April 30, 2010

Numbers 7
“Cushing.” Now there was a bizarre thought. I immediately dismissed it from my mind. I had been reading Numbers 7. If you just read it, you may have reacted like me. You may have found the first 88 verses to be rather boring. So it was with me, until I came to verse 89. For days I had been wondering about how we “hear the voice of the Lord.” The summer before I had thought I heard the Lord speaking to me, saying, “Return to the land of your fathers.” But nothing had worked out that would enable me to do that. I was questioning whether I had really heard the voice of the Lord. Then as I stumbled on verse 89, I began to meditate upon the typology of the ark and hearing the voice of the Lord. The ark is a type of the Messiah. The word ark simply means box. In Genesis 50:26 it is translated coffin. Think about it. The ark is a coffin. The ark is a type of the Messiah. In Jesus the Law is placed. Our transgression of the Law required our death. When we are placed in Jesus, we are buried with Him in His death. The mercy seat is placed upon the coffin. The blood of the atonement is sprinkled upon the mercy seat covering my sin. The blood of Jesus covers my sin. The Cherubim, the protectors and proclaimers of the holiness of God, overshadow the mercy seat. From this position of holiness where the transgression of the Law is hidden in the coffin and covered by the blood of the mercy seat, Moses heard the voice of the Lord. We hear the voice of the Lord from the same position.
As I was meditating upon this, “Cushing” popped into my mind. That was weird. Cushing is where my maternal grandparents are buried. I dismissed the thought and continued. Later in the day I collected my e-mail. There was a letter from my wife. It was sent about the time that “Cushing” popped into my mind. The e-mail simply said, “I had an overwhelming desire to look at real estate in Cushing and saw this house that I liked.” She attached the web page to the letter. This incident happened in October of 2006. May 1, 2009 I moved into Oklahoma, the land of my fathers. It took a while to place things in order. But here I am, and I can do no else.
Where and when do we hear the voice of the Lord? Only from a position of holiness that is found in Jesus the Messiah. Isn’t He amazing? Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

Luke 21:1-19
I had the privilege of attending Explo '72 the summer before my senior year in High School. It was a great experience. I also seemed to be getting into situations where I had to exercise patience. They were handling large crowds, and even the best planning usually has its glitches. When you have to wait in line for each meal with 5,000 other teens, it can get a little testy. And shipping 80,000 people back and forth across the city of Dallas from various places to the cotton Bowl and back can be challenging. ON the whole, the organizers did an amazing job of planning and coordinating the event! But as you can imagine the logistics were overwhelming and we spent a lot of time hurry-up and waiting. It called for a lot of patience from everybody. Teens in particular are not known for their patience. Patience was a virtue which, as the week wore on, we had to learn. Patience was exercised in meal lines, bus lines and getting in and out of the Cotton Bowl.
Toward the end of the week, we had an hour or two of free time at State Fair Park, where the Cotton Bowl is. My roommates and I decided to ride the sky way. We were at the highest point when it broke down. We hung suspended in the air for what seemed like a whole hour. Patience was once again a thing we were learning.
The disciples were excited about being in Jerusalem for the Passover. Admiring the beautiful temple architecture (and it was an amazing thing), they commented on the temple beauty to Jesus. This launched a whole discourse by Jesus about His second coming. In the middle of warnings about the events preceding His coming, Jesus says, "By your patience possess your souls."
Now here is a patience that far exceeds waiting in hour long lines for a meal or bus or being suspended in the air for an hour. This speaks of a patience exercised in wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, persecutions, trials and martyrdoms. Where does one get patience like that? A bus line is a mere trifle compared to that. The implication is that it can only exist in view of the second coming of Jesus. Are we so convinced of his magnificent glory that we know that every trial which we endure during the wait will be worth the beauty that we shall experience at His coming? We were able to endure the long lines at Explo because we enjoyed the sessions in which we were involved. They were worth the wait. Is He worth enduring through war? Is He worth remaining steadfast in the long aftermath of disasters like earthquake or hurricanes? Is He worth enduring through the hunger of famine? Is He worth waiting for even through long pestilence or illness? Is He worth remaining faithful for during persecutions? If you do not think so, then I say you need to look at His glory some more. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John