Miriam

…the woman conceived, and bare a son:

and when she saw him that he was a goodly child,

she hid him three months.

And when she could not longer hide him,

she took for him an ark of bulrushes,

and daubed it with slime and with pitch,

and put the child therein;

and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

The baby, of course, is Moses. But what of his sister, the girl not yet grown, who rescued her brother? How did she know to watch what would become of him? And how did she know just the right words to say to Pharaoh’s daughter? In such perilous times, the wrong words would mean death to her entire family. An unworthy Hebrew could be punished for even speaking to Pharaoh’s daughter. Yet this child had the wisdom to know when to wait, and when to speak and what to say, and who to say it to.

This girl becomes Miriam, the Prophetess. Lineage through the male line is recorded generation after generation. The society of the time was very patriarchal, and women are rarely mentioned, unless they have a role in the story. But Miriam is given status similar to her two brothers, Moses and Aaron:

Num 26.59 Jochebed… bare unto Amram

Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

I Chr 6.3 And the children of Amram;

Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam.

Mic 6.4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,

and redeemed thee out of the house of servants;

and I sent before thee

Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

Miriam knew how to listen to God, and to obey God when He directed her to speak. There is a difference in speaking your own knowledge of God’s Word to others and speaking forth the words God gives a prophetess to speak forth for a specific time and audience. Miriam also made mistakes, showing us that even someone who enjoys the favor of God must continue in obedience.

Name Calling

W. C. Fields said, “It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.” Too often we answer to names that do not reflect what God says about us. Too often we accept the judgments of others about our worth. Your boss can judge the quality of your work, but he cannot be the judge of you as a person. If you speak, the listener can judge the clarity of your words, but cannot judge the intent in your mind. Your spouse can judge your actions within a godly marriage, but not the inclination of your heart. Only God may judge these things.

More to the point, how do you think of yourself? Do you accept the judgments of your boss, your audience, your spouse? Accept only their comments on your actions, and take them as constructive criticism, but do not accept any judgments they make about your value to God. In His eyes, you are of inestimable worth. Didn’t He send His Son to die for you? Then how valuable does God think you are? Accept His judgment of your worth.

Broken Pots

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be of God,
and not of us.

Have you heard the story about the water carrier’s two pots? Each pot hung on the end of a pole that she carried over her shoulders. One pot was perfect and watertight, but the other was cracked, and always leaked as it was carried home. After a long time of perceived failure, the cracked pot spoke to the woman and said “I am ashamed of myself, because the crack causes water to leak out all the way home, and I am only half full.”

The woman replied: “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, and not on the other pot’s side? I know about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and everyday you water them. If you did not leak, the flowers could not grow.”

Like the cracked pot, we are imperfect. But God knows that. And He says that our weakness reveals the power of God. If we were perfect, how would we ever recognize the power of God? How could we ever truly appreciate His power, unless we are weak?

There are two sides to this truth. One is that we need not be perfect, or very strong or very learned to work effectively for God. After all, it’s not our strength or knowledge that will accomplish His purpose. The other is that when we do God’s will, and the result is perfect, the credit must go to God. So we know that by doing God’s will while being weak, we glorify God. We should be glad that we are broken pots.

Who Do You Choose?

We go to school and learn about great men and women: the Presidents of this country, the explorers who discovered new lands, the scientific pioneers. And we’ve all seen those essay questions: “Write about someone you admire, someone you look up to”, or “Who has shaped your life and made you think about who you are as a human being?”. And we’ve seen the people chosen as our heroes: the sports figure, the rebel, the movie star.

But really, are these the people we remember? Maybe you admire the wealth of one person, the fame and adulation given to another. Maybe you’d like that, too. It would be nice to be rich and admired, flattered and envied. Life would be so easy. Life would be so smooth and good.

Ha. Did you remember that you are a Christian? Who did you choose to be Lord in your life? Who is there when the times get tough? Who really did something for you, if not the Lord Jesus Christ? Who is someone to admire and to emulate, if not our Savior?

Praise God

O God, thou art my God;
early will I seek thee:
my soul thirsteth for thee,
my flesh longeth for thee in a dry
and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory,
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
Because thy lovingkindness is better than life,
my lips shall praise thee.
Thus will I bless thee while I live:
I will lift up my hands in thy name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness;
and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
When I remember thee upon my bed,
and meditate on thee in the night watches.
Because thou hast been my help,
therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

Travis

I try to take good care of Travis. He is fed grain twice a day, with hay in the winter and grass in the summer. When it is very cold, I carry warm water out to the barn, so it will stay drinkable longer. His summer pasture has a brook with fresh cool water and trees for shade. He has a barn for shelter on rainy nights. But Travis does not always appreciate my efforts to take care of him. This morning I found him standing in the driveway admiring my car. He broke the fence again during the day, and was standing in the yard waiting for me to come home this afternoon. Because he broke the fence in the back and then circled around to the front, he was blocked from his food, water and shelter all day.

In the summer, I move him from one pasture to another, depending on where the grass is best. But he doesn’t always want to change pastures. He will try to return to the overgrazed pasture and reject the better one. And in the winter he will sometimes stand out in the wind and rain and snow, refusing to go into the shelter of the barn. So often my efforts to give him the best grass I can find, the best food and water, the best shelter I have, are rejected. Travis is the one who goes without, or stands in the rain; he is the one who rejects the best I offer.

With a horse, you can override the rejections. I can fix the fence and put Travis on the side with the food and water. I can put him in the barn on a rainy night, and close the door. I can lead him to grass, and shut the gate behind him. But God will not override our rejections. If we reject Him or what He offers, we are the ones who go without. God will not force us to accept His goodness. He will lead us to grassy pastures, but he won’t shut the gate behind us. We must choose to stay where God leads us.

Pastors

And I will give you pastors according to mine heart,
which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

The office of a pastor is one of the commonest and yet most undervalued ministries in the Church. Pastors have been at work for God’s people from the beginning. One of the first uses of this word is in Genesis, talking about the herdsmen who care for the flocks. The same word is also translated “to feed”, as it is in the verse above. Only in a few places is this word translated “pastor”. This shows the close association between the herdsman who watches over the flock and the pastor who watches over the church.

The job of a herdsman seems so simple. The flock grazes while the herdsman watches. The flock eats their own grass, no one cuts it for them. They live outdoors, no barn needed. So the herdsman brings the flock to water once a day, and back to the pasture, and the rest of the time he just sits around, right?

Well, not really. Did you know that sheep are stupid? That they will wander away from the herd and get themselves lost? That they will put themselves in dangerous places, and resist when you try to help? That they are defenseless against predators, knowing only enough to bleat and run in circles? The good shepherd who watches a flock does much more than watch. He watches with vigilance. He notices when a sheep wanders. He keeps lookout for predators, and is prepared to fight the lion and the wolf. He even cares for the sheep who try to run away from his helping hands.

Baby sheep are especially vulnerable. The mothers often leave the flock to birth their lambs; and they also leave the protection of the shepherd. The shepherd must follow the ewe, to protect her and to help in the birth. The shepherd is often needed to assist in the birth or bottle feed a lamb rejected by the mother. Lambs are fragile and mortality is high; sometimes as many as half die, even when the shepherd is there, caring for the lamb.

So are the pastors of the church who care for the people. So often we reject the wisdom and protection of the pastor, who wants to feed the people of the church with knowledge and understanding. But the good pastor, just like the good herdsman, will feed his sheep, watch with vigilance, be prepared to fight wolves and lions, and nurture the young until they can join the flock and stand on their own.

Lying Signs and Wonders

For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up
and perform great miraculous signs and wonders so as to deceive,
if possible, even God's chosen ones.
If therefore they tell you,
'Behold, he is in the wilderness,' don't go out;
'Behold, he is in the inner chambers,' don't believe it.

People through every age search for God. They search for His Presence. They search for evidence that He is really there, and that He really cares about us. People who search are people who yearn to believe. But people who yearn to believe may be fooled. Advertising works because people want to believe the benefits of the product. Spam continues to exist because people think the promises just might be true. But these are false hopes. You won’t look 10 pounds thinner if you buy their shampoo. You won’t get $10,000 for cashing a foreign check.

In the spiritual, false hopes and promises in the form of lying signs and wonders surround us. The false hopes and promises are not of God, but are of the adversary, sent to lure us away from the True. Look at the characteristics of a shyster: he gives you the promise of a large reward for little or no effort. The false promise is delivered with a “wow you” style: color, noise, a stream of talk with no chance to question, with an immediate pressure for you to make a decision. Remember that lying signs and wonders are shown to us with the purpose of taking us away from the Truth of God’s Word.

True signs and wonders follow the Word. This means that the signs and wonders come second, after the Word. Sometimes very little Word is needed for a miracle, but it will be there. This means that there is a growth process in seeing signs and wonders. The Word is the seed, our belief in a reliable God grows out of that seed. Don’t be deceived by the razzle-dazzle of lying signs and wonders, but lean on the sure hope in God’s Word.

Seek and Find

Seek, and ye shall find.

I have contact lenses, the hard, old fashioned kind. Over a 35+ year period, I’ve dropped quite a few. But I’ve only lost 5 or 6. I have dropped, and found, a dropped contact in a radiator unit, a parking lot and the luggage compartment of a greyhound bus. I’ve found one in my hair (when it was long), in a shirt pocket (how did it get there?), and the floor (because I heard it hit).

Why are some people successful in finding things (the passage to India, the North Pole, the source of the Nile), and others are not? The obvious answer is that some people just looked harder, persisted longer, than others. But why? Why do some people spend so much time and effort looking for something that seems so uncertain to the rest of us?

When you know that something is there, and you know that you just have to persist until it is uncovered, you will find what you look for. People who are certain that there is no God rarely find Him. People who believe that the Bible is myths will not find the Truth in it. People who know that there is a God, and that He cares for and has provided for us, will search until He is found.

Who Cares What God Thinks?

Do you care what God thinks? Do you care what He thinks or says about you?

HE says YOU are:

Justified by faith
Have Access into Grace
Righteous
Sanctified
His Ambassador
Seated in the Heavenlies
Lights of the World
Sons of God
Accepted in the Beloved
Saved by Grace
His Workmanship
Heirs of the Promise

And this is the short list. There's alot more. These are the things that Gods says and thinks about you, the believer. You aren't going to tell God he's wrong, are you? Or that He's got His timing all wrong or maybe He thought you were someone else? These statements are all past tense; these are all accomplished, all done. These are not future maybes; they describe you, right now.

OK, so you don't feel like a Light of the World? Too bad, you are anyway, no matter what your feelings are. But there may be room for improvement. Now that you are a Light, what can you do to make it shine a little brighter? You are also His Ambassador. Keep that in mind the next time someone near you needs God. What would God say to that person? You are His Ambassador, so go ahead and say it. This is within the range of anyone. You and I both can be a little better tomorrow than we are today.


My thanks to the pastors of Dummer Community Church, Dummer, New Hampshire for speaking forth the inspiration for this message today.

To conform, or not?

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?
Prudent, and he shall know them?
for the ways of the Lord are right,
and the just shall walk in them:
but the transgressors shall fall therein.

Humankind is an illogical combination of rebellion and conformity. We value the person who can stand on his own and is brave enough to try something new. The sailing captain, the cowboy on the range, the research scientist, are all seen as innovators who break new ground and show us all a new, better way.

And we also pressure our peers to conform. We gossip and whisper about someone who wears clothing just a little out of style. The person who likes opera or brussel sprouts is seen as odd.

Some concepts seem similar, but are really quite different. In the verse above, the transgressor is someone who is in rebellion, who breaks away from God’s way. And the prudent are people who separate themselves and stand apart. The difference is that the transgressor separates himself from God, and the prudent stands away from anything that is not of God. Independence is good, if we have the resolve to stay away from evil. Conformity is good, if we conform to God’s desires.

Lies Revealed

A false witness shall not be unpunished,
and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.

Ever hear someone say that “you can’t cheat an honest man”? An honest man can’t be cheated because he expects to pay fair price for his purchases. He doesn’t expect to achieve his goals through a cheat or a shortcut or a scam. If you offer him a “deal too good to be true”, he won’t fall for it. If you try to trip him up with a lie, he won’t go along, and the trap will fail.

The innocence of a child so often reveals the truth. The child does not accept the “white lie” and so speaks out the truth. Remember the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes?

The truth reveals a lie for what it is. Truth cannot be concealed. Lies, innuendo and misdirection can obscure the truth. They can direct your attention away from the truth. But like a magician who does tricks before an audience, the truth is still there. Lies produce more lies, and eventually the lies become too many. They fall like boxes piled too high.

God tells us to walk the straight way, to be fair, even when others are not.

Give, and it shall be given unto you;
Good measure, pressed down,
and shaken together, and running over,
shall men give into your bosom.
For with the same measure that ye mete
withal it shall be measured to you again.

Look

Stand at the crossroads and look;
Ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is,
and walk in it, and you will
find rest for your souls.

When we are new to God, new in our life as Christians, we look to the guidance of our elders. Here though, is one of the paradoxes of God. We are told to be children, and yet mature; to be innocent as doves, but wise as serpents. How is this possible?

We should be children who follow our Father, and trust Him above all others. We should be mature in our knowledge of His Word, so that we know His plan for us. We should be innocent in our daily walk, neither committing wrongs nor condemning them in others. We are to be wise as serpents, because we live in a wicked and deceptive world, and there are many who will try to deceive us.

The daily walk requires an effort, a constant vigilance. At every crossroad of your life, look, and see that you have a choice. Ask God for direction to the good way. He will lead you, through your conscience or through your knowledge of His Word or by speaking to your heart. And when the good way is shown to you, take it. Go the way that God shows you, and you will have rest.

Worship Is Not Enough

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying,
Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence;
and let them go and dwell there,
and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
Then one of the priests whom they had carried away
from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel,
and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

Samaria was conquered by the Assyrians, and the worship of their gods was brought in. But the land was afflicted with lions:

…the LORD sent lions among them, which slew…

So the Samarians sent to the King, and he commended that a priest should be sent to teach the people the way of the God of that land. The people of Samaria worshipped God, but their worship was rejected by God, because they did not abandon the worship of other gods, and they did not obey His statutes. They worshipped God, but worship alone is not enough. God requires that we worship Him alone, and also that we obey Him in our daily walk.

And Samuel said,
Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams.