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Email # 8 (May)

I've been reading Exodus lately, and it got me thinking about some things.

We're gonna jump to Exodus chapter one in a moment. It's such a great book. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend reading it some time. And if you have read it, why not read it again? It's such an amazing book!

The book of Exodus tells the story of Moses and His journey leading the Israelites through the wilderness, towards Canaan, the promised “land”. They did some great things, but they also failed at a lot of things too. Later on in the New Testament, Paul makes it clear to us that the story is there for a reason, and it's for our benefit! (1 Corinthians 10:11.) There are many things you can learn from their story, that you can apply to your own personal life. Primarily though, we can apply the lessons to the church as a whole. After all, the Israelites were a group of people journeying together! But I digress...

Let's look at the start of the book: The Israelites, (because of Joseph), are now occupying Egypt.

Exodus 1:7-13:

...the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.
So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly.

The reason Pharaoh and the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites is because they were scared of them! He knew what they could become if they began to discover who they were and what they were called to do. (The Israelites were (and still are) a special group of people with a great calling on them as a nation.)

That's a lot like Christians today! The enemy has oppressed Christians in a number of ways, ultimately because he's scared of what they can achieve if they knew who they are and what they're called to do.

Obviously, in some ways, the church (corporate) has made heaps of ground. If you're a Christian, you're on the winning team. But we still have a long way to go! There are a quite a few ways that Christians are like the Israelites in the verses above!

He has oppressed Christians today through sin, boredom, religion, apathy, wrong mindsets, just to name a few. But when we get free... look out!! Look out devil, God's people are on the rise!!!

All it took for the Israelites, was for Moses to come along. Guess what? Jesus has come along!!! He has set us free! We have everything we need (and truly desire) in Him!!! But the devil's tricked us into going back in to believing a lie... and by believing him, we've gone back to living in oppression. We've gone back in to sin, harmful-habits, routines that are not going anywhere, a life void of the Spirit of God, and this leads to narrow/small thinking, it often leads to negative/critical thinking.. No wonder we're so bored in church!

But let's not be discouraged by what's lacking! Focus on what God is doing... He's raising you up. He's preparing you for something. He's testing and developing you're character. And one of the ultimate tests is this: what are you going to do, with things the way they are? Are you going to stay connected with the body? Continue to gather? (That's one important thing.) Keep serving? (As God's called you to...) Submit to human authority? Let's keep doing all of those things and more. And if you've found yourself out of fellowship, for whatever reason... you need to go back! Church is where you belong! If you want to be a part of what God is going to do in the future, you need to join in with what God is doing now. That's crucial! But I digress...

Ok, with that in mind... let's look back to the story of Exodus, and what it could mean to us today:

Once again, Pharaoh, and the Egyptians, knew what the Israelites could become. That's why they oppressed them so much. In the same way, Satan is quaking in his boots about what the church can become. Sure, he's going to be up to a few things himself in the future (have you read the book of Revelation?), but the bottom line is, God is at work. He's bringing the kingdom, and He's doing it through His body, you and me. God had called the Israelites to conquer, and then occupy a place called Canaan, a land “flowing with milk and honey”. This can mean many things to us today. It could apply to you personally in a specific way right now, and it could also apply to the church (corporate), seeing multitudes of people saved and discipled (that's a fantastic example). For now though, let's say that our “promised land”, is to see Christians occupying the positions of influence that they are specifically called to... including major positions of influence in the media and the arts.

So to start with, let's make a few things clear:

1. This is going to happen.

The devil doesn't like it, but what God has spoken, is going to come to pass. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18) and in the same way, God is raising up people to occupy these positions, and the enemy is not going to be able to stop it. Once again, the devils raising up things as well. (Revelation 13 for example - I'm not unaware of what the bible says about the end-time activity of the devil, written about here and other places in the bible.) Right now though, I'm highlighting the fact that God is up to something much greater. What God is building, no demon can stop.

2. It is going to take a lot of hard work on our part

Whatever you are called to do, “do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men” (Col 3:23). Diligence is not a dirty word in the bible. It says:

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage...” (Prov 21:5)

“The hand of the diligent will rule” (Prov 12:24)

“He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Heb 11:6)

We need to be careful not to get caught up in thinking “if God wants it to happen, it'll happen...” God said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand...” (Josh 6:2) – that's God the Calvinist talking. But the Israelites still had to do something to get it done! They still had to follow God's plan (see Josh 6:3-5), and then be diligent to finish off the job (Josh 6:21).

We need to be Holy Spirit filled, Jesus following Armenian’s. (I'm deliberately using words to provoke thought...) Basically, let's follow God's leading and go for it!!!

If you are, a) Seeking God b) under covering (leadership @ church), staying connected to “the body”/”the church” and c) seeking God, you almost can't go wrong. Proverbs 3:5-6 gives us comfort that we can indeed trust God to guide our paths, we just need to take some steps.

3. We do need to be strategic.

Every so often, we need to stop, and take a look at where we are currently at, and where we're heading. If we look at the example of the Israelites again, they didn't just waltz in to the promised land without any prior planning or thinking things through. They were required to trust God for the victory. But we also see that God told Moses to send out men to scout out the land, find out what it was like in there, and bring back some of the fruit. (Numbers 13:17-18)

(On this note - I believe that there are men and women of God today, that have gone in to the film industry, and found some success, but in a sense they have just been “spying out the land” so to speak. There is one man in particular whom I believe this specifically applies to. These people are coming back with a good report, and some fruit (like verse 27). We need to be like Joshua and Caleb, who know that it's not up to us and our strength. They were the ones that said: “...He will bring us into this land.” (Num 14:7-8).)

Even so, we need to listen to these people, and find out about the culture we are in, or want to be in. When it comes to the media, and “the arts”, there are many different sub-cultures and things that are worth knowing about. Allow God to prepare you for that “culture” as such. If someone gives you a cool hat, wear it!

All of this is not going to come easy, but you can guarantee it will happen. If my eschatology is correct, (and I believe it is), we are going to see lot's of crazy stuff go down in the future, but the stuff that God is doing in the media/arts etc is going to be infinitely more compelling, fun, interesting, and exciting than anything that comes from the enemies camp. Whether you believe the beast and the dragon in Revelation are partially fullfilled prophecies or not, they suck compared to what God's going to do in the days ahead!

What's your role to play? Where do you fit in with what God's doing?

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”

“...With God on our side like this, how can we lose?”