Mission Faithwalk

but the seventh day is a  sabbath  to the  Lord  your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. (Exodus 20:10) I’m reading a book about Sabbath resting. Even before I knew the book existed, I had decided not to weed on Sundays because Sunday morning was church, and the idea of trying to play catch up on the weeding and then my other Sunday activities would cause too much stress. I could either weed or go to Church – not both, not in one day. In addition, my muscles have made it abundantly clear that they need the rest. But rest is one of those basics that we shove aside. We think we rest when we collapse, exhausted, into bed at the end of the day. We might pick a day in which we’re going to be “lazy.” Resting for some seems to be marathoning a TV or movie series. For others, it’s legalism. You can’t watch TV, can’t go shopping, can’t mo...

  So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16) Do I really need to tell you that this doesn’t work? I mean, how many times have you prayed that God would fix something in your life, change you in some way, and it just hasn’t happened? It’s like the scene in the movie, “Young Sherlock Holmes.” Sherlock scratches a couple of notes his violin, and raises it above his head to smash it. When the young Watson stops him, Sherlock expresses his disgust that he hasn’t mastered it. Watson asks how long he’s been playing, and Sherlock says, “Three days.”           We’re often like Sherlock. We’ve prayed about this weakness, that sin, or some other problem for ten minutes, three days, a year, or ten years, and it seems that nothing has happened. We haven’t mastered our “violin.” Or, we did master it, but somewhere along the line, we stopped practicing, and now … heavy sigh … what’s the use? ...

  To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8: 31-32)   For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a  license  for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude 1:4)             A little logic this morning, just to warm up our minds. According to Jesus, if we hold to His teaching – if we accept, live by, apply, function within His teaching, we know the truth because His teachings are truth. And dealing with the truth always frees one from the lies, though sometimes it takes work.           But what does freedom mean? For some, it means the ability to do whatever they want to, often in excess...

            Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (I John 4:21-22)           For whoever does the will of  my  Father in heaven is  my  brother and sister and  mother .” (Matthew 12:50)              This is easy because we all live in such stable, healthy, functional families, right? I heard that. Maybe it was just my own snort, not yours. Have I “been there” for my sister? Was I ever there for my brother? OK, I was certainly around when each of my parents died, but was my care for them, or was it to show what a good, caring, dutiful daughter I was? And if (heaven forbid!) members of my family were of a different religious or polit...

             So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” (Exodus 15:24)           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. (Deuteronomy 1:27) Do everything without grumbling or arguing, (Philippians 2:14)           According to the Cambridge Dictionary of English, grumble means “ to  complain  about someone or something in an  annoyed  way.” Even with the few verses I’ve shared above, it seems pretty clear that God takes a dim view of grumbling. My immediate objections to the verse from Philippians are 1) Jesus argued and 2) we’re supposed to obey God rather than man. How do I reconcile these two with “do everything without grumbling or arguing”?   ...

                  In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out;   but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted.     So the cloud of the  Lord  was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels. (Exodus 40:36-38)           This is what I want: a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night, telling me when to set out and when to stay in camp. I want a sign from Heaven giving clear instructions about what I’m supposed to do. I want a John Wayne figure who regularly tells me, “Head’em up, move’em out!” (Even if John Wayne never did it in the movies.)           Of course, if I had such clear direction, it probably wouldn’t help. I’d procrastina...

            When hard pressed, I cried to the  Lord ; he brought me into a spacious place. The  Lord  is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 118:5-6)            And we know that in all things God works for the good  of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)             But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as  gold. (Job 23:10) There are two sides to these passages. The first is that God is in control. He has promised to protect us and to be with us until the end of the age. Mortals cannot condemn a person to eternity without God’s blessing (AKA Hell.) No matter what humans may do to us, it does not change our relationship with God and He can heal all wounds. On the other side, there is the reality that mortals can cause great pain, and that God’s p...