The Red Sea Rules: 10 God-Given Strategies for Difficult Times - Hardcover

Morgan, Robert J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0529104407 ISBN 13: 9780529104403

Verlag: Thomas Nelson, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Bestselling author Robert Morgan offers ten strategies for dealing with hard times and discouragements in order to move from fear to faith—a divine protocol for handling life. Red Sea Rules has been updated with new study questions.

Life is hard, especially for Christians. It is certain that we will face difficulties and that God will allow them. But just as certain is the fact that the same God who led us in will lead us out. As The Red Sea Rules makes comfortingly clear, He is in control.

Using the Israelites' story in Exodus 14 as an example, Robert Morgan offers ten sound strategies for moving from fear to faith. Just as Moses and the Israelites became trapped between Pharaoh's rushing armies and the uncrossable Red Sea, so are we sometimes overwhelmed by life's problems.

In The Red Sea Rules, readers will learn strategies to:

• Realize that God means for you to be where you are
• Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord
• Stay calm and confident, and give God time to work
• View your current crisis as a faith builder for the future

The Red Sea Rules reveals that even in the midst of seemingly impossible situations, God promises to make a way for us. His loving guidance will protect us through danger, illness, marital strife, financial problems, or whatever challenges Satan places in our path.

The Red Sea Rules also is available in Spanish, reglas del Mar Rojo.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Robert J. Morgan is a Bible teacher and podcaster who serves as associate pastor of World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He is the author of The 50 Final Events in World History, 100 Bible Verses That Made America, The Strength You Need, The Red Sea Rules, Then Sings My Soul, Whatever Happens, and many other titles, with more than five million copies of books in circulation. He speaks at churches, conferences, and conventions all across America as well as overseas. Rob was also a homemaker and a caregiver for his late wife of forty-three years, Katrina, who battled multiple sclerosis and passed away in November of 2019. He and Katrina have three daughters and sixteen grandchildren.

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The Red Sea Rules

10 God-Given Strategies for Difficult Times

By Robert J. Morgan

Thomas Nelson

Copyright © 2014 Robert J. Morgan
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-529-10440-3

Contents

Preface, ix, 
Red Sea Rule #1 Realize that God means for you to be where you are., 1, 
Red Sea Rule #2 Be more concerned for God's glory than for your relief., 19, 
Red Sea Rule #3 Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord., 31, 
Red Sea Rule #4 Pray!, 43, 
Red Sea Rule #5 Stay calm and confident, and give God time to work., 55, 
Red Sea Rule #6 When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith., 65, 
Red Sea Rule #7 Envision God's enveloping presence., 79, 
Red Sea Rule #8 Trust God to deliver in His own unique way., 91, 
Red Sea Rule #9 View your current crisis as a faith builder for the future., 109, 
Red Sea Rule #10 Don't forget to praise Him., 121, 
Notes, 133, 
Acknowledgments, 137, 
About the Author, 139, 

CHAPTER 1

Realize that God means for you to be where you are.

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon."

—Exodus 14:1–2

Cul-de-Sacs

The sea was before them, Pharaoh's hosts behind them, and the mountains around them. And all this, be it observed, permitted and ordered of God.

—C. H. Mackintosh

Reba Robinson lay awake night after night, tense and tired in her little room in Starkville, Mississippi. Her imagination raced out of control as her fingers clung to an old T-shirt that had once belonged to her son and still carried the scent of his cologne. He was confronting death in some exotic locale, though she didn't know where or what for, how or by whom.

Dillon was a marine assigned to a covert commando unit. His assignments were so secretive that even his mother could not be told the time or location of his missions.

But her mother's instincts told her when he was in harm's way, and during those times she fervently prayed for Dillon day and night. She was undoubtedly praying the night he swam ten miles from a submarine to the forbidden coast of a hostile country. She was praying the night he parachuted behind enemy lines from a high-flying aircraft. She was praying the day he jumped from a chopper through a hail of bullets, his eyes blinded with tears, to retrieve the body of his fallen compatriot. She was praying the night a terrorist stuck a gun in his face and pulled the trigger; and perhaps it was her prayers that caused the gun to jam, giving Dillon the split second he needed to "resolve the problem" and escape.

She prayed through nocturnal tears and terrors and torments.

When Dillon finally returned home, he was a hero whose bravery could never be explained, declassified, or honored. He couldn't discuss his exploits or seek help in processing his traumas. He tried making the transition from action hero to typical guy, but life slowed to a snail's pace in his little hometown. He began frequenting the local bars, trying not to remember what he couldn't forget.

Reba prayed on.

Like Dillon's mother, we sometimes go through prolonged periods of pain and pressure. Trapped by circumstances. Hurting. Afraid. Facing impossible odds. Traversing long, dark valleys.

Some circumstances are beyond our control, and something as simple as the ringing of a phone, a card in the mail, or a knock on the door can push us off the wire. We fall into a world of worry. Someone defined worry as a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind, cutting a channel into which all other thoughts flow.

The preacher John R. Rice said, "Worry is putting question marks where God has put periods."

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen called worry "a form of atheism, for it betrays a lack of faith and trust in God."

But for some of us, worry seems as inherent as breathing.

We are, after all, likened in the Bible to sheep. I have a small flock of sheep (well, three of them) that live contentedly in our extended backyard. They're well fenced and well fed, and they have little to fear. But they sometimes fear anyway and can bolt in sheer panic at nothing more than a rabbit jumping through the grass.

That isn't a quality the Lord admires in His sheep. He wants us to say, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ..."

Recently, the phone rang in the wee hours. It was my sister, Ann, telling me that Mother had fallen ill, and they were rushing her to the hospital, but with little hope. Ann suggested I return home immediately. It was a terrible jolt, and an awful dread swept over me. But instantly a verse of Scripture came to mind—Psalm 116:15: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. From that moment, the grip of panic fell away, and I had peace.

Yet at other times, fear doesn't release its tenacious grip so easily. How can you not worry, after all, when you have a commando son being secretly inserted into deadly situations around the globe?

How can you not worry when your outflow exceeds your income, and the creditors are calling? Or when your financial portfolio is collapsing?

How can you not worry when your loved one is diagnosed with cancer?

How can you not worry when your job is terminated, your child is troubled, or your safety is at stake?

To put it differently, how can you not worry when the Red Sea faces you, the desert surrounds you, and the soldiers of Egypt are speeding toward you with drawn swords?

Just ask Reba Robinson. When amid her anxiety she accepted that God had placed her in that situation, difficult as it was, she began converting her worries into prayers and her fears into faith. She earnestly prayed for her son, trusting God to intervene, to redeem, to help, and to heal.

At a critical juncture in Dillon's life, a friend invited him to a revival meeting in a nearby church. He went grudgingly, intending to bolt as soon as the service was over. But the message struck home that night, and when the altar call was given, Dillon gripped the back of the pew as if trying to choke it. No terrorist had ever pursued him like the Hound of heaven. He later admitted, "I had faced death without shaking, but that night I was trembling like a leaf."

He staggered to the altar in tears, and that night a muscular unsung hero fell to his knees and received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

In the story of the Red Sea, the Israelites followed the pillar of cloud and fire as carefully as possible, thrilled with their new freedom, full of excitement about the future. Yet as they followed Him, God deliberately led them into a cul-de-sac between hostile hills, to the edge of a sea too deep to be forded and too wide to be crossed.

The unmistakable implication of Exodus 14:1–2 is that the Lord took responsibility for leading them into peril. He gave them specific, step-by-step instructions, leading them down a route to apparent ruin: Turn and camp. Camp there. There, before the entrapping sea. Yes, right there in that impossible place.

The Lord occasionally does the same with us, testing our faith, leading us into hardship, teaching us wisdom, showing us His ways. Our first reaction may be a surge of panic and a sense of alarm, but we must learn to consult the Scriptures for guidance.

So, take a deep breath and recall this deeper secret...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Thomas Nelson
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0529104407
• ISBN 13: 9780529104403
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 148
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Thomas Nelson; https://www.thomasnelson.com/about-us/; ; Damson Lane; Hull; East Yorkshire; HU8 7DS; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: HarperCollins Publishers Ireland; enquiries@harpercollins.ie; ; Mayor Street Upper 39/40; Dublin; D01 C9W8; Irland