Blogger's Note: Continuing on with the chronological reading plan through the Bible this year (found in www.youversion.com for those who desire to following along). Now it's day 32 - in February, getting to know God more through His truth-filled word.
Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Exodus, Chapters 7-9 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
Exodus 7: 10-13: … [God Speaks, … Man Can’t Hear] ... 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: 12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
My Journal for Today: In my chronological reading plan today [Day 32, BTW], I’m taken to the accounts in Exodus of Moses encountering Pharaoh with one miracle event after another, beginning with the one copied above where Aaron’s staff became a snake. And if you’ve studied these miracle plagues which God used to communicate His message of deliverance through Moses/Aaron to Pharaoh, we know that each plague/miracle was a message to the Egyptian king and the people in Egypt that their gods were impotent to overcome God and His plan of deliverance. In each instance, from the simple snake illustration to other more elaborate and horrifying plagues, God was saying to Pharaoh, “You’ve got nothing to overcome Me … because ‘I AM’ !”
Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t do a similar gig in these times to show the rulers of the word that things have gotten way out of hand and that God’s people, the Church, are being enslaved by the world and Satan’s schemes? I used to wonder that early in my Christian life; but then God showed me, through HIS-STORY and His word, that we have all the truth this world needs; and we don’t need plagues and wondrous miracles to either establish or bolster our faith. We have THE MESSAGE in the established and canonized WORD OF GOD, the Bible, which carries all the truth we need to know the great I AM and to live according to His will.
Why would I, if I had a hardened heart, like Pharaoh, need anything more that the truth of 2nd Timothy 3: 16 – 17, … and Isaiah 55: 11, … and John 3: 16, … and Phil. 2: 6-11, and Romans 10: 9 – 13 to establish me in faith or to help me to decide the truth of Hebrews 11: 1, 6. I hope you know God’s communication of truth from that chain of messages from the Bible I’ve listed here. If not, I’ll leave it to you to go back, read, and meditate on them. But in a nutshell, these passages say, from God’s word (i.e., Scripture), all we need to know God’s purposes and His plan for our lives; and when we know and believe that truth, God’s love was made complete in the life , death, and resurrection of Jesus, The Christ, … that whomever believes in what He did for us on the cross and by His resurrection, … that one will have eternal life.
It’s all there! We don’t need any wondrous miracle or a series of plagues to know God’s message of salvation and His plan of sanctification, … do we? We have the MIRACLE of His word, His MESSAGE, to establish His plan of salvation and His plan of truth for our lives. Oh, there was a time in my life (in fact for the first 39 years) which I was like Pharaoh, … hard hearted, hearing Spirit-led Christians giving witness to God’s truth and His word, but like Pharaoh, summarily rejecting God’s message which was being transmitted to me through His word. But finally, also like Pharaoh, a series of life challenges helped me to receive and believe the truth of His message in His word. But unlike Pharaoh, I was able to humble myself and receive the truth of God’s plan for my life; and I was saved.
I hope – and pray – that anyone who might read this can allow the “plagues” of life circumstance [those are the MIRACLES] to break through and allow you to see that God wants you to get His MESSAGE, from His word, to give you the gift of His saving grace. Yes, we today do have MIRACLES – even plagues - in life to help us see and receive God’s MESSAGE; but it is the MESSAGE, from His word, which carries God’s truth, not the MIRACLES.
My Prayer Today: … Lord, I know You through Your MESSAGE of truth from Your word; and I’m bolstered to know You more through the MIRACLES of life which bring me back to Your MESSAGE. Amen
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