Then he said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him." When Moses went and told the people all the LORD'S words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do."
Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey."
Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction." Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them." When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
1. Who does God invite to come into his presence?
2. Why do you think they are to worship at a distance?
3. Why does Moses sprinkle the people with blood?
4. What it the attitude of the people as they consider God’s commands?
5. Why is Moses (and Joshua) called closer to God?
6. What was the appearance of the mountain?
Sunday, April 26, 2009
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Another beautiful day!
I thought we had a good day today.
I must admit that it was pretty discouraging to see a bunch of people leave right before our guy from Childplace spoke. We planned for it, so no extra time was involved. I felt embarrassed as he watched people leave.
There are things I don't understand, and that's one of them.
But life goes on...
The big race is Saturday, so the tapering continues. I ran 8 on Saturday with the group. Off today (as usual). Five tomorrow; 4 Tuesday; 3 on Wednesday. Off Thursday and Saturday.
I've had a few problems with my left knee for the last week or so. Ironically it is not running injury. About a year and a half ago I fell really hard on my garage floor. I hit the inside of my left knee really hard. This was just a few days before the Tecumseh Trail Marathon. I went ahead and ran with a lot of pain. Since then I have had periodic bouts with pain there. Everyone once in a while it just starts "clicking" and then the pain follow. It doesn't keep me from running, but it hurts and makes me nervous. Is it going to get worse?
Sorry about that detailed peek into my interior.
Yesterday morning I spoke at Spring Mill Park. They have a worship assembly in the meeting house in the village each week at 8.30. A couple show up each week with a guitar to lead a couple of songs. I spoke for about 10 minutes. There were a total of 9 of us there.
We had a very lively Life Group last night. I think they were excited about our post-meeting eating plans. We all went to El Compadre. It's funny how our group suddenly expanded from 16 to about 25 as we arrived to eat.
I feel warm, lethargic, and like oinking. What could this mean?
Were are going to redo our stage in the FLC. Everyone really liked me being "high" (insert jokes here) on Easter. The number of comments were amazing; more than 60 I think.
Anyway, I think the present stage is too high, and it cannot be accessed from the floor without disappearing. Long story short: we are going to lower a significant portion of the existing stage, create some steps, project from the ceiling, install new spotlights, and repaint/redecorate the stage. The goal is for the new stage to look like a real church building front.
We've started working pretty hard on all this. Terry, Brent, and I met today to discuss getting new power circuits in place to handle the new needs.
I am pretty excited about all this. I think it will positively affect the corporate mood of our gatherings.
What do you think?
We project having all this done in the next couple of months. We'll start with the lighting and the projector. Once that is in place then we'll rip into the stage itself.
Future plans include possibly installing a baptismal pool. This would probably be placed near the cross.
Oh, I forgot. Have you noticed that we increased the height of my little preaching platform? We added a couple of platforms to raise the ones we already had.
Hey, we're working hard to improve things!
I think the pig flu thing is being too hyped up. What do you think?
I loved waking up to hear the rain this morning. We planted a bunch of flowers last night, anticipating the rain. We also transplanted a bunch of plants given to us by Lou Ann.
This morning is my time with Exodus 24. I am really looking forward to diving in to this most interesting text.
As I said last week, Tuesday morning is my favorite part of the work week.
I am getting some interesting feedback about the Sunday morning class. Several have commented on how much they are enjoying it, especially the last few sessions, which are getting closer to "where we live." One told me that it was boring and that he couldn't wait until it was over.
I have been pleasantly surprised that we have held our good attendance in there. I don't think we have dropped off at all.
Like some, I do miss the intimacy of the smaller groups in classes, but we'll get back to that soon.
Good morning everyone. Allen, I talk to myself too and answer sometimes, but I am 64. We worked in the yard last night. Bill mowed and I planted two five gallon buckets of cannas and several elephant ears. Maybe we will have little elephants this summer to adorn the yard. It is a beautiful time of the year and hard to stay inside. So glad it rained. This will give the bulbs a good boost. Need to plant a white bleeding heart tonight and do some preparation for the Perennial Exchange on Saturday. 100 members will be there from all over central and southern Indiana. It will be special for me since two of my sisters are going to be there. Greta is the president and this is her last exchange as president. Charlotte, our sister got us involved several years ago and we have met and made friends with so many nice people who love to garden. Sisters of The Soil:
BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE SOIL
This band of ladies and gents who labor and toil
In flowers and dirt—brothers and sisters of the soil.
Our badge of honor when first warmth comes
Is dirt under our nails and blistered thumbs.
We dig and pull, layout and plant;
In our vocabulary they left out “can’t.”
Laboring from first light to past sunset
Planting flowers, tomatoes and onion sets.
Time is no object and pain we disregard
As we tidy up, dig and renovate the yard.
Spreading mulch and pulling weeds,
We nurture and pray over our bulbs and seeds.
Taking a walk several times daily to see
If anything’s sprouted and putting out leaves.
We fight off beetles, worms, rabbits and moles
Making sure plants and flowers are free to grow.
With the same spunk and zeal at seasons end
We prepare them for rest and dormancy again;
But the plants aren’t resting; they’re putting down roots.
While we clean tools and put away our garden boots,
Putting down our own roots, we too cannot rest,
Planning for next spring when the birds begin to nest;
Pull out garden magazines and seed catalogues
Awaiting sweet spring to don garden clogs.
Brothers and sisters of the soil, a common bond we share
Nurturing God’s earth, we dream of planting time next year.
Sherron Fields 3/19/09
Have a great day everyone. Sherron
Where's it going to be at Sherron? I live in an apt now but my daughter in bedford is really starting to get into gardening. Plus its always fun to be around other gardeners.
Annette
Hey Annette! Good to hear from you again.
I can answer your question. It's in the FLC at the Mitchell Church of Christ.
And thanks, Sherron, for the post and great poem!
Interesting article about FacebookI have quit going to Facebook. The only time I go there is to deal with a rare friend request and when I want to see some photos of my kids (like Luke's Baja car experience). I have a few people wanting to be my "friend" that I don't even know. Weird.
I find the whole thing disturbing. People share all kinds of details about their lives; not sure I want to know all of it. I don't think I can process it all. Oh well... Back when I visited Facebook on a regular basis, I found that I was getting sucked in and wasting lots and lots of time. I couldn't figure out how to balance it all.
Now, on the positive side, I have connected with a few people that I have not seen since graduation from high school. But after I look at their profile I am not sure what to do next. We haven't had contact in 30+ years.
A lot of older people (my age) are getting on Facebook. I asked Rebecca if she found that annoying, and she said, "kinda." I figure the younger ones will flee to another yet-to-be-established social networking site. You know someone out there is working on one.
Yes, I suppose all this reveals my "fuddy-duddy" status...
I am really excited about our text this week, but I'm not sure what to do with it or how to present it. It could be a really long Thursday.
There is so much there to consider. I am thinking of dealing with the "apparent contradiction" in the text. They see God and live. Just a few chapters earlier we were told that that was not possible. I think there is reason for all this, and it might be worth exploring. Clearly God, by grace, allows Moses and the others to see him in some form or fashion.
But do they get past seeing his feet? Read the text. They see this amazing platform on which the feet of God stand or rest. Do they not see beyond his feet because they have fallen to their faces?
Awestruck.
Annette, It was good to hear from you. The event for Saturday requires reservations which had to be in by April 15. I made a brief announcement at church but since it is not church related I didn't do much else with it. It is a great club and the membership fee for one year is only $12 and we have met so many nice people through it from everywhere. Call me (279-2747) and I will give you more info about joining and who to contact. Again, I am very sorry you heard about this late. Sherron
From Henri Nouwen in The Only Necessary Thing, which by the way is worth owning and reading a little bit each day, which is what I am doing.
We simply need quiet time in the presence of God. Although we want to make all our time, time for God, we will never succeed if we do not reserve a minute, an hour, a morning, a day, a week, a month, or whatever period of time God and God alone. This asks for much discipline and risk taking because we always seem to have something more urgent to do and “just sitting there” and “doing nothing” often disturbs us more than it helps. But there is no way around this. Being useless and silent in the presence of our God belongs to the core of all prayer. In the beginning we often hear our own unruly inner noises more loudly than God’s voice. This is at times very hard to tolerate. But slowly, very slowly, we discover that the silent time makes us quiet and deepens our awareness of ourselves and God. Then, very soon, we start missing these moments when we are deprived of them, and before we are fully aware of it an inner momentum has developed that draws us more and more into silence and closer to that still point where God speaks to us.
Contemplative reading of the Holy Scriptures and silent time in the presence of God belong closely together. The word of God draws us into silence; silence makes us attentive to God’s word. The word of God penetrates through the thick of human verbosity to the silent center of our heart; silence opens in us the space where the word can be heard. Without reading the word, silence becomes stale, and without silence, the word loses its recreative power. The word leads to silence and silence to the word. The word is born in silence, and silence is the deepest response to the word.
We've been practicing silence in our Monday evening men's Bible study. Not too long. No complaints. I think it's one of those things you don't like at first but then start to desire.
One of my classes at ACU required that we begin each day with 10 minutes of silence in the chapel. By the end of the week I was looking forward to the time.
A couple of summers ago I taught Christian Spiritual Formation at Oakland City U. (Bedford campus). I began each class with several minutes of silence. There was a lot of protest at first, but it was silenced after a few days.
This fall I am going to teach the class again, and I think I will use even more silence. There is something special about it.
Reminds me of this:
“Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10a
I like the kind of rain we are having right now. It's peaceful and relaxing. I am watching it against the backdrop of (finally) freshly "leafed" trees. Beautiful.
Have you read Ezekiel 1 lately?
Wow!
Tomorrow is the big day (for running). My knee has caused me a lot of angst this week. I ran Monday with pain; took off 2 days and ran yesterday. Still pain. I talked last night to 2 guys I really trust, men with lots of experience, and they both said that it should be ok to run with the pain. So run I will!
Looks like it could be a little wet. That's better than last week's 75 degrees. Really.
Still wrestling with the sermon.
When I watch some people sleep through them I wonder why I spent so much time on them.
But
Then I hear people talk about their lives and how they overcame this or that or learned this or that, and as I listen I hear echoes of past sermons, then I believe it is worth the effort.
Just trying to be faithful.
Trying to step it up and work a little harder presently.
Hoping for revival.
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