Morning Musings – Page 39

Morning Musing: Exodus 29:1-9

July 30, 2024Leave a comment

“This is what you are to do for them to consecrate them to serve me as priests. Take a young bull and two unblemished rams, with unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers coated with oil. Make them out of fine wheat flour, put them in a basket, and bring them in the basket, along with the bull and two rams. Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. THen take the garments and clothe Aaron with the tunic, the robe for the ephod, the ephod itself, and the breastpiece; fasten the ephod on him with its woven waistband. Put the turban on his head and place the holy diadem on the turban. Take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him. You must also bring his sons and cloth them with tunics. Tie the sashes on Aaron and his sons and fasten headbands on them. The priesthood is to be theirs by a permanent statute. This is the way you will ordain Aaron and his sons.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I remember attending my uncle’s graduation from med school when I was growing up. It was actually a pretty cool deal. The speaker was a guy who had climbed Mount Everest and barely survived about whose experience they later made a movie. What really stood out to me, though, was that toward the end of the affair, they had all the graduates say the Hippocratic Oath together. Then, whoever was leading the ceremony pronounced them all doctors. Their schooling was absolutely necessary, of course, but the ceremony was the key to their being officially considered doctors. We have always made things official with ceremonies. The next part of the tabernacle cycle in our Exodus journey describes the ceremony by which Aaron and his sons would officially be made the priests of Israel. There is once again a lot of detail here, so let’s take it a bit at a time and see what kind of positive sense we can make out of it.

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Morning Musing: Colossians 3:16

July 26, 2024August 4, 2024Leave a comment

“Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Camp is always fun. It wears you out, but it’s always worth it. There’s just something about getting away from it all and doing life in a different setting that helps you focus in a bit more closely than usual on what matters most. Sometimes getting above the fray lets you see things a little more clearly, or at least in a new light. On our fourth and final full day, the camp pastor shed some new light on an old verse for us. It was a good reminder about another of God’s great gifts. Let’s talk about a forever family.

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Morning Musing: John 16:7

July 25, 2024Leave a comment

“Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s no tired quite like camp tired. Day three of camp is in the books. Everyone is moving just a bit more slowly than they were at the beginning of the week. Getting up is just a little harder than it was the day before. But the fun hasn’t stopped, the learning is ongoing, and this afternoon will bring a wild (and probably wet) relay race that is the highlight of the week each year. As we continue to reflect on the wow gifts God gives, yesterday we talked about the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here’s a taste of what we covered.

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Morning Musing: 1 Peter 2:21-25

July 24, 20241 Comment

“For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth; when he was insulted, he did not insult in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the more interesting things Jesus said was that if someone wants to follow Him, they must first develop the faith of a child. Only those with that kind of faith will find their way into His kingdom. What He meant by this was likely (there a pretty healthy debate on the matter) that we need the kind of innocent faith children have in their parents in order to be acceptable to Him. Giving Him this kind of trust is an incredible gift. In doing this, though, we aren’t initiating the gift giving process with Him. He gave first. On day 2 of camp, we talked about what God has given us and why they are such great gifts.

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Morning Musing: James 1:16-18

July 23, 2024Leave a comment

“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’m away chaperoning camp this week with some of our awesome kids. I’ll still plan to post something each day, but it is going to be short and not about Exodus. Instead, I’ll give you a look into what we will be talking about this week. The theme for the week is Wow Factor, and we’re talking about the kind of things God does for us that make us say, “Wow!” First up and as we talked about tonight, God gives us good gifts.

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