FRANTIC LIVES: SAVED FROM and FOR

²⁹ But the people of Israel had walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, as the water stood up like a wall on both sides. ³⁰ That is how the Lord rescued Israel from the hand of the Egyptians that day. And the Israelites saw the bodies of the Egyptians washed up on the seashore. ³¹ When the people of Israel saw the mighty power that the Lord had unleashed against the Egyptians, they were filled with awe before him. They put their faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses. Ex. 14:29-31

 

Then God gave the people all these instructions:

² “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

³ “You must not have any other god but me  Ex. 20:1-3

 

Can you imagine what it would be like to be born into slavery?  Not ever knowing what it means to live free?  Your parents, parents were slaves, and all you ever knew was being told what to do, when to do it, how to do it, when to eat, when to sleep.....and seeing friends, and family members treated harshly?   Some of which were killed by their masters for the most trivial of things.   Watching your mother or sisters sexually assaulted and being powerless to do anything, because you have watched what happens when someone rose up in opposition. 

 

The Israelites, God's chosen people, had chosen against GOD and found themselves under the heavy hand of Pharaoh serving many different gods, and after a turn of events Moses appears on the scene offering them something that they had only heard of, some dreamt of....freedom.  I don't know about you, but freedom would be scarier than being in captive, which is the mindset of some inmates that have been institutionalized over half of their lives.   They don't know what it means to pay bills, be responsible for their day, to exist in a society where someone isn't watching your every move and breathing down your neck....but GOD instructed Moses to lead his people out of captivity into FREEDOM, the wilderness and then into the promise land.

 

I don't know what prison you have been in...but is it possible that you have to, developed an institutional mindset about being FREE from:  DRUGS, ALCOHOL, PORN, CUTTING, LYING, STEALING, PHYSICAL/VERBAL/MENTAL/EMOTIONAL/SEXUAL ABUSE, ETC....whatever it is GOD offers each of us FREEDOM because HIS SON JESUS CHRIST paid that debt, and wants you  in a right relationship with the FATHER.  But GOD didn't whisk the Israelites across the RED SEA...they had to WALK, and upon them taking those steps of faith...HE KNEW THEY HAD NO IDEA about what it meant to be FREE, so He blessed Moses with the Commandments, and the first of them was HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME!

See what GOD wanted them to remember was that HE was the ONE who saved them from another year, another decade, another generation of slavery.   The purpose in freeing them, and bringing them into the WILDERNESS was JUST SO that before bringing them into the PROMISE LAND was so that they'd develop a WORSHIPFUL LOVE RELATIONSHIP with the very ONE that delivered them.   The same applies to each of us....HE OFFERS FREEDOM in JESUS CHRIST if we'd take a few steps of FAITH in HIS direction.   Some of us have been so accustomed to being enslaved to ___________________________ (also known as other gods) that we have hesitated at the opportunity to be free.

 

So each day that we are graced to see.....There is an open door that GOD offers to us all, and if you really desire to be free....STEP ONE after taking that walk is making sure that GOD is FIRST!  LGLP