When a Slave Becomes a Prince

Can you imagine the horror of having the government order you to murder your baby by throwing it into a crocodile-infested river? That is exactly what happened to the Jewish mothers who were slaves in Egypt. At birth their male children were snatched from them and fed to the Nile.

Then along came a Jewish slave couple named Amram and Jochebed. They already had children, and their son Aaron was old enough not to be subject to Pharaoh’s order. However, Jochebed gave birth to another son during the time that the Pharaoh’s edict was in force, and when she saw that he was an unusually beautiful child, she refused to obey. Hebrews 11:23 tells us that Moses’ parents ‘trusted that God would save him from the death the king commanded, and they hid him for three months, and were not afraid.”

When Moses was three months old, his parents realized that they could no longer hide him, and Jochebed made him a little boat from papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar. She then set the basket on the Nile River—the same river that Pharaoh had commanded that all the male children be thrown into.

What emotions did Jochebed experience when she saw her little son float away into the crocodile infested waters? The Bible does not say, but as a mother, I can imagine the grief and dread that she must have experienced at that moment. I believe that this act required more faith than she had exhibited during the entire previous three months. Prior to placing her son in the water, she had maintained some control over the situation, but in that act she had relinquished any ability to manipulate the situation or impact the outcome.

Apparently, Jochebed had no idea what would happen to her baby boy because she instructed his sister Miriam to watch the little boat and report back to her what happened to it. She put her faith in God, entrusted her son to Him, and walked away.

What Jochebed did not know was that her actions had set into motion forces that would alter the future of the entire Jewish race. The baby Moses entered the Nile as a slave, but, for all practical purposes, the slave child died there because moments later he was drawn out as a prince of Egypt who would one day become the deliverer of the Jewish people.

This story is a wonderful illustration of what happens to the man or woman who accepts Christ as his or her savior and follows that conversion experience with baptism.

Most of us come to Christ because of someone else’s faith. While we are still living under the death sentence that sin imposes upon all mankind, someone comes along who sees someone beautiful in us and tells us about Jesus Christ’s saving power.

After a time, however, we must stop depending on their relationship with God and find what He has for us. When we determine that we want to be baptized, we enter the water as slaves to sin and death, but our old nature dies there, and we are drawn out of the water as children of the King.

We then have the privilege of becoming a deliverer to others who are slaves to sin. Only Christ can forgive them and take away their sin, but we can tell them about Him and share the wonderful things He has done in our lives. We can look into the faces of all those living under the sentence of sin and death and see the beauty that is theirs in Christ. We can have a small part in helping them make the transition from slave to child of the king.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother recounts her own years teaching her ten children from the first grade through master's degrees before their seventeenth birthdays.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

My House, God's Rules

After they had entered the Promised Land, Joshua called the people of Israel to him at Shechem and gave them instructions concerning their responsibilities to God. He told them that they must revere Jehovah and serve him in “sincerity and truth” and put away forever the idols that their ancestors had worshiped when they had lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt.

Joshua told the people that they must choose whom they would serve—the heathen gods or Jehovah. Then he concluded by saying, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24)

Joshua was the leader of God’s people, but they lived in a world where wickedness abounded. All of the surrounding nations were idol worshipers who indulged in the most horrible practices imaginable, and there was an ongoing spiritual battle to lure God’s people to participate in their ceremonies.

Yet, Joshua presented a very simple plan to the people of Israel: He told them to make a choice about whom they would serve, and then he declared his own choice—that he and his house would serve the Lord.

I believe that today we live in circumstances very similar to those Joshua encountered. We have the world-wide Church with its millions of sincere believers, but we are surrounded by those who hate Christ and who are always lurking about trying to seduce God’s people to join them in their wicked practices. It is, therefore, important to understand Joshua’s declaration concerning his own house.

First, he made it clear that each of the people of Israel had to decide for themselves whether they would respond to God’s laws and live accordingly, and he warned them that if they deserted God they would be destroyed—even though God had cared for them for such a long time.

Second, he took authority over the areas that he could personally control. He alone would decide what would take place within the confines of his own house, and his decision was that his house would be a place to honor God.

I have known a number of Christians who keep lowering the spiritual bar in their own homes because they want to keep their children close. They overlook drinking, pot smoking, and porn because they feel safer “knowing where their children are.” I do feel sympathy for these parents, but I do not support their decision.

Minor children need to understand, “This is my house, and everyone who lives here lives under God’s rules.”  It may sound harsh, but this attitude is entirely necessary.

When our children are grown and have their own homes, we cannot control their behavior. We hope that our teaching and example have been sufficient to lead them into their own relationships with Christ and their own decisions to follow Him, but, when they become adults, children must decide for themselves whom they will follow.

The one thing we can always control is what goes on inside our own houses. Grown children who are not serving the Lord must understand that our houses are dedicated to the service of Jesus Christ and that no conduct that dishonors Him will be tolerated there. No matter what their ages the rule still applies, “My house, God’s rules.”

Joshua 24:31 says, “Israel obeyed the Lord throughout the lifetimes of Joshua and the other old men who had personally witnessed the amazing deeds which the Lord had done for Israel.” Those of us who are now the “old” men and women who have witnessed amazing deeds that God has done in our lives have a responsibility to the younger generation. It is our duty to never let them forget what God has done for us as a country, as families, and as individuals. By reminding our children that we are set apart for His service, we ensure that they will one day be the “old” people who will set the example for future generations and will say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, recounts her experiences homeschooling her own ten children from the first grade through master's degrees.  For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

The Gift of God

On Sunday morning our pastor said that “the gift of God” referred to in Romans is literally “the gift of God.” It is God’s gift of Himself to us. Most of us have heard the scriptures concerning the gift of God so often that we tend to not give them much thought. This week, however, I have spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about God’s gift of Himself to a lost world.

I do not think that we can ever fully appreciate what a priceless gift He bestowed upon us when He gave Himself to us. In giving Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, He gave us the gift of eternal life. When we chose to accept His gift, we chose a new master. Sin, our old master that results in death, lost its hold on our lives, and obedience, that results in acquittal, became our new master. (Romans 6:16)

If that were all that God had done for us, it would have been enough. Yet, He chose to do so much more. The Bible is filled with names of God that describe the various aspects of His character, and all of those attributes of God are part of His gift to us. They include:

• Jehovah-Jireh—the Lord who provides
• Jehovah-Rophe—the Lord who heals
• Jehovah-Shammah—the Lord who is there
• Immanuel—the God who is with us
• El Shaddai—the all sufficient one

It is comforting to know that we serve a God who is our provider, our healer, and our friend who never deserts us.  When we understand that He is sufficient to meet every need in every situation, we can face life’s challenges with confidence. Yet, most of us do not experience God on any of these levels until we have a need in our own lives.

Desperate financial need may bring us face to face with Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides.  Through illness, either our own or that of a loved one, we can come to know Jehovah-Rophe, the Lord who heals. When we are deserted by the friends and family that we believed would always stand by us, we may find Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord who is there. Through a lifetime of hardships, disappointments, and sorrow, we meet El Shaddai, the all sufficient one who lightens our burdens, renews our hope, and wipes away our tears.

When God sent His Son to live among us and die for our sins, He sent Him in the fullness of all the facets of His character. Because of that most precious gift, we can experience the joy of knowing Him as the one who is closer than a brother, who not only sees our present circumstances, but looks ahead and makes provision years in advance for the day when those needs will occur.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her personal story of homeschooling her own ten children from the first grade through masters' degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

One Degree of Separation

Yesterday a friend of mine shared with me something that her husband had told her concerning the importance of not varying from the course—even by the tiniest bit: He said that if a pilot were to take off in a plane and his heading were off by even one degree, for every sixty miles he traveled he would be one mile off target. Therefore, if he left JFK headed for LAX, at the end of the trip he would find himself forty miles out over the Pacific Ocean. My friend’s husband concluded by saying, “[Depending on how much fuel was in the tanks,] this could mean the difference between a passenger’s making his meeting on time and using his seat cushion for a floatation device.”

In view of the turmoil we are experiencing in our country, I think that this analogy is very timely. We have all been under a lot of pressure as we have watched our financial futures, employment prospects, and basic freedoms evaporate right before our eyes. In times like these, it is natural to try to gain control of some aspect of our lives, and those of us who are Christians nearly always turn to the Church for help. It is important, however, to remember that when we are most vulnerable, Satan is most active. Our fellow Christians are also people under attack, and they, too, are trying to work out their lives during these very precarious times. It is more important than ever, therefore, to make certain that our heading is not off by even one degree, and we must always be mindful that the only way we can ensure a safe passage is to examine everything in the light of scripture.

In many churches we are now witnessing an effort to revamp the church experience in ways that, traditionally, would have never been considered. While I believe that most of the proposed changes are well-intentioned efforts to reach unbelievers and make church more “relevant” to today’s generation, I also believe that we must be more careful than ever to keep our message pure. We need to step back and view all change in the light of scripture. We have the model of the early church as to its goals, and we have a wealth of scripture that defines our roles as Christians. If these goals are allowed to vary by even one degree, we will eventually find ourselves far off course, drowning in a sea of false doctrine.

What my friend’s husband did not say is that when the pilot in the analogy crashed his plane, he would not only very likely have killed himself, he would have been responsible for the loss of the lives of his crew and passengers. That destruction would, in turn, affect the lives of the families and friends of all those who were lost in the crash.

The same is true of a spiritual crash. When we who are mature Christians allow false teaching to come into our churches, we are not only responsible for our own spiritual deaths, we are responsible for misleading new Christians who do not know God’s Word and are depending on us to stay on course. They, in turn, affect their families and friends by spreading unscriptural precepts. It is, therefore, the responsibility of every Christian to examine every policy of his or her local church in light of God’s Word and to stand against anything that does not measure up.

We are constantly being barraged by “politically correct” thinking, and we are often told that as Christians we are narrow minded. The next time someone says that you are “narrow minded” because you are unwilling to compromise the Word of God, consider it a compliment. A narrow mind will keep you on the narrow road that ultimately leads to heaven. (Matthew 7:13)

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her story of teaching her own children from the first grade through master's degrees before their 17th birthdays is retold in Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.