John 9 -- An Ocean Of Grace For A Blind Man

Seeing a man who’d been blind from birth, the disciples began to discuss a common belief at the time – that such a disability had to be a punishment handed out by God for someone’s sin – wither the man’s or his parents’.  They asked Jesus for His opinion.  He answered, “This man was born blind so that God’s power could be shown in him.”  In other words, “God had allowed this man to be born blind in order that the man might become a means of displaying the mighty works of God.  Before the man was BORN, the Lord Jesus knew He would give sight to those blind eyes,” my commentary said.  I can just imagine Jesus’ familiarity with the man as He walked up to Him, remembering before the creation of the world how He and God had decided that this moment would occur!

Naturally, everyone had to involved the Pharisees as religious leaders, since such a great miracle of healing had occurred.  Unfortunately, they displayed greater blindness.  After all, Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, “breaking” one of their manmade rules.

Jesus, talking to the man after the Pharisees had grilled him, said, “I came so that the blind would see and so that those who see will become blind.”  Hearing that, some Pharisees sarcastically asked Him, Are You saying we are blind, too?”  Jesus said, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty of sin.  But since you keep saying you see, your guilt remains.”  My commentary said, “If they had only acknowledged their blindness  in failing to recognize Him as Messiah, their sin would have been as nothing compared to the enormous sin of professing to see, yet failing to recognize Him as the Son of God.”

Jesus was telling them that by admitting that they were blind and sinful and that they needed a Savior, their sins could be forgiven and they could be saved.  But if we claim that we don’t need anyone or anything, we are actually claiming that we are righteous and that we have no sin, so therefore no forgiveness for sins will be available, either.  How hard is it to simply say, “God, I am a sinner, and I need a Savior?”

Father, we all seem to have such pride that we don’t want to admit error.  That pride gets in the way of eternity with You.  I thank You for bringing me to the point where I could admit that, for when I did, You opened heaven’s vault full of grace and poured it out over me – an ocean of grace for a sinner like me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 7 & 8 -- That Sound ......

I found so much I wanted to write about, but once again my eyes and ears were drawn to one thing here – the sound of stones dropping.

Jesus was teaching in a public place in Jerusalem when the religious leaders burst onto the scene, forcing an obviously embarrassed woman into His presence.  “We caught her having sex with a man who isn’t her husband!  According to the law, we are to stone her.  You agree, don’t you?”  (They obviously knew He was compassionate and planned to call Him out as a lawbreaker if He tried to save her.)  They’d also come armed – with stones – and they were worked up and ready to do the deed.

We have no clue as to what the woman expected Him to say, but it surely wasn’t this:  “Anyone here who has never sinned can throw the first stone at her.”

I’m sure there was utter silence for a moment or two, punctuated by the woman’s sobbing.  Then came the sound – one rock hitting the ground.  Then another … and another.  Those men who seconds earlier had arrived with the zeal of their self-ascribed holiness had, in just those few words, watched as their own souls had been laid bare by the skillful words of the Great Physician.  Looking within, they’d discovered the ugliness of their own sin that couldn’t be denied.  They were infected just as much as she was.  They were dying, too.

The sound of stones hitting the pavement surely sounded like a hailstorm – of grace.  Remorsefully, they turned and walked away.  Soon the silence was deafening and the woman dared to look up.  Only one man was still looking at her, and He said, “Where are they?  Didn’t any of them judge you guilty?”  “No one, sire,” she sheepishly answered.  That’s when she heard the unexpected:  “I also don’t judge you guilty.  You may go now …”

She most likely couldn’t believe her ears!  She would live???  I think He caught her eyes as she stood to go, and she heard Him finish by saying, “But don’t sin anymore…”  You see, He loved her too much to not say that.  Max Lucado described those eyes in his book, Six Hours One Friday:  “Eyes that saw her not as she was, but as she was intended to be.”

Just a few days ago, I heard Glenn Beck echo that.  He said, “Live like the person you were created to be, not like the person you’ve allowed yourself to become.”

Father, I feel right now what those men surely felt – a terrible sadness that I too have over my lifetime allowed myself to stray so far from who You created me to be.  I’ve fought to become that person, and I need Your help every day to continue the process.  Thank You for the sound of those rocks hitting the ground, Father.  Thank You for Your grace.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 6 -- An Unpalatable Meal

First, here’s MORE proof that Jesus plainly stated that He is the Son of God.  In verses 38-39, He said, “I came down from heaven … This is what My Father wants.”  You can’t hide that, Satan.

Moving on to what God was showing me today, Jesus often taught in parables and said that by doing so, the believers could understand the message but unbelievers wouldn’t.  The last half of this chapter wasn’t a parable, but perhaps He purposefully used the same approach to separate the believers from the unbelievers.  He’d been teaching over 5,000 men (along with women and children), yet many of them left and stopped following Him after hearing what He said.  What caused this?  Jesus told them “Those who eat My flesh and drink My blood live in Me, and I live in them.”  They called it a hard teaching.

He said that He was not talking about us literally eating His flesh and blood, and He explained that eating is “taking into our bodies.”  His flesh and His blood would be cut and spilled on the cross when He died for us.  So He’s telling them that we must “take in what He would do for us on the cross” or in other words – believe.

Father, I do believe.  I willingly take in what Your Son did for me on the cross that day.  It tastes bitter, because it reeks of my sin.  But it was as necessary as medicine when one is ill.  Thank You for drawing me near and leading me to believe!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 5 -- It's IN There!

Jesus healed a man who’d been sick for 38 years.  He told him, “Stand up.  Pick up your mat and walk.”  The man did, and he was healed.  The Pharisees, seeing the man carrying his mat on the Sabbath, began to rake him over the coals for violating one of the many extraneous laws they’d developed over the centuries to help them be the religious police of the nation.  Jesus didn’t have to tell him to pick up his mat.  But I think He did so to produce a situation where they would publicly question His authority and that would give Him the opportunity to share about His close relationship with His Father.

These paragraphs are vitally important to me because I remember being spiritually blinded after college, having taken in so much of the New Age movement’s stuff which tries to produce a belief of intellectual eliteness in those who are suckered by it.  I’d read somewhere that nowhere in the Bible did Jesus actually claim to be God’s Son, and stupidly I believed that as fact.

There’s absolutely no disputing that He did indeed state it here, especially when the Pharisees, after hearing what He said, responded: “  First Jesus was breaking the law about the Sabbath day.  Now He says that God is His own Father, making Himself EQUAL with God!”

That’s checkmate to all of Christ’s enemies in this world.  Normally they’d cheer on the Pharisees for everything they ever did to put down Jesus.  But here they’d have to be fiercely whispering, “SHUT UP!  Don’t you REALIZE what you’re DOING??  You’re supporting His case!  We don’t need witnesses like you!”

Father, I don’t suppose I’ll ever be able to apologize enough for believing all the rot that I swallowed hook, line, and sinker about all the New Age stuff.  I know You’ve forgiven me, but I still feel so incredibly stupid for thinking that my intellect was helping me rise above all that, when really it was only taking me away from the One who loved me more than I could ever love myself.  Thanks for not ever leaving me in my rebellion, and for showing me the way back to You.  My real regret is that there is no “undo” button to wipe it all out of my mind entirely.  Your love is so awesome and so undeserved!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 4 -- How To Save A Life

My commentary says, “Only those who know themselves to be lost can be saved.  All men are lost, but not all are willing to admit it.  In seeking to win people for Christ, we must never avoid the sin question.  They must be brought face to face with the fact that they are dead in trespasses and sins, need a Savior, cannot save themselves, that Jesus is the Savior they need, and He will save them if they repent of their sin and trust in Him.”

In the song lyrics, these thoughts are picked up in the second verse:  “Try to slip past his defense without granting innocence.  Lay down a list of what is wrong – the things you’ve told him all along – and pray to God he hears you.”

So what happens if we can’t find the courage to do this?  It’s expressed in the chorus:  “Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness.  And I would have stayed up with you all night had I known how to save a life.”  Now we know.

Father, Disciple Now is coming up.  I can’t help but believe that You will be placing a friend before me in this way.  Help me not to flinch.  If he goes left, help me to move to my right and stay right between the lines of fear and blame, as the song says, for I know how to save a life.  I must bring them face to face with Your Son and their sin.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 3 -- What It's All About

This chapter is all about knowing the way to heaven.  John tells us in plain and easy to understand terms what Jesus did for us.  Earthly men have trouble believing that Jesus was “the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.  He died for the sins of all the world.  But do men love Him for this?  No – they resent Him.  They prefer their sins to having Jesus as Savior, and so they reject Him,” my commentary says.

Salvation takes just one thing – believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for our sins.  Each individual has to decide whether he will accept Him or reject Him.  My commentary added:  “It’s a terrible thing to reject such a gift of love.  If a man will not believe in the Lord Jesus, God can do nothing else BUT condemn him.”

 “When Jesus was here in the world, sinful men were made uncomfortable by His presence because He revealed their awful condition by His own holiness.”  Maybe a little discomfort is what we need every day to keep us acknowledging that we are but sinners in need of a Savior.

Father, thank You for the discomfort that sin now produces in my life, for it tells me that Your Holy Spirit is alive in me and at work revealing my sin to me.  How horrible it would be to never feel any remorse over sin.  And thank You for verse 16:  “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.”  That’s why I’m able to write this now, Father!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 2 -- Realizing Who We Are With

When Jesus entered Jerusalem for the Passover at the start of His ministry and cleared the Temple of the merchants and moneychangers, the people saw Him “manifesting an intense determination that the worship of God should be pure,” my commentary said.  The people were wanting to know by what authority He acted in doing so.  They’d been living a spiritually dry existence at a time when the nation of Israel was occupied by Roman forces.  Perhaps they believed that God had departed their nation.  Yet He was standing in their midst!

John continued, “Many people believed in Him because they saw the miracles He did.  But Jesus did not trust Himself to them because He knew them all.  He did not need anyone to tell Him about people, because He knew what was in people’s minds.”

Because of this, He knew that their worship was not pure.  Perhaps they’d allowed themselves to lose the specialness of communing with God in worship, instead moving to a point where all was mere ritual – solely a duty to be performed.  “He knew their thoughts and motives, why they acted the way they did.  He knew whether their faith was real or only an imitation,” my commentary said.

In the same way, He knows our hearts today.  If He sees nothing within us that points to real belief in Him, then He does not commit Himself to us either.  Yet if we show up for worship hungry to hear from Him, desperately needing a touch from the Master, He knows that and He allows us to experience communion with Him. 

Father, please quicken my heart to You as I approach worship.  Help me to leave the cares of this world at the door as I enter.  If anything is leading me to apathy, point that out to me and help me not to just be going through the motions, for as I enter worship, I need to be ever mindful that the Creator of the Universe is electing to spend time with me.  What an unbelievable privilege!  Let me not become distracted or disinterest.  Instead, let me relish every moment.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

John 1 -- Putting Myself In The Writer's Shoes

In his introduction to this book, Max Lucado urges us to see John as he might have been while he was writing it – “sixty years or so since he’d last seen Jesus, with most all of the other apostles now dead.  Someone else is now teaching in the small church, and what a task he had, speaking of one he never knew .. Explaining words he never heard … but what will happen when John is gone? …. The old fisherman unfolds the scroll and begins to write …”

That certainly puts it in a different light!  This chapter might at first have seemed to be a philosophical mumbo-jumbo about “The Word Was…” but now we can see the words in it being indwelt in John and passing through his hand to the scroll so that we might know his Lord.

Certain phrases now pop out in a more understandable way – “We saw His glory…”  “There is One here with you that you don’t know about … Teacher, You are the Son of God!”

John had been there and done that, and for the rest of his life, he’d be able to remember the time he had with God On Earth.  There was no doubt in his mind as to who Jesus is.  He’d watched as Jesus lived among men, feeling everything we have ever felt.  This wasn’t some detached deity.  Jesus had lived among us and had known our struggles.  Therefore, He could uniquely die for our sins as well.  And this old man John, who remembered so very well being a young man following Jesus, wants us to know Him well, too.

Father, open my eyes as I read the book of John.  Show it to me from John’s perspective.  Help me to think as John might have thought.  Reveal even more of Your Son to me through John’s memories.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 6 -- BEING The New People

“The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is my only reason for bragging.  Through the cross of Jesus my world was crucified, and I died to the world.  It is not important if a man is circumcised or uncircumcised.  The important thing is being the new people God has made.”

Paul had started off this letter admonishing the recipients for letting false teachers sway them toward a “Christ+” gospel.  I like the way he ended his letter.  Everything about his old life died with Christ on the cross.  As far as the world was concerned, the old Paul was gone, too.

My commentary said, “Because the new creation is all of Christ from start to finish, it excludes any thought of gaining God’s favor through character or works.  A life of holiness is produced, not by the observance of ritual, but by yielding to Christ and permitting Him to live His life in the believer.  The new creation is not an improvement of or addition to the old, but something entirely different.”

That’s what we ought to be realizing about our lives in Christ.  There was no power on our part that changed us and that now enables us to live holy lives.  It’s Christ living within us through the Holy Spirit that motivates us and directs our thoughts and actions.  Just as we would not want to handle a body that had been nailed to a cross in death since the day we became Christians, we should feel a revulsion toward picking up our old lives which existed prior to our conversion.  Nothing of ourselves empowers us today – only our risen Savior.

Father, I know that there’s not a single thing I could ever do to earn my salvation.  Please help me each day to yield to Christ and permit Him to live His life in me so that You may produce holiness in my life.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 5 -- The Kind Of Faith That Works Through LOVE

“The kind of faith that works through love” kept ringing a bell in my head this morning as I read, and that part of verse 6 kept leading me to verse 24:  “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their own sinful selves.  They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do.”

Of course, this is totally backwards to what our physical bodies and our emotions are screaming.  “Satisfy me!  Right now!  Forget them!”  My commentary says, “It is the Spirit who is resisting the motions of evil within them, not they themselves.”  That’s the only way we can overcome “those old selfish feelings and the evil they wanted to do.”  Without His Spirit within us, we are powerless.

What kind of faith will I exhibit today?  One based on my own desire to “look like a good Christian”?  Or one entirely yielded to Christ because he loved me so and placed within me a Helper to show me daily how to be more like Him?  The peace that comes from that kid of faith is well-described in the sidebar in my Bible this morning:  “It implies that even though my enemies and detractors may be at war with me, I can be at peace with them … This peace is love quietly, strongly, persistently meeting every onslaught against it with good will.  It is that attitude of tranquility and tolerance in the face of angry attacks.”

Father, this almost takes Newton’s law of motion and spiritualizes it:  “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”  Help me to return love for evil today, Father.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 4 -- Live ROYALLY

Paul was addressing the fact that those in the Galatian church who’d never been Jewish were beginning to believe that they needed to follow Jewish law to “complete” their Christianity.  Today, we don’t seem to have THAT problem as often, possibly because non-Christians look at the Ten Commandments as a list of “Thou Shalt Nots” and they don’t want restrictions put on them by religion when and if they do become Christians.

I think our version of law-keeping was well-described in my commentary:  “It gives some people intense satisfaction to feel there is something they can do in their own strength to win God’s smile.  But this implies that man has some strength, and hence, to that extent, he does not need the Savior … It is impossible to inherit God’s blessings on the basis of human merit or fleshly effort.”

Paul compares our striving to please God through our own efforts to bondage, and in fact it acts like bondage as we struggle to please, then fail by sinning, then struggle to please again.  It is never enough, much like a meth addict experiences, I suppose.

My commentary cuts to the chase in telling us what to do:  “Child of His love, all things are yours – He tells you this in 1 Corinthians 3:22-23 – to arouse you to a realization of riches beyond your utmost powers of imagination to comprehend.  Consider the universe.  Whose is it, but His and yours.  Then live ROYALLY.”

We effectively place ourselves in the position of slaves when we try to please God in our own strength, doing things for Him rather than resting in His grace.  Why make ourselves spiritual paupers?

Father, remind me often of how weak I am, and that I need your grace every day.  Don’t let me become prideful in that I dare to assume I can win Your favor by doing things in my own strength for You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 3 -- Contract Law 101

Paul pretty wells sounds like an attorney specializing in contract law here, and God caught my eye this morning by it, reminding me of the hammering out of contract agreements that I often see at work.

What Paul talks about in verse 20 is important, for in most contracts, there are two or more contracting parties, and each agrees to do or not do certain things as their consideration given (what’s required of them by the contract) to get their desired benefit.  Our court system becomes the mediator whenever one party fails to perform as promised.

Verse 20 tells us that there was only one contracting party in what Paul was talking about and He was God.  Paul therefore reasoned that a mediator was not needed.  In other words, man did not have to perform before he could get what God promised, so no court system was needed to let God off the hook for His promise if we failed to perform.

Paul said that Moses and the angels served as mediators in bringing the Law to the people, and that implies that some requirement was placed on man that made having a mediator necessary.  And here, Paul said, is the glaring weakness of the Law – it required man to do what we are incapable of doing.  “It called for obedience from those who did not have the power to give it,” my commentary said.

But God had made a promise to Abraham, while he was technically still a Gentile, to bless all nations through Abraham’s seed, not seeds.  With that promise, nothing was required of man.  “God was the sole contracting party.  Everything depended on God and nothing on man.”

Father, I continually prove to myself just how weak I am.  I couldn’t successfully keep all of the provisions of the Law for a day, much less for my entire life.  I’m a sinner in a body infected with sin.  As a contracting party, I would therefore lack the capacity to make a contract with You requiring obedience.  How thankful I am that You promised what You did, for I have been incalculably blessed by Your grace and love, unable to give anything in return other than my belief in Your Son’s death for me on the cross.  Such an awesome and loving God I have!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Galatians 1 & 2 -- I'm NOT My Own Savior

My commentary wanted to make certain that we caught the fact that Paul wasn’t pulling any punches with what he was writing.  People were trying to modify the Gospel into “Christ+” and he couldn’t let that happen.  So he used his own life as an example for them to see.  If anyone could find a justification for continuing to observe Jewish ritual, it ought to have been Paul.  He said, “Yet we know that a person is made right with God NOT by following the law, but by trusting in Jesus Christ … no one can be made right with God by following the law.”

My commentary said that anytime we try to keep the law as part of trying to earn our salvation, we are really trying to share the glory of Christ by making ourselves co-saviors.  We are nothing but sinners!

My Bible’s sidebar, by D.L. Moody, said it well:  “There is no peace until we see the finished work of Jesus Christ – until we can look back and see the cross of Christ between US and our SINS.”

Father, thank You for thoroughly convincing me that I cannot be or become my own savior, for I am only a sinner.  I need the work of Your Son to be able to have any hope of heaven.  There is nothing I can do to add to that.  He is my ONLY hope!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 40 -- The Work Gets Finished!

After all the preparation and hard work, it was time to put the Tabernacle together.  It was done on the first day of the second year since they’d left Egypt.  When it came time to put it all together, Moses handled the construction – bases and frames, then crossbars and posts, cloth then sheepskins then leather.  Moses placed the stone tablets into the Ark, slipped the carrying poles inside the rings, then put the lid on.  He wasn’t injured for touching the Ark as others would later be.  He set the furniture up inside exactly as directed.  He placed the incense altar in its spot then burned incense.  He offered a whole burnt offering on the main altar and set up the washing bowl.  Finally, he set up the courtyard around the Holy Tent.  “So Moses FINISHED the work.” 

He must have been both exhausted and elated.  Was God pleased?  “Then the cloud covered the Meeting Tent and the glory of the Lord filled the Holy Tent.  Moses could not enter the Meeting Tent, because the cloud had settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the Holy Tent.”

How thrilled Moses must have been to finish the work and see God pleased with the results!

Father, that’s what I want – to be pleased with the results of my work and to see You pleased with it also.  I’ve been praying for closure on several things.  Please bring us to that point.  Let us see progress and not a feeling of being stymied.  Bless us with Your presence and allow us to give You all the glory once the work is done.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 36-39 -- Divvy It Up

God had provided workers with a variety of skills – carpenters, fabric weavers, those who could sew, metal workers, leatherworkers, artisans, and carvers.

Bezalel and Oholiab produced the designs according to the wisdom and understanding God had given them, while the other workers used their specialties to interpret and develop those designs into actual objects to be used in worship.  No one person did it all.

To me, this speaks of specialization.  The chief designer guided the others and approved of the work, insuring that it matched the quality and specifications given by God.  Had Bezalel tried to make every bit of that himself, they might have needed an extra few years before moving on.  The whole process would have been slowed.

In the same way, at our work we can become too focused on the details of an area that others are better equipped by God to handle.  If we are managers, our job is not to micromanage, but to check quality control for those things presented to us, perhaps.  If we are artisans, we can naturally focus on the details, with someone else seeing how our work will fit into the bigger picture.

Sharing the load seems to be the theme coming out of this; after all, over 2000 pounds of gold and 7,550 pounds of silver were used to make the items specified by God.  No man could have done it alone.

Father, I constantly need reminders to let others help me and share the load.  I get so concerned that it is being done correctly that I often end up doing it all myself just to be sure.  That causes me to end up leaving other things undone, and once the backlog starts building, it’s almost impossible to catch up.  Show me the skilled workers You’ve already placed around me, and help me to allow them to do their jobs so that I can do my own job better.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 34 & 35 -- Joy In Work

God specifically addressed attitudes toward work and giving of time and money.  He had given Moses the instructions for building the Tabernacle, but it wasn’t going to build itself.

“Everyone who wanted to give came and brought a gift to the Lord … everyone who had _______ brought it.” 

The sidebar in my Bible, by Charles Colson, mentions a story about a man who visited a stone quarry and asked three of the workers what they were doing.  “Can’t you see?,” said the first one irritably.  “I’m cutting a stone.”  The second one replied, “I’m earning about a hundred pounds a week.”  But the third put down his pick and thrust out his chest proudly.  “I’m building a cathedral,” he said.

He continues, “We are, above all, spiritual beings and as such we need to rediscover the moral and spiritual significance for every area and aspect of our lives, including our work.”

Father, help me in my work not to get stymied by the minutiae or overwhelmed by the task.  Remind me that through me, You are helping others, using what I do for Your own glory.  If I ever exhibit a wrong attitude, please remind me that it reflects poorly on Your glory.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 32 & 33 -- To Hear God Say THIS

With Moses gone for so long, the people apparently wanted a leader present.  They told Aaron to “make” them gods who would lead them.  It’s the height of idiocy to think that man can make a god, but they chose to try it anyway.  The golden calf Aaron made was thought to be a representation of God in lieu of the cloud and fire, for they announced a special feast to honor the Lord.  Had they not believed this, then their feast would not be one to honor Him.  However, with the eating and drinking came drunkenness and then sexual sin.  No “God-honoring” was occurring.

God alerted Moses to what was happening below.  Moses interceded for the people an unbelievable number of times.  When he and Joshua arrived at the camp, he broke the tablets of the law “as a witness of what the people had already done,” my commentary said.  Moses didn’t do it in a fit of anger, but in righteous outrage.

After those still carrying on in sin were killed, the people’s reaction to God’s presence was noticeable.  God had told Moses that He would send an angel to lead them to the Promised Land, but He would not go Himself.  That was very bad news, and the people realized it.  I think they wondered what might happen next.  Moses went out to the Meeting Tent, outside the camp, and the pillar of cloud moved down to the entrance of the tent.  The people witnessed God’s presence, and this caused them to stand and worship God. 

Verse 12 in chapter 33 records a very touching conversation between God and Moses.  Moses said, “You have said to me, ‘I know you very well, and I am pleased with you.’  If I have truly pleased You, show me Your plans so that I may know YOU and continue to please You.”  That request caused God to reply, “I Myself will go with you, and I will give you victory.”

God’s presence with them was everything.  Moses said to Him, “If You don’t go with us … these people and I will be no different from any other people on earth.”  God replied, “I will do what you ask, because I know you very well and I am pleased with You.”  WOW!  To hear God say that!  I think deep down in our hearts, that’s what we all crave!  I wonder if we often don’t trust God enough to ask as Moses asked here.  Then again, perhaps we may not please God as much, due to our sinfulness, and we decide we might not should ask.

Father, it’s such a fine line between feeling able to ask, and being too prideful in assuming we can ask for whatever we want.  Keep me on the side of that line that leads me to acknowledge Your Lordship and my need of Your grace.  Yet how I want to be able to regularly hear You say, “I will do what you ask, because I know you well, and I am pleased with you.”

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 30 & 31 -- Giving The Spirit For More Than Preaching

God was giving Moses lots of instructions about the building, setup, and use of the Tabernacle and its furnishings.  I imagine that at some point Moses probably thought, “Well, I can see in my mind what these things are to look like, but I’m a shepherd, not a metal worker.  How am I gonna get this done, God?”

In chapter 31, God provides the answer, “See, I have chosen Bezalel … I have filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God and have given him the skill, ability, and knowledge to do all kinds of work.”

I can just imagine somewhere in the camp on the plains below, a man named Bezalel standing there, going about his everyday tasks, and suddenly feeling the filling of the Spirit taking place, probably wondering what was happening and why.

The one thing we should understand from this is that Bezalel never preached.  He never taught a Bible lesson.  He never evangelized.  But he made himself available to be right where God wanted him, doing what God had called him to do with what God had uniquely gifted him.

In the same way, God has uniquely gifted each of us for some aspect of service.  We present Him on this planet.  We may never preach, either, but we can use our God-given skill, ability, and knowledge to His glory.

Father, I can get really frustrated at work with what seems to me to be nothing more than bureaucratic paperwork.  It happened yesterday.  Please open my mind to see what things are useful tools that I haven’t yet discovered, and help me to put them to use.  Remind me often that I am working for You.  That alone should remove my frustration.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 29 -- Let The Killing Begin

As I read through this chapter, I was stunned by the sheer amount of death of sacrificial animals and blood-letting it took to appoint a priest for service.  It took seven days of sacrifices just to get the altar ready, and another seven days of sacrifices for the appointment of the priests.  Then the daily sacrifices began – two lambs per day.  It sure goes to show the abject sinfulness of man and the true value of the sacrifice that God made when He offered up His own Son once for all!

The end result, both back then and with the death of Jesus on the cross was not quite the same – God said, “I will live with the people … and be their God.  And they will know that I am the Lord their God who led them … so I could live with them.  I am the Lord their God.”  In the Old Testament, His presence would depart from them at times.  But for us, He lives in our hearts through His Holy Spirit!

Father, I thank You that today we do not have to worry about bringing animal sacrifices to church.  It would look more like a butcher’s shop than a house of worship.  Because we’ve been saved from that existence, help us all the more to realize the enormity of the sacrifice You made for us.  I love You!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 26-28 Changing A Burden Into A Blessing

As I read all of the instructions Moses had been given by God for setting up the portable house of worship known as the Tabernacle, which the Israelites would use for years to come, a thought began to form in my mind.  They were being given instructions to make altars and stands and rings and utensils out of gold and silver and bronze.  But what was unique was that these were basically nomads in the wilderness.  God had brought them to the edge of the Promised Land and then turned them away because of their continued refusal to obey.  They hadn’t developed gold and silver mines and didn’t have a central bank with a vault where these valuables were stored.  Instead, the Egyptians had given them all their precious metals as jewelry just before they left Egypt. 

Hikers and backpackers don’t take anything that isn’t absolutely necessary for the trip, as the added weight can make for a miserable experience.  Yet this jewelry was baggage that the people were lugging around the desert!

Now God is instructing them to take that baggage and make something useful from it.  They were to shape it into something that honors Him and serves as a reminder of His watchcare over them.  Once it was completed, there would be heavier things to carry, and some things, like the Ark and the altar, would be large and unwieldy, but the people could know that they were now carrying around something with a holy purpose, not simply lugging around excess baggage.

Father, give me the strength to turn over an excess baggage that I carry around over to You.  Lighten my load, and make it useful to You instead.  Bless me by what results.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 24 & 25 -- Law Equals Distance, Grace Equals Nearness

Moses and 73 other leaders were called by God to come partway up the mountain to worship God from a distance.  The distance speaks of our sin that separates us from God.  After reaching the designated spot, only Moses was to continue to the place where God would reveal Himself to him.  The others could not follow.  God did, however reveal Himself to all of them and the narrative describes a physical manifestation and not just a vision or dream.

Moses and Joshua then climbed further, with perhaps Joshua staying back at some point.  For six days Moses waited patiently for God to call out to him.  Nothing happened for almost a week, but Moses waited on God.

On the seventh day, the Lord called to Moses from the cloud, and Moses entered it, moving higher up the mountain.  He remained there for 40 days and nights.

My commentary said that 40 was the number of testing or probation.  It wasn’t Moses who was tested, but the people of Israel at the foot of the mountain.  God was going to show them how helpless they were to keep His agreement, though they’d readily agreed three times already that they would.

My commentary mentioned that the Law says, “They shall not come near,” while grace says, “Let us draw near.”  Even back then, God was being gracious by allowing them to draw near, as He does us.  What an unspeakable privilege. 

Father, thank You for providing grace to us.  The Law only points out our sinfulness.  Grace reveals Your love for us in spite of our sin.  Yes, I am a sinner who has no right to come before You.  But through Christ, You’ve adopted me as Your own, allowing me to draw near to You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford