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My Ramblings

steve said:
Your Intentions Don’t Always Matter

As I go through life, it seems that more import is often given to people’s intentions than their actions. As I was pondering that, a story came to mind.
Uzza was a fella back in King David’s day that earned himself a place in history for doing what was right. Doing what was right, but getting smitten down by Yah for doing it.
To make a long story a bit shorter, the Ark of the Covenant had done some unauthorized traveling, causing the statue of Dagon (a main Philistine god) to fall and break it’s neck scaring the living daylights out of his worshipers when they found the pieces. Which made the Ark, the possession of which had been an incredible victory against the Israelites, suddenly persona non grata amongst the Philistines. They got it back into Israel territory, but it hadn’t been returned to the place of honor in the Holy of Holies where it belonged.
David, being now the king, proceeded to put it back where it belonged. With extreme honor, they placed it upon a brand new cart to transport it home. The problem with that is that Yah had intended for it to be carried by priests. There were rings built into the corners that long poles were put through so that the priests could carry it without ever touching it. David somehow passed over that part and assumed that putting it on a cart was just hunky-dory. I am sure that he meant zero disrespect for Yah, but that didn’t matter. His assumption caused a man to be struck down by his Creator for doing the right thing.
One interesting thing about Uzza is that his name means strength. I imagine him being a burly young man in the prime of his life. He and his brother were chosen to drive the cart carrying the Ark. We normally think of drivers as sitting in the conveyance and steering it, but in this case they may have been walking, one of them on each side. They did have responsibility for the Ark and when it jiggled on those unsprung wooden wheels going down an unpaved road, it started to slide. What could he do? He reached out to steady it and lost his life.
His intentions couldn’t have been more perfect. He did absolutely nothing wrong. David had made the mistake. He probably knew the technically correct method of transport, but assumed that it would be ok to do it this way. As long as he did it with honor and he had good intentions, right?
But it cost a man his life. A man who may not even have known that the Ark was not intended to travel that way.

I can imagine Yah saying; “Hey man, sorry about that. Nothing personal, but I had to drop you. My boy David just wasn’t taking my instructions seriously enough. You’re cool with me, though. Ya done good”.

So, yeah.
Intentions matter, but actions matter more.
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This I always took as a chilling reminder that ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
 
I asked my husband about this once and we had avery interesting study, and our thoughts differed from this impression. We started on a few foundational truths: death is not a punishment, God only strikes down a man personally likes this when in extreme wickedness, and this passage in Chronicles states that God's wrath was against Uzzah for this irreverent act. God doesn't proclaim this man to be wicked, however his actions says he is evil. We're talking about intentions and actions, and it seems more so that the intent is more often exposed by the action, not vice versa. It's safe to assume that oxen stumble all the time. It's also helpful to understand contextually that the ark has been all over the place, and in enemy territory, yet The Lord did not let any harm come to it, so Uzzah doubted The Lordby thinking that he needed to hold up the Ark, that The Lord was incapable. Thus by his actions, either betraying his selfishness that he wanted to touch what was strictly forbidden, or that he was calling God a liar.

Food for thought.....thank you, Steve! I love morning meditation on my Lord!
 
Rebecca said:
I asked my husband about this once and we had avery interesting study, and our thoughts differed from this impression. We started on a few foundational truths: death is not a punishment, God only strikes down a man personally likes this when in extreme wickedness, and this passage in Chronicles states that God's wrath was against Uzzah for this irreverent act. God doesn't proclaim this man to be wicked, however his actions says he is evil. We're talking about intentions and actions, and it seems more so that the intent is more often exposed by the action, not vice versa. It's safe to assume that oxen stumble all the time. It's also helpful to understand contextually that the ark has been all over the place, and in enemy territory, yet The Lord did not let any harm come to it, so Uzzah doubted The Lordby thinking that he needed to hold up the Ark, that The Lord was incapable. Thus by his actions, either betraying his selfishness that he wanted to touch what was strictly forbidden, or that he was calling God a liar.

Food for thought.....thank you, Steve! I love morning meditation on my Lord!
Click to expand...
It is interesting how we can come away from the same story with such differing impressions.
The Jews have a saying (I cannot find the quote) that goes something like; “If 3 Jews discuss a subject, you will hear 5 opinions.”

Vive la difference!
 
Fight the Future

No, this isn’t about politics. This is about your personal future. The future that will happen to you if you are not proactive.

Think about a boat placed in a river. The river is flowing downhill. The boat will float downstream unless it is acted upon by a force greater than the power of the waters flow. In fact, unless the boat is tied to, or caught on, something stationary, you have to apply energy of some sort to stay in one place.

I have found life to be that way. If I am complacent, I’m going to be floating downstream. Putting in a modicum of thought and energy can keep me staying right where I am, but it takes a bit more to improve our lives. And the more you work at it, the farther you get. Hence my statement about fighting the future.

Have you already reached your goals for your life? Or maybe you have found that the goals that you were aiming at proved to be unreachable. Either way, my friend, it’s time for new goals.
One goal that everyone should have, no matter where they are at in life, is to make life more pleasant for others. Some people we can physically help by doing a small task that they need done. Sometimes we can help with a gift of food or something that they need. But most often people need a smile and a kind word.
This is a season that many find very depressing because of their circumstances. Some won’t see the new year because of it. If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours. Smiles, along with kindness, are infinitely renewable resources.

Along those lines, and returning to the theme of fighting the future, which Kingdom are you voting for? Of course we believe that we would only support the Kingdom of Heaven, but we fail to realize that when we make a less than stellar moral decision we are voting for the enemies kingdom.
Be careful when depending on your conscience for your definition of the righteousness of your position, consciences are a very malleable thing. An Indian once said that a conscience is a three-cornered thing in one’s mind that turns until the corners wear off.

So fight what your future could be, make sure that each of your decisions is righteous.
 
Bear one another’s burdens?


Galatians 6:2 (KJV) Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
How do we bear one another’s burdens?
Telling someone “Be warmed and filled!” doesn’t really take any weight off of their back. And yes, to bear means to lift their burden and carry it for them.
“Be blessed!” is a rather nice salutation, I mean, at least it’s not a curse, but it doesn’t go very far in the Easing of Burdens Department.
“My blessings upon you!” could be quite helpful if you actually have some blessings that are transferable.

There is one surefire prayer that I know of that will get down under their burden and put you shoulder-to-shoulder with them.
It was the prayer that Daniel prayed way back when. Daniel had been taken captive, through no fault of his own, during the latest smack down that Judah was subjected to due to their lack of submission to Yah’s will. Daniel was watching his “p’s” and “q’s” while being subjected to some rather vile treatment over in Babylon. It wasn’t like he was a visiting guest from a captured nation, abuse was the name of the game.
He reminds me of my favorite Bible character, Joseph, in that his eyes weren’t on his navel. These guys didn’t complain, even though they had every earthly right to. His heart was towards his country and his countrymen.
Here is the beginning of his prayer:

Daniel 9:4-5 (KJV) 4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

Notice specifically the “We have sinned” statement. Had he been part of the sin? No. He would have been too young to have been included before he was abducted and he was obviously doing his best to follow Yah since then.
So why the “we” thing?
I have found that it is called Identificational Repentance. It’s when you join with the afflicted one on their level and pray “Father forgive us, for we have sinned.” It is the opposite of the distancing that happens when we pray “Father forgive them, for they are a hot mess.” Can you see how the second prayer elevates the praying person above the other?
We, us, words that include.

“But his sin is bad and I don’t do those things!”
Maybe you are all perfected and everything, without spot or wrinkle, but my little secret is that I’m not. I plan on attaining perfection by my next birthday, but I’ve blown every one of them so far.
The bright side of all that is that I can easily come up with a current failure in my own life so I can readily get on board with that “we and us” thing in joining with someone in identificational repentance.

Where this really stretches a feller is when the other party isn’t all that interested in repenting. It gets even rougher when they don’t even believe that they have done anything wrong. We can let Job be our measuring stick, though. He was offering sacrifices for his children in case they had sinned. How much more can we sacrifice a little pride when we see someone struggling?
Whether you are kneeling beside them with your arm over their shoulder, or you are miles apart, the words are the same.
“Father forgive us, for we have sinned.”
 
Whose dreams are you living?

As children, most of us had dreams about what we wanted our lives to look like when we grew up. Things we wanted to do, people we wanted to become. Fireman, mom, soldier, pilot, so many possibilities.
What happened? Did you achieve your goals? Did life happen and interfere with your dreams? Did you find your goals inadequate and now you have new ones?

Parents often have dreams of what their children could become. Academically, physically, spiritually. Sometimes that works out better than other times. Sometimes the child has an affinity towards what the parent has perceived and life moves in that direction. In other cases, the child is uninterested in those possibilities.

But what about our Heavenly Father? Does He have dreams about what we could become? Does His Kingdom have a need that only we could supply? That others don’t have the time, energy or inclination to fulfill?
It’s not about failing to live up to His expectations, please don’t misunderstand me. It’s about partnering with Him. Seeking out and recognizing His dreams. Coming to the understanding that His Kingdom is much bigger than our dreams and desires. That life can be much fuller than when we are just living it to find happiness.
We aren’t just talking about major decisions like a career here. It might be someone that needs our forgiveness. That needs grace extended to them. A kind word when they are on their last nerve.
And sometimes, nothing more than that free smile.
 
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