Shortly after 2 p.m. on a "rain-ish"* Monday afternoon in New Hampshire. (Y'know, as opposed to a rainy night in Georgia??) LOL Anyway, last week's lack of news is now an abundance of Praise!!

First of all, Mike's regular doctor came into the office early because the only way he could get to and from his appointment was by a bus route that goes up and back only once a day. So, although his scheduled time was supposed to be late afternoon, he went in the morning, not only to guarantee he could get there, but also to guarantee that he wouldn't miss the later run by his appointment going too late. Then she told him that the scans he had had done the other week showed a polyp on his spinal cord. He has a consultation for surgery on the 18th!! Now, obviously this doesn't mean the surgery will actually happen right away, but at least it gets things in motion sooner than later. (Initially, the nurse had tried to tell him that they were booking into later November, but he couldn't accept that, so within an hour or so, they called him back with the earlier date!!) The other good news to go along with this is that my oldest, Carissa, will be letting me borrow her car in order to get Mike over here for the Sunflower Festival that starts Saturday and runs through the following Sunday. (I want us to go on Thursday, I think, because that's when they're also having an animal exhibition from the Squam Lake Science Center, about an hour north north west from here. The cover photo shows an owl. 😊) So, praise for the (hopefully easy) solution to Mike's pain, and the closer date for consultation!! Continued prayers for the time in between.

The latest update from my BFF, Andrea, and her husband, Matt, is both good and bad. The first bad part is that her health has deteriorated to the point where she is no longer capable of caring for Matt at home.* The good, miraculous part is that a bed opened up at the last second, RIGHT HERE IN CONCORD!! It's only about a 10 minute drive from their house to the Nursing Home, AND it was Matt's #2 top choice of long-term care facilities!! This will lead to the heartbreak of never having him home again, especially after the year or so that he's mostly been there of late. But they both know it will be the best thing for both in the long run. The only other major concern right now is to get Matt's Social Security payment back to where it should be after someone made a mistake on it last time. I'm personally trusting that if God has provided a bed this quickly, then the adjustment on his benefit will follow suit. Her post simply requested that it be straightened out before the first Nursing Home payment is due next month. He officially moves tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm taking myself easier than usual this week. On Saturday, I had taken a walk, as per usual. Since I had just finished my breakfast not long before, I didn't expect I would need anything with me other than a regular bottle of water. It wasn't even all that hot out, but on my way back, I started feeling overheated and dehydrated. I was still about 10 minutes from home, but I just pressed on, thinking about a cold drink and lukewarm shower to cool down. I also called Mike on video chat, to let him know I was scared and ask further advice from someone who was trained as a Medic in the Army. I clearly had Heat Exhaustion, and have been drinking more water than I generally think I should need, and eating potato chips with lunch and for snacks, in order to replenish the sodium I'm missing. Since it's supposed to be hot again all week, I turned my AC on last night. I also have a small fan aimed on me from the kitchen/living room divider, and a fan and mini AC thing in the bedroom, so I'm okay, but definitely not taking a risk like that again. From now on, I'll bring a banana with me, and maybe have some Gatorade at home. Meanwhile, I know now that letting my ex-boyfriend, Rob, back into my life, as a friend, is worthwhile. He was willing and able to do my laundry and a bit of vacuuming for me yesterday evening so I wouldn't be over exerting myself.

Nothing yet from my ex-boyfriend, Jeremy, in Nebraska since he blocked me a few weeks ago for no good reason. It was his birthday Saturday, and this was the first time in 11 years that he didn't get a greeting or card from me. Honestly, I don't miss the drama and negativity he was often bringing into our conversations. But at the same time, I know that I'm the best friend he's ever had. If he doesn't come around, the loss is decidedly his.

I was originally going to use the childhood game, "Mother, may I??"* in my Intro. paragraph today, but couldn't come up with a good example of using authority in contrast, so I'm going with today's takeaway statement instead.

"It gets worse, but freedom is coming!!" One example of this may be found in the area of Wilderness rescue. First of all, things are already bad because you're lost and/or injured. Then you don't know how long it will be before you are found. Maybe it starts raining, maybe you're there overnight, and it's cold. But you have to trust that help is coming, either because you let someone know where you were going before you left, or changed your voicemail message, or possibly even called for help yourself. One way or another, you make it home, or to the hospital. As bad as things may have been for a while, you're safe and healing.*

Anyway, I suppose we should open our Bibles at some point this afternoon, right?? 😉 (It's now been just over an hour since I started this post)

Today's Scripture is from Exodus 5 --

Exodus 5

New International Version

Bricks Without Straw

5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”

² Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

³ Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

⁴ But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” ⁵ Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”

⁶ That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: ⁷ “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. ⁸ But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹ Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

¹⁰ Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. ¹¹ Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” ¹² So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. ¹³ The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” ¹⁴ And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”

¹⁵ Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? ¹⁶ Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”

¹⁷ Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ ¹⁸ Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”

¹⁹ The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” ²⁰ When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, ²¹ and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

God Promises Deliverance

²² Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? ²³ Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” ---- As they say on TV, "Tune in next week for more of this ongoing saga!!"

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As mentioned above, our takeaway for today's message is -- "It gets worse, but freedom is coming!!" I would have used it for the title here, but felt like the literary reference was more enticing.

After having read verses 1-9 of our passage above, Pastor Matt brought out the point that this Pharaoh MIGHT have been the same boy with whom Moses had grown up in the palace. He would therefore have been around the same age. (It's amazing to think that Moses was around 80 years old when all of this was happening, and THEN he spent another 40 years in the desert!!)*

Pastor Matt broke Moses' mistakes down in 3 points --

• Moses took the wrong delegation -- Verse 1 tells us that, "Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh...". But wait a minute, that's not what God told him back in chapter 3 at the Burning Bush. If you skip back a page or 2, and look at verses 15-18, you'll see that God had told Moses to take ALL THE LEADERS.

• Moses took the wrong approach -- This is where the "Mother, may I" thing would have come into play in my Message Intro. today. The humility displayed in that fun childhood game is the same as what God had told Moses back in our chapter 3 passage. Instead, we see here in the rest of verse 1 is that they went in claiming the authority of God to do as they wanted. (Sounds familiar, right??)

• Moses took the wrong message -- Rather than asking for a short, 3 day break, as God had told him earlier, Moses demanded a full and immediate release of the Israelites. As Pastor Matt pointed out here, this meant that Moses was putting them on the same level as Pharaoh had. Inhuman means to the ends of building his cities. Pharaoh didn't see the Israelites as people, but more like simple machines that served no better/other purpose than to do his bidding. While Moses' words here were only slightly off the mark of what God had said, they should still cause us to cringe. When we think of another Biblical scenario in which someone's words were only slightly different from God's, we can go back to Genesis 3. When Satan was talking to the woman (she isn't given a name until after this), he was basically "gaslighting" her. He was making her doubt what God had actually said. In our story above, Moses is simply stating something was wasn't quite the same as God had told him earlier.

The call of God is to listen and trust. It's not to do things our own way and hope for the best. In this moment, Pastor Matt quipped that Pharaoh's response to Moses was, "No way, Yahweh!!" (as opposed to Jose, LOL) Really, though, Pharaoh's response should not have surprised Moses. As suggested before, his approach of production and supply chains of straw reduced the Israelites' humanity, just as Pharaoh was already doing.

The truth about oppression and tyranny is that it always involves the current leadership of the group being victimized. This is what happened during WW2 when Hitler was in power. The Jewish Leadership, among others, saw nothing but their own best interest in bowing to Hitler's demands. Little did they know what that mistake was going to cost them.*

The grace of God lies in the fact that Scripture holds up a mirror to our own weaknesses, if we allow it to. And we should, because God is not about guilt and shame. Rather, He shows us what needs work so He can help us fix it. When we are in bondage to things in our lives, whether its as "harmless" as Social Media, or as deadly as drugs, we find ourselves "shaving the truth", much like the Serpent in the Garden. The result is that we only make things worse for ourselves. When we try to just touch on an apology and move on, we are not addressing the underlying issues that have caused our poor behavior or decisions. This is particularly true of the addiction cycle.*

Tyranny, no matter what form it takes, diminishes humanity in exchange for control. Whether it's a government or an individual in a relationship, the truth is the same.

In continuing his message yesterday morning, Pastor Matt then told us that we would just be skipping "a few chapters" to see the next point he planned to make... Yeah, okay... because the book of Mark is really THAT close to Exodus... 🤣🤣

He was turning our attention at that moment to Mark 1:15. (If some of you have been reading long enough, you may recognize this as the theme from last Fall's Sermon Series, "The Time has Come".)

This is what Jesus is saying in this verse,

Mark 1:15

New International Version

¹⁵ “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

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Jesus was proclaiming that Satan's tyranny is over, the love of God is here!! Now, while some may suggest that Christians have done nothing more than trading Satan's control for God's*, they are missing the truth of partnership. Jesus invites us in John 11:27-30, to rest in Him because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. If you're not familiar with traditional farming, the yoke is used to join 2 oxen in front of a plow for tilling the fields. One is always older and stronger than the other. This means that the weaker ones (us), are basically just "along for the ride" with Jesus, (the stronger one) leading the way. This is why it's so important to stay close and aligned with Him. It's only when we're not that things truly get out of order.

If you are in a life that is reducing/eliminating your humanity, seek God's freedom. As serious a statement as that is, Pastor Matt paused at that time to relate a brief personal story from when he was about 10 yrs. old. He had just gotten bunk beds with bookcase headboards in his room. He was all excited about the combination of privacy and storage space this would provide. But one night, he had somehow managed to fall asleep and get his head stuck in the bookcase!! He woke up to the increasing realization that he needed help to fix this!! He started shouting, and eventually, one of his older sisters came in, turned the light on, saw the situation, and simply pulled the pillow out from the bookcase section. Something he had gotten excited about, although it was basically good, had still trapped him to the point of needing someone else's help. Anything we worship in life, aside from God, can trap us. But, like in Matt's story, turning the light on will reveal the truth. Stop giving power to things that oppress you. Let God come to your rescue. Our guilt and shame only feel stronger in the darkness. Jesus leads us into the light. He is the Light of the World!!* Amen??

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. I came up with "rain-ish" several years ago to describe weather that is definitely overcast and muggy, but not QUITE raining. LOL

2. For those of you unfamiliar with their story, Matt suffered a series of strokes about 4 yrs ago last Thanksgiving. He was in a medically induced coma for several months, during which they nearly lost him multiple times.

3. In case some of you may not know the game, "Mother, may I??", it goes like this -- One person is chosen to be the Mother, and the others stand in a horizontal line at the other end of the playing space. (Indoors, it would be opposite walls, outdoors, you decide.) The first player on one end begins by asking, "Mother, may I take 3 baby steps??" (or giant steps, or bunny hops, etc.) The "Mother" either replies, "Yes, you may", "No, you may not", or "No, but you can take 2" (of whatever forward motion is requested.) The first player to reach "Mother" wins. (Sometimes, "Mother" might even have a player move backward.)

4. In the Wilderness Rescue scenario, I realize that not everyone survives; but if they are Saved, they at least have a peaceful time ahead.

5. As always, parentheticals are mine.

6. Everything after the initial mention of Hitler is mine.

7. In considering the bit about how touching on an apology and simply moving on is a major aspect of the addiction cycle for most people, it occurs to me that it is equally true when dealing with Narcissism. After I had called my mother out on this back in early December, she got all weepy-eyed and said, "I'm sorry". My only reply was, "Future behavior will bear that out, or not.". Between then and her birthday, July 21st, things seemed pretty okay. (Although, tbh, she was in a Nursing Home for about 3 months starting shortly after that.) But on her birthday, she once again displayed her Narcissism by prioritizing her own thing above the plans we had made for her and my father to visit me and have lunch and a special dessert. Later, after having waited for over an hour, I dropped things off at their place, having taken a cab due to pouring rain. She said, "Well, I'm free now." I replied, "Good for you. I don't know what you thought was more important than me, but happy birthday, I love you.". I gave them both a quick kiss, got back in the cab, and left. (The driver didn't even charge me for the 2 minute wait, as I had told her the story on the way over!!) What she can never know is that I actually know something of the core reason she's like that. Decades ago, she had told my father's mother about it, in strict confidence. About 20 yrs ago, during a visit to her, my grandmother told me because she felt it was important for me to understand my mother on a deeper level. If my mother ever found out that she told me, my father would never hear the end of it!! The problem is, she has never fully processed the situation, so she's stuck with the mentality of a 10-12 yr old child who was traumatized. She has only chosen to manipulate and control others so that she can feel that she's in charge of her own life in some way. To be clear, I don't know the details, only the fact that my grandparents nearly divorced over it.

8. I've actually seen this mentioned on Quora.

9. Jesus speaks of Himself as the "Light of the World" in John 8:12. At the same time, this brings to mind the 70's song, "Light of the World, Shine on Me", by England Dan and John Ford Coley. As crazy a time as that was, it's really amazing how many light rock songs were actually Spiritual. "Dust in the Wind", by Kansas is another, as is, "Carry on, my Wayward Son", by the same group.

   
   

Music -- Never any rights, I promise!!

Bonus -- because it also fits...

Ahead of the (actual) last song yesterday, which came after the sermon; Pastor Matt did something that I have never seen done, either at CenterPoint, or anywhere else. He invited people to share a confession with someone, either nearby in their seats, or up front with a member of the Prayer Team or Elders. He didn't mention the verse in James 5:16 that mentions this in relation to healing; but he simply brought it out as something he felt the Holy Spirit was leading him to do. The worship team did the song at the same time as people were sharing. To be perfectly honest, this didn't sit well with me. Not so much that it may have distracted people from singing, but because it struck me as something too Catholic for my tastes. I know I said recently that I was not going to "beat them over the head" anymore, effectively speaking, but it's just that my understanding of this verse, apart from the healing aspect, has nothing to do with "random" confession, either in a booth or out. My thought is that this idea is just about being transparent. For example, when someone comes to you, struggling with a problem, you might admit your own weakness in that area to show that we're none of us perfect. (or even in another area, if necessary) At the same time, you'll find me on here admitting weaknesses of my own when the subject applies. But yesterday just didn't sit right with me. I didn't say anything about this to Pastor Matt, however. I just let it lie like I do with the fact of people applauding worship songs. It's NOT A CONCERT!! But I have to realize that some people may not be doing it for that reason. They may just be applauding God, which, honestly, isn't much better, as it effectually reduces Him to our level. But, as these things are not matters of Biblical importance, I leave them alone.