Musings with PWC

  That’s a long wait! Most of you are probably familiar with Moses’ first trip up Mount Sinai after he had led the Hebrew children out of Egypt.  You might recall Moses made two trips up the Mount to be with the Lord.  Apparently, according to the Bible, each time Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights up there.  Wow!  Long time. The first time he was gone the people got impatient and built the golden calf.  God knows this and sends Moses down to deal with them.  So, off Moses goes.  Shortly after leaving God, Moses speaks with Joshua. Exodus 32: (NLT) 17 When Joshua heard the boisterous noise of the people shouting below them, he exclaimed to Moses, “It sounds like war in the camp!” 18 But Moses replied, “No, it’s not a shout of victory nor the wailing of defeat. I hear the sound of a celebration.” 19 When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashin...

  Jailed for preaching! The book of Acts and history itself tells this story: Acts 4:18 (NKJV)  So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. Acts 5:40 (NKJV)  And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Help the Persecuted reports that world wide every two hours a Christian is killed for following Christ.( https://htp.org/?sc=2021GA100&mc )  These are difficult days— "It was Tertullian, one of the Early Church Fathers of the second century, who really coined the term “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.” (accessed 20 Feb https://media.ascensionpress.com/2018/09/17/blood-of-the-martyrs-is-still-seed-for-the-church/ )   God will have a church.  God will have his people.  And martyrs’ blood is still being poured into the ground around the world! Question:...

  Giftedness or Fruitfulness: You are gifted because you have strong faith and are sensitive to the Spirit. You are fruitful because you have strong faith and are obedient and submissive to the Spirit. You are gifted and fruitful because you have all of these: Strong Faith Sensitivity to the Spirit Obedience to the Spirit Submission to the Spirit Fruitful people are easy to be around.  They are pleasurable. Gifted people are tougher to be around…unless you need what their gift happens to be. Fruitful/gifted people are the best to be around.  They are nice and can help you. Aim for a strong sense of both.  Ask a soul friend or your spouse where you are on the gift scale—-where you are in a fruit inspection! Guard yourself and ask God’s mercy especially if you are weak in fruit but strong in gifts Rise up and seek the Lord for fresh sensitivity if you are weak in gifts but strong in fruit. Total giftedness and little or no fruit reveals a co...

  Genesis 35:9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. 11 Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”(NKJV)  Genesis 24:6 But Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there. 7 The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, To your descendants I give this land,’(NKJV)  Faith always receives in the spiritual realm before the natural realm. Faith sees the spiritual realm as the real realm. Many die physically without the full manifestation of th...

  Your choice: Why the tree in the garden?   The gift of free will Why didn’t God stop Adam and Eve the moment they put the apple to their lips?  Why didn’t he send a bolt of lightening down to remind them the consequences of disobedience? Better yet—why put the temptation there in the first place?  No tree?  No disobedience?   And, we would still all be naked running around a garden…hmmm.   It all has to do with free will. It has to do with choice. Initial choice This is simple but complicated.  God made man in his image.  Three components of personhood are will, intellect, and emotion.  Adam and Eve were created with a will.  A will means there are options.  You can choose obedience and submission to God.  Or, you can choose disobedience and independence. You could reject Christ:  Matthew 21:42 (NLT) 42 Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?‘The stone that the builders re...

  Spirituality and Sailing If you are not a sailor—too bad.  No really, if you are not a sailor let me tell you a few things that you need to know. # 1.  Sailing requires wind.  Yep hard to believe but it’s true.  No wind—no sailing. # 2.  Even when you have wind, there is still the possibility of the boat not moving or moving in the wrong direction. # 3.  Being a sailor requires some elementary concepts of how to ‘catch the wind’ and adjust the sail(s) and rudder to get the boat moving. A sailor needs to understand how to adjust the boat’s riggings to move the boat in the required direction.  This is not particularly rocket science, but it does require some knowledge and some practice.  It is best to learn sailing from a sailor.  It is best to crew a boat for a friend (read do what you are told by the captain) than to solo sail.  Be prepared to get wet and fail.  Anyone learning to sail will probably dump the boat over...

  Ps 42:8. But each day the LORD pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life. Common life.  Everyone breathing benefits from the breath of life and the ability to be alive. God gives life—whether that life is acknowledged or not. Spiritual life.  Ah this is different.  It is the Spirit that gives life!  Here this is special life or special grace.  It is an opening of one’s understanding through divine grace and revelation of the need of spiritual life infused with forgiveness, grace, and freedom.  Unsaved person do not know they are dead in their trespasses and sins.  They are breathing God’s air.  They are the recipients of common life/ common grace—but they are dead—as dead as dead can be.  They think they are alive but they are totally deceived and they are trying to live their common life with as much life as they can muster up.  Now only spiritually alive pe...