Egypt in the Rear-View Mirror

I had an Israelite in the wilderness moment this week. You know the story. They were in brutal bondage to the Egyptians, forced to slave day after day in the mud pits and fields to make bricks for the Pharoah's building projects. Year after year they had called out to the Eternal for deliverance and year after year there was no answer. Finally, after many years of toil and hardship, through an amazing sequence of miraculous events, God delivered the Israelites from bondage. 

 They weren't more than a few weeks on the road out of Egypt when they began to staring into the rear view mirror, lamenting the life they had left behind. "We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt" they exclaimed, "the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" (Num. 11:5) 

 Their whining always seemed kind of ridiculous to me. How could people who had been so downtrodden desire to go back to that life? 

Well, this week the answer to that question became a little clearer and suddenly their whining, although definitely wrong, didn't seem quite so ridiculous anymore. 

 Last Monday I started a new job. It's a job that promises great opportunities for growth and development. It will allow me to work from home a couple of days a week, saving commute time and increasing the precious time I'm able to spend with my family. My wife actually found the job listing because she had sensed that I was growing weary and frustrated at my current job and new I was somewhat a square peg in a round hole there. I had held on for quite awhile, hoping things would turn around, that I would find my niche. But year after year, I just became more and more unhappy. So when the offer came, after long consideration, I accepted the position. 

 About mid-way through my first week at this new job a funny thing began to happen. I began to miss my old job. The office I had there was much bigger than my new space. The computer equipment wasn't as nice. I was informed that because of a deadline that had to be met by the end of October, I might have to work overtime for which, because I'm now salaried, I wouldn't receive any extra compensation, and to top it all off, there seemed to be more traffic congestion on my commute to work than I had experienced before. 

In the face of these new obstacles, the problems and frustrations I experienced at my old job faded from memory and mid week, I was feeling like I had made a big mistake...that is until my wife, upon listening to my distressed whining that Wednesday evening, lovingly reminded me of all of the reasons I had made the change. Thanks to her, and some time in prayer and reflection, I realized that these new obstacles were in fact minor compared to the benefits and opportunities this new job offers. I'm now more confident than ever that I made the right move. 

Now I spent only a day or so in distress over this crisis. Some people spend a great deal of their lives looking back at Egypt in the rear view mirror, lamenting over a life that could have been, should have been, had different decisions been made. It's a strange kind of slavery they subject themselves to. Paul says in Hebrews 12:1 "...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..." That's advice the Israelites would have done well to follow and advice that we need to be reminded of from time to time as well. A race car driver who spends all of his time looking in the mirror is not going to win many races. While we're on this road of life, we would do better to look ahead at where God is taking us, focusing on the hope for the future rather than looking back lamenting about what we have left behind. I finished this week much more upbeat than I had been on Wednesday. I'm still missing my old office but it's worth sacrificing for the chance to work in my pajamas a couple days. More important than that though, is that I'm now looking through the windshield instead of what's in the rear view mirror.

Spiritual Poison Ivy

Written by Tony Stith New Horizons Community Fellowship This week my daughter has been dealing with the effects of an encounter with poison ivy the week before. The right side of her face became almost unrecognizable as it became swollen and turned a bright shade of red. This vile plant grows prolifically on our three acre plot of land. Over the 13 years that we've lived here I've waged a battle to eradicate it from those parts of our property that we use and maintain. But even though you can't see evidence of it's existence above ground, it's root system, which seemingly never dies and extends like a vast network, continues to thrive in the soil underneath. We're fairly certain that it was from soil containing these roots that Courtney, while weeding a flower bed, came into contact with the stuff. The problem with poison ivy is that once it's on the skin it's almost impossible to stop it's damaging affects unless recognized and dealt with immediately. In very rare cases, exposure to large amounts of the plant's oil can cause complications that can lead to death. As we watched our daughter's face swell, we did become a little concerned that this was more than just an uncomfortable nuisance. After consulting the local nurse line and after doing some research, we did finally find some medicine (very expensive medicine I might add) that has done wonders in alleviating some of the discomfort and in helping to draw out the poison faster. It's still taking time to heal, but we aren't worried for our daughter's recovery. Paul writes in Romans 7:18 - 20 "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice." He continues in Rom 7:24 - 25 "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." As Christians we have had our senses trained by the Holy Spirit and by God's word to recognize sin. But, as Paul here recognized in his own life, even though we do our best to eradicate any vestiges of it from our lives, because we are human and because we live in a fallen world, we will never be able to completely keep ourselves from it's harmful affects. It's tentacles reach into areas we cannot see before we have fallen prey to it's poison. It still has the power to bring us under the death penalty. Paul, however, does reveal the antidote. There's only one way to be released from it's grip. We have the utlimate healing balm...and it's not expensive...it's freely given. It's the blood of our Savior who gave His life for us so that we could be released from the penalty of sin. We still, like my daughter, may have to suffer the consequences of sins affects in our life. We may need to let the infection run it's course. But it should be comforting to know that through the power of His blood, our ultimate healing is certain.