Exodus is pretty awesome

I'm reading through the Bible. I'm trying to be very intentional in how I read through the Bible, instead of flying through a chapter a night. Sometimes I make it through about four verses, sometimes I make it through a chapter. It all depends on how well I'm paying attention to what I'm reading. And let's be honest, sometimes I'm paying very little attention to what I'm reading. I hope I'm not the only one!

I started Exodus a few weeks ago, and I'm in chapter four right now. You do the math. Anyway, the past two nights in Exodus have been pretty awesome! As most of you know, Matt and I are doing a fund raiser that will reach the final leg of its journey this Sunday, October 31. If you don't know about the fund raiser, visit our website: www.teamipswichaustralia.org (I can't help but put in a plug). Anyway, so as with the rest of life for the past almost three years, it's been fund raising, fund raising, fund raising. It's very hard to find that line between "God will provide" and "you're not doing enough". I pray that I'm doing enough trusting that God will provide! Anyway, with fund raising on the brain and heart I read these words from Exodus three a few nights ago:

¹⁸ "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.' ¹⁹ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. ²⁰ So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

²¹ "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. ²² Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

The last thing I want is for God to put some spell on the people we're asking for money so that they empty their pockets and give us all their mother's silver...but wow! God was going to make the Egyptians "favorably disposed", and I am praying that he makes the people we have invited to financially partner with us favorably disposed toward us and our cause. After all, we really do believe that it is God's cause and not our own. I felt like God had that story just waiting for me this week.

Last night before I dove back into Exodus I was thinking about real, everyday life in Ipswich. It's well and good to have big dreams about what can be, but how often do we really sit down and think about the nitty gritty of what we'll be doing? I think that's a good question for any big decision being made in life! Before reading I thought, "What if we go years without anyone being the least bit interested in what we have to say about God? What if no one believes our story and takes it as their own?" Then I turned to Exodus four:

¹ Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"

² Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.

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. 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, like snow.

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. 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."

Really?!? I'm doubting, scared, and ask God, "What if no one will listen?" and He says, "I'll give the Israelites plenty of signs". I can't help but believe that God was saying the same thing to me last night, "I'll give the people of Ipswich plenty of signs".

There are plenty of things to make us nervous (I mean people in general, not just Matt and me), pressure from family, friends, and supervisors at work, health issues, money problems, the list goes on and on. Sometimes I think we all have to ask, "how am I going to do this?" We really easily forget that God is capable of doing a lot more than we give him room to.

I can't wait to see what chapter five has in store for me!