Tag: Morning Musings

Morning Musing: Exodus 33:1-6

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“The Lord spoke to Moses: ‘Go up from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your offspring. I will send an angel ahead of you and will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up with you because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way.’ When the people heard this bad news, they mourned and didn’t put on their jewelry. For the Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites: You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up with you for a single moment, I would destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you.’ So the Israelites remained stripped of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever wounded a relationship? The odds are pretty good that you have. We all seem to possess a remarkable ability to hurt the people around us even when we don’t mean to. In such situations, being forgiven is a wonderfully freeing thing. That extension of God’s grace is incredible to experience. But forgiveness is no the same as restoring the relationship. That takes something more. That takes repentance. And while forgiveness is a very good thing, an invitation into repentance is even better. Let’s talk about what we see happening in this next part of our story.

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Morning Musing: Matthew 14:1-2

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“At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus. ‘This is John the Baptist,’ he told his servants. “He has been raised from the dead, and that’s why miraculous powers are at work in him.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever read something in the Scriptures and wondered how on earth the author could have come to know that particular detail? We don’t encounter this much in the Old Testament, but the Gospel authors all have places where there are details reported they were present to have observed or experienced for themselves. Sometimes they report the conversations that happened in gatherings of priests that included none of Jesus’s followers when they happened. Matthew reports a private conversation between Pilate and his wife. Here he reports what was apparently a private conversation between Herod and his servants. How did they come by this knowledge? Let’s explore that briefly this morning through the lens of an interesting little connection that’s easy to miss.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 32:33-35

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“The Lord replied to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about; see, my angel will go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will hold them accountable for their sin.’ And the Lord inflicted a plague on the people for what they did with the calf Aaron had made.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the most incredible aspects of God’s character is that He is a perfect combination of justice and mercy. This mixture is not 50-50 like one we might make. Instead, it’s 100-100. He’s 100% just and 100% merciful. He’s all of both at exactly the same time. We can trust that He will always do the right thing, but He will always do the right thing in the most merciful way possible. We trust that in part because of passages like this one. Let’s talk about what’s going on here.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 32:30-32

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“The following day Moses said to the people, ‘You have committed a grave sin. Now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I will be able to atone for your sin.’ So Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Oh, these people have committed a grave sin; they have made a god of gold for themselves. Now if you would only forgive their sin. But if not, please erase me from the book you have written.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When I was growing up, one of my sister’s friends lived in the single most confusing neighborhood in the world. Once you drove in, if you didn’t know where you were going, the odds were high that you were going to wind up lost. There was basically one way in without going to the opposite side of town, but once you got in there were about a thousand turns available to you. If you took a wrong turn along the way, it felt like the only way to get out was to retrace your steps turn-by-turn, going the exact opposite direction as you were going before. This idea of going back the way you came in life has a name. It’s called repentance, and that’s what we see happening here as we near the end of this tragically hilarious chapter.

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Morning Musing: Colossians 3:12-13

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“Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been stuck? There are all kinds of ways to be stuck. We can be stuck in traffic. We can be stuck on a math problem. We can be stuck on a vehicle repair. We can be stuck on a writing assignment. We can be stuck on a word puzzle. Being stuck isn’t much fun, especially when we can’t immediately see how to get ourselves unstuck. As frustrating as all of those different forms of being stuck can be, there’s another that can be even harder to experience. We can be relationally stuck. Getting stuck in the context of a relationship can feel like it puts our entire life on hold. Even being relationally stuck, though, can come from a number of different sources such that getting unstuck can feel almost impossible. Today, let’s talk about a way to help us move forward when we’re relationally stuck that works in almost every situation.

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