A New Chapter

So many times in Scripture the human participants in God's story get to turn the page on the past and move forward into a new chapter in their lives. It is not that the past disappears, but that the past is encapsulated and put behind them.
This does not mean that the past has no significance in the new chapter, but that its role is celebrated and liberated from the endless cycle of collapse.
Take the Israelite's entering the Promised Land. The miraculous Exodus from the land of Egypt, with its slavery ad oppression should have been a quick journey. But instead, it was filled with rebellion and shortsightedness. They had seen the LORD deliver them from Egypt with all that entailed. They could look each day that the visible manifestation of the LORD's presence in the pillar of cloud and fire. They could see His provision of food and water. They could see all this, but they still tried to run the show their own way.
Eventually, those who were younger than 21 at the time of the Exodus were standing ready to enter the promise after wandering for forty years in the wilderness. They could have closed the book on rebellion and opened a new chapter on obedience. But they didn't. Oh how history would have been different if they had fully obeyed.
What would be different about your history if you had obeyed at those key moments?

We have another adventure starting soon in our lives. We have a mission call to spend a number of months in another country serving those who wear the uniform and their families. It will mean time away from our family here where we live, and time in a temporary setting, among people we don't know, doing work that has eternal consequences.
We need your prayers. We need your financial support, no matter how small. We stand ready to walk into the next chapter. Will you join with us?
If you would like to join us, please go to Cadence.org.
Thanks in advance. 

Honoring Sexuality

Here is a link to my sermon from this past week. I shared the role of sexuality in the Life God Gives series here at Keystone Church of the Nazarene here in Okinawa Japan.

Just in case the link above doesn't work, here it is ready to copy and paste into your browser.

http://ftp.keystonenazarene.org/audio/2016-5-15.mp3

And here are some others if you are so inclined.

https://hospchap.sermon.net/main/main/20677191

15Feb 2011 Exodus 40:38

³⁸ So the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

This would be a wonderful way to know God's will. When we see the visible sign of His Presence move, we move. When it doesn't move, we don't move. This is a great principle for ministry, as well as life. We need to be where the Lord is. We need to join into what He is doing, and not hope He shows up in what we are doing. Find Him and we find His will. But what if we don't know what His presence is like? What if we have never known God's presence? How do we find His will? The first step is to surrender to Him. This is not an act that necessarily takes place at the altar of a church, but does take place in our heart. We give up the right to think we have it all together, that we are right. We agree with God about who we are and our own unworthiness to be called a child of God. We also acknowledge who He is, the Creator of the Universe, the only being who is infinite and eternal, and the One who fixed our sin problem. Then we begin the journey of faith. We read the Scriptures expecting the Lord to speak. We fellowship with other believers knowing that the Lord will show up. We pray believing the Lord will answer as we pray according to His will.

14Feb 2011 Exodus 35:20-21

²⁰ Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses' presence, ²¹ and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.

Willing and moved in the heart. Oh that we would be this way! These chapters are about making all the elements of the Tabernacle, the place where the Lord chose to center worship and service in Ancient Israel. Each of the elements is made just the way the Lord showed Moses. All the details match the pattern. And materials were needed to make all these things. The people willingly brought materials to make all these things. The Lord put skill and ability in certain people to be able to make all these pieces of the Tabernacle. If we each willingly and with moved heart brought what we each had, our talents and abilities, our rags and our riches, to worship and service, the world would never be the same again. But so many sit on the edge and observe rather than jumping in and getting involved. They say that only 10% of church people do 90% of the work. What would happen if we could get 20%, or 30%? I want to encourage you. Don't be satisfied with observing. Jump in and get involved. Volunteer to help somewhere in the church. God has gifted you! Find a way to use that gift. Love graphic design work, sewing, mechanic, kids, music, tech, FB, Tweets, cooking, coffee, smiling, or talking to people. No matter what it is, the Lord wants to use that talent in the church.

13Feb 2011 Exodus 34:7b

…. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation."

Anyone who has grown up in a household with someone who drinks heavily can tell you, there are negative consequences that get passed down through the generations. The same is true with other forms of abuse as well. The negative consequences of those behaviors get transmitted to the kids. It is very hard to grow up in a household where anger changed the rules every day, or where you never know what to expect when dad comes home. This fact can be hard to swallow. It is not fair that the kids get the negative junk of the parents. You are right. It is not fair. Sin takes the fairness out of life. We often get the negative consequences of other people's actions, not just our own. We live in a world of war. Disease and poverty are rampant. Oppression and hopelessness are almost everywhere. This verse should serve as a warning. Our actions have long lasting consequences, so we should be careful what we do and say.

12Feb 2011 Exodus 32:33

³³ The LORD replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.

The Israelites were each going to be held accountable for their individual actions in connection to the golden calf. Not everyone was equally involved, so the Lord does not hold them equally responsible. They don't get a universal punishment for being there. Those who sinned against the Lord get punished. Those who didn't, don't. Unfortunately, very few were not guilty. The idea of being blotted out of the Lord's book as a punishment is an interesting one. Does the Lord need a book to keep track of things? Of course not, but He uses this idea that the people could understand in order to get His point across. The Lord might talk about erasing your name from God's database, if He had to express these ideas today. Or maybe revoking our membership, or pulling our security clearance. But unlike some of our bosses, the Lord does not do blanket punishments. He only punishes those who need the correction. Let's be careful in our corrective actions, that we target them at those who need the correction. Let's be like the Lord who sent the plagues on the Egyptians, but spared the Israelites in order to teach that the Lord protects His own.

11Feb 2011 Exodus 30:15

¹⁵ The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives.

This just isn't fair. Why should the poor have to pay just as much as the rich? Shouldn't it be based on income, the rich giving proportionally more? Shouldn't the government pay for all the poor? No! In the context this would mean that a rich person's life was worth more than a poor person's, which we know is not true. Some things the Lord demands from us are not based on our wealth. For us as believers, the Lord demands that we give Him our whole heart, not a portion based on our financial bottom line. Just as the Lord doesn't gift us equally (see Bezalel Ex 31:3), so the Lord expects different things from each of us. His individual development plan is unique to each of us. But we must all yield completely to Him. We are all empty at the Cross. We bring nothing to God that He did not give to us in the first place. We come empty and He fills us up.

10Feb 2011 Exodus 28:2

²Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor.

Since the Fall, human beings have not had the dignity the Lord designed us to have. We are marred by sin. The garments that get made for Aaron, the first Jewish priest, were designed to evoke a sense of dignity and honor that was not currently present in their lives. The dignity and honor was connected to their role as priests before the Lord. The Lord brought the dignity and honor. It was not Aaron and his sons' possession. They put on garments when they were in their role of service to the Lord. It was only in their role as priests that they were clothed in this dignity and honor. When they took off the robe, they did not possess the same dignity and honor. When we become Jesus-followers, we take off the old robe of self-righteousness and put on the robe of His righteousness. His robe covers us. It is only when we are in Christ that we possess His righteousness, that we get the benefit of His work on the Cross.

9Feb 2011 Exodus 25:9

⁹ Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.

Sometimes we forget as we read all these details, that all of this pomp and ceremony is teaching us a lesson about our character and about His character. They are a giant object lesson that ultimately points to Jesus. So as you read, ask yourself what this teaches me about the Lord, about me and about Christ. If you get stuck and want to dig a little deeper I suggest you begin by looking at some pictures of the parts Tabernacle Model or Life Sized Model. Moses is charged with making the copies that replicate what he is seeing on the mountain. What a task! I would want a digital camera and proper lighting to document what I am seeing. As you read you will see that the Lord repeatedly tells Moses to make it like the pattern shown him. This is not freelance design class. Make it like the pattern.

8Feb 2011 Exodus 23:2-3

² "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, ³ and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.

The court is not the place to correct past wrongs, or societal inequities. We must do what is right, no matter the circumstances or the direction of public opinion. Justice must rule. There are other ways to correct the past. It starts with repentance by those who actually did the wrong. We cannot repent for another person. Proxy repentance is what the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages called indulgences. We can only repent for our own sins. So what do we do about past inequities? As believers we can choose to redistribute the advantage gained by the injustice. As believers we are already called to see to the needs of the poor, the orphaned and the widowed. We might not be able to undo the past injustices, but we can deal with justice now. Notice that even in our passage today it is the individual who is responsible for their actions. The crowd gets it wrong. Notice also, that we must not side with the poor simply because they are poor. Justice must prevail.

7Feb 2011 Exodus 20:21

²¹The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

What a contrast to what happened in the Garden of Eden where God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. There was no fear. That is because there was no sin. As soon as sin entered the picture, fear entered the picture. Think about the situations in your life where there is fear. Are you in sin causing you to run from God's presence? Is there sin in some other person running rampant and you are getting the negative consequences? The Lord wanted the people of Israel to respect His Word. He needed them to know that He was serious, that He meant business. He would much rather have walked with them in the cool of the day than appear on a mountain top with thunder and lightning, and trumpet blasts and smoke. Now, in Christ, we can approach without fear. Sin has been dealt with and we have been forgiven. We still come with the full knowledge of His holiness, so we don't come in a flippant manner. We take entering God's presence seriously, but not in fear of judgment.

6Feb 2011 Exodus 16:20

²⁰ However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

Some people never learn! The Israelites had just been delivered from Egypt and the Egyptians had suffered greatly for not obeying the Lord. Now the Lord provides manna for them to eat. He tells them that He will provide for them each day what they need. Some don't believe He means what He says. So, when they gather more than a day's worth, it rots! Have you ever disobeyed the Lord and gotten yourself into a mess? The mess comes in order to teach a lesson. Have you learned the lesson from your mess? Take a look at your life. What are the messes that have happened, or are happening now? Is there a part of this mess that stems from your disobedience? What part of the mess is due to someone else's disobedience? The only way to get out of the mess, and prevent further messes is obedience.

5Feb 2011 Exodus 13:16

¹⁶And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand."

Some symbols are very powerful. The symbols I experienced growing up in church did not have much meaning. Because I did not have a relationship with the Lord, everything around me lacked symbolic meaning. There were powerful symbols displayed, but to me they lacked power. For Israel, the Passover became one of their most powerful symbols. It reminded them of the past, when they were delivered from death, when the Lord killed all the firstborn in Egypt. Israel was spared by the grace of God. But the blood spilled that day by those sacrificed animals looked forward to the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. The Passover was to be an ever present reminder of whose they were. The Lord owned them. He had delivered them. They were His. To whom do you belong?

4Feb 2011 Exodus 12:13

¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

In preparation for the first Passover the Israelites were to put some of the blood from their sacrifice (also the meal they would eat) and spread it on the sides and top of the doorframe of the entrance door to their houses. Can you imagine the thoughts of any non-Israelite neighbors who happened to pass by on that evening? We might say "gross" or "what in the world are you doing?" But in the days after the firstborn were killed, I am sure some, perhaps many people made the connection between the fading blood around the doors and the death of their firstborn children. They had no blood around their doorframes. All the Israelites had blood and their firstborn did not die. The connection would have been a powerful statement about the Lord's provision and power. He was able to protect His own. In a world where so much is out of control, it is good to know that the Lord has eternity under control. Even when evil seems to triumph here in this life, the Lord loves us enough to take care of eternity. That circumstance that has you in its grip is only temporary, transient. It will come to an end. Hold on to the Lord. Trust in Him. He will see you through.

3Feb 2011 Exodus 7:13

¹³ Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

It is amazing the damage done because of one hard heart. As you read this passage today, look at the progression of Pharaoh's heart. Pharaoh refuses to keep his word and his heart becomes hard. Eventually the Lord adds His own hardening to the process. If Pharaoh had not hardened his own heart, history might have been very different. Notice that the Lord uses Pharaoh's hardening. He uses it to glorify His Name. The people eventually understand the power of the Lord, and His mercy, although most don't enter into that mercy. Only a few travel with the Israelites out of Egypt. They all lose their firstborn children. What a loss. Hundreds of thousands of children died because of Pharaoh's stubborn heart. Can you imagine the anger that his wife leveled at him that day? It was his fault. He killed his own son with his stubbornness. How stubborn are you? Maybe it is time to allow the Lord to soften your hard heart. Don't worry about someone else's hard heart. Let the Lord work on yours.

2Feb 2011 Exodus 4:12

¹² Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

Moses has no confidence in himself! This is a good spot for us to be. Our confidence needs to be in the Lord, and not in our own efforts or abilities. Moses just complained that he was not a good spokesperson for the Lord. His speech abilities were not up to the task. The Lord reminds Moses that He made man's ability to speak and communicate, that he would empower Moses for the task and teach him what to say. And in the very next verse, Moses asks the Lord to send someone else. If God is calling us to a particular job, He will equip us to accomplish the task. He will get the glory, since we were unable to do it in our own strength, wisdom and abilities. We will have to rely on Him every moment. And that is exactly what the Christian life is about. We are supposed to be relying on Him, moment by moment, always listening and obeying. So next time you are tempted to ask the Lord to send someone else, remember Moses.

1Feb 2011 Exodus 1:8

⁸ Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.

Our reputations can precede us. They can help set the stage for the next assignment in life. In the military people often know about us before we arrive at our next duty station. Word gets around. This is especially true in my branch. It is very small and word travels fast, both of the positive and the negative nature. Joseph's reputation had helped the Israelites find favor with the ruling Egyptians, probably for generations. But, the memory of what Joseph did to save the nation of Egypt had faded. This reminds me of great moments in our nation's history. We are beginning to see 9/11 as something in the past, something that is not as important in our current life. But for those of us in the military, who are still engaged in our nation's battle, 9/11 and the lessons of that day are very fresh. We are still putting our lives on the line to defend against another attack. I personally remember JFK getting killed, Nixon resigning, Challenger exploding, the Berlin wall being dismantled…. These have meaning to me personally. But to the next generation, they don't necessarily have the same meaning. Pearl Harbor had a powerful impact on my parent's lives. He went to war and returned to a thing called "the suburbs." Our nation had changed. Let us not forget the lessons of our past. Let's study history so we can learn its lessons.

28July2010 Exodus 40:34

³⁴ Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

The Lord has delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, passing them all through the Red Sea, saving them from the chariots of Egypt. He has given Moses instructions on setting up a place of worship for this new nation and those instructions have been carried out. Now this new worship center has been set up and the Lord comes and fills the place. The people can see His presence. There is no doubt that the Lord has arrived. The people had seen the cloud of His presence when they were being led out of Egypt. It showed them when to move and when to stay still. Now that presence rests on their new worship center. But this new worship center is all about sin and sacrifice, about the holiness of the Lord and the need for separation. It is about cleansing and purity. And all these were given to help the people recognize their need for grace. Every law was designed to show them the character of the Lord. Every standard was established so that they might fail and come asking for grace and mercy. When we discipline our children, we need to be consistent in our own lives. Discipline is about grace and mercy. It is about relationship. When we impose a standard, it is for their safety and their training in relationship. The Israelites were learning how to live with each other and live with the Lord. The visible cloud and glory let them know that this was His place, established in their midst so that they could be in right relationship with Him and with each other. Do you have any visible reminders of His grace in your life?

14July2010 Exodus 39:5

^5 Its skillfully woven waistband was like it—of one piece with the ephod and made with gold, and with blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and with finely twisted linen, as the LORD commanded Moses.

God has a design for how He wants to be worshipped. In our text today we read that He has given that design to Moses on the Mountain. Moses has now come down and the people are executing those plans. Many times in the text we see the words, "as the LORD commanded Moses." After almost every individual article is made those words appear. Again and again it is stated that they followed the pattern. Muslims follow the pattern of Mohamed as they ruthlessly kill their enemies. Suicide bombings are perfectly acceptable to them. Killing innocents is OK. They are following their pattern. There are a few people who kill "in the name of Jesus." They bomb an abortion clinic or some other violence. But even though they say they are following Jesus, what they do does not match His pattern. Violence is not part of Jesus' pattern. So violence done in Jesus name is not acceptable. Jesus did more than give us a pattern to follow, He made it possible for us to live by a higher standard that we could do otherwise. His life, death, and resurrection makes it possible for us to be in relationship with God. The Tabernacle which the people are building had a pattern. It taught the Israelites many things about the Lord, so it had to be built according to the pattern, or the people would get a distorted message about the Lord. The craftsmen were careful to do it just like Moses said. Moses was the only one who knew what the pattern looked like. They had to rely on Him for design checks. We are fortunate to live in this day and age. We have the Word of God available for each of us. We can pick it up and read it and learn the pattern ourselves. We can read and learn the character of God. We can read what righteous living is all about. We can see the pattern in the Scriptures. We must build our lives according to the pattern shown in the New Testament.

22June2010 Ex 35:5

^5 From what you have, take an offering for the LORD. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver and bronze;

Two important principles about giving are seen in this passage. The first is that you are to give from your things. We are responsible to take what we have and give. Our support is to be direct support, from our pocket to the recipient. Our federal government is missing this point right now. They want to help the poor, so they are taking our things and giving it to others. If the poor are to be helped, we should take our things and give it to them directly, without any middleman. It makes me mad when our President talks about the need to help the poor, and yet he is unwilling to give even a tithe of his huge income. He, like so many others, has a lot of talk, but not enough personal action. It is easy to spend other people's money, and be stingy with our own income. We are to take our own money and give. We are each responsible to give. The next principle is that we are to give willingly. We are not to be forced to give. Our giving to the Lord is to be out of a willing spirit. True giving must be done freely. The Lord is asking His people to give their own possessions to build the Tabernacle. They must give willingly.