Mission Faithwalk

                 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (I Peter 2:9) and fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the Lord.   “Fashion a breastpiece for making decisions—the work of skilled hands. Make it like the ephod: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen.   It is to be square—a span long and a span wide—and folded double.    Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. The first row shall be carnelian, chrysolite and beryl;   the second row shall be turquoise, lapis lazuli and emerald;    the third row shall be jacinth, agate and amethyst;   the fourth row shall be topaz, onyx and jasper. Mount them in gold filigree settings.   There are to be twelve stones, one for each of the

                 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”                  The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”                Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.    After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.                Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (I Kings 19:10-13)                  The whole passage I’d like to examine is to

                 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez,  saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request . (I Chronicles 4:9-10)                  It's been a long time since I thought about this prayer. Someone wrote a book about it, and it was quite popular in Christian circles for a time. One idea taught about it was that Jabez, having caused his mother pain when he was born, was not so much praying that he would not suffer pain but that God would keep him from causing pain to others, which in turn would free him from the pain of having caused it.                This could be true, or he may have seen the effect pain had on his mother, who named him because “Jabez” sounds like the word for “pain.” I can’t imagine the pain of going through life

              Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,   for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)             Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?   Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”           … Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”           He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” (Genesis 18:23-25 & 32)                    “I would never worship a god who….”                “My god would never ….”        

                 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)                    Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.   That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (II Corinthians 12:8-10)                  I sometimes feel crazy busy. I sometimes feel crazy. I sometimes feel busy. Sometimes, I multitask and feel any combination of the three. More than one person has said that I’m probably ADHD, but there are times when I think it’s a kind of Obsessive Compulsive thing. From what I’ve heard, people with OCD have to repeat their action because they

                 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. (John 17:13-19)                  One of the things that bother me when someone is praying is when they decide to make an announcement within the prayer. “Oh, and, Father, please bless the meeting we’re having next Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Something-or-Other Assembly Hall, at which we’ll be discussing….” In today’s passage, Jesus does something that, at first glance, might be said to be

                 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations . (Psalm 100)                  Maybe you’re not a shouter. Maybe you are. Maybe you’re a quiet singer. Maybe you’re one who knows that the Lord is God. Maybe you can give thanks. Maybe you can praise. Maybe you’re going through a hard time and all of these are difficult. Some people seem to think that there is only one acceptable way to approach God.  You must raise your hands, or you must speak in tongues, or you must say the right words, dress the right way, have a life devoid of sin…and they are right. There are only two right ways to approach

                   I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.    All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.   I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. (John 17:9-12)                  From His celebration with and of the Father, Jesus turns his attention to His disciples. He was coming to the end when He could return to the Father, but His disciples would remain in the world because they had His work to carry on. That would place them in conflict with the world. As He contemplates His victory, He also lovingly thinks ahead to the needs of tho

                        “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.   Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.   For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.   While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.  (John 17:6-12)                  The pendulum

                      I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. (John 17:4-5)                         During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him . (Hebrews 5:7-9)                       We’re back to glory, which suggests that eternal life is also all about glorifying God (and His Son.) Today’s passage, however, gives a specific about how we can glorify God. Jesus claimed to have brought the Father glory by finishing the work the Father gave Him to do. Part of me responds to this idea with a rather caustic, “Yeah, but the Father gave Jesus a very s

                Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)                  This seems like an odd thing to say at this point, but that may be because of our lack of understanding of Jewish poetry. I have heard it said that their poetry doesn’t work on rhyme or meter so much as in saying the same thing over again, perhaps in a different way. The Father glorifying the Son so the Son can glorify the Father may hold the same idea as eternal life being about knowing God and Jesus Christ. Glorifying the Father is glorifying the Son. Knowing the Father is knowing the Son, and eternity and everything contained within it (including the space-time continuum) is all about Them.                Sometimes, people seem to think of heaven as a place and eternity as a time period. In a sense, they probably are, but eternal life is only eternal life in relation to God. Apart from Him, it’s eternal death – otherwise known as H

                “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. (John 17:1-2)                  Generally, we refer to “the Lord’s Prayer” as the teaching example Jesus gave to His disciples: Matthew 6:9-13. But this “High Priestly Prayer” is what the Lord prayed. They both begin with the Father, whether shared (our Father) or not (Father.)                He seems to skip the “hallowed by thy name” part and jump straight to the “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done part.” The hour had come. What hour? Clearly, there had been a discussion of “the hour” before. There is an assumption of agreement and expected mutual cooperation and acknowledgment of collaboration. It’s all cyclical. Glorify…that I may glorify You. For You gave…that I may give… to those given to me.                What does it mean to glorify someone? According to the Oxford Dict

                      Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows . (Matthew 10:29-31)                This is a passage I need today. It’s not that I’m afraid. I don’t know that I’m exactly anxious. Perhaps the    easiest way to describe it is that I’m scattered, but even that’s not quite it. Whatever the word is, one way to describe it is that I feel like a whole flock of little sparrows. We’re not talking about European Starlings that fly around in graceful murmuration. This is an “every bird for itself!” flock.                 Upsets come in many forms. Some are strongly negative. Something bad happens. Others are just there. Even positive things can throw a life into large or small states of chaos. Part of the cause for me may be the fact that this week, my park kicked into gear, so my busy lifestyle sudd

  Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law . (Psalm 119:18)   In Seven Habits of Highly Effective People , Stephen Covey tells a story about someone seeing a man sitting on a train, apparently paying no attention to his children who were acting out dramatically. Irritated, the observer calls the man’s attention to the children. He apologizes and explains. They are on their way home from the hospital where his wife (their mother) had just died. Mr. Covey tells the story to illustrate the idea of a paradigm shift, when the way you see something changes. Sometimes, the change is abrupt, as in the story. Other times, it takes years or decades. You can experience it by watching a TV show or movie that you thought was “so good” once upon a time, and when you watch it again, you wonder how you could ever have thought it was anything but junk. Your paradigms shifted along the way.             A paradigm shift is what the author of Psalm 119 seeks. As he is, he’s pretty sure he’

                 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Now ask the priests concerning the law, saying, “‘If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?’”                Then the priests answered and said, “no.”                And Haggai said, “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it become unclean?”                And the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.”                Then Haggai answered and said, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before me,’ says the Lord, “and so is every work of their hands, and what they offer there is unclean.’” (Haggai 1:10-14)                  What God said to the priests through Haggai probably wasn’t as strange sounding to them as it is to us. This was the sort of thing they spent time considering. But there’s a modern parallel that will make the issue lot clearer. If someone who did not have COVID w

  As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” (Luke 8:42b-47)                    And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she hea

                 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.                   In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.                “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”                “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”                Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”                She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. (Mark 7:24-30)                    Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that v

                      Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. (I John 2:15-16)                  Don’t love the world? John 3:16 says that God loved the world so much that He gave His Son. So if God loved the world, and we’re supposed to follow Him, shouldn’t we love the world, too? This might sound like a contradiction, but it’s not. The words used for love and world are the same, but they’re not used in the same way. Because of God’s love for the world, He gives. John says the problem is that when we love the world, it’s not about our giving ourselves for the sake of the world, but about taking what the world offers.                It's not about our giving ourselves to or for the world. There are three problems with giving our lives for the world. First, if we gi

            God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ (Job 37:2-6)                 This passage is amusingly appropriate given that Tropical Storm Nicole is dumping and blowing on us . God has told Nicole, “Be a mighty downpour.” I’m grateful, this will do my gardens good, and I’m even looking forward to seeing if Zephyr Lake will flood over the one sidewalk. I just wish I could get to the coast to see what’s happening there and take pictures, but I don’t want to drive to do it. Where’s a teleporter when you want one.                The verse is interesting for another reason: the words. God’s voice thunders . We expect this. Somehow, God is supposed to speak with a basso profundo – a deep, sonorous voice, but at the volume of an orator without a microphone – like rolling thunder. There are places in Scripture where people mistake His voice for t

                 Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool . If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:18-20)                     Do you hear the echoes of “if My people, who are called by My name…”? Yes, I’m still harping about politics two days after the election. Political elections didn’t happen in Biblical times, so you’re not going to find any passages that say, “If your party wins the election, you will eat the good things of the land.” Some like to think that having the government in their hands means everything will be all better soon. Both passages tell us that if we are right with God, things will improve.                The problem is that “right with God” isn’t really a national thing. It’s

                 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)                  The votes are in, winners are being announced. I have to admit, I hope some specific people are happy with the outcome, and that others are not. While every moment of every day of our lives is a Joshua 24:15 moment, elections are vibrant examples of what Joshua was talking about, not only in the sense that we chose yesterday who we will serve (or at least allow to make rules for us,) but also in the sense of our response to who was chosen.                If you aren’t pleased with the election's outcome, you must choose which attitude will rule your life – bitterness, resentment, rejection, defeat, or love. Some people have advocated withdrawing fro

                 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (I Timothy 2:12)             But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matthew 5:44)              It’s election day. Please vote. But voting isn’t enough. We don’t know yet who is going to win, but it doesn’t matter. Start praying now for whoever the winners will be. Pray for their salvation. Pray for them to make wise and righteous decisions. Pray for their physical well-being. Pray that they will not only be courageous and hopeful, but that they will lead us to be courageous, hopeful, and righteous.                Another way to pray that frees you from the same words every day is to use one or more passages from Scripture as your guide in praying. An easy one is the fruit of the Spirit. Each day, you lift up those