He Built an Altar to God

It's amazing enough to me that God spoke to Abrahm and he went. It didn't seem that it was a great, discussion, and that it may not have been totally strange since it was Abram's ancestors who began worshiping God and who passed down their beliefs and understandings (see 4:26). The story of Noah, the relatively short family tree from Noah to Abram was understood, so when God said, "Go!" Abram went!

Not many of us take that kind of journey. O we may pile into the car, take along many of our things and go away for a while. There are a few of us who do that in their RV, taking their home and many (if not all ) of their possessions with them. Then there are those who load up the trucks and move across the nation (Jack and Pat we miss you!). But Abram had one thing right in all that he accomplished and experienced.

He trusted in God.

Abram went many places in these few chapters of Genesis, wherever the Spirit guided him to go. There was a purpose to this wandering. But it's what he did when he finally settled in the village of Hebron that made all the difference. He built an altar to God.

He wasn't told to or commanded or expected to do such a thing. There was no precedent. It was a simple act of humble adoration and respect for the Divine. Wherever Abram found himself, there he would honor God.

Now we might expect one who was promised to be a blessing to the whole world might want to honor the grantor of the promise. But at the same time we might just discover that if we honor God in the same way, we just might know some of the blessings of Abram?

Maybe in order to experience what we have seen others experience we need to build some altars of our own!

Too often we worship at other's altars, the church's altar, the neighbor's altar (stainless grill, plasma tv, slick new ride, etc.) instead of building something that give honor to the God we say we trust. We build great edifices, towers that reach high into the sky and we say we are proud of what we have accomplished (remember the tower of babble! (mispelling intentional)), but where is our altar to God?

I'm not suggesting that all houses should have an altar built in them, but we should be finding ways to honor God.

Want to know the blessing of God? Worship at an altar just for Him!

Peace ><>
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...Let it rain!

The story of Noah has always bothered me. I remember singing songs about it, hearing the stories, coloring the Ark pages as a kid.
The Lord said to Noah you're gonna build an arky, arky
The Lord said to Noah you're gonna build an arky, arky,
Build it out of gopher barky barky
Children of the Lord

God rescued Noah and his family (along with all of those animals.)but I've always wondered about the others. You know, the ones who made fun of Noah during those 100 years of building and even the other 500 years of his faithful living. (here's someone who truly experienced religious persecution.) Then many of those changed their tune when the rain didn't quit for a couple of weeks. The ones who knocked at the door of the ark, the ones who ran to higher ground as the flood waters came up, the ones who looked into the heavens and asked, "what have we done?"

But the story isn't about them exactly. It's not forgetting about them, nor is it dwelling on them. The story is about the faithful ones on earth and the faithful One, who will go to the ends of the earth to judge unrighteousness in a way that is fair to the righteous and consistent with the nature of God. The story is for the faithful as a story of hope and encouragement, that even when the rains of life come and people are overwhelmed around us, God will rescue his own.

I've learned much over the years about God and this story. It didn't end in the way I would have directed it, but then again I'm not God. It's a reminder that God looks carefully at the condition of the world. He's paying attention! And that right living is the key to living a long, rich life, here on earth and for an eternity. The Noah story is about God's promise to the faithful, then, now, future.

It's not just the rainbow, that God will never again destroy the earth by flood. It's the whole promise that God is actively working, protecting, helping, rescuing us in our situations. Remember, while Noah was rescued by God, he still had to build the ark, gather the animals, and live on a stinky boat for a year to receive God's gift! And then when it was all over, had to rebuild everything, from the earth's population to the very houses they would live in.

God's blessings seem to take a whole lot of work and time!

But they are ours for the grasping if we live rightly with God. And if we live rightly...


...let it rain!

Peace ><>
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Route 66 - The Journey Begins

"And we're off like a herd of turtles!"

That's the phrase I heard my Dad say dozens of time when we'd all pile into the car ready to leave for a vacation, a family outing, or a trip to the store. It was a common phrase because we weren't always quick to get moving. There always seemed to be something holding us up.

It's the same with any journey. Getting started isn't always the quickest. Even the Space Shuttle, the fastest vehicle ever created, starts out very slowly, then picks up speed (albeit very quickly!). But journey's are like that. We want to make sure we have everything we need for the trip, to finish one more thing before we begin. At least that's the way it is in our house.

I'll usually set a target time to leave whenever we are heading down state or on any local family jaunt. And then the target time comes and goes. Or we'll start to pull away and someone forgets something and has to run into the house. And I can't blame the kids or Peggy for this. Sometimes it's me who forgets sunglasses, the checkbook, to shut off the lights, etc. And I remember Dad's words, "We're off like a herd of turtles!"

Route 66 is our year-long journey through the Bible's 66 books. It starts at the beginning (literally), with Genesis and will move through the book of Revelation at the end of the next year. Each week's message will come from that weeks book focus and we'll cover even more details in Pastor's Class each Wednesday. There will even be some study questions on the Route 66 Study Blog that small groups can use each week along with the sermon notes from Sunday's messages. The goal is to see how God's action through the scriptures has significant meaning for our lives and continues to demand something of us every day. It's an EPIC Journey (experiential, participatory, image-driven, connective). And it's a journey I want to share with you!

Well, today we're shoving off, launching this journey. Many will hesitate and put off the first reading until later today, when there's time, after the kids go to bed, when I get other things done, etc. Others will have already read and be awaiting this blog. Even others will keep reading today and be way ahead of the rest of us. But we're off and moving, even if it's at a turtle's pace or a rabbits!

The key to the journey, though, is not how fast you complete it. It's a journey, which means that every step we travel has meaning and significance. There's something to learn and see and experience each day. We're not concentrating on the completion of a day's reading, or a book or the entire Bible. We're concentrating on what we read, what it means for us, what promises it holds, what blessings it bestows, what it requires of us!

Today's reading is Genesis 1-4, the Creation and human beginnings. It's filled with famous stories and deep insights. It ends with the reason we're reading and studying so much in this next year (why I'm asking so much from you.). It's after Adam and Eve had their third son, Seth, after the death of Abel and as Seth grows up and has a son of his own, Enosh, that we learn this important lesson...

"That's when men and women began praying and worshipping in the name of God." (Genesis 4:26, The Message)

Over this year, we'll begin to see just what that means for them, and for us.

We're off like a herd of turtles!

Peace ><>
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Good News?

I've included the Christmas story from Luke's Gospel as our reading for today for a couple of reasons. First of all, although we will not have completed the whole Bible in this past year's readings, we have covered much of it, including all of the psalms and all of the New Testament after today. Secondly, I've saved Luke 1-2 until now for the beginning of Advent, to prepare us for this Christmas journey. I pray you will read these chapters today as we will be looking at them for the next few weeks. (There's so much here to see and learn.)

We begin Advent by remembering what God has been doing over the long history of the entire creation. From the beginning, through the creation of a nation, to its exile, its hope and expectations and eventually its restoration through the coming of the Messiah. It is a long history that has been wrought with pain, prosperity, suffering, power and God's blessing through it all. The greatest lesson learned through all of this history is that when God's work and power is revealed, it's rarely in a way that was expected!

In other words, sometimes God's Good News doesn't seem so good at the time! Yet it always is!

This is illustrated so clearly in Mary's response of God's "good news" to her. Think about it, the good news was that she, blessed and chosen among great women of faith, would bear the Messiah for the world, but at what cost? The good news had a great affect on her future, her reputation, her own hopes and dreams. While she would eventually know the full blessing of God, it wouldn't come until after the great heartache and shame of an unwed pregnancy, her own community's and family's derision the pressure put on her by Jesus' ministry and his eventual death.

It's easy for us to see how she would be "blessed among women" but not as easy to see how the good news may have sounded like challenging news at first, and would be for years!

While Christmas celebrations are expected to be filled with joy, family, gifts and great satisfaction, they may not always be so, or have ever been for some. We have not always experienced this Good News at Christmas, or at anytime for that matter. Yet the promises of God are still active. The problem is in the waiting.

The Psalms reveal the same sentiment in many places, "how long, O Lord, must I wait" for God's action, for God's direction, for God's promises to be fulfilled? Is it days, weeks, months, years, a lifetime, a generation, an age? Just how long, O God, for us to experience the fullness of your promises?

The answer is as simple today as it was for Zachariah and for Mary...

...in God's time.

"Every word I’ve spoken to you will come true on time—God’s time.” (Luke 1:20, The Message)

It's still Good News because it still brings hope. We may not see it or experience it right away, but it's still ours to hold on to, no matter how long it takes. That's what Christmas is to us, hope in the completion of the promise of God.

Hope. It's what makes the news Good, because God always keeps his word!

It's also a good place to start this journey.

Peace ><>
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The Race Has Begun!

For most of us, the recovery has started, maybe even complete. I mean the recovery from the Thanksgiving weekend and all the activity that it entails. It includes travel, cooking, eating way more than we should (I know I did), and for some starting the Christmas shopping.

It used to start at 8:00 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving. Then the stores tried to get a head start and it has continued to move earlier and earlier until now there are stores that began their after-thanksgiving sales at midnight! And even more crazy is that there were many who lined up even earlier than that just to get the gadgets they wanted. It's crazy!

And all of this because of a baby born in a stable?

Well, not really. It is a "Christmas" tradition to share gifts, but it is definitely a cultural thing to "shop til we drop" for those gifts. Somewhere, while I get caught up in it somewhat, Christmas has lost it's luster. It's those of us who seek the peace and hope in Christmas who get pushed out and laughed at. But there are still many of us who want to know the real of Christmas.

And I believe we can still experience it, if we seek it.

Maybe we've wandered away over the weekend or the months that have led here. Maybe we've gotten caught up in the race. This year, I'm not even watching from the grandstands. I'm letting the race go on, while I'm going to focus on what's really important, listening for the voice that gets drowned out at the mall. It's the voice of the Shepherd, calling us back to the stable, telling us what the angels said long ago, "A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master." (Luke 2:10, The Message)


"Invigorate my soul so I can praise you well,
use your decrees to put iron in my soul.
And should I wander off like a lost sheep—seek me!
I’ll recognize the sound of your voice." (Ps 119:175-176, The Message)

That's what I long to hear!

Listen and find,

Peace ><>
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