Tag: Following Jesus

Morning Musing: Exodus 32:2-6

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“Aaron replied to them, ‘Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaon. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf. Then they said, ‘Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and made an announcement: ‘There will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow.’ Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been given a set of instructions you didn’t properly understand? The result is often that you do the wrong thing without realizing it. Maybe you do something that falls more in line with a previous understanding than the one you didn’t quite get this time. Either at, your doing the wrong thing is the result. While Moses was up on the mountain, after the people had agreed to play by God’s rules, the first thing they did was the wrong thing. Worse yet, they were led into it. Let’s talk about what’s going on here, and making sure we understand God properly.

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Differences Don’t Have to Divide

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This week we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series called, Stormy Waters. For the next few weeks, we are going to be talking about how to navigate family conflict without losing our minds. Family conflict is hard. It can be some of the messiest conflict we ever have to face. Thankfully, the Scriptures give us some helping wisdom on how to make it through without losing ourselves or our relationships. In this first part of our journey, we are starting where so many of our conflicts start: with differences. You’re not like the other people in your family, and occasionally that leads to conflict. Let’s talk about how to navigate it.

Differences Don’t Have to Divide

I love my sister. But we are not the same. For starters, she’s my sister. That fact sets us apart pretty well by itself. But the differences run much deeper than that. We didn’t like or excel at the same sports or activities growing up. We didn’t share the same tastes in music. Her friends sometimes made me want to move out when they visited. My friends and I once snuck into her room after a sleepover when there were like four of them on her big bed, and lifted up one side of the mattress so they all slid off the other side, one after the next on top of each other. That is to say, my friends drove her crazy too. We watched different TV shows. We had different interests. She would occasionally try to do things that I did before her (probably because I was her big brother and she wanted to be like me), but I would give her such a hard time about not doing whatever it was like I did that she didn’t tend to stick with those things very long. She quickly found her own things, and I don’t blame her. 

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 7:15

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“For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As a parent, you quickly learn that every different age your kids go through has its challenges, but also its joys. They’re adorable when they’re babies, but you don’t get any sleep. Toddlers are great comic relief, but the tantrums get pretty old. When they’re in the no man’s land of early- to middle-elementary school they’re the most fun because of how much they are drawn to just play, but that’s also when they can start to become little punks. Well, I’ve got two right now that are teenagers. (Now there’s a sentence that makes you start feeling old…) Teenagers have attitudes. And emotions. In spades. But they are also reaching the point that they are starting to be able to meaningfully process the world around them in ways that reflect real critical thinking. You can start having an actual conversation with a teenager in ways other stages don’t quite allow. They also ask good questions that desire real answers. Today’s post is the result of one of those good questions. Maybe you’ve asked this one before. Here are some of my thoughts.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 31:12-17

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“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites: You must observe my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, so that you will know that I am the Lord who consecrates you. Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a permanent covenant. It is a sign forever between me and the Israelites, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever gotten so focused on doing something that you forgot why you were doing it in the first place? I am a pretty task-oriented person. When I take on a project, the only thing I want to do is to finish that project and to finish it well. I can easily lose sight of just about everything else except the project resulting in no small amount of completely understandable frustration for the people around me. God had finished giving Moses all the instructions Israel needed to build the tabernacle. It was time for them to get to work on it. Before they got started on it, though, He took a second to remind Moses not to let the people lose sight of what mattered most. Keep that in mind as we walk through this challenging passage.

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Morning Musing: Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

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“Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’m certain I have talked before about the movie Into the Wild starring Emile Hirsch. It’s the true story of a young man who graduated college with the world at his fingertips. He came from a wealthy family, he was a great student, he was a gifted athlete, he could have done just about whatever his heart desired. As it turns out, and much to the chagrin of his parents, what his heart desired was to rid himself of all of his possessions and to then make his way to Alaskan wilderness where he would live off the land in peace and harmony with nature. Along the way, he made a number of different relationships that could have been life changing both for him and the folks on the other side of them, but each time he walked away from them in order to pursue his Alaskan vision. Well, lately I have been watching a lot of the series, Life Below Zero with my bride. It follows the lives of a handful of people living mostly off-the-grid and mostly lonely lives in the Alaskan wilderness. As with Into the Wild before it, Life Below Zero has not been for me an inspirational or idealized look at the spirit of adventure and a noble desire to leave as small a footprint on this world as possible. Instead, it has been a powerful reminder to me of just how important community really is.

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