Exodus 6:1

YHWH said to Moshe [Moses], “Now you will see what I am going to do to Pharaoh.  With a mighty hand he will send them off; with force he will drive them from the land!”

All through Exodus 5, the people of Israel feel the backlash of Moshe’s request to Pharaoh to let God’s people go.  Pharaoh, instead of agreeing or simply saying “no”, makes the already difficult task of making bricks for building projects even more difficult by requiring the Israelites to find their own straw.  Instead of a rescue, Moshe the man sent by God has caused a huge setback and an even worse situation.  So Moshe turns to God and asks Him why he was sent.  God tells him to watch and see what He will do to Pharaoh.  God needs to make a point with Pharaoh, utterly crushing the so-called power of the Egyptian “gods’, down to the god-man, Pharaoh himself.

How often is this like our lives?  God promises something incredible, but instead of getting better, things seem to get worse.  For me, it’s scary and often faith-shaking as I wonder what on earth God is doing.  But, one thing that the Torah and the apostles all agree on is God’s faithfulness.  In the story of Moshe, the darkness before the dawn of hope makes Pharaoh cocky.  When God systematically destroys the “power” of each of the Pharaoh’s gods, He shows the Israelite people (and the Egyptians) that there is only one God, who has power over everything.  Ultimately, when the Israelites are sent from Egypt, they go with all the gold and silver and jewels of the Egyptians, richer than they ever would have been if they’d have left on their own.

In our lives, the darkness before the dawn is a time when God deals with some of the ugliness in us so that when it is time to step out, we can step out richer and stronger and more confident in our God’s power.  That tough time is a good time to work on strengthening our warfare strategies and our prayer muscles.  It’s a time to keep an eye out for the ways that God is destroying the “gods” we’ve raised up in our lives.  And it’s a time to wait with anticipation for the moment when God finally says, “GO!”

But, what seemed void of life became a land of promise and hope.  As Lot moves out and Abram moves on, God makes a promise to Abram that his descendents would be as numerous as the sand!  Never mind the fact that Abram’s wife, Sarai, was barren.  God said it, so it must be true.  Eventually, Lot’s land was destroyed by fire and brimstone (remember Sodom and Gomorrah?), but Abram’s land becomes the Promised Land.

How often does a landscape that seems hopeless and miserable become a land of brilliant color, great promise, and hope?  It didn’t necessarily look that way during Abram’s lifetime, but God isn’t bothered by little details like  one person’s limited lifespan.  He didn’t abandon His promise to Abram.  He doesn’t abandon His promises to us, either.  Things aren’t always as they appear.  Maybe this miserable, scraping-through time, is just part of a journey to a land of promise and hope.  Maybe under the sand and the dust there is treasure!

I am the apple of my Father’s eye
I am sweet, overflowing, and beautiful
I am protected by His hand and opened wide to let in light
Given out to bring hope, I am useful

Thoughts for the Day

Genesis 1:22
God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

Genesis 1:28
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”


Did you ever notice that there are only two things that God blesses and commands to multiply?  It’s true.  He blesses the creatures in the sea and the birds of the air, and He blesses the man and the woman.  I think it’s interesting that He doesn’t bless the animals on the land or anything else that He created.  I wonder why this is?  Maybe because the creatures of the sea and the birds were intended to be food and therefore needed to be plentiful.  I don’t know, but it’s kind of interesting.

Psalm 22:1-5

For the choir director; upon Aijeleth Hashshahar. A Psalm of David. My God, my God,why have You forsaken me?  Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.

O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest.

Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

In You our fathers trusted; They trusted and You delivered them.

To You they cried out and were delivered; In You they trusted and were not disappointed

This is another “mountain” poem where the A-B-C-B-A pattern is used.  But there’s another effect that’s pretty cool.  Verse once asks why he was forsaken and why God seemed so far away, but verse five remembers God’s faithfulness in hearing the cries of his forefathers and delivering them.  Verse two talks about how he cries all all the time, but verse four acknowledges that his forefathers trusted God and were delivered.  They cried out, too, and were answered.  Verse three is the pinnacle and proclaims the holiness of God, His sovereignty, His seperateness, His faithfulness.  He is on the throne, which means He is in control of it all, even when I don’t understand it or see it or hear it.

The first two verses are the the dark side of the mountain, where everything seems like it’s out of control and where it seems like I’m all alone.  But at the top there’s a realization, or perhaps a rememberance, followed by a declaration that God is holy and in control.  The final two verses are the sunny side of the mountain.  By remembering God’s past faithfulness I am encouraged.  I see how He rescued in the past and did not disappoint me in the past, and this gives me strength to keep moving forward.

I think that’s pretty awesome!

Psalm 23:4

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

I feel like the ground opened up underneath me, and I have fallen into the valley of shadows.  In this place lies twist themselves into a disjointed song that weaves itself into a distorted version of truth.  In this place the mistakes of the past are recounted and counted, stacking themselves against me, plunging the scale further and further down – guilty!  In this place the light struggles to break through, and darkness and pain threatens to overwhelm.  In this place it would be so much easier to lay down and give up, to stop fighting, to stop trying to explain.  In this place I want to hide, cringing and crying.  In this place the unexpected creeps up, stalking its prey until the final moment of attack.  In this place the truth is trampled and turned, warped into strange angry shapes that are no longer recognizable.  In this place time is marked by the bubbling of festering wounds left too long unattended.  In this place pain not my own oozes from the ground, surrounding my feet, threatening to drown me in its thick, suffocatingly stickiness.  Remember, it whispers, Not the goodness, faithfulness, kindness.  Remember the mistakes, the hurt, the faults.  Don’t let go.  Remember…. In this place anger is a seductive dance, slowly swaying but getting faster, faster, faster, more chaotic, more erratic, more explosive. STOP!

Darkness cannot win.  I cannot stop here.  Although I am powerless to unwind the lies and distortion, although I am powerless to undo my mistakes, although I am powerless to defend myself I am not alone.  I am not defeated.

In this darkness my only shield is Your truth.  My only hope is Your presence.  My only defense is Your gentle touch, a soft whisper that brushes across my cheek.  In this battle for the mind and heart, I have no weapons save one – prayer.  I have no strength to fight save one – Yours.  I have no ability to rescue, but You do.  You can.  You will.

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I am reminded of a song “O How He Loves”

When heaven meets earth is an unforseen kiss
And my heart beats violently inside of my chest
And I don’t have time to explain all of this
When I think about the way that

You love me!  O, how You love me!  O how You love me!
O how You love!

And another “Overcome”

We will overcome!
By the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony
Everyone
Overcome!

And another “Mighty to Save”

Savior!  He can move the mountains!
Our God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save!
Forever, author of salvation,
Our God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save!

And more…

Jesus loves me, this I know!
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
We are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.

I love You Lord,
And I lift my voice
To worship You, O my soul, rejoice!
Take joy my King,
In what You hear!
May it be a sweet, sweet sound
In Your ears.

I realize that God knows what He’s doing.  He is HOLY.  He is sovereign.  He reigns over all those details.  And they’re important to Him because He knows they’re important to us.  But that doesn’t make it any easier when we’re in the middle of it all.

I hope that some day my family has enough financial freedom that we can be an extension of the hand of God and pour back a little of the blessing that He’s given us.

Psalm 77:14

You are the God of miracles and wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.

You might think, because this verse is out of context that this Psalm is a song of praise.  Part of it is, but just prior to this verse Asaph, the writer, is  crying out to God because his prayers are unanswered and he is in distress.  Interesting, isn’t it?  He cries out to God and asks Him if His promises will fail forever, but within a few verses he switches focus from his frustration and questioning to remembering God’s might and power and all the things He’s done in the past.

I say it all the time – Worship is the way out.  It’s from one of my favorite books (In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day).  But here’s another example of worship in the middle of trouble.  I don’t know what Asaph’s issue was or how it was resolved.  I do know that even in His frustration and trouble He looked to God’s might and remembered the amazing things God had done in the past.  So, maybe, in application, I need to focus on God’s might and faithfulness, remembering all the awesome things He’s done in the past.  Even if my situation doesn’t resolve itself immediately (and we don’t know what happened in Asaph’s case – at least I don’t know – do  you?), my eyes are on God and I can have hope for the future, whatever that may be.

Psalm 42:11

Why am I discouraged? Why so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again– my Savior and my God!

It’s kind of strange how it’s so easy to get discouraged.  Maybe it’s the weather (it’s stormy this morning).  Maybe there are just so many people who feel the need to poke holes in my dreams (some of the holes are quite legitimate).   This school project I’m working on is so huge that sometimes it seems overwhelmingly impossible that it will ever get off the ground.  But, God is bigger than my storms and bigger than all my limitations.  He is wiser than I am and knows far more than I do about what resources He has available.  When I get discouraged I try to remember that God is not always predictable because then why would I need faith?  It’s hard to cling to something invisible, especially when I’m trusting Him for something that’s so dear to my heart.  On the other hand, what other choices do I have?  I can’t trust in my own abilities, even though I want to work as hard as I can.  There’s so much I don’t know.  Trust other people?  They’re just as limited as I am.  Sure, God can work through them and through me, and He often does, but ultimately the answer will come from Him and His resources.

Psalm 118:22

The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone.

This verse made me smile because I think this is how all of us at Hope Inspirational Schools feel.  We’re the rejects of society trying to build something revolutionary.

Psalm 118:25

Please, LORD, please save us. Please, LORD, please give us success.

Yes, this is my prayer on a daily basis.  Save me from this situation in life and please give us success with this venture.

Psalm 118:28

You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you!

Ultimately, God is supreme.  Worship is the way out (read about it in the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day).  No matter what the circumstances I find myself in, He is my God.  I will exalt Him.  That’s sometimes easier said than done, and sometimes it takes me a little while to remember that; however, even in my darkest days God has given me a lot to praise Him about.  Yeah God!

Romans 15:13

So I pray that God, who gives you hope, will keep you happy and full of peace as you believe in him. May you overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Two thoughts today:

1.  Redemption – what?!  More fancy Christian-ese?  Redemption just means the act of purchasing back something previously sold.  And, no, I’m not talking about salvation.  I’m talking about hope.  John and I had the privilege to speak at a youth event at a school this week.  We were the “what not to do” and “consequences” portion of the event.  We were also the visible proof that even when we make mistakes there is hope.  Our messages were one that, while we reminded them that there are consequences to their actions, there is redemption for a life gone astray.  Both John and I have had things happen in our lives that caused us to go off the path that God originally intended for us to be on.  My prayer has always been that God would use those events to reach others (heaven knows, if I had to go through them they’d better be good for something!).  And God redeems the past – He takes the years that were lost wandering and restores us to the place He has for us and the plan He has for us.

2.  Hope – Interestingly, my life has been filled with various types of hope lately.  I spoke about hope in the section above – hope that God can bring light out of a dark time in my life and hope that He will redeem my past and create a beautiful future.  The other hope I’ve been spending a lot of time with lately is actually HOPE Inspirational School (http://www.his.edu – still under construction).  It’s a school that I’m actually getting to help found!  It’s based around experiential and project-based learning.  It’s environmentally friendly.  It’s community outreaching.  It focuses on addressing not only the intellectual growth of its students, but also the emotional, physical, and spiritual growth.  It’s incredible!  I’m totally not doing it justice in my meager description.  Give it a week or two and check out the website for a much more eloquently put description.