February 13 - Hey, Grandpa. I haven't seen you since you died. How've you been?

Building a port-o-tabernacle: Exodus 35:10-36:38

Night of the living dead: Matthew 27:32-66

The psalm of a crazy man: Psalm 34:1-10

To correct a mocking bird: Proverbs 9:7-8


Jesus is the most awesome thing that ever was or ever will be! Yet, I bet it was hard to be one of His disciples and witness His death. Even with the miraculous things that occurred during His death (three hours of darkness, dead folks hopping up out of the grave & hanging out with living folks, and the temple curtain being torn in two), I’m sure the disciples felt defeated. Of course, we have hind sight – we know that Jesus rose from the dead after a couple of days. When it looks like the Lord isn’t caring after you, or the Lord can’t get something done that needs to be done, I urge you to keep the faith. The Lord will come through. As David wrote in today’s Psalm, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” David wrote this Psalm at a low point in his life, knowing that the Lord would get him out of his troubles.

Imagine if we in the church today gave so much our church leaders had to tell us, “Enough. Stop giving.” :) As hard as that sounds to believe, it can be done. It happened in Exodus 36:4-7, part of today’s reading. To be fair, we’re talking about the giving of an entire nation vs. the giving of our little church. Plus, we’re talking about the need to build a lot of items of worship vs. the need of a church today (maintain the sanctuary, pay power & gas bills, pay staff, fund ministries like missionaries & the food pantry, etc.). However, I think even in context this can be an expectation if we narrowed it down to one item: the giving needed to build the new building. Can we give & raise enough money so that one day Brother Al says to us, “Enough. Stop giving to the building fund”? I think it’s entirely possible.