Listen to what the LORD says:
"Stand up, plead your case before the mountains;
let the hills hear what you have to say.
Hear, O mountains, the LORD'S accusation;
listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the LORD has a case against his people;
he is lodging a charge against Israel.
"My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
My people, remember
what Balak king of Moab counseled
and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember [your journey] from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD."
"With what shall I come before the LORD
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
Notice that God makes reference to the Exodus and the crossing of the Jordan River.
What is the primary complaint that God has against his people?
What does God want from his people?
How can remembering the Exodus (and the crossing of the Jordan) help the people understand what God desires?
What does it mean to "act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God"?
How does this passage apply to us?
Sunday, January 25, 2009
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Are we going to get a good snow?
OR
Will it be a BFN?
BFN?
BIG FAT NOTHING
[See, I was cool before all this texting/facebook stuff. I was creating acronyms before acronyms were cool.]
Another 2 hour delay.
Looks like there won't be much book learnin' this week. If the forecast is true there won't be school for at least tomorrow and Wednesday.
I bet the grocery store will be a fun place today.
I am looking forward to this snow. I hope it happens.
Ben brought one of the 4 wheelers into the garage yesterday and mounted the frame for our little snow plow. He did a good job. He is very eager to get to use it. Luke will be jealous. He really wanted some snow when he was home. I think Nashville will just get a good soaking rain.
Did you hear about the girl's basketball game in Texas where the score was 100-0?
It has been pretty controversial, and it's going to get a whole lot worse. The administrator's of the school that won apologized for winning by such a wide margin. The coach didn't apologize, and now he has been fired. You can read about it HERE.
What do you thing about this? Should the team that got beat even be playing? They only have 20 girls in the entire school and only 8 on the team.
Is our culture turning soft? Two-hour delays. Don't beat another team too badly; apologize if you do. If you're fat, it's because of a virus; it's not your fault. It's not your fault if do any number of things that are socially unacceptable (or at least used to be) - it's your genetic make up.
Are we turning soft, or are we simply being more compassionate and understanding?
What do you think? I'm trying to sort/figure it all out.
Thanks to the generosity of many folks in response to a simple email I have collected more than $500 for a chainsaw. If you remember, Michael, a hard-working man who is having trouble getting the ends to meet, needs a saw to supplement his income. His old saw broke and was beyond repair.
I’ve known Michael for a few years and have been impressed with his work ethic and his desire to take care of his family. He doesn’t ask for much and not very often. Lately times have been a little more difficult for him.
He has been at class and worship a few times lately, including yesterday. He arrived before I did yesterday morning. When I walked in he asked if we had any clean clothes for him to wear. He had his work clothes on; they were pretty dirty.
Of course we didn’t have any clothes at church, so I called Butch and Penny and asked if they could take him to ReGeneration and fix him up. Penny picked him up in a few minutes and got him outfitted. Michael then came to class and worship; he looked good.
After worship I took him to my house for a few minutes. Kedra prepared him a “to go” lunch, and then I took him to friend’s house, near his work place in Huron. He was going to use the saw we got him for the first time. I told him to call me later to tell me how it went.
We were able to get him a new saw, thanks to your generosity. Also thanks to the connections of some of our members we were able to get the saw at a dealer’s cost. If I told you the details I would have to kill you, so... don’t ask. Ha ha.
Michael called me a little before 6 last night. He said, “You said to call.” I asked, “Well, did the saw work; you get any wood cut?” He said, “Yeah, it works good.” “How much did you cut?” He replied with laughter, “The saw works really good; I cut 6 ricks of wood.” Six ricks of wood is quite a bit to cut in one day, let alone one afternoon.
People have continued to give to the saw fund even though we have the needed amount. I will save the extra and will use it to help purchase an inexpensive car, following Michael’s lead. He is saving his wood money.
Thanks again for all your help.
Finally, a good snow. Now, I would like for this freezing rain to change back to snow.
Today was enjoyable; different but enjoyable.
Ben got up fairly early and was eager to use the 4 wheeler and snow plow to clean off driveways. He started with ours and did a good job. Then he did my parents. Then to Mark and Lou Ann's. Then Jay Eubanks. He loved it.
I spent most of the morning studying our text for the week. I really enjoyed it. I was able to watch the snow and the birds and think.
Sometime before noon I took Rebecca over to the Taffys to play in the snow. I had a lunch appointment with a couple of guys. One of them has been visiting our worship assemblies for several weeks. He is really searching and wants to be baptized. We talked about that some and will talk some more later.
After lunch I went to my office at church and stared off into space for a couple of hours. I even took a nap on the couch. I don't usually do this. Oh well.
I then went out to the Park and ran 3 miles in the freezing rain. Believe it or not, it was very enjoyable. The roads had been scraped, so the footing was good.
Then I dropped by the Taffys and got Rebecca and brought her home.
Supper. Reading. Now I am committing second-hand idolatry. [Rebecca and Kedra are watching American Idol, and I sitting here doing this.]
Soon it will be time for popcorn.
Here's an update on Chainsaw Mike. Since I last updated you something very significant happened.
A young family from our church contacted me and said that they would like to donate a vehicle that they have been trying to sell.
Generosity.
Clearly, the kind talked about in 2 Cor. 8 & 9; the kind that only happens when people first give themselves to the Lord.
[Thank you.]
Mike called me yesterday morning to tell me more about the chainsaw and to tell me that he was looking for a vehicle. I broke the news to him that someone had a vehicle for him. He said with uncharacteristic directness , "When can I see it?" I told him I would come and get him and take him to it.
Long story shortened: he drove it home yesterday afternoon.
He called me this morning and said with laughter, "My wife loves that family more than she loves me."
He is thrilled and very very grateful. He asked me today, "Can you please tell all the people who have helped me how thankful I am to all of them."
The story will continue...
My email is down, so I cannot send or receive presently. Todd thinks it is due to the ice. Hopefully they will have it restored soon. I am not ignoring you.
I wrote several posts this morning but could not get them on here. I am now at the store using a different internet provider. It's been quite an adventure. I got stuck in the parking lot 4-5 times. I now have a church snow shovel in the van.
The snow this morning was so beautiful! I got up early and turned the flood lights on and just watched it fall. It was some of largest flakes I have ever seen.
A little after daylight I went out and played with the 4 wheeler and plow. I did our driveway and my neighbor’s. I probably should have waited until the snow was over, but... hey!
Back before Christmas I started reading Peggy Noonan’s book, When Character was King - A Story of Ronald Reagan. For some reason I put it aside and started reading other stuff. In the last couple of days I have come back to it and am really enjoying it. I know Reagan was/is a controversial person/president, but I always liked him as a person and as a president. This book just increases my respect and admiration.
I recommend this book. It has a lot of value from a historical aspect. I have relived a lot of things described in the book; things I had forgotten about. The world was a dangerous place during the Cold War. I wonder if kids today even know this stuff?
In the book there is a little section on Patti Davis, Reagan’s daughter. She describes her concept of prayer that came from her father (p. 154):
He did have something special with God; he talked to God all the time. It didn’t mean that he was any more special in God’s eyes or that he believed that. We are all special with God. It’s not that God’s speaking to anybody more than anyone else, it’s that some people choose to listen. And talk back. And my father talked to God. That’s what I got as a child, I got that he just talked to God all the time. He just had conversations with God.
And that’s the way I talked to God when I was a child. My idea of prayer was never that you sit down, clean up your room, clean up your act before can talk to God. Never. It was always that I knew I could take my mess to God, I knew that I could just get down and talk to God like my father, all the time.
The section in the book that tells of the assignation attempt of Reagan is fascinating. Do you remember that? I remember it vividly because it was the day Indiana beat North Carolina to win the NCAA basketball championship. I was living in Nashville at the time attending Lipscomb. They almost cancelled the game, but they decided that the President was going to be fine so they went ahead.
Noonan goes into a lot of detail and tells the story through several sets up eyes that witnessed the event. There are some really interesting things revealed through the stories of others. A lot of “if I had been standing here instead of there, this would have happened” type things; things that would have changed the history of the world. Really.
Later in the book there is a discussion of MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction. The Soviets and the Americans each had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over (amazing thing to think about). The idea was that if either super power were to use a nuke against the other one it would unleash a retaliation that would lead to complete destruction of the world. This thought keep each side from initiating war. This is why there was so much interest and angst when powers that were backed by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would get into conflict. Would this be the one that would lead to the Big One?
[An aside: can you imagine how some readers of Revelation were seeing all this?]
As I read this section about MAD it helped me understand the feelings I had when I stood in Moscow’s Red Square about a year ago. It was a feeling beyond description; not sure I even tried very hard to describe it. I remember standing there looking at the Kremlin and having images of the Soviet military parades. Soldier in lock step. Huge missiles. My feelings were likely being funded by these distant, nearly forgotten, memories of things like MAD.
Good morning.
I STILL cannot receive email, so I getting concerned about what all I am missing. I've grown too dependent upon computers.
I guess we are still under a Snow
Emergency. This is on WBIW's Weather Watcher website:
Level 2: Lawrence, Monroe, Jackson, Owen, Greene, Brown - Do Not Travel unless for work or emergency
By the way, this website is great! It updates everything every 5 minutes.
You snow non-lovers probably don't want to know that there is the POSSIBILITY of another significant storm on Monday. It's still a long way off, so anything could happen.
Have you been following the Ted Haggard story? He is the famous evangelical preacher who got caught doing some very bad things.
HBO has filmed a documentary about his "come back." I just read an article written by a guy who worked with Haggard for years. The article is worth reading, and you can do so by clicking HERE.
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