Sin & Love

A couple of thoughts as I continue working out what it means to know nothing but Christ and him crucified and the power of his resurrection (1 Cor 2:2 & Phil 3:10-11).

“Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land…Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people….You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.  So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you. And I prayed to the LORD, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness…”  (Deuteronomy 9:5a, 6, 24-26a, ESV)

As I was reading Deuteronomy 9, two things occurred to me:

1. I am as stubborn as the people of Israel.  I have constantly turned by back on God and bowed before gods made of my own hands.  Yet God has been gracious and merciful to me…not because of my righteousness, but because of His.
2. As a minister, do I have the same love for the flock He has entrusted to me as Moses had for the people of Israel?  Would I bow before God forty days and nights in intercession for these people?

Jesus Christ is the reason and motivation for both.

 

Praising God for Reunions

I have a friend who married a woman in the Philippines. He has been working through immigration for two years to get her and their son here in the States.  Today, all that work paid off.  She and their little boy landed safely in the U.S.  A family reunited after far too long.  He’s told me many times that it has been God who has sustained them during this dark night of the soul.

Just Getting Old

My doctor’s nurse called my house today and spoke with my wife.  Turns out there’s no permanent damage to my spine. It’s normal for a person my age.  No fracture ater all … apparently it’s just going to take a long time for the muscles in my back to heal after such a fall.

My Achy Breaky Back

To bring everyone up to speed on my “Achy Breaky Back” saga:

On Monday, October 31st, while participating in our church’s Harvest Festival, I fell approximately five feet off of a jolly jump thing onto the concrete food, landing on my back. I got up, shook in off and didn’t think much of it, finishing the night out. By Thursday I as in extreme pain and having difficulty moving.

On Friday I went to my doctor who took an X-Ray. The area of pain seemed to be caused by muscle spasm and he gave me some needs to relieve that. He did notice something else, however and forwarded my X-Rays on to whomever doctors forward those things on to. This individual reported that there appeared to be a transverse fracture of the L4 (one of the wing thingies on my L4 vertebra looks like it might have been chipped off). An MRI was scheduled to determine if this was an old injury or new, the extent of the damage and if anything can/ought to be done about it.

My MRI was yesterday (Tuesday, November 16) and it’ll be another day or so enforce I find anything out from that. In the meantime, I’m able to move about just fine. The aboriginal back pain is now gone. I am experiencing pain in the L4 region but I don’t rule out the possibility of that being merely psychosomatic since there might be something wrong there.

And that’s pretty much all I know at this time.

Get Back to the Word

For they are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the LORD;
who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
(Isaiah 30:9-11 ESV)

The Gospel is not something we live or do, it’s something Christ did we proclaim.  If we are not teaching from the Bible in a Christ centered way, then we had best not be teaching anything at all.  At best we’re simply spewing moralism.  If your church is not teaching from the Word of God in a Christ centered way, it’s either time to change it or find a new church.

Sermons, Sunday School lessons and Bible studies are not supposed to tickle our ears or make us feel good about ourselves.  They are supposed to challenge, convict and instruct us.