What's Got Your Goat?

I take an annual trip to Kenya with a medical mission team. We assist a community known as Bethlehem Home -- truly, the poorest of the poor. Because AIDS has wiped out a large portion of the middle generation in Kenya, many children are without parents, and many elders are without adult children to care for them.  This is the case with the elders and orphans of Bethlehem Home.  One man in the community sees to it that the elders and orphans get at least one meal a day.  Given the alternating periods of drought and flooding, it's a tough goal to meet on a daily basis. Still, God faithfully provides.

On our last Sunday with them, the community shares a fine gourmet meal with us -- roasted goat.  Now, this might not measure up to your foie gras, but for them, this is major.  More often than not, meat is not a part of their diet.  Yet, when we're departing, they share it with us in love.

David had to encourage his men to do some sharing in I Samuel 30:23.

But David said, “No, my brothers! Don’t be selfish with what the Lord has given us. 

He has kept us safe and helped us defeat the band of raiders that attacked us.  

Interesting how those with nothing often are more likely to give of their lack than those who have plenty.  It's easy for us to point an accusing finger, but when we do so, we have three pointing back at us.  Ever been selfish with your time? Too busy to encourage someone? Too busy to listen to someone who just needs to talk?  Take what you have (talents, time, skill sets, knowledge), and share it with someone else...invest it in someone else.  Pay it forward, and watch what God can do with it.

When we accept that final meal from our dear friends, we're receiving much more than something to fill our bellies.  We're reminded of how faithful God is to provide for them, what true love is, how blessed we are, the value of true friendship, and the list goes on.  

What can you share today? What are you grasping hold of so selfishly? What's got your goat? Why aren't you giving it away?

Get Serious.

A while back, I got serious about getting in shape. Prior resolutions to do so had fallen through.  In the morning, I would say to myself, "I'm going to the gym this afternoon." But by the time the afternoon rolled around, I could come up with at least two reasons why I didn't have time to go.  "I'll go tomorrow," I'd say to console myself. "Tomorrow" would come, and the same thing would happen again. 

I finally had a good one-on-one meeting with self and concluded something had to change if what I spoke with my lips or thought in my head was going to come to fruition in my form. I got serious about the matter and hired a personal trainer. I knew if I were scheduled to meet with someone at a specified time to do something, I wouldn't stand him/her up. That's just rude. I might stand myself up, but not anyone else. After acquiring a trainer, I started living differently.  I gave up some things and took on some others. I swapped out Coca-Cola for water. Burgers went by the wayside, and vegetables became more alluring. You get the picture.

Samuel had to give the same wake up call to the Israelites.

Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, 

“If you are really serious about wanting to return to the Lord, 

get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. 

Determine to obey only the Lord; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” 

(I Sa. 7:3)

If you're serious about something, it should show forth in your actions. Being serious about getting in shape meant actually going to the gym. I couldn't just think or talk about it. For the Israelites, getting serious about returning to the Lord meant putting aside those things that were contrary to His law. In a sense, Samuel told them, "If you're serious, act like it."

We can take this same advice today. What spiritual commitments have we made with our mouths that we've yet to follow up with action?  What have we resolved to do in prayer that we've not made a move toward in practice? Songwriter Mark Hall (Casting Crowns) aptly describes this in "The Altar and the Door."

Lord, this time, I'll make it right

Here at the altar I'll lay my life

Your Kingdom come, but my will was done

My heart is broken as I...

Cry like so many times before

But my eyes are dry before I leave the floor, oh Lord

I try, but this time, Jesus, how can I be sure I will not lose my follow through

Between the altar and the door

Get serious with yourself.  We say, "Practice what you preach." We need to add, "Practice what you pray." Don't lose your follow through.

Reading of the Will

There's a book by John Grisham in which the heirs of billionaire anxiously await the elderly man's death to receive their "due" inheritance. After his death, the heirs can practically smell the money that they're sure is coming their way, and they start to make extravagant decisions and purchases on the assumption of millions to come. Little do they know that the deceased has willed his estate to an unknown lady doing a work for the Lord in a remote part of the world--his own daughter.  Oh, the dismay when the heirs learn there will not be a "Black Friday" for them for quite some time.

Moses and Joshua distributed Jacob's estate. Every tribe received some amount of land but, when it was Levi's turn, the tribe received nothing...nothing tangible, that is.

"But Moses gave no land to the tribe of Levi, for the Lord, the God of Israel had promised to be their inheritance" (Jos. 13:33).

What a deal!! More than wealth and land, Levi received something eternal--something unaffected by moth, rust, drought, etc. Just like Levi, our inheritance is eternal. Some may choose to give it up for temporary gain in the trappings offered by this world. But the best is yet to come.

In Memory of You

How many times have we done something in memory of another?  Written/read a poem, sung a song, given a donation, sponsored a walk, planted a tree, etc.  After crossing the Jordan, God commanded Joshua to have 12 men gather a stone a piece to build a memorial.

"In the future, your children will ask, 'What do these stones mean to you?' Then you can tell them, 'They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord's covenant went across.' These stones will stand as a permanent memorial among the people of Israel (Jos. 4:7)."

These stones were to trigger a story of remembrance--a testimony to be passed down from generation to generation.  Just as Jacob's grandchildren likely asked, "Papa, why do you limp like that?", Joshua's successive generations would ask, "What's with these rocks?" and the instilling of another piece of their heritage would begin.  A seed would be planted in recalling how a faithful God helped the Israelites cross the Jordan in the midst of the flood season. Yet another story of deliverance through water in this God-ordained heritage.

We also have testimonies to share--those of deliverance, healing, undue mercy, undeserved grace, protection...and the list goes on. In what way has God made you victorious? As you look back, what memorials do you see? 

There's an old song that says, "I am a living testimony. I should have been dead and gone, but Lord, You let me live on. I am a living testimony. I thank the Lord that I'm still alive." Are YOU a memorial?

I've seen miracle after miracle

Performed in my life

You kept having mercy on me

I didn't even deserve to be alive

When I faced dangers I couldn't see

Lord, You kept Your angels encamped around me

And I wanna take this time and say

Thank You, Lord, for keeping me alive

I am a living testimony

I should have been dead and gone

But Lord, You let me live on

I am a living testimony

I thank the Lord I'm still alive

"Living Testimony" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgb-X40-1_k&feature=related

Pilgrim's Progress

I once heard a lady speak about leaving a legacy -- a heritage -- for your children.  But she wasn't referring to family relics or financial inheritances. Instead, she was speaking in a spiritual sense.  "Let them know who they are, where they've come from, why they're here.  Whom did their ancestors serve? Whom didn't they serve?"

And the most-prized possession she'd already passed down to her eldest daughter was her personal Bible. It was a one-year study Bible that guided the reader from Genesis to Revelation in the span of a year's time.  As she read through the entire Bible that year, she wrote notes in the margins -- notes that included her personal reflection on certain passages, how a particular scripture spoke to her on a particular day, advice she wanted to leave with her daughter, references to scriptures that she thought would strengthen her daughter, etc. When Christmas came around, she presented this gift to her eldest, who was moved to tears. But she couldn't keep the Bible that Dec. 25. Her mother asked for it back that she might finish out the year's readings to fully complete her task. The year that she spoke of this, she'd already purchased another one-year Bible and was repeating the journey for her second daughter. Within its pages were different personalized notations, different scriptures were underlined and highlighted, for it was a different year for a different daughter, and the mother was at a different place in her spiritual journey. 

After their mother passes, those daughters will have not only the spiritual legacy she implanted in them as she raised them but also the worn pages of a spiritual walk their mother took, bringing them closer to her in spirit than any quilt or china she could leave in their possession.

God instructed Israel to do the same for the generations that would follow. 

"At the Lord's direction, Moses kept a written record of their progress.  These are the stages of their march, identified by the different places they stopped along the way.   They set out from the city of Ramses on the morning after the first Passover celebration in early spring.  The people of Israel left defiantly, in full view of the Egyptians..." 

(Nu. 33:2-3, NLT)

In like manner, God told the Israelites to inform their descendants.  "Let them know who they are, where they've come from, why they're here.  Whom did their ancestors serve? Whom didn't they serve?" For a time would come when they might not have a tabernacle or tent of meeting in which to worship and bring sacrifices. Still, they needed to know and mentally grasp that no matter their place in life -- free or in bondage -- they were the children of a delivering God who always is standing by.

Leviticus...It's kind of a messy book.  Everywhere you turn, there's blood.  Verse, after verse, after verse mentions the spilling/releasing of blood.  The word "blood" is used in Leviticus more than 80 times.  Perhaps this verse explains the purpose and necessity of this fluid best:

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, 

and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, 

for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life." 

(Lev. 17:11)

Hymns written long ago commonly focused on blood and its atonement, perhaps more so than Christian music today. Do any of these ring a bell with you?

• "I see a crimson stream of blood; it flows from Calvary. It's waves, which reach the throne of God, are sweeping over me."
• "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!"
• "Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow? There's power in the blood, power in the blood! Sin's stains are lost in its life-giving flow. There's wonderful power in the blood!"
• "There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains."
• "Alas and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die! Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?"
• "Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb. There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean. Oh, be washed in the blood of the Lamb!"
• "I know it was the blood; I know it was the blood. I know it was the bloodblood for me." for me. One day when I was lost, Jesus died on the cross. And I know it was the

"We need to learn how to celebrate the cross," says songwriter and minister Donnie McClurkin.  "It is the cross of Calvary that gives us access to eternal life. It was a bloody cross. It was a cross of suffering. It was a gory cross. It was by His sacrifice that salvation was extended unto man."

Our Christian forefathers certainly celebrated. Have we forgotten to do so? "Worship is not solely about focusing on the pleasant aspects of the Christian faith. After all, the book of Psalms -- Israel's hymnbook -- includes songs of lament and sorrow over sin, as well as uplifting praises of thanksgiving and gratitude" (Integrity's iWorship Daily Devotional Bible).  

Let us not forget the power of this "life-giving flow." So much more can and should be sung about the miraculous atonement extended to us and generations to come.

This Way or That?

I'm headed to Houston with a friend for our denomination's national general conference.  We both love road trips, and she's a pro with a road atlas.  Some friends prefer GPS, but a road atlas doesn't require a signal.

During the trip, I started talking about the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land. "They would not listen to God," my friend said.  "That's why I pray, God, help me to hear You. Help me to listen and obey."

This prayer was spoken when we were having a conversation about the Israelites and their 40-year stint in the wilderness. There was a much shorter, direct route to the Promised Land from Egypt than the direction they went.

Why the delay? God had some things to work on with the Israelites. He got them out of Egypt, but now He had to work on getting Egypt out of them.  Having been through the Red Sea, eaten food directly from heaven, and drinking water from a rock, what does He find them doing in Moses' absence?  Worshiping a golden calf! Say what??

Not only did God need to get Egypt of out of them, He had to put something new in its place. He had to show them His faithfulness and get up close and personal so that they could see Him for who He really was and be unable to do anything other than worship Him.

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it took 40 years. That's why my friend was asking God to help her listen AND obey.  "If I don't do both, I might end up on some circuitous routes that I could have avoided altogether had I just done as He said."

To walk in His way, we need to stay tune in to His direction, His leading. And not just tuned in, but obedient as well.  How's your signal?