June. After a couple days er weeks off

I want to apologize that I've missed a couple of weeks.  I just finished a bunch of finals in school. I hope to start updating again.  

Joshua 5:11-12

Manna was a miracle. But it wasn't the end goal. It was a sustainer. Something to get the Israelites from point A to point B. The real miracle, the one that God wanted them to focus on was that he was taking them out of Egypt into the land that he had promised Abraham so many years earlier. So now, when they get to the land, the manna stops.

This can be seen as good and bad I suppose. Gathering tiny little seeds? Probably not a great time. But they were there. Everyday. At least there was forty years of history. Now they had to trust God even more. Would He provide food for them in this crazy new land? The safety of the manna was gone. Things tasted better, they were just harder to come by.

Sometimes we focus on the manna as well. We don't see that a blessing is a means of transportation. Instead of looking to the best thing that is coming, we get stuck in the OK thing we have now. The Israelites were guilty of it... and now, so often, so are we.

May 19th:Joshua 3-4, Isaiah 9 and 1 Thessalonians 5

Throughout the Old Testament, God commanded people to build monuments. Stones stacked on stones to serve as a reminder of what He had done. I wonder how much of this was for them and how much of it was for the people that would come after. Every time they walked by the cairn, they would be reminded of the grace and power of Jehovah.

We don't do this. Instead, we build monuments to our own awesomeness. We build fancy churches and fancy campuses and we name them fancy names. And sure, we dedicate the building to God with a neat hour long service. We say a prayer and ask for God's blessing. But these buildings have a mission; a practical application. They are for our use. But stacking rocks next to the river doesn't serve a purpose other than to serve as a reminder to the Israelites that God stopped the water. Or that God simply showed up. He was at work. Not them. They did nothing. They walked across a dry river bed.

But what about us? What do we do? How do we remind ourselves and those that come after? When God provides for a need what do we do? When God heals some one we love, what do we do? Do making movies and writing books count as our piles of rocks? Are they the stones next to the river? And what does that do for us? Does that remind us? Is it as effective? The next day, the week after, a few years down the road do we have calluses on our hands from doing work for God? Not for ourselves. Not for our own intentions. Not to raise money or "reach the lost," but purely to remind each other that God was in our midst.

I wonder what we can do to establish markers, monuments, simple reminders of the grace and love poured out. Not on other people. But on us.

May 18th:Joshua 2, Isaiah 8 and 1 Thessalonians 3-4

Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. Yes. Right there, that is the name of my first kid. Doesn't matter whether it's a boy or a girl. That is for-sure the kid's name.

Moving through this chapter there is a verse there that I'm not sure what it means. It says:

"Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son." Is this saying that Isaiah had "relations with that women?" It would appear because it says she conceived. Just curious how I am supposed to understand this passage.

It might make the birds and the bees and waiting talk a little weird with Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.

May 17th:Joshua 1, Isaiah 7 and 1 Thessalonians 1-2

When Moses dies, Jehovah comes to tell Joshua. Jehovah. Not an angel. Not a dream. No wonder he goes out and crosses the Jordan.

A couple of brief posts. It's been a long couple of days. Sorry.

May 16th: Deuteronomy 33-34, Isaiah 6 and Colossians 3-4

How often have you heard people say this:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

Sounds really great. Usually, when you hear this preached, it's a rally cry to go to change the world. But look at the rest of the passage. Bad news! I wonder if Isaiah thought, "Seriously?" That's a rough message. Would you be willing to give it?

I was at a conference the other day in Burbank, California. Susan Issacs, speaking of Hollywood said this: "If God called you to Hollywood for three good years and twenty-seven bad ones, would you still come?" Because the crazy thing is that God doesn't usually get your consent on the plan before he asks.

So when you say, "here I am send me," remember that you don't get to pick the where or the how or the degree of suck.

May 15th: Deuteronomy 32, Isaiah 5 and Colossians 2

Things I do not understand: Hebrew poetry.

This is a short post. But, honestly, if I was reading through Isaiah for the first time, I would echo the Ethiopian eunuch: "What the crap?"

May 14th: Deuteronomy 31, Isaiah 3-4 and Colossians 1

In Deuteronomy 31, it talks about God teaching Moses a song to pass onto the people. I wonder if God sang it to Moses. I wonder if it just came to him or he heard it. Imagine, hearing God sing. No idea how Moses received it...but I never thought about this before.