Remember these lines from a famous old hymn,

“Do you have any rivers you think are uncrossable? Do you have any mountains you can’t tunnel through? God specializes in things thought impossible. He does the things others cannot do!”

So the children of Israel came to the sea, and Pharaoh’s vast army was right on their heels. In addition to that, the mountains had them blocked on the other two sides. They were trapped.

Moreover, Pharaoh’s army was the best-trained and equipped in the world. The cowering Israelites didn’t have one sword or AK-47 amongst them.

What now?

Exodus 14:15

And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.”  

It was a little more direct than this in Scripture, but here is the contemporary interpretation. Stretch out your hand over that sea with that rod in your hand. Simultaneously, God was protecting them by providing them light while He was enveloping the Egyptians in darkness.

He could have said in plain English, “Moses, you do what I tell you to do and leave the impossible to me.”

Let’s repeat it.

“Do you have any rivers you think are uncrossable? Do you have any mountains you can’t tunnel through? God specializes in things thought impossible. He does the things others cannot do!” 

Stop crying and give it a thought. We need to know He is with us, and with what we find in our hand, it can be possible.

Think about it.

Gary

“Don’t let me preach the same message over and over again with different titles.” That’s what I told my wife after listening to someone’s preaching tapes with the same message, but sporting different titles.  It seems at that point in that preacher’s life, he was down to one interesting message, so he just gave it different titles on tapes.

All of us who handle the Word have special passages that we are comfortable with and preach them at every opportunity. I can’t do that here because I’ve preached at the same church for forty years.  Sometimes I’ve considered gathering up the most interesting ones and going to preach at some other church for three years. I know you caught that. I’m afraid that about thirty-seven-years’-worth fall in the drowsy-zone.

God has given the same commandment to all of us who have been called to handle Scriptures:

2 Timothy 4:2

preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

What a powerful statement! What preparation! What limitations! What responsibility! What danger! What resolve!

Give it some thought.

Gary

His name was Bob Dowie. He was an Irishman who had immigrated to Canada in the fifties. He became an instructor at the New Brunswick Bible Institute. This individual had more Scripture memorized than any man I’d ever heard tell of.

How did he become a Christian? He encountered the gospel in the shipyards of Northern Ireland where he worked when he wasn’t drinking. An electrician taught a Bible study during the noon-hour break.  For some reason, Bob attended one of these studies and, as a result, became a believer.

For many years he would spend the last weekend before Christmas with us here at Mountain View Bible Church. He died a number of years ago and we certainly miss him.

This little account is not about Mr. Dowie, but the unnamed electrician who was so instrumental in bringing a young boozer to Christ.

Acts 13:47

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

Life for the Christian is about where you are and what you can do for the furtherance of the gospel. This tradesman probably did more for God’s kingdom than most ministers.

Give it some thought.

Gary

“I don’t feel happy or sad. I wish I could feel something.”  He was in an institution telling me about the effects of his medication on his emotions. For the record, I was just visiting.

This led me to consider what life would be like without emotions. It is commonly stated there are 27 emotions: admiration, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, amusement, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathic pain, entrancement, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, relief, romance, sadness, satisfaction, sexual desire, and surprise.

Now try to imagine life without these key, motivating factors in it. Let me relate to you where they come from.

Psalm 139:13 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Ephesians 2:10 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Jeremiah 1:5 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you

God made us as emotional beings. He put us in charge of these necessary ingredients to help us navigate the stream of life. The only thing we need to keep in mind is that we need to control our emotions and not allow our emotions to control us. Many the Bible character and fellow human being failed miserably because they had this thing reversed.

Give it some thought.

Gary

The advertisement that pops up while you’re trying to read or research something important can be very annoying.  Like the one that says, Americans over 64 can get a stimulus check. Now if you’ve lived over six decades on the planet, you should know better than to be drawn in by that. If you are pulled in, then probably there is no help for you and your greatest need is a legal guardian.

Paul gave us many warnings about being taken in by the false promotions.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Make sure you’re not mythtaken about things.

Give it some thought.

Gary

He was so good at throwing rocks that a friend of mine said, “He can hurl the projectile like a curveball.” For even if you were hiding behind the barn, the rock would hit you. The winter months proved to be no obstacle because his parents’ home had a gravel floor in the basement. He could always find a rock if he felt someone needed correction.

Some of us knew what the apostle Paul was talking about:

2 Corinthians 11:25

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,

The rocks were not directed at us for religious reasons, but for slights we threw at him. We probably deserved some of those dings, but the Apostle Paul never did.

Stones, shipwreck and drifting on the open sea were all divine elements in the life of the Apostle.

No Christian is guaranteed an easy trail. Give it some thought and, sometimes, remember to duck.

Gary

“I’d rather listen to long fingernails drag across an old-fashioned chalkboard or cats fighting outside my bedroom window at 3 a.m.or my starter grinding into my flywheel when I accidentally turn the key with the motor still running than …”

I picked that statement up from an unknown source. However, that’s exactly my feelings when I am forced to listen to a chronic complainer. If you think this relates to you, there is a strong possibility you nailed this one.

So what does the Bible say about complaining? Here it is:

1. Describe False teachers

Jude 1:16

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

2. Can lead to death

1 Corinthians 10:10

nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

3. Is a commandment given to Christians

Philippians 2:14

Do all things without grumbling or disputing,

How did you like this devotional?  God heard that.

Give it some thought.

Gary