Tuesday, February 16, 2010
February 17 ... Numbers 14 - 15 "Wailing All Night...Look Deep Inside"
Numbers 14:1 "The whole community wailed all night." Does that mean 2 million people wailing? Oh my! It brings to my mind Hosea 7:13-14 "They have strayed from Me...they do not cry to Me from their heart but they wail from their beds for the sake of grain." How did the Israelites who were so obedient in the first chapters of Numbers get to this place? We look at others and think they are so obedient, following God. But what happens when the times get hard? They bail. They wail. The glimmer of hope that started this march to Canaan died down to a collective grumble. So, did their obedience come from good places in their hearts? Joshua and Caleb know something in their heart not their minds that 2 million others don't. Numbers 14:9 - "God will lead us. Don't be afraid. God is on our side." Their obedience comes from a very good place in their heart that a Good God is leading them and will forgive every wrongdoing out of His Extravagant Loyal Love - 14:19. There's that hope for our sin. Caleb had a different spirit (11:24) about this. Everyone else? 66 Love Letters calls them: presumptious and unbelieving. "They never looked deep enough inside to see what was terribly wrong in their own hearts. Presumption that everything that looks okay on the surface is okay blinds you to your real problem." As we begin the First Day of Lent today, may we listen to a Sovereign God leading us down the path we are on and look deep inside what is going on in our hearts by His promptings.
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Today is the First Day of Lent. Larry sent an e-mail invitation last night to experience the Lenten season with e-mail devotional readings from 66 Love Letters. I posted about it on my other nameless blog. You'll find the link there and a little more info about it. It's a free e-mail service during the 40 days of Lent (excluding Sundays). It will be 40 highlights of a Grand Story and it's a free subscription.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bev and sweet husband, for the link. I'll join you both.
ReplyDelete"The tassels will signal remembrance and observance of all my commandments, to live a holy life to God. I am your God who rescued you from the land of Egypt to be your personal God. Yes, I am God, your God."
Blue tassels on the corners of their garments were added to remind them to remember and observe all of God's commandments.
In our culture today, I need more than a tassel. I have to let go of things that don't profit me spiritually. My time is precious. TV...not so much.
I'm trying to get started into a church that I feel welcomed into since my marriage crisis. It can feel so lonely especially when your family lives away.
I thank God for my blog community. Each one of you have been a blessing to me. You lift me up when I'm low and you tell me words of encouragement, even when you have no clue that I'm the one who's reading your posts, your testimonies.
Observe and remember. I thank God for the "Calebs and Joshuas" in my life. I count each one of you as of this same Spirit that leads you to passionately observe and remember just WHO our GOD is.
He IS our GOD. Yes, He is.
"But my servant Caleb—this is a different story. He has a different spirit; he follows me passionately. I'll bring him into the land that he scouted and his children will inherit it.
ReplyDeleteI want to follow our Father with the same passion in which Caleb followed Him. I want my soul to decrease so the Holy Spirit in me will increase.
(How can it be Lent already!)
I look forward to the Lenten e-mails from Larry, Thank you for this opportunity to dig deeper in my faith walk with HIM.
ReplyDeleteLord, I pray for the God-obsession passion of Caleb and Joshua as for too often I realize the self-obsession in me as seen in today's reading of the children of Israel.
A theme that keeps popping up as I continue this journey through the Message... God is always "More than Enough". Help me to trust you more completely. Create the tassels for me to wear including the blue thread in the corner tassels to remind me "God is More than Enough" for ALL of my life.
Numbers 15:40-41 The tassels will signal remembrance and observance of all my commandments, to live a holy life to God. I am your God who rescued you from the land of Egypt to be your personal God. Yes, I am God, your God.
Yes, Elohim is God and He is my God. PTL!!!
Praise Him for His extravgant loyal love! Where is God stretching my faith? I have a choice in how I react, with faith or without. May I be like Caleb, "with a differnt spirit and follow Him passionately".
ReplyDeleteIt does seem incredible that these are the same people who followed Moses out of Egypt and obeyed God completely. Now they're sinning left and right. Sounds like me.
ReplyDeleteI FEEL like loving God back when things are circumstantially good, but it's a decision of the will when things are bad. And again, seeing God's intense anger at their complaining and disobedience is eye-opening.
Thanks for all of your posts today. Very helpful in processing the reading.
"In this wilderness they will come to their end."
ReplyDeleteHis Word is profound to me today. The wilderness can be a lonely place.
I am going to spend the next 40 days concentrating on coming to the end of myself... I think I'll start by giving up sweets, something I love and have relied on (just yesterday I had too many Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies) for comfort when I should have gotten down on my knees. Those cookies didn't make me feel better.
I wish I had my blue bracelet from my first Bible study ever... Believing God.
Love you all,
Angie xoxo
If any are led to, please pray for me and my husband today. He has not been feeling well for some time and we go to the doctor(3:30)to hopefully get some results as to the cause.
ReplyDeleteThanks ladies!
I too thought of the "blue bracelet" Angie...we wore it when we did Believing God. I think I may mentally wear one, just as a reminder. I've never really observed Lent before...think I will this year, He is calling me. All of the comments went down deep. Blessings on all of your lives and may He meet each one of you today exactly where you need Him and may it be abundantly more than you can ask or imagine according to His power that is within you....
ReplyDeleteI heard a sermon today online that was such a great way to start Lent. Your loving hearts also speak to me on so many levels. You see God's love in His plan that might seem harsh, but it is the most radical love of all. "But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. (Isaiah 53)
ReplyDeleteRadical love is the only way our hearts will be changed. Not fear of God, not trying to be good, not any selfish desire to avoid hell. We have to know WHY Jesus died. And out of that great Love, hearts melt and conform to His likeness.
Ash Wednesday is our reminder this day, our blue tassels. Not only of His commands, but His amazing love for our hearts.