Acts 7:1-51 \/ 17-10<\/b>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.\u00a018\u00a0Then \u2018a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.\u2019\u00a019\u00a0He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.<\/i><\/p>\n
Family, we know that God continuously and always is blessing us.\u00a0 Even when we are going through the toughest trials God is with us, loving us and blessing us.\u00a0 God is good all the time and all the time He is good.\u00a0 God is faithful even if we have not been faithful.\u00a0 He decided to love us and He will love us to the day we die and for those who love Him, we will be loved by Him in His presence for eternity.\u00a0 God had made a promise to Abraham, he had told him \u201cDo not be afraid, Abram.\u00a0 I am your shield, your very great reward.<\/i>\u201d (Genesis 15:1<\/b>)\u00a0 Family, even to Adam and Eve, who ruled the world before the fall, the world and the things of it have never been our precious and high reward.\u00a0 It has never, not ever, been that way. The great promise of God is that He would love us and care for us and complete us as only He can.\u00a0 We greatly err when we think that the beauty of the earth, and of the things in it, including us, are our reward.\u00a0 No, many things in the earth God can bless us with but the true and highest reward that God has given us is Himself.\u00a0 That is why nothing else can complete us, can satisfy us, can bring us the joy and peace that God brings because we were created to have deep fellowship with God.<\/p>\n
King David wrote \u201c\u2026The LORD is my light and salvation-whom shall I fear?\u00a0 The LORD is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid?\u201d (Psalm 27:1<\/b>).\u00a0 What can man take away from us?\u00a0 Our income, our homes, our friends, our loved ones?\u00a0 Yes, all this can happen but it is not the determination of man.\u00a0 All is in God\u2019s control.\u00a0 The question is whether or not God is our greatest treasure.\u00a0 Some may say \u201cAs long as I have my dear spouse, though I have nothing else, I will be happy.\u201d\u00a0 However, although we may love our spouse more than our own life, we have no control over how many years we will have our spouse with us.\u00a0 If the spouse is our highest love, and then dies, then what?\u00a0 Do we become a lost and hurt soul that no longer knows its purpose?\u00a0 Do we become a soul that has lost all purpose for life?\u00a0 No, we hurt at the loss but we are thankful that the greatest love of our life, God Almighty, is with us and we can never be separated from Him because He has said so!\u00a0 We walk by faith and not by sight! (2 Corinthians 5:7<\/b>)\u00a0 We know He is with us because He has said so (Matthew 28:20, Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5<\/b>).\u00a0 Yet, it is deeper than that.\u00a0 We should know \u201cHis voice.\u201d (John 10:27<\/b>)\u00a0 We should have a relationship with God and we should be aware of His loving hand upon us.\u00a0 God wants us to know of His love by His Word and also by the experience of walking in His love.\u00a0 Whatever may come, we are not broken because He is with us.<\/p>\n
In the midst of the hardest trials He is with us and can prosper us.\u00a0 While living in Egypt He kept His promise to Israel and continued to prosper and grow Abraham\u2019s descendants.\u00a0 Even being slaves under cruel men, nothing could prevent God from growing and blessing Israel, and in the right time, delivering the Jews from their now cruel captors.\u00a0 Family, no one can take from us what God promises us and the highest promise we have is that through Jesus Christ we will forever be loved and protected by God, and because of Jesus we will one day be forever with Him (John 14:2<\/b>)<\/p>\n
A people, or a person, may find favor in man, but that is a blessing from God and only He is the originator of the blessing.\u00a0 We are grateful for the kindness of others but God is the originator of all blessings (James 1:17<\/b>).\u00a0 Thank people for kindness, but know that the greatest gratitude belongs to God.<\/p>\n
Family, let us be wise and see without sentimentality the situation that surrounds us.\u00a0 Let us accurately assess the times we live in.\u00a0 We believers have been blessed in this land, but now the generation that we live in has forgotten the blessings that God has given this land through His people.\u00a0 That the rights and freedoms came not through ungodly men but through people who loved and sought after God.\u00a0 This generation has grown to hate our God and so hate us.\u00a0 The rulers of this land espouse evil beliefs.\u00a0 Some have stated that children belong to the government and not to the parents.\u00a0 That children are given to the parents to raise at the blessing of the government.\u00a0 Now men moved by evil are increasingly demanding the death of babies.\u00a0 Sound familiar?\u00a0 Yes, we are following the same pattern as Egypt.\u00a0 The new leaders don\u2019t know, they don\u2019t believe in the greatness of God.\u00a0 Many new leaders have no regard for God or His people.\u00a0 In fact, many despise God\u2019s people.\u00a0 A famous quote by writer and philosopher George Santayana is \u201cThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.\u201d\u00a0 Egypt and its leaders paid a big price for forgetting how blessing came to their land.\u00a0 God blessed their land through Joseph.\u00a0 God blessed our land because of His children and how He would use them to bless others.\u00a0 In the past, like Pharaoh of Egypt, our leaders understood that it was God and not man or anything else that blessed our land.\u00a0 Now our leaders do not acknowledge God, the one True God, and they even insist and demand on the right to kill children, just like Egypt.\u00a0 Family, pray for our nation.\u00a0 Let us not battle against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities (Ephesians 6:12<\/b>).\u00a0 Let us pray for the will of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit to rule in this land.\u00a0 Let us love and pray for souls to be saved.\u00a0 In this is the hope for our land and so much more.\u00a0 Such favor only comes from God.\u00a0 Moses was a type of Jesus as God used him to deliver the Jews.\u00a0 Jesus delivered all mankind.\u00a0 Jesus is coming back and will deliver again, let\u2019s pray that all of us, throughout our lands, shall be faithful and looking for His return.\u00a0 Woe to those who are not.\u00a0 God is good and He is our hope.\u00a0 Praise our good, righteous, and loving God who keeps us unto that day.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 Praise God every day and every way!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 7:1-51 \/ 17-10\u00a0\u2013\u00a0As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.\u00a018\u00a0Then \u2018a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.\u2019\u00a019\u00a0He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,129,1872,1841,1865,104,1700,100,101,94,17],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-corinthians","tag-deuteronomy","tag-ephesians","tag-genesis","tag-hebrews","tag-james","tag-john","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1516,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions\/1516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}