New Name

New Name Same . . . . yeah ok that's old hat! I have a new name. I didn't really like this name and I was on the search for a new one. I promise not to change the new one as I absolutely LOVE it! Ready for it? It's Ponderings from a Preacher's Wife! Isn't that perfect? http://ponderingsofapreacherswife.blogspot.com/ is the name of the website. I can't figure out how to attach it so you can click on it, so just copy and highlight to your search engine and it will send you right over there!

Three Rules I Learned from Crown College . . .

Pastor Sexton got up on several occasions when I was at Crown College in Powell Tennessee and said, "We have three rules here, Number 1, Don't Complain. Numbers 2, Don't Complain, and the third rule? You guessed it, Don't Complain!" I didn't understand his emphasis then, being on this side of the ministry I totally understand. Those are good rules to live by for those in the ministry and those under them!

Recently my Bible reading has been taking me through Numbers. You know God spends a lot of time talking about the Israelites complaining problem. He puts an emphasis on what they complained about. Not just the lack of food, or the lack of what they desired but more importantly against God's Man and ultimately against God Himself!

Each time you see the Israelites complaining there are consequences. If I had been the Preacher's Wife to those people I might have been tempted to hit my head against a rock, seeing as their walls were made of tent material! You think the people would have learned . . . but no, time after time they complain, complain, and then complain! Usually it is directed at Moses, the man of God, the preacher, the God-given authority in their life! I found myself actually getting mad at them. These people long and dead still seem to live on in the church members I meet and know and even in ME! I think God majors on their complaining and I think Pastor Sexton knew a thing or two about being in the ministry. Complaining is so prevalent yet so destructive! Complaining does several things . . . it robs you of your power and boldness, it makes you unhappy, and it only brings God's judgement! Complaining also seems to bring more complaining and the more you complain the more you feel you need to complain.

Here we find the Israelites journeying through the land in Numbers 21. They are faced with an enemy and experience victory as they defeat the Canaanites! Then it's back to the way and it is long and it's duty, and they become weary in the way and become much discouraged because of the way. They turn to complaining and speak out against God and His man! Then they start despising the very thing that is keeping them alive, the manna! God obviously doesn't approve because in Numbers 21:7 He sends fiery serpents! Presented with these fiery serpents, something beyond their control they recognize their sin and their need of a Savior! God doesn't leave them destitute in his lovingkindness; He sends deliverance.

This so parallels my life and those of others I have seen! We go from a spiritual high . . . aka, camp, or revival meeting, or some incident that brings us to God in a closer and more real way. We get a spiritual victory over something! Then the mundane, the every day life of going to work, washing dishes, cleaning the house, taking care of the kids sets in! That emotional feeling is gone and the way before us seems long and weary. If we are not careful like the Israelites we can become discouraged because of the way!

The Bible in Joshua commands us to not be discouraged, so . . . . knowing this, being discouraged must be a sin and sin not dealt with always leads to more sin and in the Israelites case they started despising the very thing that was giving them life: the manna! We go from this spiritual high to discouragement and that leads us despising the very thing that brought this spiritual victory in the first place, our personal Bible devotions and the preaching of God's word from God's man!

At this point we become practical atheists, knowing God is real but acting like He can't hear or see us! We start to complain about God and most of the time this leads to complaining about the preacher and instead of having him over for dinner we have him FOR dinner! Don't be fooled dear Christian, God still sees and He hears and He deals with us! In Numbers 21:17 God sends fiery serpents . . . God may not send fiery serpents but He does deal with our sin of complaining!

The people did a wonderful thing in Numbers 21:7 they confess! They confess their wrong towards God and towards His man! They get their heart right with God and with others that they have wronged! Isaiah sets the standard for getting God's presence in your life! Isaiah 40:3-5 lays out some very practical principles for us! He talks about making a highway for God to have His presence! You must make the valleys high, the mountains low, the crooked places straight and the rough places smooth. Then Isaiah 40:5 says, "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Those valleys are low spots in our life, sinful areas, they have to be filled in with good things, not just removed. The high places are places of pride that must be lowered. The crooked places are relationships that must be made right and the rough places are character flaws that need to be smoothed out. They aren't necessarily sins! Get these things right, confess them and ask God to help you and you will experience God's presence in your life! This is more than salvation. It does not save you. It is living the abundant Christian life!

So the Israelites confessed and God forgave them. Something really neat happens in Numbers 21:17. They start desiring water. We know that water is a picture of the Holy Spirit! For the sake of application: As they got it right with God and experience His presence in their life He became what they desired. They had joy as evident by their singing! Then water is granted to them! The order here is beautiful! Getting right with God leads to the bestowment of the Holy Spirit in your life! Dear Christian, if you have been complaining against God or His man get it right! Confess and ask for God's forgiveness. One day spent in the sweet presence of God and nothing else will do it for you! Truly His presence is sweet! All that complaining and how dirty you feel inside can't compare with how great you feel living in the presence of God!

God's Will Left Undone . . . Still Needs to Be Done!

As I read Numbers 14 today that's all I could think, SERIOUSLY?! Haven't you Israelites learned???????? What is up with that!

1. First they desire to be in Egypt.

2. God sends a plague.

3. Then they complain.

4. Then they criticize God's man. God punishes them!

5. Then God tells them to go up and possess Canaan - because of their complaining and criticizing they are left fearful and don't.

6. A, as we would say today, A Drama unfolds! The 12 come back, 2 with the good report, 10 with the bad. The people want to make a new captain to get them back to Egypt.

7. The 2 realize the people are rebelling against God, not man. (In leadership that's hard, but we must realize when people sin, it is not against us, but ultimately against God!)

8. The people desire to stone Moses

9. God steps in and says, (I'm paraphrasing) "Let me at them, I'm going to make a greater nation than this!"

10. Moses reminds God something we as humans can't seem to grasp - it's not how you start that will be remembered but how you finish! Moses tells God you brought them out to kill them?! How will that look to everyone? They won't think God can do what He says He will do!

11. Then Moses reminds God of Himself in Numbers 14:18, how God is long suffering, of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; how He doesn't clear the guilty.

12. And Moses asks God to forgive the people according to His greatness of mercy. I just love that phrase - according to His greatness of Mercy! Truly God has greatness of mercy towards me and all my continued sinfulness! Then in Psalms 90:14 (Today was the day I've been waiting for, reading chronologically - they linked a Psalms with a passage!) Psalms 90:14 says, "O satisfy us early with they mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."

13. God decides that the people can't go into Canaan and they'll have to wander in the wilderness.

14. God kills the 10 who led the people away from His man!

15. The people mourn the death of these wicked, sinful men who led them astray! I have personally seen this happen in nowadays! It is sad to see. . . .

16. Then something interesting happens . . . I don't know if the people couldn't or more than likely they WOULDN'T see . . . that they had sinned. Instead of repenting and asking God to forgive them, and then accepting the consequences they decide they are going to have God's way now. Numbers 14: 40 says, "And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned." NO! You can't! There's consequences but after they decide what they are going to do THEN they admit they have sinned! HUH?! It's like the lady who marries the man who her parents told her not to . . . but she's going to have her own way. Then she tries to get God in on the thing. She produces children and they are all failing but she's still trying to get God in on the thing! Should she divorce her husband, NO. She should confess her wrong, accept the consequences and seek God's best for her life. Often though when we've sinned we don't and the problem is in the next few verses!

17. The man of God, the preacher if you will, warns them to NOT go up! You're not going to prosper! Go not up, you're enemies are going to smite you! When God's man warns you listen to him! Don't do as the Israelites did in verses 41 - 43. . . .

18. "But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp." They went their own way, did their own thing, thought they were serving God and didn't even realize the power of God, the Source of the Strength and the man of God, the leader did NOT go with them! And guess what?!

19. "Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah." THen something super neat happens:

20. Nunbers 15: 1, 2 They come back and God doesn't deal with their stupidity! Maybe He knew they learned their lesson, maybe He knew they weren't going to heed on this . . . they had reached their line in the sand and weren't going to cross it, not get it right with Him! He could have still possibly let them go into Canaan supposing they had gotten totally right with Him but they decide to go their own way and they refuse to get it right! So God stops dealing with them about it and instead tells them that when they finally do get to Canaan they are to offer sacrifices. Just because you haven't done God's will doesn't mean you shouldn't! They were never going to get to go to Canaan, but God was preparing the way for the next generation. The next generation was going to have to accomplish what God had given them to do! People don't leave God's will undone in your life and expect the next generation to pick up the slack. Build a foundation for them. Let them stand on your shoulders.

There are so many parallels to be drawn from this passage for our own life! Things like,

1. Don't complain!

2. As God's man follows God, you follow God's man!

3. We are reminded of God's greatness of mercy in our own life!

4. Don't try to substitute the will of God in your life with your own way of doing things! IT DOESN'T WORK!

5. Lastly, when God has given you something to do and you haven't done it and you seem to be wandering in circles in the wilderness or completely stopped, go back to the last place you said No and get it right with God! Confess, repent and change your direction!

We could get all high and mighty and think what stupid people these Israelites were but I have a sneaky suspicion that there are others who are currently or have lived this out. Some are headed for the wilderness . . . some are in the wilderness. Some are headed to the top of the mountain about to be smote and discomfited by the enemy! Let these people teach you! Don't make the mistake they made!