Always Reforming

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord , the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the rig...

"And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?  Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD's your God, the earth also, with all that therein is.  Only the LORD had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.  Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff necked.  For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regards not persons, nor takes reward:  He does execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.  Love you therefore the stranger: for you were strangers in the la...

                                                                 Exodus 30:11-16: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  When you take the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul to the LORD, when you number them; that there be no plague among them, when you number them.  This they shall give, every one that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD. Every one that passes among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to the LORD.  The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering to the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls....

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. (These are my notes, unedited, from a lesson this mornin...

Haggai 1:  "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the  LORD  came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the  LORD  of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the  LORD .” Then the word of the  LORD  came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the  LORD  of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the  LORD  of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to th...

    This will be my second Father's Day as a father.  I have learned much about life over the past 15 months, but  I'm still quite wet behind the ears, if you will.  I thought it would be interesting to take a second to think about what it means to be a father.     Firstly, I would like to say thank you to my father and to all the father figures that God has placed in my life.  All these men have shown me a thing or two about life, even if they didn't realize it, by their triumphs and defeats in life.  I've found that one of the best ways to grow up/learn stuff is just to watch people. Analytic observation of real people in the real world is one of the greatest tools for growth.     Secondly, what does it mean to be a father?  That is a deep question.  Being a father, I suppose, combines bread-winning, spiritual guidance, mentoring, and many other things.  Ultimately, however, fatherhood is a metaphor.  Unde...

    As I was reading my Bible today, I read 2 Timothy 2:8, which says, " Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel."  Seeing as we are coming upon Easter, I thought I'd take a moment to comment on the Resurrection of Jesus.       Paul tells Timothy to remember the Resurrection.  The Resurrection of Christ is an essential doctrine to the Christian faith, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15.  In our day, however, many have denied the Resurrection.  They try to make Christianity and the Bible more acceptable by saying that miraculous events like a body coming back to the dead couldn't actually happen.  They say that it's a metaphor.  They say Jesus was just a teacher who showed us the path of sacrifice.  They water down the message of the Gospel.     The Resurrection was not merely a side note to the Apostles.  It was the foundation of their ministries.  R...