Virginia Brandt Berg (1898-1968)
Welcome again to Meditation Moments: God bless you and give you a profitable day. A day lived in the consciousness of God's presence is bound to be profitable!
Now you've often heard the expression: "the cold gray dawn of the morning after," and that's what it is for some this morning, the morning after election night.
I'm sure there are many like myself that are glad this stormy battle is over, but there are many also who are disappointed today. Your choice for president didn't win, but others are delighted because they worked hard and the man of their choice won. You know, as I watched and listened the last few weeks I couldn't help but note the motives behind the choosing of candidates.
With some it was a selfish motive, with others it was a well-informed conviction that his choice was the man best qualified for such a high place. And such a choice should have been made only after one was thoroughly informed about all the issues involved, and then deliberately and seriously thinking it over, and praying as some have done, then to have voted.
You know, choice at some critical period in life is always a serious thing! A young man called me this week for an appointment. He wanted prayer and counseling about marriage. He felt that his decision would determine his future happiness and usefulness. He was torn by conflicting motives. He loved her intensely but she was not a Christian. He is a Christian and he felt that his decision might also determine his eternal happiness.
The poised scale quivered between human love and the Love of God. And at last she averred that she would never be a Christian, and so the scale turned on the side of duty to God and he made his choice. -- He took God alone. But you know, it's sweet that at the last love did speak out these words, he told her, "I'll go on to my mission field alone, but I will always wait and pray, knowing God can change your heart."
Another young man came against an even greater choice. This was many years ago and you've read about it in God's Word, and I consider he's one of the greatest characters in all history, Moses. You know, Solomon was known for His great wisdom and Isaiah for his vision, David for his Psalms and Peter for his zeal,
But Moses was great because of the choice he made. It was such a mighty decision! We read here in the 11th Chapter of Hebrews where his name is enrolled among the heroes of faith in God's Honor Gallery: "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the children of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." -- Isn't that a wonderful Scripture! You read that 11th Chapter of Hebrews today if you have a chance.
Moses, who had as a babe been drawn from the bulrushes by Pharaoh's daughter, was reared in her father's palace. There was such wealth, and every luxury! But when he came to age he had to come face-to-face with the king, who challenged him to make a choice. Now he must choose to forsake his own people because he was the son of Jochebed, and the blood of Levi flowed in his veins.
He was a Hebrew, not an Egyptian, and Pharaoh demanded that he declare himself now: will he cast his lot with his alien mother and be true to Egypt and wear the crown of the Pharaohs? Or will he choose his own people? Oh, what a crisis hour it was for this young man Moses! Just picture this time as he climbs to some high place and looks at the lights of the palace as they twinkle out from the imperial city!
The palace with all its riches and beauty, the things that he had been used to all his life. Then he looks south at the pyramids, and as he did so he saw the glow of the brick kilns where his own people, slaves of Pharaoh, were making bricks.
And as they dragged half-starved, and moved at the sound of the slave-drivers whip, Moses' heart burned within him. They were his people, and the same blood ran in his veins. And then, they were also God's people.
But if he chooses to be one of them he must forget all the comfort and luxury he has always had, wear the hated garb of the slave and renounce forever the only mother he'd ever known, Pharaoh's daughter. But he made his choice and he chose, as God's Word says, "to suffer affliction with the children of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."
Now these pleasures of sin spoken of here in the Bible were more tempting than appears by this mere statement, that he refused to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, because Egypt was at that time the most attractive spot on Earth. Her granaries were bursting with grain and the wealth of the World poured into her treasury, and Moses was heir to it all.
From the possessions of the mightiest empire on Earth he would have to turn to just slavery! And Moses was wise. He had been educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians! He knew exactly what such a choice would mean and he wasn't turning that way through any ignorance of just what it meant.
But he was not only educated and wise, but he was far-sighted, and that's what I really want to talk to you about: this far-sightedness, this willingness to sacrifice for the future gain. For God's Word says, "he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." In other words, he knew that the pleasures of sin were only for a moment, and the future recompense of God's reward was for all eternity.
He believed that without God's favor, a millionaire is only a pauper! Now, it was said of Christ, "though he was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor." And this is the choice that Moses had to make.
The choice that Moses embraced entailed poverty and suffering and terrible humiliation, but he'd rather be the least of God's children here, without an earthly crown, and wear a diadem forever over there.
And so he took a stand with God's children that he might stand with them before the eternal king over there. Oh, what a choice! That's why his name's enrolled here in God's Gallery of Fame, in this 11th Chapter of Hebrews where it says, "By faith Moses...By faith Abraham...By faith Sara..." and so on: you know the Chapter and his name is there, shining amongst them.
In 2 Peter 1:9, it speaks of a people who are blind and cannot see afar off. So many are like that today when they make their choices, they can see only the present. They sell out the future for the present.
They're blind to the reward that would have been theirs if they had sacrificed the present for the future, and so many are blind spiritually to the great recompense of reward that God has.
They have spiritual nearsightedness of the soul. Standing with Moses on the steps of the palace it looks like a foolish choice, but standing on the Steps of the Throne of God over There, as Moses looks back, what a wise, what a glorious choice it was!
He became one of the World's greatest leaders: he led a strange band of people on a long journey, but oh, what a story it is! His name has gone down in history and men today rise up and call him blessed, and his influence reaches to this very day. I wonder about your choices today? -- Myopia is a disease, it is an affliction of the eyes. It is a Greek word, "myopia," and it means nearsightedness.
I wonder if you have spiritual myopia? You're not far-sighted, or you're living mostly for the present and you don't' keep your heart and eyes on the great recompense of reward. The Lord says if we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him.
Are there pleasures of any kind that are blinding you to that far look where there is the great recompense? The realities of eternity are pleasures for ever more! God who loves you has made great plans for you and for your life. Are you making your choice? Does the time come some evening when you could read your Bible, but instead of that you just look at some ungodly television program?
In the morning, when you could start the day with a real season of prayer in the presence of God and get His leading for the day, do you just sleep a little longer? They're little choices it seems, but oh, they're big after all! And myopia does take over, you're not far-sighted!
Better to sacrifice now, dearly beloved, and then glory afterward. God loves you and God has planned so much, so very much for you. Won't you take His Way? Live in the Word, trust Him to work in all out for your good and His glory.
Make your choice! He's still on the Throne, and prayer changes things and will change them for you