Tag: Following Jesus

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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Putting Others First

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This week we wrap up our series, Who Do You Want to Be, by talking one more time about the kind of lifestyle we need to live if we are going to be ready for Jesus’ return and the transition of this world to the next. Because that kingdom is defined by the character of our God, reflecting His character is going to be key to our living in it. And one of the things that is absolutely central to God’s character is His constantly putting others first. Living ready for His kingdom means doing the same in our own lives. One of the best calls to this kind of a lifestyle came in a conversation Jesus had with the disciples. Let’s explore this together.

Putting Others First

One of my favorite cartoons from my high school days was Disney’s Recess. It ran for an impressive 10 seasons and even had a couple of feature-length movies to its name. The thing that made Recess so magical was how it captured the innocence, optimism, hope, and wonder of that special time in every elementary kid’s life. It may have only lasted for 20 minutes out of an entire day, but it was pretty unfailingly…well…magical. Do you remember playing on the playground at school when you were growing up? I think what I remember most about that time was playing kickball. All the boys would gather in the corner of the playground with a ball, split up into teams, and then argue for the next 15 minutes about the rules before we finally got a little bit of playtime in. 

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Morning Musing: 1 Peter 2:2-3

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“Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We had a hurricane come through our area yesterday. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Perhaps the single biggest challenge was that the family was stuck at home all day and the Internet kept going in and out. For the kids at least, it was like living in the Dark Ages. Maybe the Stone Age. They had to break out an actual DVD in order to watch something on TV. It was rough. As I was out and about some during the day, though, a thought occurred to me that struck me as worth sharing. Maybe not, but I’ll let you decide.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 29:35-38, 44-46

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“This is what you are to do for Aaron and his sons based on all I have commanded you. Take seven days to ordain them. Sacrifice a bull as a sin offering each day for atonement. Purify the altar when you make atonement for it, and anoint it in order to consecrate it. For seven days you must make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. The altar will be especially holy. Whatever touches the altar will be consecrated. This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar every day: two year-old lambs. . .I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. And they will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The old covenant was complicated. There were all kinds of rules and regulations to keep. If you touched the wrong thing at the wrong time or in the wrong way, you had to be made clean which required time and sacrifices to deal with. If you sinned, that required more sacrifices which meant more time and money lost. It was all just a lot. No one could have remembered it all. The average person was reliant on the priests to help them know what to do and when which gave the priests a ton of power. And everybody knows how well priests with lots of power tend to do. It worked for what it was, but it wasn’t ever intended to be God’s final plan. It did point to it, though. As we finish up our discussion of the ordination process, let’s talk about where it was pointing, and what we have today.

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