What is it?

The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, “Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.” ’And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked towards the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” ’ In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. (Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15, NRSV)

What is it?

Manna literally means “What is it?”

They wondered what this substance was, as the complained about not being slaves any more because despite all the back breaking labor they got to sit by the fleshpots and eat their fill!

When we look to God and allow His way to be our way, and not remember only the good from the past we will have a life beyond all imagination.

unbelievable!

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:13-21, NRSV)

Has Jesus ever asked you to do something that you found to be unbelievable?

Well I can relate to how the disciples felt here a little bit. Now I did not feed 5000 men and then women and children on top of that, maybe about 10,000 people here got fed with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread.

But when I was at my first call and it seemed about time for me to be moving on, I submitted my paperwork to seek a call, and I received a call from the assistant to the bishop of the Southwestern Texas Synod of the ELCA. He told me he had a congregation in a small town for me to look at. And I did not turn down any conversation with any congregation any where. This small town was a town of 65,000 people. I guess things in Texas really are big. And the congregation had a membership of 1,000. Now keep in mind they were looking for a senior pastor/head of staff, and I was in the 3rd year of my first call at a congregation that was just over 20 years old and a membership of 156. We had an average weekly attendance of 75, and the population of the town we were in was 1,000. So I was going from being the only staff, to head of staff, from a town of 1,000, to a congregation of 1,000, from a small town in Ohio to a SMALL TOWN in Texas! I have nothing to give, but God worked through me in that place.

How can we feed all of these people? Maybe we all need to change our outlook and ask God, How are you going to let us be a part of how you will do this?

All things are possible for God. Nothing should ever be unbelievable!

listen

My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures—then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones. (Proverbs 2:1-8, NRSV)

Make your ear attentive to the wisdom of God and incline your heart to follow what you receive.

God is storing up wisdom for those who seek after His commands and hears His direction and follows where He leads.

So listen to God and store His words in your heart and follow where He leads.

an understanding mind

At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. (1 Kings 3:5-12, NRSV)

What would you ask for if God visited you and said to you, “Ask what I should give you.”

Solomon asked for an understanding mind to govern the people to be able to discern good and evil. Is that what you would ask for?

If more of us had an understanding mind, imagine how the world would be different…

cornerstone

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:4-10, NRSV)

The cornerstone is the base of everything. It is the stone that holds the wall in place.

It gives the base for the walls to be square and to stand tall.

And if you believe in the corner stone you will not be put to shame. It is believing in what the cornerstone will do for you and your life.

So base your life on Christ and allow Him to hold you steady.

haughty

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19, NRSV)

Do not be caught up in your possessions if you financially rich, because those things are not important.

Do good. Be rich in good works, let your generosity over flow in every part of your life and let God’s love over flow your world.

Life is lived in serving and loving others.

for good?

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:26-39, NRSV)

All things work together for good…

Not that everything will be good, or good for us, but through every and all situations God is working.

And how is God working through the worst things in our lives?

I can’t tell you, but as Paul said, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” And that word if, is εἰ in the Greek, which is a word that means if, but it also means since. This is not Paul asking a question, but making an emphatic statement, “Since God is for us, who can possibly be against us!”

No one, so in every thing God will be with us and work through it with us.

Back to school

It is August and for some of us, that means it is time to start preparing to go back to school!

Teachers will be in class rooms if they haven’t been already. Getting things ready for the new students to arrive in the fall.

Parents will go back school shopping with reluctant children.

Kids will not want to go shopping.

But all of the whining and worrying doesn’t stop school from coming. It is kind of like the Grinch, no matter how many trees or presents he takes Christmas still comes. No matter how many times you say you don’t want to go shopping or hide that back to school list, school will still come. You can’t stop it from coming.

And really isn’t that how we should all live every day of our lives? School is for learning, and we should never stop learning. The day I don’t learn something is a bad day. I want to keep learning and growing.

I feel we need to have this attitude about life and faith. Our faith is never something we graduate from. It is never enough, we will never know it all. We are constantly learning and growing in our faith.

So buy some supplies and get ready to dig in and grow in your faith. Are you ready to learn with me, and to continue to grow as disciples of Jesus?

 

σκύβαλα

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11, NRSV)

I love this passage because Paul just lays it all out here.

He talks about why he should be able to boast. In the verses right before this he says:

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever I have gained from this, I regard it all as loss. Nothing compares to what I have in Jesus. I can do nothing better than what He has already done for me. In fact, everything in life is rubbish, dung, crap. It is nothing.

Once we understand this, the power of Christ will emanate from our lives and we will be living the life Jesus has called us to.

So make the breakthrough and know what He has for you.

Have you understood all this?

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52, NRSV)

Once the leaven is in can you take it out?

No, once the kingdom of Heaven is mixed in, it can not be removed.

But do we really understand all of this?

Is one pearl really worth selling everything you own?

And can we choose the kingdom? Not if we follow the last example because a fish caught in a net has no choice. The net captures it and pulls it in. The fish has a choice to bite that worm on the hook, but the net just grabs it.

So do you understand?

The kingdom is something small that becomes the biggest there is and pulls you in to make you give up everything to get one precious thing.

Seems like what God did to get you. Now do you understand?