Your just a middleman

It's clear the gifts of the spirit of God are given by God for the benefit of others and God alone decides who gets what. This puts us between God and God's helping of others. We are the middlemen of God's ministry and blessing of God's people.

The gift of a song.

Exodus 15:2
The Lord gives me strength and makes me sing; he has saved me. He is my God, and I will praise him.

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Daughters of Davis DVD

It all starts with a gift. God has been giving since the beginning when he gave Adam the breath of life. Then God gave him purpose, a job, a place and woman as a companion. God had given fruit to eat, a garden to care for, animals to name, a command to obey, sons to raise, and a warning with hope for the future.

Here after a long, difficult process of trusting God and seeing his miraculous deliverance, Moses and God's rescued people rejoice because God gave them strength. And God gives them a song too.

I love how a relationship with God includes the gift of a song. Moses' song shared with the people and led by his sister says that God makes them sing.

I'm confident this isn't a one off. The Psalms are replete with people moved to song as a proper response to being rescued. Mary the mother of Jesus celebrates her saviour the baby she carried with a song. And Elisabeth the mother of John the Baptist also rejoices in God's salvation with a song.

Songs are an appropriate response to God's nearness. When God comes into our lives and hears our cries for help, often he gives us a song to accompany our Exodus from captivity.

Has the Lord of heaven and earth saved you? Has the creator of the universe given you strength? Do you sense his presence? Have you been set free from slavery? Are you wealthy beyond all imagination with a confidence that heaven is your real home and God's is your Father?

Then Sing!  Praise him.

Write your own song. Tell how God has saved you.

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Exodus 15:1-19 NCV

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, because he is worthy of great honor. He has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea. The Lord gives me strength and makes me sing; he has saved me. He is my God, and I will praise him. He is the God of my ancestors, and I will honor him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. The chariots and soldiers of the king of Egypt he has thrown into the sea. The king’s best officers are drowned in the Red Sea. The deep waters covered them, and they sank to the bottom like a rock. Your right hand, Lord, is amazingly strong. Lord, your right hand broke the enemy to pieces. In your great victory you destroyed those who were against you. Your anger destroyed them, like fire burning straw. Just a blast of your breath, and the waters piled up. The moving water stood like a wall; the deep waters became solid in the middle of the sea. “The enemy bragged, ‘I’ll chase them and catch them. I’ll take all their riches; I’ll take all I want. I’ll pull out my sword, and my hand will destroy them.’ But you blew on them with your breath and covered them with the sea. They sank like lead in the raging water. “Are there any gods like you, Lord ? There are no gods like you. You are wonderfully holy, amazingly powerful, a worker of miracles. You reached out with your right hand, and the earth swallowed our enemies. You keep your loving promise and lead the people you have saved. With your strength you will guide them to your holy place. “The other nations will hear this and tremble with fear; terror will take hold of the Philistines. The leaders of the tribes of Edom will be very frightened; the powerful men of Moab will shake with fear; the people of Canaan will lose all their courage. Terror and horror will fall on them. When they see your strength, they will be as still as a rock. They will be still until your people pass by, Lord. They will be still until the people you have taken as your own pass by. You will lead your people and place them on your very own mountain, the place that you, Lord, made for yourself to live, the temple, Lord, that your hands have made. The Lord will be king forever!” The horses, chariot drivers, and chariots of the king of Egypt went into the sea, and the Lord covered them with water from the sea. But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry land.

Big Tax Refund

Exodus 3:21-22 NLT

And I will cause the Egyptians to look favorably on you. They will give you gifts when you go so you will not leave empty-handed. Every Israelite woman will ask for articles of silver and gold and fine clothing from her Egyptian neighbors and from the foreign women in their houses. You will dress your sons and daughters with these, stripping the Egyptians of their wealth.”

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Another reversal jumps from the pages of the Bible. And this time it's wealth that is redistributed. Throughout Genesis I saw a lot of position, prestige and status reversals. There were some plot spoilers where riches were caused by God to multiply for the person being mistreated. The spotted, stripped, and speckled sheep and goats scenario between Jacob and Laban was a situation where God saw to it that his people weren't swindled. And that's what this is all about.

God isn't arbitrarily shuffling the money deck and then dealing a bad hand to the Egyptians while dealing off the bottom of the deck for his people. No, not at all. God is righting a wrong. That's what a God of justice does.

So before you get your gimme hands ta grasping consider if you've been doing right by others with what God's given you!

Far too often people in the church start naming and claiming blessings, promises, riches, happiness and botox from their personal God genie. But they fail to see how long the injustice period had gone on. They choose to ignore the fact that literally days after one of the greatest wealth redistributions in history the lotto winners were full of fear and complaints. Riches will not make you happy. More will not solve your problems.

But God is keeping score.

Bingham Park at 20:30 03/06/13

And he loves to make things right. So if you've been done wrong God has a plan to give you justice. Consider it a heavenly savings plan.

There are plenty of God's people who have been taken advantage of. You may be one of the people suffering in silence, groaning to God as your hard earned cash is clothing the rich in Versace and Prada. But rest assured God will hear you. And someday and in some way the wrong will be righted.

Can you trust God? Can you let him provide for you?

Moses here gets the Exodus master plan from God. And as a reminder he's Abraham's God. He's Isaacs God. He's Jacob's God. That's an impressive list. God made sure each of them had plenty. Each started out with meager beginnings and each faced an obstacle of significant portion. But in each case God provided.

God is faithful. He always provides what you need.

And far more than riches you need a heart change. Remember that all though these former slaves turned into the wealthy making a stunning exit left rich they quickly and repeatedly were unsatisfied.

So make sure you desire the right riches. God does want to right the financial wrongs but more than your bank balance it's your heart that needs to be rescued.

Rivers are refreshed, canals are stagnant.

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Proverbs 11:25 NIV

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The freshest water is flowing.

Do you feel a bit stagnant? Are your resources running low? When we're struggling our response is often to dam up our outflows and say, "I just need a little me time!, " When what we often need is to focus on others. It seems like turning in and focusing on self will pump us up. But or judgement is false. We need to give; we need to be in need. Because when we have an outflow that isn't selfish we make space for God to fill us up. And God works in this way. He will fill you up when you are genuinely generous.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this verse over the years. And I can't help but see the truth in it. My experience bears it out.

Some of you may think you've been giving and you have run dry. And I'd suggest two things.

You weren't giving out of a generous heart. If your service, gift giving and "generosity" is actually motivated by your image, or your duty, or some other selfish motive, of course you'll run out. This is because you are giving out of your own self generated and hoarded resources.

To constantly be filled with new blessings every day you must be looking to an unending resource. You have to have an eternal supply. God must be your source. Let God's purposes be your aim. If you allow the limitless fountain of God's blessing become your supply and the generous just and righteous purposes of God be your reason for giving you will always have God's new blessings for yourself.

Give until you have nothing to give, so that you can only depend on God and like mana from heaven you'll have a new supply every morning.

I can tell you in the hardest situations under the most difficult circumstances I've found this to be true.

It won't make you rich but you'll be wealthy in refreshment from God and secure in his abundant spring of life bubbling up inside you.

Go give for God and get refreshed.