Obedience // Moses

Moses is probably my favourite character in the Bible. He's such a cool guy!! Whenever I read his story I seem to get more and more little nuggets of information from it. And while reading it this week, I realised something;

Moses was obedient. 

But only to God. 

Moses was raised an Egyptian under Pharaoh's care, but turned away from his life of luxury when he realised that the Israelites, Gods chosen people, were being treated badly by the Egyptians. He turned away from all her knew to go and serve God.

Moses obeyed God when it was difficult, like when God asked him to asked him to go back to Egypt and speak to Pharaoh. He obeyed God when he had doubts about himself, like he had when God told him he was going to lead the Israelites. And most importantly, he obeyed God when the task ahead seemed impossible, like crossing the Red Sea. 

Every time Moses obeyed God, it had a positive effect on him, his faith, and his relationship with God. 

I pray that we can all have the strength and courage to stand up for God, to obey Jesus and follow the plan He has for us, even when it seems like the impossible thing to-do. 

Obedience // Abraham and Isaac

Our new topic for the next few weeks is obedience. Throughout this topic we will look at people in the bible, if they were obedient to God or not and what the consequences of their actions were.

So to start lets look at what obedience actually means.

First of all obedience is not negative, as you might think it is.
It doesn't mean to be passive, to just sit back, do nothing and let anything happen.
Obedience is a noun, it's a doing word.
It's something we are completely active in, it's one of the biggest life choices every one makes. And it's a choice everyone makes daily.
Most importantly, to be obedient is to love and to trust someone.

On to the first example of obedience we're going to look at in the bible:
Abraham and Isaac.

Found here in Genesis chapter 22, our story starts with a dialogue between Abraham and God. God calls Abraham and asks him to take his son - his only son - and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.
Now, in our bibles before we read this there is a little heading that says

'Abraham tested'

or words to that effect. So before we get to the bit about God wanting Abraham to kill his son we know in the end it's all probably going to be okay. Abraham didn't have this little heading for reassurance, he just had a command - that he followed.

As we read on we see that the next morning Abraham set out to the place God told him to go and after three days of travelling he leaves his servants and takes Isaac up to the place where God wants him to sacrifice his son.

In verse 6 we read that Abraham carried the fire(?!) and the knife while Isaac carried the wood on his back - this is very important.

Now, it's about at this point Isaac starts to get a bit suspicious of his dad. 

He says, 'Father? We have the wood, the fire and the knife for the burnt offering.... but where is the lamb?' 

Abraham answers with one of my favourite quotes 'God will provide a lamb for the offering'. 

Once they got to the top Abraham (somehow) tied up Isaac and laid him on the altar ready to sacrifice him. 

Abraham took out the knife, he got ready to kill his only son for God when suddenly,

'Abraham, Abraham'

A voice from heaven called out. 

'Don't hurt the boy. Now I know you fear God because you have not withheld me from your son, your only son.'

Then Abraham looked up and saw that God provided a lamb for Abraham so that he didn't have to sacrifice his son. 

Abraham was obedient to God, and because Abraham was obedient God helped Abraham and saved Isaac. He even provided a lamb that would be killed in Isaac's place! 

God even further blesses Abraham when later on in the same chapter he says that he will make Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore, and that his descendants would be prosperous. 

It's great to see how Abraham's obedience paid off, but could you be this obedient if God asked you to?

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Faith // How do we know God is real?

There's a guy in the Old Testament called Moses.

Now Moses was a pretty cool guy. He was born at a time where Pharaoh had decided there were too many Hebrew men, so wanted to kill the young Hebrew boys. Moses' mother hid him for as long as she could, but when he got too big she put him in a basket and sent him down the Nile (Crazy, right?)
He's then found by none other than Pharaoh's daughter(!!) and was raised as an Egyptian by a Hebrew woman who was his mother! When he's older, Moses decides to renounce being an Egyptian and suffer as the rest of the fellow Israelites do under the Egyptians hands. He gets married and it's all sorts of happy and fantastic.

Then when he's older, God speaks to Moses through a burning bush. He says

'And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt. ' (Exodus 3:9-10)

But Moses really doesn't want to do this. He starts by saying 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' and God says 'I will be with you.' (Exod 3:11-12)

Then Moses says: Who am I supposed to say sent me? and God says: 'I am who I am.' (Exod 3:13-14)

Then Moses says: What if they don't believe me? So God gives him 3 signs to preform if the Israelites didn't believe him. (4:1-9)

Then Moses, who's starting to feel a bit desperate, says: But I've never been a good speaker. And God, who I imagine is a bit fed up by now, says: Moses I made your mouth. I can give you the words to speak. (4:10-11)

And then Moses gives up on excuses, gives up on trying to worm his way out of going to Egypt to set the Israelites free turns to God and says: Lord, please send someone else. At which God looses it and is like: Moses I'm doing the flipping work! I just want you to go to Egypt and throw your stick on the floor!! (4:13-17)

God gave Moses 3 signs AND the words to say to Pharaoh but he still felt like he wasn't enough.

But Moses trusted in God.

Trust is a difficult word. It's hard to trust someone you can't see - harder than trusting someone you can. But trust is a verb, its a doing word. Trusting God is an active decision. You've got to chose to do it. And you have to keep choosing to do it. And that's how we know God is real.

We trust He's there, because we trust in Him.

Encouragement // Encouraging yourself

Throughout this months theme of encouragement, we're going to look at encouraging others and encouraging other Christians, but what about encouraging yourself?

In Ephesians 6:10 Paul speaks about the armour of God.

'Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put of the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.'

But, what does this have to do with encouraging yourself?

Well, this armour is what we need to be solid in Christ and to be ready to face the world outside of Christianity.
There's the -

• Belt of truth 
• Breastplate of righteousness 
• Feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace 
• Shield of faith
• Helmet of salvation 
• Sword of the spirit 

So how do we get all this awesome sounding armour?! 

Read your Bible 

Pray 

Focus on others 

That's right! 3 steps. 

By reading our Bibles, we get to know God, his love and his life. We also begin to ingest scripture to take with us, giving us our sword of the spirit, helmet of salvation, shield of faith, belt of truth and our feet will be set with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 

By praying, we build on our relationship with God and we learn to lean on him and not our own understanding. 

Focusing on Jesus and helping others (being selfless) fulfils the commandments that Jesus left with us; To love and help others and to make disciples of others. 

Being selfless also gives us the breastplate of righteousness. 

So that's it! Read your Bible, Pray and focus on others - the key to encouraging yourself closer to Jesus. 

Encouragement // Encouraging Others

Welcome back to Christian Union guys! Been a little bit of a long gap but at least we're back now, eh?

This month, our topic is Encouragement! (Yay!) 

So, What is encouragement? 

Encouragement is; 

• The action of giving someone support, confidence or hope.

In Romans 1:11 Paul says 

"I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."

The reason Paul wanted to go to Rome was to be encouraged! He saw the importance of being in each others company and that the act of being together with people could be encouraging. He even says that the small act of encouraging others could strengthen the Romans and himself. 

And that's how we should view our lives. When we come together with others, in a Christian Union, a church, a youth group or even school - we should always aim to encourage. We should gather with others to not only learn about the Bible but to learn about each other, and to learn from each other. 

So think back this past week, when did you say something nice to someone? When did you stop yourself from saying something hurtful? When did you encourage someone and mean it? 

Lets not sit back in a negative world and let darkness and cynical attitudes win. Lets strive to encourage.