Another test

Trying to post a picture

Posted from my Treo

Another test post

This time, hopefully, with a picture

Enjoy

Another test post

This time, hopefully, with a picture

Enjoy

Test mo:blog post

Just another test post to see if I can post using mo:blog.

Have a great day

Reflections on Exodus

Exodus 7 - The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart.

I’ve often thought about about this story in Scripture. I have often wondered if it was truly God that was doing the hardening or if God already knew (being outside of time and space) that Pharaoh would indeed harden his heart in this circumstance.

Is it a case of God forcing his will on a person or God using what he knew to fulfill his purpose?

We also see this in the case of Judas in the New Testament. Did God cause Judas’ heart to become hardened so that he would betray Jesus to his captors or is it a case of God knowing the nature of Judas’ heart and placing him in the position where he might act and thereby fulfill the prophecy of Jesus?

I think in both of these cases we are dancing a fine line between a couple of issues that have been, historically, difficult to balance.

Our free will vs. God’s omniscience.

God says in his word that he wishes none to parish but wishes that all would come to him and gain eternal life, life in the kingdom of God. But we are also aware that God is omniscient. Which means that, because he exists outside of space and time, he can know everything. We are not omniscient. The best analogy that I can think of is that we are players in a movie and we exist in the story and on the film. God is not on the film. God is removed from the film and can view any frame that he wants, forward or backward. That is why he can know the outcome of any event and every choice a creature will make.

However, my thought is, if he allows someone with a given nature to be placed in a given position, knowing what the outcome will be, is that dangerously close to impinging on a person’s free will? Isn’t he using that person to advance his agenda? What about his wanting  “none to perish”?

Did God cause Pharaoh and Judas to perish? Or, were their hearts already so hardened that they were bound to perish anyway?

As I read the two texts it does not seem, particularly in Judas’ case that there is anything obvious on the outside that would make you think that he was beyond salvation. We don’t have anything in the biblical text that makes out to be a Hitler or a Castro. But maybe that’s just it, it’s not the outside that is the determinant, but rather the inside.

And remember, all I said was that I had questions, I never said I had any answers. I guess that’s the way things go when you are discussing the whys and hows of God.

Until next time.

Reflections on Exodus

Exodus 6 - God’s promise of deliverance

In Exodus 6, God reveals himself as Yahweh, or “The Lord”. Previously in scripture God had revealed himself as El-Shaddai, or “God Almighty”.

This is a bit like our walk with God and ties in nicely with the book that I am currently reading; Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. Grudem puts forth in his text that all people know of God, by his majesty is revealed in nature and as a moral judge revealed by our innate desire for good over evil in our daily affairs.

This is much like what we learn in Exodus 6. We see God revealing himself (again the only way we can know anything about God is through his revelation to us) to his first followers as God Almighty. This would have tied together their knowledge of the world, and the majesty, power and grandeur found therein with their already formed beliefs of “gods and spirits”. God would take this minute yet foundational knowledge and build their knowledge of him as God Almighty upon it.

God then goes on to reveal himself to Moses as Yahweh, “The Lord”, “Keeper of Covenants”. God is beginning to reveal his traits to humanity.

It is much the same with our walk with God. We begin with a sense of God. We marvel at a sunset or a sunrise. We are awed by a thunderstorm with its flashes of lightning. We weep at the loss of a loved one and wonder that “there must be more”. This is El-Shaddai, God Almighty.

Then something happens. God comes to us (for Moses it was a burning bush, for some its a voice, and for others it is simply his words in scripture. And for still others it is the caring actions of a loved one who already knows God) and reveals himself to us as the “Covenant Keeper”. Yahweh. We come to learn that we can trust him, that there is something there beyond ourselves that piques our curiosity and instills within us a desire to know this God more.

This is Yahweh. This is the God who beckons us with the promise “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom. 10:13

Reflections on Exodus

Exodus 5 - Moses returns to Egypt

Not much to report out of this chapter. Moses goes back to Egypt and puts Pharaoh on notice that God wants His people back. Pharaoh says no way and in return puts the Israelites to harder work to make them forget about God’s call and even turn against Moses and Aaron.

Wow, isn’t that the way that Satan works? God has called me to a life of beauty, grace and love and Satan just turns up the heat on the “things of this world” to distract us from reality.

The real truth is that God is wanting to redeem the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt.
The real truth is that God is wanting to redeem you and me from our bondage in this world to the things of this world and the priorities and desires of this world.

Again, it’s all the same.

Reflections on Exodus

Exodus 4- The three signs of Moses

Again it is fairly simple to draw a comparison between the commissioning of Moses in Exodus 4 with the life and ministry of Jesus. Moses is given three signs with which to show that he was sent by god.

The first - staff to snake. My commentary states that the staff was a sign of rule or authority. The serpent was Pharaoh so this sign showed Moses (by God) power over Pharaoh. Jesus was The Staff, the true ruler of all creation, set there by God. The serpent for Jesus is obviously the original serpent, Satan.

The second - leprosy. For Moses it was a sign to Pharaoh that God would drive him from his presence. For Jesus it is a sign of healing, of restoring those cast out of God’s presence by their uncleanness back into the family of believers.

The third - water to blood. This was a sign to Pharaoh that God controlled the prosperity of Egypt. The Nile was the source of prosperity and wealth and sustenance to the Egyptian nation. For Jesus it is power over the physical elements as seen in his first miracle; turning the water into wine.

It’s as if Jesus is the perfect accomplishment of all that Moses was sent to do and accomplished imperfectly.

Reflections on Exodus

Exodus 3 - Moses meets with God

It is apparent in reading this passage of God’s Word that Moses is ultimately the precursor (the pre-figuring) of Christ coming to release us from our bondage. How long did God listen to the suffering and the crying out of all people before he sent Christ to release us from our bondage.

This is the first Exodus. Moses leading the release of the Israelites from the bondage and oppression of Egypt’s ruler; Pharoh. Christ leading the release of what would become His church from the bondage and oppression of this world’s leader.

Reflections…

Why is it so hard to just sit and write or reflect? We spend so much time racing and running that we never allow ourselves to slow down, stop and reflect. And according to all of the sources that is what we need the most right now in our society. The symptoms are that we are no longer connecting with other people in our culture. Could it be that we don’t know others because we no longer know ourselves? I know that I am probably living the life that someone else has planned for me.

So why is it so difficult for us to slow down? And by “us” I mean me? Why are we so obsessed with speed and increase and growth and change? Back in the day the pace of things was so much slower. People had more of a pace with which to know themselves and then were able to connect with other people and get to know them. Pictures of a more rural life and time come to my mind. The town dances. Lunch after church. Times when people could truly connect. Whole families knew each other, beginning with grandma and grandpa’s friends down to the kids friends.

Connections.

Where are the connections now? It’s hard to create connections when you are running at a hundred miles an hour. There is just no space or place for it. Take my life for example. I’m a full time CPA working 50-60 hours a week. I’m Mayor of my town which requires sometimes up to 15 hours in a week. I’m a husband of a wonderful and beautiful wife. I’m father to twin two-year old boys. I try to get to church as often as I can. So as you can I am busy.

Why am I so busy? What is it in me that causes me to take on so much?

I know that I work to make a living. I serve my community as Mayor because I am good at it and it gives me a chance to give back to the community. I am a husband because I love my wife and want the best for her and my family. I am a father because I love my boys and I want them to grow up to be good men. So maybe it’s not my schedule that needs adjusting. Maybe it’s my perspective. Maybe instead of looking at all the things that I have to do, maybe I can frame them in my mind as the things that I get to do.

Who knows, maybe it’s something worth looking at.