Bibledoorajar: A Great Compliment

     My family had a new baby born on yesterday. As I held her, I wondered if she would live and prosper as God would have her prosper in this world of decay. We did what we knew to do. We prayed that we, her family, would be wise and hold before her His ways and decrees. We honored Him for the gift of her and appealed to Him to help her be His. Help us Lord, her believing family, to be true to hold You before her in the same way we hold her father and mother, her grandparents and her great grand parents. Forgive us when we get "put out" at family shortcomings and help us show Your love and requirement for respect at all times.
     Moses told the people of God and taught them ALL the decrees and ordinances that God required to be upheld in the new land into which they were going. They were not to leave out one thing nor were they to add one thing. The old among them probably remembered them as they were declared, but many of the young were hearing them for the first time because they had not been passed down and honored. For all of them, they heard Moses say, "Beware for yourself and greatly beware of your soul, lest you forget the things that your eyes have beheld and lest you remove them from your heart all the days of your life and make them known to your children and your children's children..." Deuteronomy 4.

    God wanted the people of faith to be commended as wise in the ways they honored their God. It was to be the greatest of compliments.

God give us Christian homes!
Homes where the children are led to know
Christ in His beauty who loves them so,
Homes where the altar fires burn and glow;
God give us Christian homes;
God give us Christian homes!

Baylus McKinney

Bibledoorajar: The Value of God's Plans

     In one of the addresses Moses made to the people of God, he spoke of how he had asked God to let him participate by going into the Promised Land with the people. To show the people how much he wanted that privilege he said he implored with God. To implore is to insistently ask. But finally God told Moses enough. Stop! What I have for you is enough and my plan must be valued as more perfect than your desires. Moses could remember the glories of his past but could not see all that God had planned for him even after his death. God made it clear that His plans alone were perfect. Moses had to let go of regrets and any dependency he had on continuing his leadership role with Israel.How did he know at the time he was imploring God that it was God's intent to "roll away the reproach" of Egypt from His people through the leadership of the next leader Joshua? (Joshua 5) How was Moses to know that one day he would be seen walking and talking with his Lord and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration?
     I think we would all agree that it is difficult sometimes to trust God and be in agreement with His plans especially if it involves what we perceive to be a loss. But we cannot be ignorant and we cannot demean the value of them. It was a disgrace for God's people to be caught in slavery in Egypt and God intended to right that wrong at the crossing of the Jordan using Joshua. Moses got to watch the greater Joshua right the eternal wrong of the hold of sin on people. We cannot become arrogant and make assumptions or become presumptive. When Paul wrote to the church in Rome he was very concerned about them maybe becoming arrogant or presumptive about how God felt about the Jews. He said the Romans were subject to arrogance if they did not understand. And so he proceeded to tell them God's plan to bring Gentile and Jew into "one new man." Paul admitted it was a mystery but the value of the plan had to be accepted. The timing of, and our participation in, the will of God is perfect. And our acceptance must never waiver.

Bibledoorajar: Old Truths Respoken

     I recently told a dear sister who is about to start a chemotherapy protocol following the removal of a tumor that I wanted to be kept informed of when she actually started chemo. She was told that although I had been praying all through the surgery and healing process, I wanted to begin what I called "high octane" prayers for the chemo process. That is, during this time, I wanted to bombard heaven with all the promises and reports in the Word of how God uses our difficulties to purify our lives for our next steps. It is not that God doesn't know about what she is to go through, He does, but I want Him to know how much I am believing in what He has ESTABLISHED for those of us who are dedicated to Him. That means much more scriptures will be a part of the prayers to come for her for therein lies the strength for the days ahead.
     The book of Deuteronomy opens with Moses taking time to preach some "high octane" sermons about the law to a young new generation who were about to take the land. They were small when so many of God's people had refused to believe God by faith and had refused to follow His laws. The results of not being obedient were clear. Those people had now all passed from the scene. They were not going forth into the Promised Land. The reason the sermons had to be "high octane" was because Moses knew this generation would not be able to make it without a better knowledge and belief of the law than their forefathers. And so He began the sermons. It was these same sermons that Jesus referred to when He went through His greatest trials when Satan sorely tempted and wrestled with Him. Jesus fell back repeatedly on the "high octane" statements made by Moses in his sermons. And each time that He spoke and established again the truth of God, He was sustained.
     There is great power in speaking the Word of God and reestablishing it in our prayers. It gives us the strength to go down whatever path God has for us with greater faith and courage. We can reach a place like the apostle Paul who found the strength to endure. To speak the scriptures is to acknowledge the Living Word, the Logos of God who is worthy to be both quoted and praised.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. ... John 1:1

"If your sons will keep My covenant And My testimony which I will teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forever." Psalm 132:12

Bibledoorajar: Journeying and Going Forth: Differences

     As I left my hometown this morning to bring a friend to the hospital for a procedure, we both looked ahead. There was a bit of fog and the clouds lay low on the horizon. As we rose up the slightest of hills it looked as if we were going to ascend into mountains and into the start of an exciting journey. But, alas, it was all an illusion of a great journey and instead we were going forth on a small journey to get a medical procedure and possible heart repair done.
    God instructed Moses to keep adequate records of everywhere His people went on their way to the Promised Land. Their journeys, along with every rest stop, are detailed in Numbers. When God told Moses it was time for them to continue on their journey, He told him to tell the people to go forth. For the people it might have just been another journey or an illusion of one, but for God it was a time for them to go forth. If you stop and think about it, they were to go forth in the same spirit as their father Abraham had done. God had called him to "Go forth out of thy land and out of thy kindred, and out of the house of thy father, and come into the land which I will shew thee." Genesis 12.
     To go forth in God's mind is to move out leaving all the past as done and go forth to things completely new as God has planned for us. He holds the power for the result of going forth. If I stop and think I can remember some of the journeys I have been on that I was aware of the "go forth" component. They are the best memories of all because I am so aware of Him and of how He lead the way.  Some people go forth to far flung places on the earth and others of us go forth with God not too far from the places we have always known. Either way, if we are aware of the "go forth" part we are at peace because of Him and His great power and interest in our journey. It is really wonderful to think about, don't you agree?

"Sometimes ’mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, o’er troubled sea,
Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me."

                                 Joseph Henry Gilmore written during time of the Civil War in the United States

Bibledoorajar: New Beginnings

"You can't go back and change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending."

       C.S. Lewis

The children of Israel had one more assignment from Moses before he died, They could not go back to Egypt and start over from the redemptive beginning, but they could start over where they were and change their lives. Before God that meant that the warriors were to completely ameliorate their enemy, Midian, who had enticed them into sin. All were to be wiped out, even the women because they had enticed so many of God's men to sleep with them. Moses was extremely angry when the men brought some of them back alive. They were slaughtered outside the camp because the inside was to remain pure before God. If Balaam had shown up to get his reward from the Midian leadership for assisting in the ploy to deceive God's people, his reward was to face death by the sword. The spoils of war that were valuable were cleansed and made useful for the peoples of the Lord. 

We are living in a time when deception is running rampant. People my age are saying, "I never thought I would live to see...." Fill in the blank. It is startling. Christians must be ever vigilant in dealing with any entrapment in their lives and slaying those enemies. God will use the spoils taken from our enemies for our good. We will live in greater peace and rejoice in our freedom in Christ. The word makes it clear whom we war against:

^" For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."  Ephesians 6:12

It sounds like a daunting task and it is easy to think we are losing. But those thoughts can be deceptive because rarely are victories in Christ publicized by the media. Here is some advice from the new Nancy, 2018. Know where the bites are and don't give up. Happy New Year!

By Olivia Jaimes

Bibledoorajar: Vows on the Plains of Moab

     Moses met with the leaders of the tribes and gave them instructions from the Lord about vows. They were to be kept because they were given based on their word. Vows discussed had to do with instructions for both men and women.
     It seems that in the culture of America vows do not mean as much as they used to. Deals are not made with just a vow nowadays, but with reams of legal papers attached so that they can be presented to the courts of justice when one goes back on their vow. Divorce courts are full of broken vows. But the truth is, even after Moses discussed the importance of vows, God still had to raise up judges to settle disputes about broken vows. Men looked for a way to make things right, or if not right, different. Settled.
     But there is one Vow that was made in eternity past and God never veered to the right or to the left on it. Jesus never broke His vow that He would come to earth and take on the sins of the humans who break vows right and left.
     In 1863 Henry Wadsworth wrote a poem entitled Christmas Bells. Later someone turned it into my favorite Christmas carol.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet their songs repeat
Of peace on earth good will to men

And the bells are ringing (peace on earth)
Like a choir they're singing (peace on earth)
In my heart I hear them (peace on earth)
Peace on earth, good will to men

And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men

But the bells are ringing (peace on earth)
Like a choir singing (peace on earth)
Does anybody hear them? (peace on earth)
Peace on earth, good will to men

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does he sleep (peace on earth, peace on earth)
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace… 

God is not dead nor does He sleep. He keeps His vows. Settled!

Bibledoorajar: Leadership Change on the Plains of Moab

On the plains of Moab in the midst of all the goings on, God told Moses to go up and take a look at the Promised Land because he was not going to be able to enter it.  God had decided it was his time for his ministry to end and to enter into death. Before he died, Moses asked God to raise up a leader who could successfully lead the people into the land.
     "So the Lord said to Moses, 'Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership, and lay your hand on him.  Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence.  Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him.  He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the Lord. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.^' Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly.  Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the Lord instructed through Moses."(Numbers 27)

      God had a plan for who would succeed Moses. He always does. Many years later after God had spoken through leaders in sundries of ways, He appointed His Son to come to earth and commissioned Him to live as a man though divine. He was born to understand the trials, tribulations and and sins of man and yet divine to die to redeem us from all of that. It was and always has been about His love. And later, He allowed Moses to stand in that land with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.                                 
                            

Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, Love Divine,

Love was born at Christmas,

Star and Angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,

Love Incarnate, Love Divine,

Worship we our Jesus,

But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,

Love be yours and love be mine,

Love to God and all men,

Love for plea and gift and sign.

         Christina Rossetti penned this poem in the late 1880's. Later God inspired several composers to put it to music. It is still being performed in various compositions to this very day. I like the Jars of Clay version (2007). God always has the next gifted one in line to get the job done. Hope you realize you are gifted to love and serve too!