Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6,7
He had been everyone’s favourite.
Not just the top of his class - he’d been the national champion.
Respected for both athleticism and intellectualism.
He had had what everyone wanted:
Popularity
Money
Influence
And a bright future
But he’d lost it all.
The job he now worked didn’t even show up on the corporate totem pole.
Long hours, difficult conditions, low pay and disrespect were what he earned at this job
How had he landed himself here?
His family hadn’t had life as easy as he had had it.
They were enslaved. They also worked long hours, in very stressful conditions. Their pay was even worse than his. And the disrespect they received was brutal.
He had tried to help them.
If anyone would have been able to help them it was him. With this thought, the luxuries and privileges that he had enjoyed had lost their importance to him.
He had planned. For years.
It was an ambitious plan.
In preparation, he had striven for every excellence and every advantage he could obtain. He had calculated the risks, and taken the necessary precautions.
As he launched the first step of his plan, one of his relatives - someone he was desperately trying to help - blew the whistle on him.
Almost instantly, his plans crashed to the ground.
He hadn’t been ready for his demise.
Nor had the world around him been ready. From Royal favourite to hated exile - the story spread as only that quality of gossip could.
The bleating of sheep snaps Moses out of his memory and into reality. Their calls ring sharply with tones of ungrateful entitlement, but he has to respond. With a prayer that the God of his fathers will help him with his attitude one more time, Moses busies himself with his evening shepherd chores.
Moses hurries so that this evening he can take in the event that has become the highlight of his life. The distant flicker of a fire is a sign of something Moses doesn’t want to miss.
Finally the sheep rest happily. Moses runs toward the orange glow of the fire. Seating himself as quietly as possible to avoid interrupting the small crowd of listeners, Moses focuses his attention on the storyteller.
No one tells stories like this storyteller. Most storytellers build the heroes of their stories up in every possible way. Not this storyteller.
As the story progresses, Moses recognizes the pattern. The hero makes a mistake. A stupid one. He does things his way instead of God’s way. But God saves him when he calls on him. He shows him what to do. He blesses him and makes him a blessing. However, He didn’t save him from all the consequences of his mistakes. Instead, God uses these consequences to teach him.
“Does he always tell this type of story, or is it only when I’m here?” Moses questions to himself.
The storyteller knows Moses well. He used to be a distant relative. Now he’s a close relative. The storyteller is Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law.
Would you like to hear one of the stories that Jethro may have shared that night?
Abraham had a promise from God.
What was that promise?
A son.
Well, God had better hurry up and fulfill that promise soon, because Abraham was already 75 years old, and his wife Sarah was retirement age.
Abraham is so excited about the promise. Everyone notices the spring in his step and the joy on his face.
Abraham waits for the promise.
Nothing happens.
Maybe he’s doing something wrong. He and Sarah make sure that they’re eating lots of kale and broccoli, just in case nutrition is a factor.
Still nothing happens. The spring in Abraham’s step disappears.
Abraham waits 10 or 11 years.
How old is Abraham now? 85 or 86
Abraham and Sarah decided that God needs some help. They cheat a little to help God fulfill his promise.
Abraham gets a son!
Praise the Lord!? Maybe?
Abraham is happy.
Everyone learns that Abraham’s God can keep His promise if He gets the help He needs.
13 years go by.
How old is Abraham now?
99
God tells Abraham that He will now fulfill His promise - to both Abraham and Sarah
Impossible! When Abraham was almost too old, God could only give Abraham a son when Abraham helped Him cheat. Now Abraham and Sarah are way too old.
God reminds Abraham that He’s the Creator.
Eventually Abraham chooses to trust God fully.
God gives Abraham and Sarah the son of the promise.
What was his name?
Isaac
Everyone learns that Abraham’s God can do the impossible. He doesn’t need our help.
As Moses listens to Jethro’s story, he thinks back to the time when he tried to help God to rescue His family from slavery.
What a fail!
But God still would rescue his family, wouldn’t He? Even without his help.
But did God still have a way for Moses to cooperate?
As Moses thanked God for the courage that He renewed in his heart through Jethro’s stories, he thought back to his relatives in Egypt. How badly they needed courage!
If only they could hear Jethro tell the familiar stories!..
And then it hit Moses. He could do something!
As soon as Moses could, he bought the best roll of papyrus that he could find, and the most durable ink. Moses used every spare moment he could find to write out Jethro’s stories.
Moses started at the beginning, showing that God didn’t need any help when He created the world.
Moses showed that God does expect us to cooperate with Him in some ways. If God asks us to build a giant ark, we’d better do so.
As Moses wrote, he saw evidence that God was helping him choose what to write. In fact, Moses was even able to write parts of the stories in beautiful poetry that would help listeners to remember them.
Moses finished his writing with the story of Joseph, whom God has delivered from two impossible situations: slavery and prison. He closed with the hope-inspiring request that Joseph had made: that Moses’ relatives would bring his bones to the promised land when they were freed from Egypt.
When Moses received confirmation that the stories he had written were in the hands his relatives in Egypt, he felt satisfied.
True, some would still say that he was a loser.
But He knew that God would deliver his relatives.
And he had done what he could.
The story now has a bunch of boring details that i know nothing about. Should we fast-forward?
Okay
The distant flicker of a fire is a sign of something Moses doesn’t want to miss.
Oops - must have been rewind.
But wait! Moses' hair looks different! He’s 80 years old!
Let’s keep reading and figure this out!
The distant flicker of a fire is a sign of something Moses doesn’t want to miss.
Wait! What an unusual setting for a bonfire!
It was no ordinary fire.
And Jethro wasn’t the teacher.
For the Lord is exalted,
Yet He looks after the lowly,
But He knows the haughty from afar.
Psalm 138:6 (NASB)
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2 Corinthians 4:7
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God: therefore the does not world know us, because it knew him not.
But as it is written,
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Neither have entered into the heart of man,
The things which God has prepared for them that love him.
1 Corinthians 2:9
Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5
Is there a disconnect between your daily experience and the experience of victory that you long for?
Maybe the problem is another disconnect.
The gardener carefully slices into the trunk of a grape vine. He cuts the end of an orphaned grape branch to perfectly fit the cut in the trunk. Firmly holding the graft in place, he binds it securely in place.
Life-giving sap flows from the trunk into the branch. The tissues of branch and trunk grow together. Eventually, you'd have a hard time telling that the branch had at one time not been part of the vine.
This is the kind of connection we need to have with God.
What would happen if the branch was repeatedly removed and reinserted into the trunk?
What kind of experience can we expect if we only connect with God periodically?
Are you looking for true victory?
I encourage you to pray about these verses:
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:4,5Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
Matthew 12:33-35
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is bornagain, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:3-8
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Luke 11:13 The Gospel is all about freedom.
See John 8:32; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1
So what’s with the title Paul gives himself, “Paul, the Servant (Slave) of Christ?”
The Apostle Paul’s life absolutely blows me away. He tries to share the Gospel with people - they done him and leave him for dead. When he revives to life, he goes straight back to sharing the Gospel - regardless of the danger. Multiple shipwrecks didn’t lessen his desire to share God’s love overseas. Scourgings and beatings didn’t make him compromise his witness. Knowing that his countrymen in Jerusalem would end his freedom didn’t dampen his desire to bring them Truth that could set them free.
What motivated Paul? Love.
“The love of Christ compels us.”
2 Corinthians 5:14
Paul had glimpsed the love of Jesus “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Philippians 2: 6-8
And why did Jesus do what He did?
Jesus, “for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross.”
Hebrews 12:2
What joy?
“Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just persons, who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:7
What Paul saw of the heart of God absolutely blew him away.
Jesus was the Creator. In Heaven, angels were eager to serve Him. He chose to leave Heaven to come serve us. He chose trials, humiliation and torture over the pleasures and praise He had in Heaven. Not because He enjoyed suffering. Not because He was coerced to. Rather, because that was what it would take to save you and me. And He loved us that much.
If that's the kind of love that God has for us, why do we worry? Why do we think that God's plans for us are miserable?
How will you respond to His love?
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Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die,yet he shall live.' John 11:25 "For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" Mark 8:36
See Numbers 21:1-9 The Israelites had done it again.
It was clear their recent victory over King Arad and his powerful Canaanite army had been won through the strength of their God. The God who daily rained manna on their desert encampment to satisfy their hunger and strengthen their bodies. The God who satisfied their thirst by making a river come out of a rock. The God who shaded them every day with a pillar of cloud; and warmed them every night with a pillar of fire. The God who had shaken the world in the way He had rescued them from their brutal lives of slavery in Egypt. It was God’s strength and goodness that had given them each blessing and victory.
The Israelites forgot about God as soon as the danger of war had been overcome. It is natural for egos to grow as focus on God is diminished. And pride doesn’t like it when things don’t go his way. Soon the Israelites were complaining about everything that wasn’t going their way.
As the complaints grew more bitter, God allowed the Israelites to face a danger that He had been protecting them from all along: deadly snakes. Fear grew into terror as people suffered and died from the fiery venom of the snake bites. The number of people bitten steadily increased.
But God was there, ready to help as soon as He was called upon. He didn’t say “That was one fail too many,” and leave the people to their fate.
When the Israelites acknowledged their wrong, God told Moses to do something unusual. God told Moses to grab some copper*.
Why copper? Maybe because copper metal didn’t occur naturally? Rocks that contain copper ore must be heated to incredible temperatures to release the valuable metal. Copper was used extensively in the sanctuary. Most of the sanctuary infrastructure used for animal sacrifices was copper.
God told Moses to grab some copper – the valuable metal that belonged in the sanctuary – and to heat it and beat it until it looked like the snakes that were biting and killing the people. God told Moses to put the copper snake onto a battle standard**, and to hoist it up into the air. Everyone who beheld the copper snake was healed.
Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14,15)
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
What did the Israelites see when they looked at the copper snake? Did they see a mirror image of themselves; the sinfulness of their own hearts, which was killing themselves and those around them? Did they catch a glimpse of a love strong enough to compel their Life Giver to give Himself to save them, to even allow Himself to be treated as if He were sin itself?
We are dying. We have been bitten by “that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.” (Revelation 12:9) I don’t know about you, but when I really consider myself, I find that I’m a lot more than the Ancient Israelites than I’d like to admit.
What is our hope?
“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
“I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me.” (John 12:32)
“One who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” (John 6:37)
“He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25)
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV)
Is anything so important that we should let it eclipse our view of Jesus?
*The metal translated as “brass” in the King James Bible was probably copper, or possibly bronze, according to people who know more about those times than I do. Copper seems most probable, as Job 28:2 says “brass is molten out of the stone.”
**The Hebrew word translated as “pole” in Numbers 21:8,9 is elsewhere translated as “ensign” or “banner.” It was likely a battle standard (battle flag) that Moses put the brass serpent onto. May this battle standard have been two poles in the shape of a cross, as used in Medieval standards?
Note: the featured picture for this post was AI generated For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4:16
