PLEASE SEND SOMEONE ELSE

Today’s Reading: Exodus 3-4

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion on the right-hand side).

An image of Pharaoh and his story in Hieroglyphics. The lives of the people of Egypt and those of Israel were intertwined for 400 years.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where Reynold took the photo, Click HERE.

Key Verse: Exodus 4:13

But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”

Moses was 40 when he tried to protect his people with his own strength, killing the Egyptian who was cruel to the Hebrew workers. Now he’s 80. Instead of living as a son of the royal household of Egypt, he’s had 40 more years as a shepherd, working for his Father-in-law and raising a family. Is he ready to lead in the deliverance of the Children of Israel from slavery? According to God, “Yes.” According to Moses, “No.” Just think of all God has done to prepare Moses. There was the miraculous rescue by Pharaoh’s daughter; his Hebrew early childhood education in his parents’ home; his ongoing education in the palace in all the ways of the Egyptians; the supernatural revelation of the burning bush; the signs he asked for; the Name of God given to him, “I am that I am;” and now he still doesn’t think he’s up to the job. When God calls us, there is only one acceptable answer, “YES, LORD.” Today, let us go through the doors God opens. Failure to do so will displease God, as was recorded of Moses in Exodus 4:14.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, here I am by Your grace. May I never try to do Your work on my own. I need You desperately. I praise You for the ways in which You’ve prepared me for today’s challenges. Let’s go forward. I pray this in the Name of Jesus who obeyed You 100%. Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

Back in the early 1970’s at our family altar, my son Reynold, our blog photographer, prayed night after night for at least 2 weeks, “O God, please help Daddy to help those poor children in India.” Somehow his heart had been touched by their need. I would mumble under my breath something like this, “Lord, I’ve got enough to do, please send someone else.” I was awakened in the middle of the night by a very insistent telephone ringing over and over. Finally, I got up, went downstairs to the phone, and gave a half-awake grumpy “Hello.” The voice on the other end said, “David, it’s Mark Buntain in Calcutta. I’ve got 800 children to feed and school, and I’ve just received a cable message that we’ve been cut off from our funding. Can you help me?” Within a month, through our weekly Crossroads Telecast (before “100 Huntley Street”) we raised sponsors for over 1,000 children, increased the monthly amount Mark received per child, and turned the sponsors over to the organization with the lowest operational overhead costs at the time, World Vision of Canada. That experience introduced World Vision to the effectiveness of using TV to raise child sponsorships.

Yours for obedience to God’s call,

David

P.S. Over 40 years have passed since God answered Reynold’s prayers to help the children in India. He and his wife Kathy are in Africa where God has called them to teach and encourage biblical unity between followers of Jesus from various church denominations and tribes…to see people move from stranger to friend and friend to family, and also to see them bring transformation to their communities (click here for an overview of their World Embrace ministry).