“A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”—Matthew 16:4

There are people who know God is real. They know God is powerful. And they know God changes lives. But their hearts are so hard that they won’t believe in Him.

That was Pharaoh. We read again and again in Exodus that Pharaoh hardened his heart. Exodus 8:15 tells us, “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the LORD had said.” Later we read, “Now the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him’ ” (Exodus 10:1). That isn’t a contradiction; it’s just two sides of the same coin. It’s true that Pharaoh hardened his heart. But it is also true that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

Does that mean that Pharaoh had no choice in the matter? No. You see, God gives each one of us freewill. He will not violate that freewill, but once we have made our choice, God may, in effect, strengthen us in that choice.

The word hardened could be better translated “strengthen” or “stiffen,” and that is what was happening in Pharaoh’s case. He decided that he did not want to believe, and his heart got harder and harder and harder. Pharaoh had more than enough evidence to be convinced of the truth. Think about it: Pharaoh saw miracles—big miracles. Pharaoh heard the word of God. And that knowledge brought responsibility. To turn from the truth is to become entrenched in darkness more thoroughly than ever.

Sometimes we think, If I could just perform miracles, I know that all of my friends would believe in Jesus. They wouldn’t. Miracles won’t cause them to believe, but the message of the gospel will.

So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” —2 Corinthians 5:20

When I would hunt snakes as a kid, I would never pick them up by the tail. I would use my foot to pin them down by the neck, being careful not to crush them, and then I would carefully pick them up, holding them right behind the head. I would never pick up a snake by the tail, because a snake could turn around and bite.

When God told Moses to throw down his rod, which became a snake, and then pick it up by the tail, it was a step of faith. Most likely the snake was a cobra, the symbol of Egypt. I presume it was this type of snake because it was common in that part of the world. It also has a venomous bite. If you are bitten by a cobra, you have a serious problem on your hands.

So God told Moses to take the symbol of Egypt and grab it by the tail. He was effectively telling him, “I don’t want you to be afraid. I am going to defeat this serpent. I am going to overpower Pharaoh. I am going to do it through you, so overcome your fears, step forward, and go for it.”

Moses was called to represent God to a pagan culture. And we have been called by God to do the same. The United States is becoming increasingly pagan, and I mean that in a descriptive, not derogative, sense. There is belief in false gods and in many gods. It seems like there is belief in every god but the right God.

The Lord has called Christians to represent Him and has given us authority: we are His ambassadors (see 2 Corinthians 5:20). And as ambassadors of Christ, we are charged with bringing His message to the world.

So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”—Exodus 3:4

As far as we know, Moses hadn’t heard from God for 40 years. Then God spoke to him and called him. And how did He do it? Through a burning bush. It was not uncommon for a bush to catch fire. A bolt of lightning could have caused that. But Moses had never seen a bush that perpetually burned. God was doing something out of the ordinary that got Moses’ attention. And then He spoke.

Notice what God said to Moses: “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). When we hear those names, we think of them as great patriarchs of the faith—and indeed they were. But let’s consider each one for a moment. Abraham certainly was a man of God, but he had serious lapses of faith. Isaac was blessed, but he often didn’t listen to the Lord. And Joseph’s faux pas were legendary. Yet these men were powerfully used by God.

It’s as though God was saying, “Moses, I am the God of men who have failed. I am the God of ordinary men who have accomplished extraordinary things. Moses, if I can use Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then I can surely use you. Are you up for that? Are you ready to go? I am aware of what is happening to my people in Egypt.”

Moses was 80 years old. That is past retirement age. Yet God was saying, “You are just where I wanted you to be. You are just the man that I want.”

It seems that God goes out of His way to choose the most unlikely candidates. God sees your potential, even when you don’t. God sees you for what you will become in the days ahead.

“We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.” —Philippians 3:20

My granddaughter Allie is a little homebody.

She will come to visit Cathe and me, and will be so excited (we have lots of toys and fun things for the grandkids to do), but without warning, Allie will just say “home” and walk out the door!

Have you ever felt that way? Like everything this world offers just leaves you cold? We each have a longing deep inside of us for “home.” This world is not our home, but it is our location at present. One day, we will truly go home.

The Bible says of our lives on earth, “We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace” (1 Chronicles 29:15 NLT).

When you become a Christian, you become a citizen of heaven, your real home. Philippians 3:20 says, “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Savior” (NLT).

We long for something that this earth can never deliver on. That’s why we will always be a bit “out of tune” with this world and all it celebrates—because we, as followers of Jesus, know there is something more. Much more.

Heaven should draw us, engage us, pull us in its direction. We should long for it. As Augustine wrote, “You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.”

Thus, we see this world for what it is: empty, temporal, and passing.

1. M. Bounds said, “Heaven ought to draw and engage us. Heaven ought to so fill our hearts and hands, our conversations, our character, and our features, that all would see that we are foreigners, strangers to this world. The very atmosphere of this world should be chilling to us and noxious, its suns eclipsed and its companionship dull and insipid. Heaven is our native land and home to us. And death to us is not the dying hour, but the birth hour!”

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.—Romans 12:17

We have all been hurt at one time or another in our lives. Someone may have wronged us, mistreated us, or slandered us. We didn’t deserve it; we were innocent. So we think, I will never forgive them.

We need to forgive them. Even if we don’t want to, we need to. Why? Because Bible commands us to forgive. Ephesians 4:32 says, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” And Colossians 3:13 tells us, “Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”

In what we call the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught, “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:9–12).

And think about this for a moment: we need to forgive for our own sake. Why? Because it tears us up inside. It also turns us into mean, bitter people who are no fun to hang around. All we want to do is talk about what happened to us and how these people hurt us. It is changes us for the worse. We need to forgive.

When you forgive someone, you set a prisoner free: yourself. Forgiven people need to be forgiving people. And if you are not willing to forgive someone else, then I have to wonder whether you understand what God has done for you.

We don’t deserve forgiveness. Yet God, in His mercy, forgave all our sins. And there is no greater example of forgiveness than Christ himself hanging on the cross.

“God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.” —1 Corinthians 1:28

A 1964 Aston Martin sold a little while back.

It has a 282 horsepower engine and can go 145 miles per hour. The price? 4.6 million dollars!

Why so much? It was the car that James Bond drove in the films “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball.” It has some unusual options: guns that poke through the taillights, a license plate that rotates, and best of all, an ejector seat on the passenger side! Of course, none of those features actually work.

So why so much money for the car? Because James Bond, or more specifically Sean Connery, drove it in those classic films. You see, the value is not so much in the car itself, but in the one who used it.

The same goes for you. Your “value” in God’s eyes has nothing to do with your own merit, or talents, or resources. Your worth comes from the fact that Jesus Christ is living inside you, which makes you infinitely more valuable than an Aston Martin!

An honest assessment of the 12 men that Jesus called to be His disciples shows us that they were far from perfect. In fact, they had many flaws—just like you and me. That is not to say these were not dedicated, gifted men. But Jesus did not call them because they were great; rather their “greatness” was the result of the call of Jesus.

In 1 Corinthians 1:26–28, Paul reminds us, “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’?” (MSG).

The disciples’ greatness was not because of who they were as individuals; it was because of the One who called and used them.