Tag: Blessing

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Women empowerment in the Old Testament.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat. She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by. ‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Many of these stories in both the Old and New Testament are people driven. Real people with real lives, names, history and problems. Sometimes, we are told these folks names, sometimes, as in this story, we are only told a few key facts. Jeremiah, the most likely author of 1st & 2nd Kings, tells us about a wealthy woman from Shunem. Later, we find out she is married but has no children. Where is Shumen? I had no idea. That’s like asking me “Where is the country of Djibouti!” It turns out that the location of this story is interesting and you can Google it.

What is more significant is this unnamed woman’s extraordinary experience with an emotionally detached Prophet (spokesperson of God) Elisha. Elisha often sends his assistant, Gehazi, to do most of the talking! This story, like the widow story just before it, is a woman empowerment story. This great woman as KJV translates, means she was a woman of great wealth. It is her idea to urge Elisha to stop in for a bite to eat, then in what’s known as radical hospitality, she tells her husband, this man is a “holy man” let’s (translated, I am going to do this) build him an upstairs ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit)! Elisha is moved by this remarkable blessing, to not just feed him but give him a personal quarters to have a place to rest, pray, and be on his way. He wants to bless her in return.

Elijah tells Gehazi to offer the normal, networking advantages that one would offer a friend, ”Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?” But she’s doing just fine on her own, she does not need the king for special treatment, nor some kind of protection from the king’s guard. Elisha still wants to bless this woman. So, Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can we do for her?” Gehazi replied, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.” Sure, there’s some assumptions made here, this married woman with no children can mean a lot of things. But one of the most glaring needs, who will care for her when she’s too old to care for herself? We already know her husband’s pretty old.

Elisha told her himself, next year when he returns, she will be holding a son! Her reply is honest and so sweet, “No, my Lord!” she cried. “O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.” Sure enough, a year later she had her son! As her son of promise grew older, he had a horrible episode while working in the field with his father. A servant took the young man home to die in his mother’s arms at noon.

It is here we find this woman’s assertive faith and determination to go and find Elisha and tell him that he was responsible for her son being given as a blessing! God granted the miracle to give life, so now in her mind, Elisha should be responsible to bring him back to life! Elisha tried to just send Gehazi, but she would not accept that, saying “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I won’t go home unless you go with me.” So Elisha returned with her.

In the moments of radical empathy, compassion and faith, Elisha prayed and God brought the boy back to life! Yes, these stories are about the amazing miracles of God, but they are also about the powerful, determination of women who had an unshakable faith in God.

Prayer

Dad,
I have come to learn through your word AND experience that simply asking for folks to pray as a last resort is an improper understanding of who you are, but also the serious undervaluing of the power of a mother’s or grandmother’s prayer. I now believe it should be our first priority! Do I have a huge need in my life? Then I should look for women of faith to not just join with me, but take the lead in assertive determination to reach heaven! Thank you for women of great faith. And, thank you for hearing their prayers!

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Does God have a sense of humor?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

….So Balak, king of Moab, sent messengers to call Balaam son of Beor, who was living in his native land of Pethor near the Euphrates River. His message said: “Look, a vast horde of people has arrived from Egypt. They cover the face of the earth and are threatening me. Please come and curse these people for me because they are too powerful for me. Then perhaps I will be able to conquer them and drive them from the land. I know that blessings fall on any people you bless, and curses fall on people you curse. ‭‭Numbers‬ ‭22‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

These feudal, tribal, clan-clashing are all throughout the Old Testament. Yet, at each inflection point there is always a person, or persons (in this case) that God uses to tell His story. Here we have the major characters, Balak, king of Moab, Balaam, a wicked prophet (Balaam was a pagan prophet who practiced divination and other magic arts, led Israel into apostasy, and was identified as a greedy, unscrupulous man by Peter and Jude ( 2 Peter 2:15 -16; Jude 1:11)) – oh and a donkey, Balaam’s ride.

Oh Moab, the nation that came out of Lot’s grandson via an incestuous relationship with Lot’s daughter, who remained unnamed. Moab’s king, Balak, thought it would be helpful to get a prophet, known for being a spokesperson for God, to CURSE Israel because he thought they were a threat to his kingdom. Balaam’s reputation must have been well known. Balaam turns down the offer to be paid to “basically” make up a curse from God. Balaam knew God would not curse his own people and told Balak it wouldn’t work.

Balaam seeks God and God answers, “don’t curse my people.” But king Balak is persistent and keeps upping the bribe money. God finally releases Balaam to go with the entourage from Balak, but forbid him to actually curse Israel. Balaam leaves for his journey but in-route an angel of the Lord blocks the path of the donkey. Balaam can’t see the angel, but his donkey can. God told Balaam he could go with the Moabite men, but God must have known that Balaam was toying with the idea of pronouncing this curse. This happens three times and each time, Balaam beats the animal for stopping and for embarrassing him.

After the third time God grants the donkey the ability to speak! The donkey talks! Come on – this is hilarious. The donkey and Balaam have a brief conversation on the trail! The donkey says, “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?” it asked Balaam. “You have made me look like a fool!” Balaam shouted. “If I had a sword with me, I would kill you!” “But I am the same donkey you have ridden all your life,” the donkey answered. “Have I ever done anything like this before?” “No,” Balaam admitted.”

This donkey-talk scene has captured so much attention as one of the most unusual but humorous parts of the Bible. Every kid going to Sunday School in the past would have heard about Balaam’s donkey! Feel free to insert your own donkey/ass jokes here. God commits three whole chapters in the book of Numbers to tell this story. And in this story, you’ll find a Messiah reference, an “easter egg” discovery of a mysterious mention of the future Messiah – Jesus (Num 24:17).

Sadly, even though Balaam does not curse Israel, in fact, he blesses them three times – Balaam does figure out how to trap Israel with their own lust and desires. Balaam advised the Moabites on how to entice the people MEN of Israel with prostitutes and idolatry. And, it worked. See it in Numbers 25:1-3. The men of Israel took the bait, believed the lie and gave into to their disordered desires. The results – God judge them and 24,000 people died from a plague.

The talking donkey was funny, but our sin and desires, causing us to disobey God is no joke. As a youth hearing this story, I was so focused on the donkey that I completely missed the fact that there is more than one way to curse people. The direct curse is one way, but the subtle manipulation of luring us away from God and towards the shiny object of desire is the other. The last one seems enormously more effective.

Prayer

Dad,
I really do appreciate the humor in this story. I even like the fact that the villain is forced to do what is right, for the short term. Oh, but I hate seeing a mirror reflection of our own desires, imagination and dark thoughts eventually wearing us down and winning far too often. That’s embarrassing to know that we can falter from our own curse within. I am still in awe and wonder your grace and mercy offered to us! Thank you once again. Amen.

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Benefits of unity in community.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

““But no, my people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want me around. So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas. Oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths! How quickly I would then subdue their enemies! How soon my hands would be upon their foes! Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him; they would be doomed forever. But I would feed you with the finest wheat. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭81‬:‭11‬-‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Asaph pens this Psalm at the time of the second temple dedication. Israel had been through 70 years of captivity with little or no national coherence or cohesion. And worse, some Israelites somehow stayed in the Jerusalem area and intermarried with the locals which caused a major racial and cultural rift within their humiliated country.

We know Babylon was discipline and correction from God, but what is much more difficult to sort out is these psalmic promises from God. If… big if, Israel had stayed true to God, it is likely that none of their national conflicts would have happened. There are many writings in Psalms and the Prophetic books like Isaiah and Jeremiah where God BEGS His chosen people to stay on track and quit chasing after other loves! Crystal clear message, follow God and He will fight the big fights for you.

My question and dilemma is… is that still true today. Is there a possibility that following God, staying on the straight and definitely narrow yields a certain amount of protection, even blessing? Before you answer, “of course it does,” remember Jesus and the leaders of the first century church outright told us, in this world we would have tribulation, and to be of good cheer. Jesus straight told us that believers would be hated for the message He brought, specifically because of Him. Yet, it still makes me think about this whole idea of sticking close to God and letting Him fight the big battles.

Are these promises for us as individuals or are they for us as communities of believers? Because if the promises of subduing enemies and God’s hands being on our foes is for the community of faith MORE than just on us as individuals, I would think we would be far more attentive to sticking together! If, for one moment, we behaved with a sense of unity and care for one another, I wonder if we would have a greater sense of God’s presence and protection? You realize that God disrupted the ancient city of Babel specifically because they were completely unified? Of course they were unified in godless pursuits, but Genesis 11 tells us it that unity in and of itself is powerful! ““Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.””

I imagine that unity in and for Godly pursuits would not only be unstoppable, it would also be far easier to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done! I absolutely believe that God would bless our unity in the Church. And as long as we are fractured, divided and continue to treat one another with horrible religious contempt, we will not accomplish what God has for the Church. Yet, even in our flawed self-serving, divisive zealousness, God will have His way. I trust Him. I just wish believers would all get along and quit thrashing each other, especially in the cultural courts of social media. I am sick of it!

Prayer

Dad,
Our present state of unity in the Church just makes me sick to my stomach! I see the promises in the Psalms and I long for the protection you would provide, but I long for a unified community far more than just a lack of attacks on our faith. Maybe that’s why you pour out your Spirit at specific times, just to bring about our sense of being together. Together in praise and worship. Together in mission of making disciples. Together in the flow of your will, your desires. Help us Oh Lord.

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¡Bienvenido a la revolución!

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.” Luke‬ ‭6:27-28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Society has rules that we live by. It’s not just our geographic context or culture, it’s our overarching and unifying way of life. You do me wrong, I retaliate. You make a joke about one of my family members and I slap your face! It’s a code. It’s genetic. All this talk about love, kindness and non-violence – ah that’s so vogue.

Bullies are out, those are “red choices” my granddaughter’s preschool teachers would say. Forgiveness and using your words (and someone to understand the bully) is the hot-topic morality today.

You know who started the revolution? Yeah, Jesus. He’s the same guy that folks want left out of government, education and civil conversation because it’s deemed divisively religious. And everyone knows religion is judgey. Funny that Jesus was the epitome of revolutionary and rather anti-religion.

He actually said, you’ve heard… “eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” but I say… Almost every day on the news we hear about an escalated incident that goes way beyond black eyes and missing teeth! It’s Annie get your gun and blam blam blam, someone is dead. It’s so massively ironic that the guy who made “don’t judge” a thing which is now considered to be the lightening rod of any non-civil conversation. Jesus is the one who said “DON’T.” So sure folks can hide behind “choices” or “I identify as” or even have the law give them a special and protected class meant to protect people from bullies. Jesus said things that were anti-human nature – forgive, give, love, BLESS (which isn’t the word, makarios: to make happy but rather eulogeó: to speak well of, praise)! What if the “protected class by law” becomes our cultural bullies? What if folks quit being advocates and look more like activists who behave violently? I think we should quit giving credit to our more modern, historical peacemakers and remember where they got their campaign slogans from – Jesus, the founder and president of the LOVE movement.

PRAYER:

Dad,
I just get so worked up over the enemy of our soul, Satan, supplanting and subtly stealing YOUR words and twisting them to be used against you – and for sure, against us. Satan is a thief, even stealing words and symbols like love, promise and rainbows to be bumper-stickered to promote lies and deeply, morally bankrupt codes of conduct. These bait and switch techniques are so damnable! By the time folks find truth or realize they’ve been duped there has been so much damaged done to their souls, their relationships not to mention the platforms they used to mislead thousands of others. It’s just awful, it makes me sick to see it happen. And even still, I know that you will be waiting like a good father who runs to the prodigal because they’ve come home! I just ask that you stop them from spreading the pig-slop as truth! It’s not a lifestyle, it’s a blatant liestyle.

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Birthday Card Blessings

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory and raise a victory banner in the name of our God. May the Lord answer all your prayers.” Psalms‬ ‭20:4-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This is one of these sweet easy-going prayers of blessing brought to you by King David himself. These collections of songs are an incredible legacy and constant reminder for anyone who loves life filled with both the highs of delight and also the lows of crushing disappointment.

In the past I’ve had the delight of signing birthday and anniversary cards for hundreds of people. While I was working for Royal Family KIDS, I was signing about 500 cards a year. Now, while Pastoring in Lakewood, California once again I am signing a few less, but still a lot. Every year I pick a reminder verse to write in each birthday card. I love celebrating people and when I write in their cards I think of the very best and highest ways to let them know why they are so loved.

This is one of those passages I will keep and write in cards for 2023. For 2022, I already chose Psalm 90:17 which talks about the favor of God being poured out. These verses, here in this Psalm, are just the thing we need to be reminded of on a regular basis. David’s victory banner in this case will be a birthday banner both celebrating the past and pronouncing a blessing on the future. And, may the Lord truly answer all your prayers – especially the ones that line up with what God already wants to see happen!

PRAYER:

Dad,
Life is so wildly good and unpredictable. And, it is also so hard and filled with deep disappointment. I can’t say that I like or enjoy sin, sickness, wars, division or injustice in our world. But, I can say that all the bad certainly gives perspective and balance compared to the beauty. How interesting that our freedom as human beings yields such a vast disparity between what we can behave like and what we end up behaving like towards you and each other. We all share the strongest bond of commonality as people – flesh and blood, yet we divide based on where we live, when we were born and things like wealth, power and status. We’re an interesting creation to say the least. I know one day you will make it all right, and allow us to experience the innocence of unity, wonder and love when you make our old world completely new. I look forward to that day.

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Aaron’s first official day on the job!

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Present Aaron and his sons at the entrance of the Tabernacle, and wash them with water. Dress Aaron with the sacred garments and anoint him, consecrating him to serve me as a priest. Then present his sons and dress them in their tunics. Anoint them as you did their father, so they may also serve me as priests. With their anointing, Aaron’s descendants are set apart for the priesthood forever, from generation to generation.” Exodus‬ ‭40:12-15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

What a day. The level of attention to detail is astounding. God instructed Moses, talking to him of course, about exactly what he wanted and where he wanted each item to be placed. Then a whole other checklist of details for himself and the priests that would serve as hosts and mediators while in the desert and throughout all generations. This was a serious assignment.

This job came with serious consequences for error. I can almost imagine a sign posted as you approach the tabernacle reading like a safety record, “0 Deaths” while serving God this month.

Each and every detail had purpose behind it. Nothing was random and without design. It all seems to me as I read through the instructions of attending to the tabernacle, which would later transfer to the temple, it is overwhelming. But I’m sure there was slow, methodical checking and routines that made it possible. God wanted anyone that approached the place of covenant to be washed, dressed appropriately and anointed – all to be set apart, to be holy before God. None of this would have been taken lightly. It was very serious to be called to be a priest.

Here Moses mentioned the sacred garments, the uniform while on duty. It was also extremely detailed. The entire 28th chapter of Exodus covers it – “Make sacred garments for Aaron that are glorious and beautiful. Instruct all the skilled craftsmen whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom. Have them make garments for Aaron that will distinguish him as a priest set apart for my service.” Exodus‬ ‭28:2-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬.

I love the idea of a generational anointing, a blessing setting them apart for service to God and to the people. I especially like the idea that this anointing for Aaron and his sons would be forever. Does that mean that even though Jesus fulfilled all the functions and duties as the once-for-all high priest that Aaron’s progeny would still be in service though no longer as mediators? I think so! How interesting. We know from history that this priestly journey for Aaron’s kids were a very bumpy one, yet a promise is a promise – right?

I enjoy thinking about God’s attention to detail when I read through the Old Testament because it reminds me to pay attention to the details that show up in the New Testament. With God there is always a perfect WHY behind ever WHAT – we just don’t know all of them because God is both so far above and beyond us AND He’s awesomely a mysterious God as well!

PRAYER:

Dad,
I don’t know if I would have done well in the Old Testament/Covenant context. There are so many stories of extreme highs of faithfulness and horrible lows of sin and disobedience. Then there are amazing stories of heroism and great feats of faith as well as brutal, even violent behaviors of evil towards you and their own families. I think that hardest part would be keeping your laws and not being drawn way or distracted by the way other nations did things. I am certainly glad to under the law of grace as well as the covering of Jesus for my sins and failures. For that I am eternally grateful.