. May 9 elevate review

This week, we took a look at the 10 Commandments/covenant that God made with the Hebrews in the wilderness.

Exodus chapter 18 we have Moses being visited by his father-in-law. This brief interlude brought good advice/wisdom from an older man. We took a moment to understand that there is value and wisdom in communicating with old people. That even though information is available at our fingertips 24 hours a day there is value in entering into dialogue with the previous generations.

In chapter 19 God prepares his people for his arrival. We see that there was some value in understanding that a visit from God is something to prepare yourself for. But even within a relationship understanding the greatness of who God is allows us to hold the a relationship with the proper value.
The people agreed that they would enter into whatever God called them to do.
When God arrived it was intense and terrible and amazing all at once. There was smoke, fire, thunder and lightning in a lot of very nervous slightly freaked out people.
Moses stepped into/walked up this smoke covered mountain filled with thunders and lightning. And listened directly to the voice of God called his people to a new society/culture. God's voice could also be heard by all of the people surrounding the mountain. God wanted the people to know that what Moses was going to tell them was exactly what he had told Moses. When God was done with the first part (the 10 Commandments) Moses exited the mountain and the people pulled back even more.
it seems that to actually hear God's voice was so overwhelming that the people decided it was much better to have Moses deal with God and they would just listen to Moses.
As Moses entered back into the mountain,and we see that there are 11 chapters of this new covenant that were written by the finger of God onto the tablets of stone. This point is often missed by moviemakers and Sunday school curriculums which only want to emphasize the 10 Commandments.

We broke the 10 Commandments into three basic sections.
Section 1 contain the first three commands. These three commands carry with it the basic concept that God is not available to be co-opted into our plans . The concept of using God's name in vain has very little to do with cursing and much more to do with dragging his name into our agenda.
(At this point I got a little animated regarding the behavior of many preachers, teachers, and authors regarding their ability to sell Jesus or God as a part of their plan)
understanding the greatness that God holds is key to breaking/rebelling against the worldly... or Egyptian philosophy of consumption and production.God is beyond our plans and using him to manipulate results even if those results might look like something God would be happy with is inappropriate, and against a society that God wants his people to form.This use of Gods name is vain and is a command that is broken in many churches every day.

Second section would be the commands of 5 to 10.
This section basically calls people to be neighbors. The idea or of taking care of one another by looking out for the other's best interests and not desiring to obtain what the others have or more than what the others have, and also the honoring of those in authority. All of these concepts are not in the part of the selfish society that they came from in Egypt. These thoughts of being neighborly of living in community with one another were strange and not just them as Hebrews but to the world in general around them.
God knew that by being neighborly and being observed by all the other cultures they would example to the world of who he is. By being in covenant with a God who is greater than any idol man can create, By being in covenant with a God who is greater than any manipulative tool we might come up with (manipulating idols was not a hard thing to do and actually a regular part of their mythology) the Hebrews would picture for the world what God envisioned when he created the world.

The third section covered the forth command.
The idea of remembering the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Rest is something the world knows nothing about especially a world that is living by the production and consumption philosophy. God wants his people and in this case the Hebrews to take day in which they are not trying to obtain more of anything. God allow this to even be the way they obtained food in the wilderness. Every day they got just what they needed and no more except on the day before the Sabbath they can gather enough for two days. This was so that one day a week they showed themselves and the world around them that God will supply what they need and there was no need for them to try and provide/store up for themselves.

The wilderness is a vital part of the overall story because the wilderness constitutes a place in which every day needs are not available for everyone to get for themselves. The wilderness is a place in which unless God does supply in a miraculous ways everyone would die. The wilderness is a place that God takes us when he needs us to learn a new pattern on how to live.
So many times for the Hebrews and for us the call of Egyptian society is seductive. To get involved in the production and consumption concepts of supplying for ourselves, storing up for ourselves, building warehouses in which our needs will be met even during tough times, only continues to inslave us. God calls us to live beyond that worldly philosophy and God's call allows us to reap great benefits from the wilderness while learning that there is "bread" in heaven that he can bring down in places where there is no bread to be seen.

We need to continue to learn to live in community as God is called us. We need to learn not to drag him into our manipulative plans no matter how good we think the end results might be. We need to understand that rest is an act of worship and trust. And we need to learn to appreciate the wilderness where there is beauty, rest, and nourishment available from God.

See you in a couple weeks

current favorite?

It probably started three years ago, a question that began to infiltrate my mental vocabulary (if someone can have a mental vocabulary), if you limit one's mental capacities to only be known through verbal communication, but I'm getting distracted.

The question has helped my overview of situations and relationships. Over the last couple years it's a question that became a regular part of my evaluation of life. Now I would say the question shows up mentally and verbally numerous times throughout the day. It is.

"If this life is a journey".......

Yeah, that's about it. I find myself asking this question all the time. The first thing that this question does for me is help me remember my presuppositions. I believe that there is a "Good Shepherd" that is guiding me on a journey through life. This allows me to relax regarding where were going in one were going to get there. It allows me to remember that I may hang out with others for a while, and we may be split up for awhile and both events are being orchestrated by the Shepherd.
This question for me allows me to enjoy the arrivals as well as the departures of people and places. Although sometimes I may wonder about a arrival or a departure,and desire a little more insight as to why, I am comforted to know that I don't have to know in order to trust the one who is leading the journey.
Keeping the idea of a journey allows me to transfer any anxiety for the path I am on or the path my friends may be on to the great Shepherd. Trusting in the Shepherd allows me to be more encouraging to those around me because I don't have to have an answer to all of their questions, but together we can observe the Shepherd to see where we may be traveling.

Applying this question to average everyday things(like red lights, traffic, conversations that interrupt my plans) helps me be a little more even keel. I will admit it's a question that exposes how uneven I can be in everyday things, but it does allow me to smile and understand that what I'm tripping on is but a small stone, or root on a much larger path that involves far more people than myself.

This question frees me up from the philosophy of finding a "defining moment" of my life. That constant chasing that so many people in the world are trapped in as they tried to gain significance or meaning through some sort of event, activity, or relationship.
Coming in with the presupposition that there is a good Shepherd overseeing the journey also allows me the freedom of not having to know everything. I know when all you have to trust in his yourself it is a very precarious position to be in. You trusting in you means you better be perfect or you are in trouble, because you may have made a bad choice and you have nowhere else to go but to yourself. :-)

I'm not saying this question is the questioned everyone should answer in order to get through life, but it sure has helped me over the last three years and continues to help me today.
I also know that there are different ways to ask the question and still cover the same concept, this one just works for me and maybe it will work for you.

I do hope you enjoy your journey.