ARME 13: Camp Mokkuleia, HI - Dec 2012

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ARME Bible Camp

Leah Page

Zachary Page

Tumbleweeds and a Luxurious Oasis

To look for human beings for help, to listen to their opinions, to rely upon them for sympathy, succor, and counsel.

When in trouble, we should shut ourselves up with God.

When you have trouble, What should you do?

How many there are who realize no refreshing because they have forsaken the living waters and have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns which can hold no water.

But barrenness of soul." What can we expect but barrenness of soul when we go on in our own strength?

When we go on doing what we can do, trying to accomplish the mission in our own strength.

Verse 7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust is the Lord.

For he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by the stream and will not fear when the heat comes.

But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought, nor cease to yield its fruit." Do you notice something here?

This plant, this tree, experiences the exact same conditions.

It will not be anxious in a year of doubt, in a year of drought, nor It will experience no fear when the heat comes.

The same things come to these 2 different plants, but 1 becomes a dry tumbleweed in a desert, while the other 1 becomes a luxurious oasis on Oahu.

The 1 is shutting itself in with God, submersing itself in God so that it could come to life.

In Fundamentals of Education, page 343, Ellen White says this, He became united to, submerged in, the Holy 1 of Israel.

Does that sound at all like He's extending His roots by a river?

He became united to, submerged in the Holy 1 of Israel.

He held communion with the Father through humble prayer.

He looked to the highest for an education in spiritual things and for a knowledge of his duty as a shepherd.

His life became so closely linked with heaven that God talked with him face to face.

But that would have never happened if Moses hadn't have been tossed out into the wilderness, if Moses hadn't have had to go through that experience where he had nothing left.

He had nothing to offer any more of himself.

He couldn't trust in his own strength anymore.

And so it was there in the desert where he finally became submerged in God, where he finally took the time to drink deeply from the fountains of living water, which verse 13 of chapter 17 says, that is the Lord.

You see, Moses submerged himself in God until that old dry bush in the desert burst into flames.

As he submerged himself in God, God ignited a fire in his heart.

If we submerge ourself in God, we will come to life.

It was incredible, the life that Moses came to.

You just think about the difference between Moses before and after the wilderness experience, where he was there for 40 years.

Beforehand, he was trusting in his own strength.

He was willing to kill in order to accomplish this mission.

As after they go through the Red Sea, you just see again and again that he's relying upon God.

How does he feed them when they're in the wilderness?

He has 2000000 people at least to worry about, right?

Imagine that you have this gigantic city that you are in charge of.

And I'm going to ask God to take care of this.

Trust in Him and He will make you come to life.

I just want to look at 2 examples in Moses' life of the way that he trusted in God.

I don't know if you've ever had a lot of responsibility.

Maybe you've had a lot of people depending upon you.

How do you respond when the pressure hits, when that moment that you can't handle comes?

Deuteronomy chapter 9 tells how Moses had learned to deal with situations which came Deuteronomy chapter 9 verse 18.

This is immediately after he's coming down from the mountain.

He takes the tablets in verse 17, and he smashes them down to the ground.

And then in verse 18, he says what he did.

And he said, And I fell down before the Lord as at the first for 40 days and nights, and I neither ate nor drank water because of all your sin, which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger." When something goes wrong, How do we respond?

Do we fall on our face for 40 days and 40 nights?

When I think about it, I think about the Apostles praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And 1 of my friends once said to me, he said, you know, they set out to pray until something happened.

They were willing to pray as long as it took.

He said, I don't know if I'm not available to God.

He said, I don't know if my schedule would allow for that.

I don't know if my schedule would allow to fall on my face for 40 days because I see that my church needs revival.

But Moses, he had 2 million people depending upon him in the wilderness.

They were looking to him to be their leader.

And when something, when push came to shove, he fell on his face before God.

He shut himself in with God because he had learned that that's the only way that we could ever accomplish a supernatural mission.

In verse 25, again it says, So I fell down before the Lord the 40 days and nights, which I did because the Lord had said he would destroy you.

And you find again that on Mount Sinai, he had been there for 40 days and 40 nights.

You find that when there was rebellion, he and Aaron would fall on their faces before God.

Again and again, you find that Moses was in prayer.

And that was the only way that he saw that God would accomplish his mission.

Submerse yourself in God, and you will come to life.

A final quote I want to share with you, and then Leah's going to come up and share it.

It says, an intensity such as never before was seen is taking possession of the world.

In amusement, in money making, in the contest for power, in every struggle for existence, there is a terrible force that engrosses body and mind, in soul.

In the midst of the maddening rush God is speaking.

He bids us come apart and commune with Him.

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Tumbleweeds and a Luxurious Oasis

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