Numbers 10:1-11:23 ~ Mark 14:1-21 ~ Psalm 51:1-19 ~ Proverbs 10:31-32   So this narrative in the book of Numbers is interesting today.  The children of Israel are getting sick of the manna which was delicious pastry, but I guess you eat delicious pastry enough and that’s all you eat and you get sick of anything.  So they’re sitting around the fires.  Picture it.  Picture when you are on a diet and the diet you are participating in is sort of bland and you’re talking to your friends, ‘what I wouldn’t give for a juicy steak.  What I wouldn’t give for a cupcake’.  And you’re thinking about it and you’re picturing it and you’re tasting it in your imagination.  That’s what they’re doing.  Garlic and onions, fish.  Someone on the other side of the fire says cucumbers, and the whole group says ooooh, cucumbers!  Why did we ever leave Egypt.  And they’re just sick of the manna and they’re crying out for meat.  The Lord hears their displeasure and so does Moses and he’s ticked.  God de [Read More]

  Numbers 8:1-9:23 ~ Mark 13:14-37 ~ Psalm 50:1-23 ~ Proverbs 10:29-30   Prayer:  We thank you for your clarification, Jesus, today in the book of Mark about the end and how it is we are to be found, the example of a man going away to a far country and leaving his house and authority to his servants, each to do his work and the doorkeeper to keep watch for his return.  This is how things are.  You have left us your creation and given us your authority to operate and we are commanded to be about our work for you, our Master, for your Kingdom, until you return and not to be found unready because we don’t know if it is evening or midnight, the crowing of the rooster or in the morning.  Obviously, this is something we must be prepared for at all times.  This is a way of life we have been invited into, to be the keepers of your house and utilizing your authority to get it done.  So help us.  Come Holy Spirit and guide us.  Help us not be distracted by the mechanics of life.  Help us [Read More]

  Numbers 8:1-9:23 ~ Mark 13:14-37 ~ Psalm 50:1-23 ~ Proverbs 10:29-30   Prayer:  We thank you for your clarification, Jesus, today in the book of Mark about the end and how it is we are to be found, the example of a man going away to a far country and leaving his house and authority to his servants, each to do his work and the doorkeeper to keep watch for his return.  This is how things are.  You have left us your creation and given us your authority to operate and we are commanded to be about our work for you, our Master, for your Kingdom, until you return and not to be found unready because we don’t know if it is evening or midnight, the crowing of the rooster or in the morning.  Obviously, this is something we must be prepared for at all times.  This is a way of life we have been invited into, to be the keepers of your house and utilizing your authority to get it done.  So help us.  Come Holy Spirit and guide us.  Help us not be distracted by the mechanics of life.  Help us [Read More]

Leviticus 25:47-27:13 ~ Mark 10:32-52 ~ Psalm 45:1-17 ~ Proverbs 10:22   Okay, so what we have happening in the book of Mark today is staggering.  It is very, very beautiful.  James and John first get the lesson that is passed down and down and down through time and generation after generation to us today, the ultimate lesson of the Kingdom, the very posture that our lives are to take shape in.      They are before Jesus and he is talking about going away and being killed and coming back from death to life.  They want to get in line and sit at his right and left hand in glory.  He tells them that is not in the cards necessarily.  He doesn’t have any control over that, but that the baptism he is going to have to be baptized in, the cup he is going to have to drink, they’re going to have to drink it too.    The other disciples are just ticked.  They cannot believe the audacity and they start going after them.  Jesus says, wait up guys, this is sort of how things go among unbelieve [Read More]

Leviticus 24:1-25:46 ~ Mark 10:13-31 ~ Psalm 44:6-26 ~ Proverbs 10:20-21   I love this story in the book of Mark.  This is the story of the rich young ruler and it’s a beautiful story to me.  This guy, this young man is a devout man of God.  He is doing everything within his power to obey God.  He is doing this on his own terms, but he is disciplining himself to do everything that he knows to be right, and this great rabbi, Jesus, comes through.  His fame has spread.  He is doing miracles.  He is obviously a man of God and an important one at that.  So this guy goes to seek out Jesus and finds himself before him and says, “What else do I need to do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus looks at him with love, and I love that.  Jesus looks at him with love and pierces to the core of his soul as he does to each one of us.  He goes after the one thing that is in this man’s life that is an impediment to his future, the one thing that is a stronghold, and he says, “Well, you’ve done everyt [Read More]

Leviticus 24:1-25:46 ~ Mark 10:13-31 ~ Psalm 44:6-26 ~ Proverbs 10:20-21   I love this story in the book of Mark.  This is the story of the rich young ruler and it’s a beautiful story to me.  This guy, this young man is a devout man of God.  He is doing everything within his power to obey God.  He is doing this on his own terms, but he is disciplining himself to do everything that he knows to be right, and this great rabbi, Jesus, comes through.  His fame has spread.  He is doing miracles.  He is obviously a man of God and an important one at that.  So this guy goes to seek out Jesus and finds himself before him and says, “What else do I need to do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus looks at him with love, and I love that.  Jesus looks at him with love and pierces to the core of his soul as he does to each one of us.  He goes after the one thing that is in this man’s life that is an impediment to his future, the one thing that is a stronghold, and he says, “Well, you’ve done everyt [Read More]

Leviticus 20:22-22:20 ~ Mark 9:1-29 ~ Psalm 43:1-5 ~ Proverbs 10:18   So in the book of Mark again we see the fact that we as men and women are in partnership with God to get things done on this earth.  Jesus is facing a boy who has a spirit that is throwing him around and trying to kill him.  The father of the boy is standing there, basically hat in hand in a position of humility just kind of saying, “Jesus, if there is anything you can do, if you could have compassion on us and heal him, we would be most grateful.”    Jesus’ response is, “If you can?  Everything is possible to the one who believes.”    Since he’s talking directly to the father, we, I guess, can assume that the boy is not able to fully understand or reach out in faith on his own.  So Jesus is going to his authority, his covering, his father, the priest of the home and saying everything is possible to the one who believes.  The man’s response is to cry out, “I do believe.  I do.  Help me in the places of unbeli [Read More]

Leviticus 15:1-16:28 ~ Mark 7:1-23 ~ Psalm 40:11-17 ~ Proverbs 10:13-14   It is interesting how we go through ritual uncleanness in the book of Leviticus, but then we move over into the book of Mark and allow Jesus, our Savior, to clarify this, because what had happened is thousands of years of tradition eliminating the purpose of the law.  This wasn’t so much about washing away germs from your hands before you eat something.  This had gone far beyond what the law was trying to show besides just cleanliness and had become nothing more than mere tradition.  Although I believe tradition is utterly beautiful and roots us into the past for thousands of years and allows us to experience something that has been carried forward over many thousands of years, losing its meaning, in other words, doing it because that is what you’ve always done but you don’t know why or understand why makes it virtually meaningless.    Well, Jesus was getting ridiculed because his disciples hadn’t ritually [Read More]

  Exodus 35:10-36:38 ~ Matthew 27:32-66 ~ Psalm 34:1-10 ~ Proverbs 9:7-8   So we have this somber scene, first time we experience it this year in the gospel of Matthew of Christ’s crucifixion.  It is so sobering to think about that kind of execution and to know that it was not just his physical death.  He was carrying with him the weight of the sin of the world.  Our salvation was purchased right there in what we read today, our whole reason for fellowship with God at all, right there in the reading today.    I was also struck by what occurred in the book of Exodus today.  I had pushed pause after reading the last of Proverbs and just kind of sat here quietly thinking.  I had meant to talk to you about something next week, to begin to reveal some plans and invite you to be involved in a community experience here.  I just took a few minutes to just kind of pray, ‘Lord, is this the day?  Would this be a better day to begin to talk about this?’ and I felt no resistance or any lac [Read More]