The Law

What does it look like when people encounter the Almighty?  What does it look like when the Almighty steps into the lives of men?

He is our creator, and the maker of the universe. 

We see His appearance to Moses in the burning bush, and His presence in front of the descendants of Jacob in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.

We have been studying the Almighty’s deliverance of the descendants of Jacob from slavery in Egypt.  God intervened and with mighty signs and wonders led the millions of Israelites out of Egypt.  He led them out of Egypt to Mount Sinai to meet with them there.

This was a pivotal point in the life of the nation of Israel.  This was a pivotal point in the history of the world.  It is probably safe to say that this occasion has done more to shape history than any other, apart from the life of Jesus Christ.

God gave the 10 Commandments on this occasion. 

God met with His people.

I have heard people talk about the God of the Old Testament.  The question, “Why is God so different in the Old Testament than He is in the New?” has been asked many times. 

A famous opponent of God, Richard Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion says:

 “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”  (pg. 51)

This is an extreme statement of how many perceive God as He appears in the Old Testament.  Dawkins, along with many of us, must be suggesting that he knows better how the Almighty should interact with humanity.

As one goes through the book of Exodus, he or she sees how obstinate and unbelieving we as human beings tend to be.  One sees stubborn unbelief in the face of the most incredible miracles in recorded history.

In chapters 19 and 20 of Exodus, God gets personal and direct in His interaction with the people He has led out of Egypt.  He physically comes down to meet with His people.  Exodus 19:16-19 says:

¹⁶On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram’s horn, and all the people trembled. ¹⁷Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the LORD had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. ¹⁹As the blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply.[i]

Can you picture this? 

It was terrifying.  Exodus 20:18-19 tells us what the people felt like when they saw the Almighty appearing like this.  Exodus 20:18-19 says:

¹⁸When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram’s horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear.

¹⁹And they said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us, or we will die!”

In this terrifying setting, God begins to lay out the terms of His covenant.  This covenant represents the conditions by which people can remain in a right relationship to God.

The first condition or statement of the Covenant is, “I am the LORD your God.”  (Exodus 20:2)

This statement is not a command, but it prefaces the first commandment.  The first commandment is, “You must not have any other god but me.” (Exodus 20:3)  The statement, “I am the Lord your God,” is the answer to the questions we have raised.  “What does it look like when people encounter the Almighty?  What does it look like when the Almighty steps in to the lives of men?” It even explains Richard Dawkins’ extreme reaction against God and His policies.

The answer lies in the truth of who God is.  This statement, “I am the Lord your God,” contains two names for God, Lord and God, or Yahweh Elohim.

The name Elohim is used in Genesis 1:1 when it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This name generally refers to the fact that God is the Creator and Judge of the universe.  The root of the name is “El” which means “Strong One,” or “Mighty.”  It is the name that contains the idea of the Almighty.

The name Yahweh is built off the root of “I Am.”  Yahweh expresses who God is as far as language will allow.  

As the “I Am,” we understand that God never had a beginning.  This truth is beyond our ability to comprehend.  

As the “I Am,” He will never end.  

As the “I Am,” He is absolute reality.  Outside of Him, there is no other reality, unless He creates it.  There can be no emptiness of space except He sustains it.  

As the “I Am,” he is absolutely independent.  There is nothing that He depends on or needs outside of Himself.  Conversely, everything else depends completely on God.  The universe and all it contains depends wholly on God for its existence.

It is this “Yahweh Elohim,” that comes to Mount Sinai and says:

⁴You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. ⁶And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.  Exodus 19:4-6

Look again at verse 5.  God says, “If you will obey me and keep my covenant.”

What right does God have to require obedience?  Why should it matter to Him? 

Besides the fact that everything is His and He made it all, there are also the natural results of rejecting Him.

The Canaanites, whose land the Israelites were going to possess show us an example of what happens when we reject God.  Deuteronomy 18:9-12 lists some of the things these people were doing.  It says:

 ⁹“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. ¹⁰For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, ¹¹or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. ¹²Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the LORD your God will drive them out ahead of you.”

Let us look at just one of the things listed here. 

The Canaanites were sacrificing their sons and daughters as burnt offerings.  In other words, the most innocent and helpless members of society were not protected by those entrusted with their protection.  They were not even given the status of human beings, and could be sacrificed for the benefit of those whose job it was to protect, nourish and love them.

This is what the Bible calls the deceitfulness of sin.  When we choose not to obey God, we naturally become the slaves of sin, of our own desires and appetites.  For example, most men have a desire for women.  If they do not control that desire, much harm and damage is done as they go from woman to woman to woman.  In other words, just because we are born with a desire does not mean it should be indulged.  God warned Cain that sin was crouching at the door ready to master him.  He gave in to his desire and murdered his brother.

Our world today is full of the evidence of what men do without God.  God has given us true freedom of choice and we have filled the world with violence of every sort.  All the words that Dawkins uses to indict God are words that describe man’s inhumanity to man.  Priests, pastors and parishioners are no exception.  Abuse, crime, fraud and manipulation fill our governments, cities, homes and even churches.

Romans 6:16 says, “Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.”

Should the judge of the universe stand idly by while innocent young children are abused and murdered?  No, He does not and He will not.  Have we forgotten the flood?  Have we forgotten what happened to the Canaanites? Richard Dawkins, along with this generation, is deliberately forgetting or denying what God has done to deal with the sinfulness and evil we have perpetuated in our world.

We think that we are nice and do not deserve to be punished, let alone sent to hell to suffer forever.  Mount Sinai and the Law were given to show us just how wrong we are.  God is not a sadistic megalomaniac as Dawkins suggests.  However, He is righteous, just and pure and will not stand idly by while His creation is missused for the benefit of the whims of us megalomaniacs who think we have the right to tell Him how to judge.

God is extremely patient.  Far from being vindictive, in His great love for us He paid for our crimes Himself.  

As the “I Am,” He is the only One who could pay the huge price for our sinful rebellion against Him.  

At Mount Sinai, the Earth shook in terror at the presence of its Holy Maker.  At Mount Calvary, it shook with sorrow as the Only Begotten Son of God laid down His life to satisfy the conditions of the covenant that we all have broken.   

What does it look like when people encounter the Almighty?  What does it look like when the Almighty steps in to the lives of men?

It looks like fire, smoke and a shaking trembling mountain, or it looks like a Father calling to His children to come safely home.  The difference is only one thing.  John 3:36 says it this way:

And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.

Through us, God is making His plea to all men to be reconciled to Himself through faith in Jesus Christ.  

Come to Him that you can have life, because without Him there is only the terrifying expectation of certain judgement.

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[i] Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation.  Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois 60188.  All rights reserved.

Living Water

Read Exodus 17.

Exodus is the story of the Lord delivering Israel out of Egypt.  It is the story of the mighty hand of the Lord working among men.  We know Him as the Almighty.  He is able to bend nature to His will.

Exodus 17:1 says:

At the LORD's command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin and moved from place to place.  Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink.[i]

First we notice that the community of Israel moved at the Lord’s command.  It has been some time since they left Egypt.  On the day they left Egypt we are told, “The LORD went ahead of them.  He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire.”  (Exodus 13:21)

The phrase “moved from place to place” is otherwise translated “in stages.”  This is not random wandering.  It is a measured journey to Mt. Sinai, where the people were to meet with the Almighty. 

According to Exodus 17:1, “Eventually they camped at Rephidim.  Rephidim most likely means “rests” (Bibleatlas.org).  A book called “Deserts of the Exodus” says this about it:

It is the most fertile part of the peninsula, well watered, with a palm grove stretching for miles along the valley.  Palmer speaks of passing through the palm grove as a "most delightful" walk; "the tall, graceful trees afforded a delicious shade, fresh water ran at our feet, and, above all, bulbuls flitted from branch to branch uttering their sweet notes."  (http://bibleatlas.org/rephidim.htm)

Ironically, the community of Israel found no water there.  Therefore, a place named for rest became a place of quarreling.  Exodus 17:2 tells us:

Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”  And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me?  Why do you test the LORD?”  (ESV)[ii]

The quarrel was severe enough that Moses told the Lord, “They are ready to stone me!”  (Exodus 17:4)  Moses even gave the place a new name calling it “Meribah” (which means quarreling).

The people were thirsty and feared for their lives.  They said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt?  Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"  (Exodus 17:3)

This is consistent with the pattern that the people established.  Even though it was at the command and leading of the Lord that they move, they complained against Moses.  They maintained this pattern throughout their 40 years in the wilderness.  However, at this point in the book of Exodus we see a serious turn in their attitudes.  Moses called it testing the Lord, and Exodus 17:7 tells us what they said.  They said, "Is the LORD here with us or not?"

Considering the fact that they were eating Manna every morning and quail every night this is a remarkable question.  Considering the fact that they witnessed the plagues in Egypt and crossed the Red Sea on dry ground with the water standing up as a wall on each side, this is a remarkable question.

This same incident was repeated almost verbatim at the beginning of the 40^th year in the wilderness.  The account of the second occurrence is found in Numbers 20:8, the difference being that Moses was instructed to speak to the rock.  Because of these two incidents God gave a command in Deuteronomy 6:16.  He said, “You must not test the LORD your God as you did when you complained at Massah.”  The complaint referenced is, “Is the LORD here with us or not?” 

Many years later, immediately after Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness.  He too was without bread and water.  Satan came and tempted him.  At that time, there were three tests.  First, Satan tried to get Jesus to turn stone into bread.  Second, Satan tried to get Jesus to worship him.  Third, Satan tried to get Jesus to leap from the highest point of the temple.  Each time Jesus answered with Scripture.  The third and final answer Jesus gave that finally shut the devil up was, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the LORD your God.’” (Luke 4:12)

Deuteronomy 6:16 gives a command that we must not test the Lord and Jesus repeats it in dealing with the temptations in His life.  This incident with the water seems to be the example of what it means to “test the Lord.”

A short explanation of testing the Lord would be to call His character or promises into question.  The community of Israel had experienced and seen time after time that God was both there and on their side.  Now, they were demanding that He prove once again that He was there and on their side.  God was clearly leading them.  God was clearly providing for them.  In this process, God was testing them to see whether they would trust Him.  God knew what He was going to do and it was His purpose to provide them with water.  Of course He would.  God did not lead them out into the wilderness to kill them with thirst.  They did not need to put God to the test.

God tests all of His children.  He led the community of Israel to a place with no water.  The Holy Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness.  God will lead you into the wilderness.  It will just be you and Him, and you will need to trust Him.  There will be no water.

Jesus said, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink!  For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”  (John 7:37-38)

Believers of all ages have found this to be true. 

One day Jesus was traveling north from Jerusalem going to Galilee.  He chose the most direct route, which passed through Samaria.  After walking all morning, Jesus was hot and tired so He sat down by a well near a Samaritan town.  He sent His disciples into town to buy food.  While He waited there by the well, a woman came out to draw water.  One of the things Jesus said to her was, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”  (John 4:10)

This woman was thirsty, but she did not know what she was thirsty for.  It took an encounter with Jesus for her to realize that her real thirst was spiritual.

We all need this living water.  The experience of the community of Israel in the wilderness teaches us three things about this water.

The first thing is that God leads us to it.

God leads us to the living water by first showing us our need. 

God led the children of Israel to a place called rest, but there was no water.  God purposely leads us to these places.  For the children of Israel it seemed as if God was trying to kill them.  After all, He led them into a barren, hostile environment and there was no water.  Circumstances may seem to indicate God is against us, and we must learn to trust God’s word and promises in spite of circumstances.

The second thing we learn is that God goes before us. 

God told Moses, “I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb.” (Exodus 17:6)

God was there all the time.  It was in the presence of God that the people said, “Is the LORD here with us or not?”  Jesus says to us, “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:20)  This is important for us to realize.  When we are going through the dry times, we need to remember that God is right there with us.  Jesus taught of our close association with the Father when He said:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.  He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.  The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him.  But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.  No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.  (John 14:16-18)

God leads us.  God is with us.  God refreshes.

Moses struck the rock and water gushed out, not because the people deserved it, but because of God’s grace.

Striking the rock was a picture of how God brings grace to us.  Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.  He was beaten so we could be whole.  He was whipped so we could be healed.” 

The children of Israel deserved the blow for even asking their question, but God struck the Rock instead.  Even the Apostle Paul had to learn the lesson, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”  In Paul’s case, he had a weakness that he called a thorn in the flesh.  It was such a problem that he pleaded with God three times that it be removed and each time God said, “My grace is all you need.  My power works best in weakness.”  In this, Paul learned to boast in his weakness because it glorified the strength of Christ.

If we never thirsted, we would never know the refreshing that only Jesus can bring. 

If God has led you to the point of thirsting, realize that it is an opportunity to call upon Him for refreshing.

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[i] Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation.  Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois 60188.  All rights reserved.

[ii] Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Warning Signs

When Moses finally convinced the elders of Israel that God sent him to deliver Israel from slavery to the Egyptians, the elders all bowed and worshipped God.

Then the people of Israel were convinced that the LORD had sent Moses and Aaron.  When they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.  (Exodus 4:21)[i]

However, when things got tough they were thrown into a panic and said:

“May the LORD judge and punish you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his officials.  You have put a sword into their hands, an excuse to kill us!”  (Exodus 6:21)

The Israelites witnessed the plagues and God’s judgment of Egypt.  As they left Egypt, the Lord went ahead of them guiding them with a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day.  (Exodus 13:21-22)

They had witnessed the power of God for at least a few months now, probably longer, but they panicked when they saw Pharaoh’s army chasing them.  They were camped by the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his army came at them from the other side.  The people then said to Moses:

“Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?  Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt?  What have you done to us?  Why did you make us leave Egypt?  Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt?  We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians.  It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’”  (Exodus 14:11-12)

The next day the whole community of Israel stood on the opposite shore of the Red Sea and worshipped God as they saw the bodies of their enemies washed up on the seashore.  (Exodus 14:30)

The Lord then led them from the Red Sea into the wilderness.  After three days of travel where they did not see any water they came to an oasis.  However, the water was too bitter to drink.  The scriptures tell us they grumbled against Moses and demanded of Him, “What are we going to drink?”  (Exodus 15:24)

We see a pattern here.  Each time the people faced a problem they grumbled against Moses.  Moses then went to the Lord. 

The Lord had sent Moses because the people had cried out to the Lord, but now they did not cry out to the Lord when they faced problems.  They grumbled against Moses.

This was their pattern as we enter into the 16^th chapter of Exodus.  Exodus 16:1-3 says: 

Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Mount Sinai.  They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt.  There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.

“If only the LORD had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”

The Lord heard their complaint and worked a mighty miracle, feeding the people with bread out of heaven.  This bread showed up on the ground every morning for 40 years.  However, the pattern we have just looked at revealed a serious problem.  Over 1,000 years later the New Testament says of this generation:

I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago.  All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground.  In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses.  All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water.  For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.  Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

These things happened as a warning to us.  (1 Corinthians 10:1-6)

Let us stop here and consider this.  “These things happened as a warning to us.”

What was the problem?  Was it the grumbling?  Well yes, but grumbling was a symptom of a condition of the heart.  Grumbling was not so much the problem but the symptom or manifestation of the problem.

In another passage, the New Testament puts its finger on the issue.  Hebrews 3:7-9 says:

Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness.  There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.

In this passage, the issue is named when it says, “don’t harden your hearts as Israel did.”  The problem was hard hearts.  It is fascinating to me that the very problem that Pharaoh manifested, a hard heart, also plagued the whole community of Israel.  In fact, because of pride, it tends to plague the entire human race.  No wonder the New Testament warns us not to harden our hearts.

The New Testament tells us that these things happened as a warning for us.  So, I want to look at the warning signs of a hard heart.

There are three and we will look at each one in turn.  These three warning signs are: 1) grumbling, 2) Scapegoating and 3) Anger.

First, we will consider the grumbling.

According to Google to “grumble” means to: “complain or protest about something in a bad-tempered but typically muted way.” 

It is important to understand that this is different from being dissatisfied with circumstances.  When the people grumbled they had legitimate concerns.  Pharaoh’s army was a real threat.  Water was a necessity.  Food was a concern.  In each case, God intervened and provided the things that were the cause of concern.  The problem with the grumbling was that it was the people’s response to the issue at hand. 

But, what should they have done?  Could they take on Pharaoh’s army?  Could they clear up the bitter water?  Could they make food where there was no food?

Let us ask another question.  What did they expect Moses to do?

Here I want to make an important point about our beliefs.  Christianity and the church universal have always taught that the individual is responsible for his or her response to God.  One does not find peace with God because he or she belongs to the right church.  One does not find peace with God because he or she is born into the right family.  This is part of why we stress that the Bible is the Word of God.  The normal person can easily understand this plain book.  We do not rely on a priest or church or another person to explain it to us.  Each person is responsible for his or her own response. 

This grumbling response shows the first step in turning away from this responsibility.  In fact, Hebrews 3:10 says, “So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me.”  Consider what God is saying here.  He has warned us against hardening our hearts as the Israelites did, and now He says, “Their hearts always turn away from me.” If we go back to the question, “What did they expect Moses to do? We will see that Moses always went to the Lord for them.  Why did they not go to the Lord for themselves?  Why did they not turn to the Lord?  Would this not be a much more appropriate response?  “Oh, God help us!  We are hungry.”  Would God not bless such a heart?

The first warning sign was grumbling.  Take a third person view of yourself and see if you do not grumble.  Then look for the second warning sign: scapegoating.

According to Webster a scapegoat is: “one that bears the blame for others.”

This shows itself quite plainly in the complaints of the Israelites.  “Moses, why did you take us out of Egypt?”  Each time the Israelites grumbled did you notice that they grumbled against Moses and Aaron?

A cloud in the shape of a pillar led them.  The Red Sea parted before them.  Frogs, flies and fleas plagued the land around them.  Was Moses the source of these miracles?  Listen to what Moses told them.  “What have we done?  Yes, your complaints are against the LORD, not against us.”  (Exodus 16:8)

Rather than looking to the Lord for help, their hearts turned away from the Lord and they looked for someone to blame.  Moses and Aaron were right there up front.  So, in an unreasonable and senseless manor, they directed their complaints against Moses and Aaron.

If we take a good objective look at ourselves and find that we are grumbling in our dissatisfaction, the next step we should take is look for the person we are blaming.  Once we identify that person, we should repent and apologize as necessary.

This extends to politics and presidents as well.  If we are concerned for our country, we should not grumble and complain.  We should turn to the Lord.  Never think that the solution is in men and women.  Our hope is always in the Lord.  This can be said for the church, the work place, the home and the community.  We are each individually responsible to call on the name of the Lord.  We do not need a Moses to do that for us.

Next, after scapegoating, the people expressed their anger.

They said, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt.”  (Exodus 16:3, ESV)[ii]

Whoa!

This is anger.  These people are afraid that they might die, and they are so angry and frustrated with Moses that they wish they had died already. 

If you have gotten to the point where you wish you were dead, talk to a good Christian brother or sister.  Do not go it alone.  We all get to this point at some time in our lives.  Do not deceive yourself.  You are not alone, and need a friend at this point.

God’s solution to this problem was not the manna.  The manna was the food they needed.  However, there was a much greater issue that needed to be addressed.  Moses explains part of the lesson in Deuteronomy 8:3, and Jesus also quoted this lesson as being more important than food.  Deuteronomy 8:3 says:

Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors.  He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

If we look at Exodus 16, we will see something interesting.  Exodus 16:10 says:

And as Aaron spoke to the whole community of Israel, they looked out toward the wilderness.  There they could see the awesome glory of the LORD in the cloud.

God’s solution was to show His glory. 

There is a very simple lesson here.  When we are tempted to grumble, when we are tempted to scapegoat and when we are tempted to anger, remember this statement:  “It is not about me.”

God wants to bless you.  Call on Him.  You will see His glory and understand, “It is not about me.”

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[i] Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation.  Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois 60188.  All rights reserved.

[ii]  Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.