Tag: Worship

Morning Musing: Exodus 25:1-7

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“The Lord spoke to Moses: ‘Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me. You are to take my offering from everyone who is willing to give. This is the offering you are to receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair; ram skins dyed red and fine leather; acacia wood; oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx along with other gemstones for mounting on the ephod and breastpiece.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s a difference between supporting a cause generally, and supporting a cause when you’ve got some skin in the game. The same thing goes with building a relationship. If you don’t actually invest something of yourself into a relationship, it’s not ever going to be very significant to you. It’ll never really move beyond being much more than a convenience. God was inviting the people of Israel into a relationship with Him. Because He didn’t want them to take this relationship with less than the seriousness with which it was due, He asked them to put some skin in the game. As we get into a whole new section of our journey, let’s talk about what’s going on here as well as what we will encounter over the next few weeks.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 23:18-19

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“You must not offer the blood of my sacrifices with anything leavened. The fat of my festival offering must not remain until morning. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the Lord your God. You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself tasked with having to get the sound working for an outdoor movie event. I had all of the supplies I needed, but I wasn’t sure how to connect them all in a way that made the audio come out where I wanted it to. I needed instructions. Anytime we do something new, we need instructions. Just about everything you buy from the store comes with instructions. When we understand the instructions, we’ll know how to do whatever it is we are trying to do. God was creating a people who were being called to follow Him. The trouble was, that kind of thing hadn’t ever existed before. They needed instructions. Thus the law. Sometimes, though, just like instructions can be hard to understand, so can the laws God gave to Israel. Here’s a classic example. Let’s see what we can do with it.

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Group Work

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Some things are just better experienced together. As we continue in our series, Authentic Church, this week, we are talking about the importance of community (something that will be a part of the next two entries in the series as well). Up first in this journey-within-a-journey is the importance of worshiping the Lord together. Worshiping together acts as the glue that holds the rest of the things that make the church the church together. Using a psalm of David as our guide, let’s explore why worshiping together is so important.

Group Work

In 2014, the Kansas City Royals made the postseason for the first time in nearly 30 years. They earned their official postseason birth in an incredible wild card play-in game against the Oakland Athletics. The game took place on Noah’s birthday. My dad was actually at the game, sitting on the front row behind the inside corner of the A’s dugout courtesy of a good friend of his. He even held up a sign wishing Noah a happy birthday that got put on camera. Watching from home, I stayed up pretty late to see the finish, but when we gave up the lead late in the game, I gave up and went to bed. I couldn’t bear to watch yet another disappointing season come to an end. In the middle of the night, though, I checked my phone and saw that the game was not yet over. I quickly turned the TV on and hit the record button to be able to watch how it actually ended in the morning. It was an awfully exciting time. 

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 22:18-20

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“Do not allow a sorceress to live. Whoever has sexual intercourse with an animal must be put to death. Whoever sacrifices to any gods, except the Lord alone, is to be set apart for destruction.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The death penalty debate doesn’t rage quite as hot today as it did in the fairly recent past, but there are nonetheless still pretty strong opinions on both sides of the matter. The fact is, not very many people are put to death for crimes they have committed in this country as compared with where that annual number used to be. There are a number of reasons for this, some of which I personally find to be more compelling than others. In any event, one of the sources of support many death penalty proponents point to in order to justify their position is the Bible. Verses like this are often why. Not everyone, however, agrees. Let’s talk about what we see here and what we are supposed to do with it.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 20:22-26

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“Then the Lord told Moses, ‘This is what you are to say to the Israelites: You have seen that I have spoken to you from have. Do not make gods of silver to rival me; do not make gods of gold for yourselves. Make an earthen altar for me, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your flocks and herds. I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause my name to be remembered. If you make a stone altar for me, do not build it out of cut stones. If you use your chisel on it, you will defile it. Do not go up to my altar on steps, so that your nakedness is not exposed on it.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

While listening to a podcast segment in the car about the ongoing border crisis with our youngest the other day, we wound up in a conversation about national boundaries and how you knew which side of the line you were on. It was a good conversation from an astutely inquisitive mind. Rivers make easy natural boundaries, but when you have long stretches with no rivers, things are a bit trickier. With the Ten Commandments, God gave the people the big picture boundaries of a relationship with Him. He knew, though, that we live our lives in the small picture. As a result, once those were in place, He started giving them a whole bunch of signposts that were intended to help them know which side of the boundary they were on. Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at a whole bunch of these signposts. Some are fairly easy to understand, but some are a lot stranger to us. Let’s talk today about why this mattered and what these particular boundaries were for.

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