Between Studies

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The photo is not really related to the post, but Facebook wants a picture to post with the link, so...

I thought I'd do an update on the 3 + 1 (three chapters in the Old Testament, one in the new) reading...I'm kinda embarrassed to admit that I'm a total of at least 3 months behind.  Reading 6 days a week should have been easy, right?  Somehow, since it wasn't EVERY day, it got easy to overlook.  I'm still plugging away; I'm in 2 Samuel (David is thinking he's covered up everything with Bathsheba), just read Ps. 139...we are fearfully and wonderfully made...and grieved with the Ephesian believers as Paul told them 'you will never see my face again;' as I near the end of Acts.

It's a good plan to read through the Bible in a year.  Well less than a year, if you do it daily.  I tried backing it out to 6 days a week...which would still finish in a year...but, well, I got behind.  I thought about skipping Joshua, since I was doing the study on it, but part of the reason I am reading is to systematically mark the ESV I'm reading in...and I did the Joshua study from the NIV.  So I didn't skip it.

So, you know, it's going to take more than a year.  I'll just keep plugging away and maybe finish around Easter. Cause, you know, the important thing is to be intentional, not to finish on a schedule.  Having a goal is good...but the main thing is to keep going.

I'm not sure what the next study will be.  I'm still kinda mulling over the lessons from Joshua and letting those sink in.

I know I need to be much more intentional about 'inquiring of the LORD' before I undertake things.  I've found myself getting tripped up...again...by assuming I know what's going on and what I need to do and then finding out, well, I didn't.  My results weren't as dire as some of the results from running ahead in Joshua's day, but I'd still rather have not made those errors.  I got hurt and I hurt others.  No bueno.  

God gives us a promise, but we still have to do it His way.  Because His way really and truly is the best way in the long run.  And I generally don't figure out His way on my own.  It comes by asking.

So, yeah.  Still chewing on it...

Blogging Bible Study: Joshua 24 - Joshua's Farewell, Part 2

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Joshua 23 contains Joshua's last instructions to the leaders of the nation; chapter 24 is his farewell to the people. 

At least, that's the way it looks to me.  You could put a different spin on it and conclude that both chapters were to the entire nation, and if I dug into different translations that may bear it out.  But the NIV implies that chapter 23 is to the all the leaders of the entire nation, and chapter is to all the tribes...

[Joshua] summoned all Israel -- their elders, leaders, judges and officials -- and said to them... (23:2)

Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem.  He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people.... (24: 1 - 2a)

It looks to me like he spoke first to the elders, and then addressed the whole assembly of tribes, with the leaders positioned in front.  But it could go either way.  In any case, with no jumbo trons or public address systems, the upshot was that only the leaders heard him anyway, and repeated to their tribes what he said.  And the words of chapter 24 are clearly meant for the entire nation.

Joshua first reviews the history of Israel, speaking to them the words God had laid on him to speak (notice the first person pronouns in verses 2 - 13):

I took your father Abraham...and led him...and gave him many descendants
I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.
I assigned Esau the hill country of Seir; Jacob and his sons went to Egypt.
I sent Moses and Aaron
I afflicted the Egyptians
You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians
I brought you to the land of the Amorites...I gave them into your hands.
I destroyed them before you.
I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again.
I delivered you out of his hand.
I gave [the citizens of Jericho, the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Gigashites, Hivites and Jebusites] into your hands.
I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you.
I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant. 

God did all of that.  ALL of that.  After reminding the people of all that God did, and that they are where they are solely because of what God did, Joshua gives them a challenge that is still ringing in our ears today.

"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness.  Throw away the gods your forefathers worship beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."  (24:15)

The people, of course, responded,

'Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!...We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God.'  (24:16, 18a)

Joshua, however, knew the fickleness of his people, and warned them,

'If you forsake the LORD and serve foreigh gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.'

And the people declared again...and again...that they would serve the Lord.

Joshua then recorded all the decrees and laws, and had a large stone set near the Tabernacle at Shechem.  The stone, he stated, was to be a witness.

'This stone will be a witness against us.  It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us.  It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God." (v. 27).

Then the people were dismissed to go to their designated inheritance.

There is an epilogue of sorts, recording the death and burial of Joshua (at age 110), the burial of Joseph's embalmed body, as he had requested (Gen. 50:25), and the death and burial of Aaron's son Eleazar.

There is also a little declaration in verse 31:

Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.

The first two chapters of Judges overlap the narrative in Joshua somewhat and reiterates that the people who were there that day served the Lord.  The later generations, however...well, their story is related in the rest of the book of Judges, dismal as it is.

Because, of course, we are notoriously bad at remembering what God has done for us. And we humans  have a history, down through the ages, of disregarding the lessons and wisdom of our elders.  Even as individuals, we tend to forget the awe of standing in the moment and seeing God move as we go about the normal tasks of everyday life.  We forget that the freedom and ability to actually go about those tasks...and not be hiding from marauders or scraping for food or trying to find a place to shelter for the night or dealing with disease or any of the hundreds of other things that would disrupt life to the point of just trying to survive...is one of God's richest blessings.  That was the covenant:  God said to serve Him alone as God, from a heart devoted to Him, and He would keep away the wild animals and the invading armies and the devouring locusts and all the other hazards.  It sounds so simple.

But it requires being different than the people who do not serve God.  Not obnoxious about it, but different.  They serve different gods.. they have different priorities...and, remember, those pagan societies killed their own children as sacrifices to their gods.  Serve the LORD, Moses said, So that you and your children might live.

So ultimately the book of Joshua reminds us that God is the one who fights our battles, if we serve Him, and every one of us has a choice to make.  Will we obey the God who loves and cares for us...or will we be like those around us?   There's nothing magical about crossing the Jordan to the Promised Land; once arrived there, it takes an intentional choice to live by God's heart.  It's easy to think we can handle it on our own;  living in a house we didn't build and eating food we didn't plant, but the truth is...we have to continue to choose to serve the LORD.

Blogging Bible Study: Joshua 23 - Joshua's Words to the Leadership

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

After a long time had passed.... (Jos.23:1)

Years, since Joshua had sent the tribes to their territories to clean out the rest of the pagan population in their respective regions.  They had broken the military strength of their enemies; all that was left was to clear the rest of the folks out.

Joshua was now an old, old man.  He and Caleb were the only guys over 60 years old when they crossed the Jordan, all those years before, and he knows his time to depart is near.  He called in all the elders, leaders, judges and officials to him and reminded them of what they had lived through since they crossed the Jordan.

"I am old and well advanced in years.  You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you.  Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain -- the nations I conquered -- between the Jordan and the Great Sea.  The LORD your God will drive them out of your way.  He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, asl the LORD your God promised you." - 23:2a - 5

Then, he solemnly charges the leaders what to do after he's gone:

1) Be strong and courageous and live by the Law given by Moses (v.6)
2) Do not in any way serve or honor the gods of the pagans left among you (v. 7)
3) Do not associate with the people who do not honor God (v.7)
4) Hold fast to the LORD your God (v. 8)

He reminded them again, that it was the LORD who drove out their enemies; it was the LORD who made one man able to defeat a thousand enemies; they had not done it in their own strength. 

'So be very careful to love the LORD your God.' (v.11)

He continues with a warning of what will happen if they fail to follow those instructions.  And it's interesting to note what constituted failure: making alliances with the foreigners, intermarrying with them and socializing with them. And this wasn't about racial differences...it was about belief systems.  Because fraternizing with people whose beliefs are fundamentally opposed to the worship of God is a huge trap.  It began with the serpent in the Garden and it remains the same even today.  The arguments sound reasonable, even.  What could it hurt?  One bite?  One bit of incense?  A few little wooden images?  Is it really that big of a deal? 

Yes.  Because it always leads to death.  And what was the choice Moses gave them back in Deuteronomy 30? 'This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live...' (Deut. 30:19)  That was no random selection of words...the pagan cultures ALL practiced child sacrifice.  Choosing the culture of death would literally kill their offspring.

Look at words of the warning:  'If you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them, then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you.  Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your back and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.' (Josh. 23:12-13)

It was a big deal.

And, just in case the message hadn't gotten through, he repeats it for emphasis, because, just as God has been faithful to keep His promises, He will also be faithful to execute His judgment.

'You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises that the LORD your God gave you has failed.  Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.  But just as every good promise of the LORD your God has come true, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land he has given you.  If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the LORD's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.'  - (vs. 14b -16)

It is a big deal. 

Of course, we all know the rest of the story; that the people of Israel repeatedly fell into the patterns of the people around them and repeatedly suffered for it, until the Babylonians finally destroyed their capital city and place of worship and drug all the leaders and their households off to exile.  Not because they refused to serve God, but because they kept trying to mix the worship of God with the worship of the gods of the unbelievers.  Because it was what the folks around them were doing.

Not this generation, or even the one after, but eventually...a generation grew up that didn't really believe what they'd been taught about what God had done and said.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Next week...Joshua's last words to the nation.

How much of the ungodly culture am I allowing to influence my worship? How can I remove the influences of the culture from my worship and still remain relevant enough to be an influence on folks who just don't get the whole One True God thing? 

..In the Midst of the Mess, Part 2

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Ok, I admit it.  Last night...I was ready to throw in the towel.  I mean, really throw in the towel.  I had decided that I was incapable of doing...well, what I was doing...and perhaps if I stepped down someone who had better people skills than me could take over.  And do a better job of pulling opposites together.  At least without inadvertently running roughshod over folks who were legitimately doing their best under circumstances I was clueless about.

I was ready to bail out,  run for cover, shut myself up at home because I didn't think I could EVER get this thing right.

But this morning...

Our first speaker was a lady I hadn't heard before, Amie Dockery.  I had no idea what she was going to talk about and, to be honest, I was expecting it to be good but not, you know, specifically applicable to my situation.

O mi goodness.

I do not know when I have EVER sat in a service in which the speaker described, right down to the words floating around in my brain in the last 18 hours, exactly what was going on in my life.

Now, there are a bazillion topics that she could have talked about in a women's meeting.  But she chose to talk about the lures the enemy uses to pull us away from God's purposes.  And these weren't the same ol' same ol' things normally heard.  No, she dug into the temptation of Jesus in a way I had never heard before.  I mean, I thought I knew what she was going to say...and she said nothing like I thought she was going to say.  She talked about three specific lures.

Not gonna go into her descriptions, but  all three lures had been cast at me since the sun went down last night.  And I was perilously close to falling for them.

That doesn't mean that I'm not a socially awkward person who routinely puts her foot in her mouth.  But what it does mean is that that is not a disqualification from service. I'm not allowed to quit just because I am flawed.

Ultimately, those flaws simply mean that I have to lean harder into God and my relationship with Him.

That's actually why they are there.

I told you.  Every year it happens this way...first breaking, then restoration and refreshing.  I should quit being surprised by it.

A not-Bible-Study-post in the midst of my mess

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I didn't get the Joshua post up today; it's Conference Weekend.

The weekend after Labor Day, in which we switch over the church to all things feminine and host a weekend for women.  It's always powerful, always stretching, always needed. What usually happens at the conference is a breaking and a restoring. The Spirit puts a finger on what's ugly, what's inhibiting growth, what's got. to. go.  And by the end of the weekend, the Spirit has also washed away the broken bits of the ugly and given a fresh perspective and purpose to take its place.

Now, as a staff person, I get a whole nuther aspect on the weekend.

And sometimes, the thing that unmakes me really has nothing to do with the service or the speaker.

Sometimes, in the logistics and the planning, I get my lessons.

Tonight was one of those times.

A friend held up a picture of how my attempts to help...to fix...to catch things...looks to other folks.

It wasn't a pretty picture.

Sort of like the picture above; my old attempt to re-liquify honey that had crystallized.  Only I made a mess instead.

The speaker was good, but I sat in my spot and processed the picture I'd seen.  It was a rough go, I'll be honest.

And that's one thing that I don't know how to fix. 

 So I'm looking for the second half...the restoration, the encouragement...tomorrow. I honestly don't know how God can redeem this mess...but I do know that He can.

I am really ready to stop being the bull in the china shop.  Just bein' real. 

So I'm putting a demand on the anointing for part two.  The redemption and refreshing. 

I'm ready.