Morning Moments

All through the journeys of the Patriarchs, Poets, Prophets, and Potentates of the nation Israel, we can see that she can neither be destroyed nor denied the fulfillment of the promises God has made to her.  These promises were not always pleasant ones, for some involved her bondage and others her blessings.  The Bondage came to break her and the Blessings came to build her.  JEHOVAH GOD was in control of it all.

Sometimes, in the maze of our lives, we get so lost.  But God has made us some fancy promises!  We must learn to ignore the voices of doubt and skepticism, or false promises and pre-texts.  You and I must see the big picture also.

There has never been an age or stage when God's people did not suffer.  It is part of our calling according to Peter.  Sometimes we suffer for evil doing, when we rebel or resist the spirit of grace and take matters into our own hands.  At other times we suffer for doing right (for righteousness sake), when our good may be evil spoken of, or simply rejected, questioned, or seems suspect because the world doesn't understand.  "All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution".

As Israel's, our journey is a learning one.  I like to think of it this way:  When the Jews left Egypt, they had been slaves.  They were not a fighting people, but a working people.  So, rather than taking them directly through the short cut to Canaan where they would have face warfare and wearied, God took them through the wilderness, sustained them, provided for them in every way, protected them, and preserved them.  Despite the difficulties and doubt, God taught them to follow a commander and trained them by teaching them survival techniques.  

They didn't realize what they had been taught nor why they had been taught those things until they got to the place of entering the Land of Promise, which they refused to do, so they had to take another trip around Mt. Sinai for another generation to enter.

Let's face it, we have spent the last couple of generations in cushioned Christianity, with time that we should have been learning how to tear down Satanic Strongholds, live as more than conquerors, and rejoicing everyday.  But the truth is that we, as they, have murmured and complained, split churches, divided brothers and sisters over such STUPID and SELFISH stuff it is UNBELIEVABLE! 

We jump from one conference to another, one church to another, one leader to another looking for someone to do for us what we refuse to do for ourselves - SIMPLY FOLLOW JESUS!  So, we have to come up with new "worship" techniques, new skits, dramas, new ways to present truth.  All the while, Jesus stands in the wing looking amazed at the plates we are spinning.

His invitation remains the same today as it was when He first said it:  "If any man will come unto me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and FOLLOW ME"!