Things end. That’s just the way life works. There are a few things, actually, that do last forever: God’s love, and, um, God’s love, and, well, God and eternity, I suppose… But it’s a pretty short list. For the most part, things end. Moses got more time on earth and accomplished more in that time [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Moses’
Be strong and courageous
Posted: March 8, 2012 in Orange, YellowTags: courage, cross, Deuteronomy, interpretation, Jesus, Joshua, Moses, strength
On Sunday, if you went to the 9:00 service, we talked about becoming cross-shaped people. (If you didn’t, you can see the photo of the sermon on my Facebook page – the basic gist was that things like love, faith, sacrifice, etc. are the line segments that form the outline of a cross, and then [...]
Lots of times it feels like we don’t have a choice in what happens to us – certainly not a choice in whether life brings us blessings or curses. And yet Moses’ words today challenge that feeling. You get a choice, he says – will you do the things that bring life or the things [...]
Remember this!
Posted: March 6, 2012 in Orange, YellowTags: Aaron, commandment, covenant, Deuteronomy, love, Miriam, Moses, remember
We’ve been flying through Leviticus, Numbers, and now Deuteronomy pretty quickly, so let’s take a minute to catch up on some things than have happened in between: Miriam and Aaron both died shortly before Balaam’s donkey took up talking to him. Miriam died in the desert, Aaron on a mountaintop. Aaron had been serving as [...]
It’s not about you.
Posted: March 3, 2012 in Orange, YellowTags: Aaron, humility, Moses, patience, power
That’s a popular phrase recently – “it’s not about you” – but it’s a pretty important thing to remember. Often, it just isn’t about us. Sometimes, occasionally, it is about us, and it’s good for us to be aware of when that’s true. But mostly, it’s about someone or something else. If only Moses had [...]
Whose story is it, anyway?
Posted: March 2, 2012 in Orange, YellowTags: Aaron, interpretation, Miriam, Moses, questions, story
Ok, we’ve had weird and tricky stories already in the first few books of the Bible, and we’ll have more. But usually the people whose job it is to think and write about these stories can at least agree on what the story is about. Numbers 12 is different. Some people think it’s about prophecy [...]
Daaaa-aaad! He’s copying me! Make him stop! Joshua sounds kind of like a little kid here, doesn’t he? Make them stop doing the special thing that I want to do by myself or with just my friends! But the Spirit of God doesn’t play favorites, and it doesn’t care who’s most popular, and it doesn’t [...]
What makes you special?
Posted: February 27, 2012 in Orange, YellowTags: image of God, Moses, presence of God, special
Each of us wants to be special. Most of us spend time thinking about what it is that makes us special. We even spend time as groups thinking about what makes us different from other people. Are we special because we are good at certain things? Are we special because of who we know or [...]
Gold dust and swords
Posted: February 26, 2012 in Orange, YellowTags: Aaron, death, golden calf, Moses, punishment, Sinai
In my children’s Bible, when Moses comes down the mountain, he gets angry, grinds up the golden calf and makes the people drink the gold dust. They are punished by losing all their gold stuff and having to drink dust. Then Moses goes up the mountain to ask God to forgive them. So I am [...]
OVER HERE! ME! LOOK AT ME!
Posted: February 23, 2012 in Orange, YellowTags: Exodus 18, help, Jethro, leadership, Moses, responsibility, sharing
If you are reading this, you are probably a leader, whether you think of yourself that way or not. How do I know? Because you are taking it upon yourself to read the Bible and think about it, to let God work on you and shape you. That means that you are setting a good [...]
