Our blog is inspired by The Holy Spirit.
With their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!”
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
“We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
“Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.”
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Numbers 21:4b – 9
As we have related in our blogs, the Old Testament points to the New Testament and the Cross. Today’s reading is a great example.
A point of interest you might have missed, and I would have missed had I not watched the Chosen Season 1 episode 7. Moses made a serpent and mounted it on a pole with a crossbar, which prefigured Jesus on His Cross. Joshua questions if Moses is creating a god for the people to worship, and this is wrong, for the Ten Commandments clearly state there is only one God, and you shall not worship any other.
Moses replies that He Moses is only doing what God told him to do.
Moses also told Joshua he had to trust that what God told him to do was what God wanted to be done.
The Cross with the Serpent points to Jesus on His Cross destroying the serpent, satan, and establishing a new world, “The Spirit World,” through His life, Death, and Resurrection.
The second reading today comes from Philippians 2: 6-11
Brothers and sisters:
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
The words that every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father, jumped out at me as I read them and are words we have used in many of our blogs.
We said a few weeks ago that life as a Christian is easy,
If,
You always keep in the front of your mind that we are here to imitate Jesus, by doing the will of His Father, for the Glory of God the Father.
I have realized, as I age, that our relationship with God is a mirror. The Love we have for God, and our neighbor reflects back to us from God and our neighbors.
For example, God will forgive us if we forgive everyone who has screwed us over. If we don’t, God won’t, and our loss is a loss of Joy and Peace. Forgiving at first seems very hard, as I experienced when I decided I had to start forgiving those who had screwed me over, but as I began to forgive, I realized that the only person I was hurting by my anger was me.
That’s dumb!
When you pray the Our Father, you say, “Forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.” We forgive, God forgives us, and we start imitating Jesus on His Cross.
Now I try to keep in mind that by forgiving others, I have nailed to my cross my anger and can grow in the Joy and Peace of the Holy Spirit, and by achieving this, I am giving glory to God the Father.
“The nine” We pray you will grow in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
We will deviate this week and mention two books I have found to be very powerful. I bought both books on bookbub.com for $1.99 for my Kindle. The books are only available for one day, so you won’t be able to get this price.
Praying Through the Names of Jesus. By Tony Evans. First, I didn’t know the Bible referred to Jesus using fifty different names.
Tony starts by giving the name and then showing where this particular name is used in the Bible.
Next, Tony talks about that name using four categories; Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.
Adoration: why this name should encourage us to look at Jesus in a different light and Adore what Jesus has done for us through that name.
Confession: Helping us to realize how we have sinned against God by our refusal to accept all Jesus has given us in this unique name.
Thanksgiving: Pointing out what we should thank Jesus for in this particular name.
Supplication: Asking for help to apply that name to our daily life.
I found this book very interesting; I read a different name, about three pages long, each day, and when I finish reading Tony’s book, I will start over again.
I beat the Odds by Michael Oher.
If you watched the movie Blindside, then you have an idea of what this book is about,
But,
I stand corrected.
Michael, in his book, describes his childhood with a Mother who is addicted to drugs, who, when sober, is a wonderful loving person, but when high on drugs, abandons her children.
Michael also describes the schools he attended and his family life. His family life was very interesting because the family structure, as most of us know it, was nonexistent,
But,
There was a true love between the siblings and with their mom.
I couldn’t put the book down because the movie portrayed Michael as a slow learner and someone who didn’t know football, which was not true. The book also tells the tough life Michael and others in his situation face every day.
My eyes are now opened to the problems faced by so many children in our country today, and I wish I could say I had answers, but I have none except trying to get involved somehow.
And,
The book once again reinforced how Blessed Gail and I have been throughout our lives, starting with Loving Parents and families and then building a Loving family for our sons, their wives, and our grandchildren.
I fully realize that we all face problems, but I also know and believe Love always wins!
Picture:
The Bruce Freeman Trail is beautiful. Gail and I picked it up in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. The Trail is eleven miles and is rated five stars. Link below:
www.brucefreemanrailtrail.org
