Intern: Hunter Lied

Hello all!

My name is Hunter Lied. I am 18 years old, from Millsboro, Delaware, and am currently a senior at Delmarva Christian High School. I am attending Delmarva Christian High School for the sole purpose of a solid Christian education. Lord willing, I will attend Lancaster Bible College this upcoming fall to major in Business and Intercultural Studies. Intercultural Studies will educate me for better potential missions work after school. I also love to do video editing on the side whenever I can. I was able to intern with Empowering Action through an opportunity offered by my school. Every year following the Christmas break, we are offered a two-week period off for J-Term. This is an opportunity for the students to take extra curricular classes or attend trips that our school doesn’t normally offer such as, mission trips, aviation classes, home construction with Habitat for Humanity, participate in the annual short film, internships, and much more. I chose to do an internship again as I had done for the past 3 years. This year, I decided I wanted to do it with Empowering Action.

I have had a burning passion to do missions work since I was about 14 years old. God had provided opportunities for me to do local missions through my church, Bay Shore Community Church. The local missions I did were both out of state. The very first one to Campbellsville, Kentucky and the second to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. God had more planned for me. My first encounter with Empowering Action was when I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic in August 2016. Bay Shore Community Church, as well as Homes of Hope, went to the outskirts of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to fabricate their first container home. This is when the Empowering Action encounter came about. They were asked to choose a local church in the area that would then choose the family that needed this home the most. It was a life changing experience for sure. I was the youngest member to go on this trip, and at the age of 17, it was pretty cool being able to get out of the country for the first time. After this trip to the Dominican Republic, I felt a call to go back. God provided and this second time back happened to be my internship with Empowering Action.

I chose to go back with Empowering Action because I saw the impact they were making through the local churches in the Dominican Republic. Kent Husted, the Executive Director of Empowering Action, previously attended my church and I do not know anyone who is more devoted to changing lives than him. The most important piece of Empowering Action is how they work through the local church. This is the most effective way to serve for short-term trip participants who aren’t able to be present for all 365 days of the year. The local church is always there, so therefore it is the most effective tool for impacting lives for God’s kingdom. That is why I chose Empowering Action to intern with. I wanted to see how they do this firsthand. Arriving on Sunday, January 8, and staying there for a week, couldn’t have been a better timing. Escaping the 8°F weather, a foot of snow that Delaware got hammered with, and being able to land into 82° sunshine was amazing. That isn’t why I was there though. I was there to see how God is using Empowering Action, and how I may be able to serve for just the small amount of time I would be there.

Carlos, another member of the Empowering Action staff, was there to pick me up from Las Américas International Airport and take me to where I would be staying for the duration of the week. “We are headed to Quisqueya”, Carlos told me. I had been to Quisqueya before on the previous trip, and couldn’t have been more excited to be going back. Upon my arrival to Quisqueya, I saw kids playing baseball in the streets, people riding horses, and motorcycles weaving in and out of every obstacle. The car stopped, and we parked in front of Iglesia Arca de Salvación. This is the church that Jose Lorenzo pastors. Jose is on staff with Empowering Action as well. That is whom I stayed with for the rest of the week, Jose and his family. Helping out in his church most of the week, as well as doing home visits throughout the community to make sure people were doing well, were only a couple of the things I got to do.

Tuesday was the day that the Empowering Action staff returned back to work from the holidays and the New Year. Waking up at 5 am to ride a couple buses and taxi’s to get to Santo Domingo at a reasonable time was quite fun. Being crammed in a tiny bus, meanwhile being the only American, was very fun. Jose and I ventured out to attend the planning meeting at the Empowering Action office in the capital, Santo Domingo. Getting to meet all of the staff was incredible. That in itself was enough to just reflect on how God has blessed this organization. In order to have that many staff, there must be a lot going on. With Empowering Action, I can promise you there is always something great going on! This was my only day in the office, but that did not mean I wasn’t interning.

The most amazing part of my internship was being able to see how Jose gathers his information he needs from the planning meetings, and takes them back to Quisqueya (which is over an hour outside of the city), and applying the new information throughout his community. He didn’t just show up because he was there to do his job. He showed up to gain more knowledge on how he can serve his community in a better way. The next day, Jose, Henry (EA Staff), and I went around the community to film testimony videos for the Abundant Life program. Henry translated for me and it is just amazing to see another successful way that Empowering Action is being able to advance God’s kingdom through the local church. Pastor Domingo said in his testimony that, “the Abundant Life Program helped to motivate and mobilize the church to use the resources they have to grow and serve the community.”

For the remainder of the week, I got to play with Jose’s children as well as other friends from the community, and experienced multiple times of laughter and fun. Teaching them the game of dodge ball had to be the most entertaining event I may have ever seen in my life. Using my translator app on my phone, I was able to instruct them on how to play. Even though it was with a flat soccer ball and a very small foam ball, they made it work. They couldn’t have been happier. The thrill of them being able to fire a ball at an opponent and call them out of the game, left them with smiles from ear to ear. With baseball being their most popular sport, Dominicans can hurl a ball quicker than I’ve ever seen. After the games, Jose, his children, and I set up for an outside service of worship. We constructed a small stage and moved all of the pews to the outside just so the community could be openly invited. Unfortunately, a rainstorm came through and we had to relocate everything back into the church. The worship continued inside of the church, because honestly, rain will never be able to stop God from moving no matter what country you are in! I remember hearing Jose saying, “Gloria a Dios” multiple times that night because he wanted to certainly give glory to God for the high attendance that night. The night of worship was my last night there, and God couldn’t have sent me home with a better memory.

Empowering Action is doing amazing things in the Dominican Republic and I couldn’t have chosen a better organization to intern with. I pray that you may be inspired by this and hopefully God will provide for you an encounter with Empowering Action to see all of the great things they are doing for His kingdom.

Dios te bendiga (God bless you),

Hunter Lied

Setting Streams in Motion…

The Lord promised the nation of Israel in Isaiah 43:2,

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

It’s been rightly noted, “God’s presence in the trial is much better than exemption from the trial.” The reason for this is that God is at work, and, while we see things in part and imperfectly (1 Cor. 13:12), His plan is grander and greater than we could imagine.

DL Moody in The Overcoming Life reminds us of how this concept is clearly and powerfully evident in the life of the Apostle Paul,

Think of Paul up yonder. People are going home to be with the Lord every day and every hour, men and women who have been brought to Christ through his writings. He set streams in motion that have flowed on for more than a thousand years.

I can imagine men going up there and saying,

“Paul, thank you for writing that letter to the Ephesians. I found Christ in that.”

“Paul, I thank you for writing that epistle to the Corinthians.” “Paul, I found Christ in that epistle to the Philippians.” “I thank you, Paul, for that epistle to the Galatians. I found Christ in that.”

I suppose they go up to Paul all the time and thank him for what he did. When Paul was put in prison he didn’t fold his hands and sit in idleness. No, he wrote. And his epistles have come down through the ages of time. They have brought thousands upon thousands to a knowledge of Christ crucified. Yes, Christ said to Paul, “I will make you a fisher of men if you will follow Me.” And he has been fishing for souls ever since. The Devil thought he had done a very smart thing when he maneuvered Paul into prison. He was very much mistaken. He overdid it for once. I have no doubt that Paul has thanked God ever since for that Philippian jail, his stripes, and imprisonment there. We will only know when we get to heaven what an impact Paul had on the world.

Yesterday’s photos of our most recent class of Abundant Life Program graduates and this reading from last night combined to remind me of two things:

  1. God’s presence with those church leaders in the midst of their trials
  2. God’s graciousness in permitting them and us to “set streams in motion that may flow on for years.”

Meet the O’Malleys

The gospel of John contains the story of Jesus healing the blind man, in which Jesus states,

“We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” (John 9:4)

In keeping with that calling and urgency, Scottish 18th century minister William Arnot said,

“The very fact of a Christian being here, and not in heaven, is a proof that some work awaits him.”

However, the good works, which God prepared in advance for each Christian to do (Eph. 2:10), are as unique as we are individuals, often varying with the seasons of life.

Enter Ken and Mary Anne O’Malley, who arrived yesterday in Santo Domingo to serve as full-time missionaries with our team, with Ken focusing on construction initiatives, utilizing his 35-years of project management experience with Exxon Mobil, and Mary Anne, leveraging 8-years of teaching experience, to serve the special needs community within our ministry network.

Please keep both of them in prayer in the days to come, as they transition to a new culture and ministry setting and follow, in obedience, the Lord’s leading.

The late missionary Amy Carmichael wisely noted, in distinguishing between the Israelites’ Red Sea and Jordan River crossings,

“You and I may be called again and again to walk right into our own ‘rivers,’ whatever they may be-to wet our feet in them. We may be called to do what nobody understands except those to whom the word of guidance is given-and with it, His promise too.

But understand this: The word must come first, and also His promise. You and I must be sure of what we are called to do, with an inward conviction that absolutely nothing can shake.

In my own case, again and again, I have had to wet my feet in the water. Only God and those who have to walk in that path know how hard this kind of faith-life can be. But He does know. And when the people around us don’t hear the words and the voice we have heard, and only say, ‘It thunders…’ then He comes near, and we know Him as we never knew Him before….

If only the next step is clear, then the one thing to do is take it!”

Welcome, Ken and Mary Anne! We are grateful to the Lord for including EA in this next step in your walk with the Lord, and are anxious to see what He does both within you and through you, as a result of your obedience to His call.

Ken O’Malley  – komalley@empoweringaction.org

Mary Anne O’Malley – momalley@empoweringaction.org

Resolved 2017

25,915

That is the number of days in the life of the average human. Reebok commissioned the study this past year, resulting in a fitness campaign with the motto “Honor Your Days.”

So, according to Reebok, I have 10,918 days left. And while I must admit that I do find it motivational to know, according to Reebok, that I’ve already lived 58% of my life, I find this passage below from DL Moody’s The Overcoming Life, even more inspiring to “live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:10)

“Many are mentioned in Scripture of whom we read that they lived so many years and then they died. The cradle and the grave are brought close together. They lived and they died, and that is all we know about them. In these days, you could write on the tombstone of many professing Christians the date they were born and the date they died. There is nothing in between.

You can’t bury a good man’s influence. It lives on. They have not buried Daniel. His influence is as great today as it ever was. Do you tell me that Joseph is dead? His influence still lives and will continue to live on and on. You can bury the frail house of clay that a good man lives in, but you can’t get rid of his influence and example. Paul was never more powerful than he is today.

 Do you tell me that John Howard, who went into so many of the dark prisons in Europe, is dead? Is Henry Martyn, or William Wilberforce, or John Bunyan dead? Go into the southern states, and there you will find millions of men and women who once were slaves. Mention to any of them the name of Wilberforce, and see how quickly their faces light up. He lived for something beside himself, and his memory will live on in the hearts of those for whom he lived and labored.

 Are Wesley or Whitefield dead? The names of those great evangelists were never more honored than they are now. Is John Knox dead? You can go to any part of Scotland today and feel the power of his influence. The enemies of these servants of God are dead. Those who persecuted them and told lies about them are dead. But the men themselves have outlived all the lies that were uttered concerning them. Not only that, but they will also shine in another world.”

 With 2017 having just begun, and with it another 365 opportunities to daily “live for something other than yourself so your memory will live on in the hearts of those for whom you lived and labored,” we would be wise to recall the words of the late C.T. Studd,

“Only one life, yes only one,
Soon will its fleeting hours be done;
Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet,
And stand before His Judgment seat;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

A Sin-free Christmas Sermon?

This Christmas we found ourselves away from our home church, yet wanted to attend a Christmas Eve service.  So we decided to visit a local church that had an excellent reputation over the years. When we arrived, we found a first-class facility, and a warm, inviting, ethnically diverse congregation. On that point alone, I was truly impressed, as Sunday morning continues to be one of the most segregated hours in American life, with more than 8 in 10 congregations made up of one predominant racial group.

And when the service began…well…the orchestra-led worship and drama was Broadway quality, and the diversity of the congregation was reflected on the stage. Again…I was blown away. Phenomenal.

So, when we transitioned into the sermon, my expectations were through the roof, as, over the years, I had always heard great things about the quality of their expository teaching.

Now, let me preface my reflections that follow by saying:

1.     As someone in ministry for 20+ years and often the recipient of well-intentioned criticism, I make a point to avoid having a critical spirit whenever possible.

2.     As someone who is in the midst of being entrepreneurial for the Lord, and is living in such a way that, fundraising-wise, as Francis Chan writes in Forgotten God, “I am desperate for God to come through. That if He doesn’t come through, I am deep trouble.” I want and need to keep clean accounts with the Lord. (Psalm 66:18)

3.     This was one sermon, and, in fairness, should not be the basis of evaluating the ongoing teaching ministry of this particular church.  (Although that is my fear, and the source of my discouragement, given the presence, presumably, of many Christmas/Easter only visitors.)

However, I think it bears addressing, by way of a cautionary tale, that the mention of SIN was nowhere to be found, apart from the gospel presentation itself. (Again, another plus for actually presenting the gospel!) But you cannot have someone saved without his or her realizing and acknowledging that they are perishing (Romans Road 101).  When we speak in vague generalities about having a “relationship with Christ” or “receiving Christ,” we do our congregations and all members of the godhead a grave injustice.

I love this quote from a Christmas Devotional I have been reading by John Piper, Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent,

“Christmas is an indictment before it becomes a delight. It will not have its intended effect until we feel desperately the need for a Savior.”

A.W. Tozer says in From Heaven: A 28-Day Devotional,

“Whenever Christ is preached in the power of the Spirit, a judgment seat is erected and each hearer stands to be judged by his response to the message. His moral responsibility is not to a lesson in religious history but to the divine Person who now confronts him.”

But for “Christ to be preached,” and “fruit in keeping with repentance” to occur, where an individual is confronted with their sin and the perfection of the Lord, SIN most be part of the equation, as Paul noted when defining the Gospel,

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

Otherwise, we relegate the babe in the manger who became the God-Man on the cross to a Tony Robbins-like life coach, offering us a Better Life Now, as opposed to “the way, the truth, and the life,” apart from which there is no salvation from a Christ-less eternal existence. (aka. Hell…but that’s another post)

Again…A.W. Tozer to close:

“Why would the Son of God come to our race? Our own hearts—sin and darkness and deception and moral disease—tell us what His mission should be. The sin we cannot deny tells us that He might have come to judge the world!

Why did the Holy Ghost bring this proclamation and word from God that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world” (John 3:17)? Men and women are condemned in their own hearts because they know that if the Righteous One is coming, then we ought to be sentenced.

But God had a greater and far more gracious purpose—He came that sinful men might be saved. The loving mission of our Lord Jesus Christ was not to condemn but to forgive and reclaim.”

Israelite Inspiration

Each year Empowering Action receives approximately 30% of its $400,000 budget in the year-end months of November and December, making it an extremely critical time in defining the degree to which EA can continue to serve our network of over 1,000 pastors in 3 countries, in reaching over 20,000 impoverished individuals yearly.

Over the past 4 years God has been beyond gracious in providing supportive donors who have served us financially, in order that we might serve others proudly in the name of Jesus Christ.

There is a wonderful story in Exodus chapters 35-36, where God gives instructions to the Israelites for a voluntary offering to be taken to build the tabernacle. It is a powerful story of hearts stirred to contribute to a God-ordained initiative, apart from human manipulation and with such generosity that supporters had to be told to stop giving!

I’ve provided a few of my notes below, as I have been reflecting on and praying over this passage during this defining moment in the life of EA, in the hope that God might also move the hearts of EA supporters to give with such overwhelming generosity for His glory.

I pray you also are edified and encouraged by this example of faithful stewardship.

“And the people came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord’s contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.” (Exodus 35:20-21)

  • Literally, whose “affections were set on the work”

“And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning.” (Exodus 36:3)

  • Even willing hearts need to be told, now is the time to give. Moses informed them, and the people responded.

“The craftsman said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.” So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.” (Exodus 36:4-7)

  • Giving can be abundant apart from human manipulation and tricks.
  • “When the heart is truly stirred, and the spirit makes willing, giving ceases to be calculating. Nothing is too precious to be given, no amount is too great.” – G. Campbell Morgan
  • The job was organized and planned to the extent that they understood what they needed, and when they had more than enough.
  • When God’s people are asked to give to something, they should expect that it be well organized, planned, and managed.

“It must have been both a disappointment and a frustration to those who had delayed their gifts because they could not bear to part with their treasures, and who now found that God had no further need of them. His work was finished, but they had excluded themselves from any share in it: God deliver us from such a frustration.” – R. Alan Cole

“We are convinced that if there were less solicitation for money and more dependence upon the power of the Holy Ghost and the deepening of spiritual life, the experience of Moses would be a common one in every branch of Christian work.” – Hudson Taylor

Perseverance Over Attrition

Attrition. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as a reduction in the number of employees or participants that occurs when people leave because they resign, retire, etc., and are not replaced.

Attrition happens in life. But with the Abundant Life Program’s church participation it happens at an alarmingly low rate. Occasionally, after the 6 church trainers complete the 2-day Train the Trainer Event, a church drops out, but, for the most part, normally a church’s enthusiasm only grows the further they get into the program.

This past week, while accompanying a visiting group from Washington, DC, I asked a 16-year-old volunteer why he had decided to take on the workload and time commitment of serving as a church trainer in his church’s Abundant Life program. As we listened to him describe his passion and vision for his community, I took note of the wisdom beyond his years he possessed. Often, many of us struggle with the perseverance required to achieve our goals.

Years ago I read the following story about legendary football coach, Tom Landry, from Chuck Swindoll’s book, So You Want to be Like Christ: Eight Essentials to Get You There.

“I had the privilege of getting to know the late coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry, while he served on the Dallas Theological Seminary board. He was a humble man of quite strength and dignity, and when he chose to say something an entire room would stop and lean in to hear what he had to say. Once during a breakfast with a group of men, someone asked how he was able to forge a team out of individuals so they would win, something he managed to do every year for twenty-nine years. I’ll never forget his answer. The table grew silent as he paused for a moment, and then said, ‘My job is to get men to do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to achieve.’”

This is a good reminder in all facets of our life, but notably in our walk with the Lord:

If we want what we’ve never had,
we must do what we’ve never done.

Wisdom from the Past for Black Friday of the Present

My wife can attest that I love a bargain as much as the next guy. And certainly an opportunity to take advantage of seasonal savings, in order to be a good steward of the resources the Lord has entrusted to us, is always appealing. But below are a few words of wisdom from some of the spiritual heavyweights of yesteryear, as we head into another Black Friday and the onset of the holiday shopping season.

Hudson Taylor on Opportunity over Accumulation

“I believe we are all in danger of accumulating. It may be from thoughtlessness or from pressure of occupation. Retaining things that would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves, entails loss of blessing. If all resources of the church of God were utilized well, how much more might be accomplished! How many poor might be fed and naked clothed? And to how many of those, as yet unreached, the gospel might be carried?”

Andrew Murray on the True Value of Money

“What a wonderful religion Christianity is. It takes money, the very embodiment of the power of sense of this world, with its self-interest, its covetousness, and its pride, and it changes it into an instrument for God’s service and glory.”

Charles Ryrie on Consumption versus Compassion

“There is a generation of professing Christians now-a-days, who seem to know nothing of caring for their neighbours, and are wholly swallowed up in the concerns of number one,—that is, their own and their family’s. They eat, and drink, and sleep, and dress, and work, and get money, and spend money, year after year; and whether others are happy or miserable, well or ill, converted or unconverted, travelling toward heaven or toward hell, appear to be questions about which they are supremely indifferent. Can this be right? Can it be reconciled with the religion of Him who spoke the parable of the good Samaritan, and bade us ‘go and do likewise?’ (Luke x. 37.) I doubt it altogether.”

George Muller on Seizing Present Possibilities

“It is a point of great importance in the divine life, not to be anxiously reckoning about the morrow, nor dealing out sparingly, on account of possible future wants, which never may come; but to consider, that only the present moment to serve the Lord is ours, and that the morrow may never come to us.”

Boast In This

By most people’s definition of success, the prophet Jeremiah would be considered a complete failure. For 40 years he served as God’s spokesman and passionately urged the people to return to God, but no one listened, particularly the kings. He was penniless, friendless, and rejected by his family. But in God’s eyes, Jeremiah one of the most successful people in biblical history, because success, as seen by God, involves obedience and faithfulness.

Jeremiah wrote,

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”(Jeremiah 9:23-24)

It’s important to understand that, when Jeremiah speaks of “knowing God,” there are 2 dimensions that he is referring to, intellectual and volitional:

 1.  Intellectual – entails knowing truth about God (BELIEF)

“Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (Ps. 100:3)

“And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” (Judges 2:7-10)

2.  Volitional – involves trusting and obeying God (BEHAVIOR)

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15)

So as we seek to honor God in both our belief and behavior, it is essential to heed the wisdom below of Pastor Warren Wiersbe regarding the obedient life of Jeremiah and disobedient Old Testament nation of Israel,

“No amount of education, power or wealth can guarantee the blessing of God. God doesn’t delight in a nation’s learning, political influence, armies or gross national product. He delights in a people who practice kindness, justice, and righteousness because they know and fear God.”

God’s Will: The Safest Place To Be

C.S. Lewis wrote, “To walk out of God’s will is to walk into nowhere.”

The book of Ruth in the Bible contains the story of Ruth, a Gentile woman who married a Jew, becoming the great grandmother and King David, and, most importantly, helped to perpetuate the line of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The story begins with Ruth’s future mother-in-law, Naomi, fleeing a famine in Bethlehem and heading to Moab:

“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.” (Ruth 1:1-2)

This seemingly unimportant section contains an essential truth in keeping with C.S. Lewis’s caution above: No matter how difficult our circumstances, the safest place to be is in the will of God.

Most bible scholars believe the famine was an act of divine judgment for Israel’s disobedience. But instead of waiting for God’s direction and provision, Naomi and family ran to the enemy territory of Moab.

An enemy that:

– Had attacked them on their journey from Egypt to Canaan;
– Had invaded and ruled over them for 18 years;
– God describes in Psalm 60:8 as His wash pot, a picture of a humiliated nation washing the feet of the conquering soldiers.

The father of the Jewish nation, Abraham himself had made the same mistake in Gen 12:10 when he encountered a famine and fled to Egypt instead of waiting for God’s direction and provision.

What’s the lesson, you ask?

When trouble comes we can approach it in 3 different ways:

1.   Endure it – where trials can become our master and we can become bitter
2.  Escape it – where we may miss the purposes God wants to achieve in our lives
3.  Or…Enlist – where the trial becomes our servants and works for us to bring about our good and God’s glory. (Romans 8:28)*

*From Wiersbe’s New Testament Commentary