William Bode

The Angry Dragon by William Bode

How to babysit a grandpa by William Bode

The Book With No Pictures by William Bode

Bumpus Jumpus Rumpus by William Bode

Bumpus Jumpus Dinasaurumpus by William Bode

Merry Christmas by William Bode

Christina Buckinx at Genk by William Bode

The Modified Stationary Panic at Driehoeven by William Bode

Bode Christmas Bible Reading at Driehoeven by William Bode

Bode Christmas Bible Reading at Driehoeven by William Bode

Further Teachings of Rancid Crabtree at Genk by William Bode

Sunday, November 10, 2013 Meditation doesn't have to be taught. The art of slow thinking is natural. I can remember each of my children at some point in their very early life 'coming out with something unexpected'. These statements or questions could arise in any situation or at anytime. These gems of cognitive connection may bear no discernable link to the current circumstances but they always evidence meditation. It very likely that meditation performed properly, slowly and naturally will produce a crystal clear concise and relevant question. This question will reveal more about the heart and motive than the casual inattentive listener might ever realise. Suppose your child overhears a conversation about whether or not grandparents will be able to come for the child's birthday party. It seems grandma and grandpa may not make it because thier car had to go into the shop to have the transmission replaced and so they would not have a car for a week. The plan couldn't be changed because the garage was very busy and they were doing the job for grandpa for half price. Grandma and grandpa live three hours away so it was unlikely they'd make it to the party in two weeks. Days later you are in the check out line at the store buying wiper blades for your car. And your child blurts out, 'Couldn't they barrow aunt Sharon's car?' Now here is the unknown chain of thought behind the statement. The news of grandpa's absence from the birthday party means your child thinks they won't get the money grandpa always gives at birthdays. This is a real disappointment to the child. A few days later your car's wipers cause a lot of stress on a trip home from school Now it is raining hard again so you borrow the neighbour's car to quickly get some wiper blades. You need to do this before you drive to get the older kids from camp. It's pretty urgent since the weather forecast is for heavy rain. While waiting for the checkout your youngest child sees a snickers and remembered that aunt Sharon bought a snickers for grandma last time we visited. 'Then the light comes on', aunt Sharon lives near grandma and grandpa's house, aunt Sharon has a car, we just borrowed the neighbour's car...... ... 'Couldn't they barrow aunt Sharon's car?' One form of meditation is driven by the recognition of a need and the patient search for a solution to your dilemma. A lot of good meditation happens because of an acute awareness of need or desire. The child's active but relaxed mind accepts they can't solve the issues that are out of thier league. But they looking for an answer. They are listening to all the new information and sifting through the old information. Snickers, the lack of money, grandpa's gift, aunt Sharon's proximity, wiper blades, and borrowing the neighbour's car all converged on a solution. As you consider meditation and the reading of God's word this week, let me encourage you to identify your needs or the needs of the world. I've often noticed in my children a period of relative quiet during the mediation process. It is easy to miss this because you are busy and the quiet is a welcome break from nonstop requests and questions. But this quiet is the evidence of mediation. It doesn't mean that all of life stops, it does mean at times we need to concentrate. But we can concentrate in chunks while doing the washing up or standing in a queue. Meditation sees the complexity of life and draws on it all no matter how seemingly unrelated to find formerly unrecognised connections. I say unrecognised but often meditation isn't comparative between people. It is usually a personal journey. It is possible Grandpa would send the money, it's reasonable to think that grandpa had already considered Aunt Sharon's car and probably no one except the child realised the severity of the need. But meditation isn't about what others may have already considered, often it is highly personal and so it takes responsibility to weigh all the data themselves. Some where in the arena of family, cars, needs, and the wonderful world of possibilities there lies a solution and the ever attentive mind of the child is trying each block in every shaped hole until they find a match. Will you meditate on God's word? Will you find the solutions you seek for your most pressing needs?

Meditation at Driehoeven by William Bode

Hanna Duts at Stadsbibliotheek Genk by William Bode

12 Year Old Girl at Zaal 'de Ontdekking', Bibliotheek Stad Genk by William Bode

Message on Psalm 23 translated live while spoken at Vrije Evangelische Gemeente Paulus Genk 29th September

Tuesday, October 01, 2013 Mind the Gap So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. Hebrews 2:1 Daarom moeten wij al onze aandacht richten op wat we gehoord hebben, dan zullen we niet uit de koers raken. (Hebrews 2:1) Every single day we have to believe the truth again. This is not to earn favour with God. Nor is it because God isn't capable of saving us. Jesus' work on the cross is enough. The gift is complete. Nothing needs to be added or topped up. Yet we stray. We forget. We jump to attention when sin calls us to action as if we are still under Sin's command. We are free, but we have developed a habit of obeying sin rather than God. We are easily deceived and we need to regularly remind our hearts of the truth. Jesus must be our focus. Jesus must captivate our hearts. Do you have a daily spiritual check list? When life gets difficult do you have a truth list you tell yourself? Here are some of the items on my check list: God is good! God loves me. God is in control. Nothing happens by chance and nothing is out of God's control. God knows best. ( God knows better than me!) Jesus died for me. Jesus loves my enemies. Jesus forgives all my sin, past present and future. I need to do nothing to earn God's favour. I am not a slave to sin; Jesus has set me free. Jesus rose from the dead to give me an abundant life. An abundant life does not consist of things! Jesus will meet my needs, not leave me alone, cares for my soul and has shown me the way in his Word and will guide me through the church and the Holy Spirit speaking truth from His Word. To follow Jesus requires suffering and persecution. (and more depending on what my heart must hear.) What is your list? Can you find some of the truths I tell my self in Hebrews Chapter 2? Why not have a look for yourself. http://bible.com/116/heb.2.1.nlt

Eating With Your Enemies at bushalte G4 by William Bode

Friday, September 27, 2013 Fatalism Revised 1JN 2:1 NLT My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. ------- Jesus advocacy warms our hearts! The person who knows Jesus can make real choices. Before we are received into God's family by grace through faith we are slaves to sin, Paul says. We have no choice. Everyone who isn't a believer in Jesus can't help but sin. Sin is their master and they are not free agents. If sin says jump, they must jump. And the deception of sin is powerful. We know nothing else. What is sin? Sin is disobedience to God. Sin is disbelief in his promises. Sin is an inextricable headlong run toward death. Sin is self destruction. Sin is selfishness. Sin is loveless. Sin takes and destroys. Sin murders when it cannot have what it wants. Sin leads to death. So sin requires judgement. God is just. He will not allow sin to ruin everything. God will save some from sin. He has set some free. He has released some from the slavery of sin and the fear of death. But we who are free to choose life, the ones able to obey, may still fall prey to sin. Although we are free from the hideous, cruel master that wants our destruction and uses us to lash out in rebellion against God, we sometimes still sin. We should hate sin. We should find sin repulsive. We should see past the moment of selfish pleasure and we should loathe the harmful, hateful former master of our torture and destruction. We should feel the sting of being a pawn in the full on assault against life. We should feel the shame of being a treacherous traitor who has deceived the vulnerable and harmed the neediest of this world. We don't have to sin, but we do. We sin against God. Even more, we sin against Jesus who died for our sin. We add to his suffering. And what does he do? He defends us. The Father and the Son must execute justice against our sin. This sin we cling to in many ways is a greater offence, for it is the sin we chose. We were washed, we were saved. We had a choice. We knew better. And the one we keep hurting the most is the one who defends us. Jesus stands up for us. He says, I died for them. Jesus is the only one who is right. We are wrong. And yet he makes us right even when we are a traitor. Choose not to sin! You can. You are not a slave. You are free. But if you do sin, Jesus defends you, Jesus protects you, Jesus is your advocate. Jesus loves you. He has chosen you to be his. Jesus knows you are a sinner. Jesus knows your heart, your motives, your fears and he knows your selfish heart. Jesus knows your disbelief and your stubborn selfish pride. And still he defends you, still he protects you from his coming wrath. Jesus sees you sin and try to hide it and, even so, he will treat you as righteous because of his own righteousness. So stop sinning. You don't have to; you are free. But if you do sin, repent without fear. Return with no reservation. You are safe. Oh sinner, you are safe

Lorries Loading Ferry at Dover Ferry Terminal by William Bode

Wednesday, September 04, 2013 The gift of Satan 2CO 12:7-10 NLT even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ------------ We've all heard it before but why didn't we recognise it for what it says. God gave Paul an extraordinary vision of heaven. It was so miraculous he's not even allowed to talk about it. 2CO 12:4 NLT that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. Seems that Paul has had an off the chart, earth shattering spiritual experience. This is so special that apparently it doesn't put you into a humble contemplative nigh onto vegetative state of near nirvana but rather being given a glimpse into heaven could make you a bit sinful. In fact the whole experience might lead to pride the ole chestnut that kicked it all off I the garden with Eve and her hubby Adam. So here Paul is again a bit like Adam in Paradise and the upshot is that he might get a big head (again). So what do you do to deal with that? Send in Satan. Well maybe not actually Satan, but a messenger for him. And what is the role of this gift of Satan's messenger? Torment. And the purpose of the torment is to keep Paul humble to sort of counteract the trip to heaven. Now this torment thing is no cake walk. It must hurt, for it has been a topic of conversation on a few occasions between God and Paul. And what's the answer? God says, 2CO 12:9 NLT Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. So let me sum up so far. God gives Paul the opportunity to see paradise and some things that are unspeakable. This experience makes Paul more prone to pride (sin). God gives Paul a tormenting messenger from Satan to keep him humble. Paul finds this rather difficult and repeatedly requests that the torment stop. God says, his grace is all Paul needs and God's power works best in weakness. Now we all want God's power to work real good now. So weaknesses should be the order of the day. God's power doesn't work in your strength. When was the last time you prayed for torment, torment from Satan no less? When was the last time you prayed for weakness? Do you want God's power? Do you want God's power to work real good? Well. How about a bit of weakness anyone? You not only should want the grace of God, but in fact you desperately need the grace of God. To get more grace, to get God's power you need weakness. Hope this made you rethink, visions, grace, suffering, power and strength. It did me. Now then, I thought I was done but this little revelation about Paul's torment made me ask a few fundamental questions. Snakes in the garden kind of questions. And for that matter Satan in the wilderness tempting Jesus because God led him there questions. And lest we forget, Jesus praying three times for the cup of torment on the cross to be removed too might fit into this group of questions. See God, from Adam to Jesus and even through to Paul (possibly aka us), put people in a position to really really need him. Knock out all the props so that there is no where else to turn seems to be the plan. This isn't an oddity, an aberration, or a one off. And we are talking God here, so it's not like it's negotiable, or even up for discussion. I mean, like Jesus and Paul, you can raise your concern, but in the end it is going to be there staring you in the face day after day. You can protest, fight, ignore or give in. But in the end you only have one option to submit now, or submit later. So what's it going to be?

Saturday, August 31, 2013 When little is a lot. 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 NLT Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do. ------ Albanian Abundance "Help if you can," is a common refrain you hear from people raising funds. But maybe it should be rephrased, "help if you want joy." It's obvious from Paul's description of the Macedonians that they had a full plate. He says they are being tested by many troubles. Turning to Jesus had a huge impact on people then, it effected their employment, their relationship to the city leaders, their relationships with their families, and if the new anti-Christian witchhunters (like Paul himself had been) were in town then life could be very difficult indeed. Presumably the Macedonians were being stonewalled, hunted and taken advantage of. Imagine not being able to get work and the local real estate agents all colluding to keep you from getting a fair price for your property. Increasingly your whole church community is needy, jobless ostracised, and afraid. Into this pitiful situation the news that others you've never met are suffering moves your church to have a whip around. They are poor, and their immediate future prospects are grim and yet they find joy in giving. And although the needy in question are in a very tight spot they in fact may have actually been people who had previously been well off. The Macedonians probably had been poor at best all along and before they became followers of Jesus, where as the Jewish Christians now suffering in Jerusalem by in large could most likely have been comfortable or better off back before the persecution and the huge influx of new believers. The Macedonians in spite of their circumstances are filled with joy. And this joy manifested itself in generous giving. I've always thought (maybe influenced by loony toons) that if we only had one bean between the members of our family we'd make the bean slices a little smaller so we could get one more person at the table. The slice might be smaller but the joy would be greater. It is obvious that generosity is a by-product of joy. Joy was a by-product of faith. It is true that this new faith had landed them all in rather troubling a spot of bother. But that was only temporary (even if it lasted for years). The Macedonian believers were so confident that God would care for them that their problems didn't dash their absolute confidence in God's wonderful gift of salvation. Having received this ultimate gift they felt rich. So they had plenty to share. The giving was cathartic and addictive and spread like a virus until the whole church was giving spontaneously and sacrificially. We live now in time where every one wants to get not give. Today the answer of the educated powerful is to throw money at poverty. The failure of every project is lack of funds. The solution of every need is better funding. But the Macedonians should have been the recipients not the funders. And today most people would say that it was 'foolish' to endanger the church, and the family by short-changing yourself to help others. Paul commends them. He recognises that their generosity with stuff and money was not really the root of their generosity. Rather they had already given themselves to the Lord and to Paul. The Macedonians didn't own themselves so they didn't have to worry about taking care of themselves. They were God's. It was God's responsibility to take care of them. And they knew in Jesus they were secure so they are free to give everything away. Wouldn't you like to be so free?

Wednesday, August 28, 2013 A New Goal for a New Person 2 Corinthians 5:1-21 NLT For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. -------------- Here is your chance for a clean slate. Time for a reality check. What are you living for? What is your goal? What is your purpose? Why are you living, breathing, and getting up each day? Paul recognises the wearisome need of a new body. And as each and every one of us age, suffer with sickness, battle brokenness or deformities we long for new bodies. And a new body you shall receive if you are in Christ. So what to do with this news, what is the proper response to being given a new body? It is to use the one we got in faith to proclaim our hope. We don't have to hold back, we don't have to be miserly with our energy. We've got a job to do and a promise to sustain us. So life is for living! We can swallow the weary pain of dying bodies by living up life as we live toward our new bodies. We can begin to erase the brokenness and sorrow of death, disease and destruction by living for life, by living for Christ. We can choose to believe our future is secure and our purpose is clear. This will fill us with the life giving Spirit of God. We can reject the shortsighted living for now earth perspective and choose to believe the life giving God's new home, new body point of view. So your new goal is to please God. Live for Jesus. Live to persuade others. Who are you telling? Come on. Answer that question. Who have you told? How is your life persuading people to trust Jesus? There is a clear task here in this passage. Are you a secretary in an office? Well then you are the office ambassador for Jesus. Are you a factory worker on an assembly line? Then you are the factories representative for Jesus. What do you stand for? You stand for life! You stand for the promises of God. You stand for judgement on sin. But you stand for grace, the gift of life, the promise of a new body, the purpose of God's glory, and the message of Jesus' glory. Sounds like you've got your hands full, but it sounds like you've got all the resources you'll every need and instead of dying you are actually getting closer and closer to life. Real life is inching its way towards you and is taking over this dying life. A lasting and solid life is hurtling into your wearisome decent towards death and atom by atom replacing every bit of you with a new, improved living breathing, loving gracious representative of Life, the life giver and an eternal life.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013 Shiny Happy People 2 Corinthians 3:3-18 NLT Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever! Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. --------------- The REM song Shiny Happy People is meant to be an ironic take on Chinese propaganda following Tiananmen Square uprising. The uprising happened when the Chinese government clamped down on student demonstrators, killing hundreds of them. The government attempted to tell the world and maybe it's own people that it was not a repressive and cruel regime with posters declaring the Chinese are shiny happy people. But possibly it was true that China was indeed peopled with 'shiny happy people.' The irony is that although we in the West have freedom and democracy we are not shiny or happy. We are some of the most depressed, cynical, malcontented dependants bent on pessimism inhabiting the planet. Now the biting irony comes when you look at the church in the West. They genuinely have every reason to be shiny happy people. If you read the passage above from 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and know a little bit about your Bible, you'd recognise that people following Jesus should shine more than Moses did after being in the very physical presence of God. One of the ironies is that in the hotbed of communist persecution it is reported that the church in China has grown from 14 million official followers of Jesus to 70 million in unofficial underground house churches. Possibly the real Shiny Happy People are the Chinese after all, for in the face of great difficult they had sought freedom within by letting the Spirit of God set them free. Unfortunately, the oppression of the past had not been the enemy of faith as much as the economic freedom of the current China. For whether you are in the East or the West the real oppressive force is not the government. What dulls the soul is rather the greed and materialism that lulls the soul into falsely thinking they are free. For it is not religion that is the opium of the people. It is unbridled power and unchecked greed. It is true violence to continue ignoring poverty, to look the other way while we are amusing ourselves with films like the Hunger Games when in fact we are as those entertained by the wars of this world. We are even entertained by watch the news and seeing the man in front of the tank. Because it makes us feel superior! Karl Marx was quoting a much older similar saying when he said, "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people". But he didn't say this because of real Christianity or the real Jesus. He saw all to often the leaders of privilege and money, who are equally found in churches and governments both oppressive and democratic, telling the people to fall in line and quietly look the other way when they see the poor. They don't want us to be like the rebel lowlife upstart, the good Samaritan. The platform plank of the capitalist and the communist alike is to deny the fallen, hurting and damaged. Both show by their lies and denials that their ideologies don't have room for the needy. This is a façade of fake shiny happy people, which is why they end up so easily becoming dull, grumpy people attempting to be what they are not. But true followers of Jesus, according to Paul, will have a glow. They will have a longer view. Unlike Marx they see that salvation from oppressive regimes, capitalist or communist, is of greater importance than freedom now. Our oppression does not actually come from the system, it comes from our rejection of Jesus. But in trusting him, we have a greater more hopeful perspective. In him, that is Jesus, we are set free. We are the most soulful and we who follow Jesus are the most heartful. For our champion didn't stand in front of a tank. Our champion didn't simply die for us. He rose to give light, and love and life. So be free and be the Shiny Happy People God has made you to be. But realise it only comes from Jesus. It does not come from your ideology your system or explanations. It comes from having the veil of unbelief removed by God's Spirit. (to be continued, in your face, no really the real story will be seen in your face. )

Monday, August 26, 2013 When do plan to be free of all your stuff? Ecclesiastes 5:15New Living Translation (NLT)15 We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us. _____________________ I'm moving from one country to another. Moving house with a very limited removals vehicle has forced some hard decisions. Do you keep the children's school art (they've all grown up). You read that book years ago, why do you need to keep carrying it? Possessions own us! We desire them. They weigh us down. Quite literally they weigh a lot! I was looking on web sites that estimate the weight of a person's household to make sure the hired 3.5 ton Luton van with 15.5 cubic meters can safely carry the sum of my worldly possessions. My mind is loaded with thoughts on this subject. A few years ago I decided I need a new rucksack (sm day backpack) to carry my stuff for work, as well as the all important pack up (lunch), and maybe a laptop too. I decided a large-ish one made by Victorinox (the Swiss Army Knife People) weighed in as the winner. Firstly, it seems other middle aged guys had the same idea, since I started seeing them around town. Second, I noticed they were really too big, unfortunately after I bought it (You look like a pregnant mule is strapped to your back). Third, I should have known the first rule of bags (and life for that matter), You tend to fill all the space available. The bigger your bag the more you carry. Just in case! The bag owns you, you are just the willing pack horse for stuff that wants to move around! The Daughter of Davis are an inspirational band made up of two sisters (Fern and Adrienne) who sold everything they had to buy a camper van to tour for two years around the United Kingdom. In a real sort of way, they lightened their load so they could follow their dreams. Well they sing a song called Butterfly. I must confess even when I am an ardent fan, I struggle to catch and sing along with all the lyrics. This leads to alternate lyrics. So when I heard the line, 'I could get into this living life ' I was sure they were singing, 'I could get into this living light' and further it made perfect sense to me as they sold everything and a butterfly is so light. The point is living light feels so good. We love to travel light but we don't. We clutter our life all up with junk. And if it is not actual physical junk it is emotional 'baggage'. Bethany, my daughter did her gold Duke of Edinburgh award this year. One of the requirements is a group orienteering camping exercise for six days in the countryside. One of the binding principles is that you can only use what you can carry! No stopping off at the corner store or some outdoor shop along the way to get supplies. So the common schoolgirl error is to carry too much stuff, just in case. So the trick is to carry just the right amount of stuff. Enough to survive but not so much as to be burdened down. I'm sure that's why the author of Hebrews encourages his readers to strip off the weight that slows us down. Hebrews 12:1-2New Living Translation (NLT)12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.[a] Because of the joy[b] awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. (I can't find the original artist to give credit or ask permission.) Pictured above is a classic woodcut rendering of the character, Christian in John Bunyan's epic tale Pilgrim's Progress. In the following passage Christian is freed from the burden that weighs him down. Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Isaiah 26:1. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.” Then he stood still a while, to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bunyan/pilgrim.iv.iii.html Sooner or later you will lose all the stuff you are carrying. The choice is up to you whether you loose it like Christian at the foot of the cross or if you'll lose it when you get to your grave. Did you know if it isn't in Christ it isn't going to make it to the otherside. Some good things, even gifts from God, are for this life only and many only for a time. All things should be held with lose hands. For naked and alone you came into the world with nothing and naked and alone you shall leave. Mark 8:36 (KJ21)36 For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? "Loosen your grip," I heard one night in a prayerful vision more than 13 years ago. For some reason I find this a hard thing to do. But by degrees God is graciously prying my stone cold grip off the weights and encumbrances. Jesus has more than filled my hands with blessings. But there is no blessing greater than the blessing giver himself. I can embrace him best if my hands aren't full.

Sunday, August 25, 2013 How far will it take you? We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 2 Corinthians 1.8.NLT (Paul the Apostle) http://bible.com/116/2CO1.8.NLT Bible.com/app There's a lot of people handing out 'encouragement' and advice that don't know what they are talking about. Some people are being told that God won't let them suffer. 1 Corinthians 10:13 NASB No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. But its obvious enough if you read what the Bible says that people who suffer (that's supposed to be everyone who follows Jesus) will sometimes feel like its too much. They'll think that the suffering is going to kill them. They're not immediately, easily, or peacefully finding 'the way of escape.' The Apostle Paul is not some kind of sissy drama queen. He's seen his share of tough situations. 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 NASB ... in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. That's a list that puts Jason Bourne to shame. Paul's story is real life and far more exciting than anything Hollywood can dream up. But all that adventure doesn't make you into a rock. Paul wasn't transformed into a fearless, emotionless, 'never cry'- kind-of-action-hero. Paul thought sometimes it was too much. He thought it was going to kill him. Go back to the top and read what super Apostle was saying. CRUSHED OVERWHELMED BEYOND our ability to endure Thought we'd NEVER LIVE THROUGH IT Today I'm writing to give you permission to feel crushed. Don't let your brother's and sisters tell you you are wrong for feeling crushed. I can already hear the hard nosed super Christians with the stiff upper lip and the faith to move mountains start to object and say this is Paul and it isn't an example. And in fact Paul's 'lack of faith' may have been sin! I don't buy that. Let's look at Jesus. Jesus never sinned. So this account in Mark must not be sinful. Mark 14:33-36 NLT He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he became deeply troubled and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Faith has a long view. The view of faith extends beyond the grave. The view of faith trusts the plan of God. The view of faith says this life is only a short time at best. Faith can wait till thier wife is 99 before she has her first baby. Faith can willingly sacrifice thier son, because it believes in the resurrection of the dead. Faith feels pain but believes in heaven. Faith thinks things may be unbearable but believes God will make it come good even after death. 2CO 1:8-11 NLT We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.

Friday, August 23, 2013 Another Take Philippians 2:3-4 NLT Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Another Take When people get seriously difficult news from the doctor often friends will encourage them to "get another opinion." In life we all recognise the value of a "fresh set of eyes." So when someone comes along and offers a new perspective based on some lateral thinking we're inclined to take notice. That's what I think Paul is offering the people of Philippi. In most cultures of the world things haven't changed much, in fact even in the animal kingdom the tenancy is to look out for number one. It's a "dog eat dog" kind of a world. In fact just yesterday a quite selfless colleague of mine repeated that very motto. "You've got to look out for yourself because no one else is going to do it." Self promotion is the heart of competition, grades, ranking, management levels, pay scales and dibs on "riding shotgun". Here in Britain the culture highly values the "no queue jumping" sentiment but it is not humility that protects your position in the queue, its self preservation. We don't want some one at the front to begin letting a long string of late-comers into the queue ahead of them because that will put them all ahead of us. So Paul's perspective is fresh because it counts on God's justice. The person who subscribes to the point of view found in today's verse-of-the-day can let everyone take his place because they are confident of God's advocacy on thier behalf. Do you trust God to have your back? Can you prefer others over yourself? Are you willing to humble yourself and prefer others because God will promote you if you need to be promoted. God will feed you, clothe you, save you, give you a home and a place at his table. Jesus humbled himself and his Father exalted him to position number one. Satan will tempt you to grasp it. Look where that got him. Jesus didn't travel the easy path of queue jumping when Satan tempted him to, instead Jesus trusted his Father's plan. The way up is down

Death is not the grand finale! 1 Corinthians 15:54-58 NLT Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? ” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. It's so easy to think of death as the end. And as it is a formidable enemy we may find death the winner in our epic struggle to live. But the Apostle Paul uses all of Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians to assure us that death is not the end. And in fact death is not the winner. Jesus is the winner. Life and it's author triumph over death. And so can we. We may still feel the slap in the face but we will not be taken down forever by death. Death is defeated. Death will lose and has lost. We look at life and fear the worst. We fear the finality of death. We talk about a life or death situation and raise death as the ultimate spector and unavoidable grand champion. But death is down for the count and life triumphs. In the end life wins. Jesus has been resurrected and so will all those who are in him. So you can be confident. You can be enthusiastic. You can look death in the eye and smile because for you and those you know in Christ death doesn't have a chance. So go to the bookie of life's race and put all your money down on life. Bet it all. Because in the two horse race of life and death, life wins ever time if the rider of life's white horse is Jesus.

Willie Burp Dog's Life at Bingham Park by William Bode

Friday, July 26, 2013 There is only one Acts 4:7-13 NLT They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. -------- I don't know about you but I'm plagued by a terrible recurring case of wanderlust. This malady I must confess has led to me temporarily getting lost or at least going well out of my way. Maybe that is why I grew quite fond of the saying, "All roads lead to Rome." Or my favourite misquoting version of the famous phrase, "All roads lead to Home." My wife and children have often fallen victim to my propensity to discover a new way or my inclination to drag everyone up one more hill to see an imagined amazing vista. To others it can be very wearisome to follow an often failed but doggedly optimistic explorer. Breathe a sigh of relief! Unlike Rome and home, salvation, according to God's Word, has only one way. There is no debate. Our guide has been all of the ways and can conclusively report that, to be saved, only one name will work. Jesus alone can save you. You can turn to no other. You will only get lost and terribly disappointed to go any other way. All other roads lead to destruction. All other saviours are false, incapable frauds. To add to my list of sins, I'm a lazy trekkie. I like Star Trek. But right from the very get go they lie to you and say they are boldly going where no man had gone before. Jesus has been every where. Jesus created it all. Jesus is present in all places. He also suffered all our anguish, evil, aloneness, rejection and torment on the cross and in death. So he had been there. Call on Jesus name! Jesus can categorically tell you that there is only one way and it is through faith in his name.

Monday, July 22, 2013 Written to Shock You! Deuteronomy 28:56-57 The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot—will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter. She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. http://bible.us/116/deu.28.56-57.nlt __________ Deuteronomy chapter 28 is written as a warning and it is written to shock you!This passage is written to set you up! It is written to lead you into the utter revolting shocking horrific end of our selfishness, disobedience, and sinfulness. We may think someone is good, graceful, and full of poise and culture the very picture of beauty and sophistication, when in fact inside lies the avarice of a cannibal! And it is revolting! Still this was not fiction. God's people did disobey his commands and they did literally end up in this hideous situation of starvation, mental collapse and cannibalism. Sin is serious. We really don't believe God. We can't accept the warnings on cigarette containers how can we see the reality of where our path is taking us. Drug addiction can steal our mind and turn our young and promising capable bodies into complete walking corpses.I've seen young people with the bodies and minds of septuagenarians due to alcohol and drug abuse. And who hasn't seen families torn apart by people hell bent on greed, pleasure, lies, deceit and hatred. SIN LEADS TO DEATH! God wants to bless his people but he wants them to know that they will suffer unimaginably if they turn from the source of life. If they seek life from the source of death they will shrivel to less than an animal. We should thank God for painting the picture so clearly of a heart that has run from Him. We may turn from God and have the outward beauty and grace of a movie star but our selfishness will lead us to devour our own young. We need to be rescued from the consequences of abandoning the creator of love and life. We need to cling to the fountain of selflessness and sensibility. We need to bask in the safety of HIs Words and clarity of his ways. Only in rejecting our own way and in embracing HIs will we avoid the horrific rock bottom gutter existence of our sinful self. Be warned!

Sunday, July 21, 2013 True Justice Deuteronomy 24:17-22 NLT “True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans, and you must never accept a widow’s garment as security for her debt. Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from your slavery. That is why I have given you this command. “When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do. When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice. Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I am giving you this command. Cruise Road is a real welcoming community! (Cruise Road, Sheffield, England UK S11) _____________________________ The movement of people is inevitable. Famine, wars, crime, ethnic tensions and many other factors combine to cause people to move. Economic migrants are a constant story in the news. And refugees and asylum seekers never cease to pour across the worlds borders. Then there is the constant expansion and never satisfied commerce that lures people out into unknown worlds and far reaching places only to go bust and become trapped. The poor, the foreigner, the orphan (of which worldwide there are estimated between 120 and 200 million) and the widow will be on your doorstep. God has brought them to you! God wants you to take care of them. How can you turn them away? How can you think they are dirty, untrustworthy, or criminal? How can you protect your own jobs, land, privilege and position? Do you think you blessed yourself? Do you think you have it good because you are clever or hard working and they are lazy and stupid? Do you really think your men died defending your country to buy you the right to mistreat the needy? Do you think you can put yourself first? You have no good thing unless God has given it to you! You would have nothing if it were not for God's grace. And grace by the way isn't making you a favorite because you are better! Grace is a gift! Over and Over God reminds his people they were slaves! Over and over you need to remember your country is a country of poor immigrants. Or worse yet your forefathers came and took by brutal and uncaring force the land you call your own. Your life must take into account a caring humble attitude for the needy! If it does not, God says the foreigner, the orphan and the widow have a case before him against you! Do you really want to pick a fight with God? Do you really disbelieve God? Do you know better than God? How are you taking care of the poor, the needy, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow? In what practical ways are you helping them? Deuteronomy calls this true justice and James calls it pure and genuine religion. So are you just in your attitudes, pure in your trust of God, and genuine in your humility? _____________________________ 27Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. James 1:27

Thursday, July 18, 2013 Ego Busting Grace Deuteronomy 9:4-6 New American Standard Bible "Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,' but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. "Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people. ___________ God is good. He is leading his people into the Promised Land. The promised land was a good place. Proverbially a land flowing with milk and honey but also a land filled with big bad giants. Giants that had come to the end of their grace period. Giants who would soon be facing the wrath of God. Deuteronomy chapter nine says, "...it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them." So it wasn't because God's people were more deserving. It wasn't because they were more liked by God or because they were on a better spiritual trajectory due to their deep and unwavering love of God their rescuer. I've meet lots of nice Christians who would not like to bring up the past sins of another person. And to avoid the unpleasantness of past sin they spiritualize their reasons for politely refraining from looking back. "You know forgiveness remembers our sins no more. they are removed as far as the east is from the west." In the name of Christian love we treat people as if they are righteous, have been righteous, and will continue to be righteous. We all feel much better in this very righteous environment. I suppose many churches today would take issue with the Apostle Paul's, little list in first Corinthians and then the blunt and rather rude statement, "such were some of you." For the most part God is not like that! God is plain talk'n! " God says here in Deuteronomy chapter nine, "Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people." And it is not left just there. Then God rehearses for them the highpoints of their low points and his anger with their rebellious stubborn hearts. It isn't just to rub their noses in their sin either that God says these things. It is God's good grace that warns them. Nice Christians in nice churches might very generally acknowledge we were sinners in the past. But it is a major faux pas to use the past to predict the trajectory of the future. Isn't it judgemental to suggest that because you have a track record of stubbornness and rebelliousness that you might be stubborn or rebellious in the future. I mean let by gones be by gone , keep no record of wrongs and emphasis who we are as God's chosen people. We live in the greatest country in the world. God blesses us. We were chosen! We're special! That's not the way God plays it with his people here in Deuteronomy nine, nor in most of the bible. God calls a spade a spade. God graciously warns his people that they are not getting into the promised land on merit! They are not more righteous than the other nations. They do not have a good track record and they are most likely prone to pride and sin. There I've said it! I have suggested as God does that you are likely to sin! You are likely to think too highly of yourself. You are prone to thinking you've earn the grace of God! God's good grace gives and warns. Don't go thinking you have been saved because you are clever, obedient, pretty good, not a murderer, or a child molester. There is every chance that God will save them. As God give you a great gift he reminds you that it is just that a gift and he is not being mean spirited or hurtful as he warns you to not get the wrong idea and think you deserve it. That is not what grace is about. Promised lands are about God's promises, not good behaviour. ___________ DEU 9:1-24 NASB "Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, great cities fortified to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?' Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you. "Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,' but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. "Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people. Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord . Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, 'Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.' The Lord spoke further to me, saying, 'I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people. Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.' "So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. I fell down before the Lord , as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain. "Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. When the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and possess the land which I have given you,' then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013 Be Careful Blessings Ahead DEU 8:1-20 NLT “Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord . For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good. “So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills. It is a land of wheat and barley; of grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates; of olive oil and honey. It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath. “But I assure you of this: If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed. Just as the Lord has destroyed other nations in your path, you also will be destroyed if you refuse to obey the Lord your God. ---------------- Everyone wants a blessing. We want a good life. We want more yield and just a bit better return. We want enough to share. We want to be comfortable. Who doesn't? We pray for blessing, we ask for protection. We hope for good crops, better wages, longer holidays, sunnier days and plenty of rain, but not when we need to be outside. We love fresh fruit, rich cakes, hearty beer, fine wine, choice tender meats and tasty pastries. We hope we don't get sick, we pray for healing and we long for a good night's sleep. On our best days we pray that even our enemies share in the blessings of peace, prosperity and economic growth. We applaud job creation, advances in technology and miracle cures. Endcliffe Park, Sheffield But be careful! Blessing can blind you! Abundance can bind you. Opulence breeds obesity. And people forget God. James 1:17 KJV Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Got a raise? It was from God. Did you give him credit? Healthy? That was from God? Have you thanked him? Have a good meal? Travel safely? Get a return on your investment? Have a comfortable life? Enjoying the sunshine? Get a choice? Live in peace? Be careful not to take it for granted. Your freedom wasn't won simply by your clever economics, your superior intellect, or your rigorous education. And you're not blessed because you deserve it. If you got it GOOD, it was from God! Be careful to not forget him. Give him credit. Be careful, blessing can be your undoing. Don't become proud. Don't forget God! Hunter's Bar, Sheffield

Monday, July 15, 2013 Unyielding DEU 3:21-29 NLT “At that time I gave Joshua this charge: ‘You have seen for yourself everything the Lord your God has done to these two kings. He will do the same to all the kingdoms on the west side of the Jordan. Do not be afraid of the nations there, for the Lord your God will fight for you.’ “At that time I pleaded with the Lord and said, ‘O Sovereign Lord, you have only begun to show your greatness and the strength of your hand to me, your servant. Is there any god in heaven or on earth who can perform such great and mighty deeds as you do? Please let me cross the Jordan to see the wonderful land on the other side, the beautiful hill country and the Lebanon mountains.’ “But the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. ‘That’s enough!’ he declared. ‘Speak of it no more. But go up to Pisgah Peak, and look over the land in every direction. Take a good look, but you may not cross the Jordan River. Instead, commission Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead the people across the Jordan. He will give them all the land you now see before you as their possession.’ So we stayed in the valley near Beth-peor. -------- I've been waiting for more than 13 years for something quite important to happen and 24 years for another thing to happen. Neither thing is trivial and both very much have seemed God's plan. Moses had been waiting for about 80 years to see God's promise. And for the last 40 years Moses' whole goal was to lead these People into God's promised land. Now he can't go. Furthermore, his new goal is to prepare his assistant, Joshua, for the job. This is a hard pill to swallow and Moses begs God to reconsider. I'm not sure how many times Moses had mentioned it. It could be that it is only those few times recorded in Numbers and Deuteronomy or it could have become a repeated refrain of Moses' prayer life. However many times Moses had asked, God has had enough and tells Moses, "‘Speak of it no more." What must Moses have felt? It seems to me there a only a few things that make this news bearable. And I'm still left with a few questions Moses was old and was going to die soon so he'd not have to face this disappointment for long and he'd then be in a much better place. Moses was confident that God's plan was going forward under Joshua leadership so the people would realise the goal Moses at least knew the final word on the matter and could at least not be in any doubt as to God's feelings on the matter. But why is it that Moses seems to be able to pass the blame for his not being able to enter the Promised Land on to the Children of Israel rather than on his and his brother's disobedience. Numbers 20:12-13 NLT But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them!” This place was known as the waters of Meribah (which means “arguing”) because there the people of Israel argued with the Lord , and there he demonstrated his holiness among them. Sometimes we get all worked up and begin to identify with someone like Moses in the bible. But this is not Moses story. this is God's story. We are meant to be hearing and identifying with the one who deserves and demands our uncompromising love. This is a story about a compassionate, holy, promise keeping God. A story of hope and redemption a story that leads us to Jesus. Moses is not a saviour. Moses could not finish what he set out to do. Every attempt by man to live up to the standard will fall short. Only Jesus is righteous enough, ultimately only Jesus saves. In the end Joshua begins the next step but he too will be incomplete. But we are promised with Jesus he can finish the work! He can succeed where all other have failed. Moses in the end is just like you. Just a person who will ultimately fail on their own and not make it to the goal. Only in Christ can you make it to the end!

Friday, July 12, 2013 Remind God? Numbers 31:54 NLT So Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gifts from the generals and captains and brought the gold to the Tabernacle as a reminder to the Lord that the people of Israel belong to him. Numbers 10:10 NLT Blow the trumpets in times of gladness, too, sounding them at your annual festivals and at the beginning of each month. And blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and peace offerings. The trumpets will remind the Lord your God of his covenant with you. I am the Lord your God.” ---------- God knows everything. God made the covenant promises to Abraham and then repeated these to, Jacob, and on then to His People through Moses. So why is it that these two passages tell God's people to remind God? Can you think of other places in the Bible that God asks people to remind him? I've had a look at these passages in two passages in a number of other versions of the English Bible. (NASB, ESV, AMP, MSG, NCV, NIV, ) New Living Translation seems to be the only one with this nuance. Making God the one to be reminded. But even if it is a fluke of a less than accurate translation. What caused the translators to make this change? Does God need reminding? Didn't effectively Moses remind God of his reputation in Exodus 32 when God was going to destroy his people and Moses pleads with God to save them. "So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people," (Exodus 32:14, NASB). Victoria quay, Sheffield UK In this passage not only does God get a reminder but it appears as if he changes his mind. And then there is Korah's rebellion in Numbers 16, where it sounds as if God is going to wipe them all out and again Moses pleads with God and God seems to change his declared course. 20Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,21“Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them instantly.”22But they fell on their faces and said, “O God, God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the entire congregation?” Are our prayers a reminder to God? What do you think? Write me and tell me: wkbode@gmail.com or reply here and make a comment.

Thursday, July 11, 2013 Perfection or nothing. Numbers 27:12-19 NLT One day the Lord said to Moses, “Climb one of the mountains east of the river, and look out over the land I have given the people of Israel. After you have seen it, you will die like your brother, Aaron, for you both rebelled against my instructions in the wilderness of Zin. When the people of Israel rebelled, you failed to demonstrate my holiness to them at the waters.” (These are the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) Then Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, you are the God who gives breath to all creatures. Please appoint a new man as leader for the community. Give them someone who will guide them wherever they go and will lead them into battle, so the community of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” The Lord replied, “Take Joshua son of Nun, who has the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him. Present him to Eleazar the priest before the whole community, and publicly commission him to lead the people. ---------- Moses is trusted by God. If Numbers chapter 12 is to be trusted, Moses " was very humble—more humble than any other person on earth." (Num 12) So you might think Moses was safe from judgment. You might think Moses had the inside track. Seeing that Moses knew people in high places so to speak you'd think he'd get a pass. Of course Moses would get to enter the promised land. I used to say that the most important thing about a person is what they think about God. And in God's description of Moses that seems to be worthy of a mention, "he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the Lord as he is." But that didn't get him in. Moses was humble. Moses knew the Bible. (He did write pretty much all of it up to this point.) Moses trusted God, Moses was very obedient, Moses prayed a lot, Moses experienced an unprecedented outpouring of God's blessing and gifting. Moses loved his enemies. Moses loved God and his neighbour. But in the end this doesn't secure his entrance into the promised land. You and I are not going to get one up on Moses. You and I are not going to queue jump Moses based on our performance record. Moses' life and death cry out for grace and a Saviour. Moses wasn't enough on his own. God and Moses' relationship, as good as it was, was not enough. We need Jesus. We need a perfect Saviour. You are not good enough. You can't count on your relationship with God. You can't count on you bible reading or writing for that matter. You can't count on your humility but it is a nice touch and by all means keep it up. You can't count on a love for your enemies. You will not get into God's kingdom based on you! I will not get into God's promised land based on my merit. Be careful what you put your trust in! Flowers on Graham road wall, S11 Sheffield UK It is only by the mediation of Jesus, it is only by his perfect life and sinless death you will cross over into God's reward. You can not earn it yourself. Riches and blessing will not secure your place. Your obedience will not earn it. It is only by Grace! ---------- Numbers 12:2-4, 7-9 NLT They said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he spoken through us, too?” But the Lord heard them. (Now Moses was very humble—more humble than any other person on earth.) So immediately the Lord called to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam and said, “Go out to the Tabernacle, all three of you!” So the three of them went to the Tabernacle. But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the Lord as he is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?” The Lord was very angry with them, and he departed.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013 Last Enemy 1 Corinthians 15:26 NLT And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. ----------- I got news this morning that a friend died. He was only 51. Premature death came to my life early with the death of my grandfather. And then the life changing, gut wrenching, loss of my best friend and only brother (and only sibling) visited my life when on the 4th of June 1987, Daniel Allen Bode suddenly and unexpectedly died. I was irrevocably changed by these deaths. Death is inevitable. Death is our enemy. But death is not the end. I've pasted in at the end of this note the whole passage from 1 Corinthians 15 about Jesus power over death and his ultimate victory over death. Another passage that really helped me face death and make sense of it, is found in Hebrews chapter 2. ----- Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. ----- Death and even more the fear of death has a great power over us. Jesus has a greater power. I can not make sense of mortality and the ticking clock without lastly hearing Jesus. The night my father called to tell me my little brother had died, I was stunned. I had been up most of the night studying and was deeply in academic mode and weary. Because of university and work I missed my brother's high school graduation. Luckily, my brother came to visit me in Chicago just before he died. I told my dad, I'd be right there, a five hour drive. I called back to make sure it wasn't a bad dream or I'd misunderstood. No, it was true. (Thinking about it now makes me feel young, nearly a child again, and very vulnerable.) I sat at the kitchen table and cried out to God. I had no idea where to turn. My Bible fell open to this passage and these were the words I read : ---- John 11:21-26 NLT Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” ----- I answered, "I believe!" ----------- 1 Corinthians 15:12-28 NLT But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.

Thursday, July 04, 2013 Silver Trumpets Numbers 10:1-10 NLT Now the Lord said to Moses, “Make two trumpets of hammered silver for calling the community to assemble and for signaling the breaking of camp. When both trumpets are blown, everyone must gather before you at the entrance of the Tabernacle. But if only one trumpet is blown, then only the leaders—the heads of the clans of Israel—must present themselves to you. “When you sound the signal to move on, the tribes camped on the east side of the Tabernacle must break camp and move forward. When you sound the signal a second time, the tribes camped on the south will follow. You must sound short blasts as the signal for moving on. But when you call the people to an assembly, blow the trumpets with a different signal. Only the priests, Aaron’s descendants, are allowed to blow the trumpets. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation. “When you arrive in your own land and go to war against your enemies who attack you, sound the alarm with the trumpets. Then the Lord your God will remember you and rescue you from your enemies. Blow the trumpets in times of gladness, too, sounding them at your annual festivals and at the beginning of each month. And blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and peace offerings. The trumpets will remind the Lord your God of his covenant with you. I am the Lord your God.” ------------------- About ten hours ago, when I read Numbers 10 I was excited to read about the silver trumpets. Hearing the trumpets through the camp was to be a regular reminder of God's promise. Sounds of trumpets, sights of the cloud and pillar of fire, and the smells of sacrifice and incense all served to constantly remind the people of God's promises. That coupled with the taste of manna and quail made the life of the Israelites unique and blessed. But the hearts of men are hard and easily distracted. You'd think they'd not be able to forget God's blessings. But they grumble, they complain, and they imagine a couple of years on from the Exodus that slavery in Egypt was better than living in the presence of God. But when their mind is going down the negative path of return to Egypt the Silver Trumpets call out and draw their attention in the direction of the Tabernacle. With their gaze now fixed towards the dwelling place of God, they see the pillar of cloud and smell the smoke of sacrifice. The heart is cheered and promise of God the rescuer is remembered. The same Silver Trumpets that announce a peace offering, is the sound that declares war, and says in the same way, I'll take care of you my children. When the Silver Trumpets welcome the first of the month or when the joy of celebration is echoing through the camp, the Trumpeter is hoping a new event of gladness would call on his services for God encouraged the trumpets to be used at nearly any excuse. We can't be reminded enough that God keeps his promises. What sound serves as a Silver Trumpet call for your heart? We all need a call to prayer. We need reminders every glad time. Listen. Listen and make the sound of birds, hear the call of the shift change at the local factory, hear the bells on Sunday or even the sirens of the city and let these sounds remind you of God's good grace. What sound will call you to remember and trust your God' your provider and rescuer?

Monday, July 08, 2013 I'm what you need Numbers 18:20 NLT And the Lord said to Aaron, “You priests will receive no allotment of land or share of property among the people of Israel. I am your share and your allotment. Numbers 27:5-7 NLT So Moses brought their case before the Lord . And the Lord replied to Moses, “The claim of the daughters of Zelophehad is legitimate. You must give them a grant of land along with their father’s relatives. Assign them the property that would have been given to their father. -------------- Different people different lessons. God's word isn't monochrome. The priests taught us the promise land was first and foremost about the promise giver and His presence with God people. We ultimately don't have to be trapped by the greed of the name and claim it culture often invading Christianity. To be sure the priests were not going without, but thier self sufficiency - live off the land - American dream was severely limited by God. If the people obeyed God then the Tabernacle, sacrifices, and "taxes" would supply an abundance. The people would also have to trust God through the years of Jubilee and even the weekly Sabbath. But don't think that God is unconcerned with justice in the distribution of land. In Numbers 27 we have a unique and just precident. Women had the same right as men to the ownership of property and this was for the insurance of carrying on the rights of the family. The purpose isn't too reinforce the rights of the individual but rather to insure the rights of the family were protected and that women had the right to claim the property continuance for the family. This checks and balance system shows God's love for his people. A love that sets the focus of the people on trusting God and that recognised the importance of property but only in the context of family and trusting in God as our ultimate Father and provider.

Wednesday, July 03, 2013 Early Retirement (Today I read Numbers chapters 5-8 in the Bible from the New Living Translation, why don't you join me?) Numbers 8:23-26 NLT The Lord also instructed Moses, “This is the rule the Levites must follow: They must begin serving in the Tabernacle at the age of twenty-five, and they must retire at the age of fifty. After retirement they may assist their fellow Levites by serving as guards at the Tabernacle, but they may not officiate in the service. This is how you must assign duties to the Levites.” --------------------- I'm getting a bit older. I've been saying that for years. But since I'm nearly 50 myself and since I'm a priest, maybe I should be considering retirement. 1 Peter 2:9 NLT But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. But before you get to liking the idea too much let's consider a few other relevant facts. Moses and Aaron and maybe even Aaron's sons were much older and they were working very hard indeed. In fact at this point Moses is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 85 years old and He had lots of work ahead of him yet and he served in the tabernacle. In fact Moses visits with God in the Holiest place in the Tabernacle and hears his voice. Numbers 7:89 NLT Whenever Moses went into the Tabernacle to speak with the Lord , he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—that rests on the Ark of the Covenant. The Lord spoke to him from there. Further we get no indication that I know of that in any other area of life and ministry we are to retire. Here in Numbers the Levites still have the possibility of guard duty and this job doesn't seen to come with a retirement age. So why this specific age range for Levites serving in the Tabernacle? Numbers 8:7 NLT Do this by sprinkling them with the water of purification, and have them shave their entire body and wash their clothing. Then they will be ceremonially clean. The whole regime is meant to differentiate between God and the people. The people are sinful, dirty, flawed, blemished, rebellious, and tainted with stench of death. God is pure, holy, perfect, the very source of life and in all ways righteous. God wanted reliable men. He wanted men in their prime, capable, clear, and without an outward sign of impurity. And maybe the most important thing is that God wanted to remind his people that he was not to be taken lightly. Not just anyone could fulfill the role. That is until Jesus, comes and makes all his people in his kingdom a kingdom of priests. Revelation 1:4-7 NLT This letter is from John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come; from the sevenfold Spirit before his throne; and from Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the world. All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him— even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for him. Yes! Amen! So a day is coming when none will be mothballed. There will be no differentiation because we'll all be like Jesus. And old, young, men, women and child alike will be part of the royal priesthood of Jesus. We are always looking to Jesus and his kingdom. Are you?

Tuesday, July 02, 2013 Smiled on Numbers 6:22-27 The Priestly Blessing 22 Then the Lord said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing: 24 ‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. 25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’ 27 Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them.” ___________________ Smiles really do make a difference. A smile is a mark of happiness, a sign of joy, a seal of approval. When God smiles on us he is saying he loves us. He will give us what we need, that indeed he loves us! We need this blessing. And God knows it. Don't forget it is God who tells Moses that this should be the blessing from God's representatives, Aaron, his sons and the priests to his people! Look at what God is saying to his people. Protected Fern Bless - God intends to do good to his people! Protect - God is committed to their well being and standing between them and harm! Smile - God offers approval and joy in them. God is happy with his people. He loves them. Gracious - God knows the failings, and waywardness of his people but he will provide for them just the same. This blessing is not conditional on the people, but on God's character, which never changes. Favor - God sees everything but is predisposed to do good to his people. He will conquer their enemies, cause their crops to grow, and give them plenty. Peace - God rests from conflict with these rebellious people and extends peace. So in a world of fighting and war, God's people will know peace! and the promise of fulfilling this whenever the priest extends the blessing to God's people! Maybe it is the promise tacked on the end of this blessing that makes it so powerful! The priest in pronouncing this blessing knowing full well that God is going to fulfil it! That is God's promise. It is as if God is saying listen, when Aaron, his sons, or the priests say these words to you, listen it is my voice. You are hearing the voice of God spoken from the heart of God. And although this was specific to the Israelites so long ago and Aaron is no longer walking this earth, a better priest by far has come and he still speaks these words of blessing over you. And His Father has promised even greater bounty, and blessing. Jesus is our great high priest and He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing imaginable and far more than you can imagine. Trust Him and listen to his blessing spoken here through Aaron and now through Jesus! Hear me friend as I am a priest in God's kingdom and I speak these words of Blessing on you today!

Friday, June 28, 2013 Schedule it Today I read Leviticus chapters 21-23, why not read them today with me? ________________ Leviticus 23:2-4 NLT “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly. “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the Lord’s Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live. “In addition to the Sabbath, these are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the official days for holy assembly that are to be celebrated at their proper times each year. _______________ I'm a big one for putting it on the calendar. I like a plan. Oh to be sure I like spontinaity but I think being flexible works best in a framework or a structure. Along side the details of plans, diaries and expectations I love to see the big picture. I like a good overview. Life benefits from both a healthy analysis as well as a synthesis. Look at the parts and how each part works individually and from very limited perspectives. Then look at the whole, the trends the big picture and see the parts with in the whole. Leviticus contains instructions about the details of seven national annual festivals or holidays (Holy Days). These days were in addition to the weekly Sabbath days. So a Jewish community calendar would have a lot to look forward to. But also there was the expectation that like western Christmas lots of money went into these festivals. Nearly each one required specific sacrifices. Since the real daily commodity of life is food and nearly all the required festival sacrifices were food a family would have to plan. No holiday is complete without a big meal so it was more than a double consideration that a portion of the best food would be taken to the tabernacle /temple as a sacrifice and then there were the hungry families to feed. These regular frequent privileges and equally obligations required planning. But ultimately God was teaching his people to be careful and regular about recognising him as thier provider, protector, defender and rescuer. I can see how the whole system might become rather expensive and difficult to keep up with. But God said he'd provide. By giving up a portion of the best regularly and then celebrating lavishly God's people had inbuilt systems to keep them dependant on God. Do you see God's provision? Are you completely dependant on him? Do you have in your life specific times to celebrate? Are you preparing to honour God with your first fruits and remembering his rescues? How about putting it on a calendar?

Thursday, June 27, 2013 Controversial and of another time? Leviticus 18:1-5 NLT Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the Lord your God. So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord your God. If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord. ---------------- "I am the Lord, " and" for I am the Lord your God. " are two constantly repeated phrases throughout what maybe arguably some of the most distasteful verses in the Bible. I say that it is distasteful for many reasons but to the uninitiated these three chapters of Leviticus refer to the actual sacrifice of humans. And not just any human sacrifice but the sacrifice of children by burning to death. Historical records from sources other than the Bible describe events where hundreds of children were killed at one time. But to be fair, child sacrifice may be the most detestable reference in Leviticus chapters 18,19 and 20 but they are currently not the most controversial. I want to really encourage you to read these chapters for yourself. But mostly to see the context and associations. Ultimately my purpose today is to draw your attention to the overriding theme that underlines and punctuates these detestable and controversial behaviours. Over and over God simply reminds his people that he is the Lord. He is adamant that as he lays out these prohibitions his people are clear He is God. There is not a lot of explanation, as to why particular behaviour is forbidden. What is crystal clear is that God is large and in charge. This world is run by the Lord's agenda. He is God. God is making sure everyone knows the rules come from him. God needs no other reason than he is. Are we God? No! Who is God? The Lord is. So whatever has become of these commands for today and if you've not read them carefully you'll not be able to easily pick and choose what is still detestable out, from what is not currently relevant. These three chapters are part of a whole. And the overriding and inescapable fact is that God is the author of these words. You've got to ask yourself," What does God expect of me today?" How do I emphasis that I get He is Lord and God?

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 Forsaken Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" _________________ York Minister Why would God the Father forsake Jesus, the Son of God? I find it interesting that today I published a blog consisting of a passage that's been sitting in my drafts from reading Exodus. The interesting thing is the contrast with this passage in Mark. Many have noted over the years that in every way Jesus is the perfect Israel. Jesus is the obedient son. Jesus kept the law fully as no man or woman had ever done and he did this without stumbling once. He is faultless in all ways. Yet here on the cross he is forsaken by the Father. Here on the cross Jesus assumes the position of the guilty. Jesus is suffering the full wrath of God. He faces death, mocking, torture rejection. But further, where we can not observe, Jesus is carrying the weight of our sin. All the evil of humanity past, present, and future is crushing Jesus. All the guilt, all the fear, all the pain is rending God's soul. Somehow Jesus the God man is actually suffering so that we can be made free. He is punished so we can be accepted and more than accepted we are imputed, attributed and blessed with the merit of his righteousness. Till the moment he dies it seems all humanity is hurling upon Jesus scorn, mocking, and abuse because he had made himself vulnerable. When in fact he is the all powerful, all knowing, compassionate, merciful, gracious, exacting, just judge of all mankind. And after he dies there on the cross people say he must be the Son of God. Why this change? Maybe we see it partially in Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph it says was looking for the Kingdom of God. This small commentary on the man who buries Jesus I believe is meant to say he found what he was looking for in Jesus. Joseph wasn't running away like the disciples earlier, nor standing at a distance like the women. Joseph found courage on Jesus' death. We too can find courage in the obedient son's ultimate act of courage. We can identify and let Jesus' death in fact be our own. When Joseph places Jesus in his tomb could it be he is saying this man died in my place so I have nothing to fear and no need to further prepare for my own death. Jesus had done it all. Mark 15 The Crucifixion 21And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. 22And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull).23And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25And it was the third hour when they crucified him. 26And the inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." 27And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. 29And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30save yourself, and come down from the cross!" 31So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we maysee and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. The Death of Jesus 33And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 35And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Elijah." 36And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." 37And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" 40There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. Jesus Is Buried 42And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.44Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. Posted by William Bode at 6/26/2013 07:49:00 am Labels: cross, crucifixion, death, Jesus, Joseph, Kingdom of God, sin Location: 4 Cruise Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S11 7EF, UK Lavish Love Exodus 20:1-6 NLT Then God gave the people all these instructions : “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me. “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. ____________________ Jesus was obedient Israel but on the cross he was forsaken.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013 Life or death in God's presence! Leviticus 16:1-2 NLT 1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died after they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him. 2 The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover. ________________________ See why I worry about my children? Emily Bode, Amy Westlake, Gwendolyn Bode, and Bethany Bode I can't imagine How Aaron must have felt at the death of his two sons. We read in chapter 10 of Leviticus that Aaron remained silent when Moses explained God's reason for his two sons being consumed with fire from God's presence. I'm not sure you caught it but although the rest of the Israelites were allowed to mourn officially for the death of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and the rest of his family and the Levites were not allowed to mourn. The death of a child must be devastating. I worry nearly every day for the last 24 years about my children! And I've seen the grief parents have at the loss of their child up close and personal. Grief is important. Aaron was denied the normal outward signs involved in this process. Now his brother, Moses is asked by God to speak to Aaron and warn him about his own vulnerability in the presence of God. Leviticus is all about being able to have God's presence in the midst of his people! The presence of God is special. It is not ordinary. And for sinful people to be allowed to be in God's presence they have to be reminded they are sinful! They have to know all the ways in which they offend God. The people have to see that being close to God is a matter of life and death. Ever since the garden of Eden, all men have been under a death sentence. And every sin confirms that they can not live in the presence of God. Something has to be done to turn around the reign of death over each and every person. In the next chapter, God says that the only way that anyone can be made clean enough to be with him is to have someone or something give it's life in their place. Leviticus 17:11 NLT ...for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible. Blood given in exchange for a life, All the dead animals in the sacrificial system, and all the barbecues for God alone, were meant to demonstrate the serious life or death situation between God and man! Your sin offends God. It stinks to him. It amounts to treason. Your rebellion is an affront to him. Your willful cocky disobedience deserves death! But God wants to be close to you. He wants you in his family. He made you to know him. He is worthy of being known. There is nothing other than you being in his presence and worshiping him that matters. And for God sake, get over yourself. He is holy. He is pure. He is righteous in everything he does. He is the all knowing one. He is the all seeing one. He is the all powerful one. He created you. How for a millisecond can you even think you know better? What makes you imagine for a moment that you are more righteous? How can you judge God? What makes you think you have all the information? Really you know very little. You are weak. You are not very clever. You are easily deceived and you need help. So God has a plan to bring you into his presence eternally. And his plan involved Jesus blood, given in exchange for your life. So he warns you as Moses warned Aaron; Don't come into God's presence without an invitation, don't come at the wrong time and don't come without being made pure by the sacrifice of someone's blood or you will loose your life. But you can come, safely and boldly because of Jesus. Look at what Jude says more than a thousand years later: Jude 1:24-25 New Living Translation (NLT) A Prayer of Praise 24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen. And we can further see that although Aaron, the high priest had to be very careful and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu lost their lives for their carelessness, We can come into god's presence boldly because of Jesus. Hebrews 4:14-16 NLT Christ Is Our High Priest 14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Monday, June 24, 2013 Mildew from God Leviticus 14:33-34 NLT (with a more complete passage below) Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew. ------------------------ A problem with the bathroom plaster. Leviticus has a lot of instructions in it. I've been reading through the book and finished chapter 14 this morning. So far there have been been rules about sacrifices, rules about blood, rules about sex, rules about eating and rules about skin diseases. In each case there are two considerations. One, how does this effect my me and others practically? What do I need to do to do the right thing or remedy the situation? Two, how does this affect my relationship with God? What do I need to do to make sure ceremonially I can participate among God's people so I can be close to God and right before him. As I was reading along it really stuck out to me, that God said he would give some people's houses mildew. Now from experience, I can tell you mildew is not nice and I've pasted below more of God's instructions concerning mildew. But suffice it to say mildew can wreck your home. So, I was a bit surprised that God so clearly took credit for this unexpected 'gift' of mildew. I think it is important to note this in no way appears to be a curse for sin. It is not connected with other commands or disobedience. Mildew isn't a reminder of an event in the people’s history. Mildew may or may not be easily recoverable from, but since you always have to remove all your belongings from your house it is always going to be an imposition. Strangely there is no clever explanation, there isn't any lesson to be learned on the subtext. Simply, some people will have mildew of varying degrees and it comes from God. It will always be an imposition and it could result in having to tear down the house and build a new one. I want you to understand this is a rule that for the most part won't come into play for at least another 40 years since they'll wander living in tents for four more decades. So, this is a rule for the Promised Land. In the animated classic film, An American Tale, Fival Mousekawitz's family and whole European Jewish 'cat' ghetto sings that 'there are no cats in America'. But after many trials along the way the promised land of America turns out to have cats. Promised lands on this earth and in this time still have problems. God sends mildew on people. We're not ever going to be completely comfortable in this world. We are meant to look forward to another home, another city whose builder and maker is God. A problem with the bathroom plaster. Then we'll live mildew free. Hebrews 11:9-10 NLT And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. --------------------- Leviticus 14:33-48 NLT Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew. The owner of such a house must then go to the priest and say, ‘It appears that my house has some kind of mildew.’ Before the priest goes in to inspect the house, he must have the house emptied so nothing inside will be pronounced ceremonially unclean. Then the priest will go in and examine the mildew on the walls. If he finds greenish or reddish streaks and the contamination appears to go deeper than the wall’s surface, the priest will step outside the door and put the house in quarantine for seven days. On the seventh day the priest must return for another inspection. If he finds that the mildew on the walls of the house has spread, the priest must order that the stones from those areas be removed. The contaminated material will then be taken outside the town to an area designated as ceremonially unclean. Next the inside walls of the entire house must be scraped thoroughly and the scrapings dumped in the unclean place outside the town. Other stones will be brought in to replace the ones that were removed, and the walls will be replastered. “But if the mildew reappears after all the stones have been replaced and the house has been scraped and replastered, the priest must return and inspect the house again. If he finds that the mildew has spread, the walls are clearly contaminated with a serious mildew, and the house is defiled. It must be torn down, and all its stones, timbers, and plaster must be carried out of town to the place designated as ceremonially unclean. Those who enter the house during the period of quarantine will be ceremonially unclean until evening, and all who sleep or eat in the house must wash their clothing. “But if the priest returns for his inspection and finds that the mildew has not reappeared in the house after the fresh plastering, he will pronounce it clean because the mildew is clearly gone.

Sunday, June 23, 2013 Two Sons Lost in Silence Leviticus 10:1-3 ESV Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the Lord has said, "Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified." And Aaron held his peace. _____________________ Are you ready for yours? (Picture taken at University of Sheffield Student Union) Nadab and Abihu were consumed by fire that came out from the presence of the Lord. Two men died in the brand new tabernacle. Aaron's two oldest sons were chosen by God to work in a privileged position near to the very presence of God. But along with the highly exalted position came a life and death seriousness. We all far too readily dismiss death. Nadab and his brother had witnessed God's rescue of his people from the Egyptians. They escaped the death angel in Egypt because of their obedience. They walked through the Red Sea on dry land. Nadab and Abihu drank the water of gold dust from the ground golden calf. Nadab and his brother were among the Levites who killed 3,000 Israelites at the Lord's command because of wrath at the golden calf incident. These two men had participated in the preparations of the tabernacle all according to God's plan, and they had been purified for seven days previous. We need to see that these two men would have been considered good men up until this event. In fact they were really leaders numbers three and four, right under Moses and Aaron. Also considering the age of Moses and Aaron and the number of children they had and the fact these guys were Aaron's oldest, we can guess they were mature adult men well along in life. Are you seeing the picture? Nadab and Abihu are two respected important older men with a track record of doing serious good and seeing God's amazing acts and exacting holiness. Furthermore they were very near the presence of God. And on the surface it appears as though they are at least trying to do something to honour God. But the passage had some clues as to why they were struck down dead. Firstly, Leviticus outlines for us the sacrificial system that God had laid out for the people to be holy. Animals died in great numbers to remind the people that death is the result of sin. And every time another step in the new system was revealed to Moses and carried out by Moses, Aaron, the priests and the people, it is punctuated by the phrase, 'as the Lord commanded.' God had a plan, and it was important, deathly imperative, that things were done God's way. Any other way was sin. Nadab and Abihu did something that was not according to God's instructions. They were in the presence of God and they were presuming to somehow add to God's plan. Or they possibly had too much to drink and their judgment had been impaired. That's possibly implied by the following verses a little later, Leviticus 10:8-11 ESV And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, "Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses." All too often I'm afraid we are guilty of making it up! We've not been very careful about keeping our desires and opinion clear from God's command. Interestingly there is a pattern of God's severity when setting things up. Later when the spies return from Canaan and ten of them give a bad report, all ten die. During David's kingship when they are setting up the temple again by moving the ark of God's covenant, Uzzah reaches out to steady the ark while being transported on a cart, and he is struck dead. Much later as the church is just getting started and we become a living temple, Ananias and Sapphira lie about their gift and God strikes them down dead. Every day God wants to do a new thing in you. Your Father in heaven chooses to dwell in you, and together with other Christians, you are the temple of God. But unlike the first tabernacle, we have the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. But this is the only way to be safe in the presence of God. Oh friends, do not be lax in trusting Jesus alone. Don't invent your own way. Don't come under the under the influence of any spirit but God's Holy Spirit. We must see God as holy. He is wholly other. He is pure. Only His ways are acceptable. This is a life or death issue.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Recentred (selected verses from Psalm 119) Psalm119:72-74, 81-84, 89-92, 96 NLT Your instructions are more valuable to me than millions in gold and silver. You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands. May all who fear you find in me a cause for joy, for I have put my hope in your word. I am worn out waiting for your rescue, but I have put my hope in your word. My eyes are straining to see your promises come true. When will you comfort me? I am shriveled like a wineskin in the smoke, but I have not forgotten to obey your decrees. How long must I wait? When will you punish those who persecute me? Your eternal word, O Lord, stands firm in heaven. Your faithfulness extends to every generation, as enduring as the earth you created. Your regulations remain true to this day, for everything serves your plans. If your instructions hadn’t sustained me with joy, I would have died in my misery. Even perfection has its limits, but your commands have no limit. _____________ In G. K. Chesterton's brief but pithy book, Orthodoxy I've often found sanity. Chesterton illustrates the rationality of common faith in God. Through stories or elaborate senerios the book convinced me to centre my reason outside myself. Ultimately I am a poor starting point for my reality. The author of Psalm 119 is convinced of many things. Primarily the Psalmist is sure of the absolute necessity of God's word but he quite rightly doubts himself. As I read this passage I'm reminded of the rock solid things and caused to doubt the insecure. For instance God is the creator isn't up for grabs. It is a given! Or the shakiness of our own personal faith is set against the clarity of God's unmoveable word. Psalm 119 really casts into question nearly all the supposed givens of this world. Money isn't as valuable as God's word. There is no debate or lack of clarity on this point. But the writer's own faith is expressed as needing assistance. People of 'faith' are often offended if you question thier faith and even respond with strong emotion when they are questioned. We don't need to defend ourselves, especially when the truth is we are the least sure thing there is. But that isn't too say we don't have a role as people who are convinced of God's word and it's absolute surety. The penman of Psalm 119 knew he could bring others joy through his faith in God's word. We all to often are prone to protecting the indefeasible and then throwing the baby out with the bath water. Just because we see the frailties of our self and our own faith we don't have to assume God is not there nor that we have no role. We can both view ourselves with healthy scepticism and be at once confident of God's ability. We can be sure of His ability to rescue and still cry out in anguish intensely in need of the rescue. According to Psalm 119 the pain of life does not negate the sovereignty of God's plan. And the complexity of need did not unseat God as creator and sustainer. I really resonate with this portion of the Bible. I highly recommend that you read the whole of this Psalm. I'd be very encouraged to hear from you what you make of it. I wonder if you too find the logic of this author refreshing and surprisingly lucid but markedly different from what we hear so readily from the world around us. It can be very reassuring to be different. Are you ready to remove yourself from the centre of your logic.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013 The greatest hidden miracle? Exodus 39:32-43 NIV So all the work on the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses. Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses: the tent and all its furnishings, its clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases; the covering of ram skins dyed red and the covering of another durable leather and the shielding curtain; the ark of the covenant law with its poles and the atonement cover; the table with all its articles and the bread of the Presence; the pure gold lampstand with its row of lamps and all its accessories, and the olive oil for the light; the gold altar, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense, and the curtain for the entrance to the tent; the bronze altar with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils; the basin with its stand; the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard; the ropes and tent pegs for the courtyard; all the furnishings for the tabernacle, the tent of meeting; and the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when serving as priests. The Israelites had done all the work just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them. ---------------- People prize things. Crossing the Red Sea was quite the miracle. But I'm inclined to see the building of the tabernacle as an even greater miracle. To be sure there were a lot of people (maybe more than a million) and since they were facing a wet wide deep sea they had their proverbial backs against the wall. There were ducks, cows, sheep, horses, chickens, and all manner of livestock. Then there was the large load of swag. Everybody had a looters paradise of booty. Wonderful to possess but a pig to transport. And lastly there was an army with horses and chariots in hot pursuit intent on getting back the contents of the of their mattresses, closets and safety deposit boxes. So the Israelites had a big motivation to exit stage left and make like a tree and leave. The rest of the story is well known rehearsed and sung about for many millenia. Dry crossing was provided by God for the Israelites as a trap to bury Pharaoh's army, horses, chariots and at the bottom of the sea in Davy Jones' locker. But think about it everyone was highly motivated by survival and treasure! A combination that has kept the laziest focused and active. Now consider the tabernacle. First miracle is that God's people give so much by way of building materials the workers have to ask Moses to stop the people. Unbridled generosity is rare in an individual and then to see a band of refugees give up more than a ton of gold, and absolutely train loads of other materials willingly is unprecedented and unparalleled. Take for instance the bronze basin recorded for us and paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in the Message (Exodus 38:8 MSG) He made the Bronze Washbasin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women's work group who were assigned to serve at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Thier mirrors would have been highly valued items, often used and greatly desirable. Then there's the fact the tabernacle was finished exactly according to plan, on time and with a budget surplus. There were no overruns, nothing over budget, all the required skill was procured in house nothing had to be subbed out to another nation. With so many people working on a project in the middle of no where makes the US Navy sea bees look like complete armatures. And everything fit. And worked together. Neither the function nor the artistry was compromised. Every detail was finely crafted. And why? These people complained about food, water, wandering, Moses' extended quiet time and they made the golden calf idol to worship thereby breaking the first simple rule they were given. The tabernacle didn't feed them, it didn't increase their wealth. Most of them would never see the pretty parts of the tabernacle. On every level this tabernacle project defies logic and human nature. Truly this was one of the most extraordinary miracles ever recorded in human history. Oh and it wasn't completed by taxing the people nor by commanding or coercion. Exodus 35:29 NLT So the people of Israel—every man and woman who was eager to help in the work the Lord had given them through Moses—brought their gifts and gave them freely to the Lord . This could be the greatest miracle in all of Exodus. Has God done anything like this in your heart, or in your church?

Monday, June 17, 2013 Hate bribes Exodus 18:20-22 NLT Teach them God’s decrees, and give them his instructions. Show them how to conduct their lives. But select from all the people some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes. Appoint them as leaders over groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten. They should always be available to solve the people’s common disputes, but have them bring the major cases to you. Let the leaders decide the smaller matters themselves. They will help you carry the load, making the task easier for you. _________________ Disputes come with the territory. People, even God's people, maybe especially God's people, have a keen sense of injustice. Everyone knows when they have been wronged. Well at least everyone knows when they feel like fairness hasn't been observed in their behalf. Seems one of the first phrases a child declares with passion is, 'that's not fair'. And who do we imagine will right the wrong? At first it is our parents. But then it is innate that we appeal to leaders for justice. "Billy took my toy!, " we cry expecting our toy to be returned and maybe Billy will get a good thrashing so he'll not take my toy again. We long for mediators who will dispense fair, considered, impartial, wise justice. I think one of the first interesting things in this passage is that this was not a particularly democratic process. Moses chooses these intermediaries. Next I've observed that as Moses chooses he determines the level of responsibility each leader will have from a handful of people to a thousand. But what stands out most to me is the relativity short list of relevant criteria. Capable Honest Fear God Hate bribes Dispensing justice requires capability. There is a skill or talent that enables some persons as capable. Then next in the list is a character trait, possibly a reputation of honesty. A person in leadership whose role it is to dispense justice has to love the truth, they must be without a practice of lying. It is interesting that the primary character trait of arguably one of the greatest presidents in American history was honesty. It has been passed down through the years that he was even known for the practice of honesty so much that he was nicknamed, 'Honest Abe.' I wonder could it be that actually there are only two requirements on this list stated first positively and then reiterated negatively. Cable = fear God Honest = hate bribes It was not an uncommon literary device of Moses' people or time to emphasis by restating the points in opposite ways, or by building the point. We'd do well to consider the possibly that real capability in leadership, particularly in dispensing justice, comes from the humility of knowing your place before God. The Fear of God the Bible says is the starting blocks of wisdom. And valuing the truth over personal gain is foundational. I've once heard it said that leadership requires an insight into the trajectory of truth. I'd heartily agree, that a person that sees the tangled web that is woven through deception will at all cost avoid the peril of entrapment and the demise of entanglements with bribes and lies. For ultimately God knows exactly what has happened. God has seen both the action and the intent of your heart. Nothing has escaped God's view and God will ultimately dispense justice. The capable leader will be acutely aware that justice is not some subjective abstract concept but rather is deeply rooted in the person of God. And further that it has been imprinted on the human heart with the image of God given at creation. First trust God to give you justice. Secondly, pray for mercy!