know how you should respond

And scene. Masses of people, 1/2 videoing the situation via digital camera and cellphone, 1/2 on their cell mindlessly chattering to acquaintances their experience; hundreds fleeing the unknown, walking, walking where; rumors multiplying; all reminded of six years earlier.

Still reflecting on recent musings on being ready for the Return, and why so many ready to act, ready to respond to potential terror, yet so few ready for the Return?

First guess might be that one far more recent than the other (6 to 2,000). Another might be that one more probable than the other (violence to eternity). Still another might be knowledge of how to react in one and not the other.

Not proffering a reason better than any of the above. Wondering why the recent focus on the Return. Either I know something, or I wish something. Probably the latter.

which they had prepared

Ex12 details directions for the initial Passover feast. v11 caught my eye in describing how it is the Israelites were to eat that meal -- "with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste". The command here is to eat it not only dressed as if about to leave the house, but also quickly. It brings to mind the stereotype of an American man grabbing a bagel on the way out the door, briefcase in one hand, quick kiss to the wife and a dash to the car.

Why a meal in this manner? The rest of v11 and then v12 give you the Lord's reasoning -- "it is the LORD'S Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments--I am the LORD."

The Lord states that the reason for their hasty, dressed meal is because the Lord is executing judgment. The clear message is that God's people need always be on the ready for His judgment. Wonderful foreshadowing to Christ's later commands to be at the ready for His coming because we know not the time nor hour.

Yet another reason for a third consecutive post after such time away -- discipline = readiness.

by this time there

Knock, knock
Who's there?
Even if I told you, after three weeks off, would you remember?

Hourglasses are such perfect representations of time; not for their ability to pass seconds, but rather for the visual that time comes in limited qualities, that time cannot be stopped from advancing, and that time slips away through little channels you can't control.

I find my days running from sleep to work to procrastination back to work to family to meals to leisure to faith and back to sleep. And finding time to muse much less opine on that musing becomes more and more difficult.

But that's the story of faith and life, isn't it? Success in either involves you being able to overcome that negative inertia and do beyond what you feel like doing or feel like you can do. The walk, the one that matters, only brings about that smile when you are what you are called to be rather than what you are born to be.

believe that you are

"Faith: What's it Look Like?" {Heb11:4-7}
* Abel
- Faith worships according to God's Word (v4)
- Worship: to ascribe worth/value
- God not here for you; you here for God
- Even when it costs me {1Chron4:23-24}
- Even when it inconveniences me
- Casual indifference to God's presence
* Enoch
- Faith walks according to God's way (v5-6)
- Lived during one of darkest periods and remained faithful -- closely and continually w/ God
- Until the Rapture {1Thess4:18}
- Until the reward
* Noah
- Faith works according to God's will (v7)
- Not just believing in God, but believing God
- "Every tree he felled shouted faith"
- Do your works express faith?