January 27, 2008

Read Exodus 16-18 and Matthew 18:1-20

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Exodus 16-18
“Waaaahhh! I’m hungry! I wish I was a slave again!” Puh-leeze, people! Isn’t that how we can get, though, when the Christian life gets difficult, when God isn’t giving us what we think we ought to have to eat, or enough of it? We look back at the life we left behind and remember the good times, but can’t seem to recall that we were slaves! We were in bondage. May we never ever go back to Egypt, or even long for it. Egypt, or the world, is not our home. We don’t belong there.

16:14 OK, naysayers, if the plague of blood was red tide, explain manna. Edible hail? Honey flavored, moldable dew?

16:20 “Not withstanding, they did not heed Moses.” They are living up to their name: The CHILDREN of Israel. “Don’t gather on the seventh day.” What do they do? They gather. Great. Just like kids. Praise God He was so patient with them, and is with us. In v 29, it says they refused to rest on the 7th day. This convicted me a little, cuz I was all like, “Oh, like I’d refuse a direct command from the Lord to REST! I’d be more than happy to just chill and nap Sunday away, zone out after church on the sofa and watch racecars go around and around.” (OK, I know some people think that’s actually fun) And then I looked at my to-do list for today. It is no shorter than any other day, and yet it’s the Sabbath. We were not meant to go at this hectic pace all the time. God lovingly is looking out for us and the stress overload He knows we’re going to fall victim to if we go go go 24/7. Our schedules are crazy, yes, but it is SO important to have a day of rest each week.

17:12 I love the picture of support for a friend that this picture presents. Let’s try to be that way with one another.

18:2 Why had Moses sent Zipporah back? Did he just up and say, “Well, honey, I’m off to lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Don’t wait up. Have fun with the kids!” Maybe he thought it was too dangerous. Maybe we don’t know, but I’m curious.

18:17-18 Sometimes we just can’t do it all, and we have to delegate responsibility. I’ve been a nursing assistant for about 11 years. I’m the one who gets told what to do, has orders barked at me. I'm OK with that; I always said I’d be a sidekick, not a superhero. Well, now I’m going to be a nurse, and I can’t do everything, so part of what I’m learning is how to dole out responsibility, and it’s hard for me to give people orders. I don’t wanna come off as bossy; I realize the aides are busy and don’t want to heap more on them. But I have a certain responsibility I have to see to first, and I can’t pass meds and pull tubes out of people if I’m making beds and cleaning folks up and taking vital signs. So Moses learned this, and I thought it was cool that he had a good relationship with his father-in-law.

Matthew 18:6 I know some people who have successfully turned Christians away from God. Sure, it was ultimately the Christian’s choice, but on Judgment Day, I would not want to be the one who helped sway them. I know someone who is an atheist largely because she was failed in church by her youth leaders when she was younger, and there was someone there to just pull her away into the occult with the promise of acceptance. When we wound our own, we leave them vulnerable to predators. We need to make sure everyone feels included and loved, even if our personalities don’t mesh easily or if they’re not someone we’d hang with ordinarily, or if their hygiene is a little…lacking.

V 12 “Leaving 99” is a great song by a now defunct group called Audio Adrenaline, as is “Sea of Faces” by Kutless, and both are based on this verse. If I lost my daughter Erin, I wouldn’t shrug and say, “Oh, well, at least I still have Renee, and she gives me less of a hard time anyway.” No, I’d leave Renee with someone she would be safe with, and I’d stop at nothing to bring the missing one home. Isn’t is awesome that we’re not just one of the masses to our Creator? And that despite having millions of loyal followers, He knows immediately when one of us is lost?

V 15: I am not a person who likes conflict, and I was taught to avoid it at all costs. In my world, if someone wronged you, you called everyone you knew right away to be sure you got to them first, and told them what happened, and made sure they knew you were in the right. Then you avoided the one who had wronged you like the plague, gave them dirty looks when you did see them, and hoped that someone else would tell them how hurt and upset you were, and intervene on your behalf, and wait for an apology. Wrong answer. After many years, I have managed to break that pattern. The Bible is very clear on what we’re to do. Just this morning, in fact, someone said something to me that I took, well, probably in the wrong way. So I got a little sulky. I pouted. I ate some veggies and dip in a corner by myself. Someone who had been standing beside me and heard said, “Are you in trouble or what?” And I realized I had two choices: I could agree, and share my hurt, and feed the self-pity welling up inside me, or I could excuse myself, go to the person, and ask, “Hey, did I offend you in some way?” It’s all about being humble, guys. So I said a quick prayer, and did just that and the person replied, “I AM SO ANGRY AT YOU!” and there was this big brawl right in the fellowship hall. Nah, I’m kidding. They said, “No, why? Did that come out funny?” And boom, it was over, in ten minutes everything was made right again, no one was angry, the sin of gossip had been avoided, and my stomach settled down so I could really chow. So everybody won!

When we follow the Word, we win. When we don’t, we lose. It’s as simple as that. Thanks for the warm reception for my dad last night; it was awesome to be able to introduce him to my friends. And to those of you who told him I was a “good kid”, thanks.

January 27, 2008 at 3:25 PM

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