Motivation

There is a prize for running the race faithfully.  You get something good if you do what God wants in faith.  You will be rewarded according to your works.  Works of faith or works of the world.  There will be a grade.  You will get a "well done my good and faithful servant," or "depart from me you worker of iniquity."  I find that I am shifting in my seat a bit.  I will be judged.   I will be rewarded.  You are to seek so that you find.  You are to fight so that you win.  You are to want blessings forevermore.

What makes me tick?  Am I running the race to receive the prize?  Am I seeking in a way that turns the whole house upside down?  Am I fighting the Goliath's in my life, aiming the rock at the head of the monster in faith knowing that God is my deliverer?  Am I wanting the reward that is mine in Christ?

You want stuff.  You want praise.  You want to be "the best" at something.  Contrary to our modern gospel, this is not wrong.  Want righteousness.  Want God to delight over you with singing.  Want to be the best and most faithful women that you can be.  Want God and His word more then anything else.

You will want.  Pray that God would transform your desires to be His desires.  You will not stop wanting until you die.  So seek first the kingdom of heaven and enjoy all that He gives you!

Pretty simple.  Pretty good.

Called To Remember

The plagues of Egypt where fierce.  They ravaged the land.  They ravaged the beasts of the land.  They killed the chosen first born boys of both man and beast.  Egypt in all its splendor is humbled in every area.  The Passover feast is inaugurated the night before the people of God leave Egypt.  This feast is to change the Hebrews.  It will change their calender.  It will now be the beginning, their January.  They are to be a people full of newness.  New ways to worship.  They are becoming a nation.  They are becoming a nation of priests.  God's consecration is spreading to not only the patriarachs but to what is now the whole nation of Israel.  Israel started as a promise to Abraham.  It progressed when Jacob received it as his name.  The Hebrews leave Egypt with 600, 000 men, 430 years after Joseph dies.  They are an army. They are a nation.  And they are becoming a holy nation.  The Passover feast is to a memorial.  They are to celebrate it every year.  Why?  So that they can tell the story of the Passover to their children.

This is how it worked:  get a lamb (sheep or goat), male, spotless.  Kill it but do not break any of its bones. Put its blood on your door posts and on the lintel over your table.  Do this at twilight.  Cook it in fire.  Do not cook it in water, do not eat it raw.  If your family is small, share with your neighbor.  Eat it with bitter herbs and crackers.  Be ready to travel, have your shoes on and your belt on.  Make sure that none of it left in your house in the morning.  At midnight the angel of death will come.  He will pass over any house that is marked with blood.

This feast is ending their time in slavery.  It is a new beginning.  This new beginning is entered into through blood.  Death and resurrection.  It is a new feast, a new table, a new way of life.  This feast is a foreshadowing of the nation of Israel becoming a priestly nation.  This feast is a holy feast.  The people are eating holy food. Later we learn that only the priests are able to eat the food sacrificed to the Lord.  We learn in the wilderness that the Israelite boil their meat to cook it.  Fire smokes.  This smoke rises to the heavens and God smells the sweet aroma of the sacrifices of His people.  This meal is priestly.
They are not to break the bones of the lamb when they kill it.   Why?  Who does this lamb represent?  Jesus.  Jesus' bones where not broken.  So the lamb is not to be broken.  The table of the passover is an alter.  Every house that night was a temple.  God again and again is making a statement to His people and the nations that surround them.....these are my people and I am their God and I am that I am.  God's people are to be holy.  We are holy because we worship a holy God.  We eat holy food we eat at God's table.  Israel is to remember this.  The nation of Israel is called to celebrate this feast every year to come.  She was called to remember what the Lord had done for her.  She was to remember who she was and who her God is.

What do we do with this?  We see that the table of the Lord is still where we are called to remember Him.  We meet every week at God's table and we are called to remember our God and remember what He has done.  We are to remember that the Lamb is Jesus. We are to teach these stories to our children so that they will know what the Lord has done.  And when we tell it, it makes us remember God even more.  We remember that we are a holy people, priests of the Most High God.  We act in a way that declares who we serve.  We are set apart, we are holy, we worship the God who saved the Israelites with an outstretched hand and showed His wonders in Egypt.  We remember that Jesus was slain, his blood spilled so that we could be children of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  We go to church on Sunday with open hearts and take the Lords supper with thanksgiving and joy for the work the Lord has done and is doing in our lives. We remember that we are to walk worthy of our calling.

My life is full.  Your life is full.  Remember to be full of the right things.  Remember what God has done for you.  Tell it to your children.  Rejoice and rejoice again as you call to mind God's word and God's marvelous works in your own story.  When we remember, we believe.   Forsake foolish thoughts and remember them no more.  We need to make sure that we remember the right things.   If your faith is weak, remember what God has done.  Recount the stories in the bible. May we all be found remembering our God more this week and tell these stories to our children so that we will remember the great works our Lord has done for us!

Don't Pause

Pause. Let's just say that you have the omnipotent pause button. This button allows you to stop time and bask in the moment. It allows you to stop time for a time. I have been reading my bible with the intention of getting through it as fast as i can. One of the biggest benefits of this type of reading is to see the stories in relation to one another or rather to see them as one story instead of separating them from one another. 

I am in exodus. Genesis to exodus. Creation, fall, restoration, hardships of living in a fallen world, murder, mass destruction, new promises, Abraham, the beginning of the nation of Israel, the multiplication of the Hebrew people, slavery in Egypt. This is just a rough list of events and not In the least comprehensive. In this list is Adam and eve, fall of mankind and the promise of jesus coming to win the most epic of battles. Cain and Abel come next, their is a story of envy and murder. We walk through a list of names and find the deep corruption of mankind who's thoughts are continually wicked before the lord. Enter a whole bunch of water. 

But hope is rocking in an ark and waiting the dawn of a new day, a new beginning. Noah plants grapes in his new world and makes wine. Men begin to gather together and plan to be like God, the tower is made. This tower is so big and reaches so high that God is forced to take a seriously long journey to check it out (irony intended). Men are dispersed all over the earth and God confuses their language. You start to see new communities pop up. We meet Mr. Abram. He is called by God to be the father of nations. Abram obeys God and it is credited to him as righteousness. He is Abraham now. He And Sarah have Isaac. Isaac is the son of promise. Isaac marries Rebekah. Two nations fight in her womb. Enter Esau and Jacob. God gives his blessing to the younger brother. Jacob gets a new cool name after he wrestles with man and God, Israel. 

Joseph is Jacob's favorite son born to him from Rachel. Joseph is not a favorite with his brothers. They sell him into slavery. After 13 years, Joseph stands before Pharaoh. He is raised up after betrayal, slavery, imprisonment to be the most powerful person in Egypt save Pharaoh. He is restored to his family. They all move to Goshen and God multiplies them exceedingly. 

Joseph dies and the new pharaoh does not know the God of the Hebrews. He sees that the Hebrews are many and orders all of male infants to be thrown into the Nile. Moses is born at this point in the story. His mom sees that he is a handsome boy and hides him. When he can no longer be hid, his mom makes him an ark. She puts it in the reeds of the Nile near the princess's bathing spot. She sends Miriam to hid near the arc. The princess's hears the cry of Moses and takes pity on him. She keeps him as a present from her god. Miriam appears and offers to fetch a nurse for the baby. Guess who she goes and gets......that's right, her mom. 

Moses is weaned and moves into the palace. He knows he is a Hebrew and sees the oppression of his people. He raises his hand to spare one of his brothers the wrath of an Egyptian. He kills the Egyptian. pharaoh hears and wants blood for blood. Moses flees. He heads to Midian and finds a wife there. Mosses has children and becomes a shepherd. One day he sees a fire in the distance. He checks it out and there meets the god of the Hebrews. He has seen the affliction of his people and wants to save them so that they can come to this mountain, Mt Horeb (the mountain of the Lord), to worship him. God will send Moses to stand before Pharaoh to deliver the message. Moses does not want to go. God wants him to go. Moses goes. 

I am sitting in the hospital. Jason is sleeping. They just came in to put a new IV in. They tried yesterday but could not get it in. They like to change IV's every four days. They even brought in an ultrasound machine yesterday to find a vein. But today his veins co-operated. And sleep is his reward. 

What if in this little narrative of sickness I stopped time. How about night one when Jason woke hotter than hot acting like a crazy man. How about day two when pain, fever and vomiting ravage his body and threaten him to despair. Pause here. I was scared. I knew that things where getting worse. Jason is tough, he was built Ford tough. He does not scare easily. Pause button off. Time to act quickly. We go to the hospital. I entered his room with a mask on. Signs on the door warned of serious infection. They ordered blood to be ordered, lots of blood. Waiting. Spinal test ordered. We were in that room for 7 hours before they admitted him (my back is still demanding new chairs to replace the old ones). Spinal tap. Four vials of spinal fluid. Let's pause here. Whatever is going on is serious. Jason looks like death and is still not in his right mind. What if..... So many what if's are possible at this moment. But I replace them with thanksgiving. Thankful for so many things. Jason being someone to be proud of at all times, in sickness and in health. Thankful to love him so much. Thankful for friends watching our kids. Thankful for constant texts asking what can we do to help. Thankful for all of the people praying. Thankful for the doctor in the ER. Thankful for 3 bags of fluids that they poured into my husbands veins. Thankful for antibiotics that save lives, that saved his life. 

There have been some intense moments over the last 5 days. If I paused the crisis times I would forget that I am in motion. That this story is not stagnant but going somewhere. That it is not an isolated story at all (Jason was quarentined and we did feel quite isolated!). The stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are a part of me. I am to remember them, says the Lord. I am to recall them. I am to teach them. I have been praying that God would write his word on my heart. That his word would be found deep inside of me. I have been praying to see things through the stories of scripture. 

Thankfully we cannot pause time. It goes on even if we do not. Forgetting that we are headed somewhere brings a lot of unnecessary drama. Forgetting who we are is also damaging. Our default button is set on "old man" status. Forgetting the story that we are apart of is dangerous because it can be tantamount to forgetting our God (God constantly instructs us to remember). Joseph was wronged again and again. He had a dreams before his betrayal landed him in a pit. He had the stories of his father. The stories of how his dad wrestled with God. The story of how he married his Rachel, Joseph's mom. Of uncle Esau and the wrestling matches he won even though Esau was the stronger one and the first born. Joseph was not a normal man. 

He had incredible hardships come his way. In his pain and bitter trials he had the stories of his father, grandfather and great grandfather. He had his dreams, visions of things to come. Not many people have the father of nations for a great granddad. He had these stories in slavery. He had them when betrayed by Potiphar's wife. He had these stories when he was in prisons and forgotten again. He had these stories when he stood before Pharaoh and God exalted him. He had these stories when he saved the very family sold him into slavery. He had these stories when he secured the land of Goshen for his family. God wants us to have these stories too. When things are hard, we remember. When things are good, we remember. Bitterness sets in hard and deep. Why? Because we tell the story over and over again until it becomes second nature to think it. What if we meditated on the Word of God with the same passion. 

What if we stopped "pausing" time during hard times. What if we looked ahead when things are hard with the stories found God's word as a filtering device for what we are presently walking through. It is in remembering our story that we have the strength to endure our current trials. It is in remembering where we are going that we find strength to keep walking in hardships. God sees. He saw Joseph in the pit. And he restored all to Joseph and then some. This is the same God that we serve. We have the same promise. Promises of God keeping us and exalting us. When we are in the pit, we remember that this isn't the end of the story. We remember God's word, God's promises, God's work in the saints that have gone before us. And crying in the pit is not a problem. God comforts His people. There are times when we need comfort. This is not a sign of weakness. I am talking about refusing to get out of the pit when you are rescued. Refusing to go form glory to glory. 

Joseph went from pit to slave to imprisoned slave to elevated slave in pharaohs court. Faith has eyes to see that his progression was from glory to glory. But it is in staying in the pit, pausing in our hardships in a way that refuses the grace of God that is the problem. Joseph had to have courage to be a slave in a foreign land. I am sure that Joseph cried. I am also sure that God comforted him in his distress (look at what he named his son). We do know that Joseph was blessed by God as he was enslaved, imprisoned and at court with Pharaoh. We know that he was faithful when things where hard. But this is what we remember when things are hard. 

Faithfulness does not pretend that things are easy when they are hard. Faithfulness remembers God when things are hard. Faith is the substance of things not seen, hoping when things look impossible, faith remembers the saints that have gone before us and walked through valleys to come out on the other side shouting praises to God. We are honest about where we are. A Christian should never despair. That is what I am talking about. We have hope be cause of Christ. We have the stories of our fathers to look to in times of great need. 

Here is to getting the Word of God deep down in our hearts so that we never forget him or forget to give him the glory as he unfolds our story. And may our stories inspire the saints to walk with courage and obedience. And may they reveal the light of Jesus to those sitting in darkness.

Face to Face

God loves to grow his people up to be friends with Him.  Moses is a fun read.  Moses is a man I can relate with. He grabs after things prematurely and then when God speaks super clear to Him, he argues and presents a better plan for his life then the one God has for him.  Moses was in Egypt for 40 years.  He was in the wilderness in Midian for 40 years.  He goes back to Egypt when he is 80.  The part of the story right now that I am meditating on is the scene at the burning bush.  Moses is scared and hides his face.  He is reluctant to obey.  He doubts.  He is faithless.  This part of the story is easy for us to miss because we know the ending so well.  We know what God turns Moses into.  But right now I am interested and intrigued by who Moses was and I am encouraged to see God's faithfulness change him.  It gives me hope.  It allows me to walk where I am right now, knowing that God wants me to be His friend.  Moses got to meet with God.  He got to talk with God.  But back at the burning bush he was hiding his face.  Moses will later hide his face but he will do so to hide the brightness of God's glory from those around him who cannot handle it.  He is now able to sit and talk with God.  And this story is what God wants for us.  He wants us to commune with him and talk with Him in this way.  This is one of the most amazing things about our walk with God.  Moses' journey is prophetic.  It is his journey and at the same time it is the story of Israel.  God will be their God.  They will be his people.  After the burning bush, Moses heads to Egypt.  The angle of the Lord comes to disrupt this journey.  God requires blood for sin; the wages of sin are death.  Moses tries to skip this step.  The problem is, to skip it is to place yourself at war with God.  To make peace with God we must have our sins atoned for.  Moses does not obey the law of the Lord.  He does not do what the Lord required.  So God sends his angel to sacrafice, to make atonement.  Moses knows that his sons should be circumcised.  He does not obey this law.  He does not seperate himself.  God will separate.  Zipporah swoops in and saves the day.  She does a little circumcision surgery on the spot and saves her family from the wrath of God. Remember that the whole point of the plagues is to show Gods wonders not only to Pharoah but to the Israelites   God says again and again, that the plagues are to show the division between the hebrews and the Egyptians.  God wants Pharoah to let his people go so that they can go and worship Him.  But God requires blood.  Blood of circumcion.  Blood of the lambs on the door post.  Blood at the alter.  They are to go and make sacrafices to the Lord.  They are to be a holy people, a people cleaned and separated by the blood of the Lamb.  This was an abomination to the Egyptians and was subject to being stoned to death.  The Hebrews could not worship the Lord in the land they where in.  They needed to leave Egypt and her ways and go to their God and worship Him on His holy mountain.   I think that this story is just plain overwhelming.  There is so much meat here.  So many types, so many shadows of Christ.  Moses and Christ have very similar stories.  Moses is such a clear picture of Christ.  It has been so fun to meditate on this story.  The kids are loving it.  When we have a minute, I tell them this story, trying to get it right so that I can better etch in my mind.

My own story is being told.  I do not know the end.  I mean, I know the end in one sense.  But I do not know how God is going to get me there.  It is easy for me to look at the right now and be consumed by it.  Jason is recovering very slowly. He only gets out of bed to use the bathroom.  My body is aching, tingling, and not allowing me to sleep for more then 2 hours at a time.  When I say I ache, it is not a dull pain.  I have been to the allergist, the nuerologist, the internal medicine doctor and I am on my way to an MRI, Sleep Center and rhemetologist.  One of the things about my story that is very clear is that God is using my health to sanctify me.  Being sick takes your money, your time, your sleep, your comfort.  It is a constant reminder to me that I am in a battle.  I have the spirtit of the living Lord inside a dying body. I am wiped out.  I ended today with a dizzy spell that had me thankful I was sitting on the floor.  I put the kids to bed, turned off the light and told them the story of Moses with (at times) slurred speech at points.  They did not notice that my story telling skills where a bit off.  I tried to get through the story as quick as I could.   I am beat.  Back upstairs I trod.  Jason is restless.  I give him hydrochodone and log it in my medicine log I have for him.  And my brain spins as my body hurts.  I do think that looking forward to rest as a motivation for me.  Sleep for God's beloved is something I have known little of.  But Abraham is the father of nations and he believed God even as he steadied his hand to sacrifice his only son.  He believed.  Faith is believing.  I will find rest.  I do have rest.

  It has been my biggest prayer of late to ask God to get Himself deep into my heart.  I want to the think of Him more then anything else.  I learn so much from this story.  I see God's faithfulness to a stiff necked people.  I see the Israelite s leave their home of bondage with gold in their hands and God going before them, leading them to a holy land, a land they will be free to worship God on.  Egypt was not just slavery of body, it was slavery of soul as well.  They are free in so many ways when they leave.  They walk through cleansing water on their way and we see a journey from a slaves to holy priests.  God wants them to commune with him.  This is what priests do.  They talk with God.  God wants His people close to Him.  He wants them following closely.  It is the same for us.  We are to walk with God in accord with His word.  We are to stay close and follow hard after Him.  We are to eat His food and be cleansed by water.  We are to be priests and talk with God.  We are to be separate.  We are different because of who we worship.  Moses is a story for us.  He is an example.  We see him go from belligerent to friend.  We see him change from coward to savior.  We learn that we are on a journey and it is a journey that ends in rest.  It is an adventure and we are to stay close to our God for the whole ride.  God changes us.  Being close to Him is what separates us from the world.  We want to shine as Moses shined.  Moses when to the bush to see why it was not consumed.  We see Moses ending the same: meeting with God but not consumed by him.  We get to be the same way because of the blood of the Lamb that was slain for us.  May we find ourselves encouraged by this story.  Moses messed up.  But God was faithful.....this is what makes us different.  God.