Tag Archives: Moses

Exodus 9:1-12 Hard and Growing Harder 11-23-14

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Exodus Studies Pic

©2003-2014
Fellowship
Life of Moses
Lesson 16 
Hard and Growing Harder…
Ex 9:1-12
(Orig. 3/16/3; Ed. 11/23/14)

Introduction…How hard or soft is your heart? If hard, why is it hard? Has something happened to you to make your heart hard? Do you know of someone you would consider as having a hard heart? Why might there heart be hard? What does it take to soften or break a human heart?

Why do you think that Pharaoh’s heart was so hard? Why would God need to additionally hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not release the children of Israel to go and celebrate a feast to Yahweh God? Continue reading →

Exodus 8:16-32 Lord of the Flies 11-16-14

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©2003-2014
Fellowship
Life of Moses
Lesson 15
Lord of the Flies…
Ex 8:16-32
(Orig. 3/9/3; 11.16.14)

Introduction…

Note: the lesson’s title is a word play borrowed from Golding’s dystopian novel Lord of the Flies. While it is not intended to as a reference to the Jewish term for Satan…Baalzebub…Lord of the Flies, paradoxically the religious leadership derogatorily refers to Jesus as the Lord of the Flies. See Mark 3:23 and Matt. 12:25ff.

Ever heard a child scream, cry and plead for a second chance? I promise I will never do it again! I promise! I promise! Please don’t make me sit in time out! Please don’t punish me! I will never ever ever again! You ever screamed or cried this out to God yourself? I promise, God, if you will answer this one request, I will never ask for anything again! And so the parent or God issues a reprieve…a stay of execution, and then what? No pain, no real repentance? Where is the fine line between manipulation and true repentance?

In this story, Pharaoh, the great ruler of Egypt, seems to be doing a great bit of seemingly disingenious whining and crying out to God or Moses to relent from his affliction onto the Egyptians of these back-to-back plagues.

Continue reading →

Exodus 8:1-5 Frogs in the Kitchen. 11-9-14

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Exodus Studies Pic

©2003
Fellowship Life of Moses
Lesson14 Frogs in the Kitchen…
Ex 8:1-15
(Orig. 3/2/3; Ed. 11.9.14)

Introduction…Ever experienced someone that said they were sorry, and then then did or said it again? Ever do it yourself? Ever said you would never do something like that again, and then turned around, perhaps, even in less than a day, and then changed your mind and did it again?

People seem to say or do things all the time, everyday, that they either regret or wish they could take back. It’s human nature. The mouth, and yes, the heart or feeling and emotion, can leap far ahead of the mind or better thinking. I mean, have you ever experienced that—being caught up in the moment, absolutely convinced or persuaded of your position, perhaps in an argument, perhaps persuaded about some fad or wave…I am on board. This is the real deal! This is the greatest thing since sliced bread! And then it turns out NOT to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.  And not just once, but repeatedly. I have known many people to do this again and again and again, and in fact, I would have to say, I am perhaps just as guilty. In fact, someone just told me last week that they never wanted to talk to me EVER AGAIN. Two days later, they were texting me, asking me if I would do a favor for them.

What is it about our souls or minds that produce this strange phenomena? Do you think this also happens in a negative way perhaps? Someone says their sorry, but after further reflection, they feel emboldened and rethink their previous apology and now want to take it back? Why? What allows us to do this? What would NOT allows us to do this, so that as both Jesus said and James wrote, let your yes be yes, and your no be no! (Matt. 5:37; James 5:12).  Continue reading →

Exodus 7:14-24 The Beginnings of Hard 11-2-14

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Exodus Studies Pic

©2003-2014
Fellowship @ Cross Creek
Life of Moses
Lesson 13: the Beginnings of Hard
Ex 7:14-24
Orig. 2/23/3; Ed. 11/2/14)

Introduction…How hard is hard? I mean how hard is hard? Really? Just go around the room and touch and feel a few things. What is hard, and not so hard? Why? What makes something more hard or less hard? Doesn’t it have something to do with molecular structure—a seemingly big word for order. How tight can you pack the molecules? The tighter the packing, the harder the substance. The looser the packing, the softer the substance, all the way to air. Try out water. Compare to a piece of wood, stone or metal. Now consider air. Pretty soft…

What about people? What about you? Would people say you are a hard person? Why? Been burnt by life or were you just raised or born that way? What about people that are too wiggly…and you can’t really depend upon them for anything?

So what kind of hard and soft are you talking about, Joe? Is there really a spiritual soft and hard? Oh, I think so, but not to man’s will and jive, but to God’s will and truth. So what does it mean to be soft or hard to God? What does this look like? I mean, really, deep down. Is it scary to be soft to God and his will? Is it scary NOT to be soft to God’s presence, truth and will?

Bottom line…just because someone is Pharaoh-like hard, really means nothing. Our job is to be obedient. God will do the breaking in his time. In the end, as I often say, you can bend, break or distort the truth. Oh you may think you can for a moment…or Satan’s great lie…but in the end, the truth always, always, always breaks you. So you can submit to it early and live, or submit late and be crushed. The choice is yours…pay God now or pay him later, but make no mistake about it, everyone pays. Why? Because you can’t change the truth. The truth is the truth, is the truth. Submit and live or submit and die, but the truth never ever changes.

Continue reading →

Exodus 6:28-7:13 A Divine Purpose, Resistance & Deliverance 10-26-14

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Exodus Studies Pic

©2003
Fellowship @ Cross Creek
Life of Moses
Lesson 12: A Divine Purpose, Resistance and Deliverance…
Ex 6:28-7:13
(Orig. 2.12.03; Ed. 10.26.14)

Introduction…How do you handle obstacles? Had one recently? Experienced a seemingly hard heart about something? What about your own heart? Can obstacles have a purpose? If so, what could that be? What’s the natural Spiritual solution to overcoming obstacles? Can or does the God of the Universe want to help you overcome the obstacles you might be facing in your life at this very moment. Of course, one needs to ponder the purpose one is trying to achieve in the first place? Is it or could it be of God? Or is it, your own? Secondly, even if it is of God, do you expect not only resistance or obstacles in accomplishing that purpose, but God’s deliverance as well? So if God calls you to a purpose, allows obstacles to seemingly block your way in accomplishing that good purpose and then finally, seeks to give you the deliverance over that obstacle, what might God be trying to teach you or all of us?

Continue reading →

Exodus 5:22-6:12 Now You Shall See! 10-19-14

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©2003-2014
Fellowship @ Cross Creek
Life of Moses
Lesson 11
Now You Shall See!
Exodus 5:22-6:12
(Orig. 2.9.3; ed. 10.19.14)

Introduction…Have you ever tried helping someone and when things didn’t go right just at first, the person you were trying to help turned on you and questioned your help in the first place? How does it make you feel? You want to quit, don’t you? If you don’t want my help, then forget it. But wait! Don’t things take some time to turn back around. You just can’t enter into a situation and think things are going to go well, day one. Sometimes they do, but you are taking your approach and trying to integrate it with a broken approach. It’s going to be a mess until you get the situation cleaned up a bit. So don’t be discouraged if your help is initially frowned upon, and don’t be so sensitive to criticism. Stick with the bigger picture. Be patient, and if you need God’s help, then ask him. That’s exactly what Moses must do in his divinely-inspired stewardship to intervene on behalf of God’s people. He will have to endure some initial setbacks, but God has his purposes. And he has his purposes in your efforts to help others as well. Be patient. Seek God. Continue reading →

Exodus 5:10-21Seeing the Momentary Inch Vs. the Divine Yardstick! 10-12-14

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©2003
Fellowship
Life of Moses
Lesson 10
Seeing the Momentary Inch Versus the Divine Yardstick!
Ex 5:10-21
10/12/14
 
Intro…Often times when we try to do something right, it is not as quickly rewarded as we might have hoped, especially when we have been doing a lot of bad things. It’s as if, we hoped that just because we decided to go straight in the moment, that God would stand up and applaud after years and years of sin and Spiritual neglect. I am not saying that God or heaven doesn’t applaud a genuine turning back to God and the truth, but, as I have stated previously, it seems that heaven has built in a delay between deed and consequence, both good and bad, and the reason for this might just be to flush out how genuine our repentance truly is. Is it for a moment or is it genuine, sustainable and lasting?
In this case, Moses and Aaron will do what God tells them to do, but in life’s momentary inch, it will appear things are going backward in God’s deliverance of Israel. Pharaoh refuses Israel’s appeal for either more straw or less bricks to make, with the result being that the Israelite foremen turning upon the effective cause of Pharaoh’s harsh response, Aaron and Moses and their request to Pharaoh to allow the Children of Israel to go out into the desert to enjoy a festival with their God, Yahweh.
With all this in mind, have you ever had an experience in which your attempt to do what was right or good seemed to initially backfire? Be willing to share this with your classmates? Why did it backfire, do you think? Did things ever turn back around? Or did you give up on attempting to do good?
A major, major life lesson is to learn to sustainably remain committed to doing the good versus succumbing to Evil’s pleasure and ridicule.
Series Introduction: You make a mistake…perhaps even a huge mistake; you think your life has changed forever–that there is no going back. In exile, you pasture your flock of sheep in an out-of-the-way desert valley. You see something strange in the distance. It’s a fire with an inextinguishable flame.
As you venture forth for a closer look, you experience something that changes your entire existence—you encounter God!
Out of all the people on the planet, God has chosen YOU to free and lead an exodus of a divinely-emancipated nation of over two million strong through a vast desert wasteland, with little food or water resources, to a land that is flowing with milk and honey and that was once given by God to your ancestors.
Impossible, you say? Ridiculous? Unless the God of Creation is the one doing the calling, as well as, the work of liberating and deliverance. Do you have the crazy faith to be obedient to this divine calling… to trust and to put one foot in front of the other no matter the costs?
I write all this to encourage all of you NOT to minimize what is about to take place in this, one of the great stories of human history. It is one of gargantuan proportions. And yet, our faith…your faith, born in heaven itself, is a faith of gargantuan implications. If God could do this with Moses, what might he still have planned for you? For us?
Pray
Read the Passage three times…
Ask questions…
10 Then the slave drivers and the foremen went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: `I will not give you any more straw.   
Now I am sure that was received with great joy!
11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.'”   
Instead of rejoicing over Moses and Aaron’s prophetic message of divine deliverance, the Israelites will be forced to choose between their faith in what God is about to do or minimizing their losses.
12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw.   
13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.”   
These are hard days…
14 The Israelite foremen appointed by Pharaoh’s slave drivers were beaten and were asked, “Why didn’t you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”   
What does Pharaoh think is going to happen? Is this a move to discredit Moses and Aaron?
15 Then the Israelite foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way?   
16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, `Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”   
17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are –lazy! That is why you keep saying, `Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’   
18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”   
So, on royal reprieve. Beware, Pharaoh, of pushing things too far.
19 The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.”   
20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them,   
21 and they said, “May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Was this Pharaoh’s objective? Regardless, it is the result.
Who’s? 
Where’s? 
When’s?  
What’s? 
• The Israelites are told that they must keep up their daily quota of brick making despite not being the necessary straw to give substance to or hold the wet mud required to make the bricks.
• So the people, being both perhaps frightened and resourceful, scatter out to scrounge for more straw to make their quota of bricks with.
• When the people fail to meet their daily brick making quotas, they appeal to Pharaoh for relief, but instead Pharaoh describes their wanting to go into the desert to worship their God as laziness and refuses their appeal for relief.
• Having received no relief from their harsh taskmaster, Pharaoh, the Israelite foreman now turn on the only logical source of their frustration, Moses and Aaron.
Summary…Perhaps and shrewdly, Pharaoh’s unmerciful response to the Israelites request to go out in the desert to offer sacrifices to their God, Yahweh, now causes the once receptive Israelites to turn on God’s messengers for having been the effective cause of Pharaoh’s harsh treatment of them.
Summary…At the moment, Israel’s plan to celebrate at feast in the desert to their God has seemed to backfire.
Bottom Line…The Children of Israel’s desire to worship God has precipitated not only persecution, but seemingly, in the moment, a step backwards in God’s plan for their deliverance.
Whys? What do I learn about God? Life? People? Myself? 
• We are so naïve, at least I am. I think one thing, or this is all that is involved in fixing a problem, but like an unforeseen money pit, one problem typically exposes many more underlying, but neglected flaws. It should be simple, right? God is on my side. Tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go out into the desert to worship, and of course Pharaoh says yes, and the world is wonderful. God exists. All is right with the world. God called me to worship. I worship, and therefore God is real, and my worship was rewarded or not in vain, not in question. But that’s not what happens at all. God calls me to do a task, and I do it—tell Pharaoh what God has told me to tell him—and then matters only become worse, not better. So is God still God? Does he really exist? Did he really talk to me? Was what I experienced in the desert real? If not, then why am I experiencing obstacles to his expressed will? Why is Pharaoh NOT cooperating? Doesn’t Pharaoh realize who he is dealing with? Does Pharaoh NOT realize the consequences of fighting God? Or why doesn’t God change Pharaoh’s heart? Why the obstacles? Fair question, but the answer is, our viewpoint is so limited. We see only the NOW…the brief. We see about an inch ahead of us on God or life’s ruler, when the ruler is much much longer, bigger and grander, perhaps NOT even twelve inches or a yard stick of life, but hundreds or billions of yardsticks. Bottom line, we cannot measure God only in the brief limited moment. While normal and human, it is utterly, from a longer-term Spiritual viewpoint… insane. And thus, the necessity of faith or trust in God’s decrees for the long term. Trust to last through not only the next inch or yard of life, but in the case of the Children of Israel and dating all the way back to their father Abraham, seven hundred years previous, thousands of yardsticks, looking both backward and forward…no doubt a tough thing to do…to, by faith, pull back and view yardsticks of life versus the inch or two that I am currently staring down–in this case, Pharaoh’s refusal to supply the Children of Israel straw to make bricks and yet require the same amount of bricks to be made as before when they were supplied straw for brick making. Fortunately, in this case, it will NOT be long, or in just a few, short divine inches, before Israel will see both the glory of God, as well as, his deliverance.
• As Pharaoh clearly demonstrates, some people are just jerks. Some people, for whatever reason are just hard and unmerciful.
• Man’s temptation to control perceived disorder…in this case…Israel’s request to take some time off from brick making to worship God as opposed to making more bricks…is to control more. By god, I will show you who is in charge because, to you, I am god. I will show you to challenge my will and authority.
• Man is so insecure. So frightened. So godless. All this seems so paradoxical. One approach to life is look inside insecure, threatened self for your own flawed godness, salvation and deliverance, and the other is, by faith, to seek or trust a divine, higher creative, original designing, and ever-present, loving and just power…God…to save me. Well, we all know how this story turns out. The man and kingdom which depends upon its own self or man-made gods is utterly wiped out, while the people, leadership and nation that thrusts itself on the mercy of God is born.
So What’s? (Prayerfully connect a specific personal struggle to one of the above truths or principles and be willing to share or confess it with the group.) 
2014 Application…
Thanksgiving…Much to be thankful for. Cards playing for the National League Championship…again…for the fourth time in four years. Rain is coming. Thanks, God. The fall rains have been gradually making their return, after a dry late summer and early fall. The weather is nice, although the storms are coming, and I have gotten do to some serendipitous, but provocative and powerful counseling this past week that involves drug abuse, boundaries, love and prodigals. It doesn’t get any better than this. Trial by fire. Life lived in the moment. Dependence upon God on what to do in the very next second, which makes for a very exhilarating and electric experience or dependence upon God in what to do next. Thank you, thank you, thank you, God.
Struggle…Trust…trust for finances, trust that as I am out there on the front lines dealing with sin…and seeking and obedience…God will take care of my rear…my supply lines. I am taking the fight to the enemy, will God protect my rear? Will he keep me supplied? It is a walk of faith. And if not, I choose no other battle, no other war, no other fight. My fight is against evil, do or die, sink or swim. There is no other life, no other calling, no other purpose. I will fight until I die. God, protect those I love and those around me that trust and follow my leadership. Honor their courage, their obedience, their faith, not in me, but in you. Make them strong, true and steady warriors in YOUR fight against evil. Amen.
Truth…that just because God calls you to do something big or small, heroic or not, requiring sacrifice or not, does not mean, that in the immediate future, or the next inch of life, that all will go positive. And that is okay. I can struggle. I can accept Pharaoh’s not only rejection, but his hardening and persecution. I don’t expect good to immediately come from good or confronting evil.  The battle is not just about the now, but the long term. Obedience, confidence, hope, faith, love, joy, perseverance in the now… until my role is complete within this divine drama or the good is sustainably achieved.
Application…Fight on. Fight on. If God chooses to protect my supplies line, so be it, and if not, for his glory, so be it. I will fight on. Hopefully, unlike Patton, who often was fully willing to advance so far and so fast that he risked his supply lines being cut, or as Sherman who lived off the land in his total war approach to war and his March to the Sea during the Civil War, I will NOT outrun my divinely-inspired supply lines, but I will fight. I must fight. God, supply your servant, as he wages war in your honor and for your glory.

 

Your struggle?
Principle/Prayerful application?
What about your students? What are some of their current struggles?
Which principles seem to relate?
How could God prayerfully apply these truths to their lives? (Just try a few in your preparation…then try leading the application in that direction. It may go another direction. Be sensitive to God’s leading among the group.)
Scripture quotations, unless noted otherwise, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version‚ NIV‚ Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.

Exodus 5:1-9 Let My People Go, Diablo! 10-5-14

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Exodus Studies Pic

©2003-2014
Fellowship
Life of Moses
Lesson 9
Let My People Go, Diablo!
Ex 5:1-9
(1.26.03; 10.5.14)

Intro…Let my people go! What a message! One that is still being proclaimed over 3400 years later! It is still being echoed in prayers and pulpits throughout the world, even as I write. Maybe not in those exact terms, but there are prayer warriors who daily intercede on behalf of God’s oppressed children, be that oppression economic or political; spiritual or physical; mental or emotional; marital, family, children or parents; job or employment-related; obvious injustice, drug-addiction, deception and denial, and a thousand other ways.

Let my people go! Let my people go, Diablo! They have been bought with a heavy price—the precious and powerful blood of God’s eternal lamb, the Son of God. Let my people go!

And yet the war drags on…the war between good and evil…God and Diablo…light and dark…It never ceases…It never goes to sleep…It never rests…Every second of every day in every corner of the planet.

And for whatever reason, God uses his saints to save other saints. He uses intercessions to intercede on behalf of those who need intercession. Perhaps to remind us that we do not fight this fight alone. We need each other. This is not a solo war.

If so…WHO are you fighting for? If people count…if lives matter…if you souls are important…who are you interceding for? Who are you bravely standing up to king of Egypt on behalf of, even if the king refuses to listen to your courageous intercession–Let my people go! Let my friend go! Let my family go! Let God’s saints go! Let my husband, wife, child, parent go! In the name of Jesus, let my loved one go, Diablo? Continue reading →

Ex 3:12ff “I am” 9-14-14

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©2003-2014
Fellowship
Life of Moses
Lesson 6
I AM
Ex 3:12ff
(Edited 9.14.14)

Introduction: You make a mistake, perhaps even a huge mistake; you think your life has changed forever–that there is no going back. In exile, you take the flock of sheep you shepherd and which you have been pasturing for the past forty years to an out-of-the-way desert valley that seems to symbolize your exiled existence. You see something strange in the distance—it’s a fire…a fire that refuses to die out. You decide to go over and take a closer look. As you draw closer to this inextinguishable flame, you experience something that will change your life forever—you experience the presence of God… God. Nothing will ever be the same again. Praise be to God.

What has just happened? The God of the universe has plucked YOU, out of all the people on the planet–a wandering, lonely, exiled, imperfect shepherd–to free an entire nation of over two million Spiritually straying sheep or human slaves from a much more greater nation that does NOT intend to just allow you to walk in and then just walk out of the door with two million slave workers, and then, once God has somehow empowered or used you to free these people, to now lead or shepherd them across a vast desert wasteland with little food or water resources to a land that is flowing with milk and honey…a land that only a few of their forefathers briefly occupied almost seven centuries before… and a land that is currently occupied by wicked people that have no intention of just handing, what they believe to be their land, back over to you.

Impossible, you say? Ridiculous? Sounds utterly insane, if you ask me, unless the God of Creation is the one doing the calling AND the work. Do you have the guts to be obedient, to trust, to put one foot in front of of the other… no matter what and no matter the price?

I write all this only to encourage all of you NOT to minimize what is about to take place here. This undertaking is of gargantuan proportions. And yet, our faith, born in heaven, is a faith of gargantuan implications. If God could do this with Moses, what might he still have planned for you?

Special Note: Notice that I AM WHO I AM as well as LORD  are in all caps in the NIV. Why is this? See note below*.

Exodus Moses_Angel

Pray

Context…

Ex. 3:1 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”

4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

5 Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. 8 So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

9 Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”

Read the Passage three times…

12 And God said, “I will be with you.
And this will be the sign to you
that it is I who have sent you:

When you have brought the people out of Egypt,
you will worship God on this mountain.”

Why does God say this? What just came before in the text? Moses’ doubts—albeit reasonable ones? How is this a sign—if we make it this far, then you know I was the one who did it and I was the one with you pulling off this incredible miracle?

13 Moses said to God,
“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them,
`The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’
and they ask me, `What is his name?’
Then what shall I tell them?”

Why is the name important? Did they not have a name for God before? What did they call him? What was their worship like? How did they distinguish it from all the other pagan religions and idol worship? What does the name signify to the Israelites?

14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.
This is what you are to say to the Israelites:
`I AM has sent me to you.’”

What does this mean? I don’t have a name or I don’t have to answer the question—“I am who I am”? That “I AM”? That “I exist”? That “I am not silent”? That I do communicate? That I do lead? That I am involved in the affairs of men? That I do intervene? That I do have a purpose? It is almost as if to say, “Before you did not know me real well, but now I am revealing myself very specifically…as I have done in creation, as I have done to your forefathers in promising them the land that I am about to take you back to…as I have done in building this nation of several million people out of one man, your father, Abraham.”

It is like Moses is supposed to say, “Guess what folks. He is alive. He does exist. And he is about to do something important. Something that will never be forgotten. A timeless event.”

15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites,
`The LORD, the God of your fathers
–the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob
–has sent me to you.’

This is my name forever,
the name by which I am to be remembered
from generation to generation.

Now he connects himself to their forefathers. In the previous verse it was his self-existence. Now it is that he has done business in the past with their forefathers. That they have a purpose. That this is no accident that they are slaves in Egypt. This was also a part of the plan. Now I have something else for you. We are about to take another step, just as each of us who knows and accepts God as our Savior has an integral part of the plan in God’s universal purpose.

*Special Note on LORD: The reason for this is that both phrases or words are one in the same. LORD in all caps becomes a substitute for I AM (or Yahweh, pronounced Yah-way, in Hebrew) for God’s personal name. That is why we call him LORD. When “Lord” is not in all caps, it is the Hebrew word for “master” (adonai).

Why LORD  for I AM? Good question. Because God’s personal name, I AM or Yahweh, was considered sacred and not to be taken in vain (Ex 20, one of the ten commandments), scribes substituted the vowels for “Lord or master” (adonai) underneath the consonants for the Yahweh (I AM) within the biblical text since there were no vowels to begin with (Jews did not need them; we did). Rabbi’s knew they were to substitute “adonai,” Lord, for “Yahweh,” I AM, thus not profaning the LORD’s name. But what we, later readers did was to come up with an entirely new word, one that did not really exist, one that combines the consonants of Yahweh with the vowels of adonai–Jehovah.

In fact, for the most part, I will seldom use it. It does not really exist. We have made it up. Either use LORD (Yahweh, I AM ) or  Lord (adonai, master or Lord).

So now you know why LORD is in all caps. Remember it stand for I AM or Yahweh, God’s personal name, just like my personal name is Joe or Joseph.

16  “Go, assemble the elders of Israel
and say to them,
`The LORD, the God of your fathers –
-the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—
appeared to me and said:
I have watched over you
and have seen what has been done
to you in Egypt.

Why does he restate this? (By the way the word for Lord here is the same word for I AM—Yahweh.) Why did Yahweh or I AM wait so long? Why did he allow the Israelites to suffer under a merciless king?

17 And I have promised to bring you
up out of your misery in Egypt
into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites
–a land flowing with milk and honey.’

When did he promise to do this? A long time ago? Who are all these people? Good or bad? Why milk and honey? Prosperity? What was the big deal about milk and honey? Were these luxuries? What did this say about the land? Why would these other peoples who were there share or give it up? This doesn’t sound fair. Sounds kind of like today with respect to the Palestinians being displaced and wanting a land of their own? Sounds like some things never change. And yet this has not always been the case. The Jews have only really been back in the land for the last 50-100 years. Before that it was occupied by many different people, including Muslims, Arabs, Christians and yes some Jews. After the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Romans, the Jewish people for the most part have been displaced and wandering.

18  “The elders of Israel will listen to you.
Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt
and say to him, `The LORD, the God of the Hebrews,
has met with us.
Let us take a three-day journey into the desert
to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’

How far will a three-day journey take them? To this mountain? Why will the king of Egypt let them go? What will he use for slaves to build his storehouses?

19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go
unless a mighty hand compels him.

20 So I will stretch out my hand
and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders
that I will perform among them.
After that, he will let you go.

21  “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed
toward this people,
so that when you leave
you will not go empty-handed.

22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman
living in her house
for articles of silver and gold and for clothing,
which you will put on your sons and daughters.
And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”

Jewish women? Why would they have Egyptian women living in their home?

NT; (c) Kingston Lacy; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

Ask questions…

Whos? God, I , you, the people, Moses, Israelites, your fathers, me, I AM WHO I AM, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, generation to generation, elders of Israel, Lord, the God of your fathers, Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, king of Egypt, Hebrews, Lord our God, the Egyptians, every woman, her neighbor, any woman living in her house

Wheres? with you, out of Egypt, on this mountain, to you, to you, to you, in Egypt, the land of Canaanites…, into the desert, in her house

Whens? When you have brought the people out of Egypt, then what shall I say, forever, from generation to generation, then you and the elders, three-day journey, will (future), when you leave

Whats?

(Review) Bottom line…vv. 1-11  God calls Moses for the mission of his life—to deliver the people of Israel from Egypt and to take them back to the land, which was promised to their forefathers.

Summary…vv. 12-22

• God tells Moses he will be with him in answer to his question of v. 11 “Who am I to do such a momentous task?”.

• God gives Moses a sign, you will come back to worship at this same mountain with the entire nation.

• Moses’ ask by what name (or authority) is he to lead the Israelites?

• God answers, “I AM WHO I AM.”

• God also answers that the I AM (LORD) of their forefathers is sending Moses..

• God also tells Moses that this is the name that he is to be forever remembered by.

• God also tells Moses to tell the assembled elders that God has seen their plight within Egypt.

• God also tells Moses to tell them that he has promised to return them to their  rich Promised Land.

• God also tells Moses that the elders will listen, and that they are to go together to the king of Egypt and ask to leave on a three-day journey into the desert to sacrifice to their God.

• He also knows that Pharaoh will not let them leave unless compelled to by force.

• So God will compel the king of Egypt to release them via his mighty miracles.

• He will also make the Egyptians favorably disposed to the Israelites when they leave so they will not go empty-handed.

Summary….God not only answers Moses’ question that he will be with him to help him accomplish the mission God has given him, he tells him his eternal name and gives him the message he is to take of freedom for the Israelites from the hand of the Egyptians via God’s mighty hand. They will also not leave empty-handed.

Bottom line… I AM WHO I AM will accomplish this great miracle of releasing the Israelites from the Egyptians, now fully supplied for their journey back to their rich ancestral Promised Land.

Whys? What do I learn about God? Life? People? Myself?

• God is with his servants for the tasks he has given them. He does not leave them alone.

• He is also not ignorant of his people’s plight.

• As demonstrated in his name, God is eternally self-existent. He has always existed and always will. He has no beginning and no end. He exists outside of time and space.

• He is involved in the affairs of man; in fact, he has plans for man.

• He desires to bless us and to bring us to his rich Promise Land, and, if not fully here, then certainly in heaven.

• God is more powerful than man. Man ultimately changes, as Pharaoh will do, because of God’s power and intervention.

• God wonderfully provides for his people or children. He does not send us out upon our long journey empty-handed.

• Our hope, or salvation…everyone’s hope and salvation is to trust and worship God.

So What’s? (Prayerfully connect a specific personal struggle to one of the above truths or principles and be willing to share or confess it with the group.)

2002 Application…

This week’s struggle: Getting ready for my message on Sunday. I was becoming burnt out just before Christmas. After Scrooge, I had pretty much shot my wad, so I got a late start for the next Sunday.

We survived and got the message across:

Just as no one could have predicted the destinies of Bethlehem and Jerusalem…that one village (Bethlehem) which lived in the shadow of the other (Jerusalem) would be exalted in such a manner that it was chosen as the Messiah’s birthplace, while the other (Jerusalem) would fall, having been completely destroyed by the Babylonians (as predicted in Micah 5)…we DON’T KNOW our futures!

Therefore don’t compare  your life situation to another’s, especially at Christmas time with all the accompanying travel plans, decorating, gift-giving and family pressures etc.

But while the idea was good, apparently I felt I did a poor job of execution because I was not as prepared as I needed to be. I was just hanging on by the skin of my teeth and fatigued for whatever reason.

I would like to do a better job this Sunday. God has called me to this task, whether I feel adequate or not, and quite often I do not. The pressure to not waste people’s time or bore them or to exalt the Word and my Father to others does build from time to time.

Enough of my whining.

Principle/Application:  God will be with me this weekend as I finish preparing for Sunday. He desires to richly provide for me and not leave me empty-handed. I have gotten a good jump on the passage. It is now the finishing up–the editing and presentation parts that usually cause me pressure and fear. Therefore, I will trust I AM WHO I AM, Creator Sovereign of the Universe. If he can create this incredible planet and universe with all its order and diversity, certainly he can help continue to perfect my craft, no matter how handicapped and inadequate I feel in the final presentation portions of my teaching. I can and will trust him for the applications/illustrations, their arrangement and development within the teaching.

This also can carry over into finishing building the church, as well as, seeking to lead the church towards the task of increasing staff and ultimately putting into print many of these ideas and basic fundamentals I seem to keep pounding from the pulpit, such as “Rekindling Relationships”, “Bible Study Methods”, and the “Purpose of a Church.”

So just take a deep breath and go in the name of I AM, and by putting one foot in front of the I will go back to Egypt and do the seemingly impossible…the difficult.

Your Son, LORD

2014 Thoughts… Wow! While those previous paragraphs are pretty much par for the course…I mean I could have said that about last Sunday, that next to the last paragraph was a bit humbling. We did finish the church; staff was increased, and then we went backward staff-wise and with new help, 12 years later, I am taking another run at putting these “fundamentals” into print. What can I say? Some things are more difficult than we think, and life often has us taking two steps back, after our three steps forward. I guess the real question is: Do we quit? Do we give up…when things don’t initially work out as we had hoped? And the answer is…Of course not, if it is of God. And in fact, as it will turn out, even after Moses does leave Egypt with Israel, because of Israel’s foolish choices, the Children of Israel, with their earthly shepherd, Moses, will spend forty years delayed in the desert. Could this have happened to Fellowship, not once, but twice? It would certainly seem so. Are we getting closer each time? I think so. Is this the norm? Oh, I think very much so. We battle fickle, sinful human nature. And human nature, like a deadly cancer is often seldom fully cured. In other words, it comes back. As they say, it only takes one cell. And yet this is the call of God, and somehow in all the madness, the Ships occur and Spiritual Growth occurs. So let’s not get so hung up on the achieving of a goal, as the process of pursuing the goal, because ultimately our goal is Spiritual Growth and God, it would seem, has his own unique ways of bringing this about, despite our flawed attempts to fulfill this same goal in our own very-much flawed human understanding and power.

Your struggle?

Principle?

Prayerful application?

What about your students? What are some of their current struggles?

Which principles seem to relate?

How could God prayerfully apply these truths to their lives? (Just try a few in your preparation…then try leading the application in that direction. It may go another direction. Be sensitive to God’s leading among the group.)

Scripture quotations, unless noted otherwise, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version‚ NIV‚ Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.

Exodus 3:1-10 Who am I? 8-31-14

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Exodus Studies Pic

©2002
Fellowship
Life of Moses
Lesson 5: Who Am I?
Ex 3:1-10
12/8/2 (Update: 8/31/14)

Introduction: You make a mistake; you think your life has changed forever; that there is no going back. In exile, you take your flock of sheep, which you have been pasturing for the past forty years, to an out-of-the-way desert valley that seems to symbolize your life. You see a fire in the distance that refuses to die down. You decide to take a closer look. As you draw closer to the inextinguishable flame, suddenly your life changes forever…

Ever had that feeling or that gnawing, Spiritual sensation that God might be calling or beckoning you or urging you to do more…step out into the deeper waters…above your head…not feet touching the ground…floating…resting…treading water…looking up into the heavens…laying on your back…and looking up at the sky above you…floating…in water above your head. Scary feeling, taking such a risk, isn’t it? Scary feeling, climbing out of the boat to walk to Jesus? This is NOT supposed to be done. This is impossible! Man! Are you kidding? With my inadequacies? No way. Easier to stay safe. Easier to hide. Let others take the risks. Safety means elimination of failure, costs or consequences.

But if there are no risks, how does one ever truly learn to rest, trust or depend upon God, and therefore see his power and experience his provision? No risk; no God, or certainly NOT MUCH GOD! Risk, and much God…a lot of God! Why? Because we need him. Little risk and little need! What a boring, non or little-Spiritual existence? Why? So I can watch the next TV show? So I can ease into retirement? Are you kidding me? This is life? This is God? This is the Spiritual? Where there is God, there are risks. Where there is God, there is trust. Trusting God building huge Spiritual muscles—muscles that God can use to move mountains, or if need be, lead three million people out of national bondage, through a desert wilderness and eventually into a land of their own. Seem impossible. Well, it was done, and God used someone who said, “Who am I?” His name was Moses…

Pray
Read the Passage three times…
Ask questions…

Exod. 3:1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro
his father-in-law,
the priest of Midian,
and he led the flock to the far side of the desert
and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Exodus Moses_Angel

Was his father-in-law “the priest” of Midian, like the big dog? Did Moses just luck out here when he rescued his daughters at the well? Where is Midian? Kind of southeast of the Promised Land and the Dead Sea? So if he goes to the far side of the desert does he go closer to Egypt to the south of Sinai? (I just watched a movie on Lawrence of Arabia, which is a biography of a British soldier who galvanized the Bedouins Arabs into a fighting force against the German allies, the Turks, during WWI. When Lawrence crosses the Sinai peninsula from Aqaba, Saudi Arabia to Cairo, Egypt, a journey of a couple of hundred miles, his journey is a life-threatening one through the desert.)

Why is the mountain called Horeb? Is this the same mountain called Sinai that Israel will return to and receive the Law? Why was this called the mountain of God? Because this is where God met with Moses and later his people? Why this mountain? Why a mountain at all? What was special about this place? Do we know which mountain this is today?

How did his flock handle the journey? Why did he make the journey? Was there water or grass there? How many sheep? Did Moses have help? Is this forty years after he had first arrived in Midian? Had he been there before?

2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him
in flames of fire from within a bush.
Moses saw that though the bush was on fire
it did not burn up.

Note it says, the angel of the Lord, not the Lord. Did God or the preincarnate (preflesh) Christ or second person of the Trinity appear in the form of an angel in order to be present with his people? Did he look like an angel? Or was this an angel, such as Gabriel? Why flames of fire? Why a bush? How large a fire? How large a bush? How did it not burn up? How long did he see it? How far away was he when he saw it?

3 So Moses thought,
“I will go over and see this strange sight
–why the bush does not burn up.”

It must have burned for a while.

4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look,
God called to him from within the bush,
“Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”

Why does it say, “gone over” instead of “come over” like the Lord is watching from a distance instead of from inside the bush? Then it changes to God versus the angel of the Lord. Do we have two different persons of the Godhead being referred to here, the Father and the Son? God and the angel of the Lord? Why does he say his name twice?

5 “Do not come any closer,” God said.
“Take off your sandals,
for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Why was this holy ground? What is holy ground? Ground belonging to God? Was he trying to inform Moses that he was in the presence of God and therefore the ground was different, like being in heaven at the throne of God? Why does one take off shoes or sandals out of reverence for God?

6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,
the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob.”
At this, Moses hid his face,
because he was afraid to look at God.

Who did he think was talking to him before this? What if he had not hid his face, what would have happened?

7 The LORD said,
“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.
I have heard them crying out
because of their slave drivers,
and I am concerned about their suffering.

Now he shifts back to LORD or Yahweh.

8 So I have come down to rescue them
from the hand of the Egyptians
and to bring them up out of that land
into a good and spacious land,
a land flowing with milk and honey
–the home of the Canaanites,
Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites,
Hivites and Jebusites.

Come down from heaven? Why was it flowing with milk and honey? Livestock and bees?

9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me,
and I have seen the way the Egyptians
are oppressing them.

10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh
to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Moses has got to be freaking out. Me? But I am the guy with a price on his head? Me?

11 But Moses said to God,
“Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh
and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Whos? Moses, Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, God, angel of the Lord, the Lord, your father, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, my people, their slave drivers, the Egyptians, Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, Pharaoh, Israelites

Wheres? to the far side of the desert, Horeb, the mountain of God, there, in flames, within the bush, over, within the bush, Here I am, closer, where you are standing, in Egypt, come down, up out of the land into a good and spacious land, the home of…., to Pharaoh, out of Egypt

Whens? Now, when the Lord saw, then he said, at this, and now, so now

Whats?

• Moses takes his flock to Horeb, where he sees a bush that does not burn up, though it is on fire.

• When Moses goes over to see the strange sight, God calls to Moses from the burning bush and tells him to not come any closer and to take off his sandals. He is on sacred ground.

• God goes on to identify himself—he is the God of Moses’ fathers.

• When Moses learns who is speaking to him, he hides his face out of fear of death for having looked upon the face of God.

• God tells him that he has seen the misery of his people, Israel, and has come down to rescue them and to deliver them to their Promised Land.

• He goes on to tell Moses that he intends to use Moses to accomplish this objective. Moses is to go to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

• Moses responds, “Yeah, right! Me?”

Summary…God uses an undying flame to gain Moses attention; He tells him to respect the ground he is standing on; He identifies himself; He tells him that he knows of his people’s suffering; that he has come to rescue them and deliver them to another land, and that Moses is to go to Pharaoh to accomplish all of this.

Moses is incredulous that God has chosen him for this task.

Bottom line…Moses reacts with incredulity that God has called him to deliver and lead Israel out Egyptian bondage and back into his ancestor’s promised lands.

Whys? What do I learn about God? Life? People? Myself?

• You never know when God may want to call you or get your attention.

• He may use the strangest things to get our attention, even a bush that doesn’t burn up.

• You never know where God may want to get our attention; in this case, it was in the middle of the desert, while shepherding a flock of sheep.

• God can do anything; even cause a bush to burn, but not burn up.

• God’s presence is holy.

• God knows our suffering and pain.

• God has his own time table for accomplishing his will and/or deliverance.

• It would seem that most of us would doubt a divine calling to accomplish the seemingly impossible. Not just because of whether the calling is real or not, but our own abilities. Only great people do such things. But in this case, that is God’s point—I will bring about Israel’s deliverance…you are just the tool…not that Moses doesn’t have talent or natural leadership abilities that need to be trained and refined—talents, skills and abilities that no doubt he will need to accomplish such a mammoth undertaking. And yet, as is the case with everything, including a person’s natural talents, without God, without biblical, Spiritual and moral constraints to the task or tasks we attempt, there seems to be a certain lostness or even emptiness to the task. I am not saying that God doesn’t or can’t use what some would refer to as secular, if there is in all reality, such a thing, which I am not sure there is. But what I am suggesting is that when we do life or something, whatever it is with God, there is something different, something special, something incarnate, something meaningful or purposeful, beyond the seemingly mundane. I suppose we can do things, knowingly or cooperatively, with God or unknowingly or uncooperatively with God.

The choice is ours. “With me…without me…with me…without me…with me…without me….” Tom Cruise’ character, super agent, Roy Miller (Matthew Knight) in the spy thriller, Knight and Day, informing Cameron Diaz’s character, June Havens, concerning her chances of survival. With me…good…without me…not good.

So What’s? (Prayerfully connect a specific personal struggle to one of the above truths or principles and be willing to share or confess it with the group.)

A Look Back in Time (2002)…

Update: Neil tells me that the nighttime temp needs to be above 50 degrees or my grass probably won’t grow. But maybe that’s a blessing because there are still a lot of rocks in that ground. I looked it up on the Internet, and one study I read suggested cool season grasses, such as perennial rye, should be planted by the end of October, so maybe Neil is right.

(2014: I can’t remember how all this developed. I know today, I have warm-season Bermuda grass planted there because there are no trees. In fact, because of the recent drought and severe temperatures, I have been watering my hybrid Bermuda grass. So my guess is I waited to plant Bermuda until the next summer—the planting season for warm-season grasses.)

Oh well, I tried to “save my child via a papyrus basket,” but sometimes our best is not good enough. I am doing this by myself, and while I attempt to seek out the expert advice, it still does not work. I don’t regret having done the work. At least is was something. And perhaps it was another learning experience—just ask Shan about his $20 rick of wood that ultimately cost him 20 times that (on second thought, I wouldn’t ask him). Sometimes our best intentions are just not good enough. Hopefully we learn from it.

With respect to Amanda, we had a talk this evening. This basketball season may close her athletic career for now. She is thinking about dance for next year. I told her I was fine with dance, but my only warning to her was to be careful trying to find something you are good at for your identity. Maybe she will be a good dancer and maybe she will not.

(2014: On a funny note: I don’t remember much about this, but I do remember her taking some belly dance classes, and I think today, many years later, she can still roll her belly.)

She told me God had created her for a purpose, but she had just not found out what that was yet. I told her that her mother and I did not find our current niches until our early to mid-twenties. And the verdict is still out how well we do them.

I also reminded her that her identity is in Christ. Her value in Christ remains constant. The value of what we do changes with time and perception. Just ask Kurt Warner, QB for the St. Louis Rams football team. Less than a year ago he won his second league’s MVP trophy in three years and barely lost the Super Bowl on a last-second FG by the Patriots. Now he can’t hold on to the ball, buy a win, and many in St. Louis are having second thoughts about last year’s best player remaining as their quarterback. Life is fickle.

Whether you are good at something or not, to remain good at it or to become better, ultimately requires extra work, dedication and sacrifice—a delay of one’s gratification…work first, play second—be it dance, softball, marriage, parenting, etc. Life is not all about fun. Often times it requires the simple drudgery of doing something again and again and again.

This week’s (2002) struggle: I don’t like how our debt keeps edging upward. It is not a net debt, I would just have to liquidate stocks and IRA’s to pay it off, which as many know, now is not the best time to do so when the market is so far down. Still, every month we go further in the hole. I want to cut up the credit card and only pay for what we can pay for with the debit card, then begin to pay down on our debt.

(2014: I think we eventually got out of debt, and we don’t use credit cards anymore, but in recent years we did have to use our home equity loan which was for housing improvements to pay for lapses in salary. And while I don’t like this, if we had to, we could liquidate some capital on order to pay it off or just refinance our house to a fixed rate mortgage. So in essence, when the economy was down, we were able to pull out some of our home’s equity to make it by.)

Principles: God knows our suffering and has his own timetable for our deliverance.

Prayerful application: Tend your flock, Joe, even if means taking them to the ignoble and dry desert, because you never know when God may call you to something special. And even if he calls you to that something special, it will not be a picnic. Be faithful. Enjoy your life. Don’t panic. Stay the course. God knows my destiny. God knows my future. God will bless me in his time. For now, just remain faithful. Don’t seek to escape the pain. Instead live with it via his strength and might.

2014 Application…

Thanksgiving…

A lot of good ministry going on both personally and strategically within the church. NOT perfect, by any means, but there is still life; there is still integrity; there is still fight; there is still that comittment to Christ and truth…the Rock exists. This past week, I was able to divide our Learning Center’s minitry labors, manangement and direction up among my current LC coordinator and another gal. One will take 3rd-8th and the other 2nd grade and below, and since both these gals are busy moms and do this purely as a ministry, this is a huge relief. On the other hand, apparently our high school situation, I am finding out, does NOT appear to be the healthiest, but one of our former students who is back in the area after college is willing to help, so hopefully, there is a shot in the arm there.

Application…

In addition, our Back to School Water Bash went great on Sunday! With Shelly’s help, we continue to make progress on transforming Sustainable Love into something publishable. The Story of Sin via John’s Gospel continues to explode into wonderful truth before my eyes. Things are happening, I guess is what I am saying. A nice, little tenuous momentum. I say tenuous because you never know, but I do think it is time to challenge our body. I think they need a challenge, a purpose, a vision…a direction. They seem hungry and looking for what is next Spiritually, and I think I know what is next—purpose in depth of relationship, ministry and discipleship…the risk to be shepherds. Not much different that Moses here. Certainly mature enough, but just needing that extra Spiritual something, push, challenge, vision, motivation…etc. The risk to go deeper; to be leaders; to risk the extra mile; to ask the tougher questions; to pray (as one my Spiritual daughters suggested the other day) with expectation.

NT; (c) Kingston Lacy; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

Moses and the Burning Bush by Pedro Orrente

Father, give me the words…give the match…to light a generation of Spiritual Moseses….

Your servant,
jc

Your struggle?

Principle?

Prayerful application?

What about your students? What are some of their current struggles?

Which principles seem to relate?

How could God prayerfully apply these truths to their lives? (Just try a few in your preparation…then try leading the application in that direction. It may go another direction. Be sensitive to God’s leading among the group.)

Scripture quotations, unless noted otherwise, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version‚ NIV‚ Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.