February 23, 2012

There is a growing struggle to focus on one part of scripture each day when you find yourself reading from multiple areas of God's Word.  Today I wrestled with a portion of each part of my reading in Numbers 12, 13 and in Mark 2.  But the final word that rested on my spirit was found in Psalm 90.  Here I read a prayer of Moses that ends in verse 17, "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands."

Mosses words are dripping with the urge to know God's wisdom and favor in the midst of his later years of life.  He is pleading even for his future generations.  Moses hones in on his understanding reguarding his limited days of life.  He's speaking from the depths of his heart as he expresses the desire to present to his God a heart of wisdom. His tone speaks as a longing for his Lords return in accompaniment with his words.

My heart today resonated with verse 17 because I hate my nature as a "fixer".  I'm wired to be busy.  I feel greatly unprofitable when I slow down so I create work for myself.  I rarely stop to think or ask whether the work of my hands is Godly.  My understanding is prefaced in my mind as work for the ministry.  I mean I work for a church so I must be doing the right things, right?  God is teaching me that ministry in my mind is not always the ministry of His heart.  I'm tired of working for work sake.  I want my hours to matter to His Kingdom, not mine.  I don't want to be driven to make a name for myself, but to make His name great.  I want to go home at the end of the day and know that the work of my hands is confirmed by the One I seek to make famous.  Yet, my heart struggles to see the fine line between my fame and His.

Lord, break my pride.  Remove the arrogance of my rebel spirit.  Help me today to understand that I am nothing without You.  Lord let my children see a man that is more concerned about a lost world than he is about his material posessions or his down time.  I want to bring down the walls that prevent people from seeing the work that You are doing in me regardless of the person they may truly see.  I know I'm imperfect and selfish.  Break that in me. Father, I love You.

                                                                                                                       February 22, 2012

The book of Numbers stole the show again today.  I would have sworn that Psalm 27 or Mark 1 would have captured my heart, but the Word came alive in Numbers 11 today.  I have always enjoyed exploring the actions and attitudes of the Isrealite people in the days following their departure out of Egypt.  I've gleaned from their stubborn hearts and have been amazed at their lack of faith in the presence of such visible markers displayed by our God.  Their desire to return to bondage and their lack of understanding of the Father's heart have garnered many hours of thought in my life. Today, however, the bold print came in Numbers 11:23.

Numbers 11:23 states, "The LORD said to Moses, "Is the LORD's power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not." Let's have a little context shall we.  Moses needs some assistance with the needs of the people as the burden is to great for him alone. So Moses is instructed to gather seventy Elders to assist him.  The Lord tells Moses that He will take the Spirit that is upon Moses and place that Spirit upon the Elders so that Moses will not carry this burden alone. Now as you study this passage you see that the main problem or burden at this point is that the people want some meat to eat instead of the manna. Once again I can identify with the whole meat thing.  Moses is bringing this complaint to the Lord, but he can't possibly see how 600,000 people that are on foot with him could find enough meat to eat.  But God sets the story straight by giving the people far more than they could ever imagine.

Is the LORD's power limited? What an amazing statement that I read when it comes to our doubt and struggle with His promises.  What do I, just like Moses, have to see for me to finally come to a place where the Lord is not posing this question to us? At this point Moses had seen possibly more visible and tangible displays of God's movement than anyone throughout history, yet he still questions God ability and power.  From the plagues to the pillar of fire at night and the cloud by day, to the Red Sea parting and the passover Angle, and even after his moments on Mount Sinai Moses still had to be reminded of God's power.  God has promised me that He shall supply all my needs according to His riches and Glory and yet I still pose the questions of God's power and ability to move in my life.  For some reason my flesh still believes that my burdens are greater than His power.  I still wrestle with why He would even care about my seemingly insignificant issues, yet he cared enough to bring meat to His people.  Meat... do you get it?  He cared about their food, I think He wants me to know He cares about my life.

Father, I'm so thankful that You care about the minuet details of your children's lives.  I'm thankful that You have promised to never leave me or forsake me.  I'm grateful that you hold me in the grip of your hand and promise that nothing can separate us.  I ask that You instill in my spirit a deep understanding of your power and presence.  Help me to have the wisdom to recognize your desire to be a personal and intimate God in the matters of my life, family, ministry, and friendships.  Father, I love You.

                                                                                                             February 20,2012

Today the Lord was pretty clear to me. He actually spoke to me through the book of Numbers. I'm guessing I may be in a minority of people that would say their lives have been touched by the book of Numbers. Nontheless, today a lengthy passage of scripture found in Numbers 7 grabbed my heart. More intrestingly it came on a day were Psalm 23 and Acts 27 were on my reading list. Go figure.

As I was reading about the detailed offerings of the differnt sons and leaders that were lifted up to God once Moses had completed the tabernacle, something struck me. The fact that these offerings were chronicled with such detail within this book told me that they matered. The detail of the account mattered, but to who? Who would care how many calfs, goats, lambs, rams, or oxen were sacrificed for these offerings? Then it hit me. The account and details don't really matter to me more than 2500 years later, but they mattered to God. There were five offerings referenced in this passage. There was the grain offering, burnt offering, sin offering, sacrifice of peace offering, and the dedication offering that were accounted for here. They mattered.

My application or question that I'm thinking about today is what offering of my mine has mattered lately. Have I ever really had an offering that mattered enough to document for my children's history or my grandchildren's? Have I given any real thought to my life as an offering? What do I have to give the would matter? Why would I offer it? Did God really care about the amount of shekels or silver bowls or gold pans that were given? Yes, I believe He did. They were above and beyond what was required of them to give unto the Lord. They were given sacrificially. Man that is hard for me to wrestle with today when I think about what I have sacrifically given to the Lord recently.

Father, I recognize today that I've simply done the required things in my giving, but I've fallen so short of the offernings in my life. Please forgive me for being so consentrated on the faithfulness of the requirments that I have failed to be open to the offerings of my life. Help me to be conscience of what I should be giving up to You for your glory. I want to further your Kingdom, not mine. Help me with my desire to acquire things that are so tempral and passing. I give you all the glory today. Father I love You.

                                                                                                                   February 16, 2012

Have you ever thought to yourself that God was genuinely speaking to you through His Word or in your prayer time? As I look back over my life I can think of a number of times that I felt in my soul that God was speaking with clarity.  I remember the emotions that I wrestled with and the grappling of the words that have left me feeling broken.  Today as I read in Leviticus 26 I see words of clarity.  I see blessings for God's people in their obedience and penalties for their disobedience.  What I read is a God that desires to be very clear with his peoples obedience.

Leviticus 26:14-46 is summed up in verse 30, "I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you." The clarity that God speaks to Moses with is crystal clear.  His wrath and hostility against His own people is clearly communicated if they chose to act out against Him.  Where did we believe this changed?  Why would we think that the death of Christ on a cross would remove God's desire for His people to honor and uphold Him and his commandments?  Does the concept of grace remove God's passion for our holiness?  When I read this passage I hear a God that is passionate about His people's obedience.  Did Moses record these words for the Israelites or was this recorded in God's Word for the history of God's children?  I can't read this and dismiss it simply because of an old covenant verses new covenant dialog.

I have to remember that I am called to be set apart as His child.  I am to be in this world and not of it.  Yet I find my flesh waring against the things I hate while allowing the truth to be replaced with a lie in certain areas of my life.  Paul's words could not be more powerful in Romans when we understand our desires in contrast with God's desires and how we so easily become ensnared.  I want to be holy.  I want to hear, "Well done good and faithful servant" when it's all said and done.  I want an intimacy with the Father that allows me to have the words of clarity that Moses received at Mount Sinai.

Father, You are good.  I trust your Word and I want to know how to hide it in my heart more each day.  Give me the wisdom to live with a deeper understanding of your commands for my obedience.  Today I ask You to examine every aspect of my heart.  Don't allow me to hide any area from you as you search me and know me.  I love you Father.

                                                                                                                            February 15, 2012

As I was reading today in my quite time I found myself reading from Lev. 25, Psalm 25-26, and Acts 22. This particular read was a bit consuming for me. Leviticus here is dealing with the year of jubilee and a great passage in Acts where Paul is stating his Damascus Road experience to the Jews in Rome. Toady, however, my heart was struck by a very simple word found in Psalm 25 and 26. That word is, integrity.

These two Psalms are written as prayers by David in a descriptive fashion calling on the protection, guidance and pardon of His Lord. Verse 19 states, "Look upon my enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with violent hatred." This falls into a long list of requests by David unto his Lord. I was struck by the boldness in his tone and the directness of his requests. Entermingled though I find, with one simple word, where his tenacity lies before His Lord. His boldness before God rests in verse 21: "Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You." Bame! He isn't requesting the desires of his heart as some selfish child in a Walmart toy isle with expectancy because he's the Father's child. He is claiming the Father's provision as he states in Psalm 26:1, "Vindcate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering."

My application that I walk away with today is based on my need for integrity. Integrity is becoming a lost art in the work culture of America. We can justify just about any desision weather right or wrong based on our need for a desired outcome. If we're honest we have to admit that it happens in the church just as much. We just vail it in spiritual terms like, "God told me" or "I feel led by the Spirit to..." We use terms like "called", "led" or "sent" and make it look and feel pretty. Integrity is defined as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. My God wants this from me. He demands this from me as His wittness.

Father guide my steps today. Convict me of the areas of my life where I seek a selfish outcome. Watch over my lips and let no evil thing come out that may defame your name. Lord I want to be set apart for your holy and acceptable work. Keep me from sitting with decitful men and as David wrote keep me from hanging with pretenters. I love you Lord.

                                                                                                                            February 5, 2012

Todays reading takes me on a journey through the last two chapters of Exodus, 39 and 40, and into Psalm 15. However, it's in the last portion of our reading in Acts 15 that grabs my attention.  Exodus concludes by providing great detail of the garments and construction of the tabernacle according to the instruction given by the Lord.  Psalm 15 paints a picture of a righteous citizen in the city of Zion.  Yet it's one small verse that has me thinking today.  It's Acts 12:2 that reads, "And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword."

Just like that.  One simple verse.  No fan fare made of it and no more than one verse giving attention to it.  James the brother of John has his final moments noted in scripture by six words. This catches my attention because of the Western culture that permiates my thinking about being a follower of Christ.  I tend to think sometimes that I'm special cause I surrendered my life to the gospel ministry or that maybe God thinks I'm important to his purpose here on earth.  And then this verse appears.  James, one of the memebers of Christ's inner cirlce during his earthly ministry, is simply martyerd at the hands of Herod.  Stephen has at least two verses discribing his death in chapter 7, but the death of James shattered the illusion that somehow, the twelve enjoyed soime unique Divine protection.

Jesus never promised his followers special protection.  He never made it comfortable and even went our of His way to communicate the need to be ready for persecutuion in Matthew 10:16-26. I am part of a royal priesthood and I'm anticipating an inheritance from my King and Redeemer, but on this side of glory I'm an enemy of the lion that roams this earth roaring and seekimg to devour me.  Maybe I should be a bit more concerned when this life seems to be all to easy and the difficulties seem to fall on others while I sonter by in my pursuit of happiness (which by the way should not be my aim at all). 

Father, help me to understand what place I have in this world.  Help me to never underestimate my enemy and the hatered that he has toward You and your children.  Teach me to put on my spiritual armor on in the midst of this journey each and every day.  I love You and I want to serve You until that final moment that history closes the chapter on this child of the King.

                                                                                                                             February 4, 2012

Life journaling  is a big part of Fellowship of The Rockies and I've decided to use my blog as a place to write out my thoughts about my quite time with the Father.  Today takes me through Ex. 37, 38, Ps. 19 and Acts 11.  This portion of Exodus looks at the construction of the Tabernacle and Acts is reporting on Peter in Jerusalem and his vision regarding what was once unclean.  However, it is Psalms 19 that stands out in my reading today.

David writes regarding the the expanse and works of the Lord, but almost out of nowhere he expresses an intimate desire of almost any man who is seeking genuine relationship with the Father. He writes in Psalm 19:13 "Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless and I shall be acquitted of great transgressions." The thought that he would ask that the Father to keep him back or hold him from something runs against our natural desire for freedom and choices. See a deeper understanding of freedom only comes when our soul is free from the bondage of sin.  It's a dynamic that many never understand because they have become comfortable with the pleasures of  this world. Men like their comfort. We like our Lazy Boy chairs and our decked out trucks and cars.  It's amazing how comfort distorts freedom.

This reminds me that when I'm not wrestling with this life and I'm becoming content with the daily routines I'm at risk for presumptuous sins. I think it's why David finishes this passage with verse 14: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer."  The meditation of my heart goes beyond the meditation of my mind.  My heart dictates my desires and the actions in which my mind dwells on.  My heart will ultimately dictate what comes forth from my mouth.  This is a continual reflection on my need for a Redeemer.

Father, please make this a focus of my life.  I want to give You the desires of my heart in order for You to have your way in me.  Let me not hold on to the presumptuous sins that I allow to be so much a part of my life.  I want to live a life that is not ruled by the desires of this world, but by the desire to live a blameless life before You. May You be glorified through me.