- araratchurch
- Jul 26, 2022
- 3 min read
“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 again. They want to go home. 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 we call home.
But, even for those of us who are blessed to have a dwelling that is our home, at times, on a deeper level, we still yearn for more. Now, the Christian knows what that “more” is we seek; it is to be in the presence of the Lord. The Psalmist 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. Sin came and made us like the Prodigal who Jesus referenced in His parable.
“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
Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, He has welcomed us home! Even now we have access to the Spirit of God and we look to 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? What a wonderful home awaits us with the Lord!
Additionally, although we look for that eternal home with the Lord, even now—in having access to His presence—we are afforded a wonderful foretaste of the comfort of His home.
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 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 Lord has always been our home. Thank God He didn’t allow the separation of Sin to remain! And—while we share a wonderful foretaste of His awesome presence—we look to the day when we will dwell in His house forever.
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
The Lord wants us to live with Him.
Day 27 with Moses: We should pay no attention to the boasting, mocking, and threatening of the enemy
- araratchurch
- Jul 26, 2022
- 3 min read
“The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, My hand shall destroy them.’ You blew with Your wind, The sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters.”
Exodus 15:9-10 NKJV
Before I was born there was a time when my father was working as a young evangelist, going from place to place, preaching the word of the Lord and praying for people. On one occasion he was trying to make it from one place to another by driving all night. His exhaustion got the better of him and he nodded off while driving a car in which was also my mother and my sister (who was just a baby). My father woke to find himself having run head on into the abutment of a bridge. My sister had been thrown against the windshield and was laying on the hood of the car. My mother was unconscious, having taken the blow of the impact with her mouth against the dashboard. As my father was trying to gather his strength he audibly heard the devil laughing and saying, “Look at you. You’ve prayed for all these people and now you have no one to pray for you.” The rest of that story is that the local paper reported the accident as having killed three people. But God had miraculously brought a man by on that dark, lonely road in West Virginia, who had gotten help for them. By the grace of God they all lived to tell the story. And—by the way—over the next several months they heard from people who had been awakened in the middle of the night to pray for them.
I have never heard the voice of the enemy audibly, but I have heard, in my spirit, all kinds of threats from him; and I imagine you have as well.
Whether the enemy speaks directly into your spirit or uses the mouth of others to mock, threaten, or boast against you, you know how it feels to be in a tight spot made worse by the trash talk of the enemy.
“My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?”
Psalms 42:3 NKJV
The Psalmist here is expressing the pain of the mocking of people who are against you. Indeed, our Lord was subjected to the scorn of His enemies as He hung as a bloody mass on that rugged cross:
“And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.”
Matthew 27:39-44 NKJV
Now we know how that story ended: Jesus rose in power and victory, the victory that has made all the difference for us.
But—the fact is—we hate hearing our enemy’s taunting. Truth be told, we want the Lord to shut them up. Now, that might not happen on our time schedule; but make no mistake, He will shut every mouth that has risen up in judgment, ridicule, mocking, threatenings, and so on against His people.
Today we find Moses praising the Lord for having brought an end to those who had boasted against the children of God. As a matter of fact, the very thing they were threatening to do to the Israelites, happened to them.
Remember this: the word of God is true; and His ability to help you, is in no way diminished by the big mouth of an enemy.
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
We should pay no attention to the boasting, mocking, and threatening of the enemy.
- araratchurch
- Jul 24, 2022
- 3 min read
“Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in powered; Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces. You stretched out Your right hand; The earth swallowed them. Fear and dread will fall on them; By the greatness of Your arm They will be as still as a stone, Till Your people pass over, O Lord, Till the people pass over Whom You have purchased.”
Exodus 15:6, 12, 16 NKJV
Most of us have heard the term “right hand man.” When we hear that term, we know that the person being referenced is very important to the work of the person speaking. We also have heard people say exaggerated statements such as, “I’d give my right arm for that.” We know that this statement reflects the very great importance of what they want if they would “give their right arm” for it. Bottom line, referencing a right arm or right hand is referencing something very important, something crucial to operation.
Now, I had always read scriptures in the Bible about the Lord’s right hand, such as we see here:
“The right hand of the Lord is exalted; The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.”
Psalms 118:16 NKJV
But, it wasn’t until later in my life that I began to see that the “right arm of God” references more than we might suppose. Before I elaborate, let’s look at these two prophetic passages from the book of Isaiah:
“So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him That there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, And wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, And was clad with zeal as a cloak.”
Isaiah 59:15-17 NKJV
“For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me.”
Isaiah 63:4-5 NKJV
These two prophetic passages—without argument—reference the work of Jesus Christ.
Today we find Moses referencing the victory they had experienced against Pharaoh as having been done by God’s right hand. As well, we see he references that God’s arm has brought these things to pass. Now, in order to directly see Who he is referencing, let’s look at this scripture:
“Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”
We see here that the Apostle Paul clearly references Christ as being the sustaining source of the children of Israel during the wilderness journey.
Where am I going with this? When Moses references the right hand of God having brought their victory, he is referencing Christ, our Lord.
Many scriptures reference Christ as being seated at the right hand of God, indeed Jesus referenced Himself that way.
“Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.””
Matthew 26:64 NKJV
But we must also realize that He does more than SIT at the right hand of God, He IS the right hand of God!
It’s a wonderful thing to know that the Lord reaches out to us through His mighty Right Hand. And—not only does He bring victory through His right hand—He brought our very salvation through the outreaching of His right hand, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Today let us discover what Moses discovered:
The right hand of the Lord is a Person.