50 - "Make Us Like Caleb---Holy Heat, Noble Daring" Numbers 14-15

#50 Caleb means “all heart.” A spirit of holy heat, noble daring. May God stir the heart of the un-Caleb people we live with. (Spurgeon). #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

                                                                   

The whole community wailed all night long. Numbers 14:1-3. What!?!  One million people wailing for the sake of safety. A collective cry. All but two: Joshua and Caleb. I look around every day and hear the ways people talk to each other, talk about others, talk to themselves. Where are the Joshua's and Caleb's. If it is true that God is on our side, and it is true, then what does Josh and Caleb know that we don't know in our hearts. Two million people "missed" the grace of God.  forgot what they just read.- You shall die if  you defile God's tabernacle.  He is a Holy God.  Serious Business of Heaven.  And we are no longer under law. We live under grace. 

If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword"?  . . . And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” But no ... there was one with "another spirit" and a "rough name." Caleb. The meaning of his name is "dog" but the significance is "All Heart." Caleb, a servant of God, followed Him fully. Numbers 14:24. Nothing lukewarm about this white-hot brave heart. A spirit of "holy heat, of noble daring," said Spurgeon. Spurgeon went on to say that there are those un-Caleb like people in our lives we share our very life and love "but no effort on your part can stir the frozen current of their soul." Not so, with this noble dog called Caleb. May we all learn today to be a Caleb and "follow fully" and plead with God to thaw the frozen currents of our own souls and those we love.           

Yes! Ezekiel 27 - Dry Bones can be made alive in this new covenant.  Dry bones crossed this ocean, walked its floor. And most of them never really came to life, did they? 

Fast Forward to our dry bones. God crushed this curse into which we were born.  We can love and live alive to God and dead to sin. We are slaves to righteousness not sin. Either moving toward God or away from Him.  CS Lewis in The Weight of Glory calls it:  immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.  

This debt of ours is paid. We defile the Tabernacle we live in every day. All the frays of our heart are  covered with a Blanket of Grace. 

It's the work of heaven.

No man planted seeds; no man watered the grass; no man tended the flowers; no man grew anything.

"Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds." Numbers 17:8

The only prince of the 12 tribes who budded, blossomed, and produced fruit.  Not at the hand of man.  Moses couldn't make a stick grow overnight with such a trichotomy.  They don't exist together on a branch.  And the Israelites saw that it was a miracle.  A calling that produced fruit that only God can do.  Are we patient in our own pursuits, knowing God is producing fruit in our endeavors for Him. It is the blessing of heaven.  

PHOTO:  Stunned. Seared. Sent. Thinking about how we can cross this Atlantic Ocean by walking its floor and not believe God.