I woke up late. Ate breakfast... hung around for a while... put more pictures on facebook... Skyped with Katie, ate lunch, Skyped with Katie some more... took a shower... hung out with Paige... Hung out with Katie and Paige... hung out with Katie, hung out with Katie and Paige... ate dinner... Hung out with both of them... then Katie... then both of them... then came home.
It was insane. So much drama. A lot of prayers were said. If you would pray for me&Kayt&Paige, I would be so so so grateful! (Like, mucho mucho prayer right now would be SO appreciated!)
And a lot of coughing. I have this stupid... cough. My tonsels are swollen to the max. I feel like there's a tiny little space for me to swallow. But I hope it's getting better. :(
I'm going to go see Despicable Me with Katie, Meghan, Connie, Catherine, and Alexa tomorrow. So that should be fun... :) And hopefully there wont' be drama. They're a pretty good group that doesn't have much drama.
One of the songs that we sang at LT and that I'm hoping that we're singing it on Sunday... :) (Love Shane&Shane)
I really like this song too, but I can't embed it, so you'll just have to go to YouTube to listen to it. It's fantastic.
NIPTO...... Lots to read tonight.
Acts 7:11-43
11"Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food. 12When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family.14After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died. 16Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.
Okay, so Stephen is telling them a story. A story about history. About Joseph. About Jacob.
17"As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. 18Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. 19He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
Okay. So God promised Abraham that his family would occupy Egypt and that they would be punished and then that they would be led out of that land. So this time is coming nearer and nearer and the number of Hebrew people in Egypt is HUGE. And then there's a new king. He doesn't know anything about Joseph and how Joseph helped the king(s?) before him. So he forced the Hebrew people into slavery and he killed all of the newborn babies.
20"At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father's house. 21When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
Moses came along then. And he was special. He survived the massacre of the Hebrew babies and was taken into the Pharaoh's house and was brought up as an Egyptian. And he was powerful!
23"When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. 24He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.25Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?'
27"But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' 29When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
So Moses lived in Egypt for a long time. And he decided that he would visit the people that he came from and he didn't like what he saw. He saw the Egyptians mistreating the Israelites. So he defended an Israelite man and ended up killing the Egyptian man.
Then, the next day, Moses saw two Israelite men that were fighting. And he tried to break up the fight. But they didn't see what Moses was doing as kind. They saw him trying to "rule" over them. Moses realized that they knew that he had killed the Egyptian man and he ran.
30"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice: 32'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
Sooooooo 40 years go by... and Moses is out watching his sheep, and a bush bursts into flames. Moses is kind of baffled by this and goes over to look at it better. And then he hears God's voice: "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
And he was just a little scared...
33"Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'
35"This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.
God told Moses to take his shoes off. The ground that he was standing on was holy. God knew what was going on with the people in Egypt. And he told Moses that he was going to set them free and that Moses was going to be the one to tell them. Moses who had been rejected by the Israelite people. Moses who told God that he couldn't talk well. Moses who led them out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. And then they spent 40 years in the desert. (Notice this: Moses left Egypt when he was 40. God appeared in the burning bush when he was 80. Moses was in the desert until he was 120. That's old.)
37"This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.' 38He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.
Moses told the Israelites that God would send a prophet like himself from the Israelites. Moses received living words to pass on to us. And they're still being passed down. Awesome.
39"But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40They told Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don't know what has happened to him!' 41That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made
But the people didn't obey as people are apt to do. They rejected God and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. They turned back to the place they had been enslaved! How crazy is that??? But I guess as humans, we are more comfortable with something that we know and is hurtful than something that is new and uncertain.
They told Aaron to make them gods. And Aaron listened to them... *sigh*
42But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:
" 'Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
43You have lifted up the shrine of Molech
and the star of your god Rephan,
the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile' beyond Babylon.
Then God turned away. He let them worship their gods. So sad... But there's more... that will be written about tomorrow.
Goodnight.
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