Exodus 1-4

Joseph and all his brothers died, but their descendants were numerous, and it made the Egyptians nervous. They thought, "This is not good, if our enemies come to fight us, the Israelites will join with them and overpower us!" So they made the whole nation slaves to them. Sounds like it would be difficult to do, them being... a whole nation and all. But to slow down the population, the midwives were told to kill every baby boy. These gals are in my book of overlooked Bible heroes. It said that they feared God, and did not obey the Pharaoh's orders. BUT he saw that little boys were still running around left and right, so he questioned the midwives as to why they weren't obeying. They said, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."
Then it says, "So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own." God rewarded them for their fear of him! Those midwives were responsible for the population of Israel growing to what it was. But when Pharaoh figured that the midwife idea wasn't working, he ordered his own people to take care of things and throw the boys in the river.

Of course, Moses was saved in that basket and we all know that part, so let's skip ahead until he's grown up. Moses was walking around one day where the Israelites were working, and he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite up. The Bible says Moses looked both ways and saw nobody around, so he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. I thought it was kinda interesting... if you're mad enough to kill somebody, I wouldn't guess you'd have the presence of mind to see if anybody's around to see you do it. But apparently he didn't notice that there was a little kid that was out looking for his lost kitty, and that kid went out and told everybody about it. The Pharaoh wanted to kill Moses, so Moses ran away to Midian - where he got married and thought he was gonna live happily ever after... until a burning bush popped up and told him that God had other plans.

Outreach Musings

Our church has been working on many outreach projects lately, but I am quite confused. I guess I just don't get the concept. What I don't understand is this: why is it that when we plan an outreach or some form of church event... we do not expect anything to happen?

Our church has 40 people in attendance on a Sunday service on a good day... and getting smaller by the week. We hire more ministry staff, we send a missionary out, we plan Harvest Festivals, Movie Nights, and other fun stuff hoping to... draw more people into church I guess. But nobody expects anything to happen. There is always a problem with the performance, there is always something that won't go right, nobody's probably gonna be there, etc.

Maybe all that's true. But the way I see it is this:

If God is leading us as a church family to start a weekly movie night or a youth ministry, isn't his job to make sure somebody shows up if he wants somebody to show up? And isn't God capable of getting anything he wants to get done done? When you think about it, (or I guess when I think about it) we don't even have a right to estimate how many people will come! It's whatever God wants to happen. I think we should just prepare to let the fire fall and prepare every seat for however many people God wants to stuff into AHBC!!!

Why do we think nothing will happen if this was God's idea to begin with?

Jesus and the Boogie Man!!!!

Jesus and his disciples were just going innocently across the lake... and landed in a graveyard. James did not get out of the boat. "James? What are you doing?"

"I ain't getting out here!"

John rolled his eyes. "Not that boogie man story again!"

Peter raised a brow. "What boogie man story?"

"Oh, you know. That one they tell little kids to scare them about that guy who's crazy, and nobody can chain him up, and he cuts himself with stones and screams all the time."

James clutched the sides of the boat. "It's true I tell you!!! I've seen him!!!"

John laughed. "Yeah, and you've seen Bigfoot too!"

Peter was squinting off into the distance. "Hey guys, what's that?" They heard a great scream.

"It's HIM!!!!!! It's the BOOGIE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Jesus was the only one who wasn't freaking out. The disciples jumped into the boat. "Come on Jesus! RUN!!!!!!"

But Jesus didn't move. The Boogie Man ran right up to Jesus and fell to his knees. The disciples, shaking and shivering in the boat heard him beg not to be sent away. "Pssst! James! You seem to know about this guy, what's he talking about?"

But Jesus was asking the Boogie Man what his name was. "My name is Legion!" He said. "For we are many!"

James kicked John. "You SEE!!!!! He IS demon possessed!!!!!"

Before anyone knew what was happening, Jesus said, "Come out!" and hundreds of pigs were making a run for the lake! The pig herders ran off toward the city to tell everybody.

The disciples stole a look back at the Boogie Man. "Hey! Peter! He's in his right mind!"

At this moment, tons of people from the city came to see what the commotion was about. They saw the Boogie Man sitting nicely listening to Jesus! They begged Jesus to leave.

"They're asking us to LEAVE? After what Jesus just did for the Boogie Man? The nerve!"

John shrugged. "Maybe they're mad because the bacon supply just got a whole lot lower."

Jesus was coming back into the boat. The not-so-Boogie Man asked if he could come too, but Jesus said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."

So the Not-So-Boogie Man went all about the countryside, telling amazed people about everything that had happened to him. And he lived happily ever after. The End.

The start of the book of Jeremiah

This is definitely not my favorite book of the Bible - it's quite depressing most of the way. God's pretty much breaking up with his people and you know in the end they're going to get carried away to captivity. Oh well. It's once a week.

I found in today's passage another verse sorta like the one in Isaiah about lighting our own torches instead of looking to God as our light. This one said,

"My people have committed two sins:

They have forsaken me,

the spring of living water,

and have dug their own cisterns,

broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

It's like if you're served up a nice enchilada dinner and you wave it off for a piece of stale bread! Why do we do it? Why do we not embrace what God has for us? Why do we think our way is better?

Why Should God Listen To Me?

Lately I've been thinking about what I do for God - it ain't a lot. I've been thinking, "Why should God ever do anything for me? What have I done? Why should he listen to my prayers? Sometimes I don't even see what he wants for me!"

Then I read these two chapters of Psalms. I will write here the highlights, if you will.

"Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,

your justice like the great deep.

O LORD, you preserve both man and beast.
How priceless is your unfailing love!

Both high and low among men

find refuge in the shadow of your wings."

"Trust in the LORD and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the LORD

and he will give you the desires of your heart."

"But the meek will inherit the land

and enjoy great peace."

"for the power of the wicked will be broken,

but the LORD upholds the righteous."

"The wicked lie in wait for the righteous,

seeking their very lives;
but the LORD will not leave them in their power

or let them be condemned when brought to trial.
Wait for the LORD

and keep his way.

He will exalt you to inherit the land;

when the wicked are cut off, you will see it."

That first "Third Day" verse really jumped out. His love reaches to the heavens - even when we don't see it, or realize it, or when we sometimes don't even care.

1 Samuel 11-15

Saul has just become king, but there were alot of troublemakers that opposed him, but he did nothing about it.

DU-du-du-dun-da-da, dun-da-da (That was the Darth Vader theme)!!! The evil Ammonite king has come to place Jabesh Gilead under siege!!!! Oh no! Well, the people of the city said, "make a treaty with us and we will be subject to you!"

But the bad guys said, "Neva!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Wait, well - ok. But only if we can put out the right eye of all your men."

The Israelites whispered but this was eventually seen as a bad deal, so they said, "If nobody comes to rescue us in a week, it's a deal!"

When Saul heard of this he was furious (what a hero!!!). He gathered impressed men and stormed the Ammonites and saved the city!!!! Huzzah!!!! Everybody was happy, and they said, "Hey, get those guys that said Saul was no good!!! Let's have us an execution!!!!"

But Saul said, "No, that's alright. God saved us today, so nobody shall be killed."

Samuel threw an arm around Saul and said, "Come, let's go reaffirm the kingship!"

So all Israel partied and was very happy. Saul was a cool guy for like a whole two chapters!!!!!

Genesis 48-50

Well, now Joseph's family is with him in Egypt, and everybody's happy. But now Jacob is about to die, and he is blessing all his sons and grandsons. In chapter 49 he is blessing and kinda telling the future of his sons one by one. I really was interested in Judah's blessing:

"Judah, your brothers will praise you;

your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;

your father's sons will bow down to you.
You are a lion's cub, O Judah;

you return from the prey, my son.

Like a lion he crouches and lies down,

like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
The scepter will not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,

until he comes to whom it belongs

and the obedience of the nations is his.
He will tether his donkey to a vine,

his colt to the choicest branch;

he will wash his garments in wine,

his robes in the blood of grapes."

This sounds to me like a prophecy of Jesus - a descendant of Judah! Imagine... in the earliest times of the Bible there are still clues and hints about the Savior! God knew exactly when he would come, which line he would descend of, and what he would do!!!

AND I imagine if he knew that in Genesis, than he knows exactly when he's coming back for all of us. Not to mention he's probably looking forward to coming for us more than he was looking forward to sending his son to die:)