55 - “Make Your Endeavors for the Rising Generations” Numbers 26-27

 God let every male over 20 years old wander for 40 years and die. 603,548. Gone. They never looked deep enough inside to see what was terribly wrong in their own hearts. Caleb and Joshua walked away from a wildersness—-what did they see that half a million people did not see. Divine Power. Hope. Move forward and occupy. Numbers 26:65. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

                                                      

This is scary to me.  Numbers 26:65 ~ God let them die in the wilderness --- every male over 20 years of age.  Wandering for 40 years.  They died.  All 603,548.  Numbered. Gone.  Forgotten. But wait, Caleb and Joshua walked away from this wilderness.  Can we look at how they all lived their wilderness lives? What did Caleb and Joshua see in the wilderness---same thing as half a million dead people. Yes, they all said it is a land flowing with milk and honey.  But, the people said: No hope---we can't defeat the giants. Only Caleb and Joshua believed there was Someone bigger than what they saw. All the while---Numbers 13:30. Presumption on the part of the wanderers! "They never looked deep enough inside to see what was terribly wrong in their own hearts." 66 LL. But, Caleb and Joshua found Divine Power in their wilderness to believe for greater things than living as grasshoppers. Let's move forward and occupy.  Shouldn't we do the same in our impossible wilderness?  

I love the call of the next chapter to pray for future generations.  Matthew Henry puts it this way: "We should concern ourselves, both in our prayers and in our endeavours, for the rising generation, that religion may be maintained and advanced, when we are in our graves. God appoints a successor, even Joshua; who had signalized himself by his courage in fighting Amalek, his humility in ministering to Moses, and his faith and sincerity in witnessing against the report of the evil spies."  Oh, God, appoint us to find this Spirit of Grace to raise up the next generations to whom you have entrusted us.  Numbers 27:16

PRAYER FROM PSALMS
Psalm 78:1-3
Dear God, 
Incline your ears to our words; 
Open our mouths; 
Lead us to utter things we have heard and known---what our father told us; 
Stop us from hiding them from our children;
Help us tell the next generation of Your Glorious Deeds 
Your Divine Power, and the wonders You have done for us.  Amen and Amen.

54 - “Stabd When New Heights To Be Scaled; New Depths To Be Fathomed” Numbers 23-25

  Barrett was about 4 when I shared with him Numbers 23:19---God isn't like us. We were riding in a blue van. God won't ever let us down, son. He is unchangeable and we are changing like the sun, up and down and gone.  Fickle people that can be drawn to deceit and our own plans in the whif of a plan. "God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind."  And Barrett's response---"Well, mommy, is he a woman?" 

"Stand! when there are new heights to be scaled, new depths to be fathomed." Adam Clarke.  It is the glory of God that he doesn't change.  It is the glory of man that we always do.  "Eternity shall be one mighty progress to all except the Eternal." H. Melvill.  Am I making good progress?  Am I allowing God to really change me this day?

53 - “The Great Divide” Numbers 21-22

                            

The line was drawn by an angel of the Lord. God opposed him. Stood in his way.  

Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown." Numbers 22:31.

It was the Great Divide that stopped me in my tracks.  Balaam counted the donkey as an adversary.  It is our Best Friend that meets us where we are, exposes us for who we are, and stands in our way.  When God opens our eyes, we see our sin and name it for the rebellion it is,  It's a Beautiful Thing when we are crossed, when a line is drawn, and God stands in our way.

PHOTO: The other side of my Great Divide.

52 - “Treat God As Holy” Numbers 19-20

 

Do we do the same thing?

The miraculous supply of water which started at Raphidim continued.  Yet, Moses and Aaron both doubted the power and strength and supply of their God.  “Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”  Numbers 20:18

Do we do the same thing?
Moses & Aaron just did the same thing the Israelites had been doing.
They were commanded to speak to the rock and God's hand would act.
They smitted the rock twice.  
Do we think we have to protect God's power, God's reputation, God's decisions? In the event that God does not act.
May we speak the words God gives in relationships and even in the rocks of life.

PHOTO: Speak as you walk through life. Don't strike just speak when you are called to.

51 - “They Forgot What They Read” Numbers 16-18

#51 The whole 2 million people in the community forgot what they just read. Numbers 16. Forgot the feeling of the ocean floor they just crossed. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

                                                                                

The whole community wailed all night long. Numbers 16. What!?!  Two million people wailing for the sake of food. 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.

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

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

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:  

49 - "Return, O Lord, to the Ten Thousand Thousands" Numbers 12-13

"Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands."  Return, O LORD, to us, ten thousand thousands across this spacious land of ours who call upon Your Name today.  May we press in hard and humble to find You in our million midst. 

O God, help us today to trust not like a Hobab but like a Humble Traveler in this story of ours.  The brother of Moses' wife planted his feet firm like a toddler spouting:  "I will not go.  I will depart to my own land to my kindred."  Moses pleads with him:  "Come with us, and we will do good to you, for the LORD has promised good..." 

Hobab:  "I WILL NOT GO."  Numbers 10:30. And they moved on in Numbers 12.

Sometimes, we'll invite people into our lives and they just won't come with us.  Even family.  I think the problem lies with me when, actually, the problem is their own heart.  Their problem is not me, it's God.  I'm just an agent at the ticket station.  May we let God use us as He will and not play the Holy Spirit in people's lives. 

I need to find my own Rest this day.  "Rest with us, God.  Stay with us." 

"For without You, what am I to myself but the Leader of my own destruction?" Augustine

Return, O God, to us all. 13:30 - Caleb quieted the people because Caleb had a quiet heart.  Oh to live amidst the noise in quietness and confidence.  Isaiah 30:15

The people complained in their wilderness.  Do I allow my circumstances to reveal what I am really saying about what God has done or not done? 

Oh Father, I desire to find that quiet life where the noise people make in my ears will not affect me.  Where the damage people do to my soul will not destroy me.  Where the distance people create will not define me.  God, Thank You for quieting my soul.  Psalm 123

PHOTO:  My good friend, the art teacher, painted this picture in 15 minutes in Chapel.  She actually painted it vertically then turned it horizontally when she was finished.  So poignant.  Jesus paid a price for us to truly live.  I must learn to live.  Live that quiet life apart from the noise.  

48 - "Never Live on Old Manna" Numbers 10-11

#48 Never try to live on old manna or replace it for better. Nor seek help in Egypt. “All must come from Jesus or you are undone.” Spurgeon #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

                                                                         

The rabble!
Craving other things.
Numbers 11:4-6.
"If only we had . . . "
"We remember . . . "
"But now . . . "

Lost my appetite
Never see anything but manna.

Here's the truth . . .

"Never try to live on old manna, 
(and never try to replace it for better),
nor seek help in Egypt.

All must come from Jesus or thou are undone."  Charles Spurgeon

47 - "Courage to Move Quickly and Settle Down Fully" Numbers 8-9

The cloud lifted and it was God's command to set out.

The cloud settled and it was God's command to settle down and rest. 

The movement

The settling are both called

The Command of God. 

This was God's will for them. 

This was their calling. 

And the same this day. 

God's movement in our lives belongs

To His Will for us. 

It may be quick 

like Jonah or years like Joseph. 

It is not for us to say. 

It is there for us to follow. 

God's Will and our surrender. 

DEAR GOD, PLEASE CHANGE ALL OF US IN THESE 10,000 MOMENTS.  Give us courage to move when the cloud lifts and rest when the dust settles. 

PHOTO:  The clouds lifting and here I wonder about all these wanderings.

46 - "Audible Words From The Living God" Numbers 7

#47 The Lord matched their magnanimous offerings with his very own Audible Voice. Buechner says: If I see you, I experience you as an object in space. If I hear you, you bring me into the innermost secrets of who you are. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

                                                                          

In Numbers 7, every tribe brought magnanimous multiple offerings alike to dedicate the altar.  Whether the tribe was large or small, they brought the same equal weight, equal size, to show their acceptance by God was not based on the quantity of their sins but the quality of the sacrifice. Silver plates; shekels numbering in the hundreds; sprinkling bowls galore; sacrificial livestock proud.  And the Lord matched this grandeur with his very own Voice.  Audible words from The Living Word.

If I cannot see you and can only hear you, you exist for me not in space but in time where hearing happens. If I see you and can walk around you, I experience you as an object—-I can inspect you from all angles. Buechener says something of “extraordinary importance occurs when I more fully take you into myself by hearing you. “Hearing you speak brings me by the most direct of all routes something of the innermost secret of who you are.”

Buechner, Frederick Whistling in the Dark

PHOTO:  I heard an audible Voice one day as I walked this very beach.  A young lady stopped my stroll and said:  "I came up to this beach to read my Bible.  And God just told me to stop you and tell you that this thing you are going through is from Him.  He is with you.  You are going to be okay."  She could have never known.  I faced the biggest crisis, the Greatest Divide, of my life.  And matching the grandeur of the skies and sea, I heard an audible Voice from a mouthpiece of God. More than a match.