The children of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years, not because
that was how long it would take to get to the Promised Land - but because
they continually rebelled against God and were unfaithful to His commands!
When we read of the account, we find it hard to believe that they would
continually forget all the miraculous deeds the Lord did in bringing them
out of Egypt and providing for their needs in exile. How could one forget
all the plagues that came against Pharaoh? How could one forget how the
Lord parted the Red Sea? How could one forget the manna that God provided
each and every morning, to feed them while they were in the desert? But
wait...before we shake our heads and roll our eyes at their actions, maybe
we need to take inventory of our own lives. Could it be that we have
forgotten the glorious deeds that the Lord has performed in our lives?
Sometimes, people who have been walking with the Lord for a long while,
will forget the kind of person they were prior to God's grace and mercy
upon their lives. They can become self-righteous and arrogant - looking
down on those who are living a sinful lifestyle. And though the Lord does
not want us to remember our sins, He does want us to remember that,
"...while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)It is
when we, as believers, walk through dark valleys, unable to understand the
hurt, pain, and sorrow that surround us, when our world seems to be
falling apart and the Lord seems to be silent, that we need to remember
how the Lord has rescued us in that past. We need to remember all the
times that God intervened; answered our prayers; opened or closed a door;
and led us safely to the other side! When we determine to remember God's
glorious deeds from the past we can set our hope anew on God for the
future! And the more we remember what God has already done for us, the
more we will obey Him now - in the present, when our circumstances are
difficult and filled with temptation.As we enter into the holiday season,
I don't know what you might be going through, but I do know that God has
been faithful to you in the past, and will be faithful to you now and into
the future. May I encourage you to take time to remember all that He has done for you -
He has given you eternal life and adopted you into His family! He has
taken care of you and will continue to do so. Learn a lesson from the
children of Israel, and make sure you always remember what God has done!
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Pastor Dave,
I am quite certain you do not know who I am but I attended your church for over 15 years. We recently moved to Brea and we have been visiting several churches in the area and have not yet settled on one. My son is the high school pastor at Maranatha in Rancho Bernardo and is teaching the Sunday night service. We have been going down to hear him for the last several weeks. How it has blessed me in so many different ways. I soo miss your teaching however, and do catch you on the radio whenever I get the chance. I have been blogging for over a year now and when I saw that you had one, I listed you on my sidebar so that I would never miss one. I find it sooo interesting that you would post on this subject today. I have been (just on my own) going through the book of Exodus and reading everything you have written about here. I am obviously quite familiar with all of this, and yet have been amazed at how many times God hardened Pharoahs heart, and had come to the conclusion it was just so that His own people could see just how powerful and mighty He was over and over again. And yet they STILL harbored unbelief in their hearts as time went by. I am soo glad you pulled into perspective just how true this is of all us as well. The Lord did many, many things for me through this last year which was a very difficult one complete with breast cancer, but how faithful He was to me, and how many times He filled me with His peace, how patiently He walked me through every hard moment will always be remembered and looked back on as marks of God's faithfulness and great love. All those years of attending your church and sitting under your teaching and I never thanked you for your faithfulness in teaching God's word to us. How I appreciate it. Hope all is well with you. Blessings, Debbie Class
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