Tag: Morning Musings

Morning Musing: Romans 5:8

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“But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
‭‭(CSB – Read the chapter)

How do you know when someone else loves you? That’s perhaps a tougher question to answer than we think at first glance. I mean, the other person’s telling you is a good clue, but words can be dishonest. So then, which things that they do for you confirm the suspicion? It’s almost certainly not any one, single thing. It’s a combination of words and actions with a generous splash of one other key ingredient. Let’s talk about how we can be confident of God’s love and what this other key ingredient is.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 40:1-33

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“The Lord spoke to Moses: ‘You are to set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month’. . . .Moses did everything just as the Lord had commanded him. The tabernacle was set up in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month. . . .Next Moses set up the surrounding courtyard for the tabernacle and the altar and hung a screen for the gate of the courtyard. So Moses finished the work.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What does God want from us? More than anything else, He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to be in a right and proper relationship with Him. How do we know when we have that? Because we do what He says. Our faithful, willing obedience is the first and best sign that we understand who He is, who we are, and are willing to accept those two truths wholly. Our obedience is the best proof that we are right with Him. In this final description of Moses’ work with the tabernacle, this is where the emphasis lies: that Moses did what God said. Let’s talk through what we see here and about why this is a good pointer to something that is still true for us today.

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Digging in Deeper: Proverbs 17:17

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“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a difficult time.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When the apostle Paul was describing how the church works best, he chose more than once to use the illustration of a human body. A human body is healthiest when all the parts properly play their part. No two parts are the same, and all of them are necessary for the fullest and best functioning. This is the case with the body, it is the case in the church, and, as we are going to see, it is the case in a movie. The best movies feature a team of different actors all playing unique parts. If everyone plays their part well, the movie works. I was reminded of this fact this week as I finally got to watch Deadpool & Wolverine when it made its streaming debut on Disney+. Let’s talk about what worked, what didn’t, and how even in an excessively gory, foul-mouthed, irreverent, and sacrilegious movie, the Gospel is still present.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 39:32-43

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“So all the work for the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was finished. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses. . . .The Israelites had done all the work according to everything the Lord had commanded Moses. Moses inspected all the work they had accomplished. They had done just as the Lord commanded. Then Moses blessed them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s an old saying that goes like this: Practice makes perfect. It sounds good, but it’s not really true in that form. A more accurate rendering would be this: Practice makes permanent. If you do something enough times, you will always do it that way. But if you don’t do it quite correctly all of those times, you will always do it wrongly. In order for practice to make perfect, it has to be evaluated. Once the tabernacle construction was complete, it came time to evaluate what they had done. Let’s take a look at how this process unfolded.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 35:10-19

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“Let all the skilled artisans among you come and make everything that the Lord has commanded: the tabernacle — its tent and covering, its clasps and supports, its crossbars, its pillars and bases; the ark with its poles, the mercy seat, and the curtain for the screen; the table with its poles, all its utensils, and the Bread of the Presence; the lampstand for light with its utensils and lamps as well as the oil for the light; the altar of incense with its poles; the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; the entryway screen for the entrance to the tabernacle; the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grate, its poles, and all its utensils; the basin with its stand; the hangings of the courtyard, its posts and bases, and the screen for the gate of the courtyard; the tent pegs for the tabernacle and the tent pegs for the courtyard, along with their ropes; and the specially woven garments for ministering in the sanctuary — the holy garments for the priest Aaron and the garments for his sons to serve as priests.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Although I’ve never read it, there’s a rather famous from several years ago called “I, Pencil.” The whole thing is about how a pencil is made from the standpoint of the pencil itself. Pencils seem like remarkably simple things, but their construction is far more complicated and convoluted of a process than you might imagine. The whole argument of the author is that no one really knows how to make a pencil. It takes all of the different people involved each doing what they know how to do in order to bring one into reality. God was directing the people to build a place for worship, where they could go and experience His presence. Putting it together was going to be a group effort.

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