March 13

EXODUS 24
Have you ever wanted to have dinner on the grounds with God? Sounds pretty cool, does it not? Can you imagine sitting on the mountainside eating and drinking while God reveals Himself in some form nearby? If you were going to describe to others what God looked like, would the only description be that under where His feet were looked like paved work of sapphire stone? Could it be that they do not describe what God looked like because they couldn’t? Perhaps all they saw was just a cloud of glory, maybe a brightness of representation that let them know He was there. After all, the Apostle John told us twice that no one has seen God at any time. So what did they see? Whatever they saw, the only thing they described was where His feet were.
I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what a sapphire was or looked like, so I went to the internet. A sapphire is generally a blue gem stone, aluminum oxide Al2O3, but it can be other colors depending on what other minerals are mixed with it. When it is red, we call it a ruby. My high school class ring has a blue stone in it. I am not sure if it is a sapphire, but it sure is pretty. So were all the sapphires on the internet.
Once in high school, I was attending Falls Creek Youth Camp. It was my last year to attend as a student. I had been attending every year since I was 13. I was sitting with my chin on my hands when I saw a reflection in one of the facets of the stone of my class ring. It was a reflection of three crosses on a hill far behind me. I had never been aware of the crosses before, so it startled me when I saw them. Do you suppose that the reason they mention the sapphire pavement is because it gave a reflection of what God looked like? Maybe even the reflection was full of glory that is indescribable much like the joy which comes from Him, which is unspeakable. Sometimes His presence is like that. He is there all along, but He moves in a special way, and suddenly we see Him in a way that we had missed for years.
How did that sapphire pavement work? Did it move as He moved? Surely He didn’t just stay in one spot during the whole meal. Did the ground or rock below Him just suddenly turn a lovely shiny blue with cut facets and joints like pavement as his glory moved above it? When He moved on, did the ground remain for a little while like sapphire pavement, or did it instantly return to its old drab self. His glory is like that. We are drab and lifeless, and then He shows up. Suddenly life is full of color. There is a vivacious, vibrant color and beauty in life that just wasn’t there before, and it wasn’t there before we were aware of His presence. Those who are far away see the reflection of His glory for we have become living stones reflecting His glory. Does it startle those who have never seen it before?
Then Moses and Joshua are invited by God to go up on the mountain with God. Of course they take God up on His offer. Moses instructs the others to wait for Him. As Moses & Joshua ascend into the cloud of glory that covered the mountain top, they disappeared. They took on the appearance of fire as the ascended. What do you think Aaron, his sons and the 70 elders thought as they beheld the sight. How long do you think they hung around? Forty days is a long time. Since Moses and Joshua ascended into a cloud of fire, do you think the elders thought they were consumed by God? Sounds scary to me. But then, experiencing the glory of God is a fearful thing. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

PSALM 72
The rate of people in Stillwater living in what the government defines as poverty is around 24%. The state average is around 14%. A year and two months ago, a homeless man in our small city died in his sleep under a bridge in sub-freezing weather. For a little while there was a great uproar in our community concerning doing something to help solve the problem of poverty, and homelessness in particular, in our community. At the meetings which I attended, it seemed that there were as many proposed solutions as there were people present. Yesterday I was talking with a man who was a friend of the homeless man who died. He said, that the man had resources that could have prevented him from being homeless, but he would rather sleep under a bridge than use them. My own cousin has mental health issues that result in his living a lifestyle that is very unconventional and most would call ‘homeless.’ At one time he was receiving $1300 a month in SSI (and I think he still is). In his community $1300/month is more than enough for a single male with no children to make ends meet. I feel heartless, but if that is the way he chooses to live, why should I be compelled to give him more support?
I have done enough work among the poor in the USA to know that frequently their plight is often times mostly their own doing. They made bad decisions that spiraled into poor circumstances that resulted in more bad decisions. I also have done enough work among the poor in the USA to know that frequently the trigger that led to their plight was not of their own doing. Some sort of illness, accident or injury, often precipitates it. I have also done enough work among the poor in the USA to know that a few of them, if given the proper assistance, will rise up out of their extreme poverty and come to the point that they no longer need assistance. I have also done enough work among the poor in the USA to know that some of the issues that the poor must contend with are issues of justice which were meant to motivate the poor to better themselves, but they actually have the reverse effect. Right now it is difficult at best to have a government that ministers to the poor with justice. Most of governmental efforts in the USA over the last five decades have only resulted in an increase in the percentage of poor people living in our country. The Great Society has become an impoverished society, and the governmental coffers seem to be going broke. The war on poverty seems to have become a war on the poor.
Solomon prays that the Lord will give the king’s son wisdom to rule in justice. Eventually, the Psalm looks beyond the earthly king to the Messianic King, the Lord Jesus. When He comes in His power, He will bring justice to the poor. He will bring healing to their lives so that they can live their lives in honor of Him. The result of His giving justice to the poor is that more honor and wealth are given to His name. Somehow He will rule in such a way that the poor will have what they need in order to meet their needs. He will also rule in such a way that the poor will make the right decisions so that they will no longer spiral into deeper poverty. That is something that our governments and economic systems today cannot provide. That is what makes His glory so glorious! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

JOB 42

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.

Who was Job? No one really knows. He lived another 140 years after God restored him. He had 9 grown children before Satan killed them. He was probably at least 60 when he lost everything. So he lived to be at least 200 years old. Moses lived longer than most in his generation, and he lived to be 120. That tells me that Job lived within 500 years after flood of Noah, perhaps in the days of Abraham or Jacob. So Job probably lived long before Moses. A strong Jewish tradition holds that Moses wrote the book of Job while waiting in Midian. The location of Uz is unknown while one of the likely locations is east of Edom. Which would indicate that Job lived in a time close to the flood before the area became the desert waste land it is today. The location would also be likely if Moses wrote the book of Job, for Moses would have had access the oral tradition.
So who was Job? If he was a man who lived before the time of Moses, he would have had no written Scripture to teach him anything about what God was like. All the he would have had would have been oral traditions passed on to him from the descendants of Noah. This man who had no written Scripture, no clear revelation of God, responded to the natural revelation given to him. He responded and clung to God with what little inaccurate information which he had. Now when he gets a fuller revelation of God, when he actually sees God, he repents of his whining about God not being fair. One look was all it took. After losing everything, after all the misery and pain he was in, after the rejection of his wife, after the abuse of his so called friends, all alone in the world, one look at the glory of God and he repented! What did he see? Perhaps it was just the reflection of God as if in a sapphire stone. We don’t know what he saw, but it must have been absolutely awesome as it was absolutely life changing. Will I walk through the fire to see the glory of God? What a question! But the logical answer is that it is worth it all. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

MARK 13:21-37
One of my favorite pictures of space can be viewed at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/astro/hst_deep_field.jpg The caption tells that it is a narrow "keyhole" of deep space. The image covers a speck of sky 1/30th the diameter of the full Moon as seen from the earth. This is so narrow! Only a few foreground stars in our Milky Way galaxy are visible and are vastly outnumbered by the menagerie of far more distant galaxies. The galaxies are nearly four billion times fainter than the limits of human vision. The field is a very small sample of sky area. It contains hundreds of galaxies. Each galaxy contains billions of stars. Yet this small speck is typical of the distribution of galaxies in space. Our Lord created each of these galaxies and stars and He calls them all by name. I cannot get my mind around the immensity of the universe much less the immensity of my Lord who created and knows it all.
It amazes me that people can believe that Christ has returned. When He comes, the powers of heaven will be shaken. His glory will exceed that of the heavens. It will be unmistakable. We are given two clear commands until His return, preach the Gospel and watch! Our Master is coming. His glory far exceeds that of the heavens. Knowing His glory is more than enough motivation to preach the Gospel. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John