Parallel Plagues

Exodus 11:9-10 "And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.  And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land"

BEFORE God let the Israelites go out of Egypt He needed to teach them two things, and make sure that the knew/understood them.  One of the things the God wanted the people to know was that He was powerful enough to protect and provide for them while they were going through the desert to Canaan.  I think that one of the reasons that God sent all the plagues was so that he could showcase all of the powers that He was going to use while the people were in the desert.  First God used turning the Nile river into blood to show that He could control the earth’s natural resources and in particular the water, because while the Israelites were in the desert he would need to make the bitter water okay to drink.  God used the death of all the Egyptian’s animals to show that he totally controlled all the animals on earth, because when the people asked Moses for meat God had to kill the whole population of quail in the desert to provide for the people!  God used the Fire and Ice from heaven and the three days of darkness to show that he controlled the weather and elements, and he used the darkness later to protect the people from the Egyptians when they were crossing through the water, and he used the fire later to destroy the people when they complained against God and Moses.   Just a tip that we can learn from that…don’t complain about the people God puts in control of you because you might end up a burnt crisp.  And lastly He used the plague of boils to show that he controlled the human body, because when the serpents came into the camp and bit the people he would need to heal them miraculously.   I think that the other reason the God hardened the peoples heart was to teach them patience.  When God said that He would do something for them He always did, but rarely did he do it right away.  Most of the time God said that He would do something for Israel, but they would have to wait and keep the faith.  If they didn’t wait and keep the faith then He would hold off on fulfilling the blessing or promise until later or until the next generation.  So we need to remember that in everything we need to have faith.  Secondly, sometimes God does bad things to bad people, not just because they are bad, but to show us how he can use his power, or will use his power, in our lives.

-Levi

I'm A Slave Trader! Finally!

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Get Your Action On!

Luke 22:36 “ Then said He unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.”

So when I read this verse two meanings popped out almost right away. The first is this...that for us Christians today the sword would be the Bible, and we have to be willing to give up somethings that are sometimes really important to us so that we can learn the Sword/Bible and KNOW more about it so that in turn we can use it better. This doesn't have anything to do with the verse, but it's just a quick thought. If you're given and totally awesome sword that is absolutely beautiful and SUPER sharp...what good is it going to do you if you don't know how to properly use it. I mean sure you know how to swing and stab, but you don't know how to use every part of it effectively (weight, balance, hilt, etc.) so that you can dominate with it. The same thing applies to the Bible. We have to incesintely train with it so that we become experts with it and can do some serious damage to Satan's kingdom with it! Okay now the second thing that I got our of this is that Christ wants us to fight for what's right. He told the brothers to go get them some swords!! What happens most of the time is something happens in society that is biblically wrong, and all that Christians and Pastors do is rant and rave about how wrong it is. That's a good thing. What's not good is that they only do it in Church around other Christians who most likely aren't part of the problem or will ever be. It does no good to rant about it to people who don't have a problem with it. What needs to happen is, all that 'anger' needs to be channeled into actions that we use to fight the problem. If the only action we take is to talk and 'yell' about it at church, you can't complain when things go south.

-Levi

Perfect Problems

So I was reading in Luke about the woman with an issue of blood as well as the feeding of the five thousand and I came across verse one in chapter nine that says “Then He called His twelve disciples together…” and I had a thought so I went to Chapter Twenty-Two where Christ was betrayed, and I found the verse that I was looking for “…and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve…”  Now Jesus handpicked his twelve dudes, so that means He picked Judas purposely, and He also knows the future right?  Right.  So Jesus KNEW that Judas would end up betraying him!  My point is that Jesus PURPOSELY picked Judas – a problem – to put in His life even though it/he was a problem.  Now the immediate thing that probably comes to your mind is “well Jesus NEEDED Judas so that He could fulfill His mission that God sent Him on”…EXACTLY my point!!  Jesus picked someone really bad to be in his life - someone He knew would ultimately hurt him – for the greater good, and for HIS purpose.  What struck me is how that applies to us, and how Jesus kinda ‘led by example’ so to speak.  So for us God might ‘pick’ a really bad problem for our lives – something that might hurt us or cause some major problems – so that He can use it for HIS purpose for our lives or (like in Jesus’ case) someone else’s life, for something really good.  So next time something bad happens remember that Jesus PURPOSELY had problem in his life that ultimately worked out for something REALLY good.  The reason you might have ‘that problem’ or ‘this problem’ in your life, is because God needs it there so that a certain part of His plan works.

Levi 

Small. Tiny. Itsy-Bitsy. Little.

Song of Solomon 2:15 “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes”

The book of Song of Solomon is really like a love book the Solomon wrote, and to be perfectly honest, the only part of it that I’ve ever read is the second chapter.  Anyways, I read it today and the fifteenth verse popped out at me (obviously).  To be honest I’m not sure what the original context is, but I read it as the verse saying that the little things in life make a big difference.  In my life time management is a big deal.  Thos of you who know me and our family know that.  On thing that is constantly stressed is that one minute here, or three minutes there, can REALLY cur your day up and at the end you’ve wasted two or three hours!!:/  Individually each of the wasted minutes is SMALL, but combined they really really add up.  The same thing applies to our spiritual lives as Christians.  The little sins or wrong-doings individually don’t dramatically affect us, but over a period of time the build up into something big and make a big difference for the worse.  And the problem with it being one small thing at a time is that it’s hard to catch because each thing is so small, we dismiss it as ‘being small.’  I’ve heard it said that if you consistently do something for twenty-one days it becomes a habit.  So if we’re doing something small consistently, forgetting to pray, adding some worldy slang, dress un-modestly, etc, after awhile it will majorly affect us without us hardly noticing it until it’s gotten to be a decently big problem.  So think of something small that either you’re doing that you know you shouldn’t do, or something that you know you should do but you’re not doing, and start doing it if you know you should, or stop if you know you SHOULDN’T be doing it.  Start small with one thing and work on the one thing until it’s conquered, then move onto something else that’s either the same ‘small size’ or a little bit bigger.  After all it’s the small things that make the big difference.

-Levi

Let Your Acts Be Your Tracts

­­Okay so this is a little bit different from what I normally do.  I was having a conversations with someone, and the subject of soul winning came up, ad how we go crazy on passing out tracts and blitzing areas.  I thought to myself, hey, what’s the good in a tract?  I mean yes it does tell people where your church is and how to get saved, but that’s it.  Now that’s better than nothing, but that is the extent of it’s use.  That’s when I thought hey, you know, letting your acts (lifestyle, dress, talk, etc.) be your tracts would be much more powerful than a tract.  I don’t think that passing out tracts is a bad thing AT ALL, but if that’s the extent or the MAJOR part of your soul winning and outreach where you are directly trying to get people saved (not just get them to your church) then…well….sorry if this hurts your feelings…but it’s pretty lame in my point of view.  Let me put it this way.  You can be totally un-saved and still go out and pass out tracts and look the look, but your ‘acts’ show that ‘your just a show’, whereas you can be an amazing Christian but passing out tracts and door knocking doesn’t prove or show anyone that you’re a Christian and different from them in a good way.  Your lifestyle and ‘acts’ are WAY more powerful than ANY tract.  Like, okay…you can pass out a tract to someone, then later that someone sees you doing something wrong and you totally ruin the chance of them ever being a Christian because you were a nice looking person who told him or her about something that could make their life better and then they see you living just like them…it’s blows your reputation as well as the reputation of other Christians.  Now if you never pass out a tract but people see the way you live is different and the right way to live and get saved as a result, then that’s how we should roll! People will be more appt to become a Christian if they SEE through you’re a Christian than if you go up to their door and nervously ask them a few questions, leave them and tract, and leave.  Let your acts be your tracts.  If I need to clarify something (which I’m sure I probably will have to) just ask in the comments!:)

-Levi

There WILL Be Consequences For THAT!!

Proverbs 6:28 "Can one go upon coals, and his feet not be burned?"

So basically what I saw in this verse, is the lesson of consequences.  What I saw it translated as, was that you can't 'push the red button and not expect and explosion.'  So I know that we normally think that consequences always have to do with bad things, because all the sermons (and lessons) that we've heard have always been 'THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR SIN.'  Now that IS true…I'm not disputing that AT ALL!  But also I don't think that most people of it in the opposite sense.  If you do a good thing, there will be a consequence for that!  I think that we've been 'trained' to think that consequences is only a word the gets used when we do something bad, or screw up something in our lives.  Like okay, you always hear "I know that you stole that and there WILL be consequences for your sin"…I've NEVER heard anyone say "there will be consequences for you giving that missionary $100"  Know what I mean?  I goes what I'm saying is that it'd be cool if we could change the way we've been programed to think about consequences.  Start thinking "HEY…If I do this or that, what are the awesome consequences going to be"…I'll bet when you read that it sounded weird…it's the way we've been 'programmed…consequences have ALWAYS carried a bad connotation.  You know, as long as you're aren't JUST trying to further your own gain, there is NOTHING wrong with wanting to get rewarded by God for doing good things!  It's not a sin to expect God to reward you for doing something good…shoot…we EXPECT God to do something bad to us when we do something bad, so why not switch it up.  Do good and EXPECT something good to 'happen back.'  Maybe you don't always get physical and material things…maybe God rewards you with a AWESOME grade on a test, or keeps you from being in a car crash, or even makes the policeman not pay attention so that he doesn't see you going 80 in a 60!;)  Anyways…look to do good things and see what happens.  Don't make consequences a word that only gets used when something bad or wrong happens. 

P.S:  I don't think I'd be to far off if I guessed that when you read the title you thought this would be about 'sin finding you out'?

-Levi-