No one will object to yesterday’s blog on “A Day’s Portion Every Day,” EXCEPT for the encouragement to do it early. I hear your cry. Not everyone is at their best in the morning, and, for sure, if another time of day is better for you, go for it.

However, I am reminded of a sermon I heard from J. Oswald Sanders (not to be confused with Oswald Chambers). Dr. Sanders was the long-time head of China Inland Mission. I heard him preach when he was in his late 80s and still bringing it with gusto. He told a story that went something like this:

Someone asked me once, “Dr. Sanders, will you pray that God will help me get out of bed in the morning to have my quiet time?” I replied, “I will NOT! I will pray that if you can get one foot out of bed, God will help you get the other.”

His point was, the daily meeting with God is a discipline, no matter what time you do it.

Train yourself for godliness. (1 Timothy 4.7, ESV)

Continuing with our theme of ASK / ACT, asking God to do what only he can do, while taking the actions that he wants us to take, I can’t pass Exodus 16 without thinking of a little pamphlet written years ago by Stephen Olford: Manna in the Morning. It seems to be out of print now, but he was comparing the manna of Exodus 16 to our daily time with God.

I have since read other authors who argue that it’s not the best analogy since manna was temporary and after a while, the Israelites didn’t even like it (see Numbers 11.4 – 8). But Jesus, the living Word of God, compared the manna to himself as the Bread of Life:

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. (John 6.48, 49, ESV)

So what are the lessons from Exodus 16? They are simple:

The people asked for food (actually they grumbled about not having food!), and God provided. But God didn’t put it into their mouths – they had to go out and gather it:

And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day…” Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted. (Exodus 16.2 – 4, 21 ESV)

A day’s portion every day, gathered early before it melted. Pretty simple. The analogy to our daily time with God is obvious. The Word is here. Anyone in the US can have a copy in the translation of their choice. But God won’t pour it into our brains and hearts. We have to:

• Get up and read it.
• Get up and read it early.
• Get up and read it every day.
• Put what we read into practice. (Gathering manna wasn’t enough – the Israelites actually had to make meals out of it and eat it!)

But [Jesus] answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4.4, ESV)

Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 8.34, 35, ESV)

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up. (Psalm 5.3, NKJV)

We’ve been observing that God chooses to do his work by co-laboring with us. Sometimes that takes the form of prayer on our part, releasing God’s power into a situation. Sometimes he wants us to move out in faith as the Israelites did in crossing the Red Sea. Other times he may want us to take a symbolic action.

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. (James 5.14, NIV, emphasis mine)

Here’s a simple illustration involving God’s power and our prayer. I’m sitting in my den, and when I walked into the room, I switched on the overhead light. Did the light come on because I threw the switch? No, the light came on because:

• There is a wire running from the switch to the light fixture.
• The bulbs in the light fixture are in working order.
• There is electricity coming into the house from the outside.
• That electricity is wired to the switch and the light fixture.

However, even with all that infrastructure and power, the overhead light won’t come on UNTIL I throw the switch.

Is prayer like that?

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7.7, 8, NIV)

Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the LORD; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it. Thus says the Lord GOD: “This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock.” (Ezekiel 36.36, 37, ESV) [God’s power…waiting for Israel to ask]

We observed yesterday that God did his work, specifically the plagues against Egypt, by co-laboring with Moses and Aaron. The theme continues after the Passover and the Exodus when the Israelites were seemingly trapped between Egypt and the Red Sea, and Pharaoh decided to come after them. The people were afraid, and Moses gives this stirring exhortation:

And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Exodus 14.13, 14, ESV)

What a speech: stirring, inspiring…and wrong. Look at God’s response:

The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. (Exodus 14.15, 16, ESV)

There is a time for prayer, and there is a time for action. ASK / ACT. In this case, it’s ACT! How did the Israelites escape through the Red Sea?

• Moses lifted his staff. If Moses doesn’t lift his staff, the waters don’t part.
• God parted the waters. If God doesn’t part the waters, it doesn’t matter that Moses lifted his staff.
• The people walked through. If the people don’t walk through, it doesn’t matter that the waters were parted.

ASK / ACT – God’s power / Our action. I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. (Mark 2.3 – 12, NIV)

I’m reading about the plagues, Exodus chapters 7 – 12, and it’s interesting to note the cooperation between Moses and Aaron and the Lord. For example, here’s the first one:

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.”’” And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’” (Exodus 7.14 – 19, ESV, emphases mine)

God could have just done what he wanted, but in some cases, like the one above, he asks Moses to stretch out his staff. In one case Moses threw dust into the air. In some cases, Moses prays to start and/or stop the plagues. In all cases, there is communication with Pharaoh. 

It’s a good lesson on co-laboring with God. God can do whatever he wants, but he prefers to work with and through people. Prayer is part of it. Communication is part of it. Symbolic gestures are part of it.

We see the same lesson in Jeremiah 29.7:

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (ESV)

Couldn’t God bless the city without their prayer? But he chooses to have us co-labor through prayer. I’ll continue this theme tomorrow.

I wrote on January 29 that the gospel of Jesus’ Kingdom was and is very inclusive. I just noticed a concrete example in Acts 16:

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us. (Acts 16.14, 15, ESV)

Recall the inclusive list in Galatians 3.28:

• Jews and Greeks
• Slave and Free
• Male and Female

And what is Lydia? Greek, Free (and wealthy), Female.

The same day I read Acts 16, I read Matthew 11 where we find:

[Jesus said, ] “Why is it that when John came to you, neither feasting nor drinking wine, you said, ‘He has a demon in him!’? Yet when the Son of Man came and went to feasts and drank wine, you said, ‘Look at this Man! He is nothing but a glutton and a drunkard! He spends all his time with tax collectors and other affluent sinners.’” (Matthew 11.18, 19, TPT)

TPT translates verse 19 as “other affluent sinners” when most translations just say, “tax collectors and sinners.” But we know tax collectors were wealthy, and the TPT note says that “affluent” comes from the Hebrew version.

The point is that although Jesus came to preach to the poor (see Luke 4.16 – 21), he didn’t neglect the wealthy.

And just Paul pledged to remember the poor (Galatians 2.9, 10), God gave him fruit among the wealthy as well.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. (1 Corinthians 1.26, ESV) Queen Elizabeth is reported to have said, “I’m saved by an m. It doesn’t say ‘not any were noble.’ It says ‘not many….'”

As we go into tomorrow’s Super Bowl featuring the great young quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, and the great old quarterback, Tom Brady, it’s fun to see what they said about Mahomes when he was drafted:

10. Patrick Mahomes, QB Texas Tech — Kansas City Chiefs (from Buffalo)

Grade: C-

Analysis: Calling Mahomes a project is a major understatement. He’s nowhere near ready to play in the NFL. And, honestly, he may never be. Between his inconsistent accuracy due to poor mechanics, his tendency to bail from clean pockets and his lack of field vision, he’s going to leave as many big plays on the field as he creates. This was a risky pick.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/04/2017-nfl-draft-grades-picks-analysis-results

For that matter, Tom Brady was drafted 199th in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft. 

Don’t let the experts fool you. They would have missed these picks too:

• Joseph as ruler of Egypt – too arrogant, and in Egypt, the wrong nationality
• David to be king – 8th son, probably the result of an affair
• Jeremiah as a prophet – too young (Jeremiah 1:7)
• Jesus’ original disciples (See Matthew 10.1 – 4)
  • Fishermen? Are you kidding?
  • A tax collector AND a tax protester?
  • All Galileans except Judas Iscariot from Judea – probably the smartest in the bunch
• Saul of Tarsus – hotheaded persecutor

Formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. – Paul, 1 Timothy 1.13

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16.7, ESV)

I just have one more comment to make on Heather Holleman’s 4 Ways to Move Forward in February, and it’s on the last one:

If we’ve gone ahead of God in January–perhaps with unwise choices or alliances–we can pray that God “releases [our] foot from the snare” (Psalm 25:15), that we can live free from condemnation (Romans 8:1), and that God would mercifully make “all things work for good” (even our mistakes). 

Maybe because I’ve done so much thinking and writing of the events of January 6, but I can’t help but believe that Heather also knows people who are at least in sympathy and maybe involved with the rioters. “…gone ahead of God…unwise choices or alliances.”

No matter what our unwise choices, there is good news. She suggests a three-part remedy:

• Pray that God releases our foot from the snare:

My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare. (Psalm 25.5, NIV)

• Pray that we live into our freedom from condemnation:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8.1, 2, NIV)

• Pray that God will make all things work for good – even our mistakes:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8.28, NKJV)

As I wrote last week, no matter who we are or what we have done, God is forgiving and compassionate and wants our next action to be in the right direction.

You are my dear children, and I write these things to you so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we continually have a forgiving Redeemer who is face-to-face with the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2.1, 2, TPT)

¹⁰  He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹²  as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
¹³  As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
¹⁴  For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103.10 – 14, ESV)

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, ESV)

Here’s another of Heather Holleman’s wisdom for February principles:

Lots of activity isn’t the same as bearing eternal fruit for God’s kingdom. We’re told in John 15 to abide with Him because apart from Jesus we “can do nothing.”

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15.5, ESV)

Avoiding lots of activity goes with yesterday’s “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” Again, my friend Skip Gray used to quote the Apostle Paul this way:

This one thing I do…not these 14 things I dabble in. – Skip Gray on Philippians 3.13.

I wrote back in May that Dr. Greg Ogden (among many others) advocates that churches be “laser-focused” on making disciples. However, churches and their members (us!) are often busy – read, “activities” – but not fruitful. Heather Holleman’s warning is a good one:

Lots of activity isn’t the same as bearing eternal fruit for God’s kingdom.

And we are called to fruit – not, just activity.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. (John 15.16, NIV)

Yesterday I shared Heather Holleman’s 4 Ways to Move Forward with Wisdom for February Here’s the first one:

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Jesus said “no” to certain tasks often (Mark 1:35-38). Jesus also followed the exact instructions of the Father and did not go beyond this (John 14:31).

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” (Mark 1.35 – 38, ESV)

I couldn’t agree more with that principle: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. My Navigator hero Skip Gray used to say,

The need does not constitute the call.

Once a church asked me to serve on the Christian Education Committee. I declined. I explained to them, “While you all are talking about Christian education, I intend to be doing it. I can’t both teach and attend meetings talking about teaching.”

June and I have learned over the years that if we commit to four things that “meet only once/month,” we’ve just accepted a weekly commitment! And too many commitments means that it’s harder to live with the margin that Jesus lived with, as I’ve written about before.

So, thanks to Heather Holleman for that reminder:

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1.9 – 11, ESV, emphasis mine)