Good day dear friends. Tomorrow morning our space program resumes. Given that the last flight was not successful, we should be in prayer for all who work in getting the flight up and going and then back down safely. Pray for the crew and their safe flight.
We continue our study of discipline as a mark of being Christ's disciple. Here is our study guide for today:
Tuesday: Read Acts 7:30. If you’re familiar with the story of Moses, this verse simply says something that does no justice to the day to day living experiences of forty (40) years in the wilderness that he endured to form God’s people into a spiritual nation. What disciplines do you suppose Moses’ possessed to help him with each day?
Here is that text (NRSV):
7:30 "Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush."
My mistake! This verse comes forty years after Moses' murdered an Egyptian and he believed he was never going to return to Egypt again. This particular verse is a reminder to the people of Israel of the start of a long journey of faith that led to Moses leading God's people into the wilderness. Yet, it is a good starting point. What disciplines must Moses have had while being a fugitive from justice? He still found favor in God's sight to be used by God to call his people to leave Egypt. And the whole journey of forty years into the desert was a walk of discipline. The entire journey was to form this band of runaway slaves into the people of God. It took forty years to form them and even then the journey was exactly how we act. One minute we're close to God obedient and loving towards God, the next we're off doing our thing or following after something else. Moses himself was not perfect. He was a murderer, a fugitive, a man of somewhat limited speech, a man given to despair, a man led astray from the true worship of God, yet he led the people right to where God needed them delivered. Sadly, we know "the rest of the story" and Moses himself only saw the promised land but did not cross into it. Yet, during Jesus' transfiguration the disciples present with the Lord said they saw Moses and Elijah.
A faith journey is never easy. No one has said it would be nor did anyone promise that to you. Precisely why we need the disciplines we mentioned Sunday. We need prayer. Prayer can be like the sips of water we take on a long hike. Imagine setting out in the cool of the morning to take an 8 hour hike. Imagine doing it without water. We would not make it in the same shape as we started. For one of my badges as a scout, my friend and I took a seven mile hike in the heat of a Kingsville summer. We mapped our route out of Kingsville, north on a farm to market road, close to the Celenese plant, we turned east and then we hit the main highway and hiked south to town again. Our best accessory was that canteen we had bought at the Army-Navy Surplus story on the same road on which we ended our hike.
Our journey needs a map. God provides the map in the form of The Bible. We journey better if we know where we are going. If we use scripture reading as one of our disciplines we'll know where we are going.
Our journey needs a time of rest and regrouping. That's what worship is. If we gather to worship God and not get sidetracked on any of the "streets" I mentioned on Sunday such as anger, disgust, frustration (Oh, with my luck I come to church on the very same Sunday as that person I can't stand, and she's sitting in MY pew!), we can't focus our worship on God.
Our journey requires a time to share. Giving is that discipline that allows us to return back to God all that God has shared with us. We tithe (or should be!), we give of our time, we give of ourselves.
Our journey requires sharing with others. Service is that discipline which allows us to give back to God's people. We don't have to go to Africa to do that. We can give of ourselves in many ways to needs all around us. Our journey is more complete is we get involved in a mission project that allows us to give more of ourselves.
Our journey is traveled better if we invite others. This is witnessing or sharing. It is our sharing with others what we've found in God. God is too good and too awesome to keep to ourselves. It is this invitation that makes the journey complete.
Will it take us forty years to complete? It may take longer! Our journey is not about measuring days. It is simply about enjoying each day, step by step. God is with us.
PRAYER: God of the awesome journey, journey with us now. Help us to be the disciples you've called us to be. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Have a great and awesome day filled with blessings!
e.v.
PS Don't forget this is also available at http://theuniversityoftheway.blogspot.com
