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Weekly Verse: Ecclesiastes 5:19
And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life - that is indeed a gift from God.
Weekly thought: Something to remember when you hear the voice of God calling...
26 GUARDS
Here's a message that will bring you chills. Have you ever felt the urge to pray for someone and then just put it on a list and said, "I'll pray for them later?" Or has anyone ever called you and said, "I need you to pray for me, I have this need?" Read the following story that was sent to me and may it change the way that you may think about prayer and also the way you pray. This will bless you.
A missionary on Furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan. "While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.
Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident. Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I
carried money and medicines.
He said, 'Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, >knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that 26 armed guards surrounded you. At this, I laughed and said that I was certainly all
alone in that jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however, and said, 'No, sir, I was not the only person to see the guards, my friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.'
At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the
missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted old him this story: "On the night of
your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?"
The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were, he was too busy counting how many men he saw. There were 26. This story is an incredible example of how the Spirit of the Lord moves in mysterious ways. If you ever hear such prodding, go along with it
Nothing is ever hurt by prayer except the gates of hell. I encourage you to forward this to as many people as you know.
If we all take it to heart, we can turn this world toward God once again. As the above true story clearly illustrates, with God all things are possible" More importantly, how God hears and answers the prayers of the faithful.
After you read this, please pass it on and give God thanks for the beautiful gift of your faith, for the powerful gift of prayer, and for the many miracles He works in your own daily life...and then pass it on.
Who says God does not work in mysterious ways? I asked the Lord to bless you as I prayed for you today. To guide you and protect you as you go along your way.... His love is always with you, His promises are true, And when we give Him our cares you know He will see us through. So when the road you're traveling on seems difficult at best, Just remember I'm here praying, and God will do the rest.
Pass this on to those whom you want God to bless.
Exodus 4
1 Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, `The LORD did not appear to you'?" [Moses third expression of reluctance (in spite of God's assurance in 3:18).]
2 Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied. [Probably a shepherds crook]
3 The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. [7:9-10. Throughout much of Egypt's history the pharaoh wore a cobra made of metal on the front of his headdress as a symbol of his sovereignty.]
4 Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.
5 "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has appeared to you."
6 Then the LORD said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, [1] like snow. [The Hebrew word was used for various diseases affecting the skin - not necessarily leprosy. Lev 13:2,ll; Nu 12:10; Dt 24:9; 2Ki 5:1. 27; 2Ch 26:21]
7 "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then the LORD said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. [A supernatural event or phenomenon designed to demonstrate authority, provide assurance (Jos 2:12-13), bear testimony (Isa 19:19-20), give warning (Nu 17:10) or encourage faith 3:12.]
9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."
10 Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." [I'm just not good with words; never have bee, even after you have spoken to me. I'm clumsy with words. Moses fourth expression of reluctance. He complained of not being eloquent or quick-witted enough to respond to the pharaoh (6:12).]
11 The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
13 But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." [Moses fifth and final expression of reluctance.]
14 Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. [Although the Lord is slow to anger (34:6), he does not withhold his anger or punishment from his disobedient children forever (34:7). Under Aaron's leadership Israel's priesthood would come from the tribe of Levi.]
15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. [You will talk to him and give him the words to say I will help both of you to speak clearly and tell you what to do.]
16 He will speak to the people for you and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. [Aaron will be your spokesman to the people, and you will be as God to him, telling him what to say.]
17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."
18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, "Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive." Jethro said, "Go, and I wish you well."
19 Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." [Including Thutmose III (2:15, 23).]
20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
21 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. [He will be stubborn. Nine times in Exodus the hardening of the pharaohs heart is ascribed to God; another 9 times the pharaoh is said to have hardened his own heart. The pharaoh alone was the agent of the hardening in each of the first five plagues. Not until the 6th plague did God confirm the pharaohs willful action (9:12, as he had told Moses he would do.]
22 Then say to Pharaoh, `This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son,
23 and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"
24 At a lodging place on the way; the LORD met [Moses] [2] and was about to kill him. [On the journey, when Moses and his family had stopped for the might, the Lord confronted Moses and was about to kill him [Probably because Moses failed to circumcise his son (GE 17:9-14).]
25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched [Moses'] feet with it. [3] "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. [Sensing that divine displeasure had threatened Moses life; she quickly performed the circumcision on their young son. The flint knife continued to be used for circumcision long after metal was introduced, probably because flint knives were sharper than the metal instruments available and thus more efficient for the surgical procedure. (Jos 5:2). Touched Moses feet is an Euphemism for Genitals as in Dt 28:57 (Womb lit. Feet).]
26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.) [Circumcision may have been repulsive to Zipporah though it was practiced for various reasons among many peoples of the ancient Near East.]
27 The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.
28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites,
30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people,
31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
1. [6] The Hebrew word was used for various diseases affecting the skin--not necessarily leprosy.
2. [24] Or [Moses' son]; Hebrew him
3. [25] Or and drew near [Moses'] feet
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