There is a tremendous responsibility for a mother to raise up a child in the love and admonition of the Living God. (See Proverbs 22:6)

I thank God for the example we have in Jochebed, the mother of Moses. We read about her, her husband Amram, and Moses in Exodus 2:1-10. However, in Hebrews 11:23, we discover the reason for her actions - she moved in faith! "By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict." (NIV)

Although we know little about Jochebed, we can learn much about her faith in God to surrender her child into His hands. She placed Moses in a well-prepared and sealed papyrus basket into the dangerous and crocodile-filled Nile River (symbolic of our present world).

Acting on faith, this mother was moved to release her son unto God's care. She did not now he would be the very man God would use to deliver Israel after 400 years of bondage and enslavement. What a mother of faith! What a child of God!

Change is strange for most of us. We get "comfortable" in our habits, our thoughts, and our behaviors. Many times, those things are full of broken ways that keep us in the grip of sin.

Break free! Get on your face before God and ask for that "new life" and "new creature" existence God tells us about.

2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that if any man is in Christ he is a new creature and the old things start passing away. "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

This message of the new nature is not a dark and dire message ... it is a message of supreme hope! The Spirit of God can accomplish a life-changing transformation for anyone who comes to Jesus and remains bound to Him.

God's kind of change – oh, yeah – that's worth all the coins in the world!

​(Romans 6-8; Ephesians 4:4-6, 4:23-24; Ephesians 1:13-14, 2:4-10)

All who have come to know Jesus Christ have been saved to serve.

Isaiah was a humble and devoted prophet of God in his time. He even saw the King, the Lord of Hosts seated on a throne in glory, majesty and splendor (See Isaiah 6:1-8).

During this time before the Lord, Isaiah heard the Lord say, “’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” But to whom was Isaiah being sent? He was to go to a rebellious nation who had forsaken the Lord, urging them to repent and turn back to the Living God.
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Today, we are living in a degenerate world of moral decay and decline, and many are calling evil good and good evil - just as it was in Isaiah's time. They are substituting darkness for light and light for darkness and substituting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (See Isaiah 5:20).

For so many, the annual pilgrimage to church occurs on Easter Sunday, perhaps out of tradition or feelings of guilt if they do not attend.

But what do the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ mean to you? What is the significance of the power of God to raise His Son from the Dead, and is it relevant in your life today?

Let's visit what the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus meant to Paul in Philippians 3:10-11, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being confirmed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Paul diligently sought to know Jesus - not intellectually, but experientially and intimately in his daily walk. He hungered for and pursued God for a flow of the Holy Spirit that the life of Jesus would be seen in him and witnessed by others. All his passion was due to the identification, ownership, and commitment he had to Jesus who had surrendered His life for him.

How about you? Are you experiencing and encountering the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in your life today? Remember - He arose that you may live!

​Some time ago, when our children were younger and still at home, Shirley and I decided to have our entire family “take a break” from TV. Shirley put a note on front of the television that read, “The view gets better when you look up.” One day, a pre-teen nephew was visiting. He read the sign that could not be missed and looked up with a curious and puzzled expression, seeing nothing but a ceiling. It was a humorous yet a great teaching moment.
 
As Christians, we are encouraged, admonished, and warned by God to “Set your mind (affection) on things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:2-3)
 
Paul also speaks of the miraculous change in his life and how he viewed life after his conversion. He said, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.”. (Philippians 3:8)
 
How about you? Are you willing and desirous to look up to Jesus and enjoy the view He has for you?

It’s such an assurance to know that what God promises He will always bring to pass. (See Romans 4:16-22.) The Lord also appeared to Paul and, standing by his side, told him that as he had been a faithful witness in Jerusalem, so he must also witness at Rome. (Acts 23:11)
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Sure enough, and directed by the Holy Spirit, Paul sailed from Jerusalem to Rome in very violent and stormy seas. It was dark with no sunshine for two weeks. It was cold and rainy, and the ship was battered and fragile. The 276 men aboard grew hopeless and in great fear of losing their lives.

However, Paul was encouraged and confident upon receiving a message from an angel of God that he would stand before Caesar and that all on board would live. Paul announced to all on board, “Keep up your courage men, for I believe God, that it will turn out exactly as I have been told.” (Acts 27:24-25)

Yes, there is an assurance in knowing Jesus; an assurance that proclaims that I know where I came from, I know what I am doing here on earth, and I am confident to know where I am going – no matter the storms and trials I encounter.

​We learn from Exodus 34 that Moses descended from Mt. Sinai, having met with God, and holding two stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments. Because Moses’ face was aglow with the glory of God, he would put a veil over his face when speaking with the Hebrew people and remove it when meeting with God in the tabernacle’s Holy of Holies.
 
Today, however, the veil is removed through Jesus Christ and, in His name, we have access to God’s throne where we can receive an abundance of mercy and grace. (Hebrews 4:16) This access into the presence of God with unveiled face has given us the ability to commune with God and to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).
 
When Jesus was crucified, the veil (curtain) in the temple was torn from top to bottom symbolizing the opening of a new and living way directly into the presence of God (Matthew 27:51).
 
With hope in your heart, and no matter the hardships and trials you will continue to face, go forward trusting God to transform you into the glorious image of His Son.

Perhaps many of us have heard this expression before and understand its meaning. Good intentions alone will never accomplish the reality of getting something done. Jesus said, “Why call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not what I say?” (Luke 6:46-49) He also declared, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)
 
Yes, preparation (cutting bait) is important if you intend on catching fish, but there comes a time when you must go fishin’, cast off and venture out to sea to receive and harvest your prize.
 
When God gave the command to move out and conquer Canaan, He expected obedience. With very few exceptions, Joshua and Caleb, they were rebellious and never “budged an inch.”
 
By refusing to obey God, the people were sent into the wilderness to “cut bait” for another 40 years before the next generation could enter the Promised Land.
 
Go fishin’ – put your faith into action and prove yourself to be a doer of the word, not merely a hearer who deceives himself. (See James 1:22)

​In 2011, an 8.9 earthquake and tsunami in Japan were an ominous reminder of the power and force of nature. Similarly, there are spiritual tsunamis that can and do take place in our lives today. The key to surviving these storms is preparation through faith in Jesus Christ.
 
In Luke 6:46-49, Jesus spoke of the parable of the two foundations. He said, “Everyone who comes to Me, and hears My words, and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like.” Jesus goes on to explain that one man dug a foundation deep to the rock and when the flood came and burst against his house, the storm did not destroy it because it had been well built.
 
There was another man who also heard His words but did not act on them. This man was like a man who built a house on ground without any foundation and this man’s house collapsed with great ruin when the storm burst against it.
 
The only way to tsunami-proof your life today is to ACT on God’s Word and build your life on the solid rock of Jesus Christ who will never be destroyed.

​As we continue to reflect on Numbers 13 and 14, we see that Joshua and Caleb had just returned from Canaan and couldn’t believe what they were hearing from the other 10 fearful, doubting, and disobedient spies.
 
These men incited the crowd and blindsided them to believe that the giants and fortified cities were too great for God to conquer. Even though they had evidence of the bounty of the land and God’s promise to succeed, the people chose to believe a lie and basically said, “This conquest God has planned ain’t gonna happen.”
 
Thank God for Joshua and Caleb who stood against the unbelieving crowd and confidently declared that God was able to perform what he had promised. Today, we also who believe can stand against the crowd of doubters and declare that God is able!
 
Someone has said, “Any dead fish can float downstream – it takes a live one to swim upstream.”