The Plan I Have For You

Exodus 4:2-5 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.   The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.     “This,” said the Lord , “is so that they may believe that the Lord , the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.” This has been Vacation Bible School week at our church, and I've been teaching the 3-5 year old class.  If you haven't had that pleasure, lessons are fast paced, because if you get them to sit still longer than a couple of minutes you are doing great. Its also amazing to see how much they do absorb in such a short time, and how much they can remember later. Our lessons have focused on Moses.  We talke...

I'm celebrating my 40th birthday in just a few days. I thought by age 40, I would have my life figured out and expected to be settled into the plan God had prepared for my life.  That streamline path I expected has been more like a wandering experience, not knowing what would come next. Each time I seem to get "comfortable" in the role God has planned for my life, he seems to open another door into another area of the "wilderness." I know, you have been there too. I've been thinking about the Israelites 40 year journey out bondage into a land of freedom.  A straight route from point A to B would have been less than 250 miles, or about 2 weeks on foot.  So why did they spend 40 years in the desert?  Deuteronomy 8:2  says "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no...