Showing Emotion

Most of the time when we look at the book of Nehemiah we concentrate on the great task of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and the incredible opposition that Nehemiah endured to that project. But today I want to focus on what may seem a very insignificant, but I think important, part of the story.

Nehemiah 2:1 "In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart." Then I was very afraid."

There is a subtle pressure as a Christian to always be happy. After all, Jesus has won the victory over sin and death so what reason do you have to be sad? While this is true, it sets up believers to be like the medal-givers at the Beijing Olympics - always smiling with 6-8 teeth showing and never reveal any emotion. It's not real and it can actually hamper the work of God.

Nehemiah had just prayed about the state of his homeland (he was in Babylon at the time). The walls of Jerusalem were in rubble and he lamented the sin of the people that had led God to force them out of Israel. He didn't mean to, but he carried that godly sorrow into his interactions with the king.

If he had forced a smile and was not himself, the king would not have asked him anything and Jerusalem's walls would not have been rebuilt. He showed emotion, he was real.

We need to be real as Christians as well. When God moves in your heart, even if it is in sorrow, don't hide it away thinking that others will consider you weak and not a "good Christian." Instead, let the love of God and the emotion of God flow through you. Jesus wept convulsively at times. Jesus got angry at sin and those trying to keep people away from a relationship with God.

Sometimes it is your real emotions that actually work to break down barriers and allow the real work of God to begin in someone's life.

Pastor Tom

The Most Evil/Redeemed King

Manasseh was a really bad guy. You read his story as king of Judah in 2 Chronicles 33 and you think "why didn't God just strike him with lightning or something?" Manesseh undid so much of what his father Hezekiah did in serving the Lord. Without going into the gory details (including the fact that he burned his own sons to death) read verse 9 "Manesseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel."

What an indictment!

So I'm reading along and thinking this story is really going to end badly, like so many others. God begins to punish Israel for Manasseh's evil and suddenly it all changes. Manesseh "entreated" the Lord, "humbled himself greatly, and "prayed."

Then in verse 13 comes the kicker, "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God."

I wonder how many people are running around doing whatever comes to their minds, no matter how evil, because they don't realize the Lord is God. They don't know or refuse to acknowledge that there is something bigger than ourselves and we are responsible for our behavior to that Being.

Manasseh changed that day, forever. My challenge is to consider, is there really a God out there? If there is, how has He revealed Himself and what should I do about it? I would suggest that the only way God has truly revealed Himself is through the Bible and God's Son Jesus Christ.

We are responsible for what we do before God. Entreat God yourself, humble yourself, pray, and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. I'm betting He'll do just that.

Pastor Tom

Marked by Sin

For the most part we should be impressed by Uzziah, who reigned over Judah starting when he was just 16 years old. He was king for 52 years - a lot of time to serve the Lord and a lot of time to make mistakes.

In 2 Chronicles 26:5 it says "He st himself to seek God ... and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper."

And prosper he did. Uzziah made war and won, Uzziah built up Jerusalem and succeeded. He even hired inventors to create new technology in warfare to defend the city, and it was successful.

But later in life something happened. In verse 16 we read "But when he was strong he grew proud to his destruction." Uzziah entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. This was the job of the priests, not the king. I think perhaps Uzziah started thinking he could do no wrong and that anything he accomplished was done from his own power.

But what happened next is very instructive. The priests came in and told the king he shouldn't do this. At that point nothing had happened to Uzziah. But then the king got angry - and it was then that leprosy broke out on his forehead. He was rushed out of the temple and had to live apart, marked by his sin, for the rest of his life.

There are a bunch of lessons here, but the one I want to focus on may not be the most obvious. We are all like Uzziah in the temple with leprosy broken out on our heads. Leprosy was a symbol for sin. Here we are in the pride of our own accomplishments (or what we think are ours) showing off before God. And there it is, sin - right there. We too are set apart from God and excluded from fellowship.

But thanks be to God that there is another mark we can have. Instead of the mark of leprosy, we have the mark of the blood of Jesus that not only covers but washes away the mark of sin and separation. We can come to God freely, knowing that we didn't deserve it and didn't do it and can't do it at all!

So the next time you feel the mark of sin forcing you away from the Lord, or even when pride rears its ugly head and you start taking credit for what God has done - remember Uzziah. And picture that mark of leprosy (what you deserve) being replaced with the mark of the blood of Christ.

Be humble, and be free.

Pastor Tom

Mentors - Teach for your Absence

I'm always bummed by what happened to Joash. He had this incredible mentor, the High Priest, named Jehoiada, who had cared for him since he was a young lad. But after Jehoiada died, Joash "abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols." (2 Chronicles 24:18).

This happened after such an incredible number of good things that Joash did including repairing the temple and destroyed the idols.

So what happened? It's hard to know for sure, but it seems that perhaps as a mentor, Jehoiada held on too tightly to Joash. His wife had hidden Joash from a murder plot when he was a baby. At seven he had placed him on the throne. Later he found two wives for Joash and many of the reforms that came about were really his.

What Jehoiada didn't do was pass on the faith and trust in Yahweh in such a way that Joash would trust God even when Jehoiada wasn't around.

I think that's a good lesson for us as we mentor and disciple (and parent). Our goal should not be to have those that we mentor do what we say and mirror what we do. Our goal should be to pass on the truth of the gospel and train them in such a way that they begin to serve God without our prompting.

It is human nature for us to want those that look up to us to depend on us. As mentors our job is to put ourselves out of a job.

Pastor Tom

Makes for a great Sound Bite

Ahab, king of Israel, wanted to do battle against a certain city. He called his new buddy Jehoshaphat to join him. To put it mildly, Ahab was a bad guy and Jehoshaphat a pretty good guy (in that he sought the Lord). Jehoshaphat asked a simple question of Abab, "how about we ask what the Lord wants."

Abab got his band of prophets together and they knew the king wanted to hear "go up, for the battle is yours." So that's just what they said. Jehoshaphat was skeptical and wanted to know if there was a "prophet of the Lord" they could ask.

If you know the story, the prophet at first went along as he was told, but later told the truth. This got Abab pretty steamed and he said "Didn't I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me but evil?" (2 Chronicles 18:17). They ended up putting him in jail, and the battle was lost, just as the prophet said.

So what's my point? I think sometimes we only listen to the Lord when he is telling us what we want to hear. When he convicts us in his word and let's us know that there is evil inside us that only repentance and his blood can cleanse we stop up our ears. We end up listening to speakers or reading books that make us feel good or agree with us.

Now I'm not saying we need to beat ourselves up all the time and go around moping. But I am saying that we need to be careful to let all of God's word into our hearts and not just what sounds good. Those Precious Promises books are fine, but is the promise of Jesus in there that if you want to live a godly life you will suffer persecution? "Oh Lord, give me persecution today!" We don't pray that promise in; we don't stand on that promise.

Only good words make for great sound bites, but not for good lives.

Pastor Tom

With God as long as He is with you

Rehoboam gets a little bit of a bad rap. Son of Solomon, he's the one who listened to counselors his own age instead of the more mature ones and said he would put a heavy load on Israel. This caused a split where the northern tribes served another king.

For the most part after that, though, Rehoboam was a good guy. When Jeroboam began his own home-made religion the priests of God came to Jerusalem. When Rehoboam wanted to go to war against the rest of Israel God told him "no" and he listened. The people strengthened Rehoboam as for three years he walked in the way of David and Solomon. And Rehoboam built up cities in Judah to defend his kingdom from invaders.

Sounds all well and good. So then here's this verse in 2 Chronicles 12:1 "When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him."

Oh bummer. What is it about us that really trusts in God only because we need something from Him? Once we get our health back or get that job or new car or get out of that financial jam we forget about Him?

And what happens if God disciplines us and allows bad things to happen in order to mature us or more perfectly communicate the gospel through our lives? Do we stick closely to God then? Or do we simply get mad at him?

Are we a fair-weather friend to the Lord at times? Let us determine in our own hearts to trust in God for the good and the bad (not that he ever wants to harm us). Let's remember what Job said "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1:21

Pastor Tom

Leave a Legacy and Let Go

I'm really impressed by David. He really wanted to build a house for God but the Lord told him he could not because he was a man of war, but that his son, Solomon, could build it.

So David drew up the plans, saved up money and building materials, and donated a huge fortune of own for the project. Then he charged Solomon with building it.

He said to Solomon "Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you." (1 Chronicles 28:20)

Later he prayed for Solomon, "Grant to Solomon my son a whole heart that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, performing all, and that he may build the palace for which I have made provision." (29:19)

I think its a wonderful thing when we as parents give our kids all the tools they need to serve the Lord. We teach them God's Word, we pray for them, we create an environment that is conducive to worshiping the Lord, and we even encourage their own involvement in the things of the Lord.

That alone is a good lesson for us. How much are we investing in our children's relationship with the Lord? But there is another lesson. Despite what David prayed, Solomon did not serve God with a whole heart and ended up worshiping other gods.

We as parents can only do so much until we must turn our children over to the Lord. It was not David's fault that Solomon made the decisions he did. All he could do was plant and water. That is all we can do as well.

Pastor Tom

Repentance Isn't Enough

King David was in a jam. He'd decided, against the Lord's will, to number the fighting men of Israel. It was a huge number, but finding it out came at a huge cost. When God called David on it he said in 1 Chronicles 21:8 "I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant..."

God didn't do that. Instead he gave David three choices of consequences: three years of famine, three months running from his enemies, or three days of the "sword of the Lord." David chose the latter and over 70,000 died.

When the angel of the Lord was about to strike Jerusalem, God stopped him saying "it is enough."

Now here is where it gets interesting. David buys the land (which later becomes the temple) in order to perform sacrifices. Here in Chronicles it tells us that he did not go to the Tent of Meeting which was in Gibeon but performed this sacrifice right there because "he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord." (vs 30)

When David repented of his sin the sword of the angel was still unsheathed and ready to continue at God's command. It wasn't until David presented the burnt offering on the altar he made that the Lord told the angel to put away the sword.

Why is this significant? We sometimes have two mistaken notions about sin. One, we think that if we just stop doing something bad, like a kid that has stopped hitting their brother, that God will turn away to read his newspaper again and be satisfied. Or secondly, we think that not just stopping but actually being sorry and turning away from the sin is enough. "I won't do it again, I promise, I feel really bad about what I did."

It's not enough. An offering must take place or the sword of God's judgment still hangs over us because we cannot survive in his presence if there is any evil in us.

I thank God that he provided for me a sacrifice by providing himself as that payment for my sin. Now when I repent (which means to change your mind about the sin) there is a way to sheath the sword of the Lord and a way to help me not do it anymore (the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life).

Pastor Tom

Surrounded!

Do you ever feel like everything is against you? Your job is in jeopardy and you don't have enough money to fill the gas tank or put food on the table. Perhaps you are ill and just can't get better or you have a relationship that is on the rocks and nothing seems to be able to fix it. Maybe you just don't feel right about yourself or are under attack from some other circumstance.

You feel surrounded by an enemy you can't hope to fight and you are ready just to give up.

Gehazi felt the same way as you. In 2 Kings 6 is the story of one day when Gehazi got up to get the morning paper and a latte at Starbucks (they had them back then, didn't they?). He went out the door and saw surrounding the city was the Syrian army. Uh oh.

At that point I'm sure Gehazi felt not a little bit of panic. You may know the story. Elisha the prophet comes out and Gehazi says "What shall we do?" And Elisha simply says to him "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

I can just imagine Gehazi thinking, "Uh, right. Let's see there's you and me and, hmmm, that's it!"

But then Elisha prays for Gehazi's eyes to be opened and then he sees surrounding the chariots of Syria chariots of fire from God.

What I find even more interesting is that they aren't needed, at least not then. Elisha prays and the Syrians are struck with blindness and Elisha leads them off to Samaria (and shows them mercy - but that's another story).

So what's the lesson for us? We need to realize that no matter how big our problem seems, there is a greater power for us than is against us. For one thing, God has sent his angels as ministering spirits to aid those who belong to Jesus. (Hebrews 1:14). But God doesn't necessarily send in those angels to rescue the day. He wants you to pray and trust in the Lord to provide in the situation what you need.

Elisha had to get involved. He prayed, he led the men, he acted in a godly way when he brought them to Samaria. God wants you involved in seeing his power work through you and transform you in the problem, not just rescue you from it.

Afraid of life? Surrounded by enemies? Realize God has surrounded the enemy with his forces and will swoop in if needed (it happens in chapter 7). But know this, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). So pray and follow the leading of the Lord to see your rescue and be a part of it!

Pastor Tom

A Better Deal With Baal

Ahaziah had an accident in 2 Kings 1. He fell through the lattice in his upper chamber. Injured, Ahaziah wondered if he was going to survive. But this man and his nation had moved so far away from Yahweh that he didn't even think to ask God or seek God for healing.

Instead he said "Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness" (2).

Elijah the prophet met the king's messengers and said "Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?"

Ahaziah's men never made to Ekron. Elijah sent them back with this message, "you shall surely die."

Now I know that's not wonderful news but it illustrates an important point. There is a God in Israel and there is only one God in the universe. His name is Yahweh and His Son is Jesus. We are all injured by the evil of sin and should be wondering if we are going to recover.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that some other philosophy or life style or religion can get you a better deal, a second opinion. God's opinion is the only one that counts and that is you and I are all terminal.

What Ahaziah didn't know was that God would also pay the ultimate price to heal our sickness of sin by personally dieing in our place.

There is no better deal with Baal, and there is no Baal. But there is a loving God who deals honestly and completely with evil - by killing it and saving you!

Pastor Tom

Are You Limping?

There is this great line that I had not seen before in the story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

It takes place in 1 Kings 18. Israel has split off from Judah and followed Jeroboam who decided he better make up a religion to keep his people from following Yahweh. It all went downhill from there and the people ended up worshiping and serving Baal.

Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest to see whose God would answer and burn up the sacrifice. You probably know the story, but then here is this great line of Elijah in verse 21:

"How long will you go limping between two opinions?"

If you are having a hard time with faith and trust in Jesus Christ, it may be because you want the best the world has to offer but the guarantee of eternal life that God offers through Jesus. Baal offered immediate gratification, just like the world which says "grab for all the gusto you can because you only go around once in life."

The problem with holding on to what the world is telling you while also trying to hold on to Jesus is you can do neither well. Have you ever tried to walk on top of a fence? You need to jump in either direction, either with the world and abandon the Lord, or with the Lord and abandon getting the immediate gratification (but long term problems) that come with sin.

Stop limping and walk strongly towards the Lord Jesus! Elijah finished that sentence off this way:

"If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." What's your choice?

Pastor Tom

Who Do You Love More?

1 Kings chapters 8 and 9 are filled with wonderful promises from the Lord to Solomon. We also see Solomon make good choices and show what we think is his heart towards the Lord in asking for wisdom rather than riches, beauty, or power.

So it is rather disheartening to read the opening verse of chapter 11: "Now King Solomon loved many foreign women"

The Lord had warned Israel not to intermarry with the nations around them "for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods." (2)

If you are Solomon, perhaps you are thinking that you are the king and that you asked for wisdom from God and so everything you do is going to be good. He should have paid more attention because verse 3 says "For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God."

This led Solomon to introduce idol worship into Israel. Though the people had fooled around with it prior to this, here it is coming from the king himself. It led the nation down a path that eventually led to civil war and exile.

It started because Solomon loved his foreign women more than he loved his God. It got a foothold because Solomon was not paying attention to what he was thinking and doing in relation to the Lord.

Is there something in your life that you love more than God? Are you so sure of your walk that you think you can do no wrong? Take a lesson from Solomon.

Pastor Tom

Forcing Your Own Deal

When King David was near death, his second son Adonijah decided he wanted to be king. This happened in 1 Kings 1. The Lord wanted Solomon to be king after David but that didn't stop Adonijah from trying to become king anyway. He got a couple of high officials to go along as well as the king's sons.

He was wrong and when David found out he immediately anointed Solomon king. Adonijah got the word and feared he would be killed but Solomon said "if he will show himself a worthy man, not one of his hairs shall fall to the earth." (1:52)

However, Adonijah was not worthy and just as soon as he could he asked a favor of Solomon's mother to have David's servant Abishag given as his wife. This was tantamount to claiming the kingship and Solomon had Adonijah put to death.

Sometimes we want something so badly that we will do anything - anything to get it. God may have appointed Solomon to be king but didn't stop Adonijah. God may have said "no" to something but we as humans are fully capable of sometimes making our own thing work even if God isn't in it.

We can get some people around us who believe in what we want to do but in the end it won't succeed. Maybe Adonijah thought that if he worked hard enough that God would just shrug his shoulders and say "well, Adonijah is already doing it, so we'll just go with that." It doesn't work that way.

No matter how hard you want something, make sure (to the best of your ability) that God is in it before you push it forward.

Pastor Tom

What Does Worship Cost You?

David had blundered. He wanted to gauge the strength of Israel and so had Joab count the warriors. I won't go into why this was wrong at the time, but I want to focus on what happened because of it.

In 2 Samuel 24 God gives David three choices for the consequences of his disobedience. David chooses three days of plagues saying, "Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great."

The plague is severe and takes 70,000 lives. As the angel wielding the sword of God's plague comes to Jerusalem the Lord's mercy stays his hand as David looks on. God then instructs David to build an altar to worship. The place, by the way, becomes the Temple.

At the time it is a threshing floor - a place where wheat and grain was separated from the chaff. A guy by the name of Araunah owns the place and offers to give it to David, along with the ox and wood for the sacrifice. It was a ready made deal.

But David says something very insightful. He tells Araunah, "No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing."

So here's my challenge. What does worshiping the Lord cost you? Today we have large churches with big worship bands and flashy presentations. We have CD's and mp3's and iPods that blast out worship music. We have ready made prayers and pastors who do the work of digging into the Word of God for us.

Though all those things can be good, they can also make us lazy. What personal cost is it to you to worship the Lord? What do you give up? What effort do you put into it? How much of your heart do you invest in bringing praise and adoration to the throne of God?

David refused to have worship handed to him. What about you?

Pastor Tom

Standing Still is Moving Backwards

Everything seemed to be going great for David. He'd survived Saul's attacks, living in a foreign land, fought wars, had a civil war-and through it all he had sought God and really exhibited the character of God in all he did.

Then something happened. In 2 Samuel 11 David was in the middle of fighting battles against the enemies of Yahweh. When it came time to go to work it says "David remained in Jerusalem." I'll bet for many years later David really wished he had gone into battle because what happened stained his life and his family for the rest of his time on earth.

Chapter 11 is the David and Bathsheba story, where David spies this really hot woman bathing, takes her and sleeps with her, gets her pregnant, then has her husband killed. Because of this sin, David has sorrow in his family and in his nation for the rest of his life.

What I want to focus on is that initial decision not to do God's work. God didn't tell him to stay home. And when we as soldiers in God's army decide that we want to go on extended furlough we place ourselves in a difficult situation. Now I'm not saying we have to fill our days from end to end with activity, but when we decide not to be available for God to work with anymore we become open for the war to come to us.

1 Peter 5:8 says: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

When you stop doing what God wants with your life its not like you can just check out because at that point the enemy checks in. When you stop doing God's thing you leave an opening for the Devil to start doing his thing - to tempt you into disobeying God.

So the word is, remain on alert and at your post - available for the Lord. Be ready for him to call you to war, fighting against the enemy's strongholds in people's lives against the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Tom

You Are a Dead Dog!

In 1 Samuel 9 David suddenly wants to know if there is anyone of Saul's line that he can "show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" This is odd in one way, in that Saul tried to kill David on many occasions and now that David is sure in his kingship why would he want to show kindness to the grandson of his enemy? Wouldn't he want to make sure that no one could come along and claim the throne?

But that wasn't David's character. And good for us, it isn't God's either. David called Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son, to him. David first let Mephibosheth know that he meant him no harm and in fact invited him to eat at his table - just like adopting him as a son.

Mephibosheth replied, "What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?" (8) In many ways, we are just like Mephibosheth, lame because of sin, related to a dethroned king (Lucifer) who deserve to be put to death for the evil in us. But when we come before the King of Kings, He doesn't destroy us but desires to show kindness to us for the sake of a beloved Son. He adopts us as His own and invites us to sit at his table forever.

We too should react like Mephibosheth, "Lord why are you treating me kindly when I am but a dead dog?" Then we should receive that love and that invitation to fellowship and rejoice in the love of the king!

Pastor Tom

Have It Your Way

Science has shown us that the mind is an amazing thing. It is self-justifying. In other words, what your mind wants to do it will find a way to justify. That's how Hitler could kill millions of Jews - his mind was able to justify the action.

Saul, king of Israel, employed some justification too for sinning. In 1 Samuel 13 he was supposed to wait seven days for Samuel to arrive and perform the sacrifice. When Samuel didn't come Saul performed it anyway.

When Samuel came on the scene he said "what have you done?" Saul then launched into this big defense, saying that the people were scattering, you didn't come, the Philistines are upon us and I need to give a nod to God.

In Saul's mind these were four reasons or justifications for not doing what God had commanded.

Samuel simply answered "You have done foolishly."

Do you ever find yourself finding reasons that you should not obey God? They might sound pretty reasonable to you. Just remember that the mind is a self justifying thing. Don't use your own thoughts as viable reasons. Use instead the objective command of God.

Pastor Tom

Are People Surprised at You?

In 1 Samuel 10 the prophet Samuel anoints Saul to be "prince" over Israel. They no longer wanted God as their king but wanted to be like all the nations around them. That's a whole story in and of itself, of course.

I just wanted to point out a little thing that happens to Saul after Samuel anoints him. Verse 10 says "and the Spirit of God rushed upon him and he prophesied among them. 11 And when all who knew him previously saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, "What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?"

When it says Saul "prophesied" it basically means he broke out in praise to the Lord. Apparently this was something strange for Saul and it doesn't surprise me based on how he lived the rest of his life. For Israel's next king, David, no one would be surprised at him breaking out in song and praise. In fact they'd be surprised if he didn't!

So what about you? Would those that know you be surprised to hear you talk about the Lord or identify your life with Jesus? Or would they be surprised if you didn't act differently than the world around you because you have the Spirit of God living inside you?

Just a thought.

Pastor Tom

What Did Hannah Get?

Do you remember the story of Hannah in 1st Samuel? She was one of two wives of a guy named Elkanah. She couldn't have kids and that really grieved her. She so much wanted to have kids that even Elkanah got a little upset with her prayers to God saying "Am I not more to you than ten sons?" (1 Samuel 1:8)

She prayed so hard about it than Eli, the priest, thought she was a drunk mumbling. But God answered her prayer and she had a son: Samuel. Oddly, though, the thing she wanted so much she didn't get to keep. She had told the Lord that if He would give her a son that she would "give him to the Lord all the days of his life." (11).

God gave her what she wanted more than anything but she didn't get to keep it. So what did she get out of the deal?

At first blush it seems like she didn't get anything. But if you read her prayer as she leaves Samuel off at the Tabernacle you get a little clue. Her prayer here is not silent or mistaken for drunkenness. Instead it clearly states that God is holy, God is sovereign, and God is in charge of protecting the "faithful" and cutting off and breaking the wicked. He will do this through "his king" and "his anointed."

Hannah was prompted to pray for something she got no direct benefit from. The benefit was her part in God's overall grand plan for good.

Perhaps you feel burdened to pray. Perhaps your heart yearns for something and yet you hesitate knowing that God might do something but you won't see any benefit from it.

Is it enough to see God move for something He wants? Ask Hannah. She birthed the man who chose the king who led to a Savior. What's your prayer? What's your part?

Pastor Tom

What Gets You Upset?

I was amazed reading the accounts in Judges 16-20. It was a very low time in the nation's history typified by this phrase: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25)

Some pretty awful things happened but was surprised me was what the people got upset about. In chapter 19 there is the story of how a Levite's concubine is raped and murdered by the men of Gibeah. The Levite cuts up her body and sends the parts throughout the land to incite Israel to fight against Benjamin. In the the end the tribe is nearly wiped out.

Now I'm not defending or belittling what happened to that woman. It was horrible and those responsible should have been brought to justice. But what amazes me is that just one chapter earlier the tribe of Dan steals a city and murders its inhabitants just because they wanted to and they could. Where was the indignation there?

And perhaps worst of all, in chapter 17 we find the people so mixed up that they think creating their own gods and a home-grown priesthood is a way to find God's blessing.

Sometimes we have our priorities mixed up when it comes to what gets to us. We wink at some sin and get outraged about others. Worst of all, when our country walks away from faith in the Lord to embrace all kinds of falsehood we think that is okay in the name of tolerance.

Tolerance of cancer will kill you. We need to be concerned with people's eternal destiny and fight to keep the truth of the love of God through Jesus Christ flowing and not be diluted by half-truths masquerading as the real thing.

Pastor Tom

You Want Me to Do What?

In Judges 6 we find the people of Israel in pretty dire straights. Imagine you go to work and on payday you are met at the door by a thug who steals your check and cashes it himself! That's kind of the situation Israel was in. They would raise crops and then the Midianites and Amalekites would come in and "harvest" the crops for themselves.

Then God (in the form of the Angel of the Lord) showed up to a man named Gideon (who was threshing wheat in a wine press to hide from the Midianites). God said to him: "The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor." (Judges 6:12)

Gideon answered "If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us?"

In other words, "if God is with us why hasn't He done something!"

God answers him, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel."

Gideon wanted God do it all and God wanted Gideon to understand that he had the strength to do what God wanted because "I will be with you."

When we see things that need to be done, prayers to be answered, problems to be solved, trials to undergo and temptations to overcome - do we sometimes just want God to do it for us? "If you are so great why don't you just solve all my problems?"

In reality God wants to work in and through us. We, like Gideon, are to be participants in God's mighty work. We are not simply bystanders. It is by God's Spirit making his home in us that we too can accomplish His will.

So pray for answers but don't be surprised if He says "Go in this might of yours."

Pastor Tom

Where'd It All Go?

I've often asked myself what happened to Israel after they got into the Promised Land. I mean, they had it all - a powerful God fighting on their behalf who was giving them a land of their own.

But not too many years after they arrived, Israel was in sad shape and, other than during David's and some of Solomon's reign, they never seemed to really have it together.

Judges gives us some clues.

After the death of Joshua the people of Judah were successful in battle after inquiring of the Lord. But in chapter 1, verse 19 it says "And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron."

Next, Benjamin "did not drive out the Jebusites." Manasseh did not drive out the Canaanites and they "persisted in dwelling in the land." Zebulun put the Canaanites to forced labor instead of destroying them as God commanded. The Asherites "lived among the Canaanites." The people of Dan were forced live in the hills because the Canaanites were too strong.

As believers in Jesus Christ we are in the process of being transformed into the image of God. In that process we have an enemy too: the flesh. The flesh are those habit patterns we learned that are contrary to the character of God.

In our quest to destroy the flesh by the power of the Spirit we can make errors just like the children of Israel. Don't let the tough "iron chariots" stop you - those habits that are hard fought to stay around. Don't make deals with the flesh, don't let yourself be swept up again by living among the flesh (don't let those temptations overcome you by being surrounded by them) and don't let the flesh change your ability to serve God by being driven away from fellowship or worship.

With Israel, one defeat cascaded upon another. Never in that first chapter do we see a tribe seek the Lord like Judah did at the beginning. Seek the Lord constantly and don't let the flesh have a foothold!

Pastor Tom

Make a Decision!

Today the prevailing wisdom is that everyone holds a bit of the truth. If we all get together and put our pieces together a complete picture of the truth will emerge. If a different group comes together then the truth will morph depending on what pieces they bring.

What that really means isn't that each one of us holds a bit of the truth but that each one of us holds different beliefs. When we put our beliefs together a complete picture of what we think emerges.

Truth is not really relative that way. Truth does not change that way. We may have different opinions about the truth about gravity, but that doesn't change gravity, only our perception of it.

But holding on to the idea that real truth cannot be known absolutely is a convenient way of putting off making a decision about it. Pilate said "What is truth?" He'd have fit in well today.

Here's the problem. If there was a fire in your house and you put off making a decision about whether to run until you had every one's idea about the fire you'd be dead. Putting off making a decision is making a decision.

That's why I think Joshua's words at the end of his life and his book are so key for all of us to hear.

"Choose this day whom you will serve." (Joshua 24:15)

In the words of Bob Dylan "You gotta serve somebody." Don't just wait to decide whether you are going to trust that Jesus is Lord.

Listen to the eyewitness testimony of those who saw the whole thing. Not making a decision is making a decision and the house is burning.

Pastor Tom

The Easy Route or the Best Route

Joshua 17:14 "Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua saying, "Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since all along the Lord has blessed me?"

Sounds like a reasonable request, doesn't it? During the occupation of the Promised Land, Joseph felt like they needed to get more land. But that would have required Joshua to give it to them from one of the other tribe's allotments. How fair would that be?

Furthermore, when Joshua probed deeper, it seems that they had plenty of land but were afraid of the "chariots of iron" employed by the people in the plain, and didn't want to go to the work of cutting down the forests in the hill country.

At times for us, God puts in front of us work to do. No, we aren't earning His favor by doing it, we are participating in the good works He created for us. But just because God wants us to do something doesn't mean it will be easy.

Sometimes we have to face the iron chariots and see the power of God fight on our behalf. Maybe there is a broken relationship that He wants you to mend, but it will take prayer and humbleness and patience.

In the end, Joshua didn't give Joseph the easy answer, he gave them the right answer by saying "You are a numerous people and have great power ... the hill country shall be yours ... you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron."

God asks us to difficult things, but He is the one who performs it, if we will just be willing to work hard with Him!

Pastor Tom

Tired of Walking Around Jericho

Joshua 6:15 "On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times."

If you were one of the men who got up on that day, and Joshua your leader told you to walk around the city of Jericho seven times - round about turn number three wouldn't you start to get a little impatient?

"Why can't we just go in and conquer the city now?" you might think. Then after the next time around you really might to start to tire and think "I won't have any strength left to fight and do God's work because I've spent all this time walking in circles!"

As you probably know, after the seventh time they blew the trumpets and God blew down the walls of the city and they destroyed it.

What "city" are you waiting to be conquered - what problem looms up against you that seems impossible? Has God told you to pray and to seek Him and to wait for His answer? You pray once and that seems like the right thing. You pray and wait again and that's okay. Right about prayer number three you begin to get a little impatient and you wonder why God couldn't have just answered the first time.

Yet another prayer and another day of waiting for God's wisdom and God moving and you think all of your strength has been used up praying and seeking when you could have just solved the problem yourself.

So what's the answer? When you find yourself getting impatient, remember that Israel had to walk around seven times - the number of completeness. God knows the right time to wait. He knows how long it will take to get His wisdom in you. He knows just the right time to answer. Trust Him. Wait for Him. Walk for Him.

Besides, a little exercise never hurt anyone!

Pastor Tom

Come Back!

Deuteronomy 27, 28, & 29 are some very scary chapters. Its just before Israel enters the Promised Land. Moses has the people stand on two mountains. The people on one mountain speak all the blessings that await those that obey the Lord. The people on the other mountain speak all the curses that await Israel if they disobey and stop following Yahweh.

We know, of course, that they did exactly that. They got into the land and thought the ways of the people there were pretty cool so they left Yahweh and followed after the Baals, and the other non-gods. And God did just what He said He would do and scattered the people to other nations.

We live in a different period but as a spiritual principal this still stands. If you love and serve God then decide you'd rather love and serve your own flesh and the ways of the world system around you seem cooler than God and will make you more prosperous, then you too will end up feeling like you've been cursed too. Paul says as much in Galatians 6 (check it out).

What is really cool, though, is this little section in chapter 30. From verse 1 though 6.

1 And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to min among all the nations where the Lord your God has drive you, and you return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes..."

He goes on to say He will gather and take you from where you are, bring you into a blessed land, make you more prosperous than before, circumcise your heart - and the result is you will love the Lord.

If you are in a place where you have walked (or run) away from the Lord and feel the effects of sowing to the flesh and reaping from the flesh corruption and you just don't think God wants to or even can restore you - remember this verse.

Call out to the Lord God. Three times Moses said the Lord your God. If you trusted in Jesus then you have a relationship with Him and He never really lets you go. He wants to gather you into His arms and cause your heart to soften and your ears to open. God wants to restore you to fellowship and make you even more blessed (in knowing Him) than ever!

It is never too late. Come back. He's been waiting.

Pastor Tom

Listen up!

Deuteronomy 18:15^(A) "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb^(B) on the day of the assembly, when you said,^(C) 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' 17And the LORD said to me,^(D) 'They are right in what they have spoken. 18^(E) I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers.^(F) And I will put my words in his mouth, and^(G) he shall speak to them all that I command him. (from Biblegateway.com)

Did you know that these verses are about Jesus Christ? From time to time it is important to remind ourselves that God did not bring Jesus on the scene as a last minute plan to fix a broken humanity. Before the creation of the world God knew man would fail and so he planned to bring Jesus on the scene at just the right time.

There are a couple of wonderful things to point out about this person, whom the Jews referred to as The Prophet.

1. He is "from your brothers". Jesus was a human being, with all of the things we human have to deal with. He can identify with you.

2. We should listen to him. When God revealed himself and his character to the people of Israel they said "no more!" We really have no clue just how incredible God is, and how holy, and how much we don't measure up. They just wanted to stop up their ears. With Jesus we need to open those ears and listen to how God will make a way for us to share in his glory by giving us his very life.

Consider how long God waited to bring Jesus on the scene in order to speak the words of love God longed to speak. He is speaking those words into your life today. Listen up!

Pastor Tom

Loyal or Impressed?

As humans we seem to be hard wired to drive our lives by our five senses. We trust that which we can hear, smell, taste, see, and feel. When it comes to things that really matter, though, our senses can actually deceive us, or be deceived.

This is driven home in Deuteronomy 13:1 "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign of wonder that he tells comes to pass, and if he says, "Let us go after other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer or dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

Think about it. Someone comes along and makes a prophecy that is so specific that there is no way they could know unless they had supernatural knowledge, and their prophecy comes true. Or even better, they claim to be able to heal or do something incredible - and they do it!

If that person then said they had a different idea about the way of salvation, wouldn't we just flock to listen to them?

But God clearly warns us here not to do that. We need to trust with the eyes of faith, not our physical eyes. God gave us ample proof of who he was through the miracles he did for Israel and for us in Jesus Christ. If we keep demanding proof our senses can appreciate then we aren't trusting God and God isn't God of our lives anymore, we are, our senses are.

Believe what God did and said. Be loyal to Him. Trust in Him-no matter what!

Pastor Tom

Two Problems With Living in the World

As Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, God had some warnings for them. First He told them to destroy the peoples and their idols.

Deuteronomy 7:2 "And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction." This included destroying their idols and not intermarrying with them.

God warned them that if they didn't do this two things could happen. One, they could become fearful of the task and two, they could become impressed with the people and their gods.

As Christians we are told to destroy the flesh (see previous blog entry) which is anything that is of the old nature enslaved to things that are outside the character of God. As we set about to do that by the power of God's Holy Spirit the same two things can happen.

One, we can become fearful over the power of sin in our lives and the hold it has on us. Sin is a corpse that pretends to be alive. Paul said: "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:14

Secondly we can become enamored with the things of the world, the values it has, the goals it shoots for, because these were things we were trained to want.

Moses gives Israel this key to overcoming both of these obstacles.

26 You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction."

We should treat those things that are not like the Lord as detestable, not delectable. We, as regenerated people, have the option to consider the things of the world in this way. When we fail to do so is when the snares and fears of the world overcome us.

Pastor Tom

Seeking God, Sort of

If you have stopped nurturing your relationship with God, stopped being in fellowship with other believers, stopped learning about the Lord through His Word and stopped praying it is like not watering a plant. It looks okay for a while but then begins to wither.

Further, if you decide instead of loving God to love the things in the world around you - the lure of wealth, beauty, worldly wisdom, and power - you begin to develop a new strength, a strength against serving God all the more.

That kind of thinking is pretty common and very short term. Thinking on an eternal level, what will all those things do for you in a place where they don't matter any more?

So perhaps you find yourself convicted and think "you know, I need to get back to my relationship with God." So you go to church a little more, you pray a little bit, maybe you even crack open your Bible now and again. But you still serve those other things which have become gods to you.

Moses actually has some sage advice out of Deuteronomy 4:29

"But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find Him, if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul."

Half hearted efforts at returning to God will only bear half hearted results. Search for the Lord and let it be with everything within you. I promise if you look, you'll find Him because He was right there all along, just waiting for you to give up on worthless things and seek something eternal: a relationship with Him.

Pastor Tom

Making War on the Flesh

Numbers 31 has the story of Israel's first real battle as they near the Promised Land. God tells them to fight and destroy Midian. "Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian." (3)

Remember that Midian was the nation that wanted Balaam to curse Israel. He couldn't, of course, but what they couldn't accomplish by cursing they accomplished by temptation. In chapter 25 the people invited them to worship with their gods and Israel fell into idolatry and sexual immorality.

The thought I had about this, and the war God declared on them, involves the flesh. God is about to do great things through Israel, but first the agent of their downfall into sin must be done away with.

Paul the Apostle later said: "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:13)

Ask the Holy Spirit today to make war on that which tempts you to sin.

Pastor Tom

Impatience

Numbers 21:4 "From Mount Hor they set out by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and we loathe this worthless bread."

Do you ever find yourself impatient on your journey with the Lord? You've been brought out of slavery to sin and set on a course to a known destination but through unknown territory (this life). We have God's Word to chew on which brings us encouragement and challenge. But sometimes do you grow tired of "eating" the same food over and over?

And when life throws you a curve and you are scared or lonely or discouraged, do you think to yourself, "Why did I even come to Jesus if this is how my life is going to be? I was better off before."

When Israel expressed this to the Lord a plague broke out. Moses had to build a bronze serpent so that when the people looked at it they were healed of the snake bites.

For us, we need to remind ourselves that in Egypt (our sinful state) we were as good as dead from a poisonous snake. But Jesus rescued and healed us. His Word nourishes, even when we don't understand it all.

What Israel didn't realize when they complained and grew impatient was that they were about to experience great victory over the Amorites. Perhaps you are feeling impatient because the Lord is about to do a big thing in your life and the enemy is trying to distract you by having you focus on what's going on with you, instead of what is going on with God through you.

So look up to the serpent on the tree (Jesus), find new recipes for enjoying His Word, and look forward instead of backward to what new adventures lie ahead and what victories He has in store for you just around the corner!

Pastor Tom

Wrath Doesn't Matter

In my last blog I talked about Numbers 11 and how the people didn't seem concerned about coming close to God and the dangers that came with it. Many of them died in a fire as a result.

The theme continues in Numbers 16. The story of Korah's rebellion is pretty famous. Some of the Levites decided they were as "holy" as Moses (as if that had anything to do with why God was using Moses). The bottom sort of dropped out from under their argument (vs 31) and they fell from grace (so to speak).

So what I find interesting is what happened next. After God clearly said that it is His choice who He uses and puts into authority, the people "grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, "You have killed the people of the Lord." (vs 42).

God's glory appeared in the cloud over the Tent of Meeting and immediately a plague started breaking out among the people. If it were not for Aaron and Moses interceding, all the people would have died. As it was some 14,700 lost their lives.

So after the fire, after the glory, after the plagues - no one among the children of Israel seems all that worried about the wrath of God. That actually trying to approach God and relate to Him on a personal level without the proper covering was a truly dangerous undertaking.

The truth is that God is holding back. One day he will destroy evil and anything that belongs to it. It's not anger in the sense that we think of. God is not vindictive and vengeful. But He is pure. He will take this dimension back and when he does His mere presence will wipe out anything not clean.

As I've said numerous times, thanks be to God for providing that cleansing Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. Let's just not make the mistake Israel made and underestimate the presence of God and the wrath of God. Wrath does matter!

Pastor Tom

God is Dangerous

Numbers 10 - 15 is full of great stories. The quail, Miriam turning leprous, the spies in the land, and all that.

But there is a little story tucked away in the beginning of chapter 11 that I want to focus on.

11:1 "And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp"

Hebrews says "our God is a consuming fire." I think we forget how actually true that is. As the people of Israel came out of Egypt, they had the opportunity to have a relationship with the God of the universe. That is easier said than done.

Due to our own evil we are tainted, and approaching a God who is completely good is not as easy as just drawing back the flaps of a tent and saying "Hey God, how ya doin'?" Good, real good, cannot exist with evil. Or let me put it this way, evil, real evil, is destroyed in the presence of real good.

So as the people draw near to God, their transgressions begin to show and the goodness of God begins to have an affect, namely fire breaking out and destroying some of them. To draw close required a blood sacrifice, and later, THE blood sacrifice of Jesus. They simply couldn't come near in their present state and even living near God was perilous.

We just should not forget the difficult way Jesus opened for us. Being washed by His blood so that we can come to God and call Him Papa at any time is the most wonderful thing ever!

Pastor Tom

Come if you are Unclean

God was very strict in the old covenant about the fact that you had to be clean ceremonially. Leviticus is full of restrictions, one of which was touching a dead body. If you touched a dead body you couldn't participate in the spiritual life of Israel until you had been made clean again, which involved washing and waiting.

So then I come upon Numbers 9. It says "6 And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day."

The men come to Moses and want to know why they couldn't celebrate. So Moses asks God and, surprisingly, God says "10 ... if any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord."

Passover, of course, is a wonderful picture of the fact that God "passed over" us in pouring out His wrath against evil. He did this after we applied the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, to the doorposts of our hearts.

God says that even if you are unclean and feel unworthy to come to Jesus, or even if you have wandered far away from Him, don't let that be a barrier to coming to Him.

"And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take water of life without price." Revelation 22:17

Pastor Tom

Blemishes

Leviticus 21 talks about the importance of holiness in the priesthood. The Lord instructed Moses that "no one who has a blemish shall draw near." (18).

It goes on to talk about what constitutes a blemish: defects in sight, hunchback, injured foot, even dwarfs couldn't come and minister before the Lord as a priest.

Now we could get into a huge discussion over what this means, and why if God is so worried about external physical deformities why isn't he worried about internal sinful attitudes? (He is, in fact).

But I wanted to point out something that is actually kind of cool. Look at verse 22:

"He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things."

The blemished can share in the benefits of the priesthood, even though they couldn't go in themselves to minister. So what does this mean to us?

Now I don't want to get too deeply into this theologically, but even as the priesthood was a picture of Jesus' sacrifice for us, we, the blemished, are not worthy to go into the Holy of Holies. Only Jesus is worthy.

But we, who are blemished by sin, can still benefit from the fellowship and sacrifice of Jesus. If you feel like you have a defect and just aren't worthy of fellowshipping with God, don't worry. Through Jesus even us who have blemishes can still partake of His sacrifice and the fellowship with God that it brings.

Pastor Tom

We Didn't Do It!

I was reading about the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. It is a special day in the Jewish year when the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies and makes atonement for the sins of the people.

Without going into great detail (there is tons of symbolism here) I wanted to point out just two small details.

One is this: "No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly or Israel." (17).

Then I noticed this verse as well: "and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you." (29-30)

As you may know, the Day of Atonement pictures the day of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. While the blood of bulls and rams "atoned" for the people's sins, it was only temporary and it was a picture of the one atonement for all time.

We've been studying John at church and how all Jesus' disciples scattered after his arrest. He faced the cross utterly alone, just as Aaron went in alone to the Holy Place. And more than that, all the people basically had to just sit and wait. They could not work, they had to pause and wait for the atonement.

Even with us, we cannot do anything to bring about the atonement (payment) for our evil. This atonement is "made for you" you didn't make it yourself. You can't do any work that can aid in Jesus paying the price for your sin.

Let us pause a little and remember THE High Priest, entering by himself into the Holy Place to offer His own blood as the one and only sacrifice.

Pastor Tom

Getting Spots Out

If you have ever read Leviticus 13 and 14 you have learned a lot about leprosy. Too much, in fact. The Law goes on and on and on in tremendous detail about how to spot skin disease--shutting people up here and pulling down the stones of houses there. It's mind numbing actually.

When a person at that time had any kind of skin lesion or eruption or boil they had to go to the priest repeatedly to have it inspected. The priest would have to check to see if the hair in the eruption was black, white, or yellow. Depending on what was happening they would have to come back and back.

If someone actually got healed from leprosy the many sacrifices and rituals they had to go through are amazing. And even after they are clean they can come back into the camp but not into their tent for a week. What if it got cold?

So then I got to thinking about what leprosy often represents: sin. According to Romans 5:12 sin, like a leprous disease, spread to us all through Adam's rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden. Not only do we have the disease but it erupts on our lives as we act on what we are and do evil.

And sin, like leprosy, is very difficult to get rid of. It seems like we clean up our act in one area and then, poof, sin crops up in another. You know the old saying, "A leopard can't change his spots," well we can't change who we are: leprous. The only way out of sin is to die. You can wash your life all you want but sin will not go away on its own.

So as Paul said "who can deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25).

Today let's rejoice that even though we were stricken with a hard to get rid of disease - we also have a cure: dieing and living again through Jesus Christ, whose blood is the only cure for the leprosy of sin.

Pastor Tom

Consumed!

In Exodus 9 there is this great story after Aaron and his sons were ordained as priests. All these sacrifices were offered and blood applied to their ears and thumbs and big toes. So then in verse 24 it says, "And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces."

Cool, huh?

So then in just the next verse we see the same thing happen, only not in a good way. Nadab and Abihu, Moses' sons, "each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord."

Not so cool.

Now I don't want to get into all the intricate details about what was going on here, but suffice it to say that these boys were trying to worship God in a way God had not commanded, going against what they should have known.

I think it is an interesting contrast. In both cases fire came out from the Lord. In one it consumed the sacrifice, on the other it consumed the worshiper.

Here's the thing that struck me. This is in a way a picture of what is going to happen on a universal scale. A cleansing will take place, a cleansing by fire. God will break out and His wrath will consume anything that is not pure.

In the first case He consumes the sacrifice, just as His wrath consumed the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, who bore that wrath so that we don't have to. God accepted that offering as payment for all our evil.

But if we try to come before God in a way that He did not command (and doing the work of God is believing in His Son - John 6:28) then it is us that will be judged. We cannot just make up our own deal and call it "worship" and think it can be accepted. This isn't a play or a game. This is serious business. Evil is evil and needs to be judged. I just don't want to be judged along with it so I take Jesus' sacrifice as payment and cleansing from my evil and now I wouldn't think of coming before God outside of Jesus.

These boys apparently took approaching God lightly. They don't now. And neither should we.

Pastor Tom

Putting Sin to Death

We were having a discussion in our Tuesday morning men's Bible discussion meeting on Romans 6. One of the guys asked about the concept of putting to death the old man (that part of us that is controlled by sin).

In Romans 6 it talks about that old self being crucified with Christ. But it is hard to imagine us up on the cross when in reality we still walk around on the earth.

So then I was in Leviticus 3:2 today and thought of a good way to picture it. In the days of animal sacrifices (before Jesus became the only and only true sacrifice for sin) people would bring a goat or a bull or whatever to the Tent of Meeting.

They would then lay their hands on the head of the animal. This was a picture of transferring their sin onto the animal. Then the priest would take the animal from their hands and slit its throat. As it bled and died, so too did their sin get washed away (on credit, mind you, until Jesus came).

Romans tells us that we no longer have to sin because the power that sin had over us has been destroyed on the cross. To help us picture that process, think about your sin nature as a goat. You place your hands on it, it is you in your former self. Then that goat dies and along with it is your desire to sin.

In Jesus you don't have to do things that are outside of God's character any more. You are free now to become a slave of right things. You can do anything you want, but you only want to do those things that please God.

The next time you are tempted to sin, think of your hands on that goat and the goat dieing right in front of you. That idea of sinning can't move now. It's dead.

Then lift your eyes to the risen Savior Jesus and listen instead to his call to serve in newness of life!

Pastor Tom

Misunderstanding God

The story of the golden calf in Exodus 31 is pretty bizarre. Moses is up on the mountain talking to God and the people come to Aaron and say "Up, make us gods who shall go before us." At least they knew that they needed something beyond themselves to survive. But where were they when the Lord parted the Red Sea? "Make us gods"? I'm sure.

So Aaron tells them to take off their earrings and he fashions them into an idol. (Of course later he claims that he threw the gold into the fire and out popped a calf - I'm sure!).

So what is interesting to me is Aaron's response to the people. He says to them "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." (5). Aaron actually thought that he was worshiping Yahweh (that's what the LORD means) by making an idol of gold and bowing down to it.

It wasn't that the people and Aaron wanted to abandon Yahweh, they just created their own ideas about God in the absence of clear direction.

That didn't make it right, and the people suffered because of their disobedience. Though why Aaron doesn't suffer I still don't know.

But anyway - here's my point. We can be really sincere and really want to know God and serve him with excitement and fervor. But if we don't have clear direction about who He is, serving the creation of our own mind is just the same as creating a calf out of gold and bowing down to it.

And what is the clear direction about God that we have received? His Word and His Son. Just as God came down to the mountain and gave Moses the Law, Jesus came down from heaven and gave us grace and mercy through His death.

Don't think that just worshiping the god of your (or anyone else's) mind is enough. It isn't.

Pastor Tom

Hear the Call?

There's this little verse in Exodus 27: 3 "You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with the spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood."

In Old Covenant days God filled individuals with the Holy Spirit at specific times for specific things. Since Jesus returned to the Father, the Holy Spirit is now poured out on everyone who relies on the name of Jesus and has a relationship with Him.

God gives gifts to us to further His kingdom. God will "anoint" your skills to make them useful for Him.

Maybe this is splitting hairs a little, but God could have just put it on the hearts of those He filled to step forward. Instead he encouraged Moses to make an announcement and left it up to the individual to respond.

Today in the body of Christ there are ample opportunities to use those skills God has given you to further His kingdom. If you are part of a local body you have likely heard numerous calls for help. If it is in an area where God has "skilled" you, why not answer the call, step up and become part of something wonderful.

It doesn't have to be something spectacular or flashy. None of the embroiders got to sew their initials into Aaron's garments. The signature was God. He can sign your work too.

Pastor Tom

The Core

I was in Exodus 21-25 today. It's some of the first details of the law God gave to the children of Israel to guide them as they lived life free from the bondage of slavery in Egypt.

One of the first things that hit me was how much of our laws today are based on the values expressed in these chapters.

Okay, so none of us have oxen that might gore someone else's slave and we probably don't open up pits in our backyards, but as I was thinking about the overarching themes some things struck out at me.

There seemed to be three qualities of character that covered most of the situations mentioned.

Fidelity

Honesty

Equity

Fidelity means faithfulness. Are we faithful to our God, not worshiping others? Are we faithful to our families and to our jobs and to our neighbors and friends?

Honesty is just that. Tell the truth always and encourage truth telling. Be honest with others as you deal with them in business and in life.

Equity means fairness. Give others a good deal and expect a fair shake from them. Treat other's things with care and consideration and don't mistreat anyone.

Now, of course, these are great ideals but if we can't perform on them they won't help us much. It is only by having the life of the person who gave us these ideals inside of us that we can be this way. That life only comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pastor Tom

Short Term - Long Term

When we read Exodus 16 and 17, when the children of Israel continually grumbled against the Lord after He brought them out of Egypt we tend to think: "What's wrong with these people, why can't they see that God is taking care of them?"

When the people needed rescue from a tyrant, God brought them out with the strong hand. When they needed water in a dry place, He brought it forth from a rock. When they needed sustenance He gave them manna, and when they needed military victory over their enemies He gave them the ability to win supernaturally.

Yet it seemed that just as one victory or blessing passed, they grumbled again at the next trial. I personally think we are a lot more like Israel than we'd like to admit. When something goes wrong and we cry out to God and He answers we are grateful, but only until the next trial comes and then we say "God you must not love me."

So what is going on? I think it is the difference of short term experience vs long term reliance. Israel's problem was that they couldn't see around the next bend and so were afraid. God had come through but they didn't put the pieces together that God loved them not just today but always and would care for them today and always.

We see today's trial and panic. God sees the long term care and sometimes allows short term trials in order to build long term reliance on Him. Try to picture your life, not like today's crisis, but like reading through the book of Exodus, seeing the episodes build up in your life where God comes through for His glory and your benefit over and over. Build that long term trust over short term satisfaction.

Pastor Tom

What's This Mean?

During the account of God bringing Israel out of Egypt after 430 years there are three places where God specifically talks about passing on the meaning of certain things:

Putting blood on the doorposts and lintel 12:27 "It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt..."

No unleavened bread: 13:8 "It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt."

Firstborn belong to the LORD: 13:14 "By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery."

I just thought it was neat in light of what the Passover really means - our passing from death to life through the blood of THE Lamb of God Jesus Christ.

We "apply" the sacrifice of Jesus on the doorposts and lintels of our heart when we rely on Jesus to protect us from the wrath of God poured out on sin ("the wages of sin is death"). This sacrifice "washes" us clean from sin (leaven being a type of sin) and this is something "the LORD did for me" we didn't do it for ourselves. The result is we, having been spared wrath and rescued from sin belong to the LORD.

Let's rejoice in that reality today!

Pastor Tom

Why Don't They Listen?

Do you ever wonder why people seem so deaf to the gospel? You try to live your life as a believer in the open where people can see your faith. When asked you are free to talk about Jesus and sometimes you might even venture to open up a conversation about the Lord.

But some people act as if you are speaking a foreign language. They look at you like you are a crazy or deluded person who has no sense. And yet you know that we as humans have evil inside of us that we can get rid of by ourselves and that we need a perfect rescuer to make us clean. You know that the only person ever to qualify was Jesus Christ. You love Him and want others to as well.

So I found a little clue as to people's attitudes in Exodus.

In chapter 6 God tells Moses to let the children of Israel know they are about to be rescued from Egypt. But when he tells them this is says "but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery."

I find that interesting. All the years under Pharaoh's thumb had broken their will to believe that anything good could ever happen. And the time spent as a slave, though terrible, was the devil they knew.

Some people have gotten used to being without God. Life is always going to be hard and there will never be anything really good that happens so why get my hopes up. Like a person kidnapped and sent into slavery to sin, they become comfortable in their condition because it is a survival mechanism.

So I guess we just need to understand it, let the miracle of Jesus new life slowly sink through the hardened layers until they realize that rescue is possible. That all they need do is open one ear and their heart and Egypt will be no more!

Pastor Tom

Who's is it Anyway?

I'm always fascinated by the story of Moses and the burning bush found in Exodus 3-4. Moses is just walking along, minding his own business when he sees a bush burning and decides to check it out. That ends up being a huge divergence of his life path.

You know the story, I wanted to focus on just one aspect of it. God tells Moses to go back and tell Pharaoh to let His people go. Moses says "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant." In other words - I wasn't a good speaker before I met you, Mr. Burning Bush, and you haven't exactly given me a radio announcer voice while I've been standing here.

Look at what God says: "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth..."

Earlier God asked Moses what he had in his hand (a staff). God told Moses to throw down his staff and it became a snake. This was to be one of the signs Moses would show Pharaoh.

At the end of chapter 4 God says "And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs." Then in chapter 5 "And Moses took the staff of God in his hand."

So what's going on here? What started out as Moses' staff becomes the "staff of God" after Moses threw it down. What was Moses' voice became the voice of God (through Aaron as his personal PA system).

The point is this: that God made your voice and has placed things in your hand - talents, gifts, desires. If you recognize that they can be used by God no matter how small and that they actually were created by God for His use - it is amazingly freeing to just let God take you and use you without worry about not being good enough.

Pastor Tom

Here's What We Don't Know

When God told Jacob to head down to Egypt in Genesis 46 it feels as if God isn't being totally honest. He tells Jacob "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again."

What God didn't tell Jacob was that after a honeymoon period the entire nation would be subject to slavery and oppression and genocide.

Do you sometimes think you hear God's direction, you follow it, and then you get into difficulty? Do you feel like God wasn't being completely honest with you to reveal the troubles that lie in that path He has you on?

Well, for one thing, I think Jacob probably wouldn't have gone if God had told him all that (and he actually had told Abram what was going to happen). For us it can be a comfort not knowing all the trials we are going to face because we probably wouldn't do half the things God tells us to do (I have some recent experience in that department).

But here's the deal. God was transforming a small clan into a mighty nation. He was also laying the foundation to be more than just an acquaintance but a God to these people. To do that work he had to bring them into slavery then rescue them out. Sometimes God has a mighty work to do through us but He first must do a mighty work in us.

The most important thing in Jacob's vision is this "I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again." As long as God is with us and as long as He is working in the situation then being led by God into trouble isn't such a bad thing after all.

Pastor Tom

Passing it Down

I'll bet none of you regularly do devotions in Genesis 36. No, it's not the part about Joseph's dreams. That's in chapter 37. Chapter 36 lists the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother.

Esau, if you remember, threatened to kill Jacob after his brother "stole" the birthright and the blessing from him. It led Jacob on a run back to his grandfather's home town where he married Leah and Rachel. On his way back Jacob so feared Esau's wrath that he sent a huge gift ahead of him and broke up the camp into two pieces hoping one piece would escape the slaughter.

Esau wasn't as angry anymore (at least he didn't show it) but Jacob didn't trust his brother and lived apart from him.

So now comes Esau's kids. Two names strike out at me: Edom and Amalek. Do these names sound familiar? The Edomites and Amalekites were sworn enemies of Israel and had to be wiped off the face of the earth.

I point this out because I think that somehow the anger of Esau got passed down to his kids and grand kids and so forth until it worked its way into the very fabric of the people. I think that it is important as parents and mentors to pay attention to those things in our lives that do not reflect the character of God. If they are persistent and pervasive they will have a tendency to get passed along to your kids and those around you that you influence.

It's not a one to one ratio - just because you got angry once doesn't mean you will have angry kids. But just pay attention to the trends. If there are things you are doing a lot that God wouldn't do, then change your mind about it, ask God's forgiveness and then cleansing.

The good news is that the things you do often that do reflect God's character get passed along too.

Pastor Tom

Whose Work Is It Anyway?

Do you remember the story of Abraham's servant going to get a wife for his son Isaac?

It's a pretty cool story. As the servant arrives at the well at Nahor he prays "O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today." (Genesis 24:12)

He asks for some pretty specific signs that the woman is the one God has chosen for Isaac - and the prayer is answered!

I've sometimes thought, wouldn't it be cool if we could ask for signs like that and that wherever we went God would guide us. Now I'm not saying that God wouldn't do that but I thought of one interesting aspect to this story that might inform us as we want God to answer our requests in the way he did this servant's.

The difference is that this guy got nothing out of it except the satisfaction that he was doing his master's bidding. He was a servant sent on a mission by his master. Is that not us as well? The Bible tells us that we are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). When we go out we are doing our master's bidding and do we really get anything out of it except the satisfaction of knowing we are bringing glory to God?

Food for thought.

Pastor Tom

Circumcision

This is a bit of an unusual post so kids, avert your eyes!

I was reading about God's covenant with Abram. The sign of that covenant was circumcision, the cutting away of the male foreskin.

I know there are lots of spiritual symbols for this, and the New Testament counterpart is baptism. But I got to thinking about why this act to represent God's agreement with man?

Three things hit me: God is taking over man's strength (in his ability to reproduce), he is striking at man's most vulnerable area, and it is an intimate place that almost no one sees.

In that way, God is saying "I am your strength, you must rely on me, and I will have a deep relationship with you that no one else will have."

Do you feel that way in your relationship with Him? Is he your strength, are you vulnerable before him and do you feel that intimate relationship with him, spending time with him, sharing your inmost thoughts and desires?

Might be a good idea!

Pastor Tom

Who Are You Afraid Of?

If you have read the Bible very much you know Jesus' famous statement about fearing God more than man (Matthew 10:28). But have you ever thought about fearing God and fearing man?

I bring this up after reading Genesis 12 where Abram has just believed God and gone to the Promised Land. That land didn't hold much promise for him then and a famine forced him to go to Egypt. There Abram decided that because Sarai was so good looking he would say she was his sister not his wife.

That got Abram, Sarai, and Pharaoh into a lot of trouble.

And I wonder. Abram feared God but he also feared man. Many times we get the fear God part right and we want to do what pleases God, but then we end up fearing man and wanting to look good in the world's eyes as well.

Had Abram been honest and not cared what the Egyptians felt he would have risked a lot as the Egyptians could have killed Abram and taken Sarai. But it would have provided a great opportunity for Abram to not only fear God but also trust him to protect his family and also get glory.

Pastor Tom

Waiting for Rain

Do you ever anticipate something happening and it never seems to? In Genesis 7:1 "Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household." Noah obeyed got and went on board. Then nothing. I mean nothing. It isn't until verse 10 that we read "And after seven days, the waters of the flood came up on the earth."

So what was that week like for Noah. Did his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law begin to talk quietly among the stalls? Did they give Noah strange looks while glancing up at the dry sky? Did Noah wonder to himself "how long am I supposed to wait here?"

Noah didn't know that it was going to be a week before the flood. All he knew was to get on the boat. Many times we send up a prayer to God and he tells us to wait and we want to know "how long?" So often we simply don't know how we are going to have to wait.

But knowing the "when" wasn't as important as trusting in the "who" - that is Yahweh. If you are anxiously awaiting something to happen or a prayer to be answered. If you know Jesus then you know the Father has heard and will answer in His time. And isn't that better than our time anyway?

Pastor Tom

Touching the Tree

I was going through the first five chapters of Genesis and was thinking about Eve's encounter with the Serpent in chapter 3.

I find it interesting when Eve is asked about what God said about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that she said God told them not to touch it. He didn't actually say that at all.

God said not to eat from the tree or they would die. Why would Eve add that? I wonder if perhaps she had been thinking about the tree and about what it would be like just to touch the fruit, not eat it of course, but just touch it to see what it felt like.

For us, contemplating sin is often what gets us to fall for the enemy's temptations. We can't imagine ourselves actually doing that thing we know is wrong, but we imagine what it might be like to be close to doing it, to just feel what the options would be like if we were "free" to do that.

Doing things that are against God's character isn't actually freeing at all but enslaving, but that doesn't stop us from contemplating touching the forbidden fruit.

My encouragement to us is to stop it there. When the thoughts come, arrest them and throw them out by the power of the Spirit.

Pastor Tom

The Holy Spirit Revisited

Greetings! I know its been a full two months since I posted on this blog. I promise to be more faithful and am about to start my journey through the Scriptures again in Genesis so look for more posts soon!

We were studying John 14:15-31 at church this Sunday and I just felt I should those of you who read this blog to check out the teaching notes. I think that for many of us Christians we misunderstand the role of the Holy Spirit. We think of the "power of the Spirit" facing outwards - doing miracles, using the gifts of the Spirit, that sort of thing.

But what we forget is that the real power of the Spirit is focused into the life of the believer - transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ. Then, as we become more like Jesus, we face out to a world that has rejected Him and using the power of the Spirit through a transformed character, we reach out, sometimes in miraculous ways.

So before you read Acts 2, read John 15 and 16. Before asking the Spirit to move through you, ask the Spirit to move in you. Sense his power changing your life from the inside out - reminding you of sin, of Jesus, and of who is really worthy of glory (Him, not us).

Here is a link to the study notes if you'd like to learn more.

Pastor Tom

They Never Gave Up

Just a short thought today. I was reading John chapter 19. It says "38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission."

I was just thinking how this man who had a lot to lose by following Jesus, comes out of the closet after Jesus' death and goes very public about his faith - going to Pilate to ask for Jesus body.

You would think that this man, who did not stand up for Jesus as a disciple when He was alive, certainly would not do so after his death. It was over. Shouldn't Joseph have just shrugged his shoulders and gone back to being just a member of the ruling council?

But he didn't. No matter what path being a disciple of Jesus led him on, Joseph followed. Let's ponder that today.

Pastor Tom