“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.”
Hebrews 11:30

This week at Elim, the Hero of the Faith is once again, the people, and as I said to the student body and staff this morning, “kind of.” What I mean by that is, the last time the people are mentioned as doing something by faith, it is when they crossed the Red Sea. They spent two years at Mt. Horeb, then when it was time to move into the Promised Land, the majority of the people refused to go out of fear. Therefore God condemned them to “wander” for 38 more years until the unfaithful generation were all dead.

“Kind of” is referencing those who actually went into the Promised Land, the children and grandchildren of the unfaithful. These people of faith were different from the previous mentioned. God punished their unfaithfulness but provided hope. That was the key takeaway from this narrative, that God never judges without the offer of redemption, which is the good news. Our hope in Christ can be traced back to the hope those in the wilderness shared when they looked forward to the day they would go to the land of promise. We too can look forward to that day.

(Pictured is Kadesh-Barnea, one of the places Israel lived during the Wilderness Wandering.)

If you have a student with learning differences and are looking for a place that will meet those needs from a Biblical worldview, please contact Elim Christian School at (281) 855-3546 or contact us through Facebook Messenger or on Instagram. ... See MoreSee Less

This week’s devotional focus moves from the acts of one person to the acts of many, the collective response of the people, as the scriptures teach, “By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned” (Hebrews 11:29). Immediately before crossing the sea, the Egyptian army had caught up to the Hebrews, sending them into a panic. They blamed Moses and were convinced they would die with the sea at their backs. Then the waters were divided. They went from disbelief to belief when the sea divided (pictured), then by faith they crossed on dry land. How fickle we are, yet God is faithful.

The Apostle Paul reminds us that the Exodus was God’s way of not only delivering His people from physical slavery, it was God’s way of foreshadowing our salvation, deliverance from spiritual slavery, realized in Christ. When they crossed the divided sea, they were baptized into Moses, looking forward to the time they would be baptized into Christ (I Corinthians 10:1-4). Jesus fulfills the Passover Seder as the lamb slain from the foundations of the world. The people were delivered through baptism in the Red Sea. Jesus was the rock that gave them water to drink, Jesus was the manna, the bread of life, that sustained them through the wilderness. Do you see? It’s about Jesus. All of it. We are helpless and hopeless without Christ our Savior.

If you have a student with learning differences and are looking for a place that will meet those needs from a Biblical worldview, please contact Elim Christian School at (281) 855-3546 or contact us through Facebook Messenger or on Instagram. ... See MoreSee Less

From "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran:
Then said a rich man, "Speak to us of giving." And he answered: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow? And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city? And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?

Moses taught, “Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land (Deuteronomy 15:10-11). The Lord’s brother, James, wrote, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27). Our Lord Jesus puts it this way, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Giving of ourselves. What does this look like? At Elim, we teach that there are practical ways to give and this is realized in our monthly trips to MESA Outreach Food Pantry. Every second Tuesday of the month we transport our students to help assemble snack bags for volunteers and families who are working during the weekly food distribution. It is a small part of a very large operation that assists hundreds of struggling families every week. Students learn by doing, and they understand that giving is more than donating money, it is also giving of your time.

Please follow this link if you want to learn more about MESA Outreach Food Pantry or if you wish to donate: www.mesa-outreach.org/programs/food-pantry/ ... See MoreSee Less

This week’s two-part devotion about Moses discusses The Passover and what led to it. Today’s focus was the 10 plagues and what they meant to the people. Most scholars agree that God was personally attacking the Egyptian pantheon because most, if not all ancient people believed in multiple gods. If one people group dominated another people group it meant that their gods were more powerful. In the mind of the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews, the Egyptian gods were dominant as evidenced in the Hebrews being slaves of the Egyptians. God was about to set the record straight by showing everyone that He was the ONLY God.

Apis, Hapi, Isis, and Khnum could not protect the Nile. Heket could not control the sacred frogs and stop them from being a nuisance. Set could not stop the gnats, nor Uatchit, the flies. Apis and Hathor could not protect the livestock. Sekhmet, Sunu, and Isis could not protect and heal the people afflicted with boils. Nut, the sky goddess, Osiris the crop fertility god, and Set the storm god had no chance against the oncoming hail storm that produced fire. Nut, Osiris, and Set were once again powerless against the swarms of locusts. Amun-Ra, the supreme god of the sun, was simply blocked out for three days. Isis, goddess of children, and the Pharaoh himself, a living god, could not stop the death of the first-born.

The Hebrews were saved from the final plague only if they followed specific instructions. Exodus 12 gives specific instructions on how the meal was supposed to be planned and remembered annually. Each house had to slaughter a lamb, not break the bones, prepare it as if in a hurry (fire roasted) etc., and spread the blood on the doorposts of the home so that when God sees it, He will pass over to the next house. Jesus, on his final Passover meal, added emphasis when he took bread and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” and concerning the wine he declared, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (I Corinthians 11:24-25). God was foreshadowing our salvation when he freed Israel. ... See MoreSee Less