"If Your Presence does not go with us. . . "

Moses pleadingly replied to the Lord in Exodus 33:15, and 16, even after God said He would go with them, continued to plea, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with (us) and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish (us) and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth."

He was leading about 1,500,000 stiff-necked Israelites through the wilderness, which turned out to be a 40-year hike. As you recall, they had gotten sick and tired of waiting for Moses to come down off the mountain and gave all their earrings (given so eagerly to them by the Egyptians from whom they had fled) to Aaron because they had had enough of waiting on Moses' Lord. They wanted to plot their own course. Sound familiar? How often I have taken things into my own hands instead of allowing the Lord to completely navigate my course of action.

At any rate, God forewarned Moses before he returned from his mountaintop experience that trouble was brewing below. When Moses saw the people dancing and reveling, his temper flared, and he flung the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments to the ground, "breaking them into pieces at the foot of the mountain." Instead of returning to the sound of victory with the Israelites rallying around Him, wrestling in prayer for direction and God's blessing, they were "running wild" and out of control, thus making themselves "a laughingstock to their enemies." And, out of no where, a calf had sprung up out of the fire started by Aaron. However, Exodus 32:4 clearly states that Aaron made the gold earrings "into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool." On top of all that, the calf got credit for leading them out of Egypt!

"And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made."

Furthermore, he told Moses to leave that place and go to the land of milk and honey. Only one big catch--Yahweh refused to go with them. They had made him so angry he might destroy them on the way!

This historical account always grips my heart. and every time we go to Congo, I bow the knee and reiterate the words of Moses, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with us and with your people, unless you go with us?"

We are due to leave for Congo on June 2. It will be another daunting trip. Just going to a third-world country can stretch a person taut. If I allow my flesh to ponder too much on the what ifs and the utterly humanly speaking impossible challenges we will face, my heart grows faint.

Today I choose to remember His faithfulness these past 70 plus years since Dr. Laban and Marcella Smith first landed on African soil. With God WE ARE ALWAYS A MAJORITY. Tears fell from my eyes yesterday as I read these penetrating facts through the pen of David, the warrior poet who says in Psalm 62:5-8:

God, the one and only--
I'll wait as long as he says,
Everything I hope for comes from him,
so why not?
He's solid rock under my feet,
breathing room for my soul,
An impregnable castle:
I'm set for life.

My help and glory are in God
--granite-strength and safe-harbor God--
So trust him absolutely people;
lay your lives on the line for him.
God is a safe place to be.

It takes a mighty army fighting the good fight when it comes to ministry. Will you be a part of that army and fight for the kingdom by interceding for Laban Ministries starting right now and then continuing June 2 through October 26, which is when we get back in the States? I cannot tell you the comfort we have experienced down through the years from the heartfelt prayers of God's people. Please, please consider bending the knee with us for a summer of breakthroughs. Praise God for the freedom to ask you even to do such a thing! As we are praying for Congo, its needs, its government, its future, let us not to forget to pray for our beloved America. God bless America!