Our Latest eVotional
THE STORY OF US: THE EXODUS
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed
through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink…These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down
to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4a, 11
How would you like to get a fresh perspective on your life? How would you like to see more clearly where you have been, where you are now, and where God wants to lead you? The purpose of our new 40-day devotional, The Story of Us: The Exodus, is to help you do just that. In the devotional, you will get a God’s-eye-view on things by daily reflecting on the Bible’s story of the Exodus as your story.
Each day we will journey with the ancient Israelites out of Egypt, through a Wilderness fraught with danger and opportunity, and into the blessings of the Promised Land. In doing this you will see that the Exodus is more than a great story of something God once did long ago, but a story of how God always goes about redeeming and transforming lives. The Exodus is the story of us!
In today’s scripture, the apostle Paul compares the Christian life to the Biblical story of the Exodus. He writes about the Israelites “baptized” in the waters of the Red Sea, as Moses leads them from the bondage of Egypt, through a wilderness towards the Promised Land. Paul reminds us how in that journey God provided manna to eat and water from a rock. Then Paul concludes that the things that happened to God’s people in that journey “…happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us…”
Significantly, the Greek word translated “example” is tupos, from which we derive our word “type”. Paul wants us to understand that the people making the original Exodus journey are “types” of you and me making our Exodus journeys. Theologians Dave Bland and David Fleer write about the Exodus as a type or model of our journey of faith:
“The Exodus is a fundamental paradigmatic narrative; so it declares and so it is treated throughout all of Scripture…What God does in the Exodus is the archetype for how God acts throughout history and how God works today.”
(Dave Bland, David Fleer, Reclaiming the Imagination: The Exodus as Paradigmatic Narrative for Preaching)
I hope you will order your copy or copies of our new 40 day devotional The Story of Us: The Exodus, in which you will see how God leads His people from the bondage of Egypt, through a Wilderness, and into the Promised Land. This would be a good resource for Lent that begins on February 26, or for any time of the year. Who knows what can happen as you set aside 40 days for meeting with and listening for God!
Here’s how you can order: click on this link – The Story of Us: The Exodus to visit our website, waterfromrock.org.
A Fellow Traveler,
Tim
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Numbers 20:8
We take our name from the Bible’s story of the archetypal Exodus journey during which the people of God came to a place in the desert wilderness where there was no water. Yet, it was there in a hostile wilderness that they experienced God’s provision of water for them and leadership into a new future. We trust in a God who still provides, renews and leads His people.
Rooted in the Word
We are a ministry of Christian renewal rooted in the Living Word, Jesus Christ, as He reveals Himself through His Written Word, the Bible. Through the Written Word we encounter the Living Word in the incomprehensible wonder of His love. We are mindful that knowledge, even of the Bible, “puffs up” while love “builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). We engage the Scriptures seeking to love more and know more of love. We purpose to search out God’s Word with both our minds and our hearts.
Ecumenical in Outlook
We honor all followers of Christ who have gone before us, and all who are among us now. We have much to learn and receive from all who have a lived experience of God’s transforming love. By reaching out to embrace the universal Body of Christ we strive to balance orthodoxy (right belief) and right living (orthopraxy).
In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.
(Rupertus Meldenius, 1582 – 1651)
Experiencing the Living God
We thirst to know God and not just to know about Him. We long for a living experience of God. We believe that God breaks into our world on the holy ground of His Word, and seek through His Spirit a living encounter with Him there. We daily aim to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength (Mark 12:30).
The arms of God be around my shoulders,
The touch of the Holy Spirit upon my head,
The sign of Christ’s cross upon my forehead,
The sound of the Holy Spirit in my ears,
The fragrance of the Holy Spirit in my nostrils,
The vision of heaven’s company in my eyes,
The conversation of heaven’s company on my lips,
The work of God’s church in my hands,
The service of God and the neighbor in my feet,
A home for God in my heart,
And to God, the Father of all, my entire being. Amen.
—Fursey of Yarmouth, 6th century Irish monk