OUR LORD FREES US FROM SLAVERY

In the book of Exodus, the account of Moses being sent by God to redeem the children of Israel is told. 

Our Lord had heard the cries of His people as they travailled under the yoke of oppression and slavery and He prepared Moses to be the one who went into Egypt to carry God's power for the deliverance of Israel. 

As the children of Israel were getting to the last stages of their deliverance, their enemies wanted to recapture them and destroy them. A terrifying display of God's power in protecting His people is described in Exodus  15 verse 3 - 11.

The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea.

The best of Pharaoh’s officers are drowned in the Red Sea. The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power.

Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy. “In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you.

You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble. By the blast of your nostrils  the waters piled up.

The surging waters stood up like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.

The enemy boasted,  ‘I will pursue,  I will overtake them.

I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.’

But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory,

The Lord's power is demonstrated in the defence of His people in this passage.

There is none too strong that can defeat Him so His people are safe in Him. 

Any oppression that the enemy place on God's people is subject to the authority and power of our Lord and He supersedes His enemies with power and knowledge and we, His people, are freed from enslavement by our God.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO RESCUES HIS PEOPLE

In the book of Genesis, an account is given of some war lords ransacking the house of Abraham's Nephew Lot. They took Lot and the people in his household and his belongings. 

When Abraham heard the news, He quickly mounted up an army and pursued the raiders. When he caught up with them, he planned an attack on the war lord's camp. He defeated them and then returned home with  His family members.

This is how the story unfolds in Genesis 10 verses 10 - 16 :

Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell into them. But those who survived fled to the hill country. 

Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply, and departed. 

They also took Lot, Abram’s nephew, and his possessions and departed, for he was living in Sodom.

 Then a fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now he was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner, and these were allies with Abram. 

When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 

He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot with his possessions, and also the women, and the people.

The story of a daring rescue is a picture and a foreshadowing of the rescue that the Lord Jesus would undertake to save His people.

Whereas His people had been ransacked and taken by the kings of this world, the Lord Jesus mounted a rescue effort to redeem His people who had been taken into bondage. 

The Lord fought against the powers of darkness and won. He triumphantly returned home with those He had saved from both His own people and  people from other families. 

What a wonderful image of our Lord as saviour.

Amen.

OUR LORD FREELY GIVES WISDOM

In the book of James, Chapter 1 verse 5, an unconditional offer is made whereby if a person who lacks wisdom asks the Lord for it, He will give that person wisdom generously and no fault shall be held to that person's account.

"But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him".  - James 1 verse 5

An exposition on the means of getting wisdom and the value of receiving it  from God is found in Proverbs chapter 2 verse 2 - 9:

 Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding;

For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding;

If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures;

Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God.

For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones. 

Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity and every good course.

To acquire wisdom, the first step is to listen and to incline our ear. Step 2 is to cry and raise our voices calling for it. Step 3 is to diligently look for it as one would seek a precious treasure.

The Lord, who stores up wisdom for us before hand,  dispenses wisdom by either speaking it or by making it discernable to our spirits through the fear of the Lord.

If we follow the prescription of wisdom that is given to us,  our paths are guarded and our ways are preserved. We can sense the righteous course and accurately weigh justice and equity.  

Bless the Lord who lavishes us with the  benefits of wisdom on the strength of our  asking for it earnestly.

Amen.

OUR LORD DOES ALL THINGS WELL

In Mark Chapter 7 verse 32 to 37, Jesus was presented with a man who could not hear and who had trouble talking. Jesus undertook to heal the man and people were amazed at what they were seeing with their own eyes. 

They brought to Him a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him.

Jesus, taking him aside by himself, away from the crowd, put His fingers into the man’s ears, and after spitting, He touched the man’s tongue [with the saliva]; and looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to the man, “Ephphatha,” which [in Aramaic] means, “Be opened and released!” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he began speaking plainly.  

Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.  They were thoroughly astounded and completely overwhelmed, saying, “He has done everything well! He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

The people who were witnessing these things were beside themselves and were unable to heed His instructions to keep things quiet. The works Jesus did were blared on all news channels to send word of His miracles rapidly through the countryside.

Jesus does all things  well and those who are His  people are astonished by what He does and how gracious He is. If any of us are incapacitated or have problems in our lives, Jesus will sometimes take us aside from the crowd and help us person to person. He will speak healing and life into us and our infirmities are made whole by His direct attention.

Praise His blessed name.

Amen.

OUR LORD CALLED US OUT OF DARKNESS

The Lord watched the human race rushing toward utter darkness and sinful destruction. 

We had chosen a path of independence from God our creator but our endeavour made us partners in rebellion with the prince of darkness.

Because we had joined ourselves to kingdom of darkness, the human race was facing the fearsome  judgement of eternal separation from God that was designed for fallen angels. 

We, a less hardy species, are not beings that thrive in those conditions in the same way that an unassuming accountant would struggle with an incarceration term on Rikers Island Supermax prison.

The Lord, in His mercy, determined a course of action to save us but the method of salvation He chose was one where each individual person is presented with the option of accepting the offer of salvation of God or rejecting it.

Accepting the offer is simple: Believe that we are sinful as evidenced by the sins we have committed in our lives then renouncing our sinful ways. Then we believe that Jesus has the power to save us from the darkness we are facing and translate us into the kingdom of light.

Rejecting the offer is also simple: Refuse to accept that we have any sin and thus no need of salvation or refuse to accept  that Jesus is the only way of salvation.

The offer is a free gift but it cost the Son of God His life by dying a horrifying death on a cross for us.

This is what it cost for God to be able to call us "out of darkness and into His marvelous light".  - 1 Peter 2 verse 9

A wise person would accept the offer of salvation.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO DIRECTS OUR STEPS

Our Lord's purposes are His motivation to act in our lives. He has intentions and goals that His will achieve and He will involve anyone in His purposes who makes themselves available to be directed by Him. 

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. -  Psalm 37 verse 23

In His grace, our Lord makes it possible for us to share in the work of His kingdom. He will take a willing heart and provide everything else that is needed to complete that work. 

He will provide the resources, the anointing, the protection and the instructions to achieve what is needed.

The Lord, providing all these things, will reward us for participating in the work of His kingdom and so we turn out to be the beneficiaries of God's grace from the salvation that He provides to the exaltation He gives to His people who share in the work of the Kingdom of God.

Having been saved by our Lord, let us give our lives to be directed by our Lord and join in on the labour of His kingdom . 

As the Lord Jesus Christ  says in Mathew 11 verse 30: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light".

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO IS PATIENT WITH US

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.  -   2 Peter 3 verse 9

The Lord is patient with us as He guides us through the pilgrimage of life. 

He waits for us to catch up and encourages us along. 

Bless His holy name.

Amen.