July 28, 2008 6:03 AM
Sam wrote:
Tomorrow. ...Pharaoh said. ??? This was Pharaoh's one word response when Moses asked for a time to pray to God on behalf of Pharaoh and his officials. Tomorrow? Why not right NOW? After all, all of Egypt was plagued with frogs. It had to be that Pharaoh did not believe that any prayer Moses, or anyone, did, would begin to alleviate the frog problem, otherwise, he would have SAID, 'right now!'. Tomorrow. It'll get done.....tomorrow. Sign in the pizzeria window..."Free Pizza! Tomorrow." Try going in and get a free pizza, and you'll be politely told to come back "tomorrow'. Tomorrow....a convenient way of avoiding a lot of things. I'll get to it tomorrow. I don't have time to study my Bible today, but....I'll get to it, tomorrow. And as we all know, "Tomorrow Never Comes". Oliver Reed, Susan George and Raymond Burr starred in a 1977 movie of this title. (I don't charge extra for these bits of wisdom.) When we procrastinate about doing things for God and promising to do them tomorrow; tomorrow never comes. And you know, literally, it WILL not for some of us (us being people who make up mankind, not just 'us' "Kings" of this blog). SOME will not see tomorrow...SOME will definitely die TODAY. Not to get morbid, but tomorrow may not even come for one of us. I think it is about time we 'live like there is no tomorrow' as the expression goes. If you KNEW that you would die tomorrow, what would you do today? WOuld you be selfish and try to get all the enjoyment of life (food, sex, pleasures, etc), or would you do all you could to proclaim our Jesus Christ...the greatest act we could ever do at any time? No, I am afraid we might waste today on the pleasures of life, if we had no tomorrow. But, let's say tomorrow DOES come for us, and we haven't done anything for God yesterday (meaning, today). Is our plan to do something for Him that day, that is tomorrow, or will we put it off until TOMORROW? Remember the Good Old Days of the ACOC? Challenged to share every day? Get a telephone number of someone new every day? Have a quiet time every day and talk to your discipling partner (EGAD, WHAT IS THAT?) every day? Pray at least 30 minutes every day? Oh, I do, but now I say, well, I'll just do that stuff, TOMORROW. And, of course, it doesn't come, and I don't do it. Tomorrow. An interesting, and convicting, term. I hope all of you blog today, and every day. To Rich---reciprocally, you should also call each of us (call, email, see, or whatever) when WE aren't consistent...when WE don't show up on the blog, as we have put off today's responsibility, tomorrow. I too, have not been consistent in my blogging, and heaven knows (and you all probably suspect) that my Bible Studies have been, what did you say Rich, Shallow?, that I have been putting off what I should be doing today, until TOMORROW. Let's keep each other doing things today, not waiting until tomorrow. Oh, by the way, God willing, I'll be playing golf at 4 PM....tomorrow! Reply to this
July 28, 2008 10:25 AM
Rich wrote:
Two things pop out at me today. First, God wants us to worship him! If he is willing to do all of this so that his people have the ABILITY to worship him, how much more does God expect us to worship him when there are no hindrances. God wants us to worship him. He wants our attention, our love, our devotion, our time and energy. That is what studying the Bible everyday is about. It is our spiritual worship. We worship God the way he is meant to be worshiped when we study the Bible. (And I emphasize STUDY, not just read). And if the reason you do not study everyday is some hindrance in your life, some type of Egyptian slavery, then cry out to God and ask him to deliver you from your oppression so that you can worship him. He will honor that prayer just like he honored the prayer of the Israelites. God will give us the time, desire, energy, clear mind, ..., whatever it takes to worship him if we ask.
Second, God will grant us answers to our prayers even if God knows that the answer will not necessarily do what we want it to do. God does exactly what Moses prays for, fully knowing that Pharaoh will not let the people go and God stops the plagues when Moses asks knowing that Pharaoh was going to harden his heart right after the plague stopped. God had a bigger plan in mind. All that happened along the way God merely used to fulfill his bigger plan. I wonder if the ability of the magicians to replicate the early plagues was not actually allowed (done?) by God as part of his bigger plan. I do not think we trust enough in God to see that he has a bigger plan for us than whatever we are going through right now. God is so much bigger than we can ever imagine. And his love for us is unending/boundless. He gives us things we want/believe we need in the short run but all the while he is working on the long run plan that he has. He knows that all that happens along the way merely builds up to the bigger plan. What if Moses had stopped after the 5th plague because the first 5 had failed. Think about it. Nine plagues failed!!! Only one worked! What if I have 9 failures in a row? Do I trust that God will still work things out for my good? Do I patiently wait for God to get to 10 (or whatever number it takes)? Do you? Reply to this
Tomorrow.
...Pharaoh said. ??? This was Pharaoh's one word response when Moses asked for a time to pray to God on behalf of Pharaoh and his officials. Tomorrow? Why not right NOW? After all, all of Egypt was plagued with frogs. It had to be that Pharaoh did not believe that any prayer Moses, or anyone, did, would begin to alleviate the frog problem, otherwise, he would have SAID, 'right now!'. Tomorrow. It'll get done.....tomorrow. Sign in the pizzeria window..."Free Pizza! Tomorrow." Try going in and get a free pizza, and you'll be politely told to come back "tomorrow'. Tomorrow....a convenient way of avoiding a lot of things. I'll get to it tomorrow. I don't have time to study my Bible today, but....I'll get to it, tomorrow. And as we all know, "Tomorrow Never Comes". Oliver Reed, Susan George and Raymond Burr starred in a 1977 movie of this title. (I don't charge extra for these bits of wisdom.) When we procrastinate about doing things for God and promising to do them tomorrow; tomorrow never comes. And you know, literally, it WILL not for some of us (us being people who make up mankind, not just 'us' "Kings" of this blog). SOME will not see tomorrow...SOME will definitely die TODAY. Not to get morbid, but tomorrow may not even come for one of us. I think it is about time we 'live like there is no tomorrow' as the expression goes. If you KNEW that you would die tomorrow, what would you do today? WOuld you be selfish and try to get all the enjoyment of life (food, sex, pleasures, etc), or would you do all you could to proclaim our Jesus Christ...the greatest act we could ever do at any time? No, I am afraid we might waste today on the pleasures of life, if we had no tomorrow.
But, let's say tomorrow DOES come for us, and we haven't done anything for God yesterday (meaning, today). Is our plan to do something for Him that day, that is tomorrow, or will we put it off until TOMORROW? Remember the Good Old Days of the ACOC? Challenged to share every day? Get a telephone number of someone new every day? Have a quiet time every day and talk to your discipling partner (EGAD, WHAT IS THAT?) every day? Pray at least 30 minutes every day? Oh, I do, but now I say, well, I'll just do that stuff, TOMORROW. And, of course, it doesn't come, and I don't do it.
Tomorrow. An interesting, and convicting, term. I hope all of you blog today, and every day. To Rich---reciprocally, you should also call each of us (call, email, see, or whatever) when WE aren't consistent...when WE don't show up on the blog, as we have put off today's responsibility, tomorrow. I too, have not been consistent in my blogging, and heaven knows (and you all probably suspect) that my Bible Studies have been, what did you say Rich, Shallow?, that I have been putting off what I should be doing today, until TOMORROW. Let's keep each other doing things today, not waiting until tomorrow.
Oh, by the way, God willing, I'll be playing golf at 4 PM....tomorrow!
Reply to this
Two things pop out at me today. First, God wants us to worship him! If he is willing to do all of this so that his people have the ABILITY to worship him, how much more does God expect us to worship him when there are no hindrances. God wants us to worship him. He wants our attention, our love, our devotion, our time and energy. That is what studying the Bible everyday is about. It is our spiritual worship. We worship God the way he is meant to be worshiped when we study the Bible. (And I emphasize STUDY, not just read). And if the reason you do not study everyday is some hindrance in your life, some type of Egyptian slavery, then cry out to God and ask him to deliver you from your oppression so that you can worship him. He will honor that prayer just like he honored the prayer of the Israelites. God will give us the time, desire, energy, clear mind, ..., whatever it takes to worship him if we ask.
Second, God will grant us answers to our prayers even if God knows that the answer will not necessarily do what we want it to do. God does exactly what Moses prays for, fully knowing that Pharaoh will not let the people go and God stops the plagues when Moses asks knowing that Pharaoh was going to harden his heart right after the plague stopped. God had a bigger plan in mind. All that happened along the way God merely used to fulfill his bigger plan. I wonder if the ability of the magicians to replicate the early plagues was not actually allowed (done?) by God as part of his bigger plan. I do not think we trust enough in God to see that he has a bigger plan for us than whatever we are going through right now. God is so much bigger than we can ever imagine. And his love for us is unending/boundless. He gives us things we want/believe we need in the short run but all the while he is working on the long run plan that he has. He knows that all that happens along the way merely builds up to the bigger plan. What if Moses had stopped after the 5th plague because the first 5 had failed. Think about it. Nine plagues failed!!! Only one worked! What if I have 9 failures in a row? Do I trust that God will still work things out for my good? Do I patiently wait for God to get to 10 (or whatever number it takes)? Do you?
Reply to this