WHEN THE WAY SEEMS DARK

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"All of you that honor the Lord

and obey the words of his servant,

the path you walk may be dark indeed,

but trust in the Lord,

rely on your God."

-Isaiah 50:10 (GNB)

WHICH WAY AM I LOOKING?

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Just like us old kids, they are looking back.

You know how it is around us old people.

We all look back into the past. The great things we did when we were younger

and life was so much better than now.

But now we are too old to do anything.

It is never encouraging to be around people who are living in the past.

For myself, regardless of what stage of life, the most depressing times have been

when I'm not looking forward to something.

God gave me as word of encouragement this morning.

He (God) was speaking to the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah.

"But the Lord says,

'Do not cling to events of the past

or dwell on what happened long ago.

Watch for the new thing I

am going to do....."

-Isaiah 43:18 (GNB)

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Other places God tells us to remember what he has done for us.

Then we can thank him for it. And, realize that he can and will help us again.

But God does not want us to dwell in the past,

but take him by the hand and move on into the future,

regardless of the situation we are in now.

I'm looking forward to what God is going to do

for me next.

AM I USELESS ENOUGH FOR GOD TO USE?

Moses "...was taught all of the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in words and deeds."

-Acts 7:22 (TEV)

This is outstanding. Here is God's chosen man;

educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,

a great man in words,

a great man in deeds.

He is in the prime of life, forty years old (v.23).

And he knew what his God given mission was (v25).

I have read that Josephus gives an account of Moses even being general of an Egyptian army.

Wow! What a man to lead God's people out.

But God could not use him like that.

God had to send him to the desert for forty more years to get all the wisdom of the world out of him.

And as God does with all his outstanding saints,

Break him.

After forty years we see in the account of the burning bush, (Exodus ch. 4)

that Moses could not even talk well any more.

We see a man whose self esteem was shattered.

[Sorry, but even self esteem can get in the way.]

Moses is finally a "nothing".

Now God can use him.

Remember Peter?

Bold and confident. Going to follow Christ to death it's self.

But with his denial of Christ it broke him.

He cried like a baby and then went back to fishing.

Or the apostle Paul.

A proud Pharisee trained at the feet of Gamaliel.

But on the road to Damascus busted, brought to nothing.

Now that you have all of your degrees,

titles,

abilities

and experience.

Are you read to serve God?

It might hurt.

Let's learn from the apostle Paul.

"But to keep me from being puffed up with pride because of the many wonderful things I saw, I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan's messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud. Three times I prayed to the Lord about this and asked him to take it away. But his answer was; 'My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are week.' I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

-2 Corinthians 12:710 (TEV)