“And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.”
~ Exodus 24:7
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you believe that there is a God? If you believe that there is a God, what do you think that God looks like? What do you think that it would take for a guy, gal or kid to believe that there is a God? What would it take for you to believe that there is a God? Your grandpaa believes that there is a God. Your grandpaa believes in God because God the Spirit led your grandpaa to accept unconditionally what the Bible says. For your grandpaa to believe that there is a Divine Being, your grandpaa needs to only look at the order that is on planet Earth and in the cosmos and at the impossibility of a combination of gases and minerals becoming randomly mixed together forming a blob and that blob over billions of year somehow evolving into your grandpaa. God has been and is taking your grandmaa and grandpaa through all kinds of life tests to teach your grandmaa and grandpaa about the gift of hope that He gives to each guy, gal or kid who accepts His Son Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior. Your grandpaa knows that God cannot be seen here on planet Earth but . . . your grandpaa knows that when a guy, gal or kid makes a decision of faith through believing in what God the Son did on a cross as an atonement for his or her sins that God the Spirit will take up residence or begin to live in the heart of that guy, gal or kid to help him or her begin to understand or grasp Who God is and how God is having them to be and to do to reflect His glory through them back to Him. When God’s especially chosen guys and gals – who were the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, were living in Egypt, God’s specially chosen guys and gals stopped believing in and worshipping the God of their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Because God’s specially chosen guys and gals did not know what God looked like, God’s specially chosen guys and gals used this as a reason to not believe that there was a God. While they were Egyptian slaves, the Israelite people group’s guys and gals worshipped idols made from wood, stone and metal because that was what the Egyptian guys and gals were worshipping. After the Israelite people group’s guys and gals saw the plagues which God caused to happen against the Egyptian guys and gals, after they walked on dry ground between massive walls of piled up water and after they had a cloud lead them during the day and a pillar of fire lead them during the night, the Israelite people group’s guys and gals became more and more amendable to believing in a Divine Being. God used miraculous, supernatural occurrences – which He caused to happen, to lead His specially chosen guys and gals to believe in Him. God led His specially chosen guys and gals to change their religious beliefs from worshipping inanimate idol gods to worshipping Him as being the one true living God.
God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, are an example of how God will lead a guy, gal or kid from a life that is only serving self to a life that serves only Him. When a guy, gal or kid makes a decision of faith, that guy, gal or kid will find God the Spirit prompting him or her to want to serve God instead of self. When God led His specially chosen guys and gals to change their beliefs from worshipping idols made from wood, stone or metal to worshipping Him, God’s specially chosen guys and gals became very animated to serve Him. By the time that Moses and the more than two million guys, gals and kids stopped at Mount Sinai, God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, wanted to do nothing more than to do God’s will. There are times when God’s presence is closer than at other times. When Moses wrote Exodus 24, God’s presence was very close to His specially chosen guys and gals. God’s specially chosen guys and gals wanted to be obedient to God’s instructions. God specially chosen guys set up twelve stone pillars – which represented the twelve tribes, just like God had asked them to do. God’s specially chosen guys made burnt and fellowship sacrifices to God just as God had asked them to do. Moses took the blood from the animals that were being sacrificed as burnt and fellowship offerings and he put the blood in two bowls. Moses sprinkled the blood that was in one of the bowls over the altar where the sacrifices had been made – to signify that blood was the answer to God’s forgiveness and acceptance of the guys who had made the sacrifice. Moses sprinkled the blood from the second bowl over God’s specially chosen guys – to signify that the same blood bound God’s specially chosen guys to God. The guys and gals who God had specially chosen for Himself were there when Moses read what is now verse 7 “Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, they responded, ‘“We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”’ It took less than forty days for God’s specially chosen guys and gals to break their promise to God.
Your grandpaa knows that when a guy, gal or kid has not made a decision of faith that that guy, gal or kid will have a feeling of emptiness in his or her life. Your grandpaa believes that if a guy, gal or kid is never led to make a decision of faith – which is to believe that Jesus’ shed blood on a cross covered his or her sins once and for all, that that guy, gal or kid will not want to be around guys, gals and kids who have made decisions of faith. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were directing the rural resident training center in Concepción Ñuflo de Chávez, Bolivia, your grandpaa encouraged a young couple from a town called Portón to attend the rural resident training center. The guy was willing to go while his wife was hesitant about going. After a short time at the rural resident training center, the guy decided to return to Portón while his wife did not want to leave Concepción. Your grandpaa thinks that the guy had never made a decision of faith. Shortly after getting back to Portón, the gal used rat poison to kill herself.
Exodus 24 (142)