Cross My Heart Ministry

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea…
Exodus 13:17-18

We all know the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but God’s route for leaving Egypt was to lead the people the LONG way around rather than the shortest.

The short route would have taken them through Philistine country. He chose to avoid this potential danger. God knew the people were weak-hearted, easily frightened, and lacking in resolve.

But He protected and redeemed them anyway.

He knew the first sign of struggle could have them scurrying right back to bondage in Egypt.

But He protected and redeemed them anyway.

He knew that the first struggle would find them completely forgetting about the many miracles that had led to their release from bondage.

But He redeemed them anyway!

Their weakness, fear, lack of conviction, and short memories would serve as a backdrop to make God’s glory shine brighter, His grace be all the more remarkable, and His love more unfathomable!

God saves, loves, and redeems the weak and the undeserving. That’s the Israelites…and that’s you and me, too.

God gave them the easy way because He knew they weren’t ready for the hard way …yet. He chose to protect them from the danger called the Philistines and lead them to a place where retreat will not be an option. A place where they would be completely hemmed in – the Red Sea in front and Pharaoh’s army behind. A place where they could only look up and look to Him.

God will faithfully lead and direct where they are to go. They begin to learn (and will need to re-learn) the lesson of trusting Him.

Are you trusting Him today? Are you re-learning to trust Him with your “Red Sea” moments? Is He calling you to, “Be still and know that I am God…” Psalm 46:10

Audio teaching lecture for Lesson 7, Exodus 13-14, can be found here:

http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-lesson-7-laura-macfarlan-10-23-14/

When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
Exodus 12:23

The Passover of Exodus in the Old Testament clearly points forward to Jesus, our Passover lamb, in the New Testament.

The lamb had to die before its blood could be smeared on the doorposts of the Israelite home. The lamb of God, Jesus Christ, had to die for his blood to smear out our sin.

By an act of faith, the Israelites smeared blood on the top and sides of their door frame.

Exodus 12:50 says, All the Israelites did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

Their faith led them to obediently follow God’s commands.  And their faith resulted in their salvation. They were set free from bondage. Their exodus to freedom is recorded in Exodus 12:51, And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt…

And on the very day that you by faith accept Jesus as your Passover lamb, allowing his blood to cover your sin, you will be set free spiritually just as the Israelites were set free physically.

Romans 8:1-2 says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Jesus is our Passover lamb.  Our exodus from bondage to sin is assured because of Jesus.  Have you, by faith, trusted in his shed blood to cover the doorposts of your heart?

By an act of faith, the Israelites believed God.  By an act of faith, we believe God.

Have you accepted, by faith, Jesus as your Passover Lamb?

Link to audio teaching lecture for Exodus 12: http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-lesson-6-laura-macfarlan-10-16-14/

I would love to go to Rome, to the Vatican City, and visit the Sistine Chapel where I would stand and look up and behold this fresco painting by Michelangelo in person.

This painting is called the Creation of Adam and it was painted around 1511–1512. It is part of a series of nine scenes illustrating the book of Genesis.

Next to the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci, it is most likely the most famous work of art of all time.

There is much symbolism in this painting:

• God’s right hand extending out and Adam’s left – suggesting a mirror image– and illustrating the truth that God created man in His own image and likeness.
• God is clothed, while Adam is nude – symbolizing God is all sufficient and complete, while man begins as nothing and is on a journey.
• God, the creator and giver of life, points toward Adam. He is above Adam – not his equal.
• God is the Creator, Adam the created.

Michelangelo used a painting technique called fresco when he painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Fresco is defined as painting on wet plaster. When the plaster dries, the painting is bonded to the wall. This method was chosen by artists because it was more permanent than painting on dry plaster. The finished product is not just on the wall, but becomes part of the wall.

The challenge, of course, is that the artist must work quickly – before the plaster dries and hardens. There is a finite amount of time. The artist must make his decisions and paint his strokes…tell his story…while the plaster is wet. Once it hardens, it cannot be changed.

Our lives on earth can be compared to wet plaster. We, too, have a finite amount of time to make our choices and our decisions before we breathe our last and the plaster of our life is set and our destiny for eternity is determined.

Throughout history every individual is given time to choose. The mighty Pharaoh himself was given his opportunity to decide. He allowed the plaster of his heart to harden towards God…and then it became too late. God gave Him over to his own choices.

If you are reading along with us this year, perhaps Exodus chapters 7-11 also finds you grappling with some hard questions as I am. Questions like:

• Did Pharaoh harden his own heart…or did God harden it for him?
• Why can God hold Pharaoh responsible for his hard heart…when the Scripture says God himself did the hardening in some instances?
• If God is sovereign and planned to free the Israelites, then why were the plagues even necessary?
• Pharaoh confessed his sin, but then hardened his heart – what, then, is real confession?

I pray that this week’s teaching lecture will help answer some of these questions for you. You can follow the link below.

I am also praying that you and I are spurred on to keep our hearts soft and pliable and teachable before God.

Our lives on earth are for a finite amount of time. We have a seemingly short opportunity to respond to the call of Christ — to repent and bow to Him. Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him…”

If you have not yet opened the door of your heart to Jesus, why not make today the day that you respond to Him.

Hebrews 3:7-8 says, “So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Is your heart soft toward God? As a woman of God are you cooperating with God – allowing Him to paint your story as a part of His story…so that it is so adhered to Him that it cannot be separated? If you love Jesus, you are permanently and completely and forever His. You are a woman of God!

Here’s the link to the teaching lecture for Exodus 7-11 (Lesson 5 of our study):

http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-lesson-5-laura-macfarlan-10-9-14/

Graphic attribution and background information on the painting:  Wikipedia.com

That’s the abridged version. What Moses actually said to God in Exodus 5:22-23 is:

“O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me?
Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name,
he has brought trouble upon this people,
and you have not rescued your people at all.”

Moses obediently delivered the message to Pharaoh to let the people go, but instead of obliging, Pharaoh made life even more difficult for the Israelites. Now they would have to find their own straw and keep the same quota. He accused them of being lazy and the Israelites blamed Moses for their difficult circumstances.

Moses then does what we should all do when life is hard and life is not fair: he goes to God.

I think Moses thought getting the people out of Egypt would be a lot easier, a lot less painful, and come a lot more quickly. Are you and I looking to serve God only when it’s easy — and everything goes according to plan? Do we assume that wrinkles and problems mean we are out of God’s will or we have missed His directions?

Could God actually have a purpose for these challenges? Could He have a great purpose for the challenges you are facing?

James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

God will redeem even the trials – perhaps especially the trials – in our lives and use them to grow us and mature us. Let’s not waste the suffering but expect God to work in it.

I believe one of the reasons God allows difficult circumstances is so that we will acknowledge our great need for Him. Do you find yourself praying more when life is difficult than when life is seemingly good?

Moses finds himself in a dilemma. As a leader, he has an important task and he has hit a wall with fulfilling that task. He is frustrated. In his crisis of faith, he goes to God. He gets honest with God.

For some of us, Moses’ words in verses 22-23 seem almost disrespectful or irreverent. Have you ever been so completely honest with God – cried, whined, or wailed: “Hello, God– a little help please. I thought I was doing what you wanted down here, but it’s not working out so well. Where are you?”

I believe God welcomes the honest prayers of His child much more than the pious, syrupy, platitudes we offer when we string together phrases that are empty and meaningless.

Are you in the midst of a challenge that brings great pain…even confusion…and has you wondering, “God …where are you?”

The woman of God can be honest with God.

And why not? He knows it all anyway!

As we come to our great God with the hard things in our lives, we acknowledge Him as the great I AM. We acknowledge the circumstances are too much and the situation too great. We acknowledge our neediness and our dependence upon Him. And that is precisely where a leader needs to be — where a woman of God needs to be – wholly and completely dependent upon El Shaddai – God Almighty.

Exodus Audio Teaching Lectures:

Lesson 1: http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-1-and-2-laura-macfarlan-9-11-14/
Lesson 2: http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-lesson-2-laura-macfarlan-9-18-14/
Lesson 3: http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-lesson-3-laura-macfarlan-9-25-14/
Lesson 4: http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-lesson-4-laura-macfarlan-10-2-14/

“O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
Exodus 4:13

Up until this point Moses has asked questions – who, what, what if – and he has made excuses– I’m not a good speaker...but now he finally just comes out with it:

O Lord, please send someone else to do it.

Saying please does not make Moses any less of a shirker! And referring to God as LORD–while refusing to bow to His command–is a bit ironic. He is either Lord of everything in our lives or He is Lord of nothing.

Do you and I place limitations on God? Do we hold out on Him? Make excuses…hold back…look for every excuse possible to say no…until we finally just ask Him– albeit nicely – to send someone else?

Can I just please sit here on the bench coach? Would you please send someone else to bat?

And you know…sometimes He will do that. Sometimes the most sobering and most sad consequence is for God to give us what we ask for — to send someone else up to bat to hit our home run.

Perhaps you can look back and see some missed opportunities. Perhaps some scenes flash into your mind of you swinging your legs in the shady dugout…when you could have been swinging the bat and rounding the bases!

The woman of God accepts God’s assignments.

Is God calling you to bat? Would you resolve to get up and RUN to the batter’s box? Are you ready to get up in confident faith – knowing you can’t fail when He is your coach…your umpire….and even owns the team?

Sometimes God lets us wallow in our own choices – my West Virginia mama used to say, You made your bed – now you can just lie in it!

But sometimes our compassionate God will press in with His best for us and for others. That’s what He did with Moses and the Israelites. God’s anger with Moses was restrained. He accommodated Moses by sending his brother Aaron to help. And Moses (unwilling initially or not) accepted God’s assignment to GO.

Where is He sending you? If God is calling, it’s time to get up and GO.

Exodus Audio Teaching Lectures:

Lesson 1: http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-1-and-2-laura-macfarlan-9-11-14/
Lesson 2: http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-lesson-2-laura-macfarlan-9-18-14/
Lesson 3: http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-lesson-3-laura-macfarlan-9-25-14/

But the more they were oppressed,
the more they multiplied and spread….
Exodus 1:12

Oppression often brings growth. It was truth physically for the Israelites. And it’s true spiritually, as well.

This summer I read The Insanity of God by Nik Ripken. Mr. Ripken shares true stories from countries and people all over the world who obeyed God despite insane consequences.

Over and over I marveled at real-life stories of God working in unexpected ways – to see the Kingdom advance, as the persecution increased.

I loved Dmitri’s story out of Communist Russia.

Because the closest church was a three-day walk, Dmitri began a weekly time of reading and teaching the Bible to his wife and two sons. As neighbors took note, they asked to join in. When the group grew to 25, local party officials paid a visit and accused Dmitri of beginning an illegal church. They warned that continuing would bring bad things.

As the group grew to 50, 75, and eventually 150, so did the consequences to Dmitri and his family. His wife lost her teaching job, his boys were expelled from school, and he was physically beaten. Eventually, Dmitri was imprisoned for 17 years – all for reading and teaching the Word of God.

He was the only believer among 1500 hardened criminals. The isolation from the body of Christ, he shared later, was even more difficult than the physical torture.

He kept his faith strong during those 17 years because of two disciplines:

1. Every morning at daybreak he would stand at attention by his bed, raise His arms, and sing a HeartSong to Jesus.
2. Whenever he could find any scrap of paper, he would take a piece of charcoal or stub of pencil he found and write all the Bible verses he could remember.

Year after year, the guards would try to make him stop. The prisoners laughed, cursed, and jeered as he sang. They banged cups on the iron bars in protest and would sometimes even throw human waste at Dmitri.

The guards would yell at him for singing and beat him when they found His scripture.

One day Dmitri received a special gift he knew was from God – in the prison yard he found a whole sheet of white paper and a pencil beside it. He filled the page with all the Scripture he could recall. (I wonder…could you and I fill a page with verses from memory?)

As expected, he was beaten and punished by his jailor and this time threatened with execution.

As he was dragged down the corridor…an amazing thing happened. 1500 criminals stood at attention by their beds. They raised their arms and they began to sing the HeartSong they had heard Dmitri sing to Jesus every morning all those years.

The oppression led to multiplication.

Obedience to God brought economic, physical, and emotional consequences – great persecution — to not only Dmitri but also to his family.

Are and I willing to suffer to advance the Kingdom? Would we be willing to read and teach the Bible to our children and neighbors if these types of consequences could result?

How did so many Russian and Ukrainian believers remain strong in their faith through almost a century of communist persecution? How did they learn to live and die like they did? When Nik Ripken asked this question…here was their answer:
“We learned it from our mothers, our grandmothers, and our great-grandmothers. We learned it from our fathers, our grandfathers and our great-grandfathers.”

What are our children and grandchildren learning from us? We live in freedom — no fear of the type of persecution experienced by Dmitri and others like him.

But – have we given up in freedom what Dmitri refused to give up under persecution?

Let’s not wait for the oppression to bring the multiplication of our faith.

Let’s not go looking for oppression…but let’s not intentionally shy away from it either.

 
The woman of God knows oppression often brings multiplication.

How might God use you to grow His kingdom?

Here’s the link to this week’s teaching lecture – Exodus 1 and 2:

http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-1-and-2-laura-macfarlan-9-11-14/

Exodus: Journey to Freedom
Introduction

Welcome to our study of the book of Exodus. I’ll be teaching through this book weekly in my home church and blogging weekly on one truth gleaned from our study. You are welcome to study along (get a copy of the study here: http://joyofliving.org/product/exodus-adult-study-english/ ), listen along (I’ll post a link at the end of each weekly blog post to that week’s teaching lecture– see below for this week’s Introduction to Exodus), or just read the weekly blog.

The graphic of the tattered suitcase depicts us – women who have been through some hard stuff, are going through some hard stuff, and know hard stuff is yet to come. But we are also women who know and believe – or want to know and want to believe – that God can and will bring good through it all.

As we follow the journey of God’s people through the wilderness and note God’s faithfulness through every step, I pray each of us also has our individual hearts stirred to see the application to us personally.

I pray each of us is ready to travel. Ready to learn. Ready to follow Him and arrive at our destination next April…changed.

Our journey may require some pedaling hard — not much coasting — but hard things are worth it!

The name “Exodus” is literally translated exit or departure. The book of Exodus picks up where Genesis left off.  In the book of Genesis we studied creation and saw God working in the lives of one particular family – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. The family moved to Egypt when famine struck and then 200 years passed from the time of Joseph to the time of the new king when the book of Exodus opens.

Exodus chronicles the story of the Israelites being led out of bondage in Egypt and taken back to the Promised Land. We can view this book as a spiritual parable for our own personal journey.

The Israelites were captives – slaves to the King of Egypt. We are — or were — slaves to sin.

Moses led them out of bondage and to a place of freedom. Jesus came to deliver us from the bondage of sin and to lead us to live free.

When it came time for Moses to lead the people out, they had a choice: they could stay put…or they could follow Moses to freedom. In what area is God calling you to freedom….are you ready to step out and follow?

Paul reminded the Galatians:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1

As we launch our study of Exodus…would you ask God to reveal what areas of your life you are choosing to live under the yoke of slavery….rather than as the free woman you are?

The woman of God lives FREE!

Here’s the link to this week’s teaching lecture – an Introduction to our study of Exodus:

http://fbcsiloam.podbean.com/e/ladies-bible-study-exodus-introduction-laura-macfarlan-9-4-14/