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The Lamb That Came to Dinner
3/29/2024

The ancient Egyptians worshipped many deities. Among them was the small lamb. During Passover each year, the Hebrew people were to bring a small, unblemished lamb into their home four days prior the actual Passover event. Then, after the family grew accustomed to the cute little creature, they were to kill it and eat it for their Passover meal. 

 

If you’re a parent, you can see the problem here. The children most likely romped around the home with the furry little guy. Then, when the time came to follow their religious laws, the romping ceased. Children probably cried.

 

A perfect lamb was to provide the atonement for their sins and was to be recognized as their sacrifice to God.

 

Consider the lamb. Innocent, yet destined to be the sacrificial gap between God and man. So, why a lamb? Because it represented the “cute” things we allow to become idols.

 

That little lamb was a type and symbol of the coming Christ. As the little lamb represented an Egyptian idol, the Hebrews were to cut the bond with idolatry and give the lamb as a gift to God. Its cuteness was not to deter the ceremony and its innocence provided what God required.

 

Good news! Jesus came into the world to be that spotless lamb. No more animal sacrifices. No more dalliance with idolatry. The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of everyone who calls out His name entreating Him to see them right where they are.

 

What we could not so for ourselves, Jesus the Christ did for us.

 

Happy Easter and Resurrection weekend!

Jim Beaird

Turned Upside Down
2/10/2024

The Scriptural narrative recounting Moses’ encounter with God provides us with a great lesson about an eternal promise.

 

As Moses stood before God prior to confronting Pharaoh, God asked Moses an interesting question.

 

“What is that in your hand?”

Moses replied, “A rod.”

“Throw it down,” God commanded. 

 

I’m sure Moses wondered about the relevance of the command to his particular situation. But he dropped the rod to the ground. What happened next made his eyes bug out. The rod became a snake – a real hot rod.

 

Then, God told him to pick it up by the tail. Again, Moses must have wondered, ‘why the tail?’ He knew people experienced with snakes just didn’t pick them up by the tail. They could get bitten.

 

As he reached for the snake and grabbed its wriggling tail, to his amazement, it again became a rod. This time, upside down.

 

Now, several thousand years later, we garner a timeless truth from what happened between Moses and God that day. Moses had always leaned upon his rod as it provided him sure footing along a narrow path.

 

But God turned upside down the thing upon which Moses leaned. In fact, it was never again called the ‘rod of Moses.’ From that time on, it was called ‘the rod of God.’

 

God may need to turn upside down the things upon which we lean – especially if they take the place of his provisi0n for our lives. Our initial response in faith unlocks the dormant potential already placed within each of us by our creator. 

 

Upon what do you lean? Let him turn it upside down.

Jim Beaird

Treasures of Darkness
2/5/2024

Not all darkness comes from the devil. In fact, God intentionally allows periods of darkness in our lives that has nothing to do with evil. Why would he do that?

 

We have a way of settling into our beliefs and growing complacent with the world around us. We go through the motions of faith without feeling a sense of God’s sweet presence in our daily routines. 

 

So, what are the benefits of God-induced darkness?

 

1.     You’ll learn what you really know about God. In this day and age, it is possible to learn spiritual truth without ourselves becoming spiritual.

 

2.    You’ll be humbled. Are you often the one with the answers? Do you apply those answers to your own life?

 

3.    You’ll learn again the feeling of the lost. Some have been “in the faith” for so long, they have little to say to a broken, hurting street person. The darkness of God teaches you to care.

 

4.    You’ll prove the power of prayer. I think of the lessons Jonah learned in Whale Belly University. You can bet he prayed! He began to feel the doom of an entire city to whom he refused to preach.

 

5.    You’ll come out into a greater light. You cannot know or appreciate the brightness of the light you already walk in until you have experienced the revealing product of darkness.

 

Your tunnel will end. It’s not permanent. While in your particular darkness, open your eyes.

 


Jim Beaird

An Encouraging Word
1/31/2024

God had given us each a measure of influence. Therefore, we should use that influence to affirm others. Words of affirmation have the power to bolster confidence in those who seem to struggle under the load of life’s heavy burden.

 

I recall a point in my life – 36 years ago – when someone reached out to me during an especially low point in my life. My wife and I had planted a church and saw it grow to around 300 people. 


Having sensed my time as its pastor had come to an end, I took a job as a patrolman in a community north of where we lived and accepted the midnight shift. That gave me lots of time to feel sorry for myself. 

 

During an especially low point in my destructive self-talk, I received phone calls from two men I admired and respected. The calls from Ray Smith and Del Lumbard simply told me they were praying for me, and that God still had a plan for my life. Those calls literally saved my life.

 

You never know what a well-placed word of encouragement can do for someone. Use the influence you have. Reach out to someone God lays on your heart. Pray for them. You may just save their life.

 

Jim


“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”

Proverbs 3:27

Jim Beaird

 

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