PRIME - Day 3

PRIME Day 3

Read Exodus 5 & 6


Exodus 5-6 finds the Israelite people deep in slavery to the Egyptian nation. How did this happen to God's chosen people?  To understand why, we have to understand their past. 

The Israelites were people of Promise. God promised that they would be His people and that He would care for them and give them a land of their own. They were also people who quickly forgot about God's good plans for them and often took Him for granted.  It seemed the more God blessed them, the more they forgot about Him.

Sound familiar? 

So now in Exodus chapters 5 and 6 we see the Israelites enslaved by the Egyptians.  Still we see God's love and patience at work.  In 6:5 we see that God "heard the groaning" and "remembered the covenant" (or promise) that He made.  So as usual, God begins to work out big things for His people.  The only problem is they don't care.  It's like they've just settled for being miserable.  And even worse, now that God seems to be working on their behalf, they have to work even harder for Pharaoh who is getting angry at the request of God's messengers Moses and Aaron. (5:21)

In chp. 6 we see God gushing His love out as he describes how He wants to "deliver" and "redeem" them. But still, they can't get past the fact that life stinks and it's only getting harder. It's as if they just want everything to settle back down so they can be at a familiar level of "miserable" again. Still we see God promising to deliver them in spite of  their own lack of interest.

Does this sound like us?  Not satisfied with where we are, yet unwilling to let God lead us into our destiny?  Are we afraid we'll miss all the things that bring us down and hollow us out? God's Word paints a clear picture for us of how great He is and how much we need Him.
There's nothing here worth holding on to when we understand just how much He has planned for us. Don't be anchored down by where you are now, tune your ear to Him and listen carefully and sooner or later you'll see, He's been at work all along!


- Brian

PRIME - Day 2

PRIME Day 2

Read Exodus 3 and 4 

In the next two chapters, we see Moses struggling with obedience to God. As he walked up on the burning bush, Moses was amazed to see a bush engulfed in flames but not burning up. God knew that he had to get Moses's attention and once he had his attention, he would be able to deliver the message. In the last few verses of Chapter 3 and in Chapter 4 we see God telling Moses to go to the leaders of Israel and tell them the message. Maybe God is trying to get your attention and the task he has given you seems to difficult for you to accomplish. Realize that God isn't going to put more on you than you can handle and remember that we must put our trust in him to know that his ways are higher than ours.  

Extraordinary......

In Exodus 4:2-4 we see that God questioned Moses on what he had in his hand. Moses replied "A shepherds staff." During those times, a shepherds staff was used primarily to guide sheep. However, God used this staff to teach Moses a lesson. God showed him that he can take some ordinary staff and use it in an extraordinary way. Maybe you just think you have a ordinary voice, or maybe you feel as if nothing about you is "extraordinary" about your life. Just as God used a ordinary tool with Moses, God wants to use the "ordinary" things in your life in an "extraordinary" way. 

Prayer

Today, take time and thank God for using the "ordinary" things in your life. Moses was intimidated to talk to the leaders and didn't feel that he could live up to the expectations. When doubt creeps in, we can all begin questioning if we have what it takes to stand up for God. Pray that he will give us the boldness to take a stand in our communities, and schools. 

                                                                                                                            - Trey 

PRIME - Day 1

GET READY.

For the next few weeks, as we here at FUSE prepare for our annual trip to Camp, we are going to be looking at the book of Exodus.  Trust me, you will want to check back here every day as we study this amazing book of salvation, redemption, and grace.  So open up your Bible, and lets get started!

Read Exodus 1 and 2

The book of Exodus begins with an explanation of why the people of Israel are in Egypt.  We know that there was a famine in the land of Israel, and the first Israelites (the sons of Jacob) went to Egypt to find food.  We find out that they actually stayed in Egypt, and they began to build their lives there.  Pretty soon, they began to blend in with the Egyptian culture.  The Hebrew people multiplied and became powerful in the land of Egypt, forcing the Pharaoh to make them his slaves to keep them under his control.  

This is exactly what happens when we experiment with sin.  

Most of the time, we never set out to become slaves to anything.  It is never our goal to be oppressed and controlled by something harmful to us, but it always happens.  We start hanging out with a group of people just seeking to fit in, and before we realize what's happening, we are going down the wrong road.  We begin a relationship in order to feel less lonely, but soon we're compromising our morals to keep the relationship intact.  We never mean to become slaves to sin, but if we're not careful, we will let our guard down and it will control our lives.  

But God has a plan for Salvation.

We see the birth of Moses in chapter 2.  We will soon find out that Moses' strange birth and upbringing were no accident.  God had a plan to rescue the people from slavery.  God has always had a plan to rescue his people, and if we trust in him, his rescue will come at just the right time.  Moses comes on the scene, but we learn that he's got some issues of his own...

God will always prepare you before he uses you.

God had a plan for Moses' life all along, but it took some time for Moses to be ready.  He went into the mountains to live for many years before he was ready to fulfill God's plan.  Many times, we think God has abandoned or forgotten us, and we wonder why we have to go through the tough times in our lives.  These tough times are God's way of preparing us for the bright future he has in store.  As we will find out, Moses' future was definitely bright. 

There is much to learn from these first two chapters of Exodus.  We need to focus on the fact that sin will always lock you in chains, but God wants to rescue you.  He has great plans for your life, even though things don't always happen according to our schedule.  We need to continue trusting, because God is always working.

-Taylor