We Don’t Need the Pleasures of the World

Acts 7:42-53

New International Version (NIV)

42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

“‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
    forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?

43 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek
    and the star of your god Rephan,
    the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile’[a] beyond Babylon.

44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.[b] 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
    Or where will my resting place be?

50 

Has not my hand made all these things?’[c]

51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+7%3A42-53&version=NIV)

Stephen continued in the Old Testament accounts of the Israelite people.  It seems a little odd that the people saw all these miraculous works of the Lord yet still had their doubts.  They saw how God had taken care of them through all the plagues and then to cross the Red Sea on dry ground, yet began grumbling and complaining a little while later.  When they saw that their leader had gone missing they must have thought that he had ran away like he had done forty years earlier.  They felt alone and without hope.  So they turned to the hope they had been taught all the years in Egypt.  They began worshipping the gods of Egypt.

Often times this is what happens to new believers who have come into the faith with a lot of habits that they grew up knowing.  They want so much to follow the Lord and have faith that they can overcome but the first time a trial is placed before them they go back to their old habits.  The first person that might be blamed is the leader that led them out of their life of bondage.  This is where the problem is, they have depended more on the leader than on the One that is leading the leader.  We need to put our trust in God not in man, yet we find ourselves doing it all the time.

Even as a person raised in a Christian home and one who became a believer as a child, I can find myself being disappointed by the actions of man.  Yet, God has called me into a life that depends not on man but upon Him.  The Israelites did not see this.  God called them “stiff-necked people” and Stephen repeats this to them again.  They do not look to the left or to the right but only what is directly in front of them.  They see the problem and cannot find a solution because they are unable look up. 

How often do we do the same thing?  I know that I do it often.  I see the problem with no solution in sight because I look at the actions of man rather than the power of the Lord.  We begin to wander in the desert because we are stiff-necked people who cannot seem to look up.

Whether you are a new believer or one that has been around for a lot of years, it is important to remember that when troubles come our way, we need to seek Him, not be stiff-necked but look towards Him.  Look up, to the one whose footstool is the earth, seek Him, and His direction.  When we do this we find peace, we don’t need this world and the pleasures of it, we realize we need more and more of Him.

Seeking His with all my heart,

Sheila 

Trust Him More

Acts 7:30-41

New International Version (NIV)

30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’[a] Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’[b]

35 “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.

37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’[c] 38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

39 “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’[d] 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.

(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+7%3A30-41&version=NIV)

Forty years after he ran from Egypt feeling rejected, alone, an outcast from his own people and feeling as though he was utterly a failure, he left.  He found a new life in a land far away and far different than the life he once lived.  He made it work, had a family and simply moved on.  Do you ever think Moses might have wondered what it could have been like if he had stayed?  Do you think he might have wondered why in the world God allowed him to live when it looked hopeless that he would ever get to help his people.  Moses was born and lived with a purpose and when he tried to fulfill it only to be rejected, he felt like a failure.  Was he?

I am pretty sure that he realized that he was the only Israelite man that was still living of his age.  The same people that raised Moses murdered all other Israelite boys his age.  He was definitely a miracle baby.  I am sure he probably thought, “Why did God save me if it were not to help my people in times of distress?”   When the Israelite was being harassed by the Egyptian, he felt it his duty to kill the Egyptian to protect his own.  He must of felt betrayed when his own people rejected him when he tried to help the two Israelites resolve their conflict.  I am sure he wondered why God ever allowed him to live after feeling this rejection.  His only way to any peace was to get out of the situation.  He felt that he had messed up and there was no way that he could ever be used of God again.

Then, God called him.  God told him of the task he had set before him.  I often wish that God would appear to me like he did to Moses in that burning bush.  I seem to think that I need this clear picture that, without a shadow of a doubt is from God.  It is not my thoughts but the very words of God.  Oh, wait, I have a Bible that has His words all through it.  Yet, I still seem to not hear what He is saying.  I used to think that Moses was crazy for arguing with God but I do it all the time.  I do not know how many times I have said that it is the end, that I give up, that there is no way that my people will ever accept me. 

I find it confusing and quite disturbing that God has placed me in a location where others seem to overlook the gifts that God has given me.  I have often wondered why God saved me from a bicycle wreck while my sister was taken.  I have never been able to figure out why, this shy little girl was left here while the outgoing, vivacious child, who let everyone know how much she loved Jesus, was taken.  The one that used to talk for me because I did not want others to know that  I could not pronounce my name correctly.  I have never quite understood why I was left and she was taken.  Then, when I, like Moses feel rejected, I begin to just want to run away and hide.  I feel that I am worthless and better off in a land far away.  But, God has never taken me or allowed be to go to a land far away.  He has kept me in the place where I feel rejected time and time again.  The place that others do not see my worth or value.  Which in turn causes me distress and the question comes back, why, why, why? 

I am nothing like Moses but I think I kind of know how he must have felt.  I am much like Moses in that I question God.  I have not seen Him in a burning bush that was not consumed by fire but I have seen Him through the Word of God.  I have felt His presence, His touch of peace, and His hug.  I know that He is real in my heart and in my head.  Yet, I beat myself up because I feel that I have done something wrong and that is why He is not using me.   I seem to forget time and time again that His ways are better than my ways. 

Many wonder why I don’t just bounce back and enjoy life.  I am trying but sometimes my thoughts overtake me and I go back into wondering mode.  I know that God has a plan.  I may have to wonder for a little while more.  I really don’t think at 80, I want to begin a journey of leading but if it takes that long and God wants to use me in that manner, then He will do so.  He has proven time and time again that His ways are better than man’s ways because His ways are always correct.

As I seek Him, I am learning to trust Him more and more.  In order to trust Him fully I am learning that I should not beat myself up when I think I have failed, it is just God doing a work within me to help me trust Him more.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila

Mistakes

Acts 7:17-29

New International Version (NIV)

17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18 Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’[a] 19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.

20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.[b] For three months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’[c] 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+7%3A17-29&version=NIV)

Something I had never thought about and was not mentioned in the Old Testament, was Moses education.  In my footnote it stated that this is something that is imbedded in the Jewish tradition.  Verse 22 stuck out to me as if it were in large, bold, italicized, all caps, in my Bible.  “Powerful in speech and actions.”  Forty years later he responded to God, saying “no” to the calling he was being given by saying, 10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, 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.” (Exodus 4: 10) (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+4%3A10&version=NIV)

You may say, “Either Steven was wrong or Moses was lying to God because these two verses contradict themselves.”  I don’t think they do.  I think that Moses was most likely pretty sure of himself during his first forty years.  He did what he thought was right by defending his people but someone took that and turned it around for evil.  In Moses’ eyes, he viewed himself as being a failure, one that was never good with words.  Yet, we see that he was trying to help his brothers with a dispute that did not turn out the way he would have liked.  I can feel for Moses. 

I have tried to do things in the past that did not turn out the way that I would have liked.  By God’s design I am an introvert that has learned to become more of an extrovert.  My little world of being an introvert was once nice and safe but as I grew and became more vocal with my opinions but those opinions were not very welcomed.  To this day I can hear people spout out some pretty awful things and people just let them do it.  They may say, “well that is just who they are”.  When I say something that others don’t necessarily agree with, I get land blasted.  I think the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that the fact that the introvert values the opinions of others to a fault.  They have thought through what they are saying and when others reject it they are hurt.  I truly believe this was the case with Moses.  He was trying to help and got land blasted then ran to avoid any more confrontation.  When he told God that he had never been eloquent in speech it was because of this one incident that he felt this way.  If he could not help his people 40 years ago, how could he help them now?

Another thing that stood out to me was his age.  I am now in my fifty’s.  I took a chance at the 50 year turning point in my life to do something a little different in my career.  I tried to take a step up and did a pretty amazing job at it.  At no fault of mine, that task got shut down.  Now, I am looking for another opportunity to make an impact and frankly I feel like an utter failure.  Ask most people and they will say I am not a failure but, right or wrong, that is exactly how I feel.  I cannot figure out what I am supposed to do or where God is leading me.  I cry out and tell Him that I don’t have that many more years to do the work that I love.  I remind Him that we don’t live as many years as they did in the Old Testament times.  I don’t know many 80 year olds that could spend 40 more years in the desert these days, or for that matter, climb a mountain to talk to God!  What I learned in this lesson today is:

1.    One mistake does not have to define who we are.  Moses let the mistake of killing the Egyptian define who he was.  God can take our mistakes and use them to glorify Him. 

2.    Just because others reject our words, does not mean that our words were wrong.  Moses was trying to help these two individuals, he was right!

3.    I can and will be rejected by man but God never rejects me.  I should not ever get the two confused even though I do so often.

4.    God’s timing is always right.  I may have struggled for four year but for me to say that I am running out of time would be like saying that God is running out of time.  Well, we all know that God has all the time in the world!

As I continue to seek Him and His will in my life, I need to continually realize that He is in control.  I can say it over and over again.  I can cry out to Him time and time again.  I can accept that He is in control or I can be miserable trying to take control.  I hope that you too can learn from my many mistakes and be blessed to know that God is still at work today in you and in me. 

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila