Category Archives: Scripture

This year of 2020 has given me a small glimpse into the lives of the Israelites. Each month of 2020 has had the mentality of “What is going to happen next?” and “What else could possibly go wrong?” That’s how I feel when reading through Numbers, “What next could possibly go wrong with the Israelites?”

And to be honest, I resonate with Korah. Not because I doubt that God had chosen Moses and Aaron to lead the people out of Egypt and into the desert, but because the whole community is holy.

When I was college, I spent a summer in Alaska. One evening, the friend I was living with took me to meet some people who were working with indigenous Alaskans. They were telling us the history of the Gospel coming to Alaska, which included both Baptist and Catholic missionaries. The man talking essentially commented how bad it was that the Catholic missionaries were there, and that while they introduced the indigenous Alaskans to the Gospel, he was implying that Catholics weren’t really Christians.

God sat in the midst of them, as His presence in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night covered the Tabernacle (Numbers 9:15). When the cloud or fire stopped moving and settled, the Israelites were to settle as well. When the cloud lifted and began to move, so were the Israelites.

As the church began, so did the question of “how do we do church?” At first, the apostles, disciples, and new believers acted more like a large group of friends or a large extended family than what we would consider the church. But soon, the complexities of a new way of life mixed with dozens of daily converts, and multiple ethnic, socio-economic, and cultural groups merging together demanded more structure and answers.

Photo by Micah Hallahan on Unsplash Today’s reading is Micah 6-7, Nahum 1-3, Psalm 95, and Acts 4-5 Come, let us bow down in worship, Well, tonight is the big night. The election results are pouring in and people across the country (myself included) are glued to the media. let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; I am …

Continue reading “Bible Reading Day 95”

Tomorrow might be one of the biggest elections in the history of the United States. The governor of Oregon has the Oregon National Guard on standby (as I am sure many other governors do as well) just in case bad things happen. But the reality is that we won’t know for a few days – perhaps even weeks – the outcome of this election. So those “bad things” may come tomorrow, but they may also come as the results come in.

Is there something in your life that you are putting off because you know the outcome and it is not the outcome you want? Are you running from God because what He is asking of you is not what you want to have happen?

If your name was Jonah son of Amittai, you’d probably say yes.

Most Christians, particularly those from Evangelical and Charismatic backgrounds, do not do lament well. In my experience – and in my upbringing – lament was not emphasized nor really even spoken about. We did talk about grief and how it was okay to grieve, such as in the case of the death of a loved one, but we quickly jumped to the hope we have in the resurrection and how, if they were a Christian, we will see them in heaven one day. Funerals in particular were always to have this hopeful resurrection message, not quite canceling the grief, but with the intent of aiming the grief towards hope.

I think the Evangelical church – and maybe other portions of the Church – have gotten this passage very wrong. Jesus says these words prior to the actual institution of communion (which is usually interpreted as verses 19-20). As He is saying these words prior to taking the bread, giving thanks, and breaking it, and prior to taking the cup and saying it is the blood of the new covenant, Jesus is speaking in a much fuller sense than just what we consider “communion.