One Year Bible, January 26

EXODUS 2:11-3:22
Exodus tells of how God brings a people out of bondage and into His Presence. Deuteronomy 6:23 says "He brought us out, that He might bring us in.." Our deliverance is through Blood, water and the Spirit. The Wilderness was an environment that was designed to manifest our heart's true condition. There, we are brought into subjection to God, given opportunity to know Him and to die to self, and trained and made fit for the Kingdom.

Exodus chapters 2-4 show us how Moses was prepared to be a deliverer. He was the child of a Hebrew slave and became the son of a queen. He was born in a hut, but lived in Pharaoh's palace. He was "backward of speech" and talked with God. His Egyptian rearing and life occupy 40 years, his exile in the Arabian desert 40 years, and his leadership of Israel from Egypt to Moab 40 years. He died alone on Mt. Moab and God Himself buried him. His name means "drawn out" or "rescued".

There is much written by and about Moses in both Old and New Testaments. Acts 7:22 says that "Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action." But this did not equip Moses for the work of God. In his self-effort to fulfill his assignment, Moses killed an Egyptian and hid the body. God took Moses to the "back side of the desert," where he lived in obscurity for 40 years. When Moses came to the burning bush at age 80, Numbers 12:3 says that Moses was the "meekest man in all the world." All the fight had gone out of him. Now he will listen and learn.

RESPONSE:   Sometimes I am happy that I've been brought "out of the world", but forget that it was so that I could be brought into God's Presence. I take my "freedom" for myself - to do what I want. I know that Exodus will show me in what specific ways I do that so that I can repent. I am grateful that I can repent quickly and don't have to spend 40 years going in circles.

MATTHEW 17:10-27
The fifth hindrance to the Kingdom of God is "unbelief and perversity". By perversity it means that we are won't or can't be persuaded to believe God.  And how is that overcome? "By prayer and fasting". Fasting breaks the power of our flesh (Psa 35:13). Fasting says "no" to my flesh's demand for food to fill its appetite. When my flesh is not pulling me into the natural realm with its demands, it is easier to believe what God said.   Prayer is to repent and to adjust myself to what God wants. 

RESPONSE:   The faith Jesus speaks of here is not "saving faith". It is the faith to act on what God said. Fasting does not GIVE us faith. Fasting subdues the voice of the flesh so we CAN believe. Prayer, on the other hand, connects us with God so that our faith can grow. We must draw close to God in prayer, and sometimes we have to fast because our flesh is so demanding and keeps us from God's Presence. Hebrews calls that place of faith, "rest".

And so, I talk to my heart. "God is good. God is mighty to save, strong in my behalf, glorious and wonderful. He is Fabulous and awesome. No one can compare to God. He is compassionate and kind. Jesus is savvy and 'in the know'. He designed and built the universe, and He knows how it works. Nothing is too difficult for Him. "

PSALM 22:1-18
This prophetic Psalm is about Christ on the Cross. Verse 16 is significant because Jews were executed by stoning, yet David prophesied a Roman crucifixion 1000 years before the birth of Christ! Do not despair, the last 10 verses experience the JOY.

Something tells me that David didn't get off to the best start, and maybe even came from a "dysfunctional family" because of words like these:  "Yet You brought me out of the womb; You made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother's womb You have been my God." (Psa 22:9-10) And again, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up." (Psa 27:10)

David was the 8th child, and maybe he was left to raise himself - mom and dad may have been burned out or old by then. Who knows? At any rate, David himself felt cast on the Lord from birth. And God didn't let him down, or forsake him, or let it hold him back from becoming king.

PROVERBS 5:7-14
What is it that will bring me "to the brink of utter ruin"? Not being able to take correction. When we don't listen to correction, we will have a lot of regrets at the end of our lives.  We make big, irreversible mistakes when we won't be corrected, and when we spend time with "harlots". Figuratively, "harlots" are for people who want the benefits of being a Christian, without being married to Jesus. They don't want a relationship with God, and have settled for a substitute. After their substitute (harlot) has sucked all the life out of them, taken all their strength, their years, their wealth, ...then all that is left is lots of regret.   They could have had relationship with the REAL THING...Jesus.

RESPONSE:    No matter how good my parents may have been, the reality is that God has to have a hand in our upbringing or none of us would make it. We may have come from a dysfunctional family, but when God intervenes in our lives, He redeems that too. What a mighty God we serve!

From the beginning of my life, all the way to the end, God, don't let me accept any substitutes for You. I don't want to have a lot of regrets in my "old age". I commit to listen for Your voice every day, to ask You about everything I am doing, to search You out when there are decisions to be made. Be involved in my life.