Welcome to Kendra Graham’s Online Bible Study! This is a place where we can come together and share in our journey towards Scriptural truths and spiritual maturity. We pray this will be a safe, respectful, resourceful place to come and discuss God’s Word…to discover What it says…What it means…and What it means to you!

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Kendra Graham notes from Exodus 15:2

The LORD is my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation;

This is my God and I will praise Him

My father’s God and I will extol Him.

THE FACTS:

The LORD is my strength, song, my salvation, my God. I will praise Him, I will extol Him.

THE LESSONS:

The Israelites were on the bank of the Red Sea–Egypt was in hot pursuit.  The hand of God had released Israel from under the yoke of bondage and had exacted judgment upon the Egyptian gods.  All those Egyptian gods, including the ruling Pharaoh, were no match for God Almighty, the #deliverer.

Israel was panicked though.  The people had followed God, which led to the sea.  They were hemmed in… freedom was somewhere on the other side.  The Egyptian chariots were closing in fast.  The Israelites could hear the war cry of angry soldiers led by an even angrier Pharaoh.  Death was certain…. or was it?

Moses cried out to God and God parted the Red Sea.  The land was not muddy and mucky to walk across, but it was solid and dry. The Sea represented for Egypt and the Israelites an abyss.  The sea was “bottomless”, a place of death, a place where the gods came from, the underworld.  The sea was a place to be feared.  The Israelites could do nothing about that abyss that stood before them, destruction on either side, so God did.  God made a way, across the abyss, across the “underworld”, now the choice would lay in the lap of each Israelite.  What do they do?  Do they cross, or do they stay?

I know some of you are like, “That’s crazy! OF course they cross!

Come on!”  Put yourself there.  The sea was an image just as much as Egypt was an image of everything they feared.  It may have looked like a trap to them.  How many times do we think God is trapping us and just walking us off a cliff?  What about you and your kids go first, and I see if the walls of water stay…. then I will decide!  There is no time for hemming and hawing, though.  The choice must be made.  The opened sea offers the #hope of #deliverance.  The shore offers sure death.  The shore is what they know.  The sea is an unknown.  The Israelites could do nothing to open the sea and do nothing to hold the water back.  The Hebrews could do nothing to aid in their deliverance, they just had to accept it, trust that God would save them, as they walked across Hades on dry land.

We like to have a hand in our deliverance, don’t we?  We want to be part of it, to ensure that it will stick.  Well, we don’t have that option any more than the Hebrews did on this night.  We either stay on the shore of Egypt, or we walk across to freedom.  We cannot have one foot on one side and one foot on the other.  A choice must be made and that choice is an #allin choice.  If you stop in the middle of the sea, to have some deliverance and some captivity, you drown in the middle.  The enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy, Jesus has come to give life and give it abundantly (John 10).   We are created to serve someone or something, it’s either Egypt, with its power, prestige, and excess, or it’s God.  There are two kingdoms, and the Bible says you cannot serve two masters (Luke 16:13), you serve one, and the one is your choice.

God was not going to force Israel to freedom, to where He is, but He would make a way to get there.  Each Israelite had to choose.  They did nothing to obtain their deliverance, but they had to receive it and walk across that sea.  #Allin or #Allout.  As they stepped off the bank of Egypt and began to walk to the other side, something miraculous happened, a song welled up in their souls.  We do not get the song until we step and receive.  We want the song beforehand, but that is not how it works.  AS we trust and put feet to our faith, we see that the walls of water will stand, we see that the path across is dry and will hold and will not swallow us up.

When they got to the other side, God became personal to each of them.  Each of them sang their song of #deliverance.  God provided corporate #deliverance and a personal #deliverance to each one of them personally.

God saved ME!  God provided for ME! God protected MY family, God held the water back for ME! God is MY deliverer.  God became personal.  Oh God became MY God.

We can do nothing for our #deliverance.  God came down, personally, not trusting you to another, and His name is Jesus.  Jesus lived a perfect life, and as He died on the cross, that cross became a path across Hades for all of us.  Jesus rose from the dead the third day and crushed death.  God has made a way for us to get to the other side.  #Deliverance is offered corporately but must be personally received.  The kingdom of this world has come to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus has come to give life and give life abundantly.  The choice is yours.  You cannot serve two kingdoms.  Israel proclaimed “You are highly exalted” in verse one.  Exalted derived from the Hebrew word Meloch, which means king.  Each of us is following someone or something, which kingdom that is, is our personal choice.  Choose wisely.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME?

Who or what are we following?  Which kingdom?

We are #allin but on what side?

Who or what is keeping us on the side of Egypt when we know its intentions? (Steal, kill, destroy.)

Is the reason we are slow about accepting deliverance because we want a hand in it?

Do we have a personal story and song of #deliverance?

LIVE IT OUT:

Today is the day of salvation.  Today accept the free gift of deliverance that the cross offers.

Oh God, I am a sinner, I have been following, been a slave to the kingdom of this world.  Thank you for making a way through it all.  Thank you for dying on the cross and conquering sin on the cross and death at the grave.  By faith, I step, accepting your free gift of salvation.  I am #allin for You.  You are highly exalted.  You are my God and my deliverer. Help me to follow You.

– Kendra

P.S. Ladies, our in-person Winter Women’s Bible Study at The Cove begins today.  It’s not too late to join us!  Let’s get together seven Tuesday evenings in January and February and dig into the Word of God.  Register online today.

Can’t make it in person?  We’ll be streaming LIVE each Tuesday evening on Periscope, via Twitter, where you can watch from the comfort of your own home.