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Sunday, September 9, 2012

Trust


Last week we talked about learning, no. We really only talked about obeying when we are told no. Obeying is only one part of learning no. The other would be to have respect for the one saying no; or even a trust for the one saying no. We use the example of Moses in Ex. 33; What if Moses disobeyed God and took a peek. Let me offer up the three reason's he might have thought of why it would be ok to take a peek. The first would be that rebellious spirit; no one is going to tell me what to do! Did you get that; we want to do what we want...yes it is true think about it. The second would be that you did not respect the person saying, no. It could be for many reasons. For example a dislike or political difference or religious difference or race or place you live or ... Now to the 3rd, the lack of trust. For us this is big. If you take the time to think about it, we are not really trusting people. When we were little we trusted mom and dad.... but as we grew up we saw their weakness, faults... and we started not to trust them like before... Now I know I am not the only one with imperfect parents... or parents that have disappointed... A funny thing happens as one get's older they have a hard time to trust their children to do things...we even have a hard time trusting other people...
In Gen. 3:1-6 We have the account of "the fall of Man". How did that happen? How do we fall in our modern lives? As we look at this passage, the "serpent" goes to Eve; his main objective to have Eve to start to question what God has said. Then to put an idea before her, that God is with holding... if you will, something that she needs...In verse 6 we see that the damage is done, Eve is rationalizing on her own... What has just happened? Satin persuaded Eve not to trust God... You see Moses could have taken a peek but instead he trusted what God said...and stayed in the cleft of the rock. We today need to trust God; to rely on His word the bible. Most important not to read between the lines and add or subtract from God's word; to make it say something or imply something...to fit our situation, thinking... that is what the serpent did to Eve. Fast forward 5 thousand or so years and we see Satan(the serpent) trying to do the same thing. This time He fails, thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ. That would be in Luke 4, known as the temptation of the Son of man. Fast forward another 2 thousand or so years, Satan is still trying to do his work, getting people to not trust God. Are you standing strong against him, like Moses and like our Lord Jesus? Trust God!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

No looking


As we go through life there comes points in time that one will learn something that he wished he learned earlier in life. Now some of those things were things that we were made aware of, taught.... but for some reason or another we just didn't get it or we just fought against the principle... Seriously, think about it! Don't we all have things that are just hard for us to learn...or put into practice.... Or things that we heard about and thought "that doesn't apply to me." I will not do that... That is for so and so or for people like... The list goes on and on...
Now before we go too far let me remind us all that we are talking about "good" principles... and that we use the bible, Gods word, as the final test if you will. Now where do we begin. Let us go back to our earliest days. For all of us let's say around or before the year of our 2nd birthday. As a parent have you heard the expression of the "terrible 2's"? So that is where we will begin. Now in those early years one would think that a child so dependent would learn things easily or fast. Well they do. So what is this that some of us or maybe all of us have a problem with? When one says no, it means no, and yes means yes.
Think about it. That more and more that in our society when parents say, no. More and more it seems to mean maybe. Or even that if you do it that no means yes, because you have done it. Now as we go through life this conflict of "no" seems to reek havoc with us. We tend to fight with it and this fight comes unaware, that is that we don't even realize that we have a struggle. That as we get older this struggle affects so much. As I was thinking how to write this devotion let me close with 2 thoughts. The first would be the struggles that I have with this concept of "no" and how inadequate I am to talk about such things. The second was were in God's word did He say, no, or did He imply, no. Some come to mind, what I would like to use is Exod. 33:20 "But you cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live." This is when Moses is on Mount Sinai to get the 10 commandments. So here God says, no; but allows Moses to see His back side. What I would like us all to notice is that when the answer is no, there may be a good reason behind it...or even a protection... Think about it what if Moses took a little peek? No looking...