Each job that we do in our lives can be made successful, even if it doesn't feel so at the time, if we work as of we are working for God. God always blesses our hi set efforts when we keep our eyes on Him! Any time we wonder if someone is noticing our efforts, or that we think that nobody is noticing...we need to stop and remember that God sees and He cares. Take a second to commit that effort we are making to Him. We need to do our best. Putting the story of the Israelites in our hearts...and know that God sees and His blessings are far beyond anything man can provide! 

Exodus 40:38 Then the cloud of the Lord hovered over the Tabernacle during the day, and at night fire glowed inside the cloud so the whole family of Israel could see it.  This continued throughout all of their journeys.

 

My Thoughts

I read this today and thought, "How could these people ever do wrong with God right there with them?" It amazed me.  Then I got to my New Testament reading and read Mark 1:10-11 As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, "You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy."  Just before that in verse 8 John the Baptist says "I baptize you with water but he (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.  I thought God was with the Israelites in the cloud and fire, Jesus sends down the Holy Spirit to engulf us, to cover us, to pray when we don't have the words, to live inside of us, to guide and teach us....  how can we go about doing wrong?? 

 

What I am learning as I read through my Bible again and again is this.  The more I know God the less I do wrong.  The more I seek after wisdom, the more wisdom comes to me as I live out my day.  God makes me able when I make the effort. 

 

Proverbs 9:12  If you become wise you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.  God was with the Israelites teaching then... instruction them all the time.  God is with us... His word teaches us. The Holy Spirit is inside of us.  We have to tap into those resources.  Proverbs 9:12 tells us that we suffer if we ignore wisdom... we ignore wisdom if we don't pick up our Bibles for ourselves and read and learn.  We scorn wisdom when we don't learn to talk to and listen to the Holy Spirit inside of us directing our steps, our words, our actions.  We have the opportunity to benefit from God and all of His wisdom... but we have to make the effort!! 

 

Before I picked up my Bible I loved God because I was suppose to... because I didn't want to burn in Hell.  Once I started reading and learning all that changed.. now I love God because I he loves me so much I can't help but love him.  I have so much growing left to do... so much... I am way behind, I started late.  But you know what? That is ok... God met me where I was and He grows me every day... He forgives me every day and the Holy Spirit inside me tells me how to do better.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit has to tell me and tell me and tell me...then one day it finally sticks.  But I have learned to hear Him. I am learning that when God tells me to do better it is because He wants the very best for me. 

 

God loves us with a love that is bigger than any human mind can even imagine.  I didn't know that before.  I heard people say it... but I, me, Jeannie didn't know that.  Wisdom taught me that... I can't wait to see what else wisdom teaches me. 

2.3.13

Exodus 17:10-13 So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the arm of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill.  As long as Moses held up the staff  in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage.  But whenever he dropped his hand the Amalekites gained the advantage.  Moses' arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up.  So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on.  Then they stood on each side of moses, holding up his hands.  So his hands held steady until sunset. As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of the Amalek in battle. 

 

My Thoughts

There are several lessons in these four verses.  One as long as Moses held his hands, his heart toward God he was winning the battle.  Two sometimes it gets hard, life happens around us, the battle is huge and we are exhausted. We need friends, godly friends that will pray with us and for us. That will step in and do when we can't do it any longer.  Three, no where in here do you hear Arron or Hur fussing, or complaining, or criticizing Moses because He couldn't do it any longer...they stepped in. They did for Moses what he couldn't do at the time.  They focused on God for Moses.  Their support got Moses through.

 

I am reminded of this past week... I had been in a Lupus flair for several weeks and it was getting worse and worse.  I was surrounded by such a darkness that I could not see God. I knew deep down that He was there...but I was so exhausted and tired that I could not lift my head. This morning I was scared because I felt so lost in the exhaustion and pain and darkness.  Then God put two people in my path that I could hear.  I had more people than that praying for me... but He put two people in my path with just the right words.  One posted the perfect story from God's word, the other listened with such understanding ears, ears that made me feel not so all alone.  Two people just like Moses had that day.  By the time my husband got home from work he had a smiling happy wife, he had left the house with a scary depressed, crying wife.  Two people had held me up until I could hear God again and God defeated the spirit of fear and darkness that had engulfed me. 

 

A painted picture of me Thursday would have looked like a shy with clouds so dark that you could feel a tornado brewing...the of a straight line at the end of those clouds with a sky so bright, a sun that looked like a happy child drew it and the lines of a wind blowing the darkness away.  The contrast was beyond any picture I could paint.  But two people who got me pointed back to God with love and support and changed my world. 

 

We have to be those people. We have to surround ourselves with people that will do that for us. Several people had been trying so hard to help me...but I needed just those two people.  We can never pass up the chance to hold someone hands toward God.

4.2.12

Luke 9:28-29 About eight days later Jesus took Peter, John and James up on a mountain to pray.  And as Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white.

My Thoughts

This is in my reading from yesterday...yesterday I woke up dizzy..the room spinning and was unable to do my reading..then I didn't ever make the time later in the day... but yesterday I would not have seen this verse the way I see it today!!

I first thought "Moses was glowing too, after he spent time with God!!"  (Exodus 34:29) We may not ourselves glow whiter and brighter in the same way Jesus and Moses did...but God's word...and prayer change us!  They change us into people that have a love and kindness in them that light up a room. God's love washes us clean and makes us all white again, without blemish.  God's love makes us glow! 

I remember a few months after starting my first journey through the Bible, I ran into a dear friend... she said "Jeannie you glow like a pregnant woman!" What is different about you... I told her... spending time with God... God was making me glow!!...

We think that happiness makes us glow when we are pregnant...what if it is the perfect, sin free person inside us glowing so much that it just shows through us!

God's love can make us perfect again... Jesus died on the cross so that we can be in the presence of God... so that the Holy Spirit could come down and live inside of us. Each effort we make toward God... toward prayer, toward reading and learning God's word... toward learning to hear the Holy Spirit...that is one more layer of us polished ... making us dazzling white with God's love!!

2.13.12

Exodus 36:1 The Lord has gifted Bezalel, Oholiab and the other skilled craftsmen with wisdom and ability to perform any task involved in building the sanctuary.  Let them construct and furnish the Tabernacle, just as the Lord has commanded.

My Thoughts

These were just ordinary craftsman... ordinary! Yet when God needed them to do what He asked them to do they were able to build an  the extraordinary, a Tabernacle for God. They were able because God gave them the ability. Let me tell you Bezalel did it all...he carved, he wove fine linen and embroidered them. All the wood structure fit perfectly, yes perfectly together! Bezalel inlaid things in gold. He was able to do it all! I imagine this ordinary craftsman when told all that he was going to do laid in bed and thought "I will never be able to do all, ALL these things!" Yet he was able because God ask him to and gifted him with the wisdom and ability to perform the tasked he needed to perform.  I bet each night Bezalel and Oholiab went to bed wondering how they were going to do the next days task...and each morning they woke up with that "Oh, I know how to make this work!" feeling.

How many times have we gone to bed and wondered how we were going to do something and woke up with the answer, while never stopping to thank God for giving us the answer? I have done it so many times... too many to count. This is one thing I learned from this scripture. I have learned to thank God when the answer comes... because it doesn't come from inside of me, it comes from God's gifts to me...His gift of wisdom and ability for the task at hand.

The other thing I have learned is this... when God ask me to do something for Him, when I get there...when I step foward and start the task, God will give me the wisdom and ability I need to do what He has ask of me. If  he ask me to pray for a complete stranger in the store, He will give me the words. If He ask me to tell somebody about Him, he will give me the wisdom I need. If God ask me to build an ark he will give me the plans and the ability to understand those plans.

God ask Robby to take care of me and Madison and John-Robert... and he has given Robby the ability to go to work, and the will to work hard to support us... even before Robby met me he walked into the the doors of UPS so that he could provide for us, for me and Madison and John-Robert. All because God gifted him with the ability to do so!

I have so much to thank God for! Every good think in my life...every good thing in our life is a gift straight from God himself.

2.10.12

Exodus 31:1-5 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts.  He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft."

My Thoughts

My crafting friends will love this!! I love how God gives us each something to be good at. God gave Bezalel this gift to serve Him. We are all given our gifts to serve God. Joyce Meyer puts  2 John1:6 this way "When we walk in love God is present." (The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word). These verses make me feel as if each time I use my ability to create and share it with somebody, God is in that gift that I am giving away.  After all God gave me the ability to understand and do my knitting... when I give it is out of love...and God is love... so when we make things and give them to others out of love then God is present in those gifts... God is present in us when we are creating those gifts and when we are giving them. How special is that!!  Now wonder if feels so good to give... when we are giving God is present!! There is no better way to have God in our lives than that!  What gift do you have? How can you use that gift to show the love of God today?

2.11.11

Exodus 33:17 The Lord replied to Moses, "I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.

My Thoughts

Have you ever met somebody, somebody you like a lot... then you didn't see them again for a very long time. The time had been such that you forgot that person's name.  You forgot because you didn't really have a relationship with that person, just a meeting with that person.  We need to make sure God knows us by name... we do this by having a relationship with God.  By talking to him daily. By getting to know Him.  Think about it.. if you know somebody and they ask you to do something... you are more likely to say yes... but if you have only met them...and can't even remember their name... you are more likely to say no.  Moses spent time with God... took time for God. God heard Moses when he asked. We need to have such a relationship with God that when all the prayers are going up to heaven, God recognizes our voice.

I picture it like this... 1000's of voices going up to God and the angles standing there waiting on their instructions... God hears all the noise of all the voices.. then he hears one he knows.. so he can focus in on it... He looks at his angel and says that is John, hear him, I would know that voice anywhere... go and do what he is asking.  Do I know any of these other voices... yes I hear Susie, I know that voice... go and do what she is asking.  The better God knows our voice the faster he answers our prayers. That is the way I picture it.

 Do I know that this is how it happens? No...I do know that the Jesus said that he would say "I never knew you." I do know we can't just meet God and move on... we have to take time to know God. To make friends with God. To do for God.  We need to talk to God and listen to God talk back to us.  I do know that I want God to know my voice. God knew Moses and Moses took time for God... I want God to know me.

2.4.11

Exodus 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s."

My Thoughts

Oh I read this and thought this is such our way of life... so much so that we don't even know that we are coveting anymore... Commercials are based on "Look what everybody else has don't you want it too!!"...  "You are not going to be as good as your neighbor if you don't get this." The media bombards us with how important it is to have what our neighbors have and even more.  This last recession happened because everybody from the top to the bottom wanted more...the loan companies wanted more money, people wanted more house than they could truly afford.  People wanted more toys and put those toys on with their house loans.  We drive around neighborhoods with big beautiful houses and feel like we don't have enough.... we never drive around sad neighborhoods so we can go home and be thankful for the homes we do have.  Next time we take one of those drives and we are having the "I don't haves"...we need to go and get a shot of the "I have so much" before we go back home to our warm, safe, nice houses so we will feel all thankful.  Wanting to do better than we are doing and working hard at doing better  is one thing...wanting to have more than the next guy is a whole different story.  When we want to do better we work hard and when we are doing better we reward ourselves... When we want what others have we use credit cards and equity in our homes to have and we put our welfare and the welfare of our families in danger. We in essence tell God he hasn't done enough for us.  Next time we are having the "I wants"... when we don't have the money in our pockets or the money we do have  is earmarked for something else we need to get out a piece of paper and make a list of the "I haves" and then look up to heaven and thank God for all he has given us.  It wouldn't be a bad idea to rebel against the advertisements that tell us we don't have enough, we aren't enough... we will never be enough. Because God tells us we are wonderfully made (Psalms 139:14). We need to tell God, "God you have given me so much! More than I need! I am sorry if I have every acted like anything you have given me wasn't enough!"

2.2.11

Exodus 15:26 He (the Lord) said, "If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you."

My Thoughts

This verse tells us that even the Israelites had to do their part, and that we are expected to do our part.  We can't fool ourselves that we are God children if we are not at least trying to do what God ask us to do!!... Our part is to do what is right in God's sight, not the sights of those around us, but God sight. Our part is to obey God's commands and keep his decrees... God also said here that he is our healer ... God heals our broken bodies and our broken spirits. God wants to take care of us we just have to do what he ask..and trust that God knows best.  Remember the question isn't "Will my friends think I am making the right decisions will it make them happy or mad?" the questions is "Will God think I am making the right decisions will it make Him happy or glad?"  When we start asking that question God will know that we are trying to please Him.

2.15.10

Exodus 35:30-31 Then Moses told the people of Israel, "the Lord has specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, Grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.  The Lord has filled Bezalel with the spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts."

My Thoughts

God has great plans for the Tabernacle that He had the Children of Israel to build... he had a plan and knew what he wanted... and God gave Bezalel the wisdom, ability, and expertise to craft wonderful things for the Tabernacle... and to teach others to help him.  So if God ask you to do something... He will give you the ability to do it... Bazalel even made gold thread by hammering out think sheets of gold and cutting it into fine threads. (Exodus 39:2)... God wanted garments embroiled with gold thread and even gave Bezalel the ability to make it with his hands...imagine that!!!... amazing!!!... So when God speaks to you to do something.... listen... and have faith that he will give you the ability to do his work.