Month: September 2023

The way to fight lust (impure sexual desires in the heart and mind) is by feeding Faith with the knowledge of an irresistibly glorious God.

Matthew 5:8 NIV:  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Hebrews 12:14 NLT: Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.

The way to overcome lust and all sin is simple and there is no shortcut to it… I must desire God more than anything else. I must understand that sin separates me from knowing God and experiencing Him.

And so, the question is, do I desire God? Do I want to experience Him and be satisfied by Him and not satisfied by anything else?

Remember, experiencing and enjoying God is continual and it will never end. If I am not enjoying God and experiencing Him right now, then I should not think that it will suddenly start when I die. In fact, if I am not enjoying and experiencing God right now, then it simply means I am alienated from Him or I am far away from Him and therefore I should reconsider my walk with Him and see how I have strayed away.

And that is why I must understand God’s commands and why God gives them.

God’s commands are not given in a forceful manner, they are given in a loving manner. Essentially, if I am to paraphrase, through his commands, God is saying…

“Son/Daughter, I am Holy and Pure (there is no evil in me) and you cannot experience me when you tolerate what I hate. I hate sin and lawlessness and therefore if you want to experience me and be with me, then you must be Holy.“

1 Peter 1:14-16 NIV: As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Therefore:

I should not read the Bible, just because it is a command. I should read the Bible because by reading it, I get to know God. And knowing Him is eternal life.

John 17:3 TPT: Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ, as the Son whom you have sent.

I should not pray merely because it is a command. I should pray because I get to experience God and have communion with Him.

I should not listen and Sing worship and praise music, just because it is sweet or it’s the “Christian thing” to do. No, I should use the music as a means of Grace given by God to pour my heart to Him. He must be the focus of the listening to the music. I must join (actively) with the person or people singing in worship and praises that the music is ascribing.

I should join in fellowship with other believers because we get to encourage each other, remind ourselves of God’s word and hear from God, and we also correct each other in Godliness.

I should read or listen to Godly books because they encourage me since the writers write from their experiences and knowledge of God.

I should seek the Lord because there is nothing that can satisfy me more than Him. Having God is having everything. And I cannot lose when I am truly in God… In Him only is the fullness of life.

Colossians 2:6-8 GNT: Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him. Keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving.

And so, I go back to the first question. Do I desire God? Do I want Him and Him alone? Do I want to be filled continually by his Holy Spirit? Do I have hunger and thirst for God?

Psalm 63: 1 ESV: O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Matthew 5:6 NIV: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Oh my soul! Where is you thirst and hunger for God? What are you hungry for if it is not the Lord God? Oh my soul! Why is your hunger and thirst for God so easily quenched? Why do you long for entertainment and pleasure more than God? Why do you long for money and riches more than God? Why are you not satisfied by God? Father, I submit. Please help me to desire you more than anything else. Heal my blindness and deafness oh Lord.

STARVE THE FLESH, FEED THE SPIRIT.

V7 – God tells Moses that He has certainly seen the oppression and suffering of the children of Israel. He says He is aware of how they are suffering under these oppressors. The Egyptians in an effort to decrease the number of Israelites were focused on crushing them with hard labor and this weighed down heavily on the Israelites. They groaned under the pain. But God says to Moses that He has seen their suffering and pain.

I find this so comforting. He has seen my/our troubles and pains. He is aware of what is happening to us. He has heard and continues to hear our cries for help. He is not blind to our situation.

Psalm 56:8 NLT– You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.

Psalm 18: 6 NLT – In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

V8-9 – After saying that He has heard and seen our troubles and suffering, He says He has come to rescue the children of Israel from Egypt and their slavery. The Lord comes to take his people from their dark times and brings them into a land of flowing milk and honey.

Oh, Hallelujah, why should I afraid when He the Lord is on my side? My soul… sing praises to the one who rescues you from pain and suffering. Praise to God in the Highest who sees our suffering and pain. Even if the whole world gangs up against me/us and we remain with Jesus, then we shall not be afraid because no one wins against the Lord. He is mighty in power, and He is mighty to save.

Psalm 56:3-4 NLT– But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?

Psalm 56: 9-11 NLT – My enemies will retreat when I call to you for help. This I know: God is on my side! I praise God for what he has promised; yes, I praise the Lord for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?

V10 – God sends Moses and appoints Moses as leader of the people of Israel, to lead them out of Egypt and to take them into Egypt. The Lord choses a man to lead his people. In the earlier verses, God had said He has heard the suffering of the people and now He wants to use a man to lead and to be used of Him in guiding them to be saved from Egypt.

There are times when the Lord chooses us to be his vessel to help other people. Are we willing to yield and be used of Him?

V11-12 – Moses protests about being chosen. He sees that He is not qualified. But God says that He will be with Him. God’s answer to Moses is that He will be with Him but at this point, Moses does not yet seem to know that it is God who choses and qualifies him for the mission and that God being with and over him is sufficient. His trust in the Lord is shaky and that’s why He protests.

Dear friends, we have to remember that these things were written or recorded for our benefit now. Moses here is a reflection of how I/we sometimes protest against the Lord when it comes to doing his purposes. It is a reminder of how we can be so inward looking into our weakness and disqualification not realizing that it is indeed the Lord who chooses us. We do not choose Him first, He chooses us, and it is Him who strengthens us to do his will and his desires.

Philippians 2:13 NLT: For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

V13-15 – Moses continues protesting but through this conversation God tells us the name He will be remembered by for all generations. He is:

“I Am Who I Am”. Yahweh, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

He is God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ

V16-22 – And the Lord now gives clear instructions for what his servant Moses must do. He tells him the words to use to speak to the elders of Israel but He also tells him what will happen including that Pharaoh will be hard hearted unless a strong forces him. The Lord also tells Moses about how they will take wealth from the people of Egypt.

His Instructions are therefore clear for Moses. The only thing that Moses needs to do is just follow exactly what God says.

The Lord does not require much of us, He just needs us to follow his instructions. His Word is clear to us, we only need to read it, and obey it.

His instructions for life and godliness are available for us in scripture. Do we want to know what God wants of us? Do we want to know what to do in different situations? The Lord will help us by his Holy Spirit and through his Word.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT: All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

(Lord, I pray for my heart and the hearts of all peoples, all over the world. Cause us to hear your calling unto us and cause us to know your word and after knowing you, to obey you and to heed to your voice. For there is no life or salvation apart from you. May you break all these barriers that hinder us from hearing you. May you humble us so that we hear you because it is for our good since it comes out of your love for us. Be glorified Oh God in the Highest, May the earth and all who are in it proclaim your praises oh God. For you alone are worthy to receive all the glory. Be Glorified. In the name of Jesus our Lord and savior, Amen)

V1-3 – Moses is out and about his work. He goes to Sinai, the mountain of God. And Here, God first gets his attention through something supernatural, something unique, something He had not seen before — a burning bush that was not burning. Although Moses was about to encounter the living mighty God, He was not aware and was just about his own activities. But God captures his attention.

I believe that this is what the Lord does in our lives. He captures our attention when we are just about our daily activities and lives and speaks to us. The Lord can use very many ways to capture our attention…. He can use a literal burning bush, He can use a sermon, a song, He can allow some difficulty in our lives so that we run to Him, etc.

This is one of the most unique things about our God: In all times, God first comes and gets our attention and He reveals himself to us. We did not first love Him, He first loved us and reached out to us, revealing his great majesty to us.

1 John 4:19 NKJV: We love Him because He first loved us.

V4 – Moses moves to the burning bush out of curiosity. He is of course still not aware that the Lord is about to meet Him. God’s action to get Moses’ attention has of course worked and now He can speak to Moses. The Lord calls out.

Dear friend, does God get your attention? Your curiosity? Are you eager enough to learn/hear from Him?

It would be so sad if Moses never gave much thought to the burning bush or if it never got his proper attention. I feel that sometimes our hearts are so hard such that even when God is calling and wants to meet with us, we never give him the attention. And so, we become resistant to Him and never experience Him.

Give some thought to this.

V5 – God tells Moses that He is on holy ground– He should not go any closer and should take off his sandals.

This is a warning to us about how we come before God. When you are in his presence, you are on holy ground. We have to come in awe because while it’s true that we are in the presence of God, our father, we are also before the everlasting God, the ruler and creator of all things. It is He who gives us life and we are sustained in Him. We therefore cannot come before God carelessly, casually…. We must take off our sandals. Taking off our sandals means that our hearts have to come with the right posture, broken and humble, acknowledging his mighty power. Yet when we come, we also come with admiration of Him who loves us and saves us.

This is who we are coming to:

Hebrews 12:18-29 NIV: But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

And this is what Jesus tells us:

Luke 12:5 NLT: But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear.

V6 – The Lord God introduces himself to Moses. He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He says “I am.” God is God of the living.

Jesus later in the book of Matthew comes to speak about the resurrection by referring to this portion in exodus:

Mark 12:26-27 NIV: Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

The Living Bible (TLB) version puts it this way:

Mark 12:26-27 TLB: But now as to whether there will be a resurrection—have you never read in the book of Exodus about Moses and the burning bush? God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and I am the God of Isaac, and I am the God of Jacob.’ “God was telling Moses that these men, though dead for hundreds of years, were still very much alive, for he would not have said, ‘I am the God’ of those who don’t exist! You have made a serious error.”

God is God of those who are alive: alive in Him.  Who are those who are alive in Him? The ones who walk and live in Him. These are the people who walk humbly with their God and who have accepted Jesus and their savior AND their Lord (master). He is therefore God of those who obey Him and accept to be led of Him. He is not the God of those who are not submitted to Him. When there are other things that have more priority and which give you satisfaction other than God, then those things are your god, and you should not dare say the Yahweh is your God. If there is any other than you enjoy more than Him, then you are in Idolatry. Yahweh is your God if you obey his word.

And dear friend, this is a command directly from God:

Exodus 20:2-6 NASB – I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself [c]an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

(Father, forgive me for all these many times I forget that you alone must be God in my life. You alone must be my satisfaction and enjoyment. You alone must I obey– Help me to obey you Oh God. Let me not lured away by the desires and pleasures of this world. May my worries and concerns for this life not cause me to forget who you are. Let me not be led astray by pursuits in my life but let my life be wholly focused on you: you alone must be the one I pursue. For in you alone is life, satisfaction, peace, comfort, and sustenance. In Jesus name, Amen.)