OUT OF THE BOX

Below is a paraphrased excerpt from a letter wrote I about 6 years ago. I have edited out the "juicy" parts, but nevertheless it is a candid expression of what I was dealing with at that particular season. Many of you may identify with it to some degree. I would encourage you to follow it up with Psalm 73, which encourages God’s people to find their peace and solutions in the presence of God. A personal letter, Summer of 2003: “My life has come to a place of overwhelming shock to me. It is like waking up from a dream and finding I am in a nightmare. To start out with a vision for great things and to end up at the bottom has been a great and shameful disappointment to me. My life has been filled with wonderful signs of God’s presence and horrible pits of darkness at the same time. I have always tried to follow what I thought was the Lord’s way and direction, yet now I realize how I have been so influenced by my fears, anxieties, laziness, and lack of discipline. Over the years...

“And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands (the idols)…” Acts 7: 41 “And…he…made a molded calf…and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Exodus 32: 4-6 “It is…the sound of singing I hear….He saw the calf and the dancing.” Ex 32: 18-19. The verses above show that you can disobey the Lord and still have a party---at least for a while. One of the problems with human nature is that it so often loses sight of both reward and consequences. When we get caught up in the temptation of the moment or in what we want right now, we forget that there is a reward for faith and obedience, and a consequence and a reaping for evil and disobedience. And so like Israel, we make our “golden calves” and have a party. Moses had gone up the mountain to meet God face to face and to receive the commandments and the laws for Israel’s life as a nation. The people became impatient, discontent, perplexed, and maybe bored du...