Camping at the Oasis

I'll begin with what has been a recurring theme in my life. An oasis has been provided for me and you. We just gotta hang in there sometimes and press on to get to it. In Exodus 15 we can find the passage God so often has used to speak to me. I remember the first time God spoke these words to me. It was through Dr. David Jeremiah. I was driving to South Hill, Va on my way to work early one morning. It was ten years ago now that I think back. Wow! Ten years! Sometimes I can be kinda stubborn and God has to keep telling me something over and over... This chapter begins with a song. Not just any song, it's a song of celebration! The children of Israel had just witnessed one of God's greatest miracles by crossing through the Red Sea on dry ground. Can we imagine that for a moment? They were having a pure throw down party with singing and dancing over God miraculously saving them! I would've been right behind Miriam with my tamborine dancing, singing and shouting too. The party lasted for a while but not long enough.... After celebrating for a while they had to continue on through the desert...How often do we stop our praise and thankfulness too soon also?...For three days, they traveled finding no water. By this time we can imagine how hot,  tired and grumpy everybody had become. Then finally they came to the waters of Marah. 'Aaahhh!,' I'm sure they thought, 'finally water!!!' Then to only be disappointed to find the water was unfit to drink. The water as the Bible says was "bitter". Marah actually means "bitter water". Sometimes life can be like that right? We get to a place where we think, 'Yay! Finally breakthrough, fresh water!', only to find that's not the case at all. Sometimes we can even become bitter. So, I think, the Israelites were really ticked off by now. Forgetting what God had just done, they began to complain against Moses and blame him as if it were all his fault. How many times do we try to blame everybody else when we come to our "bitter waters"? So, Moses, being the mighty man of God that he was, did what he knew so well to do...He cried out to God. He asked God what to do next. Wow! The lessons we can learn from Moses! Sometimes we gotta take a moment and just cry out to God. Nothing around us seems to be working out, there seems to be no "fresh water" nor sign of God's provision around and we gotta ask our great God what to do next. As Moses does this, God speaks to him. God shows Moses a log laying by the water and told him to throw it into the water. I'm sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense to me! A log, really? and just throw it into the water? Isn't that just like God sometimes? He might tell us to do something that, in our minds, it makes no sense whatsoever...we're reminded: His thoughts are not ours and His ways are not our own...Moses, again, being the man of God that he was, simply obeyed. He just did it. Sometimes we just gotta do it too! whether it makes sense or not, whether it seems logical or not. Just do it! When Moses did the unsensible thing of throwing the log into the water, something awesome happened. The water miraculously became "sweet" or good to drink. Can you imagine what the Israelites were thinking by now? They were probably like, 'are you stinkin kidding me? put a log in the water and now we can drink it! Who is this God Moses keeps talking to and getting these ideas from?' Their eyes were slowly beginning to open and see that God is much greater than they could ever fully understand. God is so good like that. I think sometimes He does things in such a way that we also have to say, "It was God, I got no other explanation for it!" He wants to open our eyes so we begin to know Him in ways like never before. Through simple, yet difficult at times, trust and obedience God can show Himself in ways that we will never fully understand. The next thing God does is so awesome to me. He reveals Himself as "God their Healer". God tells them that if they will trust and obey His ways, then they will not suffer the things they had just watched the Egyptians suffer just days and weeks before...."For I am the Lord who heals you." Man, that's good stuff! God revealed Himself as "Jehovah Rapha", the God who heals. Over the past ten years, I have needed and experienced healing like I never knew possible. I am still receiving His healing like I never knew possible. I believe that's why I love this passage so much, why it has become such a part of me. I think we can all agree thatthere has been and continues to be places in life where experience the "bitter water". I am so thankful that our God doen't allow our water to remain bitter. I am thankful that God allows us to experience the bitter waters of this life so He can show up in miraculous ways and make our bitter water sweet. I am also thankful for the "sweet waters" of this life. We  serve such a great God that He doesn't stop at being our healer. He continues to bless us more than we can imagine. The chapter ends with this verse, "Then they came to the oasis of Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters." God knows I love to go camping!!! and He knows I love to camp where there is plenty of water and underneath the palm trees!!! Oh my goodness! My God is so good to me! He is so good to you! When we choose to trust and obey Him, He takes us to places where He truly does give us the desires of our heart. He takes us to places in Him where we are fulfilled and content. He takes us to an oasis where we can find rest, be refreshed and become renewed. Get out your hammock, I'll meet you underneath the palm trees.