Take care…

Furthermore, the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance. For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land. Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
“When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.” (Deuteronomy 4:21-40 ESV)

God is your God and He will stand beside you or behind you for all of your life! Of course that doesn’t mean He won’t be shaking his head or wagging His finger at you…

Moses here is about to send the people of God into the promised land. He has led them through the wilderness for 40 years and they are almost there! But Moses does not get to go in, because of the people according to Moses. So he can’t go in, but the people will go. And when they have lived there for a while they will become complacent. As we all do. They will take for granted all of the things they use to watch out for and defend them selves against… They will fall into the worship of idols…

So take care you do not become complacent in your life and get taken for granted by the things you use to guard your heart against… But can’t this go the other way… Jesus in the New Testament tells us that the Pharisees and Scribes are white washed tombs, they look good on the outside, but they have lost the intent of the law they so diligently keep. They did not guard their hearts against idols, because the law became their idol. So it is not as easy as keeping the law, it is about the right order of things, and knowing who you follow and why you do the things you do. It is not about doing the right things, but doing things for the right reasons…

So take care you are not hung up on the legalistic side of things, that you lose the heart of the matter…

The Easy Life…

Have you ever heard about the wonderful life of following Jesus? About how all your problems will fade away when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and life will be easy going?

Don’t we all want life to be easy and our decision clear cut?

That things would be laid out in front of us in easy to make clear cut decision. That it would be black and white and it would be easy going…

The problem with this and people saying this is the way it is are feeding the world a line that they really do not need. No where in the Bible does it say that you will have an easy life once you follow Jesus. It does not say that. In fact the Bible also does not say God helps those who help themselves. Many want to say that these sayings are in the book of Hezikiah, and they might be, but that is not one of the books in the Bible, not even in the Apocrypha or the inter testimonial books.

Actually I remember Shane Claiborne saying something like, “Once I found Jesus my life got harder…” and that is actually the way I have found it to. Jesus does make your life easier in knowing that you have the creator of the universe walking with you through everything you will face, but it is not easier because all of your problems go away. Infact your adversaries will increase and the troubles you go through will probably get more and harder…

You see when you start to follow and actually follow Jesus, your friends will wonder what is going on and why you are doing the things you are doing.  They won’t understand your change in attitude and will ask you and push you to be who you were, not who you now are…

For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:19-25 ESV)

Peter tells us that if we suffer for doing what Jesus calls us to do we are in the right and should expect this. What this tells us is that we are going to face trials for our beliefs. We will face trials because Jesus who did not sin faced trials trying to get people to understand why He was here…

So the easy life will come once Jesus returns, but until then, embrace the trials…

Reverent burning fear…

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess. (Deuteronomy 4:9-14 ESV)

Are these the pictures that pop in your mind from the awesome description above? They are magnificent pictures… The trees in the top picture are anywhere from 50-60 feet tall and the flames are at least twice the height of the trees! Fire reaching up into the heavens!

But these pictures do not eve begin to depict the scene we would have seen if we were a part of the Israelites that gathered at the foot of the mountain to hear God speak.

The dis embodied voice that probably trembled the mountain as the fire burned and the smoke billowed…

This is the scene we are suppose to remember to help us recall the covenant that was made with us. And as parents we are suppose to help our children remember this event that they might not have been at. So that they will know the fear of the Lord and keep his commandments. So that we would fear the Lord…

Awesome power needs us to keep reverent fear. God needs to be feared not for what He will do, but what He can do. And we need to love the other, as he first loved us, not because of what we will get, but because we have a reverent fear of the Lord our God…

Evil…

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”‘ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”
(Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:1-23 ESV)

Have you ever wondered where evil comes from? Jesus says quite plainly that out of the heart comes evil…

So out of your heart is where evil comes from. It is not what is outside of you that defiles. It is not what goes into your body that defiles you, but what comes out. Your thoughts and actions that take you away from where you should be.

But the law and religion are not bad… Jesus does not say the purity code is bad… He doesn’t say it’s good either. It’s neither good or bad. Following the code does not save you. It does not make you a Jew or a Christian. Just as much as reading the Lutheran magazine makes you Lutheran does following the purity code make you a follower of God.

What matters is where your heart is. You can do all of the things in the right ordering the right way and if the motivation of your heart is not right it doesn’t matter.

Give God your heart…

Can we Love ~ Tom Booth

This is a wonderful song that gets directly to the point of this weeks lectionary readings. I wonder if any of really get it…

Can We Love.

Can we love?
Can we lay down our lives?
Can we wear His crown of thorns?
Can we drink the cup that He drinks?
We must lay down our lives.

It’s more than raising our hands
It’s more than singing this song
It’s saying  yes to the giver of life
It’s righting the ways that are wrong

Can we love?
Can we lay down our lives?
Can we wear His crown of thorns?
Can we drink the cup that He drinks?
We must lay down our lives.

It’s more than singing His praise
It’s more than shouting God’s name
It’s bringing forgiveness to injuries wounds
And hope to those imprisoned by shame

Loving the Lord Our God
With all our heart, mind and soul
Loving our neighbor as ourselves
The kingdom of love we will know

With feet secure on the ground
And hearts humbled by love
You send before God’s anointed one
To ask a question
To ask a question

Can we love?
Can we lay down our lives?
Can we wear His crown of thorns?
Can we drink the cup that He drinks?
We must lay down our lives.

Can we love?
Can we lay down our lives?
Can we wear His crown of thorns?
Can we drink the cup that He drinks?
We must lay down
We must lay down
We must lay down our lives.

Ethical vs Upholding a code…

O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the LORD;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
(Psalm 15 ESV)

Psalm 15 and Psalm 24 are 2 of the entrance liturgies we find in the Hebrew Scriptures. And when we read these we are struck by something that is different than we expect…

Who can enter into God’s space… O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill? From Leviticus and Numbers we expect it to be about purity. It is about those who keep the laws and live by the law. If you are purified according to the Law you are in…

But that is not what the above says. The above is about how we ethically treat each other and what the community is like that is gathering around God. It is about respecting your neighbor and living a life of love that is abounding to all.

It is not about keeping a prescribed code that was given to help us understand what it means to love our neighbor. It is about loving our neighbor.

You see we have come to understand that we have to follow the law because that is what purifies us and makes us love God, but we can not love God on our own. We need Him to move us to the point of seeing the love He has for us and that will move us to allow that love to over flow to the other. It is not about keeping a list of rules to make us love God. It is about letting the love God has poured on us to spring forth in the lives of all around us.

Would you like a drink?

Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made. (Exodus 32:15-35 ESV)

So Moses comes down off the mountain after being with God and he has the tablets that God wrote on, and when he gets closer he hears shouts. Not shouts of victory or the cries of defeat, but singing. He is hearing worship! And when he enters the camp, his anger wells up and he throws the tablets on the ground and breaks them and lets the people have it!

If this would happen in a congregation today, can you imagine what would happen to this leader? They people would revolt, but they hear Moses and respect him, and they listen to him. They are even willing to do what he asks them to to repair the damage they have done by looking for and having Aaron make them a God. Once the tablets are broken, Moses takes the calf, and pounds it into a fine dust and then puts it in the water, and makes the Israelites drink it… Like lemonade, only probably not very tasty…

They drink the god they made… Then Moses goes and asks God to forgive them, he offers himself as a sacrifice for them. “But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” God does not allow this, but sends a plague on those who sinned against Him…

So I wonder what it is we would be drinking? What do you need to pound into a powder and put in your coffee, or you water and drink up in repentance… money, food, your house, your car, your job, your tv, your computer…

What would you have to drink?

What is your golden calf?

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. (Exodus 32:1-14 ESV)

The people had just been through an amazing ride, well ok walk…

They were led out of Egypt and through the Sea of Reeds and the Egyptian army was killed in the chase. Then God provided food for their journey…

Now Moses and God are on the mountain… and the people are getting anxious, they need something to occupy them. Interestingly it is just like us. We need to be entertained, ask a school teacher how hard it is to maintain the attention of a student with the fast paced society we live in. They needed something, just like us to focus on…

So what is the focus of your life? What is the one thing that takes the seat of adoration in your temple? What is the thing you would sacrifice everything else for?

Here we see the Israelites  giving up their plunder from Egypt to make a god, something they can see and worship and focus on. They were willing to give up everything, or were they? Did they realize by doing this they were damaging their relationship with the one who led them here? Did they know that their need for a focal point was destroying the relationship God had built with them. That by doing this little thing, this thing that shouldn’t really matter they were causing a rift in the relationship.  I mean what does it really matter if their gold was in their ears, on their fingers, or in the form of a calf they could carry with them? It is the position of their hearts!

So what is on that seat in your life? What takes center stage for you?

If your not sure look at your bank statements and see where your hard earned money goes, because that can give you a clue where your devotion is. Where does your money go. Jesus said where your treasure is, their your heart will be also… If you can give your treasure to God, he will return it to you in many many times over…

I pray that God himself will be your golden calf.

Hate you…

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ (John 15:16-25 ESV)

Love one another… You were chosen by God and appointed to go and bear fruit so that you will love one another…

Have you always felt love in the gathering of worship known as the Church? There were times I have been in a place of worship where you could cut the tension with a knife, and it would have to be a sharp on to break through… There was snot much love in that place, and this has been more than once and in many places across the nation I have been to. I am sure if we are all honest, we have all experienced this…

Sometimes they will know we are Christians by our love is shown in the exact opposite… They know we must not be followers of Christ by our hate or disdain or tension we have with each other… Or is that really the world creeping in?

You see the world persecuted Jesus. Actually according to the gospel from which today’s lesson comes the World and the Jews persecuted Jesus. I know we could get into all kind of discussions on the involvement of the Jews and what that means. Let’s say it this way to get to the talking point. The world and the religious world persecuted Jesus… They saw that Jesus was teaching differently than the law they knew and was teaching so they were upset that he was leading people astray from their teachings. That that it was scriptural, but it was different than what they were teaching. So they got rid of him…

Have you ever been afraid to question the teachings of the church on a subject because you felt like God was telling you something different than what the church was saying? Have you ever been the only one that seems to think different on a passage of scripture than the rest of those gathered to study? We need to speak our minds and work through the tough questions. The Bible is not as straight forward as the church would want us to think it is. And that is OK, because God gave us each other to work through the questions, in line with our traditions and the scriptures… Not just believing something because that is what we are told we are suppose to think a passage means, or we believe this because we always have…

They hated Jesus, and they will hate you. If you are feeling the hate because what you are saying or feeling is different than the status quo, you might be in good company…

They hated Jesus, they will hate you…

Don’t give up on God ~ He’ll never give up on You!

“But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
“And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
“Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies. And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. (Nehemiah 9:16-31 ESV)

Wow! What a recounting of the story of Israel…

They were a stiff necked people, who freed from slavery wished to go back. Then once in the land turned on God again, and again and each time God did not forsake them, He stayed by their sides and heard their cries and met their needs…

Sound exactly like us! We constantly fall away. Sometimes because the sin sneaks up on us and sometimes because we willfully walk away and turn to the sin. We give up following God and go to our own needs.

But do we need to be concerned for ourselves? Do we need to worry about what will happen to us?

Read the passage again. Did you see it and hear it. Even when they had turned on God, He was with them. Now yes He did hand them over to their enemies, but He was there with them and heard their cries and delivered them. God does not give up on His people! God does not give up on you!

You need not worry about yourself or your own needs. Your flesh does not need to be gratified. Look out for the other and God will supply for you. For God is a gracious and merciful God! He will take care of what is His!