It has been a week for me. I started feeling under the weather Monday morning, and that quickly went downhill into a full blown flu like I haven’t had in many moons (or years for those who count that way). I was in bed the rest of Monday, except for the classes I taught, as well as Tuesday. Wednesday I would muster up enough energy to coach a student, then go collapse until the next one. This continued until Friday when I finally started feeling human again. Saturday I actually left the house, and I made it to church Sunday and even was able to play bass on the worship team. So things are looking up. I can’t say the same thing for the states in the northeast. Which reminds me…
Happy Groundhog Day!
I’m sure those in the upper North East are happy to hear that there will indeed be 6 more weeks of Winter. This annual event has been going on since 1887 and has sported a whopping accuracy rate of 39%. In other words, it’s really anyone’s guess, and we’ll need to wait and see if that percentage improves or worsens. It is a good thing that Punxsutawney Phil didn’t live in the Old Testament days. Not that he is presuming to speak for God, but he does make predictions about the weather that God controls. I am being a bit facetious here, because God does treat very seriously those who would claim to speak for Him.
I’m in Deuteronomy in my first time through the Bible this year. Deuteronomy is the Covenant Document for Israel and is laid out in the same manner and style of all ancient covenants. It begins with the relationship between the parties from the past through the present. Then it will encourage the parties to enter into a covenant because that would make the relationship so much better. It then lays out the terms and conditions of the covenant and what each party is responsible for. Then comes the blessings for following the covenant, and then the curses for breaking it, which is a much longer list than the blessing list.
I have come to the part where God said He will bring a prophet in the manner of Moses who will ultimately speak to the people the words of God, and the people had better listen. The prophet will be from among them, from their brothers, so He will look a lot like them. Of course, the anticipated question would be, “How will we know Him?” Because there will be false prophets who will come and say they are Him. Moses said, “Easy. If what the prophet says comes true 100% of the time, listen to him, but is not, he is a false prophet.” There are no do overs here. Prophets of God MUST be 100% right when speaking for the Lord.
I know we will come to Nathan who told David to build the Temple, but this was from him and not the Lord. God told him to go apologize the David and tell him what God does say.
God’s big concern here is that there will be people out there who would desire to draw you away from Him and follow after them. And this is very serious business as this concerns our eternal soul, not just some little things we have to face here.
Well, as God said, His Prophet, Priest, and King came in our Savior Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the Word of God that will fail. His words are life, and we would do well to listen to Him. But won’t there be some who still say they have a word from God? How do we know? We are to test all things in light of Scripture, and hold fast to that which is true.
I am always cautious about anyone who would predict the future anyway. We know what ultimately happens, but the details are in God’s hands. The Bible says that the problems for the day is sufficient for the day, but so is the grace to get through. And if our perfect loving God holds the future, we need not be worried, anxious, or concerned. Does this mean we just sit back and wait for God to act in our lives? No! He has called us to walk worthy of our calling, to go and preach the Gospel, to do the good works He has prepared for us, to use Scripture to teach, rebuke, counsel, etc.
This is in fact what God was teaching Israel as He led them through the wilderness, took them into the Promised Land, and developed them into His people. He’s doing the same thing today with His Church. So, we need to learn to get our daily bread from Him, trust Him with our whole heart, delight ourselves in Him, seek Him first, and trust that He will work out all of the other things in our lives.
And this works way more than 39% of the time. It is the way of life that God has called us to, even when we have to endure more winter than we had hoped for.
Now go and shovel those walks, but use your legs and not your back. Soon it will be Spring, and you all can deal with rains, hurricanes, floods, etc. I’ll be here in Colorado praying for you all.
Amen
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