Many Battles Ahead After The Greatest Victory

Deuteronomy 7 (NLT) “When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you. When the LORD your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. You must not intermarry with them… For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. “The LORD did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the LORD loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors… He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. But he does not hesitate to punish and destroy those who reject him. Therefore, you must obey all these commands, decrees, and regulations I am giving you today… Perhaps you will think to yourselves, ‘How can we ever conquer these nations that are so much more powerful than we are?’ But don’t be afraid of them! Just remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all the land of Egypt. Remember the great terrors the LORD your God sent against them… “No, do not be afraid of those nations, for the LORD your God is among you, and he is a great and awesome God. The LORD your God will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals would multiply too quickly for you. But the LORD your God will hand them over to you. He will throw them into complete confusion until they are destroyed. He will put their kings in your power, and you will erase their names from the face of the earth. No one will be able to stand against you, and you will destroy them all.

Death and destruction seem to be a big part of God’s instructions to His chosen people. How is that evidence of a loving God and how different are we from any other religion that terrorizes non-believers?

God’s Revenge Unleashed

Numbers 31 (NLT) Then the Lord said to Moses, “On behalf of the people of Israel, take revenge on the Midianites for leading them into idolatry. After that, you will die and join your ancestors”… They attacked Midian as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men. All five of the Midianite kings—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba—died in the battle. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder. They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived… But Moses was furious with all the generals and captains who had returned from the battle. “Why have you let all the women live?” he demanded. “These are the very ones who followed Balaam’s advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the Lord at Mount Peor. They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the Lord’s people. So kill all the boys and all the women who have had intercourse with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves… “From the army’s portion, first give the Lord his share of the plunder—one of every 500 of the prisoners and of the cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats. Give this share of the army’s half to Eleazar the priest as an offering to the Lord. From the half that belongs to the people of Israel, take one of every fifty of the prisoners and of the cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, and other animals. Give this share to the Levites, who are in charge of maintaining the Lord’s Tabernacle.”

Some chapters of the Bible like today’s reading make us as Christians wish they were never recorded because it seems to show God in poor light. What is God speaking to us through this horrendous bloodshed He ordered and was it recorded incorrectly?

Witness At The Cost Of Life

Numbers 23:1,2,7-10,18-26 Then Balaam said to King Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven young bulls and seven rams for me to sacrifice.” Balak followed his instructions, and the two of them sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each altar… This was the message Balaam delivered: “Balak summoned me to come from Aram; the king of Moab brought me from the eastern hills. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me! Come and announce Israel’s doom.’ But how can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I condemn those whom the Lord has not condemned? I see them from the cliff tops; I watch them from the hills. I see a people who live by themselves, set apart from other nations. Who can count Jacob’s descendants, as numerous as dust? Who can count even a fourth of Israel’s people? Let me die like the righteous; let my life end like theirs”… This was the message Balaam delivered: “Rise up, Balak, and listen! Hear me, son of Zippor. God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? Listen, I received a command to bless; God has blessed, and I cannot reverse it! No misfortune is in his plan for Jacob; no trouble is in store for Israel. For the Lord their God is with them; he has been proclaimed their king. God brought them out of Egypt; for them he is as strong as a wild ox. No curse can touch Jacob; no magic has any power against Israel. For now it will be said of Jacob, ‘What wonders God has done for Israel!’ These people rise up like a lioness, like a majestic lion rousing itself. They refuse to rest until they have feasted on prey, drinking the blood of the slaughtered!” Then Balak said to Balaam, “Fine, but if you won’t curse them, at least don’t bless them!” But Balaam replied to Balak, “Didn’t I tell you that I can do only what the Lord tells me?”

After being corrected by a humble donkey, Balaam seems now to be advising the kings of the land and there is no fear in him for man. What happened and how is it relevant to us today?

Sickness And Loneliness

Leviticus 13:1-3,45-46 (ESV) The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a case of leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests, and the priest shall examine the diseased area on the skin of his body. And if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a case of leprous disease. When the priest has examined him, he shall pronounce him unclean… “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

The mysteries of God’s mind continue with this extra long chapter dedicated to leprosy that affects people, clothes and even homes.

In the midst of all the trials the Israelites are going through, why would God put them through the extra hardship of this disease and condemn those who are infected?

The Command To Love

1 John 3:21-24
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

As I continue to journey with Christ and witness to the world about Him, I have found that there are many sore people out there who seem to want to avoid knowing Christ and are eager to place all the blame on Him. That really makes me mad and I sometimes wish I could shake them up to realize the truth. Today I was told by a friend that to conquer oneself is a greater victory than to conquer thousands in a battle (Buddha) and I wish every person we shared Christ with would overcome their ego. How can the world not see the truth of Jesus Christ and His unconditional offer of perfect love and total forgiveness? What is it that holds them back and is there a better technique to sharing the gospel? This is a question that has long confounded me and today, I see my quest in a new light…

Pray or Judge?

John 8:3-6, 7, 9-11
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him… When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”… At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

To those who were trying to cause Jesus to falter in dealing with this situation, it must have been crushing. Not only was Jesus responding to their every taunt but he was in fact teaching them through these situations. If this was not Godly wisdom, Jesus was certainly more wise than the wisest. However, to Jesus’s accusers, do you think they learnt from this verbal thrashing? Until God the father chooses who will receive and who will not receive him, rivals of Christ will never believe. A few may but most will continue to be hard hearted and like Saul (Before his conversion), they will be riveted by this desire to disprove God but only to their own loss.

It is amazing how the world tends to revolve around controversies and of late, the press has continued to use the brokenness of Tiger Wood’s life as a platform to sell their media. Place Tiger Woods at the same place as the woman caught in adultery in the passage above and tell me what Jesus would do? Some of us may or may not have committed adultery but have certainly sinned in many ways and this has caused our relationship with God to be strained. For God, there is no bigger and smaller sin and we are not in a position to judge others, only God can. I’ve probably mentioned Tiger a few weeks back but this passage reminded me once again that we are called to stand in the gap and pray for the lost, not mock and condemn them. Which side are you on?

In His Loving Service,
Vineet

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Flying Turtle

Multiply or Divide?

Luke 13:18-21
Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.” Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Last evening, my family and I watched a movie called Fireproof and it was such a treat to see how God’s people when brought together through the Holy Spirit could put together a work of beauty that commercial movies today cannot compare to. The story, the values and the essence of Christ preached was incredible and I can’t wait to see the 2 other movies created by the same Church (www.sherwoodbaptist.net). Is this what the kingdom of God is like? Is this what Jesus is referring to when he talks about planting a mustard seed in our gardens or adding a very small bit of yeast into our dough? Is Jesus referring to agriculture or wealth or something else? Obviously it is spiritual fruit because that is what endures and produces good fruit that multiplies manyfold.

Over the last many weeks, it seems that the world media has nothing better to report than the broken life of the world-famous golfer, Tiger Woods. I do believe it is a terrible sin that has been revealed and Jesus himself reminds us that nothing we do on the sly will remain hidden but will be revealed. Before this incident, he was a role model to kids and adults and people who knew nothing of the game were enthralled by him. However, with his admission to failure comes the wrath of men, some who may have committed the same if not many other sins but using this opportunity to tear down his life. I hope we are planting the right spiritual seeds in our lives that cause us to bless others rather than curse them. What type of fruit is the mustard seed of God’s salvation blossoming in your life? All mankind has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and we need to help the lost find their Shepherd, Jesus the Christ, who is the only one who can provide them a redemption for their sins and the assurance of eternity with God in heaven.

In His Loving Service,
Vineet

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Our 1st Snowfall