- araratchurch
- Apr 10
- 4 min read
“Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.””
Exodus 16:8 NKJV
In April of 2019 our family was called “out onto the water with Jesus” to leave a church with which I had been associated all my life, and in which my whole family had ministered for decades, to start the work of the Lord known as “Ararat Church.”
We then left all we had known at the end of July 2019, with the first service of Ararat Church being on September 1, 2019 (to the glory of God!). I start with this information because it is within this time period that what I am about to share with you happened.
Not long after beginning Ararat Church, I was in my kitchen working and my mind went back to different things people had done—within and after the time of our leaving to go out onto the water with Jesus—things that made no sense in my mind and my heart, things over which I felt hurt.
Interrupting that flow of thought, the Lord spoke to me as clearly as He has ever spoken to me about anything. He said, “That is offensive to Me.” Well, that statement got my attention; then the Lord went on to tell me something that I will put in my own words.
The Lord basically told me that my thinking about what other people had done to wrong me, was actually an accusation against Him! After all, we were doing what we were doing because God had brought it to pass. Therefore, my complaints were—although inadvertently—against the Lord.
I know we try to make a distinction between our complaints about what people have done to us as opposed to complaining about what God has done. But, make no mistake, if we are walking in the will of God, then everything that happens to us is being used by Him for a purpose.
Now, this does not rid anyone of their personal responsibility for anything they have done out of bad motives to the children of God. But, that aspect of our situation—their judgment—has to be left to the Lord.
Consider Joseph: His brothers sold him into slavery because of their jealousy of him. But that action on their part set in motion events resulting in Joseph becoming the right hand man of Pharaoh. (But not before he was also falsely accused and imprisoned.)
Think of it, Joseph’s brothers, fully meant to do him harm. They were wrong in doing what they did. However, Joseph, when encountering them years later, was able to say this to them:
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present outcome, that many people would be kept alive [as they are this day].”
Genesis 50:20 AMP
Indeed, the Lord had used all of this to save the children of Israel from dying during the great famine.
Sometimes we want to have it both ways. In other words, we want to enjoy the place God has put us, but complain about the things anybody has ever done against us, or any other thing we didn’t like along the way.
However, in God’s economy, it just doesn’t work that way. Any accusations made concerning our plight, ultimately point to our Father Who has allowed us to be where we are.
Today we find Moses dealing with an irate multitude who were accusing Moses and Aaron of bringing them out into the desert to die.
But the fact is—and as they had clearly seen in the miracles to this point—the Lord was the One Who brought them out of Egypt. Therefore, their complaint was ultimately against Him.
Additionally, this tendency toward complaining against the Lord, would get them in more and more trouble along the way.
Don’t misunderstand, the Lord does not mind us telling Him of our situation, even of the fact that people have done us wrong, or that we are experiencing pain, discomfort, sorrow, any of our concerns. He wants us to share our heart with Him.
But, it’s a different issue entirely, when we have allowed bitterness of soul to fester within us, flowing out into bitter thoughts about what this one or that one has done, or how sad it is that we’re having to experience this or that.
On the one hand, we are letting our needs be known to the Lord; but on the other, we are accusing the Lord of dealing with us unjustly. Now, it may not feel like that is what we’re doing. But believe me, He made clear to me that that is exactly how He sees it.
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
Complaining against the Lord is not a good idea.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Apr 9
- 3 min read
“You will bring them in and plant them In the mountain of Your inheritance, In the place, O Lord, which You have made For Your own dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.”
Exodus 15:17 NKJV
The scenario is ubiquitous: a relative who has been neglected—basically ignored by some relatives—becomes “very dear” to a suddenly appearing relative as they near death or are deceased. So what’s going on here? Sad to say, many times the motivation is one of greed. They want to get “their part” of an inheritance.
I was at a funeral a while back where—after the funeral had gotten started—a small group of individuals walked from the back of the chapel to sit at the very front, deliberately making a very obvious entrance. As it turns out, these people happened to be the deceased person’s children from another mother, about which the family of record was clueless. They had come to stake their claim.
In another case, a woman on her deathbed, watched as one of her adult children hid things under their clothing to sneak out before she died and things were divided up. The child did not know that she saw this happening, but she did; and it broke her heart as she was dying.
Inheritance is a part of life. Some see it as an entitlement, others as a privilege. But it’s safe to say that many people hope for a good inheritance. Perhaps more should hope to leave a good inheritance. And, even though money is useful, a good inheritance concerns much more than money.
Did you know that when the children of Israel were being allotted portions of the Promised Land, the Levites received no property? Now, don’t feel sorry for them; they had a much better inheritance:
“The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them.”
Deuteronomy 18:1-2 NKJV
Wow! THE LORD was to be their inheritance! But wait a minute, what about us? Could we hope for the Lord to be OUR inheritance? Before answering that question, let me present a scripture to you:
“Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.”
Psalms 2:1-8 NKJV
Who is being referenced in this Psalm? We know that this turns out to be a prophetic word concerning what God would do through Jesus Christ. But what about the inheritance? Why does Jesus—being God in flesh—need an inheritance? The answer is: Jesus did not need an inheritance; but we did. To explain, having lost our inherited power over God‘s creation (through Sin), the Lord took on flesh and—through His work—secured an inheritance FOR US! Now, that ought to make you do a happy dance!
Today we find Moses referencing the fact that the Lord has provided His people with the mountain of His inheritance.
Now, we know that there was an allusion here to Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. But, as we discovered yesterday (in terms of a prophetic word looking forward), we also see here a prophetic reference to the eternal inheritance bought back for us through the Person, Jesus Christ.
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
The Lord is our inheritance.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Apr 8
- 4 min read
40 “You in Your mercy have led forth The people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength To Your holy habitation.”
Exodus 15:13 NKJV
I think one of the saddest things about elderly people who have dementia, or other types of memory loss, is the fact that they no longer feel at home where they are living. Even those who are still in their actual home come to feel that they are in a strange place and desire to go where they feel at ease. They want to go “home.” Sadly, there is no place on earth they will ever feel “at home” again.
I had a dear family member who-although still living in the home in which they had lived for the last 40 years—no longer felt comfortable in their surroundings and repeatedly expressed the desire to go home.
We’ve all heard the expression, “There’s no place like home.” Indeed, we all have an inward desire to be somewhere we belong, somewhere that is ours, somewhere that is safe, somewhere we call home.
But, even for those of us who are blessed to be in our right mind and have a physical dwelling, at times, on a deeper level, we still yearn for more.
Of course, as Christians, we know what that “more” is we seek: to be in the presence of the Lord. The Psalmist David expressed it like this:
“One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.”
Psalms 27:4-5 NKJV
You see, we were created to be in fellowship with the Lord, to share a home with Him. However, Sin came, driving us out of the home God had created just for us.
“So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Genesis 3:23-24 NLT
But, like the Prodigal’s father, God welcomes home those who repent and return to Him.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”
Luke 15:17-20 NKJV
Indeed, because of the work of Jesus, even now, we have access to the Spirit of God, providing a foretaste of what is to come, while we yet wait for the day when we will forever dwell in His presence.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
John 14:1-3 NKJV
Can you wrap your mind around the fact that the God Man, the King of kings and Lord of lords, has gone to prepare a special place just for us? Oh, what a wonderful home awaits us with the Lord!
Today we find Moses expressing the fact that the Lord leads us to His holy habitation. Now, we know that this was, in part, an allusion to the Promised Land to which the Lord led His people over the course of those 40 years.
But, far beyond seeing an earthly home, Moses also looked over the ages and saw an eternal habitation to which the Lord would lead us.
Interestingly, Psalm 91 (with which most Christians are familiar) is actually thought to have been written by Moses, or written by David from Moses’ words. It begins like this:
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
Psalms 91:1 NKJV
It’s not far-fetched to believe that these are Moses’ words, given what he wrote in Psalm 90:
“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
Psalms 90:1 NKJV
Yes, the truth is, the House of the Lord has always been our intended home. Thanks be to God that He didn’t allow the separation of Sin to remain, leaving us forever lost.
And—while we now share a wonderful foretaste of His awesome presence—we look to the day when we will dwell in the Lord’s house FOREVER!
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
The Lord wants us to live with Him forever.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!