March 2021 – Page 3 of 3 – Sonshine's Journal

March 7, 2021March 7, 2021

“What Does Your Calendar Reveal?”

Numbers 28-29 Is your calendar full of appointments? Do you include God as you begin each day? To help the Israelites, God included significant days on their yearly calendar, and on those days, they were to bring offerings that would be a sweet aroma to Him. They were to plan and choose each offering intentionally.

Do you spend time each day to prepare your heart so you can be a sweet aroma to others as you spread His love to all, not just on special days but every day?

“Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.” [Eph 5] Jesus was the perfect atoning sacrifice. When we accept Christ’s sacrifice, it should produce a fragrant or sweet aroma that permeates or bring to mind the knowledge of the Messiah as we walk this earthly life. “To the saved, we are a sweet aroma of Christ, but to the unsaved, we are an odor or a stench of death to death.” [2Cor 2:15]

God doesn’t want an occasional “holiday appointment” but a daily appointment, not an excuse of why our life is busy with appointments that have no eternal value. He gave the best; what is the best you are giving to Him?

March 6, 2021March 6, 2021

The Right of Inheritance

The daughters of Zelophehad were wise and cunning

Numbers 26 & 27 Louis May Alcott wrote a classic called Little Women and later Little Men. All have captivated audiences and still do today. But here, in an obscure passage, we read about not four but five little women and the problem they faced. As Moses recorded the male inheritances of Israel’s children, he listed the names of men—not women–from 20 yrs. old and up. In the middle, we read: Zelophehad had no sons, only five daughters. He had stood firm against those who had tested the Lord and was found faithful. But, male hierarchy and the law said only males could inherit the land. So these five daughters wondered what happens to our father’s inheritance. What about us? They wanted their faithful father’s legacy to continue.

Bravely but graciously, these five women entered the men’s arena to seek a change in the rules. They entered a patriarchal society to claim their father’s inheritance rights. Moses was in a quandary! Wisely Moses went straight to God and heard they were right, teaching us that God honors courage and humility. These five little women gained the right to inheritance and preservation of their father’s legacy! Women of today take heart! You, too, can be wise, tenacious, brave, and courageous.

Zelophehad raised five courageous women, and fathers can do the same today. These five little women sought to honor their deceased father, and God honored their request.

March 5, 2021March 5, 2021

Our UnChanging God

Numbers 23 to 25 Sometimes when we want to win, we “move the mark” so we are closer to the finish line. Balaam is a man who constantly tried to move God to curse Israel but over and over, God placed His words in Balaam’s mouth.

The Lord put a message in Balaam’s mouth: “how can I curse one whom God has not cursed…” [Num 23:8] Three times, Balaam sought to “move the mark” of purity and righteousness so God would allow him to curse Israel but “God, is not a man, that he should lie nor a human being that he should change his mind.” [Num 23:19]

God has three ways of answering: yes, no, and wait. Never does He change His mind, for what He has chosen that shall He do. Balaam tried three times for God to change, but He never did. So when he couldn’t get the answer to receive the riches Balak had prepared to honor him, he didn’t seek God but set his face toward the wilderness. That is like us when we try to get the unchanging God to change his mind.

Beloved God is certain, and His will never changes, so why do you seek to change the unchanging God’s mind?

March 4, 2021March 4, 2021

God Tests Balaam & Us

Numbers 22 Just as we test metals to determine their worth, so God tests our hearts to know it’s worth, and as Paul prayed, so should we: That “our God will make [us] worthy of His calling.” [2Thess 1:11] Enter Balaam, the son of Beor, a false diviner whose worth will be proven. When the Moabite King sent a delegation, God intervened by asking Balaam, “Who are these men?” Balaam kept up a dialog with God about them, and on the surface, it seems that he was obeying. However, as we see, Balaam fell headlong into the temptation of earthly riches, which was more potent than obeying God. Like many today, Balaam tried to appear righteous by his answer that he could not curse Israel, but his actions prove the opposite. Balaam sought ways to obey God and yet get the riches the King offered.

The last test came when God explicitly tested Balaam when he said: “if” these men have come to call you, get up and go with them. But Balaam didn’t wait for the “if” clause and instead got up and went.

Today God tests our hearts just as He did Balaam’s. Therefore, we must ask God for his wise counsel and we must stand firm. God gives us tests to discern if we will obey His voice or our own.

March 3, 2021March 3, 2021

“The Priesthood: a Gift for Service”

Numbers 18 What is our responsibility as NT believers? Peter tells us: “you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” [1Pe 2:5] It is because of the gift and sacrifice of Jesus that we are given this unique role. But, it was not so in the OT. Only here in Number 18:7 and Lev 10:8 does God speak directly to Aaron. He alone was given the gift of the priesthood, but the gift was the same as for us: “I give you the priesthood as a gift for service.” [Num 18:7]

Our service is to start here: “to present our bodies as a sacrifice, alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is our reasonable service.” [Rom 12:1] Beyond that, our service gifts are to attend to the body of Christ in whatever ways Christ places before us. We are to meet the needs of the congregation. Paul told the Corinthians that: their “abundance will meet their need, so that one day their abundance may also meet your need, and thus there be equality.” [2Cor 8:14] So service goes both ways.

Today who in your congregation has a need? Step up and meet it according to your abundance.

March 2, 2021March 2, 2021

True or False Humility

Numbers 16 As children, we played a game called follow the leader, where the followers mimic the leader’s actions. Elimination happens when you fail to comply. God calls it rebellion in Numbers 16. Korah challenged the leadership of Moses. He sought to usurp the leadership by placing himself in the “I” position. When “I” gets in the way, the ego is puffed up. “I know better!” This same scenario took place in the Garden of Eden, and men have yet to learn from that lesson.

God had already chosen, anointed, and proven that Moses was the leader, yet Korah was unsatisfied. He wanted to be the new leader of the Israelites. Gathering the Reubenites to join him, he began murmuring, which escalated into a full roar of mutiny. Sound familiar? How often do we allow others to lead us astray? Satan loves it when we grumble and better when we gather others to follow us. Jude describes the scenario. They dream and defile the flesh in their rejection of authority. They are divisive and devoid of the Spirit.

Moses, a man of humility, “fell down with his face to the ground.” Korah, a rebel, “fell when the earth opened up and swallowed him and his family.” And it was all because he failed to honor God’s anointed.

Where are you “falling” due to failure to honor God’s anointed?

March 1, 2021March 1, 2021

Are You Living a Facebook Life?

Numbers 14/Psalm 90 We live in an instant gratification society which is evidenced by the amount of time we spend on Facebook. Somehow we feel that we can post something and go off to do other things and return later to see how others responded. The truth of the matter is that our Facebook posts last but for a moment in time. If you click off and return to the post you were reading, it might be there, but more often, it has disappeared into cyberspace.

God gave the Israelites a promise of land filled with honey and sent twelves spies to check his truthfulness. Ten of the spies sent to scout out the Promised Land were living as if their life was like FB! Their words show they had forgotten the beauty and God’s promises entirely. Their report was “yes…but” and brought eternal consequences. Only Joshua and Caleb lived to tell about it for 40 yrs.

Psalm 90 reminds us of the permanence of God and the frailty of men. The psalmist’s words are clear: “So teach us to consider our mortality, so that we might live wisely” Also, pray that what we do is successful so that one day we will hear “well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

Are you living a FB life today? Are you preparing to end well?