While the northeast USA is experiencing harsh winter weather which is shutting down everything and the southern hemisphere is experiencing lots of heat – we are sitting here in the fog and mid-forties.  Hopefully it will lift later today.  It is already better than it was when I got up and you could barely see the garden from the window.

I will be off line for a few days, not sure how many.  Operation is tomorrow, and it seems every time they sedate me – which has been about a dozen this past year - it takes longer for me to come out of the fog. 

Exodus 3:13-14  And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

¹⁴ And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.

God was sending Moses to the people of Israel to bring them out of Egypt, out of bondage.  Moses was ‘reluctant’ to say the least of the many things he said to try and get out of the assignment was: What is his name? what shall I say unto them? God needed no introduction they knew God.  He is who He is and He knew that when Moses said I am that I am, they would believe him.

Moses used many excuses and God answered each one.  He gave him miracles to perform before the people that confirmed “I Am” sent him.

God had prepared Moses for this leadership task.  He had placed Him in Pharaoh’s house for approximately 40 years, he was given all the education, and benefits that the rest of the family received.  When Moses was driven into the desert, he spent the next approximately 40 years in a more humble environment as a shepherd, living a hard life.

He was ready, but he kept trying to back out and God used signs to show him he was the one God had chosen to lead His people. 

Exodus 4:31 And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

While they indeed submit themselves to God through Moses, throughout their journey in the wilderness – despite the many miracles God performed and signs they were given that they were to worship Him – they continued to fall away. 

Even 3 days after being led through the Red Sea on dry land with walls of water on either side, even though they had watch Pharaoh and his army destroyed they needed another miracle to show that Moses was doing what God wanted him to do.

Exodus 15:22 -24  So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

²³ And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.

²⁴ And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

Throughout the Bible we read of the many miracles God performed for the Jews and yet, they continually pulled away from Him.  They continually demanded signs that what He wanted done was ordered by Him.

Sometimes He was willing, other times He was not. 

For thousands of years this demand for signs and the falling away of even the leaders, who remained in power, continued.

It was still the same when Jesus walked this earth.

Mathew 16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

This was after the many miracles Jesus had performed, the many signs that He was sent by God to the Jews.

Even His disciples would forget what He had done, and had to be reminded by Jesus.  We read these things and shake our heads.  Were these people blind, did they have such a short memory that they couldn’t even remember the miracles performed just a few days before?  We may even think of them as ‘idiots,’ or at the very least foolish unbelievers, who like a child, has to be reminded over and over again.

Not like us.

The Word of God has given us documentation that He is God.  It shows what His expectation of us is; how we must serve Him.  It gives us examples of His power and of those that trusted Him.  It gives us examples of what happens when we turn our backs on Him.  In addition to His Word, we have all experienced His love and dedication to us, many of us have been healed and/or have witnessed miracles.

AND then we too, question Him.  We too, find ourselves reluctant to accept what He tells us and demand a sign from Him as affirmation.  There are times that God places burdens on us that we feel are far greater than we can carry.

We do not have the skills or energy to perform these tasks.  We look around and find others that we believe could do the job better.  We question whether it is our desire to serve Him, or truly Him using us in this manner.  He will affirm His commands and, if we listen, we can see that affirmation – it may be He sends someone to tell us they too feel we are to perform the work, or open doors that are closed to us – except by the miraculous power of God.

The truth is we too offend must see signs to determine if God is speaking or not – and those signs are actually in His Word and we have been told many times this is His desire.  Confidence in Him comes from our relationship with Him, based on His Word and the communication with Him through prayers.

There are many Christians who have that confidence, who step out when He tells them to, who witness to others as the Holy Spirit leads them – not asking if they are supposed to or not, they know because of that relationship with Him. 

My prayer, the desire of my heart is to have that kind of relationship with Him.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again