March 7
19The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt-over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs-and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.” (Exodus 7:19, The Jesus Bible)
Happy Tuesday Friends and family! I pray this message finds you in peace and joy. And if not, then it helps get you moving into that direction.
As I am writing this, our six-month-old (SGZ3) is scooting across the floor, but she can only go backwards, so she trapped herself under her pack-and-play (I have since rescued her and placed her back in the center of her play mat). I will give you some motivational words from that sermon illustration tomorrow.
For today, I have a different word to write. Before sitting down to watch SGZ3 move the wrong way, I had read to her the story of Moses and the Ten Plagues: a fun and heartwarming Old Testament story. Hopefully, you realize that I am being facetious: the story of Moses and Pharaoh is anything but heartwarming. It is a terrifying account of the power of the God of Israel, who sent plague after plague to demonstrate His power to the people of Earth, wiping out an entire population of Egyptians before enabling the Israelites to walk freely away from their 400-year-oppression. While the story is literally pretty terrible, there are so many beautiful illustrations to take out of this brutal text. But for today, to start, I wanted to write about the Plague of Blood, where God turned the waters in Egypt into blood.
I chose this plague because it ties into the preaching of Pastor Steven Furtick perfectly. God was doing something upstream when He turned the waters of Egypt into blood. Pharaoh was stuck in the downstream; unwilling to believe that God was who Moses attempted to tell Him he was. But in Pharoah’s defense, God was repeatedly “hardening his heart” so God could continue to demonstrate His miracles to the Babylon empire of Moses’ time.
There is so much insight we can learn from the Book of Exodus, and I will get to as many as I can this week. But for today, so you can know what I am referring to when I write “stuck in the downstream” and for you to have an “upstream faith”, I will just wrap this post up by sharing Pastor Steven Furtick’s newest anointed Word below. Click and be blessed.
Reading the words of Exodus Chapter 7-12, several times the author write, “Let my people go”, and these words bring to mind one of my favorite songs from Mr. Brandon Lake that was on his most recent album. I want to share that song below before I get to any new music (and yes, this is the “Brandon” Pastor Steven refers to in his sermon).
Finally, the song below, song in this stunning acoustic version, has shook my soul each time I hear it. This stirring melody sung by an amazing group of young students from SEU Worship, will hopefully speak some truth to your life and help teach you some Monday morning faith. And let this song be what is meant to be, the “sound of Your church awakening”.
Common Sense Reborn 