Week 30 - August 16 - Taylor Hays

Exodus 9-10
These chapters document the remaining “10 plagues” that God brought upon Egypt, except for the final and most devastating plague of death on all the firstborn. The story is amazing for many reasons. I can’t imagine some of the sights that were witnessed by the Egyptians… hail, boils, locust, dying livestock and darkness so thick “no one moved.” What is more amazing is the repeated conversation between Moses and Pharaoh. With each successive plague Pharaoh seemed more inclined to let the Israelites go but always reneged. The passage says he was “stubborn” and “hardened” and refused to submit to God’s plan. Here is one lesson I took away from this passage… I am at risk of becoming so hardened against God that I can’t be moved by him even in the face of life’s “plagues.” It takes a long time to become that hard in heart, but it begins by refusing to listen and obey God’s best plan for me.

Psalm 30
David was a guy who had been through it all… life’s highest highs and its lowest lows. There were times he felt near to God and times he felt far away. Through all this he always was able to hang onto hope in God. In this psalm he expressed one of my mother-in-law’s favorite verses for hard times… “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Dark times always end so hang on to the sure hope… God’s faithfulness.

Proverbs 30
This chapter is full of warnings about avoiding some of life’s deepest potholes (don’t lie, don’t slander’ don’t dishonor your parents, stay away from adultery) and some unusual observations about life, like this one…
18 There are three things that amaze me— no, four things that I don't understand:19 how an eagle glides through the sky, how a snake slithers on a rock, how a ship navigates the ocean, how a man loves a woman.

I think what he was saying through all this is that God owns truth. He is the source of all truth and when we see things that are true or illustrate truth it is because God made it that way. His bottom line is this…
5 Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to all who come to him for protection.

Acts 9
Saul’s conversion experience has become proverbial. We call it a “Damascus road experience” when someone experiences a radical conversion in their life. Depending on the context, it doesn’t always refer to a religious conversion. It means someone finally “saw the light” (now you know where that saying came from!).Sometimes our experiences with God can be dramatic, but most of the transformation in my life has come in a much quieter way. Usually when I am going through a hard time, a loss, a tough decision—I experience God’s closeness the most. The important idea is that God wants to radically change us, just like he changed Saul, later named Paul. To get there we must do what Paul later advised the Galatian Christians to do… “5:16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives.” This is the daily “walking” in the Spirit… reading the Bible, praying, serving, having fellowship with believers, sharing our faith with others. We may never have a Damascus road experience but our lives can be changed as radically as the change Paul experienced.