Month: June 2024

Morning Musing: Proverbs 17:22

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“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” (CSB – Read the chapter)‬‬

When Jerry Seinfeld is complaining about the modern state of comedy, you know there’s a problem. His recent complaint was linked to the fact that because of the scourge of wokeness and microaggressions and fears of offending someone, somewhere, resulting in being cancelled, many comedians are afraid to let loose and be funny. As the Joker once asked Batman, “Why so serious?” I was reminded recently just how good it is to be able to laugh. Even in the midst of a divided and partisan culture, when we can learn to not take ourselves so seriously and laugh together, then even when we disagree, we can still be friends and neighbors.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 25:10-22

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“They are to make an ark of acacia wood, forty-five inches long, twenty-seven inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high. . .Set the mercy seat on top of the ark and put the tablets of the testimony that I will give you into the ark. I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony; I will speak with you from there about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Over the never several posts we are going to be taking a look at the various parts and pieces of the tabernacle. I’ve long since prepared you for the fact that this section doesn’t make for the most compelling reading. And, I’m not going to include every single verse here for you to read, but rather will hit some highlights with the regular link for you to go and read the rest for yourself. Even if you don’t do that, though, don’t skip out on these posts. The apostle Paul said that every word of the Scriptures are useful for shaping us more into the kinds of people God made us to be. “Every word” includes the parts we’d rather skip because they aren’t very exciting. Stay with me in this next part of the story as we explore the wonders of the Gospel in the instructions for how Israel was to build their original place of worship.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 25:8-9

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“They are to make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them. You must make it according to all that I show you – the pattern of the Tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its furnishings.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What is God’s plan for His world? That’s an awfully big question for which there are more answers than we could hope to address in a single blog post. But when we begin to take stock of some big patterns we find in the Scriptures, we find ourselves able to say some things with a little more clarity and confidence than others. What we see here as God prepares to start giving Israel instructions for constructing a place for them to worship gives us a clue as to what at least one of God’s big goals is. Let’s explore what’s going on here together.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 25:1-7

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“The Lord spoke to Moses: ‘Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me. You are to take my offering from everyone who is willing to give. This is the offering you are to receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair; ram skins dyed red and fine leather; acacia wood; oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx along with other gemstones for mounting on the ephod and breastpiece.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s a difference between supporting a cause generally, and supporting a cause when you’ve got some skin in the game. The same thing goes with building a relationship. If you don’t actually invest something of yourself into a relationship, it’s not ever going to be very significant to you. It’ll never really move beyond being much more than a convenience. God was inviting the people of Israel into a relationship with Him. Because He didn’t want them to take this relationship with less than the seriousness with which it was due, He asked them to put some skin in the game. As we get into a whole new section of our journey, let’s talk about what’s going on here as well as what we will encounter over the next few weeks.

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Giving It Our All

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God created the church to be the place where His presence dwells on earth so that people who don’t know Him can experience Him and come to be in a relationship with Him. Nothing short of that is our goal. But this isn’t a goal to which we can give merely a half-hearted effort. It requires entirely more of us than that. As we wrap up our series, Building the Kingdom, today, we’re talking about Paul’s passion to see the Gospel advance, what that means for us generally, and what that means very specifically for this church. Let’s see what Paul has to say and what we need to do.

Giving It Our All

I still remember watching the original Mission Impossible movie with Tom Cruise as superspy, Ethan Hunt, when I was growing up. It hit theaters the summer before I started eighth grade. I remember its being terrifically fun. The plot mostly kept you guessing until the very end. The twists and turns left you never quite sure who was playing for which side. I remember over the next several years watching the second and third installments in the series, but neither one in theaters. And they were just okay. They were fun, but never quite up to the focused, spy-thriller par of the original. After that, I fairly well lost interest. Life got busy. Marvel’s MCU got up and running. Streaming services were still in their infancy. And, I wasn’t willing to spend money to buy the subsequent entries on DVD. They looked pretty fun, but seeing them just wasn’t on the agenda. 

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