A Rescue

In Exodus 6:6-7

"...I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the
Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also
redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments."
"Then I will take you for my people, and I will be with your God; and you
shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians."

From my understanding, I think the Israelites were never meant to stay in Egypt but they did and then became enslaved.
There can be things in our life that can trap us and enslave us too, but there is hope.
When the Isrealites cried out, God delivered them. When we cry out to Him, He wants to deliver us to.

Don't Hesitate

In Gen. 19 two angels came to destroy the city Lot lived in. They told lot to flee.

16 When he (Lot) hesitated, the men (2 angels) grasped his hand
and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of
the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.

If God sends someone my way and gives me instructions from Him, I don't want to hesitate, but, what a merciful God that he would realize that sometimes we just need someone to grab our hand and get us going.

I hate to admit it, but I've been hesitating way too long on the need to exercise my heart; I guess I need someone to grab my hand and make me get going too.

The Wisdom

Paul tells Timothy to "continue on", reassuring him that "he knows the truth and that the scripture (The Word of God) is where we can find the wisdom that leads to salvation and that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ.

2 Tim 3:14-15
You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced
of, knowing from whom you have learned them; and that from childhood you have
known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

A New Day

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
His mercies never come to an end,
They are new every morning,
Great is thy faithfulness!

Knowing Love

Jesus has a goal and that goal is to make the Father known to us because he wants us to experience the love of Father God. We can know the Father by knowing Jesus. We can know Jesus by accepting His Word, believing with certainty that He was sent from the Father and obeying Him.

His Word says that Jesus will continue to make the Father known (John 17:26) and he prayed for us in John 17:20 when he prayed for all those who will believe in Him (Jesus) through the disciples message.

If you wonder what Father God is like, Heb. 1:3 says Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. Rom. 1::20 tells us that since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen and understood from what he created…

Matt 11:27 “…No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

John 17: 6"I have revealed you (The Father) to those whom you gave me out
of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your
word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with
certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

John 17:20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are
in me and I am in you.

John 17:25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Weather-God's voice

In reading Job (ch thirty something) I came across some verses that made me consider another way God speaks.
I've learned through Henry Blackaby's study "Experiencing God" that God speaks to us through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church; now I believe God speaks through the weather too.
Perhaps every temperature change is not a message from God but certainly the word tells us that rain is showing his love and that it's so that everyone may know His work. He must really love those in the Seattle area.

5 God's voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our
understanding.
6 He says to the snow, 'Fall on the
earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a
mighty downpour.'
7 So that everyone he has made may know
his work, he stops all mortals from their
labor.
8 The animals take cover;
they remain in their dens.
13 He brings
the clouds to punish people, or to water
his earth and show his love.

Know and Trust

Amazing isn't it that our hearts don't have to be troubled!

John 14:1
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

We can better trust someone we know. We can get to know Jesus through the Word because he is the word and the truth.

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

My point is that as you read the Bible you come to know who Jesus is. If you take it one step further and highlight or make note of the things that stand out to you for a time then go back and look it over, you can be assured that what you are reading is what God is speaking to you. If we act on it and obey the truths He reveals to us, we come to know him and experience him in our lives; that is when we can better trust him.


1 John 2:3 3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

Vanishing Worries

In My Utmost For His Highest today, the reading really hit home.
It was from Isaiah 45:22 "Look to me and be saved.."

Olwald chambers says our difficulties, our trials, and our worries about tomorrow all vanish when we look to God.

This reminds me of when I woke up in ICU after open-heart surgery and my heart went into A-Fib (beating real fast and hard). I layed there with a breathing tube and who knows what else hookded up hearing the nurses sounding frantic and unable to get my heart to calm down. As I layed there I wanted to communicate, "Get Dr. Verrier in here, I know that if I just know he is here my heart will rest and not be in a panic." The Dr. did come eventually and shortly there after their remedies worked.

If only I can remember to look to Him, focus on Him and not my circumstances.

Encourage Daily

Heb 3:12 -14
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

I don't want to be hardened by sin's deceitfulness, so I'll encourage and hope God keeps sending someone to encourage me daily so that I might hold firmly to Christ.

Escaping the Snare

Looking further into 2 Tim2:2
"...gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance
leading to the knowledge of the truth,
That they may come to their senses
And escape the snare of the devil, having been held captive to do his will.


If you are in the snare of the devil, what does the Word say the devil does with you?

Holds you captive to do his will.

So that ought to be a good deterent to keep us away from the unhealthy things that we know can have a hold on us. However, if we find ourselves ensnared this verse indicates we can be free from it through repentance. (Greek= metanoia =change of mind)

Rom 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world , but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is..."

Now, that's what this blog is all about. Transforming!

Gentleness

2 Tim. 2:24-25 states that a bond servant uses gentleness in correcting those who are in opposition. How I need to remember that it's gentleness and not sternness. The amazing thing to me is what the verse tells us next, the potential outcome of using gentleness.

So just what is the potential outcome of the other person if we use gentleness in correcting them?

2 Tim 2:25-26
That God may grant them repentance
leading to the knowledge of the truth,
That they may come to their senses
And escape the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

Bond Servant

Bond-servant
What does the Word say a bond servant is to be like?

2 tim 2:24
Not quarrelsome
Kind to all
Able to teach
Patient when wronged
With gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition

Pursuing righteousness

2 Tim 2:22 tells us that we are not meant to be in the pursuit of righteousness all alone.
We are to be in fellowship with other people who also call on the Lord with a pure heart.
We are told to flee from youthful lusts and pursue four specific things with others who have the same goal. Those four things are righteousness, faith, love and peace.
This prompts me to consider who I’m hanging out with; are they also people who call on the Lord and care about having a pure heart?

2 Tim. 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. NIV