Quail: It's What's for Dinner.

Moses had a difficult job. You people in management think you have it bad, imagine managing a group of about a million former slaves. When reading about the ministry of Moses, I often feel very sorry for him. Moses was not a typical CEO type personality. The bible describes him as the humblest man on earth (Num 12:3).

Numbers 11 gives an account of Moses' exasperation over a pity party the nation of Israel was having over their menu. As we see many times during the exodus, the Israelites were grumbling about their situation and wishing to be in Egypt where they had it so good. The manna God had provided had become distasteful to them and they longed for meat, so much so that the scriptures say they sat in the doorway of their tents weeping. I imagine Moses at his wit's end as he cried out to the Lord,
"Why have You afflicted Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,' to the land which You swore to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, 'Give us meat, that we may eat.' I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now-if I have found favor in Your sight-and do not let me see my wretchedness!"

A couple things stand out to me in this story. First, Moses relationship with the Creator. How familiar their relationship must have been to feel like he could address God this way. In fact Moses seems almost kind of snarky. Interestingly, the Lord responds similarly when Moses asks the Lord how He can provide enough meat for the Israelites to eat for a month, "And the LORD said to Moses, "Has the LORD'S arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not."
Secondly, these men and women in the camp who had witnessed God's extraordinary and powerful works on their behalf turned so easily to doubt and distrust when things became difficult or uncomfortable.
While it is easy for me to marvel at the faithlessness of the Israelites, I am not much different. Having been given the gift of grace through faith, I still doubt the Lord by my actions. Often I pray along with the man who asked Jesus to heal his demon possessed son in Mark 9:24, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief!"

Union Humor

Mabey you've seen these but we do not watch television so they are new to me. My employer and labor union have been negotiating a new contract and the process has been less than pleasant. Feeling like a pawn in someone's sick game of chess, finding a little humor in this childish game played every three to five years brought a little relief.

Not your Father's Nativity Scene Either.

I find it somewhat ironic that Christmas, celebrated on December 25th, is returning to its pagan roots. December 25th has had significance to pagan religions before Christ was born. It was not until 350AD when Pope Julius I made it the official birthday of Christ did believers begin to celebrate on December 25th and even then the people incorporated their pagan traditions into the celebration of Christ's birth, some even surviving to this day. The actual celebration of Christ-mass began much later in the 1500's.

What am I rambling about? I'm sure that this is not unique to our day; attacks on Christians and Christmas have surely been going on for quite some time. However, I do not remember such a brazenly public attempt to wrestle Christmas away from Christians as in these last few years. An organization of atheists have began a public campaign ostensibly targeted at other atheists who may feel "left out" at Christmas asking the question, "Why believe in a god? Be good for goodness sake." There's always the the passive assault of wishing "Happy Holidays" by the retailers who fall all over themselves to not offend anyone except Christians (what do they mean by "holy-days"?). The Christmas specials avoid the Christ aspect of Christmas and of course all the ads with "x-mas" have been around for ever but still have the effect of being flipped the bird.

The slide of western culture back to pagan celebration on December 25th went a little farther this year when a Dutch gay group announced that they will be modifying the nativity scene a little this year (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,463546,00.html ) during the ProGay group's celebration. For those whose stomachs have just turned and don't wish to read the entire article about the "Pink Christmas" celebration in Amsterdam, I'll sum it up for you with a quote or two from the article:

"Van Dalen said it was not intended to be offensive, but was meant as a "wink" at heterosexual assumptions.
"Christmas is about more than religion, it's also about love and families, not to mention shopping," he said. "Two men or two women can form a family too these days, even one with a child." "

Clearly, as our culture slides farther and farther away from its value system based on absolute truth toward secular humanism, there will be more assaults on the beliefs of those who still celebrate Christ's birth on December 25th. Barring a third great awakening, we should expect it. But don't despair, all the assaults cannot change the fact that Jesus DID come and we can celebrate that all year long. There is nothing sacred about December 25th, if the pagans want it back, fine; our message doesn't change.

Not Your Fathers Prayer meeting?

Imagine walking into church Sunday morning and seeing three SUVs behind the pulpit. That's just what church goers at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit saw this morning. The SUVs served as the backdrop to a prayer service with the purpose of petitioning God for bailout money to keep the big three alive. UAW members, executives, and even the dreaded car salesmen present in the service came forward and were anointed with oil as prayers were offered up to turn the hearts of congress to favoring the 15 billion "loan". UAW Vice President General Holiefield told the attendees of this morning's service that after pleading their case and fighting for the bailout that "We have done all we can do in this union, so I'm going to turn it over to the Lord." For more on this unusual prayer meeting check out the link below.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4B700K20081208