I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Exodus 9:27.
“My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” …
The only true safety of nations and individuals is to be obedient to the voice of God and to ever stand on the side of truth and righteousness. Pharaoh now humbled himself and said, “I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.” He entreated the servants of God to intercede with Him, that the terrific thunder and lightning might cease.
Moses knew that the contest was not ended, for he understood the workings of the human heart that is set in proud defiance against God. Pharaoh’s confessions and promises were not made because there was any change in his mind or heart; but terror and anguish compelled him, for the time being, to yield the controversy with God. Moses, however, promised to grant his request as though his confession was genuine and his repentance sincere, for he would not give him any occasion for future exhibitions of stubbornness….
On going out of the city he “spread abroad his hands unto the Lord: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.” But as soon as the awful exhibitions of divine power had passed, the heart of the king returned to its stubbornness and rebellion.
The Lord was manifesting His power to confirm the faith of His people Israel in Him as the only true and living God. He would give them unmistakable evidences of the difference He placed between the Egyptians and His people. He would cause all nations to know that although they had been bound down by hard labor and had been despised, yet He had chosen them as His peculiar people, and that He would work for their deliverance in a wonderful manner.
By long association with the Egyptians and continually beholding the imposing worship of idols, the Hebrews’ idea of the true and living God had become degraded…. They saw the idolatrous Egyptians enjoying an abundant prosperity, while they were continually taunted with the remark, “Your God has forsaken you.” But by His mighty works, the Lord would now teach His people in regard to His character and divine authority and show them the utter worthlessness of false gods.—Signs of the Times, March 18, 1880.
From the Heart p. 218
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for God to heal a situation that is hurting me. For God to bring healing, restoration, to all parties involved. For God to bring wisdom how to handle it. Jennifer
—-I have an unspoken prayer request for a dear friend’s brother who is very ill. Please pray for him and his doctors and the direction of the Lord in his care plan. Also, please pray for his sister and his daughters.
Thank you all so very much. Jeri
—-Please pray for our family. We were in a head-on collision and have injuries. Mary
—-Please pray for my cousin Angela who had a kidney removed due to a tumor. Brenda
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Dear Friends,
Some years ago, we went on a little vacation to the Oklahoma panhandle within a few miles of the New Mexico border. We saw and photographed many of the animals we were hoping to see. That Sunday morning, we got up early and headed for home. Ronnie Jay and I decided that we would stop at Beaver Sand Dunes as Ron had always wanted to go there. Ron and Ronnie Jay decided to take the mile long nature hike.
With some misgivings, I decided to join them. Big mistake! The first half of the hike was fine. The path was wide and even though it had some “hills” they were not steep. I was enjoying it as much as they were. Ronnie Jay noticed a horned lizard on the path, so he and I took several photos of the little creature. It was such an enjoyable walk that I hardly noticed that the path was getting narrower and a little steeper.
About halfway around, we came upon a grassy area with a wooden bench. We sat down and talked for a few minutes trying to decide what to do. The path for the rest of the hike was quite narrow and overgrown with weeds and sandburs. In my usual “press on regardless” mindset, I decided that I could make it despite the fact that it was obvious that most people had turned around and gone back the way they had come.
Soon it became apparent why few people came on this half of the walk. The narrow path became steeper and steeper, and the sand became deeper and deeper. Ron and I found ourselves getting hot and tired. Up one dune and down the other over and over again left me exhausted. I was puffing like a steam engine and sweating profusely. The path was not as firm as it had been and my shoes filled with scaldingly hot sand.
I reached the point where I felt like I couldn’t go any farther but I had no alternative but to keep going. By this time, Ron was very worried about his overweight and out of shape wife. I was worried about me too! I almost passed out. About the last fourth mile, Ron pushed and Ronnie Jay pulled me up the dunes. After what seemed like an eternity, we came to the point where the two paths joined to go back to the parking lot. What a relief!
As I reflect upon that long-ago dune hike, I feel gratitude to my husband and son for all their effort to get me over those miserable piles of sand. They were both sore and tired from the exertion.
Each of us need someone to help us at one time or another. Indeed, there are struggling ones all around us who are as ready to give up as I was on the last half of the trail.
The Apostle Paul speaks of the necessity and privilege we have of helping our brethren in Christ. To do so, is to follow the example of Jesus. “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Rom 15:1; Phil 2:4-8
May we bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Gal 6:2

Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Exodus 3:10.
To the oppressed and suffering Hebrews the day of their deliverance seemed to be long deferred, but in His own appointed time God designed to work for them in mighty power. Moses was not to stand, as he at first anticipated, at the head of armies, with waving banners and glittering armor. That people, so long abused and oppressed, were not to gain the victory for themselves by rising up and asserting their rights. God’s purpose was to be accomplished in a way to pour contempt on human pride and glory. The deliverer was to go forth as a humble shepherd with only a rod in his hand; but God would make that rod powerful in delivering His people from oppression and in preserving them when pursued by their enemies.
Before Moses went forth, he received his high commission to his great work in a way that filled him with awe and gave him a deep sense of his own weakness and unworthiness. While engaged in his round of duties, he saw a bush, branches, foliage, and trunk, all burning, yet not consumed. He drew near to view the wonderful sight, when a voice addressed him from out of the flame. It was the voice of God. It was He who, as an angel of the covenant, had revealed Himself to the fathers in ages past. The frame of Moses quivered, he was thrilled with terror, as the Lord called him by name. With trembling lips he answered, “Here am I.” He was warned not to approach his Creator with undue familiarity: “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” …
Finite creatures may learn a lesson that should never be forgotten—to approach God with reverence. We may come boldly into His presence presenting the name of Jesus, our righteousness and substitute, but never with the boldness of presumption as though He were on a level with ourselves. We have heard some address the great and all-powerful and holy God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable, as they would not address an equal or even an inferior…. God is greatly to be reverenced; wherever His presence is clearly realized, sinners will bow in the most humble attitude.—Signs of the Times, February 26, 1880.
From the Heart p. 211
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Kim and her daughter Lindsey. They are both battling serious health problems. Ron
—-I have several unspoken prayer requests. Buck
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Dear Friends,
Years ago when I was still working, I overheard one co-worker ask another co-worker who works weekends at a place where concerts and other types of shows are held. They were talking about all of the screaming teenage girls who go to a concert by their favorite singer. I remember those days when I did that.
Of course, I grew out of those schoolgirl crushes, but I worked with a woman who never did. Her whole focus was on Elvis Presley. The walls in her office were covered with photographs of him. She loved to talk about this singer whose career ended abruptly from an overdose of sleeping pills.
One time an Elvis impersonator was entertaining in the building where we worked. She made quite a spectacle of herself screaming like a schoolgirl and bowing to him. After the performance, she had this rather poor representation of the former rock star come to her office and showed him all of her memorabilia. One year she even went so far as to burn candles and offer food before a large photo of Elvis on the anniversary of his death. It was quite amazing how she literally worshiped a dead man.

My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. Genesis 22:8.
As they drew near the mountain, “Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” These endearing words, “My father,” pierced his affectionate heart, and again he thought, Oh! That I, in my old age, might die instead of Isaac….
Isaac assisted his father in building the altar. Together they placed on the wood, and the last work preparatory to the sacrifice is done. With quivering lips and trembling voice, Abraham revealed to his son the message that God had sent him…. Isaac was the victim, the lamb to be slain. Had Isaac chosen to resist his father’s command, he could have done so, for he was grown to manhood; but he had been so thoroughly instructed in the knowledge of God that he had perfect faith in His promises and requirements….
He comforted his father by assuring him that God conferred honor upon him in accepting him as a sacrifice, that in this requirement he saw not the wrath and displeasure of God, but special tokens that God loved him, in that He required him to be consecrated to Himself in sacrifice.
He encouraged the almost nerveless hands of his father to bind the cords which confined him to the altar. The last words of endearing love were spoken by father and son, the last affectionate filial and parental tears were shed, the last embrace was given, and the father had pressed his beloved son to his aged breast for the last time. His hand is uplifted, grasping firmly the instrument of death which was to take the life of Isaac, when suddenly his arm is stayed…. “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.” …
Our heavenly Father surrendered His beloved Son to the agonies of the crucifixion. Legions of angels witnessed the humiliation and soul anguish of the Son of God but were not permitted to interpose as in the case of Isaac. No voice was heard to stay the sacrifice. God’s dear Son, the world’s Redeemer, was insulted, mocked at, derided, and tortured until He bowed His head in death. What greater proof can the Infinite One give us of His divine love and pity?—Signs of the Times, April 1, 1875.
From the Heart p. 204
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for several prayer requests: 1. A little baby under two whose alcoholic and drug dealing father is wanting to take him away from his mother. 2. A neighbor who is being made to move out of her family’s home after she has spent much money remodeling it. 3.Bud and his wife who were in a bad car accident and are in the hospital. 4. Joann who just got out of the burn unit. M
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Dear Friends,
When I was nine, my mother and I vacationed at Wisconsin Dells. That tourist town was much different in the 1950’s than it is today. (It was smaller and much quieter.) We saw all there was to see and did all that there was to do. One day, we happened to pass by a fish farm. I had always enjoyed going to the fish hatchery in my hometown, so I wanted to see all of the fish on this farm.
There was one big difference between the fish hatchery in Kalamazoo where fish were raised to release into the area’s lakes and streams, and this tourist-trap fish farm. Here I could catch them for sport. Ha! Some sport!
The owner took us to one of the ponds and gave me a pole and some bait. Then he threw in a handful of fish food. Suddenly the water was churning as countless numbers of trout vied for a tasty morsel. He instructed me to start fishing. Within seconds my pole bent as a trout had taken my bait. I was delighted. My mother had paid for fishing privileges for two fish, so the process was repeated. She took a picture of me holding my fish. I was so proud of my catch.
When I got older, I realized how impossible it would have been not to have caught those fish. Those poor animals were trapped in a small pond. They were in a feeding frenzy as they all competed for the fish pellets. My bait was just another bit of food to them, but there was one big difference. My bait had a hook attached.
How often this world has a hook attached as well. The evil one gives us just enough worldly pleasures to cause us to think that all is well, that we are having a good life. Then when we least expect it, we are hooked. He has us in his grasp. We become alarmed and try to free ourselves just like that trout on my fishing line but soon find that we are as helplessly caught as were those two rainbow trout.
How much we need deliverance from the fishing-line of sin! Praise God, we have a Saviour Who is a mighty to save! (Isa 63:1) He can untangle us from the cords with which the enemy has bound us! “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.
I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” 2 Sam 22:2-4
We serve a Living Saviour Who longs to free us from the devil’s snares if we will ask Him to do so. Indeed, He “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14 Wonderful Saviour! Paul exclaims, “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” 1 Cor 15:57, 58
May we turn away from the fishing lines of the evil one and cling tightly to our Only Salvation allowing Him to deliver us from the fishpond of sin is my prayer.

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. Hebrews 11:4.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7.