My Online Faith Journal

    Psalm 106 indicates that the people often forgot about God and what God had done for them.  They got tired of their circumstances, the intense heat, the lack of water and grumbled.  They grumbled against Moses and the manna they had to eat and the lack of water.  They wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt rather than continue on.  This was despite the fact that they had visible proof that God existed in the form of a cloud during the day and a fire at night.  In one situation, Moses was afraid that they would stone him.     It is easy to be critical of the Israelites, instead of making that connection to your own life and then time when we get our eyes on our circumstances.  We could try justifying ourselves by saying, "Well, if I had a pillar of fire at night then I wouldn't doubt, but I don't."  But, actually human nature being what it is we would probably still grumble to.  I think we should come to the place where we realize, but by the grace of God, I woul

   For whatever reason, I was thinking about the 5 years or so that I served two churches as pastor.  I was thinking about some of the people that I use to work with in those churches and preached to and wondering where they are now.  The two churches could not have been more different from each other.  One was in rural East Texas, very much a area that had seen better days.  There was at least 7 abandoned buildings within two blocks of the church.  The other church had a fairly new sanctuary, but also a lot of baby christians who liked to fight about everything.    When I think about both churches, though I am fond of some of the people I met there, I would honestly have to say that if it had been up to me to join either church if I didn't work there I would not have.  The one church seems apathetic and the other hotheaded, but both seemed to like to "play" more than pray for really live for Jesus.  It reminds me of what the book of Revelations says about the church in

In today's devotional from Oswald Chambers he says, "God will lead you straight through every barrier into the inner chamber of the knowledge of Himself; but there is always this point of giving up convictions and traditional beliefs. Don't ask God to test you. Never declare as Peter did - "I will do anything, I will go to death with Thee." Abraham did not make any such declaration, he remained true to God, and God purified his faith."     The scripture reference was in reference to Abraham offering up Isaac as a sacrifice and how God helped him to better understand himself through that process.  Not that it was a process that Abraham asked for or wanted.  Nor do we get to pick our trials that God allows into our lives in order to test us and purify our faith.  Not that God brings everythign into our lives himself, for sometimes we make our own bad choices and suffer the consequences.  But, even in that, God can bring something good out of it if we allow

    I am reading through the story about Moses and I came to this part of the story: "At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridgegroom of blood to me." she said. So the Lord let him alone." Exodus 4:24-26  (reference to blood referring to blood from circumsion)    It might be easy for us to pass over these verses since they seem to contradict the rest of the story.  But, in thinking about this I thought to myself, "Really?  God is willing to kill Moses simply because of a circumsion or lack thereof?"  It seems out of character with the God that I know.  Maybe it is why so many people say that the God of the Old Testament seems so much madder than the one in the new.  The God of the Old Testament seems to be willing to destroy Moses, a man who he has been preparing for the last 80 years because Mo

  If you have ever read "Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby then you have heard him refer to Moses at the burning bush from Exodus chapters 3-4.  The story goes that Moses is about 80 years old.  He spent the first 40 years of his life as the adopted son of Pharoah's daughter.  He lived in luxury, even though he was a Jew.  Most of the Jews at the time were slaves to the Egyptians.  Then, Moses decides to rescue a fellow Jew and kills a man.  When it is discovered, Moses runs for his life and ends up in the desert.  He spends the time mainly shepherding sheep on the back side of the mountain.  Until one day that he seems a burning bush.   Moses steps aside to see the bush burn, when he realizes that though it is on fire it is not being consumed.  God notices Moses has turned aside and uses the opportunity to speak to Moses about his chosen people.  It is time for them to be set free from slavery.  God tells Moses that he is the man to deliver them.  He has been workin

  I am not a person who watches a lot of golf.  I have tried at various times to play the game.  It looks easy when you see the pros play it, but it is not.   It is a very frustrating game.  I admire how someone like Phil Mickelson can play such great golf on a course like the one in Georgia where the Masters was played last week.  He did a great job and it was even more memorable that his wife, who has been suffering from breast cancer, could be there with him.    I was interested as many people were how Tiger Woods would play, who has been gone for the last 5 months or so because of his personal problems.  I noticed that he compared himself to Ben Hogan, who injured himself while trying to protect his wife in a car wreck.  I thought it took a lot of nerve on his part to compare himself, who has reportedly cheated on  his wife at least a dozen times, to a man who injured himself to protect his wife.  It goes to show you the ignorance and arrogance of this man.   It also reminded m

For reading & meditation: Psalms 142:1-7 "When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way." (v.3)    In Selwyn Hughes' devotional "Everyday Light" ( http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/everydaylight/ )   he quotes the above verse.  He talks about how God is the God of "remarkable surprises".  God is a God who is surprising in the way that he works and sometimes in the way that he does not.  At times, he seems withdrawn and remote.  At other times, from what I have experienced, he seems as close as your very heartbeat.  Sometimes God appears to answer a prayer almost immediately and other times the answer may be years away.  Still other times, we may wish that he had ignored our requests instead of giving us what we asked for.    At different times in my christian walk, I have kept a prayer journal.  Looking back on my notes, from months or years afterward, I see that God did answer prayers, sometimes remarkably fast.  I think

"If thou hadst known . . . in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." Luke 19:42     This is the verse for the day in Oswald Chamber's devotion "My Utmost for His Highest".  (Web site at http://www.myutmost.org/ ) Sometimes I read online devotions and his is one of my favorites.  Not always optimistic or lighthearted, but to the point and piercing.  The quote is from when Jesus was approaching Jerusalem and wept over the city.  To me, the passage talks about Jesus will for these people to repent and experience his peace, but they would not accept him.    Oswald Chambers goes on to say, "What is it that blinds me in this "my day"? Have I a strange god - not a disgusting monster, but a disposition that rules me? More than once God has brought me face to face with the strange god and I thought I should have to yield, but I did not do it. I got through the crisis by the skin of my teeth and