Well, except for church on Sunday...but you know...that's not really "work" to me. Except for the staff meeting part. Yeah. Ugh.
Pray for President Obama and his family as they travel to Camp David for Memorial Day weekend. On Memorial Day, the President will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. He and the First Family will return to the White House Monday evening...
Pray for our military and their families throughout this Memorial Day weekend, that God would bring his protection and peace. Intercede that those who serve now, and those who have served in the past, will know the gratitude and appreciation of the nation whose freedom they preserve.
1-2 Is this any way to run a country? Is there an honest politician in the house?
Behind the scenes you brew cauldrons of evil,
behind closed doors you make deals with demons.
3-5 The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle;
their first words out of the womb are lies.
Poison, lethal rattlesnake poison,
drips from their forked tongues�
Deaf to threats, deaf to charm,
decades of wax built up in their ears.
6-9 God, smash their teeth to bits,
leave them toothless tigers.
Let their lives be buckets of water spilled,
all that's left, a damp stain in the sand.
Let them be trampled grass
worn smooth by the traffic.
Let them dissolve into snail slime,
be a miscarried fetus that never sees sunlight.
Before what they cook up is half-done, God,
throw it out with the garbage!
10-11 The righteous will call up their friends
when they see the wicked get their reward,
Serve up their blood in goblets
as they toast one another,
Everyone cheering, "It's worth it to play by the rules!
God's handing out trophies and tending the earth!" (The Message)
"...in this case there is nothing absurd in supposing that believers, under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, should rejoice in witnessing the execution of divine judgment.
"Nothing tends more to promote godliness than an intimate and assured persuasion that the righteous shall never lose their reward."
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms) (Emphasis added by me)
Heh. I wonder...is it ok for us to pray this Psalm for our government???
"Apostasy"
1 John 2:19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
"Apostasy is the sad reality that can cause difficulties for the doctrine of perseverance." Everyone knows people who seem to have "fallen away," and, apparently, never returned.
It seems apparent that professing Christians can abandon the Lord. I've seen it happen. But can they commit "final apostasy?" Let's answer a couple of questions.
1. Is the falling away temporary or final? "Someone who appears to have denied Jesus has not necessarily fallen permanently." For goodness sake, look at Peter! He's our best example of this. And it took David a long time to repent of his sins of adultery and murder.
2. (And perhaps more important.) Did this person who seems to have fallen away possess faith or only profess faith? There is a huge difference. And that is the subject of today's Scripture in 1 John. Many people claim to be saved. 1 John 2:19 is clear that if they had been truly saved to begin with, they would have remained in the fold.
In the long run, however, only God can see the heart. Only he knows if someone truly possesses faith or if they are just pretending. "At Jesus' return there will likely be some surprises when we see who really trusted Him and who did not."
Amen to that!
"Going Our Own Way"
1 Peter 2:25
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Isaiah 53:6 contains one of the most somber pronouncements of the human condition in all of the Bible. "All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned�every one�to his own way;" "Going our own way is the very essence, the very core, of sin." Whether "your way" is to give money to charity or to rob a bank, it is done with no reference to God. Regardless of what might be deemed as "good" on the surface, it is still rebellion.
Unlike many human governments (wherein we sometimes applaud rebellion), God's government is perfect and just. No one has a good reason to rebel against God's government. Why do we rebel? Because we were born rebellious. We have a "perverse inclination" to go our own way.
This is what makes grace so beautiful. We have rebelled because we can't help it. And God has seen fit to give us grace, because (and ONLY because) of his good pleasure.
When Israel first moved down to Egypt, according to the Bible, he only had 70 descendants. After Joseph died, the nation of Israel "multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them."
But then a new king arose, "who did not know Joseph." That's where all the trouble started. He got nervous because this group of foreigners had grown too big. So he enslaved them, and put them to forced labor, building cities, and, more than likely, those big pyramids that are over there to this day.
Then the king told the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male children. But the Hebrew midwives lied and said that the women had the babies before they could get there to kill them. God blessed the midwives. Here is the first indication from the Bible that a lie is not always a sin.
Then this Levite takes a wife and she has a "fine child" that is a son, so she manages to hide him for three months. He got too big to hide, so she made a basket and put him in the reeds by the river bank.
Along comes Pharaoh's daughter. She sees the basket, looks in it and finds a crying baby. The baby's sister (who just happened to be looking on, offers to go get a nurse-maid for the baby for Pharaoh's daughter. Of course, she gets the childs biological mother, who then proceeds to nurse her own baby and then takes him to Pharaoh's court when he grew up. Pharaoh's daughter named him "Moses," because she drew him out of the water.
If the Pharaoh only knew...
Later on, after Moses had fled to Midian, God heard the outcry of his people. So he appears to Moses in this burning bush out in the wilderness of Midian. The bush was burning, yet not consumed. And Charlton Heston said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned."
Oh, wait...sorry. MOSES! Moses said that. *heh*
Then God proceeds to speak to Moses and give him his commission to deliver the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. Of course Moses is not exactly willing. It is here that we first see the name "YHWH" that God gives himself. It is always designated "LORD" in all capitals in the Bible. Anytime you see "LORD," it is "YHWH" in the Hebrew text.
I have always found chapter 4 to be just a tad humorous. Moses still doesn't want to do it. I picture him objecting with this really annoying whiny voice. God finally says, "Ok...watcha got in your hand?" Moses says, "My staff." God says, "Throw it down." Moses throws it down and it turns into a really big snake! Moses runs away. Hahahah!!! God says, "Pick it up by the tail." Moses says, "You have GOT to be kidding, right?" Ok...the Bible doesn't say that, but c'mon! Who in his right mind is going to pick up a snake by the tail, leaving the business end free to squirm around and bite you?? So Moses picks up the snake and it turns back into his staff. Moses begins wondering what that burning bush is really made of (you know...smoke...inhaling...never mind).
Then God tells Moses to put his hand inside his cloak. When he draws it back out, it is white with leprosy. Then he puts it back in, and it is restored to normal health.
God then proceeds to give him some more of the miraculous signs that he will perform in front of Pharaoh to get him to believe.
After all this, Moses is still all, "Can't you send somebody else? Pleeeeeeeeease???" At which point, the Lord zaps him dead and starts over.
Ok...that didn't happen. But it's what would have happened if I the Lord. Nevertheless, God was angry with him. See verse 4:14. So he tells Moses that his brother Aaron is on his way to meet him (how he knew where Moses was, I don't know...). Aaron would be his spokesperson.
So Moses went back to Egypt. On the way back, the Lord pretty much told Moses that Pharaoh wasn't going to listen to him, because God had already hardened his heart. How encouraging THAT must have been. But Aaron met up with him, and they went back to their brethren in Egypt, showed them some of the signs, and they believed.
I realize that I have written somewhat "tongue in cheek" here, and hope that I've not offended anyone. But the story lends itself to this. The interaction between God and Moses is humorous to me.
But it illustrates something very important. God chooses who he chooses. And he gives the abilities to do what he chooses us for. He doesn't choose us because of our abilities...he gives us the abilities because he has chosen us.
We also see in the first few chapters of Exodus that it's not always wrong to lie. I'm serious about that. The Hebrew midwives lied to save Hebrew male children, and God blessed them for it. We will see more examples of that later in the Bible. Doesn't mean we should all go out an lie about everything, though, does it? There was a distinct purpose for their lies, and it glorified God.
Finally, we see that God hears his people. Even if it seems like he is not hearing them for a while, he did hear them, and he sent for their rescue. Never, ever give up on crying out to God. He hears. He will rescue. May not happen today or tomorrow, but it will happen.
Right now, I pray for friends that I have had throughout my life that I have seen "fall away" from you. I have no idea what their permanent eternal status will be. I just know what I have seen. Sadly, I have lost contact with most of them, but I can still pray for them. I have their names and faces in my heart, so you can see them there.
I pray for my brother, Andy, who is going through a really rough time right now. I pray that you would bless him with some kind of miracle to deliver him from his current situation.
Finally, I pray for Christi, as she should now be on the plane heading back to Texas. I pray for her safe return later tonight.
Grace and peace, friends.