March 17, 2007

Step 3: . We made a decision to turn our life and will over to the care of God.

Scripture reading for today: Psalm 18, Proverbs 10

You know about Moses, right? He was an Old Testament hero. If Moses were around today, he’d have made it into the final round of God’s version of “American Idol” – in fact, he did make it there –

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of gteater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he…By faith he…By faith…Hebrews 11:24-29 NIV

Chapter 11 in the book of Hebrews is scripture’s version of the American Idol All-Star finals. It’s the place where the author of Hebrews sort of gathered up all of God’s top performers and paraded both them and their accomplishments before us.

Thought for today: The Lord replied, ”My presence will go with you and I will give you rest”'
Then Moses said to him, “If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” Exodus 33:14-15

Moses, a hero of the faithful, spoke honestly with God about his doubts. You’d expect a bona fide hero to say, “Sir, yes Sir. Thank you Sir.” He did not. Once you make a decision to turn your life over to God’s care and control – you don’t become a robot. You’re still you. A decision like this is one more step in the process of coming to believe – it is not a magic pill, a lobotomy, or an easy way to rid yourself of all those hurts, habits and hang-ups that are trailing around behind you like a well-worn and smelly security blanket.

Thought for tomorrow: I recommend taking Hebrews 11, go to the back of your bible (most have a concordance in the back listing key words/names in scripture and where you can find them) and look up each hero mentioned. Turn to all the places their names are referenced in the Bible and make notes about what you find. I suggest two columns: 1. Hero for sure and 2. Why I’m surprised God chose them. I want you to notice that these men and women didn’t make it into the heroes chapter by being good, behaving best, or even simply by not messing up. “By faith…” is why they are there. They believed.

March 17
Teresa McBean