Brothers, Sisters, Friends,

What an exciting start for The Story!  I hope you’ve enjoyed the first few weeks of worship and study, and I look forward to journeying with you as God’s story continues to unfold.

September laid the foundation for what is to come.  This month, we’ll be covering what is arguably the most pivotal story in the Old Testament: God’s delivering of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt.

Here, we see God’s awesome power unleashed in ways unseen since creation.  And, after all the plagues are done, here’s what Pharaoh finally says to Moses and Aaron in Exodus 12:31-32,

“Up!  Leave my people, you and the Israelites!  Go, worship the LORD as you have requested.  Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go.  And also bless me.”

I’ve read this story a million times.  I’ve heard sermons preached on it.  Heck, I even saw DreamWorks’ “The Prince of Egypt”!  But I never noticed that last bit before.  Pharaoh, the ruler of the mightiest kingdom on earth, a man worshiped as a god, asked Moses and Aaron to bless him.  God’s miraculous power astounded Pharaoh.  It brought him to his knees, and it seems there was something in him that finally realized that this God – the LORD – is far greater than anything Pharaoh could ever pretend to be.

I trust that we will continue to discover new things in God’s Word.  I hope that God speaks to us afresh.  And, more than anything else, I pray that God might make himself known through us in a powerful way, so that those around us might see God’s wonders and seek his blessing.

May you and yours be blessed, and may you find others to invite along on the journey.

Pastor Zack