Struggling To Find Ourselves

I am reading the first part of the book of Exodus already in my Bible reading!!!  As I was reading to my son tonight before he went to bed, we went over most of the plagues that God had Moses send upon Egypt before Pharoah would let the Israelis leave Egypt on their way to the land that God had promised to give to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  I began to wonder what was going through the minds of the nation when Moses and Aaron kept asking Pharoah for permission to leave, and then he denied them, and a plague would come, and Pharoah would change his mind until the plague was gone, and then denied them permission to leave again?  I would HAVE to guess that it would be VERY easy to become discouraged in a situation like that, wouldn’t you?  Look at it this way:  You’re already a slave for someone who’s a brutal, unreasonable person.  You ask permission to go worship God, and you’re told you can’t, so God sends these plagues, and the Pharoah says you can go, only to change his mind after the plague has been discontinued.  I feel like I’ve been at a place similar to that at several times in my life, and I have to tell you that I HAVE gotten discouraged…sometimes beyond belief.  What about you?

A church in this area recently got a new Pastor after being without one for almost a year.  I HAVE to admit, this new Pastor (who’s not really an official Pastor yet….more on that later…) has brought some GREAT ideas with him that he is slowly incorporating.  One of those ideas is adding an insert (or two) to the bulletin on Sunday mornings.  On one of these inserts here a couple of weeks ago, there was a little paragraph about one of the things that the church is supposed to do.  It said something about bringing encouragement and faith to those who are feeling down and lost because of “the cares of this world”.  Too many times, that little act of caring gets lost in the hustle and bustle of daily life.  And I HAVE to admit that, as a member of ANY church, it is one of the things that some people need the MOST!!!

Think about it for a minute….do the people of YOUR church do that?  Do they offer endless encouragement when things get rought?  Are they available, no matter how dark the days get?  Is there that certain someone who ALWAYS has the warm smile and encouraging word and the warm hug JUST when you need them?  I don’t think a church can TRULY serve and worship God WITHOUT those qualities!!!

Maybe I’ll write more about what this new Pastor is doing another time, but for tonight, I guess that’s your “Food For Thought”, so you can put that thought on simmer and mull it over for awhile.

At the University of Chicago Divinity School each year, they have what is called “Baptist Day”.  On this day, each one is to bring a lunch to be eaten outdoors in a grassy picnic area.  Every “Baptist Day”, the school would invite one of the greatest minds to lecture in the Theological Education Center.  One year, they invited Dr. Paul Tillich.  Dr. Tillich spoke for two and one-half hours proving that the resurrection of Jesus was false.  He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book.  He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the church was groundless, emotional mumbo-jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense.

He then asked if there were any questions.  After about 30 seconds, an old, dark skinned preacher with a head of short-cropped, woolly white hair stood up in the back of the auditorium.  “Docta Tillich, I got one question,” he said as all eyes turned toward him.  He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and began eating it.  “Docta Tillich…” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”My question is a simple question….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”and I can’t recite the Scriptures in the original Greek….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”I don’t know nothin’ about Niebuhr and Heidegger….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….He finished the apple….”All I wanna know is: This apple I just ate….Was it bitter or sweet?”  Dr. Tillich paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion: “I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven’t tasted your apple.”  The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at Dr. Tillich and said calmly, “Neither have you tasted my Jesus.”

…that in the story of Joshua, they saved the prostitute, Rahab, from death because she helped 2 of Israel’s spies in the city of Jericho.  Okay, most of us know THAT part of the story.  Do you realize that God used that prostitute ALOT in the history of Jesus.  Rahab married Salmon, who was the Father of Boaz, who married Ruth.  Now, if you will remember Boaz is an ancestor of King David, who is an ancestor of Jesus.  I don’t know how many times I have read that story and never seen that, until yesterday.  Sometimes, God uses even those despised by the rest of the World, and those who aren’t out to get into the “limelight” in GREAT ways!!!  Rahab, in case you didn’t know, is also one of only two women listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11.  And this woman was NOT an Israelite!!!  How cool is that!!!

Okay, there’s my deep thought for tonight…night all!!!

Started the book of Deuteronomy today.  Moving right along so far, don’t you think?  So far, so good anyway.

Have you noticed that, just before Moses dies, that he is talking to the people of Israel, and it’s because of THEM that he can’t go into the Promised Land?  I read part of that this morning, and I find it interesting that in the book of Numbers, God tells Moses that he is not going into the Promised Land because he didn’t follow instructions on how to get water from the rock in the wilderness, but Moses tells the people of Israel that it’s THEIR fault that he can’t go in.  Isn’t that like not wanting to admit YOU were the one that screwed up and being willing to accept the consequences FOR screwing up?

Anyway, there’s a biblical thought to think about today while you’re doing whatever.

Have you stopped to think about the fact that EVERYTHING God created was by the power of His SPOKEN Word?  Think about it…how did he create the Earth?  He SPOKE it into being.  How did he create man and animals?  He SPOKE them into being.  In Proverbs 30:5, it says that God’s promises and words are tried and true.  In Ephesians 6:10-18, it’s talking about the armor of God, one of those being the sword of the Spirit, which is…the Word of God.  Have you ever thought about the Word of God as being a sword?  Revelations 12 says that we have overcome the adversary by the blood of the Lamb and BY THE WORD OF OUR TESTIMONY.  Mark 11:23 says “Whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain”.  If Jesus didn’t like what was happening in the physical realm (our world), he changed it with WORDS.  He didn’t like Lazarus being dead, so what did He do?  He SPOKE words to Lazarus, and the physical world changed.

Just think about it….