Daily Bread

A Journey That Never Ends

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” Deuteronomy 34:4 ESV

If we look at the life of Moses we would see that he spent his entire life first preparing for and then finally fulfilling his calling to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. He spent forty years as a shepherd until God appeared at the burning bush and then another forty leading the Israelites through the desert. But when it came time for Moses to get to the river and cross over, God told him that he would not be able to do so. As I come to the end of this year I think I know how Moses might have felt.  God has been at work throughout the past year; both in victories and defeats and has guided our family even when we have been unaware of His presence.  But as we approach the end of this twelve month journey I wonder what lies ahead.

God didn’t allow Moses to go with Joshua when the Israelites crossed the Jordan. Instead He called Moses to look from the top of a mountain to see the land that he had waited for eighty years to enter. It seemed like a bum deal to me.  But God never forgot His promise and one day when Jesus climbed a high mountain in Israel, the scripture says that Moses appeared to him with Elijah. It took more than a thousand years but Moses did get to enter God’s Promised Land. In the same way with us as we finish our own journey the eternity that holds our promised land will only be beginning.

Seeing 2020

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While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.      2 Corinthians 4:18 KJV

One day Jesus sat down for dinner with a wealthy Pharisee named Simon. During their meal the pleasantness of the scene was harshly interrupted by a weeping woman. She burst into the room and began kissing the feet of Jesus and wiping them clean with her hair. Simon was shocked! It was well known in his community what flagrant sins this woman had committed. How dare she enter his house, and furthermore how could Jesus (If He really were a prophet) allow himself to be touched by someone like her?

Yet Jesus saw the circumstances quite differently than Simon. Jesus didn’t look at the fine tableware or the expensive furnishings. Jesus hadn’t at all been impressed by the beautiful columns or the hand carved door at the entry of Simon’s home. Instead Jesus saw the coldness of Simon’s heart. He had noticed that Simon had not given him the customary kiss on the cheek, or offered water for his feet to be washed. Jesus saw quite clearly the depth of repentance and gratitude of this woman and treasured her acts of love and friendship.

God does not see things as we see them and as we enter this New Year my prayer is for God to give us His 2020 heavenly vision. I ask that we can see the value that Jesus sees in others and how worthless so many things are to which we so tightly cling. The challenges that we meet this year we be better met when we can see and treasure the invisible things of God’s eternal worth.

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The Christmas Lamb

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And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. Luke 2:16-17 NKJV

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The beautiful manger scene at the entrance to the Assisted Living facility looked a little funny to me the first time that I passed it the other day. I saw wise men and shepherds; Mary, Joseph and lots of sheep but where was Jesus? When I asked at the desk they told me that one of the residents had pointed out that they couldn’t put Jesus in before Christmas because He wasn’t born until then. It seemed pretty logical to me so I shrugged my shoulders and laughed and then went in to sing carols. The following day as I brought some gifts that our church had donated I noticed a change in the Nativity. There was still no baby but someone had felt the empty manger needed an occupant and so a lamb was put in the place of Jesus. What better story could be told than the lamb of God laid in the manger at Christmas and laid and nailed on the cross just 33 Christmases later. God Bless and Merry Christmas!