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!

Are You a Complainer?

Please don't think I'm being judgmental with that question, it is aimed right at my heart but knowing people, I'm kinda figuring that there is at least one other person on the face of this planet that is also a complainer. So, as this is not aimed at you, but at me, if it manages to find it's way to you I hope it will do you some good just as it did me!

Here is a picture, taken from my wonderful iPhone, don't you just love how crisp the picture is? Thank you again to my wonderful husband for my wonderful birthday gift . . . truly it is the gift that keeps on giving. Every day I use it I love him for it! Ok back to the picture! This was yesterday's page.

Everyday is different. I've only had one day that I didn't put something down, but I'm pretty sure my bad attitude had a lot to do with that. Some days, it's very little, some days it's . . . well a picture is worth a thousand words!

Yes, I feel like I should have used a red pen today to represent all the blood pouring out of my sinful body from being so cut up by this wonderful King James Bible! The whole thing, all three chapters kept forcing me to realize what a complaining tongue I have! It's shameful! I'll highlight some of the things in case it's really hard to read this page.

1. In Numbers 11:1 it says, "And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost part of the camp." It is interesting to not that even though the fire burnt among them, it only consumed those on the fringe.

a. Don't be a fringe person. Get in and commit to your church. Be %157 person of a christian! In every way, every day be ALL God wants you to be! Read your Bible, Be faithful to church, Give your tithe and above, Pray, Witness, Help those around you for Christ's sake!

b. If you are %157 christian don't complain killing those who are the fringe. I think one of the most destructive things I've seen since being in the ministry is people on the inside complaining and those who are considering coming to church or getting involved dropping out completely. If you have a position in the church, even if it's only being the pianist, don't complain. Support the pastor NOT just with lip service but with your actions. Realize that yes, he and his wife ARE human, allow them to make mistakes. Realize that it's taking you a LOT longer to get where you need to be and they have to put up with a LOT of your mistakes, quietly and sweetly. They make ONE major mistake and that's it, no more, you refuse to listen to them! SHAME on you! Have you even looked in the mirror? Let your pastor and his wife influence you. Yes, see how God works in their lives, in spite of their flaw and even through their flaws!

2. Numbers 11:11 I wonder how many leaders have ever felt as Moses felt? "And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favor in they sight, that thou latest the burden of all this people on me?" We can get all self-righteous here and think, Wow Moses, why would you even say this about the job God has given you! But this verse also begs the question as a follower how many times have I made the leader feel this way? Don't make the leader regret serving God! If you are currently complain, spreading strife, not following, then STOP!

3. Numbers 11:14-17 I love what Moses says here: "I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me." I love what God does here. He doesn't say, that's it, you're done, when Moses realized he couldn't do it alone! God give his 70 men who follow Moses. God allows Moses to transfer his leadership, vision and burden to these men. This does two things, it gives Moses a break, and it multiplies Moses' influence! We need to realize that we can do nothing on our own and truly it is ALL God and nothing of us!

4. Numbers 11:21-23 The people are complaining for meat and God says they are going to get some. Moses asks if they are going to have to kill all their flocks or hater all the fish and God asks Moses an important question, "Is the Lord's hand waxed short?" You know, we still serve the same God today that Moses served. Do you have an impossible task ahead of you? Is his hand shortened? There is a passage and I couldn't find it that talks specifically about his hand not being shortened or else I'm hallucinating and it was a sermon I heard once but anyways, I didn't find two verses that talking about the Lord's hand, Philippians 4:5 says, "The Lord is at hand." and Psalms 16:8 says, "I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." God's hand is NOT shortened! He still provides! but . . .

5. I think this is so sad. One thing I determined as a teenager that I wanted to learn from my mistakes the FIRST time and because I was going to make so many in my life time I wanted to learn from ones from those I come into contact with kinda figuring I could save time and not have to make this mistakes as well! But here you find, first part of Numbers 11 that they are complaining and God sends a fire that consumes the fringe people . . . but the people don't learn! They continue to complain for meat and God hears them and He gives them what they THINK they want. He gives them quail and it talks about how greedy these people were filling up on quail and piling it up! As they are chewing and the quail is between their teeth God sends a plague killing those who lusted after the quail! 1st lesson, Don't complain, 2nd lesson, Don't continue to complain!

6. I think Numbers 12:3-10 is important to note, God takes it VERY seriously when you speak against HIS man! Miriam is given leprosy and put out of the camp fro 7 days. The whole camp was stopped for 7 days while they waited for Miriam. If you dare to complain about God's man He does hear and He will take care of you! But not just you, you could hinder a WHOLE group of people from being able to move forward! I have witnessed several occasions where people have complained about my husband and God has struck them that day, the very next day, and often within that same weak, with CRAZY stuff! Stuff they had been trying to get heeled and now permanently damaged. Stuff that they had never had problems with and BAM in the hospital! It is very serious to complain about God's man! He WILL deal with you! So if you are going to remember Miriam and just shut up!

WOW!!!! These whole three chapters were so convicting! All this complaining . . . they kept complaining and specifically had said they wanted the garlic, onions and fish they had had in Egypt. What is interesting to note was that it was LITERALLY just around the corner but instead they settle for quail. Then they have to wait 7 days for Miriam. The cleansing they had experience just a few chapters before was all gone. They had been spending their boldness complaining about God and what he was doing and about his man. Now they are faced with a REAL problem, not a perceived problem! And what do they do? They get scared. Complaining evidently leaves you weak and unable to fight the battles that WILL most definitely be brought in your life! I don't want to be like these Israelites. I want to learn from their mistakes and instead of complaints I want my mouth to be filled with praises for my God. Psalms 71:8 says, "Let my mouth be filled with they praise and with thy honor all the day." When our mouth is FILLED with God's praise, we won't have room for complaints!

The Trumpet of the Lord . . .

Yesterday I didn't get to my Bible reading until late last night. Between most of the night filled with a sick child, sleeping when they did into the late morning and errands that HAD to be run it was a long time. I was a little tired but very expectant to see what God had for me! In Numbers 9:10 God is giving some of the law and he says this, "And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies." Do you suppose they remembered this verse when they FINALLY got to Jericho and God tells them to walk around the walls for seven days and on the seventh day walk around seven times and on the last time blow trumpets and shout! Or do you suppose that Gideon tucked this little nugget away when he went to defeat the enemy. Here he was told, "Don't bring the strong, don't bring everyone and when you get there you get a lamp and a trumpet. You're going to break the lamp and blow the trumpet and that's it, you don't even need your sword." HUH?! I'll tell you this, if he did know this verse I'm sure it bolstered him to obey God because God gives a very clear promise here!

Now I know what your'e thinking, I don't go to war, not physically and if I do they don't use trumpets any more, it's called cell phones, walkie talkies, computers, etc. I know that! The principle here is, "Knowing God's promises makes us better equipped to obey His words!" God may have given you a strange task, i.e. "Go to a strange land, to a strange people, change your way of thinking, change your traditions, change who you are and spend your life telling people about God." A promise that would help you is "Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world", part of Matthew 28:19, 20. What about a strange task such as, "Even in this corrupt world, where Disney channel sets the standard of how children and teens should behave. Where television continually makes not just the father to be an idiot but the mother as well and that children are now becoming the saviors of their families, even amidst all this wickedness God wants you to raise your children, to love Him and to serve Him." Several verses come to mind, Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." or Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." or Proverbs 28:1 "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion."

Whatever God has given you to be or to do, don't despair, there is a promise in the Bible for you to claim, actually there are probably more than one! Go read your Bible and find them!

The Nazarite Call for All . . .

While reading in Numbers 6 today, I came across something Mr. Scofield said and then referenced . . . hold on because THIS is good!

In verse 2 we get introduced to a Nazarite. Scofield said, "There is a beautiful moral order in chapters 6 and 7: (Seperation 6:1-12) (Worship 6:13-21) (Blessing 6:22-27) and (Service 7:1-89)" . Then Mr. Scofield put this passage to reference, Hebrews 13:12-16. So I headed over there and rather than explain it and risk you looking it up in a wrong version I'm going to put it out here in the King James Version for you:

Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we not continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Don't you just love how the Bible fits together and when it commentates on itself so beautifully! We find a N.T. passage for us. I heard someone tell me just this week, "The Bible said such and such in the O.T. but I had to have a N.T. passage because I knew that didn't apply to me in the O.T.. So for all you . . . people who have been misled out there in thinking only the N.T. applies to you this Hebrews passage is your calling to be a Nazarite - in a sense!

God wants us to be separated from the world, living in the world but not of the world. He wants us to worship Him and as we do He will bless us. If we are living clean lives pleasing to the Lord that will bring His blessing. But that is not where it stops! We have too many people SITTING in our church pews getting clean and getting fat but not serving God. People WAKE UP . . . we need to serve God, that is key to pleasing Him! Don't do it half heartedly or on YOUR terms! Serve God with everything you have and in every way HE wants you to!

Numbers . . .

I'm reading my bible through chronologically this year . . . LOVING it! If you have never read your Bible through that way I highly recommend it! I am at the start of Numbers. I must confess, Leviticus, Numbers, and Dueteronomy, can get me down. Then you have Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations to look forward to, but something that has really helped me is as I've stated in earlier posts to read with a purpose, but also to read a study Bible. I'm currently reading a Scofield . . . the old one. Yes I have found a couple of occasions where I didn't agree with Mr. Scofield, but that keeps me sharp and makes me pay attention. On the whole he has been a great help. Did you realize that he was a pastor who designed this study Bible with his congregation in mind. As you read it you can definitely see the heart of the pastor coming through!

Yesterday I was in Numbers 4 and I was a little discouraged because the day before I was in Numbers 3 and didn't get ONE thing! Not one thing to write down . . . I was sad. I was also not paying attention and rushing through and it was all names so I read even quicker so I'm sure it wasn't my Bible's fault. But that did spur me to yesterday to pray and ask God to give me something as I read. I expectantly opened my Bible to Numbers 4 and guess what . . . MORE names! And it was all about take these people from 30 to 50 years old and number them. Takes so and so from 30 to 50 and number them. My heart cried out to God and said, Please speak to me . . . I can't take another day like yesterday and as I read something struck me.

There were people in there God named and gave them a very specific job. People like Kohath, Gershon, and Merari. He gave them jobs like putting up the curtain, taking it down. Insignificant jobs that no one would ever see! I saw in that chapter that God has a job for everyone. Some jobs are big and some are small. God has something for me and for you. And when you do that job for the Lord it is NOT insignificant. It is very important! Also though, if God has given you a job to do and you don't do it, it doesn't get done! You are the only one who can do the job that God has given you!

Wasn't that a blessing? I'm so thankful I didn't give up and stop reading! God wants to talk to us every day through his word, if we will only expect it and listen!