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My Tombstone

2/28/2015

Today in my Bible reading, Moses died. I find it interesting that even though Moses dies, he is physically not ready to die. Moses is still recorded to have good eyes and much strength left to serve God. But God ordained it to be the time that Moses dies. So when God ordains it to happen, no matter where we are at in life or how we are physically, we die. But what I found most interesting is what the final thoughts were about Moses. Deuteronomy states, "Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt...for no one has ever shown the mighty powers or preformed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all of Israel." The Bible says that no person knows where Moses is buried, so there is no memorial or tombstone marking the spot. But I imagine if there was a tombstone marking the grave it would say something like this...

Moses lays here

Knew God face to face

Showed the power of God to others

Compassionate and a strong leader

This got me thinking what I would want my tombstone to say. Good father, loving Husband, caring son, compassionate pastor, loyal friend, strong leader, Biblical values, doctrinally sound, wise counselor, evangelizing neighbor...these are all things I hope and pray might be on my tombstone. I know these might describe me at times but also know that I have failed at every single one of these at times also. But I would hope and pray that when I am in glory my tombstone might say something like this, "Loved Jesus with all his heart, show Christ character to all, lived sacrificially for the kingdom." Having that as my goal for the description of my life, I now must live each day and every moment for that goal. I want my tombstone to be an honest description of my life. What would you want your tombstone to say...and how are you living now to make it say that???

february 27th

2/27/2015

I have been thinking recently about the term, “will of God”. I have been praying about the will of God for my life and what that means. Today in the Bible reading and more clearly in the devotional for the daily Bible reading, the will of God is discussed. Bear with me a few as I get a little theological but I hope in the end you understand more of the will of God. First there is a will of God that is called a will of decree. The will of decree by God is what God wills to happen. The flood is something that the will of decree made happen. The rain came down, God shut the ark, the waters rose, and Noah was saved. This is all the will of decree by God. What God wills in His decree will always every time happen. When we think of the will of God for our lives, we are NOT thinking the will of decree.

God also has another will, the will of desire. When we think of the will of God for our lives this is the will of God we are thinking about. Noah having faith in God is part of the will of desire. God did not force Noah to believe but God desired that Noah would. Noah followed the will of desire and believe in God and was saved because of it. But the thing is, when we think of the will of God in desire we start to think in specific terms many times. Let me give you some examples.

What job does God want me to take?
Does God want me to stay in this Job?
Does God even have a job or career for my life?
Who does God want me to marry?
How many children does God want me to have?
What church is God leading me to attend?
Which house does God want me to buy?
Which college does God want me to go to?
What ministry does God want me to start?

And these are just a few times that we think God has a specific will for our lives. The scriptures never ever say that God’s will for our lives is that specific. Let me repeat that, the Bible never ever says God has a specific will for our lives that is that specific. Instead God’s will for our lives looks more like these verses and commands.

Love the Lord God with all your heart and soul (Deut. 30:10)
Put sin to death in our lives (Romans 6:2)
Rejoice in the Lord, always (Phil. 4:4)
Love others, do not be idle, be peaceful, patience, pray always, give (1 Thess. 5:13-18)
Do not love the world or anything in it (1 John 2:15)

These are some examples of God’s will of desire for us. God does not have a specific will of desire for us about a job, college, who to marry, or certain church because He wants us to trust him and take risks. God does have a will of desire for our lives, it just revolves around looking more like Jesus and less like the world. Like Deuteronomy says to us today, we are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind; and live in confidence knowing this is the will of God for us today and tomorrow. We can live freely in this confidence and take some risks for Jesus. I know I have.

February 26th

2/26/2015

I really like the line today in the daily walk devotional. “Many errors in life result from an inability to sit still long enough to read what God has written.” To many times in my life I struggle with making the right decision. When I follow my heart it leads me astray or into making a bad choice. Even now with a regenerated heart and the Holy Spirit living in me I struggle in following the flesh rather than making the God honor choice. This is where the wisdom of the Scriptures come into play. God lays out for us in His Word what to do. God tells us where to find wisdom for life and how to make wise choice. God expects us to follow and obey Him. But how can we know what obedience is or what the wise thing is to do, if we do not spend the time reading His Word. I need to let the Bible, rather than my struggling heart, make the right choices in my life. Which means I need to spend the quality time in the Word. The devotional thought today was a great reminder in one area of how to love God, reading His Word and following it.

Thoughts from Elder Jeff

2/21/2015

At this point most people who were adults when they escaped from Egypt were dead.

Moses speaks to the people, highlighting some of the events over the past 40 years. One of the things that stands out to me is the response of the people when the spies report “It is a good land that

the LORD our God is giving us.” The people grumble and say things like God hates us and brought us from Egypt to have the Amorites destroy us. Moses tells them not to be afraid, that God will fight for them just as He did in Egypt and in the wilderness. Moses mentioned the fire by night and the cloud by day that the people who were grumbling would have seen many times.

In response to this grumbling, God says now you are not going.

Now everyone is sorry. Then say “We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God commands us.” God tells them not to go and fight because God will not be with them and they will lose. But that doesn’t matter to them. They are still not willing to submit to God. They go and fight on their own and are defeated.

Hidden in this event is a key. Those who have ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart to accept it can see “the secret of the kingdom of God” in this passage.

Avenger

2/19/2015

The Webster's dictionary defines avenge as; to take vengeance for or on behalf of, to exact satisfaction for a wrong by punishing the wrongdoer. In Numbers 35, God gives instructions for His people to have cities of refuge. The cities of refuge were a place for a person to go if they killed someone. The relative or avenger of the dead person would then go to the city where it was decided if the killer did it by accident or actually murder an innocent person. The avenger then would either leave because the killer was innocent and the death was an accident or the avenger would kill the murderer in vengeance for his relative that was murder. The avenger then would be cleared of the death of the murderer because he was getting vengeance and avenging his innocent relative that had been murder.

I am a comic book/movie junky and nerd. I love myself a good comic book. I love spending 2 hours watching a good comic book movie (has to be a marvel movie though to be good). I love watching the hero's save the day and rescuing the innocent people. My favorite comic book movie is "The Avengers". In that movie, Tony Stark as Ironman gives one of the best lines in the movie. He is talking face to face with the villain when all odds seem against the heroes. He tells the villain that the combined heroes should be called Avengers because they have come to get vengeance for the innocents of earth.

Why do we ultimately have heroes and the hero mindset desire in our culture? Because everyone knows we need a hero, someone who will get vengeance for us because we are innocent or at least we think we are. Did you know every hero is just a shadow of the greatest Hero?. Even the avenger rule in Numbers 35 is a shadow for the greatest Hero. And here is the greatest kicker in the whole shadow and foretaste thought from not only Numbers 35 but the rest of the OT. The greatest Hero is not only the Avenger but also the only Innocent. Jesus Christ is the greatest hero there is. Jesus Christ is the perfect complete and only true avenger. But Jesus is also the innocent who pays the price as the avenger for us. Wow what a truly beautiful picture and truth we can hold on to and enjoy.

So next time you watch a hero movie, realize it is just humans desiring to know and have the hero in their lives. And realize we already have the perfect Hero and Avenger living and dying for us, we do not need a Captain America to save our day, WE HAVE JESUS!

Numbers 31-33

2/18/2015

Today we read 3 more chapters from Numbers. I looked ahead and realized that tomorrow will be the last day reading in the book. On March 1st we will begin to read Joshua, which means that the book of Deuteronomy will be read through in less then 10 days. Wow that is fast but we am covering the whole Bible in one year, so we should have expected that some books would be read through fast. This fast pace made me go back and think through what we have been reading over the last few days. I think my favorite section reading in Numbers was when Balaam's donkey started to talk. As a kid, I always wished that maybe, my pets or even a wild animal would talk to me. I used to imagine me and my superhero animal friends communicating and saving the day. But in Numbers, a real live animal talks. A donkey talks to it's owner. When this donkey talks it is in the middle of a longer narrative where the prophet Balaam from Peor comes and instead of cursing Israel, God commands and he blesses Israel. When I was younger and immature, I wished like my superhero animal friends, that I was Balaam and I got to bless God's people and hear a donkey talk to me.

But now as an adult, I am thankful to God I am not Balaam. In my reading today, Balaam meets his demise as he is put to the sword and killed because he is a false prophet who tricks God's people into sleeping with and fornicating with the Midianite women (remember Phinehas from the other day's post). So, Balaam is actually a bad guy, not one of God's chosen people, who God uses to bless His people one time. God uses Balaam, a bad guy who ends in hell, to do His will. Glad I am not Balaam. But it challenges me in realizing that God uses both His chosen people and those He choses not to save for His work. That begs to ask me the question, is God using me because I am one of His or because I not one of His and He is using me anyway? That asks me another question then, how does my life, faith, words, and actions speak to my relationship with God? God does the saving. God does the using of people for His will. So does my life and fruit show that I am one of His , that He is using? We do not want to be like Balaam and be used by God but end up being put to eternal death by our sinful unrepentant life of folly.

Out with Old in with the new

2/17/2015

I can get some serious heart burn if I do not pay attention. I discovered this a few years ago while I was eating a large pizza, drink a gallon of tea, and watching a football game on the couch. I could not sleep that night as the burn kicked in and I got some serious stomach pain and even lost some of my voice the next day. So I know now that I have to watch what I eat, how much of some things I eat, and the fact that if I do not take care of myself, the heart burn kicks in and the Tums tablets struggle to help me feel good.

As we have been reading through the Torah to start the calendar year and specifically the Old Covenant from Exodus through Deuteronomy, I have been thinking about my hear burn. My hear burn is like my sin. I love pizza and Turkey Hill tea. Just like I love the world and the stuff of the world. But getting pizza and tea inside me creates bad feelings and pain deep within. The world takes my already sin nature and does the same thing. The world stirs my sin and makes it much worse to the point I feel guilt, remorse, and even sorrow over the sin I commit against God and others. So the heart burn is like my sin.

The Tums tablets are like the Old Covenant. The tums give me temporary relief. The tums mask the true problem and calm my stomach down for a little. The tums do not fix the problem they just help alleviate it for a few hours. The Old Covenant is the same way. It was temporary relief for the people. It gave them a break from the wrath of God because the animals took it. The Old Covenant masked the problem and truly did not fix the sin issue to the core.

So for me to truly fix my heart burn and be healthy, I need to make a diet and lifestyle change. I need to stop eating greasy and spicy food. I need to get more sleep and stop drinking so much tea and coffee. This would all be a lifestyle change that would fix my hear burn permanently (unless I reverted back to pizza and tea). This life style change is like the New Covenant. The New covenant with Jesus fixes the sin problem. The New Covenant circumcises our hearts and gives us a new nature that does not like to sin or enjoy the sinful world. The New Covenant is the permanent fix to the problem that Tums or Old Covenant could not fix. The New Covenant is so much better and I am so blessed to be a recipient of the New Covenant.

Are you grateful for the New Covenant in Jesus and does your life show this life style change?

Timeline

2/16/2015

Because they failed to trust God after having heard the ten spies’ negative report about Canaan, God requires the Israelites to wander for 40 years. Until every disbelieving person aged twenty or older had passed away. This forty year period began retroactively on the day Israel left Egypt, the 15th day of the 1st month of the 1st year, according to the Hebrew calendar, as well as the first day after the first Passover. The 40 years lasted until the 1st Passover in the Promised Land. The 14th day of the 1st month of the 41st year (Joshua 5:10). The wilderness record in Scripture covers approximately the 1st year and 8 months of this 40 year period, as well as the last year of the journey. The intervening 37 years and four month constitutes a period of silence. Dates are included for key events, so a fairly complete timeline for the beginning and the end of the wilderness wandering period can be calculated. During the 1st month the Israelites traveled from Egypt to the Desert of Sin. They then spent the next month traveling to Mount Sinai, where they stayed for the next 11 months. From Mount Sinai they traveled about a month until they reached Kadesh Barnea, where they spent about 6 months being rebellious in one form or another. After they departed from Kadesh there next 37 years and 4 months is unknown. After this period of silence they return close to Kadesh and during the last year make their way north west forging ahead to the Promised land via the Transjordan way.

Today's readings

2/13/2015

Today we read through Numbers 13-16. 3 sentences stuck out to me and I put them each on a notecard to keep around so I can be reminded of the truths of each of these sentences. 3 simple sentences in the middle of the book of Numbers that might get lost among the other things but each sentence brings us deep theological and Biblical truth.

1-“Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly.”-14:24

Caleb was different than just about everyone that called themselves the children of God. How was Caleb different? Caleb was different because God had his entire heart and passions. The other children of God, especially those who rebelled and lived in unbelief, did not give God their whole heart. Caleb understand that to be a true faithful obedient son of God, He requires and desires our whole heart. So that is the question being posed to us. You can be a Christian but are you a Caleb type Christian that has given God your whole heart and does not have a portion of something or someone else sharing the space with God?

2-“you may obey them (commands) and not prostitute yourselves after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.”-15:39

So again there is another question and statement being posed to us as Christians in this sentence. God is saying that to obey His commands faithfully is to love and even lust after Him. But to not obey His commands is to love and lust after something else to the point of prostituting yourself to it. I never ever want to be called a prostitute. But when I do not obey God’s commands or disobey Him, I am calling myself a prostitute and showing I lust after something else. Wow! So that is the question then, are you a prostitute or an obedient child?

3-“Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children, and little ones”-16:27

This sentence struck me because it asks me and screams at me as a father, WHO ELSE PAYS THE PRICES FOR THESE MEN’S SINS? The little ones die at the hand of God because their dad rebelled and sinned against the holy covenant God. This verse scares me and drives a deep healthy fear into my heart. I am a broken sinner and rebel continually towards God anytime I do not obey Him or have my whole heart given to Him. This sentence shows that my children could, I mean could, because not always, pay for the sinful actions of me. That scares me badly. And begs to ask the question of us all. How has our sin effected those around us who are the closest? How have we sinned and not been faithful to God and our children or spouses paid the price?

Wandering in the Wilderness

2/12/2015

Today we read the start of the journey toward the Promised Land. After over a year at Mount Sinai the people set out following the cloud. Here is a map to help put the reading into perspective for us. Enjoy!