my burg

Bible reading for May 6.  Numbers 14. "But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD..." (Numbers 14:21)  PREVIOUSLY IN NUMBERS. Twelve scouts are sent into the promised land to gather information.  Ten of the twelve give disheartening reports and the people of Israel are now ready to stone Moses, hold elections for a new leader, and go back to Egypt. Seriously, like a coup. Joshua and Caleb call the people to trust God and move forward at the Lord's direction. But the opponents they will face seem unbeatable and the Israelites feel like grasshoppers in comparison.  So, after one year of emancipation the people are ready to give up and go back to making bricks. A FORTY-YEAR TIMEOUT. Moses intercedes again for God's rebellious people and they are forgiven and spared, but must wait a generation before entering the land .  Fear must be replaced by faith. The slavish mindset must be replaced with a mindset of fr...

"The things we really need come to us only as gifts, and in order to receive them as gifts we have to be open. In order to be open we have to renounce ourselves, in a sense we have to die to our image of ourselves, our autonomy, our fixation upon our self-willed identity."   (Thomas Merton)

"We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin."  (Romans 6:6-7 ESV) Here's Francis Schaeffer on dying to self... We are to be willing to say no to ourselves, we are to be willing to say no to things, in order that the command to love God and men may have real meaning... We do not come to true spirituality or the true Christian life merely by keeping a list, but neither do we come to it merely by rejecting the list and then shrugging our shoulders and living a looser life… As I have said, Romans chapter 6 begins with many strong negatives, and though we may want to rush on to the second half of verse 4 ("As Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we may walk in newness of life"), actually we are in peril if we ignore the element of "dying." "Buried with him in baptism," ...