Grains of Sand

Sometime I move before the Lord tells me to do so. Sometimes I drag my feet when He is moving me. The lesson from Numbers 9 is an excellent reminder to listen and watch, to move willingly when He does and to stand still when He does. The nation of Israel learned to watch the cloud that represented the presence of the Lord among them. " Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out.; but when it lifted they would set out. At the Lord's command they encamped, and at the Lord's command they set out. The obeyed the Lord's order, in accordance with his command through Moses " (Numbers 9:22, 23, NIV). There are times when I wish I had a cloud to follow. But that's where the listening comes in. We are blessed with God's instruction manual, complete with maps that show us the direction the Lord wants us to go. We are blessed by the presence of the Holy Spirit of God who whisp...

“ Samuel replied, ‘Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams’ ”   —1 Samuel 15:22 NIV. When in doubt, read the instructions. Better yet, read them before you have doubts and certainly before Part A is attached to Part C and Part B is left on the floor along with six homeless screws. In King Saul’s case there was no doubt about the instructions God had given him through Samuel. He knew what he was supposed to do. When it was time to “fess up” Saul tried to cover his disobedience with spirituality. In Saul’s case, he told Samuel that he had saved the sheep he had been told by God to destroy, claiming that they had been spared so that they could be offered to God as a sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:15). He also intimated that the whole debacle wasn’t his fault, that his soldiers had disobeyed his orders. Samuel didn’t buy it. The blame game was noth...

“ See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving to you today, the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following after other gods, which you have not known ” —Deuteronomy 11:26-28, NIV. I had a conversation with a friend yesterday via SKYPE. He was working on the final submission for the last course he needed to complete for his Masters degree. He had sent me a paper he had written about the course and I was to question him about his conclusions. One the subjects that arose had to do with God’s commands. Our society today doesn’t like to be “commanded” which might explain why we so easily reduce God’s instructions to “suggestions” or “options” if we consider them at all. The commandments of God are good things, expressions of love even though we often regard them as the opposite. Our lack of faith that God has our best inte...

I read Deuteronomy 10:12 and 13 this morning. As I sat in front of my laptop to journal my thoughts about them, nothing came to mind. That was unusual. I went off to work with the verses in my head thinking that perhaps in the course of the day something would hit me. Nothing. Well, almost nothing. Somewhere in the middle of the day I realized that today there was nothing to say. The verses said everything that needed saying. It's all there, the whole package, all that anyone needs to know—and do. Read it. Embrace it. Do it. “ And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? ” —Deuteronomy 10:12, 13, NIV.