Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
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Scratching
the Surface of Exodus
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Have you ever
wanted to escape?
Forget the past
tense, how about right now?
Do you want to
escape from someone or something?
Do you feel
chained to alcohol, tobacco, weed, nose candy, caffeine, pills, job, debt,
taxes, porn, plastic, memories, fantasies, relationships, religion, government,
or ___?
Everyone has
someone/something to fill in that blank because it's human to want to escape
'em.
Though we're
gonna get to him later, the Psalmist, who often captures how we feel about a
lotta stuff, dreamed, "I wish I was a bird and could fly away
from..."
Unless your
doctor has prescribed a little helper to anesthetize your brain, everybody's
trying to escape someone or something because someone or something has control
over us.
We want to be
free from...
It's the
collision of two opposite instincts.
We want to be
free.
Someone/something
doesn't want us to be free.
This book is
about that struggle.
It's about our
desire to be free, the aforementioned stuff or Pharaoh(s) in our lives that
don't want us to be free, and God who is divine enough to enable our escape.
Let's look at our
instinct.
We want to choose
who, what, where, when, and whatever for ourselves.
No matter the
Pharaoh, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said among his last words on the night
before being murdered for being one of God's voices of freedom (4/3/68),
"The cry is always the same - 'We want to be free!'"
Let's look at
Pharaoh's instinct.
Pharaoh wants to
control our thoughts, words, and actions; enslaving our identities and
aspirations to his agenda.
While Pharaoh
will say he's looking out for our best interests, it's just a smokescreen to
distract us while the cuffs and chains are being fastened to our bodies and
souls.
Fortunately, God
is the main player in His story.
That's what the
whole book is about and Exodus builds upon Genesis as God's character expands
from Source, Starter, and Sovereign to Savior.
Because He is Who
He is as Source, Starter, and Sovereign, God's original design of making us for
Himself cannot be changed by anyone/anything less than Himself; and that
includes Pharaoh.
Unlikely voices
like Moses arrive on the scene with God's command, "Let My people
go!"
If Pharaoh
refuses, God plagues 'em until Pharaoh lets up or gives up or is put down; and
then the emancipated sing like King did on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, D.C. (8/28/63), "Free at last. Free at last. Thank
God Almighty, we are free at last."
Of course, our
freedom from God is for God.
Simply, we are
free to be as God designed us to be.
As we learned in
Genesis, He made us for Himself.
He created us;
and as we read in Genesis and as we read in every book of the Bible, we'll
always be just fine as long as we pay attention to Him.
Just to be clear,
let's take a quick look at what He means by freedom.
Freedom does not
mean doing whatever the hell we want to do; for doing whatever the hell we want
to do brings hell into the lives of others and disrespects God Who loves
everyone equally.
That's why He
gave those Ten Commandments to us; which, basically, show us how to get along
with Him and how to get along with everybody else.
Indeed, we can't
escape the fact that God's book reminds us over and over and over again that
getting along with everybody else is, more than less, how we get along with
Him.
We'll get back to
that/Him/them as we scratch the surface of the other books.
Simply, Biblical
freedom is being exactly who God intended us to be; and when we are exactly who
God intended us to be and others are exactly who God intended them to be,
everyone gets along just fine because God is not double-minded and does not
give freedoms that conflict, collide, contradict, inhibit, or anything else
destructive to relationships.
Problems start
when we look in the mirror, like Pharaoh, and see God.
That's when the
attacks on freedom begin - when humans start thinking they're a tad too divine
and entitled to control other humans no matter how they've been designed by the
one and only and real God.
The solution is
staying focused on the Source, Starter, and Sovereign Who will always be our
Savior to escape the controls, chains, and captivities of life's Pharaohs.
Every episode in
Exodus explains the simple equation of freedom: obedience to God = freedom to
experience His best for our lives and escape anyone/anything up to no good in
our lives.
While we'll
discover His story
climaxes at the entrance of His incarnate Self in Jesus as ultimate Savior to
help us escape death - the ultimate Pharaoh - and do for us what we cannot do
for ourselves, Exodus refreshes us with the good news that every Pharaoh who
shows up at our doors is no match for people who acknowledge, accept, and adore
God our Source, Starter, Sovereign, and Savior.
This book is
about God doing that for us right now as well as forever.
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...to be continued...
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Blessings and Love!
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