Weekly Blog

Tips, Tricks, Skills, Spirituality and Wisdom

Teresa McBean 12/14/17 Teresa McBean 12/14/17

Was There Ever a King Like This?

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After the Israelites gained possession of their new homeland, they looked around and wanted what other tribes had – a king. They begged and complained and whined and eventually God gave them what they wanted. Again.

First Saul, who turned out to be a mess and then David, a king after God’s own heart but a complicated guy with his own issues. In the darkness that inevitably followed God’s people demanded and received what they wanted rather than trusting God with what they need. Eventually God came with a promise (and some needed consequences as well). Here’s the promise:

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it germinate and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall be every word that proceeds from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”. Isaiah 55:10-11

Eleven days from now we will celebrate the birth of Christ. The day will bring its own mix of sacred and profane, joy and heartache if previous holidays are predictive. But no matter what happens on December 25th, what we can know is this: the God of our understanding will accomplish that which he has purposed.

When we forget and begin to believe that our own beliefs, longings, wants and needs, demands, and plans are necessary for God to accomplish his own will – we have fallen into the same trap of self-deception that ensnared the Israelites. Those guys intended to love God and bless others, sometimes. But mostly they kept stumbling over themselves and their own ideas. Even David. Tomorrow we will remind ourselves of why earthly kings are not where we place our hope.

Teresa McBean 12/13/17 Teresa McBean 12/13/17

God Loves The Sorry People

If you watched the video about Curtis, I wonder if you came to the same conclusions I did:

1. Curtis is a bit indulged so thinking of himself as “less than” is shocking.

2. Is there a healthy middle ground between King and Sorry Person?

On a larger scale, what does this little clip have to do with us spiritually? I think quite a lot. When we move on in the scriptures to Joshua 24, we discover the Israelites on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Spies were sent to scope out the current inhabitants and make an invasion plan.

Two guys in the search party wanted to trust God and move forward; the rest were afraid and held back. God received this news as rebellion so God gave them exactly what they feared – no entrance into the land. Eventually the doubters died off and the remaining Israelites did indeed claim the land promised them so many years before.

As their new lead guy, Joshua reminded his rag tag band of Israelites of their past infidelity and asked a solid question: “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Josh. 24:15

As we draw near to our sacred Christmas holiday and the end of yet another year, maybe we would be well-served to notice if there is some area in our own lives where we are behaving more like King Curtis than a faithful servant of God.

In the case of the Israelites, they told Joshua that they would repent even as he reminded them that they weren’t capable of faithfulness. He reminded them that at this point their freedom and security depended on their ability to follow God and serve him only. Joshua had done what he could do, but he could not compel them to live as men and women who loved God. Joshua was proven right; the Israelites soon strayed.

Fortunately for us, God loves sorry people.

Teresa McBean 12/12/17 Teresa McBean 12/12/17

King Curtis and The Sorry People

A few years ago a little boy named Curtis became well known on a show called “Wife Swap”. He came from a family of indulgence. Mom and Dad did whatever it took to make their two children happy. Curtis accurately read the tea leaves and named himself, “King Curtis.”

But the show “Wife Swap” is all about shaking things up; King Curtis’ mom was replaced with a fitness instructor who ran a tight ship in her own home. Naturally, fireworks ensued:

Watch this.

Tomorrow we are going to talk about it.

Teresa McBean 12/11/17 Teresa McBean 12/11/17

The First Passover

In Exodus 12, we learn of Moses. He was an Israelite baby who was spared the judgment of the Pharaoh who had issued a decree to kill male Israelite babies. He was basically trying to reduce the Israelite population. Cruel? You bet. Hard to fathom? Oh yeah. I wish I could say that this cruelty had been eliminated in the world today. But I’d be lying.

Moses was spared. He eventually commits murderer in a fit of rage and if you read carefully the accounts of Moses, I think you might agree with me that he was a bit of a whiner too. He was good and bad during the entirety of his life, ultimately not making it into the Promised Land himself. He was called to set his people free and successful in doing so to a point. Before, during and after he was weak and strong, trusting and distrusting. The freedom journey was long and arduous and eventually it worked but a lot of people got slaughtered along the way. God had a plan which the Israelites executed and were saved by that allowed their freedom journey to BEGIN. But it was all long and hard, glorious and gut-wrenching.

We could make a big old long list of the events within the past 12 months that reflect a tone deafness and lack of awareness of how we have continued to marginalize, dehumanize and allow or willingly pursue the winnowing out of one race, religion, gender or another.

But that’s not the point of this devotional. Here’s my point: God is always up to something. Prepare yourself not by perfecting a sparkly crown of good behavior but by figuring out a way to remember that there is a God and he is crazy about you. Just try. Someday we all may look back on our lives and see how we were part of the starry sky, a constellation of God’s people who in small but significant ways provided a pin prick of light in an otherwise dark landscape.

Teresa McBean 12/10/17 Teresa McBean 12/10/17

Pass Over Us

There’s this song from the Andrew Peterson collection in Behold the Lamb of God that KILLS me every time I hear it. Do yourself a favor and listen to it. Click here to listen on YouTube.

Tomorrow we’ll chat.

You are welcome.