Day 3 - Leviticus

Leviticus is not exactly the easiest book in the Bible to read.  I recently read through it.  It's hard to muddle through.  It's a lot of rules, laws and regulations.  It's got some strong language and some really strange laws.  Most of it is simply commands from God.  And, to be honest, I don't understand them all.  There's only a few stories sprinkled in there.  One catches my attention.

23 Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting.  When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24 Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.  Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.  Leviticus 9:23-10:2

Unauthorized fire...contrary to his command.  I don't know why this fire was unauthorized.  Another translation called it 'strange' fire.  I just know that it was a big deal to God.  It was not something He had commanded.  Leviticus, as I said, is full of rulesI don't understand.  However, breaking them has real consequences.  Now, because of the grace and freedom found in Christ, we don't operate under all the laws of Leviticus anymore.  But, God's Word is still full of rules and commands.  Some people really don't like that about Christianity.  Why should I let God tell me what to do?

Maybe God knows something we don't.  My four boys often don't understand why I tell them to do something or not do something.  They're stubborn (I don't know where they get that) and want to do things their own way.  They don't always get what the consequences will mean if they don't obey me.  Sometimes I tell them that sooner or later they're going to figure out that I love them, want what's best for them, and know what I'm talking about.  Sometimes there's a piece of the puzzle that I understand that they simply don't.  Do you think the same could be true with God?  Instead of arguing with God or looking for a loophole when it comes to his commands, what if you just trusted Him?  What if you believed that He knows best and wants what's best for you?  Though the consequences of our disobedience probably won't be as dire as it was for Nadab and Abihu, they can still be very serious.  And God wants something better for us.  To me, that's really the lesson of Leviticus that is still important in a New Testament world.  God's commands aren't to lock us in or hamper us, they're to allow us the opportunity to live the best life we can and be the best us we can be.  May our lives be 'authorized' by Almighty God.

Day 2 - Exodus

Do you ever read something in the Bible and think, "I can't believe that's in there?  Did I just read that?"  That's the way I felt, and still feel, when I read Exodus 32.  A little context.  After wondering in the desert a while, God sends Moses up to Mount Sinai to give him the 10 commandments...literally.  God is actually talking to Moses and carves up with his finger two stone tablets to take down to the people.  He's gone a long time and the Israelites get restless.  They don't know where Moses is, so they ask Aaron, Moses' brother, to make them some gods.  So, they get all the gold they've got together and make a golden calf to bow down and worship and to 'go before them.'  They wanted a symbol and even celebrated a festival to God, but did so in worshiping at the altar of this golden calf.  God is not too happy.  Check out Exodus 32:7-14:

"Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “O Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ” Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened."

Wha...Wha...What?!  Did you catch that?  Do you need to read it again?  Moses did something that still amazes me -- he changed God's mind.  Did you even know that was possible?  Moses prayed.  And God changed what he was going to do.  Moses did what we call 'interceded' on behalf of the people.  He stood in the gap for them.  He pleaded their case.  He reminded God of God's character and who He is.  He pointed to what God had done in the past and painted a vision for the future.  And God relented. 

God's mind can be changed by holy people who intercede.  Does that change your understanding of prayer?  It does mine.  First, I want to be a like Moses, intimately involved with God where I feel like I can say anything to Him.  And I want to carry myself with the kind of integrity Moses has.  I think that matters when we intercede.  But, most of all, I want to speak to God with the boldness of Moses.  I want to convince God.  I want to cast a vision to God.  Notice it's not about what Moses wants or what is best for Moses.  That's not what this is about.  It's not about praying really hard (and loudly) so that God gives us what we want.  That doesn't work.  This happens because Moses' motives and heart are so pure.

Moses casts a vision in his intercession that is about what is best for God's Kingdom, how this prayer, this new action will speak to the nations of the glory and power of the Almighty.  My prayers are often either selfish or weak.  They end up being about me or including lines like "if you don't mind" or "if you'd just".  Moses is bold.  Moses pleads with God and cries out to God.  And God changes.  Do you know why?  God loves Moses.  And God loves those people.  God is looking for a reason to bless his children...and He still is.  And God is listening for the faithful to be bold in their prayers, to convince Him of another path that will reveal His Glory.  Aren't you tired of praying selfish prayers?  Aren't you tired of praying namby-pamby prayers?  It's time to be selfless.  It's time to be bold.  You might change history as we know it.  After all, He loves you, too.

Day 1 - Genesis

Today is the beginning of a journey -- 66 days, 66 devotions, 1 from every book of the Bible.  It's part of our series called "66 Days of Summer."  I'm excited about it, and I hope it brings you closer to Jesus.  If you follow along, you'll be able to say you read something from every book of the Bible by the time school starts back.  And you'll be able to say that you read Scripture and an devotional for over two months.  That, my friends, is called a habit - a good habit.  So here goes...

Long story short.  Joseph has these visions of grandeur which do not exactly endear him to his 10 older brothers.  He tells them of these dreams he's had in which they'll be bowing down to him.  Turns out the trick is on him.  After plotting to kill him, they instead sell him into slavery to get rid of the nuisance.  They concoct a story to tell their dad that Joseph was killed by wild animals and even show him Joseph's coat drenched in blood.  Joseph actually does well in slavery, though, and rises to a prominent position.  He's betrayed by his owner's wife, though, and then thrown in jail.  In jail, he helps out a couple of inmates, and it looks like he's on his way to brighter days, but they forget about him when they're freed, even though he was promised they wouldn't.  Finally, though his talents for interpreting dreams pays off and gains him not only freedom, but power.  He becomes second in command over all of Egypt, only behind Pharaoh, and leads Egypt with wisdom in preparation for a famine that is stretching across all nations.  His preparations make Egypt the only place with food.  His brothers end up coming to beg for food, as so many have done.  Finally, they realize it's Joseph.  They are flabbergasted and repentant.  They beg for mercy and ask to be put into slavery themselves for the evil thing they have done.  Joseph replies with one of my favorite passages in all the Bible.

"But Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid.  Am I God?  You planned something bad for me, but God produced something good from it, in order to save the lives of many people, just as he's doing today.  Now, don't be afraid.  I will take care of you and your children.'  So he put them at ease and spoke reassuringly to them."  -Genesis 50:19-21

You planned something bad for me, but God produced something good from it.  Wow.  What a powerful line.  And it gives us a little peer into the heart of God.  God does not cause bad things to happen.  REPEAT:  GOD DOES NOT CAUSE BAD THINGS TO HAPPEN.  That is not part of God's character.  God doesn't cause little girls to die in car crashes, make mom's get breast cancer, make men lose their jobs, or cause natural disasters.  Bad things happen because of sin.  Sometimes bad things happen because the collective sin of the world has thrown the earth off it's axis.  Once we lived in a cancer free and disaster free world.  Because of sin, we have diseases we don't understand and disasters we can't control.  The world is a mess because of human disobedience.  Eden was sinless and disease and disaster free, and God promised that sin would bring death.  We didn't believe Him.  It did.

Sometimes, bad things happen as a direct result of our own sin or the sin of others.  People intend to hurt us sometimes.  Joseph's brothers certainly did.  And, we screw up our own lives with sin, too.  We all have a propensity to dig our own holes.  Now, if you want to figure out why God "lets" bad things happen, that's really a totally different discussion.  But the short answer is that God in scriptures is not a controlling God.  He's a gentleman.  He gives us the opportunity to write our own script as humanity.  If we want to do something stupid, he gives us the freedom to do so.

However, our God is a redeeming God.  That's why this story is so powerful to me.  It is such a nuanced point.  It's not that God causes bad things to happen so He can reveal Himself.  It's that he uses rotten situations to show His unbelievable love.  He works in the grief of a lost loved one, he moves in the struggles of financial difficulties, and He speaks through the heartache of disease.  Just when we think we've lost all hope, God shows up and speaks into our situations and proves that He's been there all along.  And this happens through faithfulness.  That's the key.  Despite every bump (and they were big bumps), Joseph kept asking, "How can I be faithful?"  That's it.  Stop asking how you can fix every bad situation and start asking, "How can I be faithful?"  When we are faithful, something happens.  God starts redeeming.  God starts moving.  God starts making good things happen where others intended harm.  Where there is faithfulness, evil can't win.  Maybe someone intended to harm you.  Maybe you just had bad luck.  Maybe you it was out of your control and sickness has taken it's toll on your or your family.  Maybe you can't even put a finger on it, but things just aren't right.  Be faithful.  God wants to redeem that situation.  He's working on it, right now.  He just needs us to be like Joseph:  faithful.

The Choice is Ours

Read your Bible. Every preacher worth his or her salt on the face of the planet would tell you to do that. I've heard it my whole life. But why does it matter? Is it worth investing the time and energy? Is there some kind of magic in those pages? Starting Tuesday, I'm leading our church on a journey. We're going to read a devotion from every book of the Bible for 66 straight days right here on my blog. By the time school starts back, we'll have at least read a small passage from every book in God's Word. And I believe it matters greatly.

Deuteronomy 30:19 says: "I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life." Earlier in that passage in verse 16, the Scripture says, "If you obey the Lord your God's commandments that I'm commanding you right now by loving the Lord you God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments, his regulations, and his case laws, then you will live and thrive, and the Lord will bless you." That's what this is about. Your best life is waiting inside those pages. The plan God has for you is waiting in those pages. Truth, hope, forgiveness, and freedom are waiting in those pages. Every preacher that has told you to read your Bible has done so for this reason. We don't get bonus points for how many parishioners we have reading the Scriptures. It's because blessing comes with obedience to God's commands, and to obey God's commands, you have to know what they are and why they are. And you learn that in His Word. Whether you're a part of Church of the Way or not, I hope you'll take this journey with us. Let's get ready to dig in...and find life.

Guess Who Moved?

I am often not particularly fond of church signs.  I find that most of them do not help the Kingdom.  They usually end up with some cheesy message, something incredibly insider focused, or something downright outsider offensive.  I suppose they're meant with the right heart, but "Eternity...Smoking or Non-Smoking?" is not going to really help people not connected to Jesus feel welcome in your church.  I think they should probably just say, "All Welcome!" or something like that.  That's supposed to be the purpose of the sign, to shout to the world that everyone is welcome there, not to announce "Sunday School Committee Meeting this Thursday at 7:00". 

However, I have had a sign or two that stuck with me and didn't annoy me.  One, in particular, sticks in my brain because it spoke to me and still speaks to me.  It said:

"If God seems far away, guess who moved?"

The Bible says that there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother (God's spirit), that God is present when we sit and when we rise and was there when we were created in our mother's womb (Psalm 139).  God desires to be near us, to live in us, to draw us to Himself.  If He seems distant and aloof, it isn't because of Him.  I think we moved.  I belive this happens for one of two reasons. 

1. A spiritual earthquake.  Something happens in our life that is of seismic proportions.  It changes our geography with God.  We mess up, big time.  Somebody else messes up, big time.  There is some unforeseen change in our life.  We are disappointed, broken-hearted, hurt, or damaged.  We do something that leaves us feeling ashamed or guilty.  Whether we are the cause or someone or something else is, something happens that leaves us in a different place with God, and all of a sudden, he seems far away.  We know what the cause was.  We just don't know how to get back to where we want to be.  Or, we're scared of the implications of what getting back will look like. 
2. Continental drift.  We wake up one day and God just seems like He's on the other side of the world.  We can't pinpoint it.  We don't know exactly what happened...it just happened.  We skipped church one Sunday.  Then two.  All of a sudden, we haven't been in five months...or five years.  We used to set aside a time to pray, then we got busy, or tired, or bored.  We had a Bible reading plan, but we just stopped.  Now our Bible is dusty sitting on our night stand.  We were in a small group, but then we got a new job, or joined a new team, or had the baby, or had to start getting up so early.  It just happened.  And we don't want to be here.  We want to be with God.  But He seems like He's a million miles away and we have no idea how to get back after falling so far.

The remedy for both is simply one step at a time.  In fact, I think we find that when we simply start walking God's direction again, we realize that He's not quite as far away as we thought He was.  That seismic event didn't create the gap that we thought it did.  That continental drift didn't take us as far across the ocean as we had imagine.  That's because we serve a God who is slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who is ready to pour out on us grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.  Lots and lots of grace.  You may have moved, but you're not as far away as you think.  He's not as far away as you think.  Pick up that Bible.  Go worship.  Bow your head and pray.  You'll find Him nearby, about a step away.

Perspective

"Some time later, God tested Abraham...Take your son...sacrifice him." Genesis 22:1-2


Many of our LIFE Groups finished up our study on the life of Abraham in the last week or two. The last section focused on this central story of Abraham's life. It would really become the story that defined his life. Abraham waits 25 years to have a child. He's over 100 years old now. This is his only son. This is the son God promised. This will be his heir that begins a family that will outnumber the stars in the sky, so said God. And this is confusing now. Now God is telling Abraham to throw it all away, to sacrifice Isaac? It makes no sense. But this is a test.
 
When I think about this, I think about the idea of 'perspective.' My first thought is, "How can God ask Abraham to do something so harmful and vile?' Abraham could see two almost impossible perspectives: 1-Obey God and my child dies. 2-Disobey God and my child lives. Impossible. Think about God's perspective, though. In God's eyes, Isaac won't be harmed either way. God also has two very different perspectives: 1-He disobeys me and the boy lives. 2-He obeys me and the boy lives because I'll stop Abraham from killing him. It's a simple test for God. It boils down to one question from God to Abraham: Will you trust me even when it doesn't make sense? Same goes for us. Will we trust him? Will we do His will even when it seems crazy? Sometimes, we still get tests. Let us be as faithful as Abraham when life throws us those opportunities to choose obedience over our own path.  Let us trust that God is seeing things from a perspective that we can't possibly fathom.  And let us trust that perspective.

Do Right

My wife has a lot of do right in her. A lot. She just has that bone her body and that nudge in her spirit to do right. It's one of my favorite things about her.  I don’t know if you’re born with do right or if it’s acquired. I just know that some people have it and some people don’t. I don’t know that do right is uniquely Christian. I know Christian people that have do right in them, and, unfortunately, I know some that don’t. I know some non-Christians that have a great deal of do right in them. There are a million circumstances day after day that require a choice to do right or do wrong. We have choices with how we interact with people, how we drive, whether or not we show up on time for work, how we speak to our children, how we tip at lunch, what our body language is at meetings, how we behave at our kid’s ballgame, whether or not we say ‘thank you’ to our spouse, whether or not we choose to gossip. We have lots of choices to do right or choose another way.
There are two things that are crucial when it comes to doing right. First, whether or not you are a Christian, I believe doing right comes from God. When you are feeling that nudge in your gut to do right, that is the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Do right is God’s fingerprint on your conscience. We are made in the image of God. Each and every one of us. And God wants you to do right. God is pushing us and pulling us to do right because doing right is…right. Really, it leads to the second point. Doing right aligns us with God’s best.

God us pushing and pulling us to do right because God wants what’s best for us. When you feel that 'do right' welling up in your spirit, it is God trying to pull you into His will and His way. He is seeking your best. He is wanting you to succeed by His standards. He’s trying to get you to live your best life -- the life He's planned for you.  So often, we ignore that nudge.  We choose to do wrong.  Whenever I do that, I'm reminded why he nudges us.  The consequences are painful.  Doing right brings life, wholeness, and healing.  You'll have many opportunities this week.  Do right.  It's not just a better path.  It's the best path.