God teaches His children to trust

Here is this week’s children’s lesson, from Exodus 15:

Bitter water made sweet, God teaches His children

Exodus 15:22-27

After God brought His people Israel through the Red Sea safely, they worshiped Him, singing with joy. They sang praise to Him for His greatness. They sang praise to Him for the greatness of all He had done to save them. This was a good attitude. We should also sing and praise God for Who He is. And we should also sing and praise God for what He has done for us.

When we begin to walk with God, God wants to teach us to continue always trusting Him to take care of us. That’s what God wanted to do for the Israelites, too. The way He teaches us to trust Him involves letting us face problems only He can solve. That’s what He let happen to the people of Israel. As they walked in the wilderness, they ran out of water to drink. And at first, they couldn’t find any.

That’s a real problem, isn’t it? Water to drink is a need for every one of us. If we didn’t have it, it wouldn’t take long to get us to pray for it. That’s how it is when we need God’s help. We learn to pray. The Jews needed water to drink, and didn’t have it. Three days passed, and when they finally found a source of water, it was bitter. It was undrinkable. And the people did what we probably would, too. They complained. “What are we going to drink?” they asked Moses, grumbling.

Moses did the right thing. He cried out to God. When things are difficult, there are two options of what to do. One: Cry out against God. Or Two: Cry out TO God, for help. Moses picked the right option. He cried out to God for help. And God did a miracle to help all His people. Yahweh the Lord showed Moses a log. And when Moses threw the log into the water, it instantly turned the water from bitter to sweet. It was perfect water for them all to drink.

Then God made the people a promise. He said, “If you will diligently listen to The Lord your God, do what He says is right, obey His commandments, and keep His laws, then this is what I will do for you: I will protect you from all the diseases I put on the Egyptians, because I am Your healer.”

Then God brought them to a place called Elim. It was beautiful. It had twelve springs of fresh water. That’s one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. It also had 70 palm trees to shade them from the sun. The people camped there, resting comfortably in God’s presence. Their time of slavery was over. And they could live in God’s presence, and have peace.

This is how God wants to provide for us, too. When we become His children by faith in Christ, we learn to take each problem to Him. When we trust Him, He helps us, and takes care of our needs, as we obey Him.

Can God save Gays from Pride?


Pride is never a virtuous thing. But pride in things that we should be ashamed of is pride of the worst kind. Our world today isn’t in need of more pride—there was never a time in history with a shortage of pride.

When we follow our basest, darkest desires, we do things that should humiliate us. Our sexual sins of any kind or degree should be things we want to keep hidden because of shame. We shouldn’t want our nakedness exposed, nor our moral failings known.

If as an individual, one of us reaches the point where he or she can engage in the worst behaviors their flesh is capable of desiring, and he or she feels no shame, that’s a level of lostness that should make him or her very sad. Because at that moment, there’s no reason for hope. Not hope of happiness. Not hope of life. Not hope of honor. Not hope of joy. Not hope of satisfaction. It’s just wallowing in darkness, and celebrating the condition of hopelessness.

We’re all sinners, but we should all want our sins covered, not exposed and celebrated. We’re celebrating the very things that destroy us. That’s not sane. And it isn’t just happening to individuals anymore. Our whole world is joining in, not just doing these things, but celebrating those who do them. There is no lower point for our world to sink to. There is no reason for hope for society.

But for individuals in darkness who seek hope, there is one place for it to be found.

You see, the God who made us wants us to be cleansed and made whole. To have hope for satisfaction, joy, peace, love, honor, and glory. For most of human history, God provided a system of sacrifices that would cover the sins of those who believed. Their shame was covered and their lives could have hope for eternity. Then, when the time was right, God stepped into humanity, as the eternal Son of God made Himself flesh and walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Christ lived a sinless life without need of shame. He lived that perfect life on our behalf, in our place, so that His righteousness could earn us eternal life and joy with Him.

Then, He took our shame upon Himself, along with all of our sin. He hung on a cross, naked and bleeding, exposed to the world, bearing the guilt and shame for all that we have done in our rebellion and the hopeless darkness of our depraved minds.

He suffered in our place, because of our guilt. He bore our shame upon His own back. Then He died for us. He paid the price for our sins. He absorbed every ounce of the punishment we had earned. It was in our place, instead of us, that He died. He deflected God’s judgment from us by taking it Himself.

Then three days later, He rose again to life, proving Himself to be God and proving He had paid the full price for our sins. He rose to life and promised eternal life, abundant life, salvation from condemnation in hell, peace, and eternal joy in heaven to everyone who believes on Him. Unlike the animal sacrifices that only temporarily covered sin and shame, He had become “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

When you trust Jesus Christ to save you from your sins and the punishment for them, He doesn’t just cover your sin and shame; He takes it away—forever.

Whatever kind of sexual activity or desire or identity has been yours up until this moment, don’t take pride or try to persuade yourself that you are fine as you are. God made you. He loves you, even though you’ve done wrong. He wants to give you life today. Let Him. Don’t listen to the voices of those who want you to stay in darkness and never-ending cravings that can never satisfy your heart. Come to Jesus. Drink of His living water by believing in Him and His promise: “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” Don’t be lost anymore. Let Him rescue you today.

Let God work His joy in you

“for it is God who works in you all, to will and to do, for His good pleasure.”

–Philippians 2:13

For those who are born again by faith in Christ, life becomes something of a struggle, working to become better morally and spiritually. When we fail and sin, we hurt. That should hurt. Sin is harmful to us, to others, and to our intimacy with God. Our intimacy with God is our greatest source of joy. So sin in the life of a believer is the greatest threat to a joyful life.

The book of Philippians is a book about joy. And this verse gives us a major key to finding joy in both easy circumstances and difficult ones. It shows us how God Himself finds great pleasure when we become and do what He redeemed us to become and do. If God accomplishes this in us, we gain both the willingness to serve Him and the ability to succeed in it. We live victoriously, when God pleases Himself, by working in our lives. And that victory brings us joy.

So, then, what does it take for me to experience this joy today? Whatever my circumstances of the moment, how can I find this joy? It is by surrendering myself to the Spirit of God, Who lives in me by my faith in Christ. I must tell myself, and tell Him, that I will let Him have His will done in my life today. When I surrender everything to Him in that way, He takes my desires and turns them to His will. He does the work of making me willing to be and do what pleases Him today. And then He does the work in me of making me able to obey His will and follow His lead. The result is that I live in this hour as the man God wants me to be, and in His strength I successfully do what He wants. This pleases Him greatly, and He abundantly shares that joy with me. So I am joyful.

Pray with me, from the heart, “Holy Spirit, thank You for these promises from Your word. I need You to do these things in me today. In myself, I lack the willingness to follow and obey, and the ability to do what You say, instead of serving my flesh. But You have promised that if I let You take over my heart and mind, You will change my heart, making me willing to do what pleases You. And You will enable me to actually do what pleases You. I submit to You now, so that You can do these things. Help me throughout the day by reminding me of these things, as I meditate on Your perfect ways. I pray to the Father for all these things in the Name of Jesus, my Savior. Amen. So be it.”

A Sunday Surprise

This coming Sunday is Easter on the eastern calendar that Romania is on. Each Sunday a lesson I write is taught to the children as part of our worship service. Here is the English language version of the lesson that will be taught for Easter Sunday April 12:

A Sunday Surprise
Luke 24:13-32

Jesus had died on the cross a few days before, and two of His followers were so sad on Sunday morning. They left Jerusalem first thing in the morning for their 11 km walk home. They didn’t believe that Jesus had risen from the dead that very day, even though the first women to see Him alive had told them. And they were so very sad, as you see illustrated in this picture. Sometimes when we are sad, another believer in Christ will try to encourage us by telling us that God cares and will still be there with us. If we believe that, it will help us to feel better. If we don’t, then we will stay sad even though we didn’t have to be.
These two men were so hurt that they couldn’t lift their eyes of faith to see God was keeping His promises. But Jesus loved them. He didn’t condemn them for doubting. Instead, He actually showed up to start walking with them. They saw Him, but they were kept from understanding Who He was. You see, only the people who believe on Christ as a risen Savior can truly know who He is. Everyone in our country has heard of Jesus. But only those who believe He died for their sins and rose from the dead to give them eternal life will actually know Him personally. To everyone else who still doesn’t believe, Jesus is a mystery they don’t understand yet.
As Jesus showed up, being a man unknown to them, He showed concern for their fears and feelings. “What are these things that you’re talking about as you walk along?” Jesus asked them. Cleopas, who was one of the men, said to Jesus, “Are you the only man near Jerusalem that doesn’t know what’s going on these days?” It was mean-spirited of Cleopas to say that. Sometimes when we’re sad, we are unkind to people around us who don’t deserve our insults at all. And when Cleopas treated Jesus that way, it taught us something about how we should see God when we’re hurting. If we’re foolish, we might say to God, “Don’t you even understand what’s going on? Don’t you care about us at all?”
Truly Jesus was there because He understood the situation better than they did, and because He loved them deeply and wanted to help them. That’s true of Jesus when we’re hurting, too. He understands our pains. And He loves us abundantly and wants to help.
In that moment Jesus also taught us how to deal with people who are sad. He didn’t lash out at Cleopas for insulting Him. He gently, kindly, asked him to tell Him what things were happening to sadden them. He knew what things. But He also knew it would help them to tell Jesus their problems. If someone is sad and says something hurtful to you, it would be good to be kind to them anyway. To listen to them about what is upsetting them. And then direct them to Jesus to find help.
The two men then told Jesus about how He had been crucified and killed. They said they were sad because they had hoped Jesus was the Messiah who would save Israel. But now that Jesus had died, they assumed He wasn’t the Savior. They even told Him that His tomb was found empty, but they didn’t believe He was alive, since they hadn’t seen Him.
Then Jesus started correcting them. Wisely, they listened. Jesus told them it was foolish not to believe, when God had already told them in the scriptures these things had to happen. As they walked probably for hours, Jesus showed them how the Bible in the Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would have to suffer as an offering for sins, and then arise and be glorified. (One of the passages He probably talked to them about was from Isaiah, and if you listen to Dave’s preaching in a few minutes, you will learn even more about this.) As Jesus shared the word of God, their hearts were stirred up, because they began to believe.
Then they reached their home. They invited Jesus in to have supper with them, still not realizing Who He was. But now that they believed God and were encouraged, they would see Him soon. It is not what our eyes see that gives us faith to be saved. It is believing what God says in His word that saves us. Then when we believe what God has told us in the Bible, we will begin to see God work around us in our lives. He was always there. But we will only see this after believing His word. As they sat down to eat, Jesus prayed and broke the bread like at the passover meal. Then their eyes were opened and they saw Him. They celebrated and hurried as fast as they could to go back to the people of God and share how they knew God’s word was true: Jesus is alive.
He is still alive to this day, on His throne in heaven, ready to save everyone who believes on Him, trusting what He did for us by dying in our place and rising from the dead. 

Isaiah 53:4-9 – The Old Testament Gospel

Isaiah 53:4-9

These verses are in the running for the best words in the Old Testament. Even in a book as great as the Bible, these words stand out as magnificent. The precious gospel of Christ and His cross — prophesied, promised, and detailed — centuries before God the Son became one of the sheep to suffer for the rest. You can’t meditate on this message without deepening your love for the Savior. And if you aren’t already born again, but want to know what God’s plan for you and your eternity is about, in this sermon you will have your questions answered.

Isaiah 52:13-53:3 – The plan unveiled

Our Easter-season study through Hebrews 7-10 leads into a culmination of a three-part devotional-style sermon series on Isaiah 52:13 through Isaiah 53. That three-part series begins here.

“Once and For All” – a sermon series

The now-complete 7-part pre-Easter deep study sermon series on Hebrews 7-10, “Once and For All”


https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8h8i0ingzvMbRHkjTlV5D85-7FHiyPpu&si=C_x930G1lxrWU_iv

Hebrews 10:1-18 – Finished Business

Millions of worshipers worldwide think they are practicing Christianity, when the form their religion takes is one of seeing Christ’s sacrifice on the cross as unfinished business. Even born again saints could fall into the same religious trap if they don’t go on growing to maturity in the faith. Oh, how I wish every catholic and orthodox person in the world would read this passage and hear this message. And how I wish every young Christian would internalize the truths of this passage and stand firm in the faith that was once and for all given.

Hebrews 9:15-28 A better sacrifice

Hebrews 9 pt II – A better sacrifice. Infinitely better.

We continue our study through Hebrews 9 and find that Christ’s better sacrifice accomplished so much for us that we could do nothing to complete it or supplement it in any way. These verses will help you appreciate what He has done for you perhaps more deeply than ever before.