Open a Door That No Man Can Shut...

So, Friendo here (i.e., Sierra, my 24lb human daughter), recently discovered the doggy door.  For a while she has known about the doggy door and has been throwing her toys out the plastic flap only to land outside – out of reach and in Bobo’s (our 8lb dog’s) way of getting back into the house.

read more

A Few French Fries Short of a Happy Meal.

Have you ever known someone who is good at “bending the truth”?  You know, little things that seem really small and insignificant until they start to pile up and become big? 

I realize that we all exaggerate to some degree.   Yes, I do believe that exaggeration is just another form of lying and Yes, I do it quite a bit myself… about 1,000 times a day (exaggeration of course).  

read more

Pedal Pusher.

It has been a while now that my 3-year-old, my 36 pounder, first-born, Friendo - Sierra Starr – has been trying to ride her bike.  Actually, it has been a very long time.  Her grandparents bought her this cool bike last year with training wheels, sparkles, pink, – the whole nine yards.  However, it is the kind of bike that when you pedal backwards it is the break and she kept trying, for whatever reason, to pedal backwards.

read more

The Journey.

  The road was long, bumpy and full of potholes. It was hot outside and I wanted to go home. I was tired of the journey. I was weary of the same scenery. Nothing seemed to change. It was all desert. Here and there would be a small stream, but it was never enough. It was only enough to keep me moving, to keep me pressing on.

read more

What Now???

 

The glory.

The manifest glory.

The manifest glory of His presence. 

 

Is that what Moses saw? Is that what Moses asked for? He sought God’s manifest glory. He received only a portion. Yet, somehow – somehow that was what He wanted. Somehow He didn’t complain. Did he?  God so manifested Himself in Moses that the people were afraid. The people ran from the presence of God.

 

Let us ponder for moment on the question that perhaps there were just a few that pressed in anyway? Perhaps there was just one person that when all the others ran from God’s presence – they stayed. They pressed in as far as they could. Out of millions of people, wouldn’t you think that just one? Just one would press in?

 

So, what holds us back?  What keeps us there? What is it in us that when all the others run away – we stay. We press in. Against all fear, doubt, uneasiness – we stay….?  Were they afraid of God’s voice?  Were they afraid of the light that illuminated everything in them, both good and bad? Were they afraid of the heaviness of His presence as the Father looked down upon them?  What was it that made them cower?

 

Am I one that stays? Or do I crowd away like all the others? Do I run to the front at the first glimpse of the manifest glory of His presence? Or do I worry that the presence will kill me?

Where did Moses get his courage? Is it courage that we need? Such as the cowardly lion we all run away at the first sight of something new. But isn’t it something new that we have wanted? Haven’t we left Egypt in search of our Canaan land?

 

We have felt God’s presence in our praise and our worship. We have watched as people have not ran, but instead have flooded the altar of God. We have seen people healed, delivered, and saved.  Yet, I want more. It is unexplainable. It is not tangible. The thing that I seek after is not in my vocabulary. It is not a scent that I can let you smell. It is not a glimpse that I can let you see. It is not a feeling that I can let you touch. I can not explain it, yet I crave it.

 

I ache for it. Thirst, yearn, and desire it. I begrudge all who say they may have it.  I linger around waiting for a taste of it.  Just as the woman with the issue of blood knew that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, I know that if I can just taste a morsel of the fresh bread that my Savior makes I will never go back to the old stuff. I will never return to the Egypt that I once knew.

 

With just a morsel of God’s presence appearing, I know that I will plunge my life into His presence.  What if all of God’s people were to wait with such anticipation that it burns deep in their soul? What would the Father do then?  David said that his soul longed and thirst for the presence of God – is this what he felt?  Or was their more?

Will we press in or stay back???