Growing in Yahweh

In the New Covenant, this age of grace, we have the privilege of being a royal priesthood.

I want to raise my children in the presence of Yahweh so that they know His presence and His word.

1 Samuel 2:18‭, ‬21b‭, ‬26 ESV

Samuel was ministering before Yahweh, a boy clothed with a linen ephod. 

... And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of Yahweh. 

... Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with Yahweh and also with man.

1 Samuel 3:21 ESV

And Yahweh appeared again at Shiloh, for Yahweh revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of Yahweh.

These verses about Samuel remind me of Jesus.

Father, teach me to raise my children in your presence.  Please speak to them.  I want them to know your voice and the power of your word.  I want them to walk with you, love you, and obey you. Holy Spirit, please guide me.  I ask in the name of Jesus.

Integrated life

Yahweh gave us commands for our benefit.  He desires to bless us. Honoring Him in our hearts and obeying him is how we show our love for Him.  He will supply more than what we need for His glory, as we live an integrated life, loving Yahweh, the one true God, and loving people (especially the fatherless, widow, and foreigner), and training our children in the same.

Deuteronomy 6:1‭-‬9 NIV

These are the commands, decrees and laws Yahweh your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear Yahweh your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. Love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 8:1‭, ‬5‭-‬11 NIV

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land Yahweh promised on oath to your ancestors. ... Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. Observe the commands of Yahweh your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. For Yahweh your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise Yahweh your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget Yahweh your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

Deuteronomy 10:12‭-‬21 NIV

And now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe Yahweh's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To Yahweh your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet Yahweh set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear Yahweh your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.

Father, thank you for your abundant mercy and grace.  Jesus, thank you for demonstrating a fully integrated life with the Father and Holy Spirit.  I love you.

40 moves after leaving Rameses

Yahweh instructed Moses to record the stages of their journey.  In Numbers 33:6-48, there are forty moves recorded after leaving Rameses after the Passover.  That is an average of one move per year.

I'm still savoring the end of the book of Exodus:

Exodus 40:36‭-‬38 NIV

In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of [Yahweh] was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

They saw the cloud of Yahweh lift forty times, and they followed forty times.

Father, I want to watch you and follow you.  Holy Spirit, I want to go with you and keep in step with you.  Please calibrate my senses to hone in on your presence and track you.  I love you.

Water, Purification

Coincidentally, or maybe divinely orchestratedly, I attended two water conferences this week, and I read Numbers 19-20 in my daily reading (water of cleansing and water from the rock, respectively) earlier this week.

On the two flights yesterday, I read the first half of the book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, and Chapter 3 about fear challenged me to think about how I fear failure.  And, as a recovering perfectionist, I struggle with categorizing anything I do that falls short of perfection as failure.  Thus, I struggle with considering myself a failure, categorically.  I want to be freed from this mindset so that I can be more impactful at helping provide safe drinking water to people around the world.

Father, deliver me from perfectionism.  Perfectionism is not the mind of Christ.  I break agreement with perfectionism.  I break agreement with thinking of myself as a failure.  I take courage in knowing that you are orchestrating my advancements and victories.  I love you.

Faithfulness

My word for this year is faithfulness.

Galatians 5:22‭-‬25 NIV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

I've been meditating on how faithful our Father is to us.

Father, I want to be faithful to you and faithful like you.  Please deliver me from trying to please people.  I love you.

Living in paradise

The Kingdom of Light is full of peace.  It is paradise.  

Every day can be paradise if we allow His light, life, love, joy, peace, .... to flow through us.

Through me, others will taste and see that Yahweh is good because His goodness will overflow through me.

Father, thank you for bringing me into the abundant zoe life.  Jesus, you are the King of Shalom.  Holy Spirit, may the people around me know that paradise is real because of my life.  May they see your face in mine.  I love you.

Perspective on adverse conditions

Job 31:35. NIV

"Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.

Our enemy, the accuser, tries to convince us that our Father is the bad guy, that He is the accuser.  The accuser wants us to blame our Father for our adverse conditions, and the accuser wants us to think that our Father is indifferent to our pain and cries for help.

Job's first three "friends" thought Job was guilty, and Elihu argues that since God controls the weather and we can't, God would not listen to humans.  In one sense, we have no leverage against God to make Him listen to us and answer us, but we learn from David that our Father is compassionate towards us:

Psalms 8:3‭-‬4 NIV

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

Our Father created us to abide with us and love us; we are objects of his affection. So we should show compassion, mercy, and grace to all humans, especially those who are experiencing adversity.

Father, you are kind, loving, merciful, and full of grace toward us.  Father, you sent Jesus because you love the whole world.  You cause it to rain on the just, as well as the unjust.  Jesus, you showed the Father's affection through beholding and healing people who were hurt.  Holy Spirit, please help me defend the Father's reputation against the accusations of the enemy.  I love you.