Joshua 1-4 Be Strong!

Tonight, I read about Joshua’s beginnings as the leader of Israel. God gave him a huge responsibility-and expected him to handle it. Joshua must have been freaked out! Talk about responsibility-God was actually calling him to lead his own, chosen people.

Joshua was up against so much more than he could handle…way more than he could handle!

I remember feeling so terrified before my first day as an RA. I remember waking up in the middle of the night wondering how in the world I had been chosen for that position. For weeks I wondered why someone had been crazy enough to choose me…sometimes I still wonder.

I can’t imagine how Joshua must of felt. He was literally put in charge of tens of thousands of people. He was asked to communicate God’s message back to them…to be the voice of God I their lives-To show them the path of God and to lead them into the Promised Land.

What I love about God in this passage is the fact that he gets the fact that Joshua is afraid. He understands it, and he doesn’t tell Joshua that he is stupid for worrying. He simply says…

Be strong, be courageous, do not be afraid, because I am with you!

He makes it clear to Joshua that he does not have to be aftaid, because God had no intention of leaving him alone. Joshua could not handle that kind of job on his own, but God could and would…through Joshua.

Deuteronomy 32-34 Well Done

Fact: Tonight is the kind of night where I truly feel like running and screaming through the halls of this building…you know what it is like when you are a bit hyper. Unfortunately, that probably would not be too great of an idea…so I will refrain.

Tonight, I also read the final page of Moses’ life. God brought him up to the mountain and showed him the Promised Land. Moses died, and God cared for his body. Moses did so much with his life, it is amazing to look and see how much God used him. To think that he was the same guy that tried everything that he could think of to get away from God…is incredible!

The same guy that all of the Israelites were angry with over and over again is the same man that they spend many days grieving because they know that their lives would look very different apart from him.

Moses is a challenge for all of us. He challenges us to whole heartedly follow God wherever he leads…one never knows how different the world could look because of a simple “yes:

Deuteronomy 30-31 Not Too Difficult

Hello my dear blog-reading friend. I just wanted to take am moment to thank you for taking the time to read this…I know that things on this page haven’t been quite as exciting lately, I have been busy to the point of nuttyness (yes that is a word) and haven’t put quite the time that I would have liked. Thanks for sticking with me!

Today God lived and worked…and even better than that, he allowed us to live and to work with him…

Just take a second to think about that…

The God of the Universe is moving in our lives…he is allowing us to be with him.

Just hold onto that.

Now think about this…God notices us. He cared enough about us that he gave the Israelites commands. God actually cares about what we do.

He also loves us enough to give us a choice.

The passages that I read tonight (I cut it short because they are so crazy deep) are some of the last things that Moses is recorded as saying.

This comes after all of the commands and all of the promises of God’s blessing if only the Israelites will follow him.

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. (30:11)

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.(30:19-20)

First of all…I really want to see that Moses really wants the people to know that God’s commands are doable. He wants them to know that he is not asking for more than they can give. We serve a God who knows our limits, and who will only give us what he can get us through.

Secondly, please know for certain that God is life! We have the ability to follow him (to CHOOSE HIM) and he is LIFE. He is the only thing that can hold us together. He is the one thing that can make us happy. He is your life…

So just a reminder “Hold Fast” to God. The world will shake, and following him will seem impossible sometimes…but hold on! This is not too difficult for you…it is not beyond your grasp.

Good night!

Deuteronomy 26-29 Ouch

Something that I truly love about God is the fact that he does not beat around the bush. He is very direct. In that passages that I read tonight, he made it crystal clear that the Israelites will be SO blessed by following him! He basically tells them that they will have every kind of blessing if they stick with him. They will have every kind of contentment…everything good that they could imagine! All that they had to do was follow the list of commands that he laid out for them!

He also lays out the fact that not following him would make the Israelites miserable. He tells them that every part of life will be bad apart from him…basically hell on earth-worse than Egypt. He tells them that he does not want this from them—that they only need to follow his orders in order to stay away from that kind of life.

Somehow…the Israelites end of choosing to ignore God’s commands over and over again. They get hurt, and truly feel the suffering of a life without God.

It amazes me that the Israelites could ever choose to walk away from God. After everything that he does for them…and after he tells them of the living hell that they will experience without him. Somehow…they still run away!

I don’t get it!

Someone once complained that God is too mean. How could anyone want his people to suffer?

What I want to remind you of tonight, is the fact that God is the only good that exists in the universe. He is the only thing that is worth chasing.

If we could be happy…or satisfied….without him, there would have to be something wrong with the universe.

When we are apart from God, we are apart from our purpose for living. We are sick and dying when we are not near our father.

For us to feel ok without God would be a lot like a man having leprosy. We would never know pain (which would be nice), but we would slowly die as we hurt ourselves over and over again.

All of these curses that God lays out for not following him, are like the pain that comes when we get too close to a fire…it reminds us that we are about to get hurt.

It reminds us to run screaming back to God…he is the only thing that can make us live.

Deuteronomy 22-25…Valentines Day

Woops of the Day: Somehow the blog from yesterday never made it all of the way up…some kind of glitch. It could be the fault of a stupid computer, a clumsy blogger or the combination of the two…who knows?

Today was valentines day: Today was the day where people who are in dating relationships spend the day celebrating their love and commitment to one another.

It is also the day when those who are not in dating relationships spend much of the day lamenting their place in live. I have heard today being referred to as “Singleness Awareness Day.”

The truth is…neither of those ideas for spending the day really sun up its meaning.

The number one call on a Christian’s life is love. We are called to love people well…and sacrificially.

Tonight, I read a bit about what love is supposed to look like…here check it out:

If you see your brother's ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to him.If the brother does not live near you or if you do not know who he is, take it home with you and keep it until he comes looking for it. Then give it back to him. Do the same if you find your brother's donkey or his cloak or anything he loses. Do not ignore it.

Deuteronomy 22:1-3

We are called to help one another, to show love by recuing one another….

also side note: this verse tells you that you have to help me find my cell phone next time I loose it!

Valentines day…along with the rest of the year, is about helping and serving one another. It is about the fact that we can’t stand by and leave others in trouble when we can help them.

Oh and I am missing a set of pink headphones…I am pretty sure that God just commanded you to let me know if you find them J Just Kidding!

Deuteronomy 14-15 The Year for Cancelling Debts

Tonight, I saw the play “Johnny Pie” on campus. The entire thing was beautiful, I so enjoyed getting caught up in the story!

Basically, the play gives an entire overview of a man’s life.

In his life, he is constant fear of death. In the end, he finds that his fear was never justified. He embraced death like and old friend.

The play was beautiful…and I was moved.

The truth is that so many of the things that we fear end up like that…

We hold onto worry and stress that never needed to be a part of the picture that is our lives. We were made for freedom, yet we still cling to the bars of our prisons.

I think that a part of the reason for this is in the fact that we still forget the fact that God has paid out debts. He has wiped the slate clean and gotten rid of that which we fear.

At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.

Deuteronomy 15:1-3

God is all about bringing debt and worry to an end. The challenge for us is to let God remove the debt and to forgive those around us so that they are free from free as well.

Deuteronomy 10-13 KISS: Keep It Simple (Stupid)

Holy cow! It has been a long and full day. I feel that I have reached the limit of what new information I can take in today. I have literally spent more than half of my day listening to sermons and lessons about what life is supposed to look like. All of that is good, I am radically blessed to be where I am right now. No one gets to learn as much in a day as I do…so I thank God for that.

But, there is also a point where all of it gets pretty complicated, and you come to the point where you need to boil vast amount of information down to something that you can handle for now.

Fortunately, the Bible does that for us…

Check this:

Love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 11:13

This verse was a basic summary of all of the laws that Moses had given to the Israelites. I love this because it is sweet and it is so simple sounding.

We serve a God who is vastly complicated and incredibly deed, but everything that he has called us to do can also be said with one breath.

It’s pretty cool!

So…at the end of a long, lesson filled day remember this:

Just love God, serve him with everything that you’ve got…and call it good.

Good Night…I need sleep now!

Deuteronomy 6-9 Thanks!

Today was, truly, a wonderful day. I was incredibly blessed with wonderful people, and a truly delightful day.

This is the kind of day that I thank God for and happily bring to a close with my head on my pillow.

Tonight, the most repeated idea that I came across in scripture was this…

“Do not become prideful when things go well”

Tonight, Moses repeated the fact that the Israelites had nothing apart from God.
He knew that a day might come when Israel might see themselves as the reason for success. He knew that they might eventually forget that God did everything for them.

He encouraged them not to let that happen…in order for Israel to survive, all of the credit had to go to God.

I am afraid that I have, definitely, been guilty of exactly what Moses feared for Israel. It is so easy to become prideful, it is easy to think of all of the work that I put into something and to forget that, apart from God, we have nothing.

My challenge for today is to, constantly, thank God for success. Whenever something good happens, praise God! That way, we might not forget that everything good comes from him anyway!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Deuteronomy 2-5 Remember

The book of Deuteronomy contains a lot of Moses’ final advice and reminders to the Israelites. He re-emphasizes many laws and reminders for the Israelites and he attempts to lay groundwork of faith for them before his death.

The biggest thing that Moses keeps repeating to them is, essentially, this…

“Later, after my death…after years have passed, do not forget about God”

Even when other gods look tempting, and the day of Israel’s rescue from Egypt seems like ancient history, don’t forget about God.

Moses continues to point out miracles, and he tells them of all of the places where they certainly saw God move.

His whole idea is to give memories to hold onto so that they will never be tempted to forget about God’s love, presence and miracles again.

How does this apply to us?

Days will come when life seems pretty hard…when it will be difficult to remember anything besides the stress that is sitting right in front of you.

We need to be like Moses and to remind ourselves of God’s work when it is hard to see it. We need to memorize the moments and the miracles that we should not forget, so that they will still be with us when we are tempted to walk away.

That is the entire point of this blog. It is here to record the faithfulness of God. This is the place where I keep track of God’s character and miracles through out history and, sometimes, in my own life too.

Don’t let yourself forget about God’s work in your life!

Numbers 36-Deuteronomy 1 Carried

Oh my goodness!

So, last night I went through nearly ten chapters of numbers without finding anything that really moved me. Tonight , on the other hand, has given me more than I know what to do with in one chapter.

So funny how that works!

I would suggest that you make Deuteronomy 1 very high on your reading list. It is a heavy chapter…

Tonight, I want to focus on verses 26-33.

This section really challenges me in two ways…first of all, it reminds me never to doubt the love of God, and it challenges to me to respond to his love with trust.

Here’s how it goes…

This is a part of the introduction to the book of Deuteronomy and it is, basically, Moses repeating the history and story of Israel.

This is describing the process of bad choices that kept Israel from getting to enter the Promised Land…

“ You grumbled in your tents and said,

"The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.

Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.' "

Then I said to you, "Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them.

The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert.

There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place."

In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.

Here’s what Moses just described…

1. Israel was complaining (again) and they literally thought that God hated them! They lost all sight of the love that God had for them. They were no longer greatful for his love, they were convinced that he must hate them because they didn’t have the luxury that they wanted.
2. Moses reminds that Israelites of God’s love in the past. He tells israel that the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place. He reminds them of God’s faithfulness over and over again.
3. Israel never responded to God’s faithfulness with trust, and was unwilling to follow him into the Promised Land. They did not choose to look at all of the examples of God’s love; they assumed that God hated them.

Israel missed out because they never saw the fact that God had been carrying them like a daddy carries his child.

The challenge for us, tonight, is to remember that we never have anything to be afraid of…because God has his arms around us all of the time. He hasn’t let go of us. He doesn’t hate us.

Instead of being afraid…look at the million ways that God has proven his love in your life.

Numbers 25-35 Run the Race

Earlier tonight I watched the film “Chariots of Fire” for the first time since growing my twelve-year molars, and was completely captivated by the story.

Basically it goes…

Eric Liddell was a man that God called for two missions. The first was to call attention to the glory of God in front of the whole world at the 1924 Olympic, and the second was to being the gospel to the country of China.

Liddell did both…

The movie focus on the Olympics part where he refuses to run the race of his lifetime on a Sunday. He is forced to compete in a race that he was not prepared for…he won anyway. Liddell is still famous for this…more than 80 years later.

God used his life, to show his presence to missions.

I even saw a documentary about him and his faith two years ago at the last olymics on public television. God is still working.

What still catches my attention about this story is the fact that Liddell died in an internment camp during World War Two.

God was glorified in his life, and God would eventually call him home.

Someday, when I get to heaven…I really want to meet Eric Liddell.

To tie this whole idea into scripture…Tonight, I also read Numbers 27. This is the passage where God tells Moses that he is going to die. At this point, Moses lays his hands onto Joshua, and passes the leadership of Israel onto him.

God gives Moses a bit more time and a few last missions…but God, Moses, and Joshua are prepared for a day to come when Moses will no longer be with the Israelites.

Both Moses and Liddell illustrate the inevitability of humanity, which is death.

But! Both also illustrate the value of following God’s call with whatever life that God brings to us. Both were faced with opportunities to walk away from the challenges that God would place before them, and both stepped up (or ran up) to the plate.

Because these men said “yes” we are still talking about them today…and the kingdom of heaven will forever be marked by their lives.

The other challenge presented by these men, is the knowledge that one day…someone will take our spot. In 1936, Liddell’s speed records were broken, and Moses immediately passed his position onto Joshua. Both of these men remind us that we cannot hold onto our titles and positions forever…because someone else will eventually fill our place. Fortunately…I believe that both of these men would be happy to pass on the torch.

So…thought of the day: Run the race called life well, give glory to God at every opportunity, and then happy pass your position off to someone else when its time.

Good Night.

Thanks!

“We are all missionaries. Wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ, or we repel them from Christ.”

-Eric Liddell

Numbers 21-24 Glorious Disaster (yes, I have used this title before, but I like it)

Facts of the day

1. Being home for the weekend is awesome! I am so glad to have the chance to simply enjoy my family.

2. I read through four of the most loaded chapters in the Bible tonight, so I won’t begin to cover the material. So, numbers 21-24 would be a good place for you to read as soon as you get the chance.

So…

Numbers 21 starts off with Israel doing what they normally do…complaining. They are treating the provisions that God has given them like college students treat cafeteria food.

They are, once again, telling God that he is not good enough.

In response, God sends poisonous snakes into the Israelite camp. God is clearly angry with his people and is discipline them. BUT, God also loves his people enough to give them a way out. He allows them to be saved from death if only they will look up at a giant snake statue. (Weird, yes…but go with it)

What we learn from chapter 21 is that God truly is angered by the Israelites’, complaining, but is compassion for them is greater than his anger.

Moving on to chapters 23-24, we see something really interesting…

In this passage, God is literally giving words to a prophet named Balaam, and this the type of thing that God says about the Israelites…

"How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,
your dwelling places, O Israel!

"Like valleys they spread out,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the LORD,
like cedars beside the waters.

Fact: in this passage, God calls his same, complaining children “Beautiful.”

The same people that angered him, he is now blessing. Just so you know, we do serve a God who can see our mistakes and failures and still call us beautiful.

He can call us out of his anger and into his blessing...so quickly.

And he still chooses to defend us…when we deserve to be chewed up by snakes.

Numbers 17-20

Quite frankly, I am a bit down and grouchy tonight, for no apparent reason.

You know what that is like…there are just nights were you feel more like resting than doing homework and dealing with people.

But…life goes on and we push through.

A the end of every worn out night is a fresh coffee in the morning…

And I will forever believe that God does hold an explanation point for every question mark.

So, for tonight, I can simply push through.

The idea that hit me tonight came from numbers 18. In this passage, God is describing the roles of the priests,

The LORD said to Aaron, "You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.

What God is saying here is that the priests do not get the same gifts that God is planning to give to the rest of the Israelites. Instead, God was giving himself to Aaron. God was to be his share and his gift.

What amazes me about this passage is that, to the innocent bystander, it might look like Aaron had been giped. All of the normal tribes of Israel are being given so much. They have land, and massive blessings from God….

But I think that Aaron is the lucky one here…he has been given more of the presence of God.

Something that occurred to me a long time ago is this…

God never leaves a hole in your life that he doesn’t intend to fill, at least with himself.

Meaning, we have desires, and we have things that we hope for in our lives. I believe that God honors that, and I believe that even though our hopes do not always turn into realites…God fills up that void with himself. He makes us whole.

No, Aaron didn’t get the impressive looking property…He was given a piece of the Holy God instead.

Numbers 13-16 It’s Ok to Be a Grasshopper

People are very good at being stupid! (I am including myself in this by the way)

Tonight (in numbers 13) the moment finally came!

God had promised to bring the Israelites into their land…he had miraculously delivered them from Egypt. He had lead them…he had fed and watered them from heaven. He had shown them his power over and over again.

Now…he was finally going to fulfill his promise. The reason behind all of this was complete…and Israel was about to truly be free!

Just one problem…there was still a battle to fight.

The Israelites were camped just outside of the Promised Land, and they sent out spies to investigate the people who were living there.

Of the twelve spies

Two came back SO excited because they could tell that God was about to give them something amazing!

TEN came back terrified because the inhabitants of the land looked scary.

Their exact quote was this: “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Because of this fear, Israel did not get to see the land for a very long time….these men missed out….

What amazes me about this passage is the fact that, on one hand, these men were not wrong at all. The men of the land were probably huge, and defeating them would be impossible for the Israelite men to do alone.

BUT: the piece that the Israelites forgot is the fact that God is huge. He was never expecting them to fight their own battles. He had taken care of them at every moment until this one, and he was not about to leave them alone. He was planning to help them…but they stopped trusting in his power. They forgot about all of the miracles that he had already done.

I think that it is ok, to call yourself a grasshopper. I think that God is alright with our knowing that we are small and that some tasks are way too hard for us. I believe that this can be healthy truth.

BUT, we should never forget that God is standing with us. He is what makes us big. He is what makes it possible for us to take on huge tasks.

In the end, we have to trust him…and we have to follow him into battles with giants, because he has the power to win!

Numbers 9-12 I Really Wish That I Had a Cloud

Today was a bit of an overwhelming day for me…and I am pretty tired.

But as I sit here, I am amazed by the reality that God moves…that God works and doesn’t sleep.

As I sit here, I am so honored to be his daughter, and so humbled to be a part of his family.

I live with college students…lots and lots of college students…and I hear the same phrase dozens of times per day, “I just wish that I knew what God wanted me to do with my life.” I am convinced that this is normal for people who desire to live with the purpose of serving God.

All of us have been there…all of us have begged God to give us a clear picture of what he wants.

Tonight, I believe that the expression “Be careful what you wish for” may fit.

Numbers 9 tells us about the pillar of cloud that the Israelites got to follow. It was sort of like some cosmic game of follow-the-leader. The cloud would move, and the Israelites would follow it. The cloud would stop, and the Israelites would rest. It was so simple.

When I read this chapter, I found myself wishing that God would give me something like that…a big shiny cloud that would tell me exactly where to go, and what to do. It would be so easy!

Then I read the next chapters, and watched as the isrealites complained about God’s path. They told him over and over again that his plan was not good enough. That he was not taking good care of them…

The Israelites’ issue was not with their lack of knowledge of God’s plan, it a lack of contentment with his plan.

As much as I don’t like to admit it, I think that we may often struggle with the same problem. We, generally, know what we are supposed to do right now. We know what God is calling us to do right this second, but we fuss and complain about not knowing all of the details.

I feel that we, like the Israelites, need to start practicing the art of contentment with the path that has been laid out before us. If we praised God everyday for the things that he has given us today, then I think that we might discover trust.

We might just begin to understand that God is holding us…and that what he has given us is good…so good!

Sorry, if this didn’t flow too well tonight…I am pretty tired.

Numbers 5-8 So Not a Get Out of Jail Free Card!

Ok…Flashback

Remember a weeks back when we discussed the Passover. Remember, it was the night when God killed all of the firstborn in Egypt, but saved all of the firstborn sons with blood on their doorframes?

Remember that it was the night of great suffering in Egypt and great celebration for Israel. This last plague meant freedom.

OK…Flash-forward

Remember that this was a foreshadowing of what God would eventually do for the world when he would give his firstborn in exchange for the freedom of the entire world

Both of these events tied very firmly into the concept of being rescued and redeemed by God…both convey the truth that we are hopeless apart from God’s rescue.

Tonight, I came across something interesting… in Numbers chapter 8, God makes it very clear that he did not save the firstborn of the Israelites so that they could simply continue as if nothing had happened, he saved the firstborn and then had ownership over their lives. He expected them to be his.

He called the Levite tribe to represent the firstborn of Isreal. Being God’s firstborn meant serving him every single day. It meant dedicating ones life to complete service to him….the Levites were actually commanded to serve God as a profession.

Ok…where am I going with this?

Like the firstborn of Israel, we were saved by God.

We are the Levites, and we are called to serve God every single day.

Like the Levites, we need to be professional God-servers.

He did not save us, simply, so that we could be saved.

We saved us…and we are not his.

We need to act like it!

Numbers 1-4 “603,550”

Confession: I am currently typing while wearing a Snuggie. Yes, I am a bit horrified by that fact, but the truly terrible aspect of this moment is the fact that it is a Star Trek Snuggie…Someone should probably shoot me.

I feel like a complete dork…but I am the proud owner of something ridiculous…which is pretty cool!

Thank you roommate!

Anyway…tonight I started on the book of Numbers…oh dear.

I was convinced that Leviticus was tough, numbers is worse. In the midst of reading it, I became completely distracted by silly things…like counting the star ships on this snuggie and contemplating breakfast tomorrow…how am I going to get through this?

Numbers begins with a censes of all of the Israelite, adult males. While this wasn’t exactly riveting material, something really did stick out at me. The number of Israelite males (aside from Levites) was 603,550. This means that the total number of isrealites was probably something much more like 14,000,000. What is neat about this number is that it is proof that God was keeping his promise to Abraham that he would turn him into a great nation. The number of Israelites was not close to the number of stars…yet, but they were getting a lot closer!

This reminds me of the many moments back in Genesis when Abraham must have doubted that God could still give him any decedents at all. I am quite certain that he would have been shocked to know that his miracle son Isaac would lead to more than ten thousand decedents. I bet that he would have had a difficult time believing it…but God came through!

God ALWAYS comes through.

What is more incredible about this story is the fact that it was SO only the beginning. Israel would continue to expand and it would eventually include every single follower of Christ.

I bet that God gave Abraham a huge “I told you so!” when he was finally able to see these things!

All of this reminds me that I still need to hold on to God’s promises in my own life, and to trust that he will keep them.

I need to remember that his time is not mine. I need to remember that he sees the entire span of history…and that he knows what he is doing….

Wow we serve a cool God!

Yours in a Star Trek Snuggie…Good night!