Building on the Foundation

  Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread mark the beginning of God’s plan of salvation. For ancient Israel, this feast launched a journey out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. For us today, it portrays the beginning of a journey out of this wicked world and into God’s Kingdom. This journey cannot begin without one vital step: separation. God separates and distinguishes His people from those around them. Had there been no separation or distinction between the Israelites and the Egyptians, there could have been no deliverance for Israel. If there’s no separation or distinction between us and the world around us, there can be no deliverance for us, either. Indeed, the whole Feast of Passover/Unleavened Bread, from beginning to end, is all about separation! We might go so far as to call it the feast of separation. Making a Difference For ancient Israel, the process of separation started during the months prior to Passover. After the first three plagues, God spoke through Moses and w

“Noblest of goals, brightest of coals, though righteousness is our aim, we have only ourselves to blame.” These words stir something in me, a longing for something, a desire for a purpose higher than myself, and yet also a sense of failure as I sin again and again. No matter how hard I try, I always seem to make the same old mistakes over and over again which prompts the question, how hard am I really trying?  Do I love God with my whole heart and my whole might?  It’s a fair question and it necessitates a deep soul searching to find the answer. It also requires learning what righteousness actually is, and thankfully, there is no better resource for that than the Bible. Serving God is not easy, and it's made that much harder by trying to live with one foot in the world. We want to have our cake and eat it too.  Practically, we cannot serve two masters, for they both require our full devotion. God demands our full loyalty if we set out to serve Him. It turns out, we cannot both serv