He Will Carry You

Deuteronomy 32:10-12 (NKJV)

 ¹⁰ “He found him in a desert land
      And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
      He encircled him, He instructed him,
      He kept him as the apple of His eye.
 ¹¹ As an eagle stirs up its nest,
      Hovers over its young,
      Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
      Carrying them on its wings,
 ¹² So the LORD alone led him,
      And there was no foreign god with him.

 I love this passage. Moses just spoke to the children of Israel saying that they would rebel after his death even worse than they did during his life. But during this song that Moses is is speaking, he paused to remember how God found Israel.

God found them in a desert land, a wasteland, a howling wilderness. So He saved them. He taught them. And on top of all that, they were the apple of His eye, and he kept them as such. Life was no easy task back then, in the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When most religions had more gods than I have socks in my dresser, the children of Israel were a strictly monotheistic people. They believed in one God, and Him only.

But there came a time when they were enslaved, for over 400 years. And when God saw fit to deliver them from this slavery, most of them grumbled in the desert. But God still loved them, just as He still loves us.

But this is why I love this passage. God knew what they would do. He knew they would rebel. But He saved them anyway. He reached down, and gave them deliverance. My favorite part is verse 11 here. Read it again.

^"11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
      Hovers over its young,
      Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
      Carrying them on its wings,"

I like the way the notes section of the MacArthur Study Bible puts it:

"The Lord exercised His loving care for Israel like an eagle caring for its young, especially as they were taught to fly. As they began to fly and had little strength, they would start to fall. At that point, an eagle would stop their fall by spreading its wings so they could land on them; so the Lord has carried Israel and not let the nation fall. He had been training Israel t ofly on His wings of love and omnipotence." 

 You see, God wants to help you fly on His wings of love. He wants to help you follow Him. You don't have to make the same mistakes that the children of Israel did. Too many people in today's world are following their own way or something other than God. And when you stop to think about it, you are serving either God or the devil. If you are not serving God, there's only one other option. There is no such thing as being your own master.

Make the choice for God. He is holding out His victorious, rightiouss hand to you. All you have to do is make that choice to reach out and grasp hold of Him. He will never let you go. He promised that. May you always know the wonderful love of our Savior and Creator, Jesus Christ. I hope to see you in Heaven.

Music

Music can be a touchy subject. But what it boils down to is simply this: does the type of music you listen to honestly, really, truly, and sincerely bring praise and glory to God? Sure, the song may have Christian lyrics. Or the music may be calming. Music is such an multifaceted thing. If one part of it doesn't bring glory to God, can any of it? As the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5:6, "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" If one part of our life doesn't glorify God, we must surrender it to Him so that it does honor and glorify God.

Praise Through the Hard Times

Have you ever fallen on hard times? Whatever the case may be. The wife of Jacob had a problem. Leah could see that Jacob favored his other wife, Rachel over her. Rachel, after all, was who Jacob wanted to begin with. But because of the custom of the day, Leah had to get married first, being the older of the two sisters.

In Genesis 29 we find the story of Leah beginning to have sons by Jacob. She has one son. She named him Reuben. And she says, in verse 32, "It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now." But Jacob still didn't show her the affection she wanted.

She has another son. This time she named him Simeon. She said, in verse 33, "Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too." But again, Jacob isn't showing her the affection she wants from him.

She has a third son. She names this one Levi. In verse 33, she says, "Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." Except he didn't.

She has a fourth son. She named him Judah. But something different happened this time. She stopped feeling sorry for herself. She realized her worth didn't lie in her husband. She realized her worth was in God. God helped her to understand that praising Him is what it's all about. She said in verse 35, "This time I will praise the LORD."

And you know the cool part about this? When she finally decided to praise God instead of throwing a pity party, God blessed the lineage of that son. It was Judah that the promised Messiah would one day come to rescue Israel and the world.

You see? When we praise God, He does great things. Yes, it may take a while to see them. But this is a hard learned lesson sometimes. Trust me. I've had to learn this the hard way.

I've had such troubles over the years with finding a job. But I began to realize that praising God is step one. Focusing on my relationship with Him is the priority. And when I realized this, God began to bless me in ways that still dumbfound me.

And yes, I'm still learning this lesson. It's an every day, often multiple times a day, battle. The devil isn't going make things easy for me. But as long as I keep my eyes on God, the world around me can fall apart. But my God will supply all my needs, according to His glorious riches.

So when you're tempted to feel sorry for yourself, do yourself a favor, and don't. It only hurts you. Trust me. I know from experience. God is all that really matters. Rise, take up your cross, and follow Him.

Man Up - Part 1

This one goes out to the men. I've been thinking about this topic for a while. I'm just now getting around to writing about it. I know as a man I've got a lot of work to do. I fill a lot of roles. I'm a husband, a father, a brother, an uncle, a friend, and most important, a child of God. Specifically I want to write about the role of husbands in this post.

Husbands, we've got work to do. Yea, I know. I said that already. But it bears repeating. We've got work to do. Ephesians 5:22-33 talks about the role between husbands and wives. Now too many men read the part about wives submitting to their husbands and stop there. If there's one thing you need to know, it's never to take a scripture out of context. Especially one like this. Or you may be sleeping on the couch for a very long time.

Read further. Verse 25 says, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..." As husbands, it's our duty to love our wives in such a way that they will want to love us back. Not so much because they made a vow to do so. Vows can be broken. Love your wife as Christ loves the Church. How does Christ love the Church?

He died for us. He served us. He gave us the example of being a servant leader. Gentlemen, here's the answer. Be the servant leader of your family. Lead in a way that you are serving them. By doing this, you will be an example to the rest of your family, perhaps most importantly for your kids. But we'll get to that in the next post.

Love your wife as Christ loves the Church. Christ did not oppress the Church. He does not force His love on us. He does not make us do things because He said so. He never tells us to do something and not give us the help necessary to accomplish it.

The story is told of a man and wife who went to a seminar on this very subject. However, the speaker preached very heavily on the wife submitting part and hardly at all on the husbands loving their wives part. The more he talked the more upset the wife became and the happier the husband became. So on the way home the wife was in the passenger seat fuming.

The husband finally broke the silence and said, "So what did you think?" No answer from his wife. They kept driving. Till he asked again.

"Well, what'd you think? I thought it was great." His wife sat silent staring angrily ahead. Finally they arrived at home. He decided to put his foot down, so to speak.

"Listen here woman! The Bible says you're supposed to submit to me! From now on I'm the captain and you have to listen to me and do what I say! Is that clear?!"

He didn't see his wife for about two weeks. Finally, after two weeks, one eye opened up just enough so he could see his wife a little bit.

My fellow men, let's love our wives in a way that they love us back as much if not more than we love them. Let's help them clean the house. Let's help them take care of the kids. Let's take them out every so often. Let's buy them flowers. Let's love them.