August 29, 2008 6:02 AM
Sam wrote:
Cloud by day, fire in the cloud by night. That's how God 'guided' the Israelites back then. How does He do that for us today? I believe the 'signs' of the times have definitely changed. I see no 'physical' presence of God (except in the obvious nature around me). I believe He does it today by providing us with the Bible, Christian friends and circumstances. Obviously the Bible is a great 'cloud' to follow (cloud??? Yup, kinda hazy a lot of the time), and from our Christian friends we get good leadership through counselling each other. The circumstances, I believe, are what God places in front of us, not necessarily to TEST us, but to help us grow. Yes, God IS around us, but just not so visible as a cloud----unless of course, we take time to look around and see what He HAS given us in our day to day lives from which He guides us. Reply to this
August 29, 2008 7:17 AM
rik wrote:
Psalm 40 This is a good one! well they are all good ones so I guess you guy already knew that. David covers his understanding of what God did for him, his need for grace, his desire to proclaim Gods greatness to all, and not letting his enemies hold him back. I like how he ends it with: Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay. Do we think of our selves as poor and needy or as good and comfortable? Do we cry out to God that we can do nothing without HIm? I do not, often enough, thank GOd for all he has done for me, all the shame, hurt, violence, hatred, (the list goes on and on) that he has spared me from, by allowing me into his grace, by the blood of Christ, I have had His strength to carry me through. Without it I am confident I would be divorced, not have a solid relationship with my children, the drugs, and alcohol abuse I have been spared from, like I said the list goes on and on. I am so grateful to my God and my Savior for all he has done. Reply to this
August 29, 2008 11:37 AM
Rich wrote:
I wanted to just share an experience with you all. On Tuesday, I was in a car accident. It happened in the morning while taking the kids to school. It was raining very hard. Making a left turn, I turned in front of an oncoming car. I did not see the car at all when I began my turn. Then I saw headlights through the pouring rain, but it was too late. I tried to speed up and swerve, but I was not quick enough. The other car hit me on the passenger rear side just behind the back wheel.
Fortunately no one was hurt in the accident. Other than being scared, both of my children were fine. The lady driving the other car was initially pinned behind her airbag, but she was able to get out of the car and walk around. We talked for a few minutes in the rain. Both of us were able to drive our cars away after the accident report.
I was given a ticket for failure to yield. All day Tuesday, I was angry - at God, at the rain, at the other person, at myself, at anything I could think of. I did not have a good day. I also had a hard time falling asleep on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, I decided to start praying about the accident and as I prayed I finally got to a point where I began to thank God for the accident. I am thankful that God protected us from a more serious event. Just a few seconds difference and the other car would have hit my car where my son was sitting. I am thankful that the person in the other car was not hurt. I am thankful that I got a ticket, because the truth is, I deserved it. I turned into oncoming traffic and I was wrong. I am thankful that I learned a lesson that I was able to pass on to my wife and children. After my prayer time, I talked about my convictions with my wife (who, by the way, told me that I needed to change my attitude on Tuesday). She told me to share with the kids. I did so at breakfast on Wednesday.
On the way to school on Wednesday, we passed another accident. Later that day, my son found out that someone was killed in the accident. Between that event and what I told him I was now feeling, he also started telling others how grateful he was that God protected us in our accident. Also, last night my daughter told me that she wrote a paper in one of her classes. The topic she chose was learning from mistakes. She wrote about learning from what seem like bad events (essentially, me learning from the accident).
I write this not to tell you about anything good that I did. It took me 24 hours to get a good heart about everything. I still worry about the ticket fine, insurance rate increase and getting the car fixed. My amazement is in how my kids and wife reacted to me being humble. My wife has bragged to several people about the talk I had with the kids. And to see both of my kids take something from this is amazing.
God is awesome. He protects us at all times. Our job is to find gold linings in all events. Difficult, but possible. Reply to this
August 30, 2008 6:07 AM
Tony wrote:
Great lesson on humility and thankfulness. Your accident could have been much worse as you stated, you think that you sped up to avoid, maybe you did maybe you didn't, but God is in control. Glad you are all safe.Kids learn from all that we do. Be aggravated that you had an accident and as they grow they will be the same way. Be great full that it was not worse and they will see your character. Reply to this
August 29, 2008 11:51 AM
Rich wrote:
I grew up catholic. Not sure if anyone else did, but what is described in this chapter sounds so very much like the tabernacle where the host and wine (what catholics call the body and blood of christ) are kept. I was an 'altar boy' as a kid. I remember services similar to what is described here. There was a special separate altar with a tabernacle (I think that is what we called it) that was treated with extreme reverence. I remember being told as a kid that God existed (lived) in the tabernacle in the church.
If my memory is correct, this is scary. The catholics seem to have kept many, many OT customs. Priest, garments, holy places, altars, tabernacles, God's presence in a special place (church), etc. Is this consistent with Jesus? With a personal savior? Is it possible to have the altar/sacrifice system and still have Jesus as your Lord and savior?
Still, it is interesting to me how easy it is for me to fall back into customs. To me, this is a warning to be sure that my faith is MY faith and my actions are what I want to do as opposed to what someone else tells me. Reply to this
Cloud by day, fire in the cloud by night. That's how God 'guided' the Israelites back then. How does He do that for us today? I believe the 'signs' of the times have definitely changed. I see no 'physical' presence of God (except in the obvious nature around me). I believe He does it today by providing us with the Bible, Christian friends and circumstances. Obviously the Bible is a great 'cloud' to follow (cloud??? Yup, kinda hazy a lot of the time), and from our Christian friends we get good leadership through counselling each other. The circumstances, I believe, are what God places in front of us, not necessarily to TEST us, but to help us grow. Yes, God IS around us, but just not so visible as a cloud----unless of course, we take time to look around and see what He HAS given us in our day to day lives from which He guides us.
Reply to this
Psalm 40
This is a good one! well they are all good ones so I guess you guy already knew that. David covers his understanding of what God did for him, his need for grace, his desire to proclaim Gods greatness to all, and not letting his enemies hold him back. I like how he ends it with:
Yet I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.
Do we think of our selves as poor and needy or as good and comfortable? Do we cry out to God that we can do nothing without HIm? I do not, often enough, thank GOd for all he has done for me, all the shame, hurt, violence, hatred, (the list goes on and on) that he has spared me from, by allowing me into his grace, by the blood of Christ, I have had His strength to carry me through. Without it I am confident I would be divorced, not have a solid relationship with my children, the drugs, and alcohol abuse I have been spared from, like I said the list goes on and on. I am so grateful to my God and my Savior for all he has done.
Reply to this
Good thoughts.
Guess you didn't like to comment/learn/teach from Exodus anymore?
Reply to this
I wanted to just share an experience with you all. On Tuesday, I was in a car accident. It happened in the morning while taking the kids to school. It was raining very hard. Making a left turn, I turned in front of an oncoming car. I did not see the car at all when I began my turn. Then I saw headlights through the pouring rain, but it was too late. I tried to speed up and swerve, but I was not quick enough. The other car hit me on the passenger rear side just behind the back wheel.
Fortunately no one was hurt in the accident. Other than being scared, both of my children were fine. The lady driving the other car was initially pinned behind her airbag, but she was able to get out of the car and walk around. We talked for a few minutes in the rain. Both of us were able to drive our cars away after the accident report.
I was given a ticket for failure to yield. All day Tuesday, I was angry - at God, at the rain, at the other person, at myself, at anything I could think of. I did not have a good day. I also had a hard time falling asleep on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, I decided to start praying about the accident and as I prayed I finally got to a point where I began to thank God for the accident. I am thankful that God protected us from a more serious event. Just a few seconds difference and the other car would have hit my car where my son was sitting. I am thankful that the person in the other car was not hurt. I am thankful that I got a ticket, because the truth is, I deserved it. I turned into oncoming traffic and I was wrong. I am thankful that I learned a lesson that I was able to pass on to my wife and children. After my prayer time, I talked about my convictions with my wife (who, by the way, told me that I needed to change my attitude on Tuesday). She told me to share with the kids. I did so at breakfast on Wednesday.
On the way to school on Wednesday, we passed another accident. Later that day, my son found out that someone was killed in the accident. Between that event and what I told him I was now feeling, he also started telling others how grateful he was that God protected us in our accident. Also, last night my daughter told me that she wrote a paper in one of her classes. The topic she chose was learning from mistakes. She wrote about learning from what seem like bad events (essentially, me learning from the accident).
I write this not to tell you about anything good that I did. It took me 24 hours to get a good heart about everything. I still worry about the ticket fine, insurance rate increase and getting the car fixed. My amazement is in how my kids and wife reacted to me being humble. My wife has bragged to several people about the talk I had with the kids. And to see both of my kids take something from this is amazing.
God is awesome. He protects us at all times. Our job is to find gold linings in all events. Difficult, but possible.
Reply to this
Great lesson on humility and thankfulness. Your accident could have been much worse as you stated, you think that you sped up to avoid, maybe you did maybe you didn't, but God is in control. Glad you are all safe.Kids learn from all that we do. Be aggravated that you had an accident and as they grow they will be the same way. Be great full that it was not worse and they will see your character.
Reply to this
I grew up catholic. Not sure if anyone else did, but what is described in this chapter sounds so very much like the tabernacle where the host and wine (what catholics call the body and blood of christ) are kept. I was an 'altar boy' as a kid. I remember services similar to what is described here. There was a special separate altar with a tabernacle (I think that is what we called it) that was treated with extreme reverence. I remember being told as a kid that God existed (lived) in the tabernacle in the church.
If my memory is correct, this is scary. The catholics seem to have kept many, many OT customs. Priest, garments, holy places, altars, tabernacles, God's presence in a special place (church), etc. Is this consistent with Jesus? With a personal savior? Is it possible to have the altar/sacrifice system and still have Jesus as your Lord and savior?
Still, it is interesting to me how easy it is for me to fall back into customs. To me, this is a warning to be sure that my faith is MY faith and my actions are what I want to do as opposed to what someone else tells me.
Reply to this