the first step

"When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs came to pass that day." - 1 Samuel 10.9 (ESV)

Saul, on a mission to find his missing donkeys, was met by the seer, Samuel, with a message from God. Israel wanted a king and he was the one chosen for the job. Of course, the news was received with disbelief as Saul politely protested that he was the least of his family which was least in the least tribe of Israel. He, like Moses, had many excuses as to why this plan wouldn't work. 

Nevertheless, Samuel stuck with God's word and anointed Saul king of Israel. He gave Saul a series of signs that he should expect in order to prove that God had chosen him as the "prince over His heritage". Notice that  when he turned to leave then God touched him and changed his heart.

The first step is the most important one. Nothing happened until Saul turned to go and then God touched him. If you continued to read the story you would discover that all of the signs that Samuel spoke of came to pass and Saul did eventually concede the fact that he was king. Unfortunately, Saul's life cannot be used as a good example of a godly man because it ended in tragedy due to his disobedience and unfaithfulness to the Lord. However, his first step can be a source of encouragement.

Has the Lord spoken to you and given specific direction for your life, but nothing has happened yet? It's possible that you have doubts and fears that cause you to make excuses as to why it won't work. Here's the solution: turn and take the first step. It's the first step that signifies faith and obedience. It's the first step, no matter how small, that opens wide the door for God to come in and accomplish His will in you.

face to face with God

Moses had no end of trouble from the children of Israel as he led them through the wilderness. They were complainers, gripers, grumblers, malcontents, etc. Nothing was good enough for them - not even the presence of God Himself. He went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night yet they failed to trust Him. 
Moses faced opposition from the general mass of people as well as from his own family. The day came when Aaron and Miriam, the brother and sister of Moses, challenged his position as God's chosen leader. Their complaint stemmed from jealousy causing them to defy God's order as they questioned, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?" God had indeed spoken through them and they made the mistake of assuming that God spoke through Moses in the same manner as He spoke through them.

Ultimately God shut them down with a warning, in the form of leprosy, to never go there again. The part that interests me most about this episode is how God described Moses when rebuking the siblings. Read on:

"Hear now My words:

If there is a prophet among you, 

I, the LORD, make Myself

known to him in a vision;

I speak to him in a dream.

Not so with My servant Moses;

He is faithful in all My house.

I speak with him face to face.

Even plainly, and not in

dark sayings;

And he sees the form of the LORD.

Why then were you not afraid

to speak against My servant Moses?"

Numbers 12.6-8 (NKJV)

He spoke to others through dreams and visions, but with Moses He met face to face. He spoke plainly with Him as with a friend and Moses saw "the form of the LORD", which was most likely a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. God had a close and personal relationship with Moses. Go back for a  moment to the years in Egypt and the decades in the backside of the desert herding goats. During those years this intimacy did not exist and yet it was through those years that God was working to bring Moses to this point. 

God used the early struggles of Moses: the murder of the Egyptian, his rejection by the Israelites, fleeing in fear of the justice of Pharaoh, loneliness and futility herding the flocks of another. Each experience, each event, each year served as a test or trial. As the trials piled up Moses' character was being shaped under the pressure. He came through the other side formed into the meekest man to live and a friend of God whom God met with face to face.

flesh pots or bread from heaven?

The children of Israel were, at times, complainers. As they traversed the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land of Canaan they griped and grumbled while asking why Moses brought them out to this barren place to die. In the eleventh chapter of Numbers we read of their tiring of manna and an intense craving for meat. Once again they cried out against God, complaining about the food He faithfully provided them in the barren wasteland. They began to focus on the menu that was available to them back in Egypt, showing contempt for God's provision.

Moses grew angry with them and ultimately asked the Lord to kill him rather than burden him with this people any longer. God's response was to send to Moses seventy men anointed by the Spirit to assist him in bearing the burden of this troublesome and whiny people. He also sent quail, lots and lots of quail, to the discontented people of Israel.  There were so many that they stacked up three feet deep a days journey in any direction from the camp. 

The people worked quickly to gather up as many quail as they could. It would seem that they tore into the uncooked flesh of the quail in order to satiate their ravenous lust for meat. In doing so they brought the anger of the Lord upon themselves in the form of a plague that destroyed a great number of them.

Ultimately the failure of the Israelites was their failure to trust God. Their complaints were a symptom of faithlessness. They did not trust God which led to an inability to appreciate God and be thankful for what He had already given them. In their lust for the things of Egypt they neglected to honor the One who brought them out of bondage.

As a child of God I have been delivered from the chains the world held me in for the first twenty years of my life. The Lord's faithfulness to me has been nothing short of amazing as He provides for me physically, materially, spiritually, and in every other way. However, He doesn't simply provide for me. That is not His intent. Instead He is the provision.

There are seasons in my life when I find myself in the wilderness. The temptation I face most often while there is that of the Israelites...to complain because of fleshly desires. I take for granted the provision of the Lord, rejecting what He has given in my unthankfulness and hungering for the "flesh pots of Egypt". In reality I am rejecting Him.

Guard your heart against the lusts of the flesh. Trust the Lord and be thankful for His provision - Him - in wilderness journeys and every other season of life.

it's been a while

I have been away from this for too long. I apologize to anyone and everyone who has come back to this page wanting to read something new. It's been a dry season, but I look forward to posting regularly again.

unbelieving disciples

There are two things I noticed and want to point out regarding the disciples of Jesus in John 6. The first is disturbing to me. What is it? They were disciples, followers of Jesus who were with Him wherever He went and, in spite of all that they saw and heard, some of them did not believe. Disciples of Jesus who did not believe! I wonder if they knew that they did not believe. I mean, why did they continue to follow Him up until this point if they did not believe that He was the Messiah?
It causes me to stop and consider this very same thing about myself. Do I believe Him? Do I really, truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God? If so, do I really, truly believe everything He said? Am I one of many who fill church seats on Sunday morning, listen to Christian music, buy Christian books, wear Christian t-shirts, and have a plastic fish stuck to my bumper, but do not have a real and true relationship with Jesus because I don't really, truly believe in Him or believe His word?
How is it possible to be a disciple, but not believe? I think that sometimes we are guilty of being a part of something because it seems to be the norm. Many consider themselves to be followers of Christ, having no idea of who He is, but following because it is the norm. It's what we do. Then one day we wake up and walk away from Him because He said something difficult to understand, something that is radical, different, daring, bold, and definitely not the norm that we are used to following.
That's what happened to this group of disciples. They couldn't accept what He said because it was radically different than anything they had ever heard before and it made them uncomfortable. Couple that with the fact that they didn't really, truly believe Him in the first place and you get AWOL disciples. Jesus let them go without attempting to bring them back. He knew their hearts and let them go.

Am I willing to take the difficult things about Jesus; the radical, daring, and bold things about Him and obey or am I of the heart and mind that will turn and walk away at the first hint of different? Do I believe Jesus for who He is and what He has done?

Lord, grant me the grace to ask these questions and answer them honestly. Strengthen and increase my faith in You and cause my heart to follow You with utmost devotion, never wavering or faltering. To You be the glory.

led by their stomachs

John chapter six. That's where I began to slow down and spend time daily, simply reading and re-reading, chewing and digesting. The chapter is chock full o' great stuff, but it is not my intent to cover all of it. Nope, only those things that impacted me the most. Let's dig in a little.

Within the chapter there are three basic groups of people: the crowds, the disciples, and the twelve. As Jesus teaches, He does so knowing the hearts of each and the reactions that will follow His short and somewhat difficult self-revelation as the Bread of life. Yet He does not pull any punches. The message is never altered to be more appealing to any group in order to remain "popular" among them. The intent of His words is to reveal Himself and His mission, not to please people and win friends. He left the decision of following of following Him or not to the people.

The chapter begins with Jesus, the disciples (including the twelve) and the crowds camped out on a mountain at the edge of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd followed Him because they saw the miracles He performed around the region. They were drawn to the signs and wonders without necessarily being drawn to Him. Jesus looked at the crowd and tested Philip, asking him where they could get enough bread to feed all of them. Philip, astonished at such a question, replied, "A year's wages couldn't buy enough bread to feed all of these people!" There were 5,000 men and with the women and children the crowd could have easily numbered between 10-15K. At that moment Andrew brought a boy, whose lunch consisted of five barley loaves and two fish, to Jesus and offered these meager portions to Him. (I wonder what Andrew's thoughts were as he brought the boy to Jesus. Was it merely an attempt to appear productive by bringing something, anything to Jesus? Perhaps Andrew was exercising a desperate faith, knowing that Jesus could do something, but not sure what. Just a thought.) As the story goes, Jesus had everyone sit in groups, took the boy's lunch and offered thanks to God for it. He then had the disciples distribute the bread and fish to those in the crowd. The miracle happened as they distributed it and all were fed, in reality glutted, with twelve baskets of leftovers gathered at the end.

What was the reaction of the crowd? They recognized Jesus as the Prophet foretold by Moses, but misunderstood His mission. As a result, the crowd was worked up and sought to take Him by force to make Him king. Why? They had a preconceived idea of what the Prophet/Messiah was supposed to be and it involved an earthly kingdom and overthrowing the Romans. The Messiah was, in their minds, a political revolutionary that would set them free from Roman control. The Messiah was also to be a provider of bread to the people, renewing the giving of manna. They formed an idea of the Messiah's mission based upon their body appetites.

Jesus withdrew from the crowds before they could take Him by force and went up on the mountain by Himself. The disciples left the area at some point in the night, crossing the Galilee to Capernaum. It was in their nighttime crossing that Jesus came to them, walking across the rough, windblown waters, and bringing them to the other side safely. It is important to note that the disciples were struggling in futility to cross the sea, being prevented by the strong winds and choppy seas. Jesus' coming frightened them and then relieved them as He brought them to their destination. It served as a lesson to the disciples, but more on that later.

The crowds awoke the next morning missing Jesus. They looked all over to no avail. He was gone, but no one had seen Him leave and none could figure out how He left knowing that He had not gone with the disciples in the boat. Still bent on crowning Him king and having their bellies filled they set out across the Galilee to find Him. When they do catch up with Him they question His departure. His response is to reveal their motives of why they are seeking Him. He said, "You are not seeking Me because you saw signs, but because your bellies were filled with the bread. You are only interested in what I can give you or do for you physically. You are materially minded." They asked four more questions, as recorded by John, in response to Jesus' words.
     
      "What must we do to be doing the works of God?"
      "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you?"
      "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?"
      "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?"

Each of these questions stemmed from a wrong heart focused on the material and physical things. Ultimately, they walked away from Jesus, disappointed because He did not fit their ideas of what the Messiah should be. How many people have started out seeking Jesus, but turned away in disappointment because He did not fit their predetermined ideas of what a Savior should be? If you are not a Christian and are reading this does this describe you? Instead of trying to change Him by forcing your ideas upon Him, why not listen to what He has to say and change your idea? If you are a Christian, how many times have you been disappointed with Him because He does not fit neatly into your box? Again, who needs to change (and be changed)?

Next time I'll look at the disciples in chapter six.
To God be the glory.

the plan

I've been doing something a little different with my quiet time each day. Instead of simply reading through a chapter or two each morning and moving on I've decided to spend the week in one chapter, reading and re-reading it each morning to more fully digest it. Throughout the day I then read several chapters on my journey through the Bible. I am also journaling each morning as I "chew" on the word. Each post I will share my "findings" with anyone who should happen upon this blog in order to (hopefully) encourage and challenge.

All to the glory of God.