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This was the response that Bethuel and Laban gave Eliezer when he explained the story of how the Lord led him to find his master’s son a wife. You may recall that Abraham sent Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac and that Eliezer was very specific in his prayer to the Lord as to how he would identify the right woman, the one God had chosen. The events that unfolded demonstrated clearly to Eliezer that the Lord had indeed answered his prayer.

When Eliezer then explained what had transpired to Bethuel and Laban their only response could be the one that they gave here in this passage. There are some churches today that don’t operate this way, meaning that when some of the people in their fellowship see the Lord’s leading taking them elsewhere or changing the direction of their life or ministry, it is not always received well by the leadership of that church.

Sadly, some pastors believe that a part of their calling is to manage the life of the people serving alongside them. These pastors tend to confuse their personal desires and interests with the Holy Spirit. The risk of losing a leader in ministry or losing control of how things get done often draws out the true motives of those in leadership. Many of us want to control our situations and circumstances especially when any change might bring unexpected stress but are we really willing to allow our personal desires and interests to override what God is doing in the life of another? Even worse, are we willing to pass judgment, silently or verbally, and even slander a brother or sister in the Lord just because they are taking a different direction?

Even though it was obvious to Bethuel and Laban that the Lord had brought this sudden and unexpected change into their lives, where Rebekah would suddenly be gone, I’m sure this situation caused them some level of momentary stress and anxiety. Rebekah was an important part of the home as we see in this entire passage in the previous verses. She did many chores that were necessary but likely taken for granted by her father and brother. All of a sudden, there would be a void in the home, in the “taking care of the work” and someone would need to fill the void.

Interestingly, the next morning when Eliezer requested that he and Rebekah leave, her brother and mother asked if she could stay an additional ten days but in the end they honored her wish and she left. This is a common response even in churches when people choose to leave. The pastor wants to hold on and perhaps even cause a delay all due to his insecurity and unwillingness to simply let the Lord lead.

If we say we trust the Lord then we need to trust that He will bring change in the lives of the people around us as well. We need to remember that we are members of the “body” of Christ not the church organization or building of Christ. While many would agree, their actions would speak otherwise. For many people, the church they attend is the place God has put them in to serve in that community and fellowship but for some of those people it is also a temporary stopping place to be nourished and fed until the next part of the journey. Let us never be an obstacle or impediment in the lives of others because we think we know what is best for them, which quite often is another way of saying we don’t want our own lives inconvenienced or changed.

In the world but not of it is in the process of being published into a 365 day devotional book.

The book will contain many of the entries that have been posted here over the last few years and in keeping to it’s original purpose, it will emphasize how we are to practically and pragmatically apply God’s word to our lives in this world each day regardless of where God has placed us in life.

Once the book is available a link will be posted so you can order one for yourself, family and friends.

Also, there will be new entries posted here in 2011.

We wish you a blessed 2011 and hope that it will a year of drawing closer to our Lord.

I grew up in an ethnic culture where fortune-telling, interpretation of dreams, reading tea leaves and coffee cups is an ongoing practice. They’ll tell you they do it for fun and passing the time. Although it seems harmless it is directly against what the Lord says.

There are some specific verses in scripture that explain this passage more clearly for us…

“Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood. “Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft”. Leviticus 19:26

And…

“Do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the LORD your God will drive them out ahead of you. But you must be blameless before the LORD your God. The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the LORD your God forbids you to do such things.” Deuteronomy 18:10-14

People are desperate to know their future. These “cultural pastimes” are subtle ways of influencing us against God and His word. They give us a false sense of security and reality since in most cases we are told what we want to hear and then if something we were told happens to occur, even in the slightest way, we are hooked.

We seem to forget that Satan is the god of this world and can also do some “seemingly supernatural” things that are always meant to distract the believer and keep the unbeliever from ever believing.

You’ve read the bumper sticker: “I don’t know what the future holds but I know Who holds the future”.

Determine to not allow yourself to ever believe there is anything other than God and His Word that can fulfill you and tell you what you need to know.

Let us be like David who said it best…

But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God’s unfailing love. I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done. I will trust in your good name in the presence of your faithful people. Psalm 52:8-9

The world’s largest known snowflakes were seen and recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records in January of 1887 in Montana. They were 15 inches in width! Imagine that as you stood outside and watched these enormous Frisbees fall from the sky.

But even snowflakes are not as white and pure as they appear to be. The process that involves the making of a snowflake has to do with the freezing of moisture from clouds. This moisture picks up dust and other biological particles from the atmosphere to form the actual snowflakes we see falling from the sky. The dust or particles that make up the flake are not exactly pure and white; therefore when God says He will purify us and make us whiter than snow He means “whiter than snow”.

God’s desire is that we don’t carry around needless sin and believing the lie from the enemy that repenting is not worth it or that we are too much in a bind to change.

The idea of being made whiter than snow is that the Lord removes any spot or blemish from our lives. Christ gave His life so that this might be possible for us.

He did this to present her (the church) to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. Ephesians 5:27

In other words this term or inference “whiter than snow” is really about the divine cleansing and purification that can only come from God Himself in the life of a person.

How did He do this?

Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. Hebrews 13:12

How does this continue to take place in our lives? Jesus said “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth”. John 17:17

If we are to accept God’s word to mean what it says then this is a remarkable statement. Recently I have the opportunity to truly appreciate dry land. My family and I had attended a country fair that was spread out over a large area in a rural part of a particular region.

When we arrived we discovered mud everywhere. Not the kind of mud that is dry or just slightly wet but rather the kind of mud your feet sink in. The fairgrounds were muddy everywhere due to the weather over the previous week and in order to cross from one place to the other you could not escape the mud.

When I first read this passage a few years ago it struck me then as it does now how the Lord parted an entire sea that had been there for more years than I can dare to guess and yet He made a dry path.

This enormous group of people that had left Egypt crossed the sea with their sandals on and the land was dry. There is no indication that they sunk in the mud, that they and their children or the items they were bringing along got stuck.

God made a dry path in the middle of a deep sea. Most of us jump over small puddles so we don’t get wet yet God opened up an entire body of water so that His people could get safely across. Today you are staring out at some large expanse of water in front of you. I don’t mean a real sea but rather a sea of doubt, a sea of anxiety and worry, a sea of depression, thinking how you will get through it.

Consider the God you claim to know, the One who can divide a sea and actually make the ground dry enough so that you can get across safely. This is the God we know and serve.

It is quite amazing that the man who had been granted more wisdom than anyone else would say this.

Solomon had asked for wisdom and God gave it to him.

He was renowned for it in the decisions he made, in the way he ran the country and the kingdom and in so many other ways. Yet, here he exclaims the truth of just how difficult it is to have wisdom.

The Apostle Paul would echo this in a similar way… “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways”! Romans 11:33

There are lots of things we have wisdom about but there is much more we don’t. This should be a humbling thought for us since often times we think we’ve got things figured out only to discover we really didn’t have a clue.

I’ve resolved the fact that I will simply never know most of the reasons why God does things in my life in the way He does them. Yes, a simple statement and concept but truly it has been a monumental change in my thinking.

Consider the anxiety and worry you often put yourself through. You do it because you are trying to “figure out” what is going to happen.

At those moments we should realize that all our experiences and so-called wisdom wouldn’t reveal God’s purposes and plans. Yet all our experiences and so-called wisdom should cause us to fall back on the promises of God.

Yes, true wisdom is found only in Him. The more time I spend with the Lord and in His word, the more rest, peace and consolation I have in my life. The more knowledge from God’s word that I apply in my life, the more wisdom I get from it but only God is the key to all wisdom and only He can make sense of it all in my life.

Sometimes we can read God’s word and skip over certain verses or not really stop to consider what they are saying to us. Some verses can seem so simple that we miss the depth of what they are truly saying.

We’ve talked before about God’s unchanging character and nature but with it comes a promise that is worth reflecting upon. He will guide us until we die.

If you have ever been on a tour where you were part of a group that had a guide then you understand the concept of how important the guide can be. In fact the reason tours are so popular as opposed to people just venturing out on their own all the time is because people like the idea of a guide that will look out for them, tell them everything they need to know about the tour and point out things that they could never have known on their own.

Most importantly, people rest emotionally on tours although they might be doing lots of walking; their minds are at rest because the burden and responsibility of the tour is on the guide.

Think about that for a moment. If we can put such rest in a tour guide then what are we to do with God Himself who guides our life and knows everything there is to know about our journey.

When it comes to guiding us until we die, we need to remind ourselves that as believers, physical death is only the beginning. We get to spend eternity with our Lord and no matter how our lives are here, whether painful or full of great blessing, it all pales in comparison to what is coming next…

The sovereignty of God in all things is an unfailing ground for consolation; he rules and reigns whatever happens, and therefore all is well. Spurgeon

I was standing in a high-rise building one day high enough to have a great view of the city skyline and close enough to the clouds above to get a view you just can’t get from the ground.

As I stood staring out the window I noticed the clouds like never before. They were moving with such grace at an even-tempered speed all in unison. They looked like they were this vast army steadily marching across the sky towards their specific purpose. To explain this is difficult with words but the imagery that came to my mind gave me a sense of peace and confidence. These clouds looked confident in their march yet they did not seem stressed or anxious to me.

A few hours later in the day I came back and took another look. It was the same. The clouds were still marching with confidence. “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us” (Hebrews 6:18).

Today we can begin to march through life in rest and in confidence that the Lord has gone before us, He has prepared the way and “our” way and He knows what lies ahead. I don’t need to fear the land mines of life, rather I can trust and move with a purpose…