The Celebration of Redemption - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Exodus 15:13,

"In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling."

The Lord's act of redeeming Israel from slavery in Egypt, in effecting their exodus from Egypt, and providing a way to the land promised them is pregnant with allusions to another, even greater work of God- the redemption of mankind from his judgment of them for their sins, freeing them from their enslavement to sin, and making a way to eternal life.

In this psalm of Moses, celebrating the Israelites emancipation from Egypt and the destruction of their enemies, these words can just as easily celebrate our emancipation from the bondage of sin-- our deliverance!

Together with Moses, we can sing with him, "Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you— majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory, working wonders? 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know. A blog with all my posts can be found here:  http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

Miracles?? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Exodus 14:21-22,

"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left."

Did this really happen? Did the Red Sea actually part with a wall of water on the right and left of the Israelites as they crossed over on dry ground, escaping Pharaoh?

Miracles are those events that intentionally violate the physical laws of the universe. Moses stretched out his hand and the sea parted. That is a miracle. It violates what we know about the world we live in. Many of us tend to disbelieve the miracles we hear about because they disrupt our understanding of the laws of physics, etc. that we have become comfortable with.

The Bible records a number of miracles. And, yes, each and every miracle we read of in the pages of Scripture actually happened, in time and space, exactly as documented for us. The miracles we find in Scripture took place for a number of reasons, a chief one being the authentication of something God desired. For instance, when Jesus healed the paralytic, he did it to demonstrate he had authority to forgive sins, Luke 5:17-26. He often performed miracles to prove he was who he said he was.

In this instance, at the parting of the Red Sea, the Lord told Moses why he would perform this miracle, "Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen." Verses 16-18.

It is not hard to accept and embrace the miracles we read of in the Scriptures when we reflect on the reality that the Son of God (see John 1:1-3) created the cosmos, and therefore he also created the physical laws that govern it. Things like specific gravity, friction, the laws of thermodynamics and so forth.

He who creates it can do whatever he pleases with it! 

Yes, I have absolutely no doubt that the miracles we read of in Scripture took place exactly as recorded for us, including the parting of the Red Sea.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know. A blog with all my posts can be found here:  http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

The Lord is Engaged! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Exodus 14:1-4,

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. Pharaoh will think, "The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert." And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.' So the Israelites did this."

This is such a stunning passage to me! Just look at how the Lord is busy at work here, implementing military strategy, directing the Israelites in such a way as to insure Pharaoh's defeat. The Lord is employing cunning tactics here to pursue the exact outcome he desires.

I suspect all too often the Lord is mistakenly relegated to the precincts found within church walls. Yes, the Lord may be found there (depending on the kinds and types of doctrine passed around these days)... but no, I am quite certain the bulk of most all activity the Lord is involved in is found outside the church walls.

What might the Lord be doing outside the church walls? It should be remembered that a church is just a building with people in it sometimes. The building is not the church at all. The people who worship there are the church. You would be amazed how many are confused about that.

I am entirely convinced the Lord is engaged in all sorts of things we probably never think about or appreciate. If you are not thinking the Lord is hip-deep in this COVID-19 disaster, you need to spend more time in Scripture to see what kinds of things the Lord involves himself in. I constantly have to seek help there as those kinds of things do not come to me by some kind of native insight - I have none of that.

If you are frightened at the specter of a pandemic, of the devastation to our economy, of those who are using this to seize control over our lives, or even of the sickness and potential death you may face by it, remember, the Lord is right here, right now and involved in this more than most suspect. He is afoot, he is doing things, he has his purposes.

And, what I love about the Lord so much is the nature of those purposes. God is building his kingdom! God is inviting us to his family! God is in control over all the events that take place on the planet. Whether we deem some things good and some things bad, God is moving in such a way as to usher in a new age.

Just as the Israelites experienced frightening things when the Lord was busily engaged in military strategies to usher in a new age for them, so he too is engaged in events today for all mankind! 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know. A blog with all my posts can be found here:  http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

God's Firstborn - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Exodus 13:1-2,

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.'"

When the Lord put to death all the firstborn males in Egypt, whether human or animal, he spared all the firstborn Jews in Egypt by passing over them when they applied blood to their doors. Now that the Israelites were leaving Egypt following their deliverance from bondage there, the Lord tells Moses that all the firstborn males among the Jews need to be consecrated to him.

The term "consecrate" means to dedicate something to a sacred purpose, to make or declare something sacred, to devote to a purpose. The purpose here, of course, is to be dedicated to God. God spared the Israelite's firstborn and now they belong to him.

The greatest "firstborn" in Scripture is the "firstborn" of God himself: Jesus Christ. In Romans 8:29 Paul says, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Here Jesus is the firstborn in God's family that all believers belong to. In Colossians 1:15 Paul says, "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." And in verse 18 he says, "And he [Jesus Christ] is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy."

The writer of Hebrews calls Jesus God's firstborn as he quotes a version of Deuteronomy 32:43, "And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship him.'" He also calls the church "the church of the firstborn" in Hebrews 12:23.

In John's salutation to the seven churches in the province of Asia, he calls Jesus Christ the firstborn from the dead, "Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth." Revelation 1:4-5.

Jesus Christ is God's own firstborn!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know. A blog with all my posts can be found here:  http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

Celebrating Our Emancipation! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Exodus 13:8-10,

"On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.' This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year."

As the Lord told Moses, and in turn Moses told the Israelites, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to be observed year after year at the appointed time in their calendar. The purpose of the feast was to be a reminder to them and the generations to come of how the Lord freed Israel from their bondage in Egypt to take possession of the land the Lord had promised the patriarchs. A special land, a land of their own to be a blessing from God and enable the nation to secure all God had for them.

This observation could not be more rich with symbolism for a much greater emancipation God would bring about in his unfathomable love of mankind. The day would come when God would make possible an exodus from mankind's bondage and slavery to sin through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ. All those who embrace him in faith are led from this bondage into the freedom of the children of God to embrace all the blessings God has for those who are his!

In Psalm 16:11 we read of the eternal pleasures that will be ours at the hand of God when we are delivered from this "bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God" that Paul talks of in Romans 8:21.

I love the way Paul puts it when he speaks of the enslavement to sin of mankind and the emancipation that is ours, just as the Israelites emancipation was from slavery in Egypt, "Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:19-23.

Here is something to really celebrate!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know. A blog with all my posts can be found here:  http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

Yeast - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Exodus 12:39,

"With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves."

The Lord had commanded the Israelites to not eat any bread baked with yeast during a new festival he commanded them to observe, the "Feast of Unleavened Bread", a seven day observance. The "Passover" meal was to be celebrated at this time with unleavened bread and the purpose of the whole observance was to be a reminder or memorial, "Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come." Verse 17.

It is often asked why the Lord commanded the Israelites to not eat bread leavened with yeast during this week on their national calendar.

Articles abound with an explanation that yeast often represents sin in the Scriptures. Paul uses this theme as he discusses the sinful situation where a church member in Corinth was sleeping with his father's wife. "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 1 Corinthians 5:6-8.

Jesus used yeast as a metaphor for bad doctrine, "'Be careful,' Jesus said to them. 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'" Matthew 16:6. It is interesting that he also used yeast to describe how the gospel would permeate and grow in all the world, "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough." Matthew 13:33.

Here in Exodus 12:39 we are told the unleavened bread was eaten because they did not have the time to allow their bread to rise. They had to leave quickly. In my mind, the picture here is that just as the Israelites had to leave immediately without time for food preparation, etc. in gaining their freedom from Egypt, so too, we should take no time in fleeing to the Savior to gain freedom from God's judgment for our sins. Don't dally!

Just at thought.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know. A blog with all my posts can be found here:  http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/

The Lord: Lightning Fast and Deadly Effective - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Exodus 12:31-32,

"During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, 'Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.'"

Well, here is mister "Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die." (Exodus 10:28-29) summoning Moses and Aaron! And that, in the middle of the night. Pharaoh is now all on board with letting the Israelites leave following the deaths of all the first-born in Egypt.

It is just amazing how the Lord can make things happen just the way he says he will. Not only is Pharaoh now begging Moses to take the Israelites out of Egypt, all Egypt pleaded with the Israelites to leave forthwith, "The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country." Verse 33.

Additionally, the Egyptians willingly allowed themselves to be plundered by the Israelites as they left. "The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians." Verses 35-36.

I can't help but think that throughout the ordeal of the plagues all of Egypt and all of Israel must have been wondering how this was going to play out. When the Lord pulled the switch unbelievable things happened at lightening speed. This is such a dramatic event that took place!

Will the world see anything like it yet in the future? I'm a firm believer in the book of Revelation, and the end-of this-age events we are told of throughout the Scriptures. Reading about how God has done things in the past can certainly provide a clue as to how quickly and effectively he just may do things in the future: lightning fast and deadly effective!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know. A blog with all my posts can be found here:  http://worshipfortoday.blogspot.com/