Brought out of Egypt

 This story starts with God who heard saw the of the oppression of His people.

Exodus 3:7-8

⁷ And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their ^[a]sorrows. ⁸ So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 

As with most of my posts they are very personal and based on what I am going through. This one started at the beginning of this year when I began to feel the need to pray for God to open a door to move me from one job to another. We prayed and prayed, this was not the best place for me, it was if you will my Egypt, a place that was not good but comfortable because I knew pretty much what to expect everyday. In praying for God to open the door He sure did, He moved me out of our Egypt and on the journey towards our promised land. Where that land is I have an idea but there is a journey that goes along with it and this is where I am at right now on that journey.

Exodus 14:10-12

¹⁰ And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. ¹¹ Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? ¹² Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”

You see it would be really easy for me and it has been to complain about God moving me from that comfortable place of hurt and pain, I had grown so used to. Why Lord would you move me out of this job/ Why into this wilderness where I don't know where my next paycheck is coming from? There are many reasons as to why God brings us out of a particular place, the biggest one is for HIS glory. You see God does not work in a vacuum, He knows exactly what He is doing. For me there are a number of reasons as to why I believe God moved me from my last job, ultimately, I truly don't know, but what it boils down to is God's ways are not my ways and He has a plan that is going to cause Him to get the glory, it will cause us and others to worship Him.

 Exodus 14:13-15

¹³ And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation^[b] of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold^[c] your peace.” ¹⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. ¹⁶ But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

 You see as with the people of Israel, God had to take them to the end of themselves, God does the same thing with us, when there could be any sort of claim that we did something God won't get the glory, over and over again we see this throughout the bible. Here as we are discussing in Exodus, the people were locked in and couldn't go forward or back, Joshua at Jericho (Joshua 6), Gideon and God's defeat of the Midaneites (Judges 6-7), probably the most well known story of being saved, the virgin birth of Jesus (Luke 2), there are even more stories, the Apostles walking out of Jail, Jesus feeding the 5000. Do you see where I am going? God wants all of the glory. Here is the best part of this story, when God came to save His people He was right on time, not late but look at something here really closely, they walked through on DRY GROUND! you see God cared about them so much He even made the ground dry, they could have I'm sure walked through on muddy ground, or even damp sand (dirt) but they didn't THE GROUND WAS DRY!  don't miss that part, because in all my years of studying these verses I've missed that part. When God comes to save us He doesn't just save us halfway, He does so beyond all that we can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20-21). 

As I was praying this past week I really felt the Lord impress upon my heart to seek Him first, but not just the first part of Matthew 6:33 Seek first the Kingdom of God... but the second half as well and all these things will be added to you. Throughout the bible over and over God promises to take care of us. We are to seek His kingdom first, and let God worry about the rest. Easier said than done. I pray that for those of us reading this, including myself, that I would trust that when God parts the Red Sea that He will give us dry ground to walk on.

Blessings,

Nick

 

Brokenness

“And he went out and wept bitterly.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭22‬:‭62‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The last couple of months has more than anything become about brokenness in my life, I feel so broken, I have been trying so hard to fix my problems that I guess this is the point I’ve had to get to. I had to become so broken like Peter when he denied Jesus that only Jesus could restore me, fix me, provide for my needs, He needed to take me to a place of complete reliance on Him and His provision. I am waiting for an open door, I don’t know what it looks like or when it will open, what I do know is that in God’s timing it will open and I will see it. God is using this time for me to find joy in Him and His provision, I don’t just want God to give me what I ask for but for Him to provide that door for me. The last couple of weeks I have been taken from what I thought was relying on Jesus to an even more broken place, I think in a sense it is like what I have been told recruits experience at basic training, they are broken of what they thought they were and built up into something so much stronger and better than they could ever imagine. We see this same sort of thing in how Jesus was training the disciples and in particular Peter.

Peter had to come to a place of complete brokenness before he could be used by Jesus. This is the place where we see that “weeping is but for a night, but joy comes in the morning”. Ps 30:5b Peter spent a could of days in sure renewing what Jesus had said about denying Him, what I don’t think Peter understood and as that his boldness would be in his own flesh, he needed to come to a place of complete reliance on Jesus. “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?””
‭‭John‬ ‭18‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬
Peter here reacts according to his own flesh, I’m sure I would have done the same thing, you see your Rabbi being arrested and Peter in his boldness also had just come from a place of telling Jesus he wouldn’t deny Him, this is an understandable reaction considering he had even told Jesus, He shouldn’t go the the cross and Jesus rebuked him then, however, again, this time Peter is still reacting in the flesh. After all of this went down we begin to see the beginnings of the breaking of Peter, the fire, and he first denial, the second, and then with a finality one of the relatives who was with the mob when they arrested Jesus called Him out, Peter denied Jesus, realizing what he had done he wept bitterly. (He was broken)

Here is the great part if about this, on the day that Jesus rose from the grave we see Gods merciful grace from when the Angel tells Mary to go get Peter this is the amazing grace of our Lord and Peter even understanding that grace “and both of them running together” John 20:4 Peter knew of the Lords grace already just from having spent three or so years with Jesus, he knew of Jesus’ love, His grace, His mercy. Now comes Peters restoration John 21:15-19 This is where we see Jesus restore Peter to His service and not of his (Peter’s) flesh, Jesus found Peter exactly where He knew He would Peter returning to his old ways, fishing. Jesus still had to do some work in Peter, who I’m sure was feeling pretty low at this point. Jesus asks him a few questions, and it is at this point that Peter finally get’s what it means to be completely reliant on Jesus. We see that from this point on Peter pretty much does everything in following after Jesus and not by His strength, Jesus even tells Peter that he is going to go where he does not want to signaling his death.

What does this mean for us? Well I cannot tell you what it means for you but I can say I know what it means for me…God had to take me to a place of complete brokenness a place where I’ve had to completely rely on Him and His saving grace to get me and my family through this situation we are in. I am still very much trusting in God’s grace and waiting on Jesus to restore me, in many ways I am seeking Him so much deeper than I ever have, I am having to trust Him for everything, I have nothing to give, I bring nothing to the table other than my trust. It is not easy and yet I am completely reminded that the Battle Belongs to the Lord 2 Chronicles 20:15 And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do no the dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but Gods