PUTTING HIS NAME ON IT

Today I read and listened once again to the blessing God told Aaron and his sons to give to His people.  Any time I give a Benediction for a gathering of God's people I am drawn first to this passage, because it is the first of its kind, and a direct quote from the Lord.  If I were to put it in my own words it would be something like this...

May God give you everything good, and cause you to live securely and confidently in Him.  May He shine down His radiance upon you and may you bask in His good favor.  May He turn His face toward you - near you, as a dad to his daughter or as a friend to a friend - and may His near presence in your life bring you peace.

God's "original lyrics" are recorded in Numbers 6:23-26 (NIV)

But I nver noticed what came after that...

"So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."
Numbers 6:27 (NIV)

We Christians regard every believer as a priest.  We represent Christ to one another, to our family members, and to the world around us.  We can put God's name on people!

How can I put God's name on people? By blessing them and by being a blessing! Do I have to say this blessing in order to put God's name on people? Well, no, I don't have to.  Although, to my friends who would argue that words aren't necessary, I offer this caution:  we are in a changing society that doesn't always remember that God is the supreme motivator of goodness.  Sometimes, and more and more in our culture, you need to give credit to Whom credit is due.

There is a dark side to this - religion can put its name on people, and we can put our name on people.  This can be for good or ill, intentionally or unintentionally.  But often people confuse religion's name or our name with God's Name. If a person suffered a negative experience, it's hard to not associate that with God.  If someone experienced something positive but one of our personalities got in the way and then we let them down later, that causes frustration and disenchantment. But I don't want to be about the dark side - I want to focus on the light today!

Doing good to others in Jesus' Name, saying to people, "I am praying for you," and actually praying for them, expressing generosity, and in a genuine way saying, "May the Lord bless you today," these are all ways to put God's name on people.

As I look for ways to bless others and be a blessing to them, and as I do what I find to do, I am putting God's name on them.  What a privilege and what an opportunity!

Lord, help me to grow in my understanding of what it means to put Your name on people.  Help me to be a blessing and to bless others with my words and my actions.  Let me follow more closely the pattern of Jesus Christ, Your greatest blessing to me.  In His Name I pray.  Amen.

YEAR OF DELIVERANCE: soften my heart

I don't know about anybody else, but I feel like the last few years have been years of limited growth and honestly, a bit of struggle.  Looking to the Spirit of God, I'm ready to grow, take back some lost territory, and gain new ground for the glory of God.  I'm ready for some deliverance!  What will it take for 2012 to be a year of deliverance?

Earlier today I was reading the story of Moses and Aaron going before Pharaoh and telling him to let God's people go.  There are many take-aways from this story and I could go on and lose you here, so I've listed my top three picks below.

But here's Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ruling over peace, plenty, and prosperity, and along comes Moses and Aaron saying, "Thus saith the Lord."  The Who?

"You don't get it, do you?" Pharaoh thought - and in so many words said, "I'm god here -- and you think you can tell me what to do?"

Pharaoh's stubbornness cost his people dearly.  It cost them lives that must have been lost when the Nile River turned to blood, and the disease carried by frogs, flies, and gnats.  It cost them misery in all the plagues, loss of possessions as animals died, pain through the plague of boils, and terror in the plague of darkness.  Economically, Egypt was in ruins.  Just before the locusts landed, Pharaoh's own cabinet nearly revolted saying, "Don't you realize Egypt is already in shambles?"  Their frustration level was so high they were willing to say that to the absolute ruler of the land - their own version of the Exalted, Beloved Leader.

But Pharaoh would not be moved.

The children of Israel doubted at first, blamed Moses and Aaron and nearly threw them out. 

Pharaoh wanted to throw them out, and it was probably a source of great frustration to him that he couldn't.  Just before God's final plague he told them that the next time Moses forced an audience with him, it would be his last.


Pharaoh cost himself dearly - He lost a lot politically among his inner circle, and it seems that he lost the natural admiration and respect of his people.  The people of Egypt began to side with the slaves of Israel which had long since become a major engine in their nation's economy.  They respected Moses and many of them may have desired a coup, but they didn't dare say so.

They still obeyed Pharaoh, but I imagine they did so out of fear and duty only, with no love and pride intermingled as they probably had done for Pharaoh's father and grandfather.  We know from Scripture that his hardness of heart cost him his firstborn son, whom he cherished above anything or anyone else.

A number of years ago I was walking through a very dark time in my life, and I was trying to discern what the Lord was trying to teach me.  Finally, a good friend whom I regarded as a spiritual leader in my church said to me, "You know, Andrew, sometimes God brings us through hard times to teach us things, and sometimes hard times come upon us because of the hard hearts and bad choices of people around us." 

We - I'm at the top of the "we list" - do well to consider the effects of our heart condition and the choices we make as a result of where our hearts and heads are at (sorry, Miss Bell for ending a sentence in a preposition - it's not the first nor will it be the last time!).  It can have great effect on all around us - whether they're close to us or not - whether we're aware of them or not. 

Lord, work in my heart.  Help me to be open to You - and if I hear Your voice thundered through a prophet or spoken in stillness in my heart - give me grace to recognize, listen, and immediately obey.  May my heart be softened to You and to those around me, and may my heart condition be a source of nurture, not destruction or even neutrality.  May I be a source of blessing to those closest to me all the way to those furthest away.  In the Name of Jesus I ask that by your grace this year be a year of deliverance!  Amen. 


TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS FROM EXODUS 4-11

1. How God must feel about slavery in general and government-sanctioned oppression in particluar
2. God's faithfulness in keeping His promises even though it seems like He's forgotten over hundreds of years
3. God's purposes being fulfilled even under adverse circumstances.
• I have often wondered about God's reasoning for moving Isaac and his boys to Egypt only to end in slavery three hundred year later (my chronology may be off a little...). Yet, they didn't have the resources to grow in the wilderness, and here, with the vast riches of Egypt at their disposal, the children of Israel could begin to become the nation of Israel, even in bondage. Obviously that didn't excuse Egypt and specifically Pharaoh for enslaving Israel, and that doesn't mean that slavery and oppression should be sanctioned anywhere by God's people. But, as Joseph said, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."