His disciplies were together

From something for tomorrow:

One of the great things about faith – and one of the great things about God for setting it up this way – is that faith is not just an individual experience but also a social experience. There’s a reason Jesus chose twelve disciples and not just one disciple. He knew they’d need to support each other as they followed Him, and as they dealt with the crucifixion. There’s a reason the young Christian church fellowshipped and worshiped and broke bread and prayed together. They persevered under persecution by leaning on one another. There’s a reason congregations are considered one extended family, and why small groups are effective. Because faith is designed not just to be an intimate relationship between an individual and God Almighty; it is also designed to be intimate relationships between brothers and sisters united together under the banner of Christ.

Pastor this morning has shown how God allows people to face impossible situations evident in the Red Sea Crossing, the fall of Jericho, and the trusting of Rahab. God often develops faith by putting faith to the test. But one of the great things about this God of ours is that these tests of faith aren’t always solo experiences; sometimes He allows these tests of faith to be collective experiences. God uses our innate need to share experiences as a means of supporting and developing faith as a body of believers.

Can you imagine how scary crossing a dry stretch of land that once was a seabed with towering walls of water to your sides is? How much easier would it be to have another’s hand to hold as you hurried across to the other side. Can you imagine how strange you might feel walking around a city on the hopes that impenetrable walls would collapse at the sound of a horn? How much easier would it be to laugh about the situation with a brother or sister as you trusted God and made that circular journey.

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?

the Mighty One and

Ps73 contains some breathtaking lines of worship. v25-28 especially:

"Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works."

God is called the "strength of my heart." In a world of Hummers and steroids and UFC matches, in a society that values power above all else, God is the strength of my heart. The power He has is the power to love and to encourage and to provide hope and to provide meaning and to still a man in his tracks to still him with an overwhelming sense of smallness compared to the bigness that is eternity.

There is strength, and then there is strength.

why are you sleeping

Distracted all day today by another fallen asleep. Mused all day on 2Cor1:3-5. The Lord is blessed for being a God of all comfort, and then Paul points out that the reason He comforts us is so that we can comfort others. Eternal sleep sans the context of eternity makes no sense, and being a light in that darkness is certainly worth having endured prior darkness. Heard that death comes in triplicate, but this is beyond that number by some amount. Holding fast to later in 2Cor1 where God who raises the dead is "He on whom we have set our hope."

quiet, but he shouted

Inertia is a funny thing. When headed down a path away from discipline, it is extremely easy to slip into a defined road that never returns to that careful structure of the will you had taken such great pains to erect. Although I suppose inertia involves action by definition and long periods of inaction don't qualify as inertia so much as falling back into your original state of disorder. The opposite seems to be happening with thoughts. Thoughts, at least my own, already move around in chaos. Instead, they've been tending to buck the laws of science and move to ordered silence. Trying to reconstruct the structured will. You'll know whether or not I'm successful by the radio silence.

belong to your father

"How to be a Dad Your Kids Will Love"
* Accept their uniqueness
- Must accept before can help
- Prov22:6 one of most misquoted/misused v's in Word
- Not a promise; principle
- "Way he should go" refers to child's way not Lord's
- Way appropos stage of life
- According to their unique strengths
- No comparison {Gal6:4}
* Affirm their value {Ps139:13-14}
- Pay attention
- Show affection
* Correct w/o condemning {Eph6:4}
- Prov13:24, Prov19:18
- Never in anger
- Watch words
* Love unconditionally
* Focus on being a Godly person
- Give life to Christ
- Ask children for forgiveness as necessary
- Be in fellowship w/ other believers

but went away from there

Been a surreal few weeks. Going to be a few more surreal days before all is said and done, I am sure. Will update in a few.