Frank's Bible Blog

Exodus 13--A Walk Through the Cemetery

It encompasses some 624 acres. It is visited by U.S. presidents, foreign leaders, and common people. It is solemn, moving and yet beautiful at the same time. It is filled with famous people and those of whom you have never heard.

It is the United States' national cemetery at Arlington, VA. The cemetery is a living reminder of our nation's past. It is a testimony to bravery, sacrifice and dedication. The grave markers and memorial markers all tell a story. They cry out to us to pause and remember.

In Exodus 13 we have a call to pause and remember. It is a cause to take note of three very important things: God's blessings (vv1-16), God's protection (vv17-18), and God's direction (vv20-22).

When you're moving through life at warp speed it is easy to forget the many blessings of God in our lives. We get to the point where we expect God's blessings but often fail to acknowledge His blessings. A walk through Arlington cemetery reminds us of the blessings of freedom. If we take a moment to walk through our past we should see reminders of God's provision.

Although it isn't always visible, God is at work to protect us as well as bless us. We won't know until we get to heaven all the ways in which God safeguarded us in this life. Not only physical protection but also emotional and spiritual. Even if you have suffered pain in your life, and we all have, there are plenty of things from which God has shielded you.

At Arlington, more than 320,000 service men and women are buried. Many of them died while protecting our nation. That protection should never be taken for granted, and neither should the protection that God extends to us each day.

Finally, as God directed Israel in their wilderness days, so does God direct us now. No, He doesn't do it with a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire, but through His Spirit and His word we are given direction.

At Arlington, there are many winding paths and it is a little confusing and overwhelming to the first time visitor. But with a map in hand and by paying careful attention to the small white direction signs scattered around, you can find where you want to go.

Sometimes in life the correct path is not always the obvious. But if we will slow down and seek God's direction through His Spirit and word, we will end up heading in the right direction.

It shouldn't take a cemetery visit to cause us to pause and reflect on all that God has done for us in the past, is doing in the present, and will do in the future.

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and leadership developer. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 12--Getting a New Calendar

There is just something special about starting fresh, starting new. Whether it's a new home, new city, new job, new school grade or a new situation. It's an opportunity to leave whatever happened in the past behind and focus on making a new life. Sometimes we all need a fresh start. Our surroundings may not change, but we just need to reboot and take a new approach to life.

In Exodus 12:2 God said something interesting to Moses and Aaron. "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year." God threw out the calendar and told the Israelites that they were starting fresh.

You see, they were getting ready to conduct the first-ever passover ceremony just hours before leaving Egypt for good. 430 years to the day (v40) after their ancestors frist arrived, Moses and the rest of the Israelites walked out of Egypt, leaving their past behind to start a new life. The years of bondage were now over. The road ahead would not be easy. There would be temptations to turn back to the old lifestyle and situations where their faith would be tested. But now they had an opportunity to become something special--to become their own people, their own nation. Most of all, they had the opportunity to serve the Lord without hindrance.They would have the opportunity to remember for generations to come how the Lord kept watch over them and gave them a new beginning (v42).

Friend, regardless of what the calendar says, today can be the first day of a new year for you. Today can be the day that you are set free from bondage. Today can be the day when you leave your baggage in the past and experience victory in the Lord. Today can be the day when you start a new walk in your marriage, with your children, on your job or with Christ. God can forgive you today and He can guide you into a better way. There will be challenges on the road ahead, but there will also be great opportunities to make your life count for God in a significant way.

You must make the choice: stay in Egypt by doing what you've been doing or embrace the new calendar by moving ahead with the Lord.

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and leadership developer. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 10--The Long Anticipated Road Emerges

As I write this, I can hear heavy machinery moving dirt not far from my house. For years, the city has planned the expansion of a road and intersection near us. We've heard about it. Read about it. We've even talked about it. Now we are starting to see what it will look like and exactly where the road will go.

The current road is very narrow and is a traffic bottleneck. It intersects rail road tracks without crossing bars, making the intersection not only congested but dangerous. All of that, however, is about to change.

While we knew change was coming, we did not know the magnitude of the construction. We can now see that the roadway will be 4-5 times the size of what it was, with numerous traffic and turning lanes. It is one thing to understand something conceptually; it is quite another thing to actually start to see it now that the dirt is moving.

This is what took place in Exodus 10 as God unleashed two more plagues on Egypt. God began to pull the vail back so that Moses could see the bigger picture. The plagues and various altercations with Pharaoh was about more than just the Israelites leaving. They were about God doing something so incredible that people would talk about it for generations (v2). The plagues become a monument to the greatness of God and the destructiveness of sin.

Conceptually, people may have known about God's power, but it was another thing all together when they saw it for themselves. God had promised to not only make the Israelites a great nation, but He promised a land for them. They heard about the "future construction" plans but had never seen anything that would indicate it would happen. That all changed when the "dirt started to move" with the various plagues. Everyone could see God's power for themselves. Everyone could know that He had the might to do what He said He would do.

Even though God's power was on display for all to see, there were still those who failed to accept its ramifications. Pharaoh was so infatuated with himself that he would not listen to advice or accept the reality that Egypt was ruined (v7). He would try to bargain with the man of God, but would not accept the full terms that God had given. He saw God's might, but he still wanted to stay in control of the situation. The road was emerging but Pharaoh refused to accept it.

So what does this mean to us today? Well, this story reminds us that there are at least three action items we all need to take. First, look for God working around you. God is always at work--we just are oblivious to it most of the time. Second, remember that what you do see now is probably only a glimpse of what is to come. Finally, when you know that God is moving in your life, respond appropriately. Don't be controlling. Don't try to bargain with God. Just surrender yourself to Him as He unfolds the future.

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and leadership developer. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 11--Planning Ahead

Have you ever gone someplace only to realize once you got there that you were missing something you needed? Maybe you realize once you arrive at your beach vacation destination that you forgot your sandals. Or you travel to a business meeting and realize a critical handout is sitting back on your desk--1,000 miles away.

Maybe it's not that you forgot something, maybe it is that you never had what you needed to start with. I remember in college I was encouraged to try to test out of several courses because of my strong high school grades. So I signed up for the science, history and humanities tests. Science and history went great. The problem was humanities. At the time, I didn't even know what the word humanities meant! But I took the test anyway--which included identifying famous paintings, painters, literary works, authors, etc. I looked at the questions and had absolutely no idea what the answers were. So I guessed at all of them. Needless to say, I failed miserably.

The problem was that I was not equipped with what was needed--in this case knowledge--to accomplish the task before me. Had I known a couple years earlier that I would be taking that test, then maybe I would have made sure that I got what I needed. The point is that sometimes we forget what we need, and sometimes we never had what we needed in the first place.

God, however, knows exactly what we will need in the future to do exactly what He calls us to do. He gifts us and equips us and allows certain experiences--all to prepare us for what is to come. We see a great example of this in Exodus 11. Now it's easy to miss because it is just an aside in the story of Moses telling Pharaoh that the 10th and final plague--the death of the firstborn--was about to come.

In verse 2, God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites to ask their Egyptian neighbors for articles of silver and gold. We find out later that the Egyptians were more than happy to oblige. Now this verse looks strangely out of place in this chapter. After all, we are talking about the death of scores of people if they fail to appropriate God's remedy. Yet while God gives instructions on the plague, He also throws in the gold and silver task. Why?

If I'm an Israelite, all I'm thinking about is how do we get out of town--quick. I'm not thinking about asking for a bunch of extra stuff to take with me. God, however, was looking ahead. He was looking ahead to the tabernacle that He would instruct the Israelites to build while they were in the middle of the wilderness. He was providing them with the materials they would need in the future, even though they had no idea at the time that they would need it.

Friend, whatever it is that you are going through now may just be God preparing you for tomorrow. It may be God giving you the tools now that you may not use until years later. But that is just how God is--always looking ahead.

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and leadership developer. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 9--What Will It Take?

It's painful to watch those who you love make terrible, even tragic, mistakes with their lives. They push people away, reject God, and choose a lifestyle that ultimately has a very bad ending. You want so desperately for these people to wake up and realize their need before it is too late. For some people, however, it takes tragedy to get their attention.

Such was the case with Pharaoh and many of the Egyptians that we see in Exodus 9. Up to the plague of hail in this chapter, the previous plagues hit all the Egyptians--there was no avoiding them. But here, God gives them a chance to avoid it. He gives them advanced warning of impending destruction. They could bring in from the fields their livestock, servants, and anything else perishable and put in them shelter. Verse 20 tells us that there were some of Pharaoh's officials who did fear the Lord, and they obeyed and were spared. Those who chose to ignore suffered the consequences, Pharaoh included.

After this devastating plague that did in fact wipe out people and animals, Pharaoh acknowledged his sin for the first time and admitted that the Lord was right (v27). Moses knew better, however, than to get excited by Pharaoh's confession. You see, it is one thing to acknowledge that you were wrong; it is quite another thing to do something about it! Pharaoh once again hardened his heart.

With some people, it does take tragedy after tragedy to get their attention before they will even recognize their sin. That was the case with Pharaoh. But recognizing is not enough--there has to be action. Something has to be done about it. That's where choice comes in. We can choose God's remedy for sin, or we can ignore it and keep doing what we were doing.

Maybe it is you who keeps making poor choices and causing grief for those who love you.

Are you prideful like Pharaoh? What will it take to get your attention? What will it take to break down that pride and acknowledge God and accept His salvation? Admitting that you blew it is one thing; allowing God to change you is quite another.

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and leadership developer. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 8--One More Night with the Frogs

I was probably 9 or 10 when a Southern Gospel singer came to our church and sang a song I have never forgotten. It was titled "One More Night with the Frogs." (I found someone singing it on the Internet--click below to hear it). It's taken from Exodus 8 and an interesting exchange between Moses and Pharaoh.

Moses, once again, had asked Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Pharaoh refused so Moses and Aaron brought a plague of frogs upon the land. Not just a few frogs--but frogs everywhere and in everything! Imagine that!

Eventually Pharaoh had enough and told Moses if he would call off the frogs they could go worship the Lord. "When do you want me to get rid of them," Moses asked.

My reply would have been "right now!" But for some reason Pharaoh said, "Tomorrow." He was willing to put up with them one more night.

Here are two other interesting things in this chapter. When Moses and Aaron first caused the frogs to appear, so did Pharaoh's magicians (v7). Think about that for a moment. Frogs were the problem, not the solution. Workers of evil could "miraculously" create more of the problem, but they could not create a solution.

Second, once the frogs were dead, piled into heaps, and the stench filled the land, Pharaoh had a change of heart. "When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart" (v15). "It still smells really bad," he must have said to himself, "but the worse is over. So what do I need with all this God stuff? I've got it under control."

Didn't Pharaoh act just like a lot of us do today? We want to continue living in sin for just one more night. We turn to the world and ungodly friends for solutions to our problems but only get more of the same. We're willing to put up with some stench in our lives as long as we think we can still manage it. We'll turn to God to get us through our immediate crisis but quickly forget Him once it is past.

We can choose repentance or we can choose another night with the frogs. Which will it be?

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and leadership developer. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 7--Beware of Counterfeits

The U.S. Treasury recently announced it was releasing a new $100 bill with several new anti-counterfeit features. As counterfeiterers get more and more sophisticated, the government has to regularly modify its currency in order to protect it. Some counterfeit bills are so close to the real thing that they fool many people. They are worthless, but because they look like the real thing people fall for them.

In Exodus 7 we see a couple encounters with counterfeiters. Not the ones making the money but ones trying to copy God's work. In the chapter, Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh to request the Israelites' release. They performed two miracles to get Pharaoh's attention--turning Aaron's staff into a snake and turning water into blood. What is interesting is that Pharaoh's sorcerers and magicians were able to do the same thing (vv11,12,22).

Satan has always had his way of trying to counterfeit the works of God. He is a great deceiver and will do anything to keep people locked in darkness. The challenge for us today--even for Christians--is to be able to distinguish the counterfeit from the real thing. There are many things done "in the name of religion" and even in the name of Christianity that are nothing more than thin imitations of what God does and wants us to do.

Just because something looks extraordinary doesn't mean God is behind it. We need to test the spirits, ask the Lord for discernment, and avoid getting sucked into things that, as the New Testament says, "gives the appearance of godliness but denies the power thereof."

Remember, not everything is what it seems to be.

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and president of MaxPoint Ministries, whose purpose is to help individuals, churches and ministries reach their full potential. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 6--Now You Will See

"It's got to be right around here," I said to myself in excitement as I drove the mini-van with our family in it. I must admit that even as a grown man, I was pretty excited. After all, when you hear about something all of your life, see numerous pictures of it, study it in school, and so on, it is exciting to know that you are about to finally see it for yourself.

The terrain got steeper as we made our way around the mountain until finally I could see a nose. Within moments the rest of a head came into view.

We were looking at George Washington's head on Mt. Rushmore!

We continued to drive and found the park entrance. There we could see the massive carvings of the four U.S. presidents who had been memorialized in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It's funny--those heads are so big yet from the angle that we approached them, we couldn't see them at first. We had to drive a little farther until the whole scene came into view.

In Exodus 6 God makes an interesting statement to Moses. It starts off with the phrase, "Now you will see what I will do" (v1). Moses had complained that God hadn't answered the Israelites call for help (chapter 5). He couldn't see God at work. But the reality was that he hadn't reached the right point--the right angle--where he could see God move. Like our approach to Mt. Rushmore, things did not come into full view until we had reached a certain point. God's workings are often obscured for us until we reach a certain place where we can see and appreciate them.

Seven times in this chapter God says, "I will." "I will bring you out." "I will free you." "I will take you as my own people." Moses needed to get ready because he was rounding the corner where God's glory would be on display for all to see. "Fasten your seat belt, Moses. I'm about to take you on a wild ride where you and all of Israel will see Me at work like never before." (My paraphrase!)

Friend, today you may be discouraged because the future is obscured. You don't know what is around the next bend. God's working is not visible to you right now. But take heart! At the right time, when you've reached the right elevation, after you've turned that last corner, then you will see.

Fasten your seat belt, open your eyes, and look to the Lord above. His power will soon come into view.

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and president of MaxPoint Ministries, whose purpose is to help individuals, churches and ministries reach their full potential. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 5--When 911 Doesn't Answer

There are some things that we expect to always be there for us and always work every time we need it. One of those is when we dial 911 for emergency help. We expect, and rightly so, that the call will be answered by a highly trained professional who can immediately dispatch assistance. Every once in a great while, however, the 911 system for a community will go down. On those rare occasions, callers cannot get the urgent help that they have come to expect.

While they didn't have 911 in his day--or even telephones for that matter--for Moses it was as if he was dialing 911 and no one was answering. In Exodus 5:23 Moses says to God, "Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all." Let me paraphrase: "God, we dialed heaven's 911 line and you didn't come when we called!"

Now before you question Moses for saying this, consider that he was getting pressure from both sides. He goes to Pharaoh, like God told him to do, and asks for the Israelites to be able to leave Egypt. Pharaoh gets mad at the request and makes work even harder for the Israelite slaves. This in turn makes the Israelites furious with Moses.

No wonder Moses was dialing 911!

Notice that from Moses' perspective God let them down because he didn't come to their immediate rescue. Even though God had told Moses that Pharaoh would initially balk at his request, when things went from bad to worse Moses thought God would step in and take care of everything. He didn't--at least not right away.

Here are five principles we can take from this chapter.

1) We need to communicate with God on an ongoing basis--not just when we need help. This means listening to Him as well as talking.

2) What looks like an emergency to us may not be that to God. It's all a matter of perspective.

3) Just because divine help is not immediate does not mean that it isn't coming. God has a reason for our waiting.

4) Just because God calls us to do something, it does not mean that it will be easy or accomplished quickly. In fact, the opposite is usually true.

5) God responds with what is best, not always with what we want.

So do we stop dialing 911 just because of the rare occasion that we might not get an immediate answer? Absolutely not! What about those emergency prayers, do we stop those? Absolutely not! But if those prayers are not met with an immediate response, then it may mean that we need to take a step back and consider these five principles.

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and president of MaxPoint Ministries, whose purpose is to help individuals, churches and ministries reach their full potential. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 3--Life Interuption

It wasn't the life he had dreamed about.

Whatever goals he had established for himself, it's pretty safe to say he hadn't realize them. Although he had really grown up in two worlds, like having dual citizenship, he now found himself separated from both those worlds. He didn't have a glamorous job, but I imagine he had reached a certain level of contentment with it and with his family. Life was simple, but that wasn't so bad.

One day on the job, however, everything changed. He reached a cross-road in his life that would forever alter it--and history. He had to make a major decision. He had to choose between the simple life that had become normative for him and being thrust into a major leadership role that would consume most of his time for the rest of his life. He had to choose between being responsible for just his own family and being responsible for thousands of families.

Most of all, he had to choose between obedience to God and a life of self-focus that never would reach its full potential.

In Exodus 3 we see that it was Moses who had come to this cross-road of life, to what Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God called a crisis of belief. Moses was in the desert taking care of sheep when he sees the burning bush, hears God's voice, and has to make a decision that would change everything for him.

His life was about to be interrupted.

Has your life ever been interrupted by God? Have you ever been going through life, doing your thing, when God placed before you a major opportunity? An opportunity that would require you to leave the comfort of the known to take a faith venture into the unknown?

How did you respond? Did you play it safe, sticking to the simple, afraid to wade out into the deep waters of faith? Or did you jump in-- nervous, maybe; scared, probably--but in you went? Did you allow God to interrupt your life in order to take it to another level, even though that meant a sacrifice on your part?

Maybe you have never had the chance for your life to be interrupted. Maybe that interruption is coming. What will you do then? Or maybe there is so much noise and spiritual distraction in your life that even if God showed up in a burning bush you wouldn't even notice it.

My experience has been that at some point in every believer's's life, God asks for an interruption. Sometimes it's a temporary interruption; sometimes it's a life-long one. Either way, it is still an interruption.

Are you willing for God to interrupt your life today?

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and president of MaxPoint Ministries, whose purpose is to help individuals, churches and ministries reach their full potential. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 2--The Fugitive and the Pizza Delivery Man

A baby marked for death. A prince. A killer. A fugitive alone in the desert. A family man.

All these phrases are how Moses is describe in Exodus 2. These 25 verses span 40 years of Moses' life. There certainly are a lot of details that we don't know about Moses, but the most important that we do know is this: "God saw the sons of Israel and God took notice of them" (v25).

How did God take notice of the terrible plight of the Israelites' Egyptian bondage? He raised up Moses.

Long before the "groaning" of His people reached epic proportions, God was already at work. He was already preparing a deliverer. He already had things in motion that would eventually lead to their salvation.

As I read this chapter, I am struck by two things. First, the way God worked in Moses' life and how God can use all of our experiences--good, bad or indifferent--to prepare us for kingdom impact.

The second is how God is always at work even when we don't see Him working. I imagine that as the Israelites sweated under the Middle Eastern sun fulfilling the burdensome tasks of their Egyptian masters, they wondered where God was in all of it. They cried to the Lord--but the answer was not immediate. Many times the answers to our prayers aren't readily visible, but that does not mean that the answer is not on the way.

We often expect the answers to our prayers to be delivered like pizza--hot, fresh, and in about 30 minutes.

God's answers are always fresh, but they happen on His time frame, not ours. When we find ourselves waiting for those answers to get delivered, we should take heart that God hears and He is at work.

We also have to realize that, like Moses, you and I just might be the answer to someone else's prayer. The difficult time we are going through now might very well be preparing us to be God's delivery man or woman in response to petitions of others.

Let's not get discourage. Let's keep praying. Let's keep trusting that God knows what's best.

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and president of MaxPoint Ministries, whose purpose is to help individuals, churches and ministries reach their full potential. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.

Exodus 1--When Two Worlds Collide

Often when movie studios come out with sequels they aren't as good as the original. They lose some of that "magic" and excitement. And the more sequels, the worse they seem to get. Not so, however, with the Rocky series of movies which actually got better as they went (well, at least until no. 4).

My favorite Rocky movie, and the biggest money-maker, was the fourth where boxer Rocky Balboa faces off in Russia against a massive Soviet Union fighter. The Cold War was still going on when the movie came out, so the epic clash of "two worlds" in the boxing ring was symbolic of a larger struggle.

Rocky had moved to Russia to train for the fight, living in a cabin in the midst of ankle deep snow. My favorite scene is the training montage. Rocky is sawing lumber, pulling load-filled sleds, and running outside in frigid conditions. During his preparation, the movie flashes to the Soviet boxer and his preparation in a state-of-the-art indoor training complex.

Two very different boxers. Two very different preparation approaches. Two very different worlds bracing for a collision.

In Exodus 1, we see the collision of two worlds. One world was comprised of the descendants of Abraham living in Egypt. These were people who feared and worshiped the one true God. The God who had chosen them as their own. They were God's people, the God of Joseph who had brought them there hundreds of years prior.

The other world was made up of the Egyptians and their rulers. These were people who worshiped many gods and who had forgotten how Joseph, a Jew, had saved them from a devastating famine.

Why did these two worlds collide? Three reasons.

First, the "land was filled" with God's people (v7). If they had been just a scattered few, no one would have noticed. But whenever God's people start to multiply those who deny God get nervous.

Second, "A new king who did not know about Joseph came into power" (v8). This was someone who did not know his history and who was blinded to the fact that if it wasn't for a man of God none of them would even be alive.

Third, the Egyptians saw God's people as potentially opposing them and everything they stood for (vv9-10). They couldn't take a chance that they might lose the lifestyle they had come to enjoy. These concerns grew into hatred for God's people, severe oppression of God's people, and even an attempt to kill off the next generation of God's people (v16).

Today, we are seeing a collision of two worlds. One is comprised of God's people. The other is comprised of those who want to live in opposition to the Lord. The same three reasons for the collision in Exodus 1 are the very same reasons our worlds collide today.

The question for God's people is this: will we succumb to the world's culture and surrender, or will we remain faithful, multiply and spread God's word?

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Frank Banfill is an author, international speaker, and president of MaxPoint Ministries, whose purpose is to help individuals, churches and ministries reach their full potential. Please forward this blog to your family & friends. Not a subscriber? Sign up now at www.FranksBibleBlog.com.