Just Use The Ordinary Stuff and It'll Become An Extraordinary Thing

Scripture: Exodus 20:24-26 "An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it."

Observation: These things are really about my heart. The emphasis in Exodus has been on the glory and holiness of God. As He was creating a nation for himself, God made it clear that his holiness is such that we must address him and meet with him rightly. Anything less is going to be an offense to his being.

Why not use tools on the stones of the alter? I think because, frankly, any effort on my part to create something that depicts God or that somehow enhances the offering that is brought by beautifying the alter would fall (infinitely) short of displaying God or would be distracting and, like he said, be an occasion for sin.

Building stairs is the same. My "nakedness" is shown by my effort to enhance my offering by unnaturally raising myself to give my offering. Give the offering "down on the ground" where I actually am (spiritually speaking).

Application: God is more honored by my humble repentance and confession of sin than by an empty but pretty presentation (Prov. 20:3; Ps. 51:16, 17). Remember why I am doing things in service to God and in the "living sacrifice" things that I do during my day. Then only will it really be an offering and glory to God.

Prayer: Father, I think I make such efforts to enhance appearances because I so often feel the weight of sin-guilt and my true humbled state. I try to hide it or to make restitution.  But all that is just another offense to you because Jesus has already paid that debt. May I rest in what you have done through Jesus. I love you. Amen.

No "I" in "TEAM"

Scripture: Exodus 17:3 "And the [Israelites] thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, "Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst."

Observation: This is almost verbatim the complaint that the people had against Moses in Chapter 16, verse 3 about the lack of food. The complaint was from the followers against the leader(s).

Application:
1. There is no honoring of God in backbiting and attacking authorities in my life. If God has placed all authorities in their positions (Romans 13), then, even though I need to implore those leaders to be righteous, I should trust and not complain or gossip.

2. The above point is applicable to leaders at all levels, but there is more application to those leaders that are geographically, spiritually, and relationally nearer to me. In those instances, (e.g. work, family, and the church) first I should think, "We are on the same team." Second, those leaders are earnestly trying to follow the Lord, and my present needs and desires are rarely most important. I need to think humbly and, with servant eyes, inquire about what I can do for them.

3. Trust God in all things (Matthew 6). Seek him consistently to walk closer with him and all will be well. Even if not is "all well," to have God is to have everything.

Prayer: Father, your word humbles me every time I read it humbly. I love you and need you to teach me to be like Christ. Holy Spirit, please sanctify this broken man, work in me, and speak to me in all my times of need. Jesus, I'm yours because you have given yourself entirely for me and to me. Who could imagine a God who serves and reigns at the same time?! I love you and need you. Amen.

Missing The Point and Missing The End

Scripture: Exodus 14:12 "Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness."

Observation: The Israelites' attitude raise questions for me.

1. What would it take to desire death more than slavery? What would my thoughts on slavery to sin need to include for me to choose death in freedom over life in shackles?

2. The larger story of the Exodus obviously means for the attitudes of the Israelites to be viewed as unfaithful to God and as wrong. What did these people know about God? What did they not know about him that would cause them to doubt his love, care and protection?

3. Faith in God can in large part be defined as trusting God at his word. In this the Exodus generation failed, with few exceptions, and therefore failed to inherit the promised land and the eternal promise of life. Can we possibly call our doubt and complaining against God and our disobedience to his written word and will "faith" and expect to inherit eternal life?

Application: I often look at the "bigger" and, in a way, easier visible accomplishments with pride and consider myself faithful to God. In truth, I focus on those things and ignore or gloss over the simple but more necessary commands of daily life like mercy, patience, love, kindness, self-control, self-sacrifice, abstinence from evil, etc. Which does God emphasize? Proverbs 21:3 tells me.

Prayer: I can only ask for mercy and grace. Holy Spirit, transform me to the image of Christ. Make me humble and obedient to you. I love you, God. Amen.

It's Not That I Hope There Is No God! I Don't Want There To Be A God.

Some of you may know that I recently started down the road toward another degree and a lot of the courses will be about philosophy, logic, and dead guys. As I spent more time with these things (I'm not spending time with dead guys, though), I've come to the conclusion that not being a Christian is illogical.

Now, lots of people disagree with me on this point. But then that doesn't necessarily make me wrong. Popularity doesn't establish rightness... just look at skinny jeans. No, in order to prove that I'm wrong about that someone would have to provide some evidence to demonstrate that it is a sound application of logic to entirely deny God's existence and to deny the fact that Jesus was God's son and that Jesus lived and died and rose again from the dead.

A lot of people, even people that share the same faith as me, would say that such things cannot be proven and that they are simply to be addressed with faith. I agree, but only a smidgen. People believe things day in and day out without consciously thinking, "I'm choosing to believe this or that." Are they nuts? No, they are not, because they have evidence that supports what they think and it is logical, based on that evidence, to believe what they believe.

So it is with belief in theism in general and Christianity in specific. My faith is in God through Jesus Christ. My faith is on evidence that such belief is logical. My daughter and I have a disagreement over whether fairies are real. I don't think it's logical to believe in them. There are many other things that I don't believe in because they don't have substantial evidence to demonstrate the truth of them (like the existence of aliens, for example - no evidence...anywhere).

Anyway, great books have already been written on these subjects so I won't write one here. But here's an interesting quote along the lines of the topic:

“I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about human life, including everything about the human mind …. This is a somewhat ridiculous situation …. [I]t is just as irrational to be influenced in one’s beliefs by the hope that God does not exist as by the hope that God does exist.”

--- Prof. Thomas Nagel, NYU; "The Last Word"

Time For Chuck E. Cheese's

We took a strongly needed family fun trip to Lawton last Sunday. As some of you may know, we are moving to Oklahoma City in the next couple months. I say "some" may know because for some reason I have failed to tell pretty much everyone. My wife knows; that's where the notifications pretty much stopped.

When we're in Lawton, my wife and I usually like to hit Olive Garden, Chick-fil-A, or McAlister's Deli. We went a different route this time, namely, cardboard-tasting pizza, pointless games, and giant mice.

It was basically what we expected it to be. We had a great time just relaxing and spending 25¢ tokens for 1¢ tickets that eventually were cumulatively spent on three giant suckers. If my math is right, those suckers cost $10 a piece.

The only rain cloud on the sunny day was when a older woman began to yell at her kid because he picked a briefcase that she didn't want him on the I'll-trade-your-fake-money-for-this-pretend-briefcase-so-you-can-get-25-tickets-worth-up-to-and-including-1¢ game. The snarl on her face and words, "See! You just wasted the whole thing!" will forever be burned into my memory.

The smiles and fellowship that we had was worth it. Here are some pictures of the stop.