Temple of the Most High

Exodus 25:8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.

I have been interested in the fine detail that God provided for the construction of the Tabernacle and the Temple. He truly seems to care about precisely what it is that He inhabits.

And, if we ask, He will inhabit us.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Power

I am surrounded by power. AC power in the walls and appliances of my house, the power of a big V8 engine under the hood of my truck, the power of caffeine to wake me and hopefully keep me awake as I climb behind the wheel for six hours in Southern Cal traffic... with only a couple hours of sleep behind me.

I ran the battery in my iPhone down yesterday. The phone is designed to give plenty of warning, and as it got to 20% power it politely told me. I had the choice to shut the phone off, or 'dismiss' the warning. I pressed 'dismiss.'

I did that because I had a charger in my truck, and so as I prepared to drive from that service call to the next, I plugged my phone in. But for whatever reason, the charger and my phone were not compatible. I think I have used that charger before, but it may have been my older iPhone. I know I have gotten warning signs on whichever iPhone it was, telling me that the charger was not fully compatible. It told me that I may not have full cell coverage, or some limitation of the function of the thing, but I am pretty sure that it at least charged the battery. But yesterday it seemed to have 'had it,' or my new phone is different, so it gave me three pages of warnings including a yellow triangle with the words, "not charging."

Pretty clear, that one.

The power flow was simply not going to happen. I chuckled that as I have now purchased the most advanced phone that Apple Corp. sells, it is so complex that my lowly car charger can no longer simply shove 12 volts DC into the charging port without an argument.

My lovely and gracious wife was out shopping last night, and she purchased a new car charger kit. It says "for iPhone" on it, so I will see in a few minutes if it will work.

God wants to implant power in my life. But I admit, sometimes I am too demanding to receive it. I want it a certain way, at a certain time, with certain connections to other things I want to do, with witnesses, or with recognition, blah blah blah.

And God is up there, with power which is truly Universal, Spiritual and Transformational, but He can't get it into me because I have become too "advanced."

OK.

God - search my heart. Show me if I have become my own phone. But if I have, please don't leave me there. I need the power of the Holy Spirit, so if you show me blockages to the flow, let me have the courage to change. In fact, I know you want me to change, you will help me to change, in fact there really is no other WAY for me to change. So - let the power flow, Lord Jesus.

Would you like some cheese with that Whine?

Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

I don't know precisely what was going through Peter's mind. None of us do. But I think there are times it is safe to speculate when the Bible isn't clear (certainly not all the time). I think we can guess that in this case Peter was reacting to the thought that Jesus would suffer crucifixion. It's a terrible way to die - purposely a long, painful death in full public view, with the shame of nakedness and a scourging for added effect.

But the idea was not that the death would be awful - though it was - but that there was a price which had to be paid. Not how the execution was to take place, but THAT the life was to be given.

I think if Peter had taken his eyes off of the loving friend who stood before him, and if he had taken his mind off of the terrible death which Jesus said was in store for Him, and tried to get a 'big picture' of the desperate need for the once-for-all sacrifice which needed to be be offered, well Peter might have had a different view of the whole thing.

So - we have the same choice. Try to see our lives as fleeting and our sufferings as temporary, and keep in mind the fact that eternity with God waits beyond - it does tend to reduce the whining a bit.

2 Corinthians 4:17 (New International Version, ©2010)

17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Plagues

I was reading in Exodus about the interactions between Moses and Pharaoh, as Moses comes into his presence repeatedly to ask for the freedom of the Jewish people. I have studied this before, but it has been a long time. I want to develop a more in-depth study on this, but at a quick read-through this morning, I noticed in most cases the plagues fell on parts of Egypt, but not where the Israelite camps were.

But not all.

There were certain of the plagues - most notably the last two: locust and death angel - which touched the entire land. ANYBODY who did not apply the blood of a sacrificial lamb to their doorposts as directed would lose their firstborn child - and animals as well.

We live in a world which is sickened by sin. It's like jumping into the middle of a huge lake - we WILL get wet. So it should come as no surprise when we are affected by the sin around us. Even though Jesus has paid the price for our sins, and even though we have eternity at God's side to look forward to, here, now, we feel the pain of death, loss, uncertainty, and sorrow.

The plagues were carefully orchestrated by God to move Pharaoh to not only let the people go to worship, but to move both Pharaoh AND the people of Egypt to proclaim that God was the one true God, and that their gods, were powerless before Him.

And that, in my opinion, was worth the wait, and worth the pain.

Change happens

My world changed last night. I bet you know that his blog is part of my prayer life. That may sound strange, but I often sit and write huge volumes as 'letters to God,' and then most often I delete all or part of it, often posting something completely different than what I started with as I move into my daily Bible study, other times posting a singe sentence or paragraph from what began as a massive tome. I wrote yesterday about how God is not afraid of change - I actually wrote this:

"We truly serve a God who is not afraid of change. Let's embrace it with Him."

Duh! I should be careful what I ask for - and yet...

Well, it has happened. Relax, nobody died or anything. And no, it's not as if this one change is likely to be the end of changes for awhile. At our church board meeting last night some changes came about, and I have no way to even predict how far-reaching the changes will be. I have been asked to chair the Pastoral Search Committee.

I am proud to serve on the board, humbled to serve on the board, comfortable serving on the board, and challenged by serving on the board. All at the same time, most of the time. I can remember a brother asking me to consider serving on the board well over 15 years ago - he said something like, "it's a meeting a month, not that much of a time demand." I was not taken in: I assumed it would be more than that, and it has proven to be so. I have learned as much from my service in this one small thing as just about any other part of my life - for two reasons:

1.I'm not always the majority opinion, and
2.I need large amounts of prayer, and prayer changes people.

But this will be a new chapter in my life of service at this church. I will be coordinating the search for our new pastor. I am surrounded by good people - really good people - who have worked very long and hard already, and I trust that God will help me bring something to the table.

Change

Change is tough for most of us. I am pretty much normal in this regard - I get comfortable with things as they are and like them to stay that way. You know, predictable. The thing is, I have always had things in my life which by their very nature are unpredictable. Some of those 'things' are people, one other real unpredictable thing is the fact that I own a business, and still another one is God.

God? You may ask, "how can God be unpredictable? I thought He was the very picture of predictability!" You may even get upset. You wanted my blog to be predictable, and here we are.

But even God himself tells us things like this -

Lamentations 3:22 for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Psalm 98:1 A psalm. Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

Isaiah 43:19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

The "New Covenant" we enjoy, etc.

We truly serve a God who is not afraid of change. Let's embrace it with Him.

Some of us are not producing the crop we think we are.

This really struck me in my reading this morning - Matthew 13
The Parable of the Weeds

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

Kindness - a forgotten art?

I grew up watching 'Roasts' on TV with my family. Dean Martin, and a bunch of stars of his time and place would take turns poking fun at whoever the poor target for the evening was. You can still see some of these on YouTube and other places. But after going back and seeing some of them, I realized that they were like a Sunday School picnic compared to the bawdy, earthy, sexually explicit, foul-language-laced tirades that pass as comedy these days.

I did not watch the Golden Globe awards show last night (even though I now have cable, my relationship with TV continues to be very distant). I did, however, read an article announcing that Ricky Gervais, the host of last night's extravaganza, predicted that he would never be invited back again. He said he was going to pull out all the stops, and rip everyone to pieces and then some.

He seems to have done better than he hoped. I now actually don't want to see clips and videos from the event, because what I have read in the press is amazingly unkind. Not only to Ricky, but to the people he targeted. When people like Sandra Bullock sit stone-faced, not laughing at you as you poke 'fun' at people, you should get a clue.

So what is this doing in my blog today? Simple - we as a nation seem to have headed out into a new war. Society has begun to embrace the most bizarre, the most cruel, the most hateful, and called it fun. I'm concerned about it - and yet the general public seems to be loving it.

I remember a day when we could put on a show, call it a roast, and yet realize that the people involved obviously loved each other. Little nods, winks, waves of the hand and so forth would go back and forth, and "The Line" was not crossed. I remember Don Rickles poking fun at Johnny Carson about the fact that he had been married so many times, and that was flirting with disaster - yet there was enough respect in the way it was done to show that it was harmless teasing and the two men continued to work together and be friends.

Now, there are 'reality' shows in which the conversations have to be heavily censored, as tempers flare. In fact, it must be a major attraction to the viewing public in general because I have begun to hear more and more announcements like this: "Tempers flare and fists fly as the crew of "deadliest logging choppers" run up against the biggest deadline of their history..."

And in the background you see people throwing chairs, jumping off heavy equipment to go punch a co-worker, or you see two people with an inch between them as the entire yelling spree is censored via beeps and they can't even show you their mouths for fear that you will figure out which words are being used.

And this is reflective of our society today? I hope not, but I fear it might be.

Matthew 12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Can you hear me now?

I got up very early this morning and found that I had no Internet connection. It was so very early that I couldn't very well go knock on my Son's door and ask him if they could check the modem etc. In fact, Stephen is off in Orlando, FL on a business trip, and I am pretty sure my DIL would not appreciate being woken from sleep before sunup to fix my computer troubles. So - I went back to bed.

I lay there - wide awake since the coffee seemed to be already working full strength - and wondered what it would be like if my prayer life suddenly stopped in the same manner as our Internet did. And I realized that there have been times in my life when it sure seemed that way. But God promises us that he hears and answers prayers, and that the The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16), so I need to keep it up even during times when I feel the connection has been lost.

It's not what gets to you, it's what gets through you

Pervious. No, I did not just mistype "previous." I'm sure you have heard of the word "impervious?" It means -

im·per·vi·ous/imˈpərvēəs/Adjective
1. Not allowing something to pass through; not penetrable.
2. Unable to be affected by: impervious to attempts to make him smile, he continued to be sullen.

Well, "pervious" is basically the opposite. OK - so it's a little-used word, I admit. I only saw it today, on my son's FaceBook posting about a convention he is at. It seems that they are finding ways to make concrete which is 'pervious,' and that simply means 'porous.' The reason they don't use the word 'porous' is because the product has a very controlled amount of porosity, yet retains enough of the strength to still be used in some (not all) of the places you would use regular concrete. You can pave a whole parking lot with it, and rain simply goes right through. That means you don't have to have all that drainage built in, with sloping surfaces, drainage grates, buried pipes, and the new thing - 'swales' which are basically ponds built to hold runoff from a parking lot until the water can settle into the ground or evaporate all by itself.

So what? I just thought of ways that we become porous. We let things in from around us, but if we are wise, we will find ways to let in only certain things, while retaining the strength we need to keep on doing what God has called us to do.

We need 'pervious people,' I guess!

How do I get rid of all my problems? Give them away!

We can make our problems into other people's problems. It's very easy. I have a friend who has said, "hurting people hurt people."

It's true. When we reach a point at which we are so focused on 'me,' we tend to become pretty tough to be around. But, of course, we're so focused on ourselves by that point that we don't even notice.

And our problems, have become their problem.

OR -

We can give our problems away... to the One who can actually handle them better than we can, and Who can even DO something about them.

Yeah - I like that.

What's this "Sweet Sorrow" stuff about?!

A few days ago I noticed that my daughter had posted something on facebook about "only four more days until I go home." I glanced around the place, thinking to myself: "THIS is home! What's she saying here?"

Well, I'm ok. She's ok. She just left an hour ago to head back for her final semester at Southeastern University in Lakeland Florida. For us, that is "away," for her it is "home." But she very much will say that she is "headed home" when she graduates in May. And we will welcome her "home." But let's face it, home IS where the heart is. That's as it should be, and her focus right now is school.

So - we gladly see her off to do what God has called her to do, but we secretly wish for her to come down the hallway in her pajamas around the crack of noon each day, having been up all night the previous day.

And Lord, if I haven't made it clear, I do want you to keep an eye on her. Our son Stephen too, who happens to be going to the very same airport at the very same time on business. Keep 'em safe Lord, and bring 'em back home to us.

Amen.

Slept late ....

I got in late from a meeting last night. The board at our church is doing it's best to keep things going as we are between pastors. One of the things a pastor does, in just about any church, is to work out problems among people. I have often said - The church would be such an amazing place, if it wasn't for all of these stinkin' people!

Well - I wanted to write a short essay about interpersonal relationships, but I had to catch up on the sleep I missed due to the late hour, so it will have to wait.

In the meantime, if you have any comments about the joys (or pains) of relating with other people, please post!! I would love to have a comment now and then - ANY comment would be appreciated.

My name

I have a name. It was given to me by my parents. I like my name, though I have plenty of friends who call me by nick-names. They vary, and I can tell how long I have known a person by the nick-name they use to identify me.

But there is one name which only my wife may call me. And I'm not going to print that here - but if you know me at all, you have heard it used. I like the fact that it is a special name, and I like to hear her call me by that special name. It can warm my heart, and bring a smile to my face. I believe that people who will not let you call them by certain names or use their names in certain ways are far more self-centered or perhaps prideful than they realize, so I try not to be that way. You really can call me by just about anything and I will respond without going crazy, but I do like to reserve that one name for my beloved wife. I do it to preserve the name's special nature for a special person.

I have a heavenly Father. He has given me a name as well. I have to work so very much harder to hear this name - it only comes in prayer. And, like my nick-names, it has a certain amount of variety. But the variety here is not due to the fickle nature of the One who calls me - because the Lord is not fickle. The variety is due to the fact that the name by which the Lord calls me is dependent upon what I need to hear.

So - those times I feel my value has slipped to an all-time low, He calls me "Worthy." Because in Him, I have tremendous worth - and at the same time I am encouraged to know that I have worth, I am also humbled to know that any worth I may have is all because of Him.

That is so different than the way the world speaks to us. If the world were to make up a name for us - as they sometimes do - they would base that name upon things such as success, position, what we can do for them, etc. Only people who love me or are otherwise close to me call me by a name which represents relationship.

And being called "Son" by my heavenly father is enough to bring joy to my heart for eternity.

HEY! YOU!

In advertising, there is always a push to try to speak directly to people. If I say, "Hey YOU!" most people will simply ignore me, because there are so many things vying for their attention that way.

Billboards, TV commercials and the like tend to be in that category: they simple announce to the world, "Hey! We have this cool product." But few people see that as important to THEM, unless they happen to already be in the market for that product, or have an interest in that product.

However, if an ad shows a golfer on a golf course, it is going to call out to people who golf, AND people who have golfers in their lives. It is much more personal for them. You and I have seen ads aimed at people like that all the time. Recently I heard a radio ad for people who have been effected by mesothelioma - the disease which results from exposure to asbestos. Now THAT is specific. I have no idea how many people will perk up their ears at that one, but to me they may as well begin speaking another language, because I tune it out right away. They have not called me by name.

But if they say, "Do you have type two diabetes?"
Or if they say, "Are you struggling with weight loss?"

They have me.

So - if there was a way for an ad to say, "Tom Houde!" or "Hope Wolf" right at the top, I guarantee you: it would get our attention. In fact, even if it said the names I just typed, I would focus in on it because I KNOW those people and I would want to see what on earth is going on that their names were popping up before my eyes like that.

So - how does God speak to us? By name. He has his big, grand advertising scemes - "repent for the kingdom of God is at hand."

That really doesn't draw people in.

But when He says, "I love YOU," it gets personal. Individual. And that's how He rolls.

Preaching Prep 101

I am preaching this Sunday at Ventura First Assembly. I have just gotten the confirmation of that fact Sunday, two days ago. I have, once again, a ton of material from which I would like to draw, but, once again, I am praying that God would help me to see the ONE thing He would like the church to hear.

And the bad news for me is: what God wants to say may not be what I want to say. That happens just about every time I speak to our church, and quite often when I speak to other churches or groups.

So what do I do when this happens? Pray. Sometimes I fast. And then I keep making notes all week long - and I never close a door to hearing from God. I have just seen a post on FaceBook and it got me to thinking. I took two words from that post and went to Google, then to MeriamWebster.com and I began to look into the oldest known uses of these words in 'American English.' And finally, once I had a good handle on how these words SHOULD be used in our language, I took a break and reflected on how they ARE used. Big difference. After that, I began to cogitate on how these terms are used in the Bible, keeping in mind that the Bible was not written in English, and that we depend heavily on interpretations of the language by men who are generally connected to the more classical definitions of the words and phrases.

Want to know what the two words are that started all this today?

Come to:

Ventura First Assembly
346 N Kimball Road
Ventura, CA 93004

Sunday - 10 am

See you there.

May I speak with the Owner please?

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

I serve on the board at our church. Currently, we are between pastors, so the role of leadership has fallen to us. I'm not bragging or anything, in fact, I would say that I am doing about as much the opposite of bragging as I can - I am very concerned that we all keep praying and hearing from God as we go through this time. I think we all know just how seriously God takes spiritual leadership. The Bible has countless stories of men in high positions who blew it. Moral failures, bad choices, catastrophic battles, bad leadership resulting in lost wars, whole nations wiped out, other nations which should have been wiped out but were not, political coups and even the simple collapse of families. All this proves two things - these men were human, and these men became targets once they stepped up.

So - were does that leave me? I am not part of any Pharisaical community, nor am I (currently) a pastor. I do preach at our church about once a month, but I am low on the list of guest speakers so I don't really know how often or when that will take place, nor do I know if it will happen once more, or no more times.

BUT -

I am part of the spiritual leadership of this church which God called us to. And as such, I am painfully aware of the very same two things I mentioned above -

I am human,
I am a target.

LORD! HELP!

My faith is being refined, and I take solace in the fact that as much as I want this church to continue to grow during our transition period (and be ready to explode as the new pastor comes on scene) I do have to remember something that I have told others countless times:

This is God's Church, not ours.

First recorded convert to Christianity, film at 11

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son

18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus."

I'm so groggy from ringing in the new year earlier this morning that I thought I would simply stick with scripture. Above is pretty much the first recorded person to accept Jesus as Lord, aside from Mary.