buy me a beer

Sunday March 23^rd, Exodus 17:  5 The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah (or Testing) and Meribah (or quarreling) because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"  Massah means testing and Meribah means quarreling, which are not very flattering names.  They are however reminders of what we are all quite capable of from time to time when things do not go our way, or with our timing.  But even with all the grumbling God sent Moses on ahead of the people to lead them.  Out of their testing and grumbling comes the question, Is the Lord among us or not?  We might like to judge, but then again, we often operate in a similar manner.  Amid our grumbling and quarreling we sometime hear or at least ponder the question, is the Lord among us or not?  Amid our fighting and fussing and killing and greed and manipulation of voters rights and elections comes the question, is the Lord among us or not?  The answer of course is yes.  Not because of our fighting and fussing and killing and greed and manipulation, but in spite of those all too often human responses to fear.  We are all quite capable of walking into a room and without the least thought, opening our mouth and deeply offending someone.  All of us can do this at sometimes in our lives, some of us more than others.  When we are in one of those moods, or someone we know is in one of those moods, remember the question, is the Lord among us or not?  Remember, we live in a world of blessing, everything that is not chaos, even the chaos we work hard at creating all by ourselves, is from God.  We all have the right to choose to dwell on what is not going right by our definition and timing.  We must also realize that in the process what we miss is that we are the ones who fail to see the blessings of God.  We have that right, but it is a selfish and sad way to live. 

P.S.  Today is my 65^th birthday.  If you have enjoyed my rants, you might want to think about dropping off a blueberry pie (I am not a big fan of cake so my mother would always make me a blueberry pie with candles for my birthday)  If you are not in the neighborhood and want to say thanks, you can go to www.coslc.ws and buy me a beer in the offering page.  My mother never did that, but I’m sure she would approve.