and so I did neither

A friend called, and we ended up going for a walk last night, and then I cleaned up some remote controls I got from ebay (found a garage sale television that worked great, but the remote was dead).

I do need to get to the gym some time this weekend (hopefully it's not closed for the holiday!) But I was feeling a little lonely, so a visit & walk was nice last night, and then a nice catch-up phone call from another friend. Still wish I had something interesting to do for the holiday ... but a little productivity around the house wouldn't do me any harm!

I was reading in Exodus 8, about the different plagues God brought against Egypt when Pharoah wouldn't let the Jews leave. A few things stood out to me that I hadn't noticed before --

Pharoah's magicians finally gave up attempting to imitate what God was doing, and in 8:19, they admitted that it was God who was acting. I find it interesting that at this point, the plagues were still impacting the Israelites as well as the Egyptians. Sometimes God's people suffer along with the world ... and that doesn't stop people from realizing it's God's doing. We definately aren't immune!

It's interesting, too, that it was at this same point that Pharoah quit asking Moses to pray for the plagues to be removed (though he does resume asking again later in the chapter). It's almost like, as the magicians' eyes were opened, Pharoah's heart became more hard.

I was also noticing that God always warned about what was going to happen. Pharoah had the chance to repent, and let the Jews go. The Egyptian people had an opportunity to prepare (as much as possible) for what was coming ... all that was required was to believe God and take action.

Kind of like now ... God tells us that our only hope & real happiness is to be found in Him ... we've got no reason NOT to run to Him, except for our own determination to do it our own way!

I might get internet-deprived, and hunt up a free wi-fi spot over the holiday, so maybe I'll check in over the weekend. :)

Have a good holiday everyone!

Trinka