Tuesday, January 10th, 2006
A Study on Love – Edition #7
The three things:
- Is there a fact to believe here?
- Is there a promise to trust?
- Is there a command to obey?
Wow, yesterday was a great day. I end my tour of duty with yet another school and I get to CR for the first time in almost seven months. And it was stellar to be there again. Today I was supposed to have lunch with a good friend and it fell through, actually rescheduled to tomorrow. So then I go to get our oil changed and the place where I went appears to be closed. As in for good… so I took a situation from bummer to great and visited with Jenny’s family, since they were just around the corner and I used a good portion of gas to get there, I may as well make the most of it. And a ton of good news – but I won’t share… so, I am trying to make the most of a great situation, with midweek being on both Wednesday and Thursday this week… I am not sure what to do with all this. Maybe my wife and I will alternate every other week until we can figure the whole mess out. I guess it’s a conflict between wants and needs. I guess my motto of late has been “I don’t have to do anything, but I want to…” and it makes sense in my mind. It has been motivation for sin throughout the ages of my life. I don’t have to sin, but I want to. “I don’t have to help the guy stuck on the side of the road, but I want to.” Now, I want both my wife and I to go to midweek. I don’t know if it is necessarily a need, but I want us to be there. And the funny thing, I get emails day in and day out for people wanting my money, donate here, donate there… come preach in India. Let me use your bank account to transfer my money to the US so I can make a new life… I love the last one… I mean, really? My phone number is not unlisted… call me and let’s have a dialogue, really. They say for me to email my bank account number… really? I don’t know if it’s a scam, but if it is, I don’t have any money to be scammed out of…
Numbers 14:10-25
10 But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. 11 The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they."
13 Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O LORD, are with these people and that you, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 'The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.'
17 "Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.' 19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now."
20 The LORD replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times- 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. 25 Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea."
WOW-E-WOW, Batman, that is some stuff. Contempt is a noun and can be defined as a feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless; scorn and a state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace. Now the Israelites held God in contempt… they refused to believe in him, even after seeing one amazing thing after another. And even before Jesus came to earth and bat hit after hit for us… probably had more hits than Pete Rose… Moses was there going to bat for his fellow man. Now, if that isn’t love, then I don’t know what is. Moses’ love for the guys who, as noted, wanted to stone him, was so great that he was willing to look past that to save their very lives, or at least prolong it. He even got God to forgive them their sins… they still felt the punishment for disobeying God… but the thing that strikes me most interesting is the one and the same as what happened at the U2 concert last October. Moses had the guts to ask… the kid in the audience had the guts to ask Bono to play, Moses had the guts to ask God to forgive people who really weren’t seeking forgiveness. Do I love my fellow man enough to ask for forgiveness of such great sins? Acts 7 describes Stephen and his heart… but the part that gets me is the end of it all.
Acts 7:54-60
54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Stephen, as he was being killed, asked for the forgiveness of those killing him. HOW BOLD IS THAT? I don’t know if I will ever be put in that position, but I hope that if I ever do, that I can have that kind of love. That is the love I desire… I may do this or that right, but I don’t do nearly enough right to call myself a lover of all people. I think God’s love is abounding (existing in abundance), but I don’t think that I show it as much as I should… maybe I am slow of heart or prideful of mind, but whatever it is, if I am to be an example (something to be imitated) of Christ, then I need to be loving more toward others or all types. Johnny Out.
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