“I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’ – Deuteronomy 31:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 30, 2012): Deuteronomy 31

I get tired. I know that I am not supposed to, but I do. And when I get tired, sometimes all I want to do is give up. When I am tired my dreams change. All I want to do is to move to a quiet place, maybe an acreage, and just hibernate. I have friends who tell me that what they would hate about living on an acreage somewhere away from the city is that when winter comes – and winter is always coming – there is always the chance that you could get snowed in. But for me, I do not have enough snow days. I have too many books just begging me to read them to be afraid of being snowed in. And sometimes that is exactly what I want to happen. And my desire to do something like that increases with my weariness.

The question is one that we all wrestle with. How much is enough? When is it that I get to say that I am done – I have served my time and God does not need me anymore? It is time for someone else to take over, while I retire to my little paradise and live out the rest of my life doing what it is that I want to do.

The problem is that no matter how tired I am, I know that we are not made for that kind of life of leisure. We dream about it and we want it, but people without a purpose tend to have much shorter lives than those who have a reason to get up in the morning and purpose that needs to be accomplished. It seems that to give into that weariness is the first step toward the grave. We are setting records for how long we are living as a society, but I wonder how long we could live if we could just maintain that sense of purpose.

Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when his end finally came. And as you read this story you almost get the sense that Moses still was not through. God decided that this was where his road would end, but Moses would have loved it to go on just a little longer. He still had a reason to get up in the morning.

My prayer for you is that, even in the weariness, you will find a purpose that drives you out of bed in the morning; that you will know what God needs you to do today. As you continue in your purpose, everyday making a difference where it is that you are, that you will continue until God comes to you and says it is time to come home.

Do not quit, there is still much to be done. And that much includes things that only you can do.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 32

Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. – Deuteronomy 30:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 29, 2012): Deuteronomy 30

We do not really practice church discipline anymore. It makes us very uncomfortable and we feel judgmental, things that we are characterized as being but actually resist. But the biblical injunction against judging is not as total as maybe we would like it. The problem is that we usually judge the wrong people. The ones that the church tends to judge are those outside of the church – and those are precisely the ones that we are commanded not to judge. I have a few Islamic acquaintances. Not surprisingly they do not shape their lives according to the Bible. Instead, they shape their lives according to their understanding of the teachings of the Qur’an. What we do not always understand is that they should do precisely that – they should order their lives according to their religious beliefs, even when those beliefs differ from mine. And the Bible actually says that I should not judge them, that God will. I am not sure what criteria he will use, but then there is no reason why I should. That is his department.

But I am to judge those that say they are with me in my faith. The idea is not that we will become legalistic, but rather that we will keep each other grounded in the faith. It is what traditionally has been called church discipline. Church discipline covers a wide variety of activities, from teaching and education to the removal of some privileges or even removal from the faith group. But the goal is always the same – to bring them back as productive members of the faith. The goal of church discipline should always be to strengthen, and never to weaken or humiliate or defeat the person in question.

And that is God’s reason for disciplining us. There is a little foreshadowing in these words spoken to a fledgling nation. The day would come when their disbelief and sin - their disinterest in the things of God and the prophecies of God and their unwillingness to submit to the discipline of God – when all of this would force God’s hand to finally banish the nation from the land that he was at this moment giving to them. The day would come when a nation would wake up in a strange land beside an unknown river. But even there God would be with them – and God would bring them back.

No matter how far you roam, or where church discipline may take you, God is always in the business of bringing people back.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 31

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. – Deuteronomy 29:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 28, 2012): Deuteronomy 29

A  number of years ago I had a conversation with an older Pastor. His church had been struggling with some unexpected circumstances. They just seemed to suffer disappointing setback after disappointing setback. And so we talked. As the conversation moved on he openly questioned whether there was unconfessed sin in his congregation. He realized that biblically unconfessed sin was a very real problem.

Neil Anderson, an expert on church bondage issues, speaks of churches that over generations keep on making the same damaging decisions. He tells stories of the limits that churches experience over and over again. And all of it is because of sin that the church had not dealt with. According to Anderson, once Satan finds a way into a church, he is very uncreative. He will just continue to take the same path into the church and cause the same destruction.

As strange as this might sound to our modern ears, it is exactly the warning that Israel received. The people had suffered generational sin. They had learned the sin at the feet of the Egyptians. And even though the people that now prepared to enter into Canaan were the sons and daughters of the people that had lived in Egypt, generational sin was going to be hard to break. They were going to have be diligent about the poison that was bound to be among them.

Breaking of generational sin is hard, and it is made harder by our disbelief that it exists. Yet the evidence seems to point that way when generation after generation we make the same mistakes and are at the receiving end of the same destruction. But generational sin can be broken, if we are diligently searching for it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 30

The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. – Deuteronomy 28: 9

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 27, 2012): Deuteronomy 28

It was a long time ago, but there was a time when men and women of faith seemed to garner more respect than they do today. There was a time when a person of faith could speak, and people – even people who did not agree with the person’s faith position – would listen intently. There was a time when there was a level of trust between the community and a person of faith. Sometimes I think that contemporary people wonder why faith seems to be so prominent in history, and even in the media presentations of a few decades ago. And my answer is simply that there was a time when faith was respected.

Then something changed. I do not really have to work hard to figure out what it was. A few visible people of faith failed. It was not that people of faith do not ever fail – we do. But they failed in such a way that revealed that maybe they really did not believe what they professed to believe in the first place. And so it did not take long for the question to be asked – does anyone really believe? What if it is all just a hoax?

The problem is actually kind of obvious. Either we believe, or we do not. And if we believe, then we will order our lives by what it is that we believe. It is not that we will never fail. As long as we are alive, failure will be part of our lives. There will always be times that we do not live up to our statements of faith. But we will also own up to our errors and recommit to the faith. And we will be actively policing our own behavior rather than waiting until we get caught in activities “outside the faith.”

God’s promise is that if we walk in his ways – I would even amend that to say that if we sincerely try to walk in his ways – then he will make out of us a holy people. A people set apart for him. A people that is fit to carry his name into the culture in which we live. And I believe that – if we really believe – we will be a people that others will honor. Even those that do not share our belief.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 29

“Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!” – Deuteronomy 27:26

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 26, 2012): Deuteronomy 27

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a religious ceremony. It was a ceremony of a religion for which I am not an adherent, so the service was something that I had never experienced before. There were many things that I had read about; things that I had a bit of head knowledge about, but none of it were things that I had actually witnessed. From an experiential point of view, this was all very new stuff.

So I observed. I watched the way that the holy books were handled. I listened to the words that were spoken – or sung. I heard the instructions and the exhortations, and in everything there was great pomp and circumstance. It was a great experience.

But I am also a student of human behavior. Deep down I knew that there were a number of people for whom the ritual was all that they would ever know. Religion, for them, would never go deeper than the things that they did in that holy place. They could seamlessly move through the motions of the religious service, and then leave the service and forget everything that we had just been exhorted to do. It is the same in every Christian service that I attend. As I look out at the congregation that has gathered, I know that some are only going through the motions. They have no intention of allowing the commitments of the ritual to ever make an impact on their lives. In the modern Christian church, I am convinced that sometimes we come just so that we can feel emotionally beaten up. Then we think that God has moved and that things in our life have changed. But nothing really changes when we walk out of the service.

One of the key concepts taught by Gregory the Great (Pope at end of the sixth century) was what he called consideratio. Gregory defined consideratio as the balance achieved between inward motives and outward action. That was something that, for Gregory, was essential to Christian life. Or, as the curse rained down from Mount Ebal, cursed are those who say with their mouths that they will abide by the law of God but do not carry it out with their actions. Cursed are those who do not achieve consideratio – the balance between intention and action.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 28

The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God. – Deuteronomy 26:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 25, 2012): Deuteronomy 26

I understand the hesitation to give money to the church. If we are honest, we have to admit that we have not always lived up to our obligations. And sometimes we have outright wasted the money that generous people have given to us. And it is not fair. We have been wrong – and we stand in need of forgiveness.

The original intention of the tithe was that it was the inheritance of the tribe of Levi. Levi was the only tribe that did not to receive a land inheritance in the Promised Land. The land was divided up between the other eleven sons, with a double portion going to Joseph through his two sons. But the tribe of Levi was to be cared for through the tithe, as well as the temple and all of the things of God. Just as God had sacrificed for Israel, so Israel would sacrifice for God. And for Levi, it was God himself that was their inheritance.

And that was to be the imagery of the offering. The offering was presented to the priest, but the priest took the offering and placed it before God – putting it on the altar. Each offering had a prescribed way that it was to be handled, but all of the offerings were presented to God.

It is also the reason why many churches take the offering after it has been given by the congregation back to the front of the church – often laying it on the altar or some other significant place of God. That action serves as a reminder that the offering itself belonged to God’s. To the giver, who questions why the church should have his money, it is not the church that receives it. It is God. And to the church that receives the money, the same reminder stands. When you are tempted to do something stupid with it, remember that it is God’s. We are the ones that stand with the responsibility of receiving the offering and doing it with as he demands – and not as we might want. 

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 27

When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. – Deuteronomy 25:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 24, 2012): Deuteronomy 25

I recently overheard an uncomfortable conversation. It came in the form of someone asking to be placed in a leadership position. It placed the leader in a bit of a spot. There were several problems with the request, including that the person that wanted the leadership position had not been with the club for very long (according the leader that period of time was less than a month.) The leader tactfully tried to explain the problem. This was not about whether he was good enough for the position, but this was about involvement – and as of this point in time, he was not only new, but he had refused to be involved.

I am concerned for our society’s desire and care for the strong. It seems to be everywhere I look. It is in the heroes that we choose and in the people we desire to hang out with. We choose our leaders from those who are the best and the brightest – and sometimes it seems that the strong are chosen even when they could care less about the organization. And everywhere I go there are a group of people hanging around on the edges being overlooked – they are sitting on the outside just begging for someone to invite them in.

I have a lot of respect for coaches that are willing to sit their star players down when they seem to become apathetic, no matter how good they are or how much they are needed. But it goes beyond even that. God seems to indicate that we will be judged not by how we treat the popular in the room, but rather how we treat those sitting in the corner waiting to be invited in. We will be judged by how we treat the ones who are worn out because they have been involved – the weary and the tired.

The Amalekites liked to attack the weak. In that they were not much different than an animal on the prowl. But as people that only showed a lack of fear in God, because those who fear God will always be on the side of the marginalized, the ones who desire involvement but are worn out by it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 26

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this. – Deuteronomy 24:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 23, 2012): Deuteronomy 24

Sometimes I wonder how much we remember about the earlier stages of our lives. The question arises every time I watch an older person get cross with a child for the energy that they seem to need get rid of, or questions about why a youth would respond in a certain way in certain situations. I know that once they shared the same age, but they sometimes seem to have forgotten what it was like to be that age.

The same question arises sometimes as I watch a mature Christian interact with someone who is young in the faith. It is like they have no memory of what it is that the other is going through as they make their first steps of faith. They also seem to have no memory of what it was like before they became Christians. A while ago I had a bit of an epiphany. Is it possible that they actually have no memory of the event? For some of them, it has simply been a long time since they had had some sort of conversion experience. Some have worked hard to forget that the before ever really happened. What came before was scary and uncomfortable; it was not something to remember, but rather something that needs to be forgotten.

And some simply had never had a before experience. I remember looking at an old picture of a church that had formed in 1916. It was taken on the day of the first church service and it was just the picture of a group of people with some children down in front. Then someone who was watching me leaned over and pointed at the small child standing just to the right of the group in the picture. And as he pointed he said “that is (and he mentioned the name of a Saint in the church.)” She never left. At the time the church had been in existence for ninety years, and she had been a part of the community from the very beginning. I am sure that there was a conversion moment, but she was one of the lucky ones that had never known a life before that was much different from the Christian home that she had grown up in. For her, there was nothing before to really remember. (And to be totally honest, even though she had no memory, she was one of the most compassionate people in the church when she connected with those new to the faith.)

Moses asks the people to remember that they were slaves in Egypt. But the truth was that there were very few people that had any memory of Egypt. And all of those that remembered a life of slavery, with the exception of Moses, Joshua and Caleb, were children when they left. And yet, Moses needed them to remember Egypt so that they could make sense of the Promised Land.

I am convinced that God needs us to remember our own personal Egypts. Because that is the only way we can make sense of our own future in him.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 25

No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD. – Deuteronomy 23:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 22, 2012): Deuteronomy 23

The law is black and white. By design that is its greatest strength. A good law is one that you know when you have broken it and you also know what the penalty is going to be. A lot of traffic laws work on that principle. So if you are caught speeding, the amount you are going over the posted speed will equal to a fine of a specific amount. No court date is necessary – unless you intend to fight the ticket.

A while back I was in court with a friend and had the privilege of watching a man try to fight a speeding ticket. His first attempt was to question the calibration of the radar gun. But the radar gun had been submitted to a regular maintenance schedule and was known to be accurate. And so he moved on to his second line of defense – he had been unaware of the posted speed in the area where he was caught. But ignorance of the law is never an excuse for breaking the law. But luckily the man had come equipped with a third line of defense – which in this case was that he was compelled to speed. He had a medical condition and had forgotten his medication at home, and so he had to get home swiftly before his medical condition made it impossible for him to drive. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was that he had broken the posted speed limit – he had broken the law - and so the fine stood.

Grace is different – sometimes frustratingly so. Grace allows for us to avoid the penalty even though we have done the time. I friend of mine was recently pulled over for speeding. The officer approached the window and asked him if he knew how fast he was going. He answered truthfully with the speed he was travelling. The shocked police officer said usually people lied when asked that question, but because he had told the truth he decided not to give him the ticket that he had earned by speeding – and that is grace.

I have friends that pride themselves on being black and white people. Unfortunately that also means that they will never know the miracle of grace. Moses states the law - no one who has been emasculated will ever enter the Assembly of God. But Isaiah speaks of the eunuch receiving from God a memorial better than sons and daughters (Isaiah 56:4) – and Philip baptizes the Ethiopian Eunuch into the faith (Acts 8). And that is grace at work.

  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 24

When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof. – Deuteronomy 22:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 21, 2012): Deuteronomy 22

In my end of the world, winter is on its way. Winter comes with it inordinate amounts of cold and snow. And when you live in places that receive snow, you usually have snow removal laws. And there are generally three types of people that live in these snow cities. One is the person that keeps his walks and driveway absolutely clear. This person actually is my next door neighbour. His walks and driveway in the dead of winter are amazing. I mean, not only does he clear the snow off of his walks, but he grooms the snow around his walks. Last winter I thought I would do him a favor and shovel some of his snow. And he came out and gave me the look that said – “Thanks, Garry, but I have this. You just are not doing it right.”

The second group of people are the ones that just do not care about the snow, the snow removal law or their sidewalks. These are the people that when you are walking down the street and you come to their property, it is just simpler to just move off of the sidewalk and walk on the road.

The last group (and these are my brothers and sisters) are the ones that work hard at snow removal but often seem to fall short. My problem is that the sun comes up and melts the snow which runs out on my sidewalk and the melted snow then freezes, making it harder to shovel the next day. So we work hard at shoveling our walks but it never quite gets as clear as we feel it should be. (By the way, this is a problem that my neighbor just does not have.)

Last winter, one of my sisters in shoveling decided to stop the process. When the police approached her to give her a final warning before issuing a ticket, her response was that with all the ice from the constant melting and freezing, her walks were safer to walk on if she left the snow where God had placed it. I think she received a ticket, but she also had the right idea. The snow removal law is all about making the sidewalks safe to walk on. And hers might have been safer with the snow.

My reaction every time I read this passage of the law is to ask what someone is doing on my roof. It is not something that we generally have to worry about. But the roof over history has seemed to have been a place of meeting. And if people were up there, they needed to be kept safe. And, just like with my winter sidewalks, it is our responsibility biblically to keep them safe.

The moral of the law is simply this. No matter what Cain thought in Genesis 4, we really are our brother’s keeper. Their life should matter to us – and we should do whatever it is that we can to keep them safe.

        

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 23

Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. – Deuteronomy 21:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 20, 2012): Deuteronomy 21

The National Hockey league and the Players Association have begun their very public battle over the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Both are incredibly interested (even though they may deny it) in having the public on their side. The fight has been characterized as the battle between the Millionaires and the Billionaires. And the truth is that the public probably identifies with neither group. But what is probably the most frustrating element of the fight is that it does not even seem that the two groups have a firm grasp on the facts in the case. Even the amount of money that is available to be divided up between the two sides seems to be in doubt. The problem seems to be as big a problem as Solomon’s decision to divide a baby between two mothers.

In the story of King Solomon, two babies had been born, but only one child had lived. Both of the women claimed that the living child belonged to them and Solomon is asked to decide the issue between the two women. Solomon’s famous reply is that the issue could not be decided fairly, so the only answer that was left was for the child to be cut in half and half of the child given to each of the competing mothers. In the story, the real mother of the child immediately withdraws her request. The life of the child she loved was more important than whether or not the child could live in her home. The woman who was not the mother was apparently happy with Solomon’s decision; what was important to her was that the other mother would simply share in her grief. In the conclusion of the story, Solomon’s wisdom recognizes that it was the woman who was willing to give up the child so that the child could live that was the real mother and he turns the child over to her. But the whole story begs one question. If both mother’s had been happy with Solomon’s decision, would he have actually have cut the child in half.

In asking the question, Solomon had trusted that love would win out. I think a similar thing is happening here. The parents are invited to call their children rebellious in front of the elders of the city. But the price to be paid is incredibly high. The message seems to be that differences within the family should be worked out within the family. This was not a step to be taken lightly – and in the end the hope was that love would win out.

The reality is that if death is the outcome, we are often more careful with the things that we love. But death occurs in many ways. And it might be best to live life with the knowledge that any action could cause a kind of death; that all of our actions should be weighed against the things that are really important to us in life. And that might be the real question that both sides of the NHL disagreement maybe need to figure out.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 22

When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them? – Deuteronomy 20:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 19, 2012): Deuteronomy 20

In Lord Byron’s poem “The Eve of Waterloo” Byron tells the story of the happenings on the eve of the decisive battle against the French and Napoleon. In the poem, Byron describes the revelry taking place inside the city. The Gentlemen and the Ladies of Belgium have gathered to dance and the music is playing and everyone is having a good time. No one seems to be aware of the battle that is about to take place. No one is fearing the death and pain that war inevitably brings that is laying just around the corner. And then they hear something, but no one is sure. And then Byron writes –

            But hark! -- that heavy sound breaks in once more,

As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before;

Arm! arm! it is -- it is -- the cannon's opening roar!

                                                                        Lord Byron (The Eve of Waterloo)

History records Waterloo as the place of total defeat for Napoleon. Not only did he lose the battle at Waterloo, but he lost the ability to rule at Waterloo. It was the place that buried all of his political aspirations. Napoleon would never again be Napoleon I, the Emperor of France.

But Napoleon’s demise actually started years before in another battle. This one was waged in Russia. One of the rules of warfare is to that you need to be careful of your supply line. If you fight beyond where your supplies can reach you, then you are in trouble. And, eventually, your attack will fail. Napoleon had never really worried about logistics; his armies were very good at simply living off the land. But in Russia his adversary burned everything in the path of the French army leaving them nothing to eat. Napoleon reached Moscow, but by the time he did his army was only a shadow of what it was when they had started the battle. Waterloo may have been the ultimate defeat of Napoleon, but Russia was the turning point.

Part of Moses farewell address is devoted to the idea of war and of siege. And his instruction is that the army needs to exercise wisdom in even in as little a thing as the trees that they cut down. Because fruit trees can be used as food, especially if there is no other way of supplying your army. Moses does not indicate that this is the preferred method, but rather that it is not an option that can be overlooked. Napoleon well understood Moses lesson, but used Moses instructions to the exclusion of other plans. And because of that, Russia also learned the lesson well and used it in their defeat of Napoleon.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 21

... then do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from among you. Deuteronomy 19:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 18, 2012): Deuteronomy 19

I love basketball. In Junior High I was one of the tallest boys in the school. (Actually, I stopped growing in the ninth grade.) That meant that I was a hot commodity for a basketball team that was looking to increase the average height of the team. But, there was a problem. Although I had the height, the sports I loved more than basketball were football and hockey. The players that I respected were the tough ones (at this point in my life my favorite hockey team was the Philadelphia Flyers equipped with the Broad Street Bullies.) But the very thing that I valued about a hockey or a football team was frowned on in basketball. As a result, I was a defensive liability and a player continuously in foul trouble (I only really needed a quarter of hard playing to foul out.) So I gave up on any dreams of organized basketball and contented myself to play pick-up games in the school yard.

In spite of my foul trouble, I understand the need for rules in the games that we play. There has to be boundaries to the actions we can take on the playing field just as there are in life. And when someone commits a foul, a penalty should be the result.

But there is a trend in sport that really bothers me. It is the attempt to make the referee call a penalty when no wrong has been committed. It angers me to see a hockey player fall just to see if maybe the action of falling will force a penalty call on the nearest player to him. Or it is the football player that jumps backwards after a play to make it look like he was pushed. The trend in hockey when someone ‘takes a dive’ is to call offsetting penalties. The player on whom the hoax is perpetrated gets penalized, but so is the person that pretended he was pushed or tripped. But, for me, it would seem that it should be one or the other – it cannot be both.

The legal system in Israel makes the same distinction. If a person is caught lying so that someone else will be found guilty of a crime, then the one that lies should bear the penalty that he intended his brother to receive – whatever that penalty should be. Too often, in sport and in life, lying seems to be the crime that can cause the most damage but carries the smallest penalty. Maybe that should change in all the arenas of our lives, as we realize the damage that our lies can create. 

       

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 20

When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. – Deuteronomy 18:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 17, 2012): Deuteronomy 18

As we raise our kids, I think we are torn between a great hope and a great fear. We start off with all of the hopes that our kids will be the ones that will change the world. We have all of the hopes of the things that our child might become. Maybe they will be the politician that will finally be able to create world peace, or maybe the doctor that finds the cure to cancer, or the physicist that finds a way to go faster than the speed of light, or even the author of the great novel - or maybe nothing quite that grand. But we all have a great hope – and our hope is that our children will be influencers. We hope that they will create a change for the better everywhere that they go.

But the great hope is directly related to our great fear. The great fear is not that our kids will not achieve amazing things – deep down I do not think we really care. Rather, the great fear is that our kids will be followers; that they will be influenced by those around them – and not for the better. Our great fear is that they will be negatively influenced by the people around them. It is the reason why we want to know the friends that they hang out with. When they are young it is the great hope that drives us. But the older they get, the more the great fear takes over the driving seat rather than the great hope.

Israel were God’s children. And in the beginning it is the great hope that reigns. God challenges Abraham that he will be blessed so that he could bless the world. The idea was that Israel would have a positive influence on everyone that they came in contact with. And sometimes that is exactly what happens. But as Israel grew older; the great fear became the great reality. Rather than being the influencers, they became the influenced. 

  

So, before they entered the land that God was going to give to them, Moses once more addresses the great fear. Do not be influenced by the people that you will find in your new home. Rather, influence the people of the land for the better.

A lot of the violence that God seems to perpetrate on the people of Canaan – and a lot of the violence that we wish we could perpetrate on some of the friends of our children – is because of the great fear has taken root in our personalities. But in the end, it will be the great hope that will change the world.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 19

Note: The VantagePoint Sermon "Should I Stay or Should I Go" from the series "The Road" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. Craig Traynor is speaking. You can find it here - http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Road___Should_I_Stay_ot_Should_I_Go.htm

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. – Deuteronomy 17:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 16, 2012): Deuteronomy 17

When I was in High School, I met a gentleman who had written out the whole Bible in a series of notebooks by hand. It made an impression on me. It was one of the most amazing things that I had ever seen in my life. It impressed me so much that I admit I have made several attempts to do the same thing myself. I never get very far, which makes his accomplishment even greater. It takes dedication to do it. But my problem has been that to accomplish that feat means that a number of other things will go undone. And then there is always this question – which is more important, writing something that will only be seen by me or doing something that will become public. And too often, at least in my life, the public things win. And I am not proud of that (and maybe this blog is partially a concession to my desire to write out the Bible.)

God’s instructions to all of the kings that would come to lead Israel (and there would not be any kings for a number of generations) was that one of their first tasks would be to write out the law (the first five books of Moses) by hand on a scroll for themselves. And I believe that part of God’s intent was the knowledge that if we write something down, we will remember it. It is the same reason why I give out notes sheets when I speak. If you write it down, you will remember. A king needed to be led by God and needed to understand the instructions that God had given the community that they would now begin to lead. For the king to lead well, he would need to know what God had said. And so, his first order of business would be to write the words down.

I am not sure how many kings actually took the time to do it. It may have changed the face of a nation if they had. Scholars believe that the Book of Deuteronomy – and these words – were lost sometime after the reign of Solomon (the third king of Israel) and would not be found again until the reign of Josiah. Josiah committed himself to them task of religious reform because he found these words. But by that time, Israel had walked away for too long and it was going to take more than the reforms of king who was finally listening to God to bring them back.

But maybe the saddest part of the story of Josiah was that it did not have to be that way, if only the kings had taken the time to write the words down.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 18

Note: The VantagePoint Community Church Sermon "Wise Guys" from the Series "The Essential James" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Essential_James_Part_II___Wise_Guys.htm

... except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. – Deuteronomy 16:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 15, 2012): Deuteronomy 16

So much of what is significant happens in the private moments of our lives. We rarely fall in love in public, but slowly in the private moments we spend with that special someone. Our children are not born in public ceremonies, but rather in private. The student studying for a degree puts in long hours studying with no one around. All of this is done in privately. But we are people designed for community. So what began in private is destined to be celebrated in the midst of the community. We celebrate significant anniversaries of our wedding day in very public ceremonies. Birthdays are celebrated in the midst of our friends and graduation ceremonies with our families and class mates gathered around us. In every case, what began in private is celebrated in the middle of the community – the private becomes public.

The original Passover was a private ceremony. The heads of each household gathered the family and sacrificed the lamb. No priest was present. No one gathered around to watch; it was celebrated in all of the individual houses that Israel lived in. It was a solemn feast, and it was eaten by a people that were prepared to run. But the feast was not meant to stay private.

The Passover would only be celebrated once in the desert. But as the people prepared to enter into the Promised Land, Moses gave the instructions for a yearly celebration. This one would not be celebrated behind closed doors like the original event. It was to be a celebration of a nation, one that would take place in the midst of the community. But because it would be celebrated publically, it needed to be celebrated in one place – a place of God’s choosing.

Originally that place would have been wherever the tabernacle was, but after the reign of Solomon it would be celebrated only at the temple in Jerusalem. And it would be one of the three festivals that everyone in the nation would need to attend at least once in their lives, and everyone in the area would be expected to attend on a yearly basis. What began in private would be remembered in public.

I am convinced that the beginnings of faith are found in the private events of our lives. But when God is in the private event, those events will always carry us into the sanctuary to be celebrated in the midst of the community.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 17

Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because his service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do. – Deuteronomy 15:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 14, 2012): Deuteronomy 15

There is probably nothing that offends me more than the idea of slavery. From my standpoint with my feet firmly planted in the 21st century, the idea that one person could ever have owned another person and that the ownership was considered a good and moral idea escapes me. Descriptions of the slave ships that roamed the seas less than two centuries ago threaten to overwhelm me. And the thought that those ships still exist today scares me. I want to think that we are an enlightened culture, but the presence of the slave trade in our world now ruins any chance of that thought taking root.

So, I understand it when people criticize the Bible for not taking a stand on the issue of slavery. I wish the Bible took a stronger stand on the issue of people ownership. But it does not. One of the problems as we read the Bible is that, although the words make sense to us, we often do not understand the original context of the words. And nothing could be closer to that truth than when we consider the issue of slavery.

I recently had a conversation with a gentleman over the concept of being “slaves to Christ.” To him this made no sense. He could understand the idea of being a servant, but not a slave. In actuality, there probably is not as much difference between the servant and the slave in Bible context. What probably would compare to what my friend saw as the servant was more of the hired hand. And yet, that is one thing that God never asks us to be in relationship to him.

And there is a reason. In the Parable of the Lost Son, the son desires to come home and ask his dad if he can be a hired hand in his service. And the reason is not that slave was too low for him, but that the position of the slave or the servant was a step higher than the hired hand. The hired hand was there as long as there was work and money to pay him. If the conditions were not right, he could be sent packing at a moment’s notice, but the slave was part of the family – and there existed a mutual commitment between the slave and the master.

And in Mosaic law, the idea that certain people were created to be slaves was absurd. The rest of the world might believe that, but the law recognized, at least in the case of the Hebrew slaves, that slavery was only for a season. I still believe that slavery is wrong, but I recognize that we are called to be slaves of Christ. But in that statement, I can now hear God committing his resources to me as a member of his family. And if I desire to walk away from him, he will not stop me.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 16

Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. – Deuteronomy 14:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 13, 2012): Deuteronomy 14

I sometimes wonder if there are any people in our culture that are not in trouble financially. And that alone is an amazing statement. We live in the midst of one of the richest cultures our world has ever known. We have so many beautiful things and abilities. We live in the midst of plenty when there are sections of this world that exist only in want. Most of us have heard the illustrations from well meaning pastors on the extravagant wealth of our culture. If you have change in some cubby hole inside your car you are richer than most of the people in the world. If you have food in your refrigerator remember that there are people in this world that have no idea where their next meal is going to come from. Families sit at the dinner table all over the Western world complaining about the healthy food that mom has set before us so that we can live healthy lives when there are billions of people that cannot even find healthy drinking water.

No, I am not trying to make you feel guilty. I just finished my lunch – bologna sandwiches (which I actually like), a couple of cookies, some grapes and an apple. But as I was eating, I admit that the one thing that did not occur to me was how rich I am – that I could have a lunch such as that. But I am rich. I have change in my car and lots of food in my fridge. And yet ...

When I look at our culture and the financial trouble that we find ourselves in, the question that begs to be asked is how did we get here? In the midst of wages higher than what most of the world earns (the average wage worldwide is just under $1500 a month) how can we have driven ourselves so far into debt. It does not make sense. It is also probably why the Bible speaks so much about money. It is too easy for money to become the focus of our lives. After all, we need money to live. But when our focus becomes money and the material things that we can buy with it rather than life, we quickly find that no matter how much money we have, it is never enough. And when we do not have enough, we go into debt. And when we go into debt our lives focus even more on money.

The Biblical instruction to tithe is really just an admission that everything actually belongs to God. The land that Israel would gather their crops from was given to them by God. He was the one that had led them into the land. It was all of his. Therefore, they were dependant on him. With the tithe, our dependence on money is broken. We begin to realize that we actually depend on God.

Financial problems are among the top reasons why a marriage dissolves. It is also among the top reasons why we find ourselves spiritually on the rocks. And God’s answer to financial issues is simply to recognize our dependence on him through the tithe.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 15

It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. – Deuteronomy 13:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 12, 2012): Deuteronomy 13

There is a scene in George R. R. Martin’s “A Clash of Kings” where one of the characters takes a journey into a house of the eternal - or ancient - wise. The instructions were simple. Always take the first door on the right and always go up stairs – never down stairs. Also, remember that your purpose is to find and talk to the wise eternal inhabitants of the house, so talk to no one else.

And so Daenerys Targaryen begins her journey. Early on it seems easy. Some of the doors are open, but she tries her best to ignore the scenes displayed within. Still, she is confronted with scenes ripped out her own memory. She sees friends and relatives, now long dead. But still she finds the courage to move on. Sometimes she has to remind herself that the last door on the left can also be the first door on the right. And she moves forward. Once she finds a guide that will show her a short cut by taking a door on the left, but still she chooses the door on the right. Finally she finds herself standing in a room with a group of well dressed people who tell her that they have been waiting for her for a thousand years. They are the wise, and they have seen the day that she would come to them - and they are ready to help. It is exactly what Daenerys dreamed that the ancient ones would say. Finally she has achieved her goal. There is a sense of exhilaration - until she notices the door on the right.

Israel throughout their history would fight the temptation of listening to the gods of other nations instead of the God who had called them out of Egypt to be his own people. Often the gods would whisper in their ears words that they wanted to hear – offering the things that Israel felt they needed – and often offered at a very high price. And it takes a level of courage to turn down the promise of what you want when it is offered to you so that you can make the choice for what is right. It is a choice that we all have to make at some point in our lives.

Wisdom is being able to choose what is right in the face of being offered a short cut to our dreams. But in the end, choosing to do what is right is the decision that will set us up well for the future. For us, it means choosing God when it would be easier to choose something else. In the world of Daenerys, that meant turning her back on the dream that was being offered, and picking the right door one more time.

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 14

See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it. – Deuteronomy 12:32

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 11, 2012): Deuteronomy 12

We seem to like to invent laws. We see them as rules that will keep us on the right path. Every year bills enter the halls of our governments that mean to introduce a new law to our lands so that we can all enjoy life a little more. But unfortunately, what might seem to increase one person’s enjoyment becomes an unnecessary restriction on someone else. And some of the laws we have on the books are downright silly. In Canada, did you know that it is illegal to pay for a fifty cent item using only pennies? In Alberta, it is illegal to paint a log (I broke that one this past summer out of ignorance.) It is also mandated that a person released from jail should receive a horse and a gun so that he can ride out of town. One of my favorite laws is in the province of British Columbia. There it is illegal to kill a Sasquatch. A close second would be New Brunswick’s law which makes it illegal to drive on the road.

Our American neighbours have a few great laws of their own – including California’s law making it illegal to bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time, or Arizona’s prohibition against hunting camels. In Alaska, it is illegal to push a live moose out of a moving airplane (I would love to hear the circumstance that caused that law to come into existence) and in Alabama it is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church (because we just cannot have any laughter in church.)

In religious circles we tend to expand on the rules that we follow. In the denomination that I grew up in we had a lot of rules that were supposed to help us keep other laws. I think at times we became so comfortable with the rules (don’t drink, don’t smoke) that we lost sight on the reason why the rules existed. And some even came to believe that the rules were biblical – when in reality the Bible was silent on the issue.

Moses instructs Israel not to add anything to the rules that God had given them. The idea was that the laws that came from God were enough – there was no reason to add to or take away from the laws that they had received. To be fair, most Biblical faiths would stress that they have not done that – all they have done is to better define the laws that are found in the book of Moses. But sometimes the effect is that we seem to make “keeping the faith” harder than God ever intended it to be.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 13

The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. – Deuteronomy 11:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 10, 2012): Deuteronomy 11

One of the most dangerous phrases that I hear is that ‘we have never done it that way before.’ The phrase is a cousin of ‘we have always done it this way’ and of ‘we have tried that but it did not work.’ The phrase is dangerous because sometimes they are valid statements that need to be heard, but sometimes they also form a straightjacket that restrict us from doing what it is that we need to do.

‘We have never done that before’ does not mean that we do not need to do it now. In the same way ‘we have always done it this way’ does not mean that that is appropriate to continue to do it that way. And failing at something in the past actually tells us very little, because there can be so many reasons that things did not work – including the fact that we might have been just a little ahead of our time. Each situation needs to be evaluated on its own merit, rather than just on what we have done in similar situations in the past.

It is the message that Moses wants Israel to understand as they stood on the edge of the Promised Land. The stories that they had heard about Egypt from their parents and their own experiences in the desert will not match what is ahead of them. The future would be different from anything that they knew from before. They would need to develop a teachable and flexible nature if they were going to be able to succeed in the future.

We live in a fast changing world and we know that reality. From day to day there is absolutely no guarantee that the experiences of the past will help us as we move into the future. Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet about death by saying –

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

But Hamlet’s words make sense as they refer to our future as well. Tomorrow is the undiscovered country we know not of. And the best that we can do is make the most of today and be flexible as move into tomorrow and the demands that the undiscovered country will make of all of us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 12

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. – Deuteronomy 10:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 9, 2012): Deuteronomy 10

When I was a teen I remember going over to the church with my Pastor. It was a small, country church in the middle of a small town. We needed to get into the church for something, but when we arrived at the church my Pastor realized that he had forgotten his keys. We were standing at the front door of the church as he went through his pockets, and then he simply motioned for me to follow him. Together we walked around to a side door of the church. There, he took out his pocket knife and proceeded to open the side door. I still remember staring at the open door and asking what was to him a silly question – “should we not get that fixed?” And I still remember his answer.  “Locks only keep out the honest people. If someone wants to break into the church, a better lock is not going to stop them.”

I had never really considered that. In my world, honest people did not try to open locked doors and it was crooks who tried to get beyond the crudely locked doors. It was an awakening. Whether or not my Pastor right about the state of the marginally locked church door, he was right that much of our behavior is about our intentions. And because it is our intentions that govern behavior that means that rules are only going to be marginally successful at modifying our behavior. What really matters is what it is that we intend to do.

And from beginning that was to be understood. Moses instructs the people to circumcise their hearts – literally to be aware of their intentions, because it is their intentions that will most likely lead them into sin.  In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus instructs his disciples to pray – Lord, lead us not into temptation. But there is something else that we need to remember. We need to watch our heart’s intention to commit sin. Often there is no “leading into sin” necessary – we do that well ourselves.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 11

So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes. – Deuteronomy 9:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 8, 2012): Deuteronomy 9

I admit that it sometimes bothers me when people ask me for my advice and then ignore what it is that I tell them. It feels like all they want is my absolution to do what they want to do rather than my advice. But I also, on some levels, understand. You have to make the decisions as you live your life. And you are the one that will have pay the penalties (and reap the benefits) for those decisions. It is just that I really want my friends to succeed - and I hurt when they hurt.

A number of years ago I had an uncomfortable conversation with a friend in which he admitted that he was in the midst of doing something that he knew was wrong. And yet, despite the fact that he knew it was wrong, he continued down that path. Many years have passed since that conversation and we are still friends, but now I get to stand with him and cry with him as he pays the price for the decision that he made years ago - a decision made even though he knew it was wrong.

Moses breaking the Ten Commandments is a poignant moment in history.  But I think that when we dramatize this moment in it is too easy to see it as a moment of uncontrollable anger for Moses. As he steps off of the mountain and his intense time with God and sees the nation that he has been interceding for in the midst of their sin, anger (and frustration) seems to be the natural response. And yet, I am not sure that the breaking of the tablets was done in anger. As Moses looks back at that moment in time, he stresses that he broke the tablets in front of the eyes of Israel. For Moses, I think it was an illustration of what Israel had done. They had broken the first two laws on the tablet that he carried – they had replaced God with another god and built an idol. They had broken the law so Moses physically broke the tablets giving the people an illustration of the sin that they had committed. He needed them to see the sin that they had committed.

And maybe that is what we need. When we sin, we often have in mind a picture of the temptation in our minds, but rarely a picture of the sin. Maybe if we could envision the sin better, we would have a better chance of resisting the temptation.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 10

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. – Deuteronomy 8:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 7, 2012): Deuteronomy 8

The quality of cafeteria food is always questionable. It is just a function of budget and the need to make a meal suitable to feed a large group of people. Add to that the fact that we all seem to taste food differently and every cafeteria is a hotbed ready for complaints. And when I was in college I have to admit that I do not think that a meal was made that did not set somebody to complaining. But one meal stands out in my memory. Well, not exactly the food as much as the reaction. It was customary to pause to pray before the meal, thanking God for the food that had been prepared for us. But on this day, the food got one student too upset to pray. I was standing in line getting ready to pick up my meal when he returned to the meal line. And, standing in front of the kitchen with the food still in his hand he called out to the cook – “Hey, I asked God to bless this, but he said no.”

Most of us laughed, although admittedly our beloved cook was not impressed. But we also missed the point. We had food. Not every meal was to our liking or our standards, but we had food. In a world where people too often seem to have to go hungry – both now and all through history - we had a meal.

It has been the tradition in my family to pray before the meal. Part of the reason for the prayer before the meal is precisely because the presence of the meal is the reason for praise. No matter what the meal is, in a world where there never seems to be enough, just the presence of the food demands a response of praise from those who are preparing to eat.

Israel knew famine – the nation in the very beginning had been born during a time of famine. But God was about to give them the land and the ability to feed themselves. And for Moses, as they finished the food that had taken the pains of hunger away, that was the time to pause and thank God for what had been eaten.

Whether we pray before or after the meal really is not that important. What is important, and what Moses needed the people to understand, is that we need to recognize who it was that provided the food.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 9

The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. – Deuteronomy 7:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 6, 2012): Deuteronomy 7

Growing up one of the significant happenings of the summer was always the return of Garry Unger (a professional hockey player) to my Calgary church. Garry would step into the sanctuary and all of us kids would lose interest in anything that was happening in the service. All of our attention, no matter how hard we tried to resist, was centered on that back row of worship service where the guy with the long blond hair sat with a couple of friends (who we did not know.) All that was important was that we were going to see Garry Unger after the service. We knew Garry Unger – except that we really did not – he had no idea who we were.

Some people seem to have a need to know people of significance – and to drop those names into their casual communications. This past summer I had a chance to sit with a friend and talk, and inwardly I smiled at the list of people that came up in our conversation that he knew. It did not seem like he was even working to get the names in. Every single name seemed to effortlessly fit into the conversation that we were having – and names he shared were all famous and they were all his personal friends. It is a danger that we all might face. Sometimes it seems that we gain some sort of significance or reason to belong all from whom it is that we know.

Moses removes any illusion that God had chosen them because of their significance. They were not the best on the block, nor were they even friends with the best. And yet Israel had absolutely nothing to prove. God had simply chosen them. He loved them in spite of their lack of significance.

God has continues to show his partiality for the underdog. He is the God who is concerned with widow and the orphan. He takes care of those who have no one else to take care of them. As I sat with my friend, it quickly became apparent that he simply needed to know that he was respected. But the problem was that rather than respect, his parade of names was more likely to garner him pity. And I wondered if he had maybe forgotten the love and esteem that God already held for him. Then, as he continued to talk, a parade started in my mind of the humble servants of Christ that I knew that shared that same esteem. The world would be a much poorer place without them – even though few would ever know their names.

Maybe the practice that we need to develop is to parade the names of the humble people that play such a big part in lives. I think maybe it is their names – rather than the names of the famous -  that are on the lips of God.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 8

In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?” - Deuteronomy 6:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 5, 2012): Deuteronomy 6

I love Andy Stanley’s story of the conversations that he has with his daughters. According to Stanley, he asks his daughters what they would say if someone asked them if their daddy loves them. The appropriate answer is that their daddy loves them “this much” (spoken, of course, with their arms spread as far apart as they can get them.) He admits that parents usually push these things further and longer than they should, and finally one of his daughters called him on it. As he went up to her and asked the question – What would you say to someone asks you if your daddy loves you? Her response was – Dad, no one ever asks me that question.

Stanley admits to her that he knows that, but that is also not really the point of the exercise. What he wants to make sure of is that she knows how much her dad loves her – how important that she is in his life. And we cannot tell anyone anything that we do not know ourselves. Sometimes the best way to know anything is to try (or even think about how you would try) to teach the subject to someone else.

It is the same theory that Moses begins to talk about in his final address to the nation of Israel. When your sons ask you what all of this means, be ready to give them an answer. Would the proverbial sons ask the question? The answer is probably not, unless the parents were ready for the child to ask the question - because if they were ready, then they would also have prepared their children to make the ask.

As we jump ahead in the history of Israel, we would find that the people would often not be ready with the answer and as a result of their unreadiness, their sons would also not ask the question. But the question would not be asked because the parents had forgotten the answer. Either the practices had degraded into traditions without meaning, or the practices had been forgotten altogether. And either way, the question of the sons would be meaningless.

One of the incredible mistakes we make as parents is not to be ready with the answers to the important conversations we want to have with our children. And, like Israel, because of our unreadiness, our children never get to ask us the important questions of this life.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 7

Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever! – Deuteronomy 5:29

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 4, 2012): Deuteronomy 5

Life is filled with instructions. Everything that we invest into has things that we are supposed to do to maintain them. A car runs best when it is taken back to the dealership for regular maintenance. Expensive jewelry needs to be cleaned and checked on a regular basis. If you have an operation done on your body, there is normally a set of things that you need to do to rehabilitate it and become healthy once again. Instructions reign – if we want to protect what it is that is important to us.

My granddaughter is just starting to go beyond the bottle and start her journey into real food. So she is trying one food at a time (currently she likes pears.) Trying one food at a time is one of the instructions necessary for a healthy life, but it is even more important because she has been born into a family that has a lot of food allergies in its history. As Grandpa, I admit that I am anxious for the day that ice cream is added to the list, but I understand the wisdom of the “one food at a time” approach.

Sometimes we seem to think that God is a bit of a killjoy; that the only purpose that the rules serve is to make sure that we do not have too much fun. But actually it is the reverse. The rules are for no other reason than to make sure that his creation has the ability to make all that they can out of this life. I mean, could you imagine a culture where everyone got the rest that they needed and honored those that went before. One where killing and stealing and lying just was not even considered - a culture where promises were kept and jealousy was unknown. And that is the culture that God intended for us to support and live in.

God’s wish was simple. That the people that he created would respect him enough to follow life’s instructions – and in so doing, that life would go good for them – and for all the children.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 6

You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully ... Deuteronomy 4:15

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 3, 2012): Deuteronomy 4

I admit that I have openly wondered if the church that I pastor has a cross problem. When we moved into the church building we now occupy, it seemed that whenever I turned around I found a cross. There were big crosses and small crosses and midsize crosses. There were crosses painted on pieces of cloth and engraved on future and often items seemed to be arranged in the form of ... a cross. So I started to take the crosses away, hiding them in various places. But I would be amazed at how people searched for them, and when they found them they would be returned to their place of significance.

The cross has also made tremendous inroads into our culture. No matter where it is that I go, - I see them. They adorn various necks and ears. They are tattooed onto arms and backs and ankles. They are used in mockery, misshapen and sometimes upside down. But they are all still crosses. And the thing that sticks with me is that the cross is really nothing more than an executioner’s tool. But to the Christian, it is loved because it was with a cross that Jesus was sacrificed for us.

And so crosses, the symbols of an execution, abound everywhere. But the question is - should they? I am not against crosses, but I do think we have to be very careful what it is that we think the cross that decorates our churches and our persons is really doing for us. As a remembrance the cross has a purpose. But when they multiply – I think we have problem. I think the cross has begun to mean something more – maybe even something more than it should.

Christians are not the only ones with a problem. In Judaism, sometimes I am as concerned about the way that the Torah or other written documents are handled during worship. I am not saying that it is wrong, but is it just possible that we have elevated these symbols above where God would have us hold them. Have they maybe even become idols in our worship?

Moses reminds Israel (in the Torah) that when God appeared, the people saw no form of any kind. As much as it is in our nature to raise objects until they become the object of our worship and veneration, God purposefully gave us nothing to elevate. There was no vision or symbol that could be formed that could represent God (and that is really my problem with the abundance of Christian crosses in the church and the ritual that surrounds the Torah in the temple or synagogue – they have come to represent God.) So that rather than worship an object, we would worship God. As hard as this is for some of us, the cross is not God. God is not in any piece of wood or artwork. He is in you. And anything that threatens to interfere with that understanding needs to be left behind – permanently.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 5