Excuses - Exodus 4

Why don't we witness to others as we should? Are we scared of what others might think? Are we scared we might not be able to answer their questions? Are we scared of persecution or of being laughed at? Are we too prideful? Are we ashamed of Christ? 

In Exodus chapter 4 God calls Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and Moses gives two specific excuses of why he can't lead the children of Israel. 

Excuse #1: Exodus 4:1 "...But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice..." 

Moses is saying that the people won't listen to him, they won't believe him... so why would they follow him? 

Excuse #2: Exodus 4:10 "...O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." In this second excuse Moses is telling God that he can't speak...to others or with fancy words. So...how could he tell Pharoah to let the Israelites go if he couldn't speak? 

Do these excuses sound familiar? No? Maybe put them in the context of witnessing. Have you ever been promoted by the Holy Spirit to go talk to someone or give them a tract and you say...

"I can't do that! They won't listen to me! Even if they did listen to me, they won't believe me!" 

"I can't go talk to them...I don't know them! I can't just strike up a conversation with a complete stranger!" 

I'm preachin to the choir here...I have used the same excuses Moses gave so many times. How many lost souls have I turned a blind eye to when instead of witnessing to them when the Holy Spirit prompted I gave excuses and didn't talk to them? 

In being a bright light in this dark world we...*I* must be witnessing to those around me. NO EXCUSES! 

Romans 10:14-15

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

This can also be applied to the context of following God's will for our lives. How many times has God showed us the next step and we've argued...

"I can't do that! I'm not equipped or prepared to do that!" 

Yet God is so patient with us as He was patient with Moses. He doesn't force us to follow Him but He prompts, He convicts and He pricks until we decide whether or not we will follow Him. 

Praise the Lord for His patience, His mercy, His kindness and His love to us stubborn humans. We can think up of every excuse under the sun but at the end of the day God well use us and equip us for what He has called us to do, we must simply 

     Trust. 

      Obey.

      Follow.
 

Let Your Light Shine

 

I do not mean to come across as harsh or as just ranting. This is something the Lord smacked me in the face with the otheand excuse the pun but has "lit a fire" in me about. I hope it is as much a challenge to you as it was to me.

As Christians we are called to be a bright light in this dark world.

Matthew 5:14-16 says: 

 "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

 Jesus is obviously the best and brightest example of being a bright light in this dark world but in John 5 He gives us another example. Jesus Himself says in John 5:35 "He was a burning and a shining light:" John the Baptist was not just a bright light, a candlestick sharing the gospel, the good news of Jesus in an unsaved, Hell-bound world...he completely burned himself out til there was nothing more to give for the cause of Christ! John the Baptist eventually ended up in jail and beheaded for his witnessing of Jesus...but he was a bright light witnessing to the unsaved and encouraging the saved until he could no longer physically be a bright light. 

 Why aren't we following this example!?!? Why is it that we, as Christians, give up so easily!? We may go out witnessing door to door, we may give out gospel tracts at the grocery store or the gas station...we rejoice when someone listens and comes to know the Lord as their Savior...as we should! But what do we do when someone slams the door in our face, when someone won't take the tract we are trying to give them? So often we whine and complain and like a little dog tuck our tails between our legs and stop witnessing for Christ. We let our light only flicker or we let it go out completely. HOW DARE US! How childish is it for us to look at this as "persecution" and we give up. If we give up on the cause of Christ because our feelings are hurt then who is going to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this world!? You may argue and say that other Christians will still witness 

L❤️VE: A Lesson From the Good Samaritan - Luke 10:25-37

In the parable of the Good Samaritan a sassy lawyer approaches Jesus and asks how to get to heaven. Jesus asks him what the law says. The law says that one must love the Lord with every fiber of his being and love his neighbor just as much as he loves himself. Jesus tells him that he is right and if he does so he will live. 

Matthew Henry comments: "No one will ever love God and his neighbor with any measure of pure, spiritual love, who is not made a partaker of converting grace. But the proud heart of man strives hard against these convictions." 

It is only through saving grace that we can love God and love others as we should.

The sassy lawyer, in an attempt to justify himself and how he treats others, then asks:

 "Who is my neighbor?" 

In response to his question Jesus tells this sassy lawyer a parable - an earthly story with a heavenly meaning - to explain to him who his neighbor is.

In this well known parable a Jewish man is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when thieves jump him. They beat him, strip him of his clothing and leave him half dead. While this man is lying there a Priest comes by. The Priest sees the man lying there and passes by on the other side of the road. Then comes a Levite. The Levite not only sees the man but the Bible says that he "came and looked on him" before passing by on the other side. Both the Priest and the Levite should have helped the man. They were servants of the Lord who should have set an example and helped out the poor man. However, they did not. 

Right when it seems like no one will help the man a Samaritan comes along. Jews looked down on Samaritans because they were "unclean", they were "half-breeds" because they were half-Jew and half-Gentile. The Jews would not talk to Samaritans, they would not travel through their country, they did not want anything to do with Samaritans. But it was the Samaritan man who had compassion on this half-dead Jew. He cleaned and bandaged his wounds, set him on his beast, took him to an inn, continued to take care of him and then paid the innkeeper to continue taking care of him. 

Jesus ends this parable with the question: "Which now of these three...was neighbor unto him?" Obviously the neighbor was the Samaritan man - the one who had compassion on him, who bandaged his wounds and took care of him. 

So, who is my neighbor? 

Anyone I come in contact with! 

My neighbor is my coworker, my friends, my family, my students but also the mailman, the cashier at the store, the community workers - police, EMS, firefighters, military - the person driving their car past my house, the person pumping gas at the next pump at the gas station, the homeless man or woman sleeping in a tent in the parking lot somewhere, the telemarketer calling about my car's extended warranty for the billionth time...get the picture?! My neighbor is every single human being I come in contact with no matter their age, race, size or social status. 

Since everyone is my neighbor then I am to love everyone as I love myself. That means I need to be kind, I need to be patient, I need not to be selfish or rude, I must treat them as I would want to be treated. 

How many times have I been out and about grocery shopping and I did not once think about those around me? It is so easy to go into Walmart with my list of groceries, quickly get everything, get annoyed when I cannot find my specific brand of peanut butter, go through self checkout and leave without giving one thought to those around me. How selfish! How difficult is it and how much effort does it take to show a little compassion and smile at someone I am passing by in the aisle? To ask the greeter how their day is going? To give a tract to the cashier or the worker who is watching the self checkouts?

Start showing a little bit of love to those around you. Be a good neighbor, be a good Samaritan to those around you! 

~ 💓 Ruby James Mikula 

Who's Fault Is It?

Yesterday I had the privilege of going to Minneapolis with the Camp Chetek staff. We went to Gospel Light Baptist Church for the morning and evening services. After we ate lunch, we all headed to downtown Minneapolis to invite kids to Inner City Outreach.

Walking around downtown Minneapolis knowing that they very streets I was walking on were streets full of alcohol, drugs, and violence was a big eye opener for me. I never really fully realized how blessed I am until then. Some of the people that we talked to, you could just sense their loss of hope. They have no hope apart from Christ. Some people in this world might never hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. And it won't be their fault. So who's fault will it be?

In Romans 10:14 it says:

"How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? 

and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? 

and how shall they hear without a preacher?"

It will be our (us Christians) fault. Some of us (including myself) get very excited about the thought of witnessing but when God opens the door, more often than not, we walk right past it instead of entering it. That is Satan discouraging us from doing what is right. Discouraging us from fulfilling the Great Commission! 

Matthew 28:19-20 

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 

baptizing them in the name of the Father, 

and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 

Teaching them to observe all things 

whatsoever I have commanded you and, 

lo, I am with you alway, 

even unto the end of the world. 

Amen." 

The best way to start witnessing is by sharing our own testimony of how we got saved! I want to encourage us (myself included again), as believers, to enter the door to witness instead of it being wide open and walking right past it. 

A Bus Ride, A Conversation, & A Blessing

Lately I have been reading Will Our Generation Speak by Grace Mally. As I was reading it last Thursday night, the Lord really convicted me that I need to be witnessing more. That night, I prayed and asked the Lord to give me an opportunity to witness. What I didn't know was that that opportunity was going to come soon.

The bus that we ride to school is called the "Naughty Kids Bus." So, us girls normally listen to our iPods on the way to school. After we dropped off at the middle school, one of the high school girls was going on and on about how she thought the Bible was just a stupid Book and how she wanted to burn It. (She said all this as I was sitting reading my Bible.) So I just simply held up my Bible and asked her, "You mean this Book?" And this is about how the conversation went.

"Why do you have that?" she asked.

"Because it is the most important Book anyone could ever read." I replied.

"How do you know that It is true? Someone probably just dreamed it up and decided to write it down." she said.

Then I explained to her that we can know that the Bible is God's Holy Word because He says so many times. She was raised Catholic so she asked me many questions about the Bible and what I believe about It and why my beliefs are different from the Catholic beliefs. I was also able to explain why Jesus died on the cross.

"Why do we celebrate Christmas?" she asked.

"We celebrate Jesus' birth. That's what Christmas is all about." I explained.

"I don't get it, how could Jesus come to the earth as a Baby and still be God?" she asked.

Then I thought 'Lord, how am I going to explain this?' So I explained it as best as I could. She then told me that she still didn't understand it. I told her that none of us can understand it fully. If we could, we would be God ourselves. (Then I thought back to my Bible lesson. Just the other day, my lesson taught me the same thing! It was neat for me to be able to share it with her when I had just recently learned it myself.)

We continued to talk the rest of the ride to school. As we were leaving, I was able to give her and one of the guys that rides our bus each a Your Choice: Heaven or Hell tract. They both told me that they would read it. They also said that they would come to me if they have any questions.

I was so thankful for the opportunity to witness just after I asked the Lord to give me the opportunity. Please pray for these two kids that they would think about what I told them and that they would read the tract.