Daily Lesson for June 30, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 106 verses 9 and 10:

9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry,
and he led them through the deep as through a desert.
10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe
and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.

Go to just about any black church on any given Sunday and you'll hear the refrain:  "God can make a way out of no way."

It's a simple message that's easy to understand but hard to believe - and especially hard to keep on being believed.  It must be preached Sunday by Sunday because the dark powers of this world are always bearing down.  It must be preached Sunday by Sunday because week by week God's people are caught between Pharaoh's army and the Red Sea ahead and must be reminded that the only course of action is just to keep walking.

The rabbis used to say that when Israelites were escaping slavery and came to the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army bearing down behind, there was a moment of trepidation and panic among the people.  Do they stop, turn around and give up or keep going and surely drown in the Red Sea.  It was when they made their decision, choosing to risk death over slavery that miracle happened.  They waded into the water feet first and kept on walking.  As they walked the waters rose up their ankles to their knees and then their waists and then their shoulders all the way to their necks.  It was not until they were all the way in above their heads and no longer able to touch bottom that the walls of the waters were parted and they were able to walk free.

You may today find yourself up against impossible.  You know there is no hope in turning back, yet going ahead does not appear anymore promising.  You feel trapped, and don't know they way out or the way forward.  The Lesson today is to keep walking.  Keep walking forward and surely you will discover what the Israelites discovered: that God really can make a way out of no way, but we have to be willing to be in over our heads before it happens.

That is today's message; and it's one we need to hear about once a week.