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4 Lessons From Moses’ First Forty Years

August 26, 2021 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

The First Forty: Development

The pertinent details of Moses’ life are well documented in the Bible. Thankfully, it doesn’t include his entire bio. Just the important details.

Moses lived long enough (120 years) that a full-length bio would arguably be longer than the Bible and that length would make it difficult to isolate important lessons.

Instead, his life is divided neatly into three separate stages of 40 years each and only the most important details from each stage are included. The first two stages provide very little detail but it’s enough to gain important insights.

The Broad Strokes

Before we get into the lessons, let’s look at the details of the first stage in broad strokes.

STAGE ONE: THE DEVELOPMENT STAGE
(Infancy to adulthood in Pharaoh’s house, Exodus 2:1-10).

Here’s what happened:

Israel was enslaved.
Death was decreed for all male born Israelites.
Moses was miraculously saved from destruction.
And was adopted into Pharoah’s house, enjoying the privileges of a family member.
Tradition (Josephus) says he successfully led military campaigns.

The Book of Exodus only provides ten verses on this stage but several lessons emerge.

Growth Is The Only Option

The first stage of life for everyone is the growing stage or to put it differently, the stage at which people tend to balk. Growth starts on day one. It’s the only option but we generally find it uncomfortable.

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People want to be grown but they don’t enjoy the process of growing.

They want to be well informed but that achievement requires hard work, the kind we tend to avoid.

No one starts at the end.

The beginning, or the bottom, is the only starting point, which in real terms is nowhere yet. [Read more…] about 4 Lessons From Moses’ First Forty Years

12 Proofs Your Sin Nature Won’t Be Eradicated

December 21, 2020 by EnnisP 4 Comments

Christians May Not Always Agree But Scripture Doesn’t Contradict Scripture

In my last post, I stressed the fact that we are all sinners and sinners sin. It’s what we do.

I’m not saying it’s beneficial to sin or suggesting we should enjoy it. I’m not saying you should want to sin or prefer to sin.

I’m saying we all have a sinful nature and that makes us sinners. Even before you commit your first act of sin you are a sinner.

According to James, who made the point rather bluntly, even temptation is an indication we are sinners.

Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire. (James 1:14)

And I can hear you asking “What about Eve?” She was tempted. Was she also a sinner before she ate the forbidden fruit?

It’s a good question. Eve didn’t start with a sinful nature. She was innocent, untainted but she was still tempted. Why is temptation proof we have a sinful nature but not for her? Another good question.

Don’t get too confuzzled by that. Jesus was also tempted but He didn’t have a sinful nature. There’s a way to understand the difference.

Her temptation came from outside influence. The same is true for Jesus. Fortunately, Jesus not only didn’t give in, He couldn’t. He’s eternally perfect.

Sin Can Be Formative

Eve wasn’t perfect. Her character, like all humans, was in the developing process. We all start at zero character – neither good nor bad.

It’s a fact, though, that mistakes and sin are a part of the shaping process. Aside from the fact that Eve was corrupted the moment she caved, and we’ve all inherited the corruption, a more important reality is she gained a great deal of wisdom and insight from the experience.

Once bitten, twice shy. Sins don’t define you. Failure and mistakes don’t define you. How you respond to these things does.

Honesty about your sin nature is also important. Now, temptation starts on the inside and works its way out. We are therefore tainted before we commit the first sinful deed which is kind of what James was saying.

Jesus made the same point: the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Luke 6:45).

What that means is there will never be a time this side of heaven when Christians, though saved from the penalty of sin, will be entirely free of sin. Your sin nature will dog you all your days.

We shouldn’t take delight in that but we shouldn’t hide from it either. [Read more…] about 12 Proofs Your Sin Nature Won’t Be Eradicated

6 Observations From Jesus Healing A Leper

November 14, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

God Sees The Less Privileged Differently And Honors Them With Accountability

Jesus is often referred to as a personal Savior but you have to break that down to understand what it really means. Saying He is a Savior is one thing. Calling Him personal is another.

The Savior part isn’t that difficult to understand. He died for our sins, all of our sins, a price we could never pay ourselves. That sacrifice makes salvation from eternal condemnation possible.

But what about the Personal part?

We could say “Personal” means He’s interested. His sacrifice was motivated by concern for us. The Bible clearly says that His death was an expression of love (Romans 5:8). What that means is He really cares about the individuals He saves. He not only saves them, but He also wants them to be saved.

He’s disappointed when they don’t get saved and elated when they do.

He’s spiritually and emotionally involved.

That’s personal.

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The caring part shouldn’t be assumed. There are many people whose work involves saving people from calamities: lifeguards, Firemen, EMTs, police, and more. Lifeguards are required to be strong swimmers. Caring about the people they save from drowning is an added benefit but isn’t required.

Jesus did, however, care. He was emotionally involved and His caring is evident as the following story indicates.

12 Reasons Belief Beats Politics

October 10, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Belief Is Easily Possible And Results In Endless Benefits

I’ve been a Christian for decades – more than I care to share – and I’ve spent a lot of time in church services, Bible studies, and general conversations with other Christians. The topics were always related to God, the Bible, theology, Christian living, and the like.

More recently, politics has dominated those conversations and it’s changed the perspective a lot. Now, favored political candidates are as popular as Moses and David. The opposition, of course, is worse than Pharaoh.

Participating in the electoral process is right up there with daily devotions. If you don’t vote you’re backslidden. Even worse, if you vote for the wrong candidate you’ve spurned the will of God. Blasphemous!

When the candidate of choice wins office, it’s the emotional equivalent of crossing the Red Sea!

That line of thinking is problematic. You can’t synthesize government and religion. The purpose of one is totally different to the purpose of the other. The two will never fully mesh.

The church is commissioned to evangelize the world. The government is commissioned to manage it. Neither is commissioned to make it absolutely right. They act separately and for different reasons.

We obey the church not because we have to but because it is supposed to represent the voice of wisdom and reason. Or, that’s the hope. There’s no guarantee. Several churches and church leaders (all denominations) have gone off the deep end (adultery, pedophilia, embezzlement, etc.).

Those that don’t go quite that far can still border on the moronic and we should be careful enough not to follow.

Belief Exercises Reason

No names mentioned but several years ago I came across an individual who was instructed by one of his church’s elders (the prophet) that God wanted him to marry a certain person. The church’s teaching was that elders speak directly from God so he complied.

He married the young lass and after several years of intentional effort, the relationship never gelled. It was then they realized that God had nothing to do with it.

I wasn’t involved in counseling that particular situation.

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All of that is to say that obedience should be taken with a grain of salt. Instead of obeying one person or one tradition, we should learn how to ascertain collective wisdom. Speak to many people and gain a broad understanding of the issues.

There is an art or skill to learning how to do that and the discussion could be quite long but there is no space for it in this post.

From a parenting perspective, however, instead of teaching your kids to do what you say, teach them to think about the “whats” and “whys” of their choices before imposing commands. They’ll be better served in the future.

But you’ll need to be ready for the unexpected. They may choose something different to what you planned and you need to be big enough to live with that.

Back to my line of thought. [Read more…] about 12 Reasons Belief Beats Politics

Trump’s Town Hall More Of The Same

September 17, 2020 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Not Sure Anyone Was Convinced

Did you miss Trump’s Town Hall, the one sponsored by ABC? If so, not to worry. You didn’t miss a thing.

You know how some actors don’t act but simply perform, and the performance never varies. What they are in one production, they are in another. Well, that’s what we got in Trump’s Town Hall last night.

The difference is with actors, you know it’s not real so there’s entertainment value. With the President, it worries.

Accept in this case, his performance was reassuring. If his intention was to win a few votes by presenting a different version of Trump, it didn’t work. The performance was too predictable to change voter sentiment.

I admit, there were a few fleeting moments when he seemed to affect a bit of concern, but they didn’t last long. He quickly reverted to his usual mannerisms: dismissal, deflection, condescend, talk past and talk over anyone sharing significant facts.

And there was nothing new. He repeated the same narratives with a few new twists sprinkled, of course, with how great he is and how many people endorse him. If it wasn’t for misinformation and self-flattery he’d have nothing to say at all.

His performance demonstrated no significant change and that’s both good and bad. It’s good because I can’t see how any undecideds were drawn in. It’s bad because if he wins, we can expect the same chaos in the next four years. If anything, we can expect it to get worse. There won’t be another reelection to induce moderation.

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I agree. All politicians lie. And to a point, that is understandable. It’s impossible to answer general questions about policies with full disclosure. It’s like trying to explain why the sun shines to a two-year-old. Some details will be left out, others distorted. You can’t give a short answer to what is a sunspot without expecting an endless number of why’s.

Trump, however, takes lying to an all-new level. He’s bald-faced. There’s no holding back. It’s automatic.

Of course, we know that. It happens so frequently it’s become the norm. Whatever fact reaches public attention is mitigated, not with adjustment, but with a complete rewrite.

I’ll share a few facts but before I do, I need to ask – how is it so many people can trust and defend a man who contorts the truth with such abandon? This is a character issue. Bad character can’t be counted on to make the best decisions at crucial moments. The only thing is in this case, the whole country will pay the price.

We expect five-year-olds to ignore good advice, barge into trouble, and throw tantrums. We expect more from the President.

The Facts

Now for a few Trump sound bites.

Everybody owns stocks.

That was Trump’s response when pressed on why the economic recovery was benefiting mostly wealthy Americans who invest in stocks. His response wasn’t an answer but it was typical Trump. Dismissal. Don’t bother answering the question, just lie, ignore, redirect.

The truth is only about half of all Americans participate directly in the stock market and the ones who invest through retirement funds are woefully underprepared for retirement.

Stock ownership is heavily concentrated.

The complaint, by the way, is not that there are ultra-wealthy people or that those people are getting more wealthy. Personally, I think it’s great that wealth can be amassed!

Party on!

No one disapproves.

May more individuals join the club.

The question is can the President introduce policies that stimulate the economy from the bottom up. It’s easy to feed the top but that approach, long term, is self-defeating. It’s like building up muscles in your right arm while ignoring the left. [Read more…] about Trump’s Town Hall More Of The Same

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