Saturday, 2/28/2015

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” ~ Socrates 

NUMBERS 21, 22

The Israelites are attacked by Canaan.  They cry out to God and they defeat the Canaanites.  Then again they complain...

4They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea,^c to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

God then sends snakes that begin to bite them.  The Israelites cry out to God and he has Moses make a bronze snake so that every time they are bitten they look at the snake and then they are healed.

The Israelites continue to be on the move and along the way they are attacked several times and in each case they completely destroy the kingdoms that attack.

Chapter 20 begins the story of Balaam and Balaak and the ultimate downfall of Israel.  Balaak was King of the Moabites and after hearing of the success of Israel he was afraid.  So he summoned Balaam a well known prophet to put curses on the Israelites.  Balaam consults God and God tells him that the people are blessed and cannot be cursed. 

Balaak then offers great wealth if he will curse them to which Balaam still refuses.  However Balaam does agree to meet and on the way God warns him by appearing to his donkey on the road.  Balaam beats him severely at which time the donkey begins to speak and tells Balaam of the Angel that has appeared.  Balaam heeds the warning and although Balaak offers immense gold and silver Balaam refuses to call down curses on the Israelites.

MARK 7:14-36 

17After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)20He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.23All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

 After this Jesus heals a Syrophonecian woman  and a deaf man.  

36Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

JOURNAL

It's hearts that God is after.

23Above all else, guard your heart,

for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23)

Friday, 2/27/2015

“A man who can't bear to share his habits is a man who needs to quit them.” 

 ~ Stephen King 

NUMBERS 18-20 

5“You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. 6I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the tent of meeting. 7But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.” 

God gives further instructions to Aaron as to procedures for the duties of priests.  The Israelites then move to the desert of Zin

2Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! 4Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? 5Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”

So Moses goes before them and instead of speaking to the rock...he strikes it twice. Water gushes out, but God is not pleased.

12But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

MARK 7:1-13

Jesus and his disciples are eating and the Pharisees observe that they have done so without taking part in the ceremonial cleansing.  They then confront Jesus and he responds. 

 6He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:“ ‘These people honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.7They worship me in vain;their teachings are merely human rules.’^b8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” 

JOURNAL

Reading through the trials and travails of the Israelites, it is easy to become self-righteous in judgment of their stupidity and rebelliousness.  They continually question and disobey God.  They are constantly questioning Moses and constantly wishing they could go back to being slaves. 

Yet I don't have to look to far into my own heart to realize the same rebelliousness exists. I continually tend to seek things outside of dependence on God.  Just as the pharisees...I tend to trust in human traditions...my own habits and hangups...rather than God.

22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Thursday, 2/26/2015

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”  ~ Augustine of Hippo

NUMBERS 16, 17

1Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent^a 2and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. 3They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

Moses and Aaron cry out to God and ask him not to destroy all the Israelites as a result of the rebellion of these few. God accepts and as a result causes an earthquake that swallows just these families and then a plague that takes out the 250 scouts sent into Canaan.

MARK 6:33-56

30The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Crowds follow them and thousands come to be healed and hear him preach.   He turns a few loaves and fish into enough to feed all.  He then instructs the disciples to get into a boat and go to the other side of the lake.

45Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

JOURNAL

Jesus understands the need for rest and to hear from God.  It is a call that so often is easy to ignore.  I know it is because I many times don't want to hear from God.  I want rest on my terms not on his.  I want to indulge in things that make me "happy" rather than indulge in God and his love for me.

This is just another case of my rebellious flesh and how I so often don't really know what will bring me the rest and joy I need.  I tend to trust my own internal maps which...upon deeper inspection...are very flawed.  These maps and truths are a result of hurts, deceptions and lies that I have internalized as truth.  The only truth is found in scripture and in honest conversation with God.

28“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Wednesday, 2/25/2015

““There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human's mind against the Enemy. He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them.” 

~ C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters 

NUMBERS 14, 15

The people freak out.  They begin to moan and wail and are terrified.

“If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! 3Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

They even begin to discuss stoning Aaron and Moses.  God has had enough and tells Moses that he is going to wipe them all out except for a select few.  

 11The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? 12I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”

Moses appeals to God and begs for him to reconsider.  God honors moses however he strikes down all the men who went on the scouting mission except Caleb and Joshua.   

37The Lord said to Moses, 38“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 39You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. 40Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. 41I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.’ ”

MARK 6:1-32

Jesus goes back to Nazareth and begins to teach in the synagogue.  He then begins to be questioned because the people know his family. They can't believe that Jesus could do all that he was doing and actually be one of them. 

4Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Jesus sends out his disciples in groups of two.  

 8These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

They then went out and preached that people should repent, they drove out demons and healed many that were sick.

JOURNAL

Fear of change and the future is a cruel taskmaster.  It is one of the ways we are continually shamed by the enemy and refuse to trust God.  When I become comfortable in my current circumstance then I tend to want to preserve it at all cost.  I then tend to rationalize that God would never want me to experience pain, suffering and or even death.  It is a lie, designed to keep me moving further and further away from God and deeper and deeper into realizing my worst fears. 

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:16-18)

Tuesday, 2/24/2014

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

NUMBERS 11-10

The people grow tired of eating manna and begin to gripe and complain, so God floods the camp with quail.  Then Aaron and Miriam begin to question why Moses is the only one who can speak with God. God silences them as he affirms that he has chosen Moses and they are not to question. God then directs Moses to send several men from each tribe into the promised land to scout.  They come back with a great report on the land but with a dire report on the challenge that faces them.

30Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”31But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

MARK 5:21-43

One of the leaders of the synagogue comes to Jesus because his daughter is sick, Jesus agrees to come with him to his home.  On the way a woman who had suffered from bleeding for 12 years fought through the crowd and touched Jesus.  Immediately she was healed and Jesus knew that power had left him so he searched through the crowd to find the woman...the terrified woman came to him and fell at his feet.

34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”35While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36Overhearing^c what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

 38When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

JOURNAL

There are certain things about humans that have never changed. First we grow bored and always long for something better than we have. Second, we tend to look for the easy way out and get very discouraged when we know the road is going to be hard. Third, when desperate we will forsake social rules and taboos in order to get what we want and need. 

I know this shows up in my own heart and life every day.  The desire to find a better, easier way and the fact that when it comes to the things that are truly important to me...societies opinion really doesn't matter.  What is fascinating is that these core desires are what lead us to truth and to God.  God is the answer to all of these, it's just that I often don't understand how...and then I fail to really trust the answer.

1Do not fret because of those who are evil

or be envious of those who do wrong;

2for like the grass they will soon wither,

like green plants they will soon die away.

3Trust in the Lord and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

4Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37;1-4)

Monday, 2/23/2015

“The measure of a man is what he does with power.” ~ Plato

NUMBERS 8-10

God gives further instructions regarding setting up the lamps, setting apart the Levites, the passover, the cloud above the tabernacle and the silver trumpets.  After two years God commands Moses to move out...they traveled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the desert of Paran.

35Whenever the ark set out, Moses said,

“Rise up, Lord!

May your enemies be scattered;

may your foes flee before you.”

36Whenever it came to rest, he said,

“Return, Lord,

to the countless thousands of Israel.” (10:35-36)

MARK 5:1-20

Jesus goes across the lake to the area of the Gerasanes.  There he encounters a man possessed with legions of demons.  He lives among the tombs and cannot be restrained, howling and screaming and cutting himself with rocks.  Upon seeing Jesus he runs to him falls down and the spirits beg to not be sent out of the Region.  Jesus allows them to leave the man and go into a herd of pigs.  The pigs then run down the embankment and drown themselves in the sea.

18As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis^b how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

JOURNAL

It must have been quite a scene, and I can only imagine the Disciples reaction to the crazy man running toward Jesus.  Day by day Jesus power and authority is being revealed.  This to me would have been the ultimate confirmation.  Not only is he able to heal and demonstrate his goodness, but to see demonic forces surrender to his presence, would be overwhelming.

Again, it is through action that Jesus is living out his ministry.  He is going to people, not requiring people to come to him.  Yet Jesus' power is used only to do good and in obedience. The awesome things that he could have done, yet didn't, remind me that power must be surrendered in love and obedience to God. 

6Who, being in very nature^a God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature^b of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)

Sunday, 2/22/2015

“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

NUMBERS 7

1When Moses finished setting up the tabernacle, he anointed and consecrated it and all its furnishings. He also anointed and consecrated the altar and all its utensils. 2Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of families who were the tribal leaders in charge of those who were counted, made offerings.

The remainder of the chapter is a description of each offering presented by each tribal leader.  Then Moses enters the tent...

89When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him.

MARK 4:21-41

Jesus tells 3 parables...the lamp on the stand, the growing seed and the mustard seed.  He then asks them to go over to the other side of the lake.  While they are on the way a storm comes up and the waves are crashing over the boat. 

 38Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”39He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.40He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”41They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

JOURNAL

What is Jesus up to in this whole scene?  The 3 parables that he tells are similar in nature and to me seem to go together. Whatever is hidden(lamp on the stand), will eventually be revealed because it will take root (growing seed) and become something pretty dramatic (mustard seed) in your life.  

If it is hate, anger and fear, eventually that will all come out, however if it is God's love it will also come out but will be a blessing.  I think that Jesus put them to a test to show them that they still were so far from letting this message be fruitful in their lives.  He knew the tests they would eventually face...to know that all of them, but one (Judas), ultimately died horrible deaths without betraying their faith is a testament to all Jesus was preaching and all that eventually took root in their lives.  Even with Judas, who he was,  also eventually was revealed. 

16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. (Matthew 7:16-17)

Saturday, 2/21/2015

“Walk the walk...talk ain't necessary” ~ George Akomas Jr.

NUMBERS 5, 6

God gives Moses further instructions: Purity, Restitution of wrongs, Test for an unfaithful wife and the Nazarite.  Chapter 6 ends with the priestly blessing.

22The Lord said to Moses, 23“Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:

24“ ‘ “The Lord bless you

and keep you;

25the Lord make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

26the Lord turn his face toward you

and give you peace.” ’

MARK 4:1-20

Jesus begins to teach but the crowds are so large that he has to get into a boat to keep from being overwhelmed.  He then tells them the parable of the Farmer and the seed.  After, the 12 Disciples fail to understand the meaning. 

13Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14The farmer sows the word. 15Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

JOURNAL

Jesus is trying to tell the disciples that people will fail and most often, no matter how great the understanding mentally, people will fail to apply truth to their life.  They will fail because  they do not accept it and allow it to change them and begin to produce a crop by taking action and doing.  

 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:17)

Friday, 2/20/2015

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, 

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, 

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken 

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, 

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 

And lose, and start again at your beginnings 

    And never breathe a word about your loss; 

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you 

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, 

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 

    If all men count with you, but none too much; 

If you can fill the unforgiving minute 

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

 ~ Rudyard Kipling

NUMBERS 3, 4

Chapter 3 finds Aaron giving account of the numbers in each of the clans of the levites. Chapter 4 gives specific instructions regarding the tent of meeting. Different clans are given different, very specific responsibilities.

MARK 3:22-34

Jesus family hears all that is occurring with the crowds and his rising fame.  They assume he has lost his mind so they go to "take charge of him".  At the same time the pharisees are saying that he is possessed by Satan.

23So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. 28Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

Once his family arrives they let Jesus know that they are waiting outside for him...however he calmly replies..

34Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

JOURNAL

Here again is Jesus, the son of God, performing miracles and challenging the oppressive religious authority and his family can't handle it.  So they do as any concerned family does...go to try and bring him under control.  Yet Jesus refuses to appease them. He first squashes the argument that he is possessed and then dismisses his own family in a way that lets everyone know that he will not be controlled or bound by typical Jewish tradition.  

It is important for me to remember that Jesus never tried to please anyone.  He loved in extravagant ways and was firm in speaking truth, but he never attempted to fit in.  He was completely unconcerned about his reputation.  He continually was being friends with the "wrong" people, offending all the "right" people all while loving and healing those that needed to be loved and healed. 

So if I am to take a snapshot in time...Jesus is a social outcast that is the hero of all the dregs of society.  He is an embarrassment to his family and an enemy of those who are the authority on Moses and the law.  He definitely is not someone to be associated with if your goal is social credibility.  Yet he is the most perfect man to walk the earth and is the "King of Kings" and "Lord of Lords".  What then does that say about the world's priorities and values?  

18“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ( John 15:18-19)