My Ticket to Freedom

Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. Then the people complained against Moses, saying, 'What shall we drink?' So he cried out to the LORD and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet... Exodus 15: 23-25

Praise God! After recognizing the futility of self effort, I know only the Lord can make something beautiful from my life. The bitterest experiences of my life (which were many) were allowed in God's plan to point me in one direction: the cross.

When I was younger, I didn't realize that the cross Jesus died on was not just the centerpiece of our faith, it was everything to our faith. For He told us that when He died, we died, when He was buried, we were buried, and when He rose, we rose with Him. (See Romans 6: 1-14) 

But I didn't know that, to my shame. And so I tried and tried to do what was good and found myself in the same situation as the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, finally culminating in my exclamation "What a wretched person I am!"

It was such bad news, for me to say that I really was a wretched person. For in my ignorance I didn't believe that God did not hold those things against me, they were already paid in full by His Son. (John 19:30) He doesn't expect anything from me, but to look away from myself and constantly to Him.  The Israelites found that the tree Moses plunged into the bitter water made it sweet. In every situation, I see a "tree" submerged into the awful situations of my life and making it sweet. 

 This tree shows me my ticket to freedom, my finished work rest. I am free from trying all manner of self-help programs, for my "self" cannot be helped. The last time I was at the bookstore, I looked at some of the self-help books and finally realized that I don't have to "listen" to all these experts. All my answers are found in one Book, the Bible.

 Let's see it the way God does about efforts of self reformation:

"Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints.

From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment." Isaiah 1:5-6

Who really wants to admit to that about themself? On the other hand, I wonder how people looked at Christ when He was beaten to a pulp. He became sin for us. (II Corinthians 5:21)  Men turned away their faces.

"He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." Isaiah 53:3

It was our own wretchedness that made Him despised. It was the awfulness of our helpless condition that we inherited from Great Granddaddy Adam. It's OK for us to realize that about our natural selves. Why?

God provided a perfect solution for that wretched person. It is  new life He gives us in Christ. A talented woman from my church, Mrs. Vicky Andreis, wrote and recorded a beautiful song called "The New Life He Gave Me." The next line after that chorus is "the very life of the Savior." His life is our life, instead of any efforts we  make on our own.

The solution is to learn through the Word how to let Christ live in us instead of us. I studied in Romans 7 where Paul talked about the Law being holy, righteous and good. But God's Law cannot help us. In the Dake Study Bible, on page 166 in the New Testament, Dake wrote this note on Romans 7:13:

"The Jew would ask, 'Do you mean to say that the law is holy, just, and good, and yet it is the cause of your death? The answer is, God forbid.' It was not the law that killed me, but sin that would not let me obey the law. That made sin appear what it really is-- a deeiver, a deadly enemy, and a killer."

It is still an ongoing process of learning this day by day, but God is so patient. It's the key to my happiness. I don't have to rely on Megan anymore, but in the infinite, limitless Person of Christ who lives inside me.

If this encourages you as it did me, there is a free resource online that gives daily encouragement about this "exchanged" life. It is called 'None but the Hungry Heart,' compiled by Miles Stanford. You can view the PDF form for free from this website: http://www.fbcva.org/filerequest/7883.pdf 

Looking at the Tree

"When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the water became sweet." Exodus 15: 23-25

In Exodus 14, the people of Israel had just been released from bondage to slavery in Egypt with a mighty deliverance by God. Yet their gratitude to God for His care and provision did not last long. It is easy for me to look at them and wonder how they could have been so blind. Yet these Old Testament saints' stories were included in the Scriptures for us, to be a warning for us, to not make the same mistake they did.


"For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers 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, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ, Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so we would not crave evil things as they also craved." I Corinthians 10: 1-6

The people were bitter because they were in the desert. They failed to see God's daily provision for them: the daily manna and the shoes that did not wear out. Instead they complained about their lot in life. They wanted to return to slavery. I am not much different than they are. My life has had its own twists and turns, and sometimes the answers seem too long in coming. I look around me for human comfort in desperation, but deep down, I know that people cannot fill my void.

Only God can. Last night as I tried to drift off to sleep, I was troubled and like the Israelites, wept my own tears of bitterness. Only my cat knew I was crying upon my pillow. Instead of falling to sleep, the tears woke me up and I knew I needed to draw near somehow to Him once again. I began reading a book called The Seven Sayings of the Savior on the Cross by A.W. Pink. Only in the first few pages my heart was drawn to see my situation with a redemptive review. I can be like Moses, I can look to the tree,and behold that the cross of Calvary was hurled once for all into the sin-filled bitter waters of life on this fallen planet. For every person on this earth suffers. Some suffer more than others but more suffering occurred during that period of Christ's crucifixion than all other human sufferings combined. We have a God who knows very well what it means to hurt. He has not left us without remedy, but has given us a provision to make even the hardest trials in life sweet by our knowing and walking with Him.

I can either believe that this world is spinning out of control or that a sovereign God who loves me has all things, including my life and all that happens to me, under His loving care and concern. It may not look so good outwardly, but neither did it look good when Jesus went to the cross, or when God darkened the planet and a great earthquake occurred. (Matthew 27:45-57) But sins were being atoned for in that darkest moment of human history and God used that black moment to bring about the greatest victory: raising Jesus Christ from the dead. Death, satan, all the powers of hell itself could not keep Him in that grave.

Moses did not know what to do when the people started to revolt, but at that moment, God showed him a tree. When I see things I don't like in my life, I can "see" in my mind God showing me a tree too. That tree is Christ's cross. It means the old me is gone forever, crucified with Christ, and I am now reconciled and in right relation with Him. It means knowing that God is sovereign, and is working even the hardest things in my life for an outcome that is ultimately sweet. All I need to do is to keep looking at the tree and trusting in my Savior.

"And we know with an absolute knowledge that for those who are loving God, all things are working together resulting in good, for those who are divinely summoned-ones according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28 Kenneth Wuest, An Expanded Translation)