Day 24
It's Day 24. I'm headed out to Rehobeth Beach tomorrow with the family for a week's vacation. I can't wait to just spend a solid week with my wife and kids. It's hard for me to compartmentalize church, but I do my best during vacations. I think it's important to "take the pressure" off a while and decompress. That is the effect that the Bay Bridge has on me.
New Testament
It is amazing jumping into the New Testament after reading the entire Old Testament. It is a very different flavor. I feel like I have a heightended appreciation for "the deal" I'm getting from the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant.
Blessing
A benediction is “the invocation of a divine blessing.” I think that is one of the primary roles of pastors and parents. I want a deeper understanding of what that means. In keeping with recent insights, I think there is a miraculous or mysterious element—one that is beyond control. God blesses us in some mystical, spiritual way. But there is a harvest element—one that is reaped from repeated actions. I want both types of blessings!
I think thought-full gifts can be blessings—gifts given not to fulfill a duty like birthdays or anniversaries. But gifts that infuse meaning or mark milestones or teach lessons or celebrate something about someone.
The book of Exodus says, “Build altars in the places where I remind you of who I am. And I will come and bless you there.” That is profound. I think the ultimate blessing is discovering who God is. And when we discover who God is we discover who we are.
The ancient Jewish people had a blessing for everything. They were grateful for the humblest of bodily functions. As someone who’s worn an ostomy (after my intestines ruptured a few years ago) I appreciate that. I still remember—one of my all-time favorite prayer requests asking Parker and Summer to pray that God would help me fart (to confirm that the reversal surgery was successful). Sorry, there’s no other way of saying it. By the way, God answered and continues to answer that prayer (aren't you glad you know that).
I think blessings and prophecies are similar—they affirm who we are. They highlight our potential, our strengths, our uniqueness.
God wants to bless us—that is His nature as our Heavenly Father. But we’ve got to meet the conditions. And we’ve got to receive the blessings by making room for them in our lives. I think the tithe is one way we “make room” for God financially.
There is a wonderful mental picture of this in Rachel Remen’s book My Grandfather’s Blessings. It’s like planes circling an airport in a holding pattern because there is no room to land. We’ve got to make room or our lives get into a “holding pattern” where we circle forever.
Blessing is having an eye for joy—looking for opportunities to celebrate God. It is keeping track of “wins” and sharing them with others.
We can only bless others if we feel blessed. If we’re cursed we curse. If we’re blessed we bless. It is the law of blessings and curses. We bless others when blessings overflow in our own lives.
The only way we get to keep anything is by using it up. What lives dies. But what dies lives. It is the counterintuitive lesson of the seed. It has to die in the ground to be born again. The blessings we keep we lose. The blessings we give away we get to keep.
Wounds
Wounds are reminders. We remember them. Eventually they heal but they often bear the scar of what happened. I can remember my wounds—the last game of my Sophmore season I tore my anterior cruciate ligament. My Sophmore year in high school I broke my ankle. I remember my ruptured intestines. I remember my dislocated shoulder. You remember exactly when and where it happened. You don’t forget wounds.
Jacob never forgot his wound—he walked with a limp. But there is something about Jacob—despite his deceiving—that you have to give him credit for. He knew the importance of blessings. He got his brother’s blessing. He got the angel’s blessing in Genesis 32. And he got God’s blessing.
The story in Genesis 32 is fascinating—it is so easy to try to get out of situations that hurt us. But those hurtful situations can bless our lives through the wounds they inflict. They can teach us about ourselves in a way that our friends can’t. We want to put our failures behind us as quickly as possible. We pray “God get me out of this” and we don’t “get anything out of it.”
The wound resulted in a blessing which resulted in a different person--Jacob's name was changed to Israel.
New Testament
It is amazing jumping into the New Testament after reading the entire Old Testament. It is a very different flavor. I feel like I have a heightended appreciation for "the deal" I'm getting from the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant.
Blessing
A benediction is “the invocation of a divine blessing.” I think that is one of the primary roles of pastors and parents. I want a deeper understanding of what that means. In keeping with recent insights, I think there is a miraculous or mysterious element—one that is beyond control. God blesses us in some mystical, spiritual way. But there is a harvest element—one that is reaped from repeated actions. I want both types of blessings!
I think thought-full gifts can be blessings—gifts given not to fulfill a duty like birthdays or anniversaries. But gifts that infuse meaning or mark milestones or teach lessons or celebrate something about someone.
The book of Exodus says, “Build altars in the places where I remind you of who I am. And I will come and bless you there.” That is profound. I think the ultimate blessing is discovering who God is. And when we discover who God is we discover who we are.
The ancient Jewish people had a blessing for everything. They were grateful for the humblest of bodily functions. As someone who’s worn an ostomy (after my intestines ruptured a few years ago) I appreciate that. I still remember—one of my all-time favorite prayer requests asking Parker and Summer to pray that God would help me fart (to confirm that the reversal surgery was successful). Sorry, there’s no other way of saying it. By the way, God answered and continues to answer that prayer (aren't you glad you know that).
I think blessings and prophecies are similar—they affirm who we are. They highlight our potential, our strengths, our uniqueness.
God wants to bless us—that is His nature as our Heavenly Father. But we’ve got to meet the conditions. And we’ve got to receive the blessings by making room for them in our lives. I think the tithe is one way we “make room” for God financially.
There is a wonderful mental picture of this in Rachel Remen’s book My Grandfather’s Blessings. It’s like planes circling an airport in a holding pattern because there is no room to land. We’ve got to make room or our lives get into a “holding pattern” where we circle forever.
Blessing is having an eye for joy—looking for opportunities to celebrate God. It is keeping track of “wins” and sharing them with others.
We can only bless others if we feel blessed. If we’re cursed we curse. If we’re blessed we bless. It is the law of blessings and curses. We bless others when blessings overflow in our own lives.
The only way we get to keep anything is by using it up. What lives dies. But what dies lives. It is the counterintuitive lesson of the seed. It has to die in the ground to be born again. The blessings we keep we lose. The blessings we give away we get to keep.
Wounds
Wounds are reminders. We remember them. Eventually they heal but they often bear the scar of what happened. I can remember my wounds—the last game of my Sophmore season I tore my anterior cruciate ligament. My Sophmore year in high school I broke my ankle. I remember my ruptured intestines. I remember my dislocated shoulder. You remember exactly when and where it happened. You don’t forget wounds.
Jacob never forgot his wound—he walked with a limp. But there is something about Jacob—despite his deceiving—that you have to give him credit for. He knew the importance of blessings. He got his brother’s blessing. He got the angel’s blessing in Genesis 32. And he got God’s blessing.
The story in Genesis 32 is fascinating—it is so easy to try to get out of situations that hurt us. But those hurtful situations can bless our lives through the wounds they inflict. They can teach us about ourselves in a way that our friends can’t. We want to put our failures behind us as quickly as possible. We pray “God get me out of this” and we don’t “get anything out of it.”
The wound resulted in a blessing which resulted in a different person--Jacob's name was changed to Israel.
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