.glory in the escape.

At the beginning of the year, my sister challenged our family to read through the Bible in 2014. We all chose the same reading plan on YouVersion and I have loved how simple it is to stay on track! Honesty moment: I have always struggled with finding a passion for the Old Testament. I think it stems from when I was little, the big stories of the Old Testament were all that were taught to us over and over again in Sunday School and it became boring to me. It hasn’t been until the past couple of years that I have begun to love the Old Testament a little more than the New Testament. I studied the book of Genesis during one of my years in BSF and God really showed me through that study that there is a lot to learn in the Old Testament about who God is and about how the entire Bible points to Christ.

In this current reading plan, I am about halfway through Exodus. And admittedly I was not too thrilled about reading it today because I already knew the ending to the story: God calls Moses, Moses goes to Pharaoh and performs signs and asks for the people to be freed, Pharaoh says no over and over again, God implements the Passover, Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt, they cross over the Red Sea, the Egyptians get killed, The End.

But just like He always does, God showed me something new about the whole story. Moses was not the hero of this story, God was. When Pharaoh had finally released the Israelites, they plundered the Egyptians and stripped them of their wealth before leaving. So just imagine it for a moment: you have probably over 1,000,000 Israelites fleeing Egypt and they are taking all of the Egyptians’ wealth with them! Wouldn’t you think they would be happy?! Their enemies just willingly handed over all their treasures to them and they now have freedom!

So they set off and are following where God leads them. God then gives Moses instructions to turn around and camp. Now this would be confusing if God had not followed up with the reasoning behind this. If the Israelites turned around and made it look like they were heading back to Egypt, God would cause the Egyptians to think they could overtake the Israelites again, and God would save the Israelites once again, all the while bringing more glory unto himself. “I have planned this in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army. After this the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord!” (Exodus 14:4) What may seem backwards to the human mind is the perfect plan constructed by God.

God sets himself up for glory and uses unconventional ways to do so.

So the Egyptians start coming and the Israelites go in to panic mode. “Why are we here? What made us think that Moses could really free us? Why didn’t we just stay in Egypt? We are never going to get out of here alive!” Poor Moses had to deal with all of these complaining people when he knew that God was going to save them. Yet how noble of Moses to not abandon them because of their complaints and unbelief.

Finally God does part the Red Sea and the Israelites cross over on dry ground while the Egyptians experience a mass drowning. The passage in Exodus continues on and says how the Egyptians realized that the Lord was fighting for Israel and that the Israelites also saw the mighty power of the Lord and were filled with awe before him.

When God displays his glory in a very tangible way, no one is immune to recognize his strength and power.

If you have never read the Old Testament before, I encourage you to dive in. I know there are some passages where it is hard to understand and really get the why behind the message, but God’s Word does not come back void. And if you ask him to, he will show you something new if you have already read the major highlight stories of the Bible over and over again. May today we be like Moses and realize that God is using us to display his glory to an unbelieving world. God has already planned how he is going to use you to bring him glory, now it’s time for you to be obedient and jump on board.

.crash.

Today was the release of Crash the Chatterbox by my pastor, Steven Furtick! I am about halfway through with the book and absolutely love it! If you have ever struggled with insecurity and seeking to dispel the lies of the enemy you have trapped yourself in to believing, you need to get hold of this book pronto!

On another note, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Tonight I was having the all too familiar discussion with my parents about how I won’t have a date for Valentine’s Day and no one is going to be sending me flowers; a regular pity party that I allow myself to continue to attend. I quickly realized that I was beginning to believe the lies that the enemy has tried to convince me are true. Of course you don’t have a date! Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately? Those dark circles under your eyes sure won’t attract any guys! Plus look at your hair! Besides no one wants to date a girl who is always studying and never seems to have any free time. Basically you just have to accept the fact that you probably won’t ever go on a date and more than likely you will die alone.

See what I mean?! The chatterbox is definitely attacking me during this time of year and I would be willing to bet that almost every single girl who does not have a date this coming Friday is thinking something along the same lines!

I just finished reading the chapter titled “What If” and it talks about how the enemy likes to get us thinking in “what if” scenarios. What if I really am not pretty? What if I really am not able to attract a guy? What if I really never have a Valentine’s Day date? What if I really do die alone?

The chapter continued to talk about the remedy to these what if questions by saying that we need to follow them up with some more questions. First identify the what if. Next, follow it up with a that would. Then a God will.

 

What if I am not attractive?

That would be a bummer, but at least you would still have your sense of humor.

God will be my standard of beauty and He has already declared me perfectly and wonderfully made!

 

What if I die alone, never to have a Valentine’s Day date?

That would honestly suck and I would be pretty lonely. (But never lonely enough to become the owner of cats!)

God will be able to use me in ways as a single that He may not be able to do if I was married right now. God will be the one who receives my affection and my undivided attention.

 

See how things aren’t so bad any more? Yeah I still wrestle with the fact that my insecurities are real and they are ugly. I still struggle with the fact that my what ifs may indeed become reality. But when I get to the God will part, I begin to sigh a bit of relief because I remind myself that God’s got this! No matter what happens, God is still God and God is still good. Whether I am single or married, happy or sad, pretty or having a bad hair day, however I happen to be, God is still reigning on His throne triumphant over death and welcoming me to have a deep and personal relationship with Him! Oh, hallelujah! Can’t you just imagine the throne room of heaven and God smiling down upon you!  

So this Valentine’s Day I may not have a date. But I do have a choice: Allow the enemy to continue to flood my soul with self doubt and lies that God has already defeated or hold fast to the truth of God’s word and know that He is in control of my life. God did not send His son to die on the cross just so that I can spend the rest of my life being limited by my insecurities! He sent His son so that we may have life and life to the full!

This is such a wonderful season of life right now and I am so blessed by my church! Go get your copy of Crash the Chatterbox now and make sure to watch the series online or at one of the campuses! I promise you that God is going to use this series to free you from so much, probably from a lot of stuff that you don’t even know you needed to be freed from! The best is yet to come!