An omer of manna

"Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord, to be kept throughout your generations."  (Exodus 16:33)

  When the Israelites grumbled about starving to death in the wilderness, God didn't respond like most fallible humans would.  God didn't look upon the Israelites with scorn in his heart, like a child who had just watched a bully knock an ice cream cone to the ground.  God didn't cry out across the heavens in wonder at their ingratitude, like a parent whose child just asked for more.  When the people that God has rescued from slavery cried out in longing for the comforts of slavery, God demonstrated his boundless mercy and poured down manna from heaven.  Bread from God was at the door to their tents.

  In addition to feeding the people, God gave Moses a commandment.  He was to save some of the manna and put it in a jar for the purpose of reminding the people of what God did for them.  Throughout the generations, people would look upon the jar and remember God's gracious provision for them.  When they were tempted to wonder what God had done for them lately, the jar would remind them that God provides.

  I think we probably could use some jars of our own in this crazy world today.  How many times have you been tempted to ask, God, where have you been lately?  In a world of instant gratification, when things don't live up to our expectations, we need an explanation.  When chaos descends upon us, be it of natural origin or out of sinful hearts, we wonder if God has forgotten about us.

  I don't think there's anything wrong with lifting up our laments to God.  The Psalms give us a rich tradition of people struggling with how to understand suffering while holding on to God's goodness.  Many of the prophets lamented the day of their birth, and yet they continued to live faithfully.  We can still cry out to God.

  When we do so, however, it's vital that we remember how faithful God has been.  It's important to remember that God's grace has watched over us these many years, and that it will not fail us.  Life may not turn out like we want, and we may find ourselves disappointed or despairing, but if we take some time to remember God's faithfulness, we will discover that God's goodness is still at work.

  So count your blessings.  Remember what God has done, for the act of recalling God's previous blessings will sustain us through many dark nights of the soul.

June 6 (D-Day) New Hope E-News

Announcements

Special Guest—This Sunday, we'll have a special guest with us. Marilyn Borst from the Outreach Committee will be with us. She'll be preaching on Sunday morning about the church's call to look beyond itself and serve others. If you're interested in attending a luncheon to talk more with Marilyn about how New Hope might be involved in God's work beyond the bounds of our church, please email me.

Church Website—It's working again! Yay! Newhopechattanooga.org

Community Kitchen Spot

There are a lot of hungry and homeless children of God and the community needs some help feeding them. If you would like to help out, please bring the following items to church this Sunday & put them in the grocery cart.

8 oz. Styrofoam bowls

Dry Milk

Styrofoam Plates

Plastic Forks/Spoons

Pasta

New Hope News

Sunday School—This Sunday, the adult class will study 1 Peter.

VBS—Will be the week of July 15-18. Make your plans accordingly!

Pray For:

Lynn Meyer & Christine Dyer

Russell Mabry

John L. Wright

Links

Does child sponsorship work?

Contact of Southeast Tennessee has closed its lines

Take a guess at the most highlighted verse in the Bible.

As we delve into summer, this is a helpful piece on the dangers of drowning

Building a Missional Family

An awesome way to brighten a miserable experience

Apparently, it's good to put the baby in a box

Keith's Random Thoughts

D-Day was 69 years ago today. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the beaches in Normandy. They are peaceful, serene locations, a far cry from the violent chaos that descended upon them on June 6, 1944. At the top of the cliffs there is a cemetery, a place that breaks your heart as you read the names and dates on the white crosses. You can't help but wonder what might have become of these young men had they not given their lives for their cause.

Standing on the beach, you look up toward the cliffs, and you wonder how in the world they ever ascended those heights. You wonder at the courage that must have coursed through the veins of those who charged forward. You marvel at the fear that must have overtaken many in the moments leading up to the lowering of the doors of their landing crafts. It is an imposing place, and the fact that D-Day led to the defeat of the dug-in German troops is amazing when you consider the obstacles that had to be overcome.

D-Day is not something I could have achieved on my own. It required the sacrifice of many others in order to overcome a powerful enemy. Without it, my life today would be very different. I don't know how, but I am certain this world would be a different place.

So how do I live in reflection of this event?

I think the best way to reflect gratitude is to strive for the same ideals that drove the D-Day invasion. British, American & Canadian forces stormed those beaches in an effort to liberate Europe from an overpowering foe, one intent on destruction and domination. They did not invade in the hopes of conquering Europe, but of setting it free to determine its own future. The best way I can honor their sacrifice, I believe, is to strive for my own life to be useful to others, recognizing the powers at work in the world that seek to dominate and destroy and working to free others from these powers. This entails sponsoring children through World Vision to help set them free from the powers of poverty. It may mean joining in with the fight against trafficking, or striving to feed the hungry or help minorities obtain equal rights. It might mean something different for each of us, but remembering the sacrifice others made should change the way we see our own lives, that we live not for ourselves, but to benefit others. There is a greater good.

As a Christian, the sacrifice of Christ should drive me to examine my own motives. Am I living out of selflessness, or am I motivated to strive for peace and prosperity only in my own little kingdom? Do I build up others, or stride over them when the need arises? Christ loved at cost to himself. Am I willing to let the needs of others infringe upon my life?

These are hard questions, ones that I often avoid. But the more they are asked, the more I must wrestle with them. The more I wrestle, the more I recognize the truth that it is God's Kingdom I am called to serve, rather than my own.

Text for this Sunday

Romans 1:8-12

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

NewHopeChattanooga.org

New Hope on Facebook & Twitter

New Hope on iTunes

Keith's Blog & Devotionals for your Kindle

To whom else?

  "Lord, to whom else shall we go?"

  It's the question Peter asks Jesus in the 6th chapter of John, when Jesus is asking the disciples if they will abandon him in the face of difficult teachings.

  It's the same question that stands before us today.

  In the face of adversity, of fear, whom else can we turn to who reigns over sin and death?  Whom else has power that is greater than the wind and the waves?  Is there another under whose wings we can take shelter and trust that whatever in this world shakes and quakes, we can still cling to the hope of the God who has triumphed over every other power?  Is there another who will dance triumphantly upon the grave of death at the end of time?  Is there another who needs no sun, because he himself is light?

  When we look deep into our own souls and recognize the sin within, is there another who we can say will love us unconditionally, who knows the depths of our own brokenness and seeks our redemption anyway?  Is there another who will wade into the dark night of the soul with us, confidant that the broken pieces of our lives can be put back together again?  Is there another who has experience the complete rejection of humanity and died on their behalf anyway?  Whom else can respond with such infinite grace to the reality of our own fallen humanity?

  When we recognize how powerless we are to overcome the impact of sin on our lives, whom else can send his Spirit to do what we cannot do, to redeem what we cannot redeem, to heal what we cannot heal, and to transform what we cannot change?

  Each and every day of my life, from the moment my eyes meet the tender first lights of the morning to the last thought I have before I drift into the security of slumber, I am bombarded with temptation to find mortal pleasure and place my heart's trust in the things of this world.  The messages come from without and within, and I am unable (and often unwilling) to resist them all.  I fall, and when I recognize the hurdle on which I have tripped and vow not to make that mistake again, I often discover new pitfalls before returning to the same old haunts.  I turn to many other false gods and false promises.

  But ultimately, I know and trust that there is only one to whom I belong.  There is no one else to whom I wish to go.  There is no one else who has the same power, and there is no one else who can love me so.  Only one promises me abundant life, and while the conditions of discipleship are exacting, I trust in the one who promises life to those willing to take up his yoke.

Guns, Germs & Steel

  I recently finished Jared Diamond's excellent Guns, Germs & Steel.  When I purchased it, I had thought it was a recently released blockbuster when, in fact, it actually came out last millennium, back in 1999 when we all thought the world was going to end because our computers wouldn't be able to function in the year 2000.  That seems like a really long time ago.  (National Geographic did a series on it a bit more recently, and the website is still up.)

  The book attempts to tackle the question of why humans developed the way we did.  Why did some cultures, such as the Europeans, develop technology and race around the world, conquering other civilizations using their guns, germs and steel?  Why were the conquered civilizations not the ones building ships to conquer Europe?  Why didn't germs to which Native Americans have immunity wipe out the first settlers?

  It's easy to attribute such success to the individuals that made up the societies.  We can assume that because some societies didn't develop technology at the same pace that they are less intelligent or inferior beings.  But Diamond demonstrates that the reasons society developed at different speeds has more to do with the available plant and animal species that surrounded them than intrinsic abilities.  Had the original Europeans been in North America while the Native Americans were in Europe, Diamond argues, world history might be very similar, owing to the environment of Europe versus North America.

  What Diamond is proposing is that things are far more complicated than they seem, and there are reasons societies are the way they are.  The Africans couldn't control the fact that they got the rhinoceros and hippopotamus while the Europeans and Asians had horses and cattle.  This shaped far more of history than we might initially believe.  History is complicated.

  What this teaches me, as someone trying to learn about other people, is that things are complicated.  They are usually far deeper than we believe, and the reason we are the way we are often has its roots deep within us.  I might never follow the rabbit trail deep enough to understand fully many of my attributes.  Many aspects that make me who I am are beyond my control.  The same is true of others.

  Diamond teaches me to be patient.  Guns, Germs & Steel is a lesson that we all wander our path of life filled with complicated histories that have shaped who we are today.  To know someone deeply takes a lifetime's worth of effort and love, and it is not a thing to be done casually, carelessly.  There are reasons we act the way we do, and to make sweeping assumptions about large communities can be a dangerous thing, because we often don't fully see the entire picture.

  I trust that God understands this all.  I trust that God, who stands above and outside of time and space can grasp the enormity of each and every complex situation, and I trust God's love, because he enters into our time and space and loves us all the same.  May we endeavor to love as deeply, despite our limitations, and trust that one day we will see on a wider plane. and we will understand beauty all the more.