So, I've got a lot going on and I feel like I'm seeing connections to different areas in my life that are being pieced together. To start off I'm reading 'i am no but i know I AM' by Louie Giglio. and the book is all about I AM how God is and we are not. He's everything and we're nothing. But He wants to make us into something by living and working in and through us. One big section I noticed that really wasn't that big, but had really deep roots in my heart is at the end of page 23 and it says " But God also is in touch with just how potent He is, desiring to do huge, God-sized things through you if you're ready to abandon the path of making more of self and embrace the miracle of being small, yet knowing His name." Now, my thoughts are, when rewritten to fit the theme, how will this be provided, where will provisions for these amazing things come from? Duh answer I know, but I'm thickheaded and slow sometimes. So, this is all running through my head and at work Saturday I write this in my Journal
"Exodus 8 A Plague of Frogs: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go back to Pharaoh and announce to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so they can worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs across your entire land. The Nile River will swarm with frogs. They will come up out of the river and into your palace, even into your bedroom and onto your bed! They will enter the houses of your officials and your people. They will even jump into your ovens and your kneading bowls. Frogs will jump on you, your people, and all your officials.’”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Raise the staff in your hand over all the rivers, canals, and ponds of Egypt, and bring up frogs over all the land.’” So Aaron raised his hand over the waters of Egypt, and frogs came up and covered the whole land! But the magicians were able to do the same thing with their magic. They, too, caused frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and begged, “Plead with the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people. I will let your people go, so they can offer sacrifices to the Lord.”
“You set the time!” Moses replied. “Tell me when you want me to pray for you, your officials, and your people. Then you and your houses will be rid of the frogs. They will remain only in the Nile River.”
“Do it tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.
“All right,” Moses replied, “it will be as you have said. Then you will know that there is no one like the Lord our God. The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials, and your people. They will remain only in the Nile River.”
So Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh’s palace, and Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had inflicted on Pharaoh. And the Lord did just what Moses had predicted. The frogs in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields all died. The Egyptians piled them into great heaps, and a terrible stench filled the land. But when Pharaoh saw that relief had come, he became stubborn. He refused to listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had predicted.
A Plague of Gnats: So the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Raise your staff and strike the ground. The dust will turn into swarms of gnats throughout the land of Egypt.’” So Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded them. When Aaron raised his hand and struck the ground with his staff, gnats infested the entire land, covering the Egyptians and their animals. All the dust in the land of Egypt turned into gnats. Pharaoh’s magicians tried to do the same thing with their secret arts, but this time they failed. And the gnats covered everyone, people and animals alike.
“This is the finger of God!” the magicians exclaimed to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard. He wouldn’t listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.
A Plague of Flies: Then the Lord told Moses, “Get up early in the morning and stand in Pharaoh’s way as he goes down to the river. Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so they can worship me. If you refuse, then I will send swarms of flies on you, your officials, your people, and all the houses. The Egyptian homes will be filled with flies, and the ground will be covered with them. But this time I will spare the region of Goshen, where my people live. No flies will be found there. Then you will know that I am the Lord and that I am present even in the heart of your land. I will make a clear distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will happen tomorrow.’”
And the Lord did just as he had said. A thick swarm of flies filled Pharaoh’s palace and the houses of his officials. The whole land of Egypt was thrown into chaos by the flies.
Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. “All right! Go ahead and offer sacrifices to your God,” he said. “But do it here in this land.”
But Moses replied, “That wouldn’t be right. The Egyptians detest the sacrifices that we offer to the Lord our God. Look, if we offer our sacrifices here where the Egyptians can see us, they will stone us. We must take a three-day trip into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, just as he has commanded us.”
“All right, go ahead,” Pharaoh replied. “I will let you go into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God. But don’t go too far away. Now hurry and pray for me.”
Moses answered, “As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the Lord, and tomorrow the swarms of flies will disappear from you and your officials and all your people. But I am warning you, Pharaoh, don’t lie to us again and refuse to let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.”
So Moses left Pharaoh’s palace and pleaded with the Lord to remove all the flies. And the Lord did as Moses asked and caused the swarms of flies to disappear from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people. Not a single fly remained. But Pharaoh again became stubborn and refused to let the people go. "
I was reading in Exodus 8 and I noticed a repeated theme in Pharaoh. He would do anything in order to be rid of a plague. How often do we live the same way? when we, in a moment of trial, promise God anything in order to relieve our suffering and then we forget that promise when the time does come that we're relieved. I want to take this as a warning, to be true to my promises and be careful of my quick desire to be free of suffering. If I am going to promise something, I want to with the intention of keeping it, not as a quick fix that I will forget as quick as it was made. Now, in John 6:1-15"Jesus Feeds Five Thousand: After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.
Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”
Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
“Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.”So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself."
Jesus has fed five thousand men and their families, He saw their need and He provided for it. Pharaoh was given a reason to need to be freed from the plagues so that he could rule supreme, God fulfilled that need but Pharaoh dropped his end when the burden was lifted.
God gives us needs and "impossible" situations so that we will have the chance to run to him, so we can choose Christ and allow Him to provide for us like he Promises in John 6:22-59 (read yourself please before continuing. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%206:22-59&version=NLT )
But here He is promising to provide spiritual food rather than physical. As I read these passages I realize that it's more of Jesus planting seeds in the hearts of the disciples and prophesying of what was to come at the Last Supper, so that the followers of Christ could look back and say, this is what He was saying.
The bread and the cup are symbolic of the body and blood of Christ, so when Jesus says that those who eat of his body and drink of his blood, He's promised them eternal life and that promise is remade every time we partake of his body and his blood.
Now, see where my key words came in? I was wondering How and God provided this verse to say "I took care of 5,000 with a small boy willing to share his lunch, what more can I do with an entire LIFE devoted and surrendered to me." So, I've done that, surrendered my life to God, it's no longer mine. Well, my pastor was talking... yesterday ( just looked at the clock) and his sermon was on changing our focus and our desires because our focuses and desires effect the rest of our lives and are what truly guide us. but that wasn't what really hit me, it was when he said "I'm a dead man, this body, these clothes, the money I have, everything is really God's not mine." and I wrote this down on my notes.
This is not my body, clothes, my things. This is God's life. I need to surrender it to Him, cause I stole it from Him, I need to return what I have stolen.
After I surrender, every time I go and try to control my life and lay claim on "my" things, I'm stealing from God. I don't want to do that, heck, that realization makes my heart break and ache thinking of how many times I've stolen from God in the last week. This will be a life long process, of returning what I have stolen, and if I return what I have stolen, everything I need will be provided at it's proper time.
--
Mike
Isaiah 40:25-31
