Set Aside

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (Num. 26-27)

“Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying; ‘Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.’

And the Lord said to Moses; ‘Take Joshua, the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.’ “ Num. 27:15-18)

I am now on a first name basis with the athletes of Olympic Games: Vancouver.

Apolo – Congratulations on being America’s most medal-decorated Winter Olympian.

Kim – You are the queen of figure skating!

Joannie – What mental strength you showed. Winning the bronze medal four days after the sudden death of your mom. Wow!

I’ve loved them all but do you know what has struck me most about the Games? The families! Nodar’s grieving parents and Axsel’s reflective father. Apolo speaking about his relationship with his dad, “We are a small family, just the two of us." Lindsey Vonn, stepping atop the podium to receive her downhill skiing gold medal, smiling down at her mother and siblings, including the brother who had her initials shaved into his hair, the “L” on one side, “V” on the other.

The families – the love, the support, and the encouragement that they gave each competitor - will be the image that sticks with me after the Games are over.

Today’s Scripture is all about family – the family of God. Once again we see why Moses is such a great leader.

The Lord instructs Moses to go up to Mt. Nebo and take a look at the Promised Land. But then He says that after he has seen it, he will die. “For in the Wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to hallow Me at the waters before their eyes.” (Num. 27:14)

What had happened that kept Moses from entering the land of his forty-year destination?

The people needed water – always the greatest need of the Israelites in their wanderings. God told Moses to speak to the rock and water would come out. Instead, Moses chided the people as rebels and struck the rock twice with his rod. Water came gushing out but God wasn’t happy with Moses.

The great man of God had sinned. In his anger, he had joined with the rebels. Instead of trusting God by speaking and making his request; he hit the rock, not once but twice.

I find myself agreeing with the commentators who say that the rock symbolized Jesus Christ. Jesus was struck for our sins on the cross where He bore the wrath of God for all of our spiritual rebellion – past, present, and future. When he said, “It is finished, “ the debt was paid forever. He rose from His grave to sit in heaven at the right hand of the throne of God. He is our Lord and High Priest and will never ever be struck again. We, who know Him as our Savior, only have to ask to receive the Living Water that we crave from day to day.

Moses and the Pentateuch represent the law and the Ten Commandments. No one can be saved through the law because all have sinned. No human can ever keep the law perfectly and enter heaven. Only one recorded sin kept Moses from entering the Promised Land. Moses represented the Law that cannot allow for one exception. “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10)

Once again we see Moses model great leadership. There is no griping or displeasure only acceptance for God’s discipline in his own life. His reply to God shows his love and concern for the Israelites. He pleads with God and says, “Give them a good leader then. One who will be there for them, “who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.” (Num.27: 17)

God answers the great prayer of Moses. He names Joshua as the new leader and instructs Moses to have Eleazar the priest anoint him. Moses does just as he is commanded and continues to keep on keeping on serving the Lord.

What an amazing “family man!” Moses is set aside as Israel’s leader, but his heartbeat is for the future of the Israelites. “Don’t let them be like sheep without a shepherd, “ he pleads. The athletes have the backing of their families win or lose. Because of his great love for the family of God, the Israelites have the support of Moses in the midst of his own heartbreak.

What do we do when we lose our competitions and suffer great disappointments? How do we react when we are seemingly “set aside” on our sometimes “not so joyful journeys” through life? Do we quit or do we keep on serving the Lord wherever He has placed us, remembering, like Moses, it's all about God and His great plan for His family?

Whining and Dining

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (Numbers 19-20)

“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” Numbers 20:7-8

Are you as hooked on the Olympics as I am? Watching the athletes’ dedication to being the best in their field is an inspiration. I love the stories that are featured each night about the lives of the competitors.

During a feature on Norwegian alpine skier, Axsel Lund Svindal, his father described Axsel’s horrific skiing accident at Beaver Creek in 2007. Skiing down the mountain he fell and landed on his neck. Axsel sustained a concussion, terrible facial lesions from his own knees, and many abdominal injuries. After undergoing extensive surgery, he spent two weeks in the Vail Hospital. The young skier said that as he lay there, he had a wonderful view of the Colorado Mountains. Looking at the slopes day after day, he was inspired to ski again. Many months of grueling physical therapy later, he was back. Now he’s won a gold, a silver, and a bronze medal at Vancouver.

Speaking of his son, the father shook his head and said, “He just has a lot of mental strength. Some have it and some don’t.”

Some have it and some don’t. Some would look out of a hospital bed and, viewing the mountains through incredible pain, whimper, “That’s it, I’m through with skiing.” Axsel saw them calling him to a spectacular comeback.

Numbers 20 is such a dramatic chapter. We see who has it and who doesn’t. After 38 years of wandering, the Israelites are right back where they started in the Wilderness of Zin. As the chapter opens, Miriam, the sister of Moses, dies and is buried at Kadesh Barnea

Imagine Moses’ thoughts as he grieves for his sister, remembering - the stories of how she had watched their mother hide him in the bulrushes when Pharaoh’s daughter found him as a baby, how she had danced and sang after the crossing of the Red Sea, how she had become leprous at the hand of God when her jealousy of Moses overcame her, and how she had been healed by the Lord Himself when her brother prayed for her. When we bury our loved ones our grieving is so poignant and reflective. Was Moses any different? I don’t think so.

As the chapter moves on, Moses is abruptly called back to deal with his whiny flock. The Israelites are out of water and whom do they blame but Moses and his brother Aaron. This seventh great murmuring against Moses and God is so similar to all the others. They wail, “And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.”

Once again Moses and Aaron fall on their faces before God and plead for these obstinate people. The Lord instructs them to take the rod, their visual symbol of His power, and speak to the rock and water will come out – enough water for all of the Israelites and all of their animals.

Moses takes the rod, but he is tired and exasperated and he doesn’t obey God. He strikes the rock twice and water comes out. We can understand his deep vexation with the Israelites. All leaders come to this point at times. Surely it is okay for Moses to get a little overwrought.

But God speaks to Moses and says, “Because you did not believe Me to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”

After forty years of leading this cantankerous group of people, Moses is not allowed to go into the Promised Land because of one irreverent outburst? At this point most of us would go into our tents, throw ourselves on our pallets, and become the greatest whiners of all.

But not Moses. He goes on to confront the unhelpful king of Edom who refuses to let the Israelites cross his country in spite of Moses’ ardent offers to comply with his wishes as they march. Then, still in Numbers chapter 20, Moses escorts his brother and his nephew to the top of Mt. Hor as God has instructed. There, according to God's instructions, he strips his own brother of his priestly garments and puts them on Eleazar his son. He watches his brother die on the mountaintop and then comes back down with Aaron’s son, the new priest.

Now that is a person with mental strength! What a role model for all people who serve in the ups and downs of leadership. Moses never got into the Promised Land. He spent the rest of his earthly life still in charge of leading the whiners. Later, his body was buried in the heathen land of Moab.

But it was only his body. His spirit went to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. We see him in the New Testament meeting with Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration. One day we will sit across the table from him in heaven at the marriage feast of the Lamb.

Maybe we can ask him, "How did you do it all so well? Compaining was never on your plate. No wonder God called you the humblest man that ever lived."

Axsel’s father said, “Some have it and some don’t.” Moses sure had it.

What about us? What's on our plates? Are we spending our days whining like the children of Israel? Or are we faithfully performing the work that God has called us to do - knowing that one day we will be dining with the God of the universe - and Moses?

The Parade of Nations

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (Numbers 8-9}

“At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.” Numbers 9:18

Have you been watching the Olympics? What an opening day! Friday was truly a study in human emotions! The death of the young Luge competitor from Georgia was numbing to us all. It cast a sad oppressive pallor over the opening night ceremony in Vancouver. During the moment of silence dedicated to his memory most of us were probably thinking the same thing. Did 21 year old Nodar have a thought before he started down his harrowing run that the Canadian air he was breathing would be the last air he would ever breathe? Hurtling down the speedy slope of the newly built luge track, did he think about that? Perhaps he might have.

On Sunday his father spoke to a small group of journalists over strong sweet coffee in the kitchen of his home. His mother sat crying at a table covered in snapshots of her son. We can all relate to such an emotional scene.

His father said, “He called me before the Olympics..and he said, ‘Dad, I’m scared of one of the turns.’”

Recalling the phone conversation the day before the tragedy, Mr. Kumaritashvili said he had offered some advice to his apprehensive son.

“I said put your legs down on the ice to slow down, but he said if he started the course he would finish it…He was brave,” the father said.

Nodar Kumaritashvili didn’t get to the Parade of Nations. He had planned to but it didn’t happen.

As I watched the faces of the multitudes of athletes who did get to march around the huge arena, I was struck by the joy on their faces – the incredible happiness at accomplishing their goal. They had made it to the Parade of Nations. They were a part of the Olympics. Some were taking pictures, others were waving their hands in the air - their countenances radiating their joy! Men and women, participating from countries all over the world, marching as a part of the whole. But, like Nodar -they still had no idea of where they were going. Was it toward a medal – maybe even a gold? Or, after all of their training, would they qualify to be in the finals? Would they be eliminated? Would they sustain an injury and be sidelined? They had made it this far, yet they didn’t have a clue about what their future competition held. But this night, February 12, 2010, they were marching in the Parade of Nations and they were beyond euphoric.

The Israelites have made it to a milestone in their journey. A year has gone by since they left Egypt and celebrated the first Passover. The people had remained at the foot of Mt. Sinai as the book of Leviticus had been given and the tabernacle was completed. The record of Numbers begins with the nation still at Mt. Sinai in the second month of the second year. Imagine their joy as they gathered together and celebrated their second Passover.

After the dedication of the tabernacle something incredible happened. A cloud settled over the tabernacle – a cloud that would turn into a pillar of fire every night. Numbers 9:15-23 gives us the most extensive description in the Bible of the movement of the cloud that symbolized God’s Presence with the children of Israel. Think of the excitement of the Israelites as the cloud descended from heaven and covered the tabernacle. It was a visual sign from God that He was in the midst of them and that He would lead them on their journey to the Promised Land. It must have been a breathtaking sight – even better than the opening of the Olympic Games and the Olympic torch.

The Israelites had left Egypt escaping a lifestyle as brick making slaves. They had received a year of training with Moses at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Now the cloud rested on the tabernacle and the presence of God was about to lead them on a newlife long journey. When the cloud lifted, they were to pack up and move,when it settled, they were to stay put. Like the athletes in the Parade of Nations, they had made it to a huge milestone in their lives but much lay ahead of them. Would they pass the tests that lay ahead or would they be sidelined in God’s plan for their lives?

We’re not Olympic athletes and we’re not Israelites but we still have much in common with these people we watch on TV screens and read about in our Bibles. We are all a part of the human race. Physically we get sick and we get injured. Sometimes we receive our physical health back and sometimes we don’t. Emotionally, we experience love, happiness, fear, and anger. It doesn’t matter what color our skin is as we march in the great Parade of Nations because under that skin is a human being, made in the image of God, experiencing common emotions that God put in us. Spiritually there is a place in all of us that is created for God to fill and our souls are not satisfied until He enters our hearts and reigns in His place.

Like the athletes, like the Israelites, we don’t know what our future life - journey holds or how long it will last. But we all can trust the God who created us, loves us and wants to lead us into the unknown – the God who has said, “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.”

Two Classes of People

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (Lev. 26-27)

"These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai." Lev. 27:34

At a church where D. L. Moody was invited to preach, he was warned that some of the congregation usually left before the end of the sermon. When Mr. Moody rose to begin his sermon, he announced, "I am going to speak to two classes of people this morning: first to the sinners, and then to the saints."

He proceeded to address the "sinners" for a while, and then he said they could leave. For once, every member of the congregation stayed to the end of the sermon.

Congratulations on finishing the book of Leviticus - the book of holiness. It has been said that it took God only one night to get Israel out of Egypt, but it took forty years to get Egypt out of Israel. Leviticus was used to guide a newly redeemed people into worship, service and obedience to God. You persevered - you stayed for the whole service - and tomorrow we can enter the book of Numbers.

When the Saints Go Marching In

Reading Through the Bible In 2010 (Lev. 16-18)

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” Lev. 17:11

Last night Charlie and I joined with a bazillion other people in the world and watched Super Bowl XLIV. I always enjoy the Super Bowl because Green Bay is rarely in it. That means I can watch football with a normal husband who jokes and laughs. When the Packers play during the regular football season, life takes on a tension in front of our TV that is probably unsurpassed. We never relax unless the Pack is winning with a score like 49 – 3. Even then, even if it’s the last minute of the 4^th quarter, Charlie won’t eat or say anything except a terse: “Green Bay could still lose it!” (Which, I’ll have to admit is always a possibility with the Packers.)

But last night was different. We all ate pizza and munched chips and spoke to each other. We talked and laughed and didn't feel the least bit uptight. These weren't our teams. "This is a great way to watch football," I thought.

When the Saints won and Drew Brees got all emotional, we made mild comments like, “Seems like a nice guy. Wasn’t that a cute picture with him holding his little son!”

Things definitely weren't calm in New Orleans! Thousands and thousands of excited people were gathered together in the stadium jumping up and down - hollering and yelling. When New Orleans won and the big trophy was passed around, it was hard to see - the air was so thick with confetti. Players were being interviewed saying things like, “Being a part of this team is the greatest moment of my life!” Just before we clicked off the remote, we watched multitudes of celebrating fans packed tightly together moving en masse down Bourbon Street. The Saints fans were marching in.

But, in to what? A night of revelry and for sure a big headache in the morning.

Today’s Leviticus reading is about the laws of social order that God gave to the nation of Israel. There is a lot written about the laws concerning sexual sins and worshiping idols. But the verse that stands out to me is “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” Every one of us who is alive knows that is true. When the Saints and the Colts started beating on each other in a huge pile up of bodies on the field, someone commented, “Whew, things are firing up. They’re out for blood!”

Our blood is our life and when we lose it we die. Ask any EMT about their experiences with blood loss victims and they will say, “Oh, yes, the life is in the blood all right!” Our physical life is in the blood.

True spiritual life is in the blood. When Jesus Christ becomes our Lord and Savior, we join a new team. It is a group of players united by the blood that Jesus shed for us on the cross. Because His blood has washed away our sins, we can truly call ourselves “the saints.” When all the saints of the living God have come marching in, our team will spend eternity together.

Our life is in His blood right now as we travel through life. The Holy Spirit that lives in us is our coach guiding our plays and moves. We can say, “Being a part of this team is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”

We’re on our way en masse toward spending all of eternity with Jesus. No headaches the next morning. Only new bodies, new mansions and the never-ending joy of being reunited in heaven with our loved ones who are waiting to welcome us.

Now that’s worth celebrating!

“Oh when the saints, oh when the saints, oh when the saints go marching in, Well, I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in!”

A Lot to Leviticus!

“For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Lev. 11:45

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 Lev. 10-13

Where were you when you learned about the blood?

There are events in life that shape us – things that happen and we are changed - never to go back to life as we lived it before. Usually they surprise us, we don’t have a clue that they are about to happen.

I remember the first time that I met Charlie. It was the summer after eighth grade and two guys and two girls met at the park to play tennis. One of the guys was Charlie and one of the girls was me. As I returned a ball that the young man in the red plaid bermuda shorts slammed at me, I never dreamed that he would become the love of my life. Years passed. We started “going out” as juniors in high school. We married after I finished nursing. Things had changed forever because of a tennis match.

My life had turned a corner. Charlie had entered. We've been married for forty-five years. But when I first met him, I had no idea how much influence his interests, family, friends, ideas, and values would have on me in the years to come…. all because my friend and I decided to go play tennis.

When our first child was born, we brought little Ethan home in a blue receiving blanket. We laid our angelically sleeping baby down on the bed. Charlie and I and my mom all stood over him gazing down adoringly. Charlie broke the beatific silence,

“I wonder what we do with him for the next eighteen years?” he questioned.

My mother looked at him, as incredulous as most mother in laws are at young son-in-laws, and said, “Oh, you’ll learn. Children can take up a lot of time.”

We did learn. His life, and the lives of the three children that followed, have indeed “taken up a lot of our time.” They have filled our thoughts and consumed our days and brought us measures of joy that we never could have dreamed about before we set that little baby on the bed.

Events happen and they change our lives. Can’t we all picture exactly where we were when we watched the images of 9 – 11? Charlie and I were living at the farm in Fall Creek when my brother called. He said, “Turn on your TV right now!” The images of the planes, the fire, the ash, the people jumping to the ground, the firemen running in…, we had no concept of the impact these images would have on our lives. As we watched the collapse of the Twin Towers, we didn't know that this would affect America forever.

Where were you when you first heard about the blood?

I was at a Christian Women’s Club luncheon in Augusta, Georgia. I was thirty- one years old and I thought I was a Christian. After all, I believed in God!

We ate our lunch and afterwards an “inspirational speaker” spoke to us. She said, “If you were the only person in the world, Jesus Christ would have come. The sinless spotless Son of God, the Creator of the universe, would have bled and died on that cross just for you and your sins.”

“Huh”? I thought. “Just for me?”

As I listened to her speak, conviction rolled over me like the waves of the sea. I suddenly knew that I was a sinner and that I needed my sins to be forgiven.

The speaker continued: "Only the blood of Jesus can wash away our sins and make us holy. There is nothing that we can do about our sin by trying to be good. Sin will never disappear through our own human efforts."

I didn't see it coming, but all of a sudden, I had run smack dab into the blood of Jesus - at a luncheon!

As she spoke, I knew that I had never personally asked Jesus to come into my life and take away my sins. I had never spoken one word to Him about my sins! God revealed so much to me as I listened to that speaker - all of a sudden, there it was – confronted by the blood!

Where were you when you heard about the blood of Jesus Christ?

When I got home, it was very quiet. I sat down at my desk and asked Jesus to come into my heart. I asked Him to cleanse me with the blood that He had shed for my sins. I asked Him to be my Lord forever.

Will I ever forget that precious day? Never! I can remember the light coming in the window and the blue flowered curtains that suddenly had a brighter hue. I felt the sin of thirty years slide off of my back – “as far as the east is from the west,” the Bible says. I stood up, amazed, and said, "The blood of Jesus – it has made me clean. I'm free!”

I knew that so positively that I even wrote a poem about being free. Granted, it was a short poem because it came to an abrupt end when my friend, Sally, returned with my four young children. Each one needed something from “Mom.” After a few minutes, I thought, “Did this really happen?” My life had quickly returned to pouring juice, finding shoes, changing diapers, and answering questions.

But it had happened. I had been forever impacted by a luncheon that I had approached with absolutely no clue. The blood of Jesus had freed and changed me like no other event in my life.

Did I have any idea of how my journey with Him would look? I didn’t even think about it as I talked to my friend and tended my children’s needs. But that day I had started on a joy filled journey with the King of the universe. It still gives me goose bumps to write about it.

The book of Leviticus gives the people of Israel intricate instructions about living in the presence of a holy God. All the sacrifices of all the animals that we’ve been reading about pointed to the sinless Jesus – the true lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. When the Israelites put their hands on the animal that was being killed for their sins, they felt its life being sapped for them. As they watched its innocent blood being sprinkled on the altar, it was a graphic picture of the atoning blood that needed to be shed for the forgiveness of their sins. All the sacrifices, the Altar, and the Officiating Priest illustrated the Sinless Savior, Jesus Christ, who would die for their sins. The bloody sacrifices carried out by Aaron and his sons were a picture of how Jesus Christ was both the Lamb of God, Who takes away our sins and our High Priest. Whew! There’s a lot to Levitcus.

“But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,

How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Heb. 9:11-14

I was in Augusta, Georgia – a long way from Wisconsin. That's where I learned about the blood. That’s where my joyful journey with Jesus truly began?

Where were you when you learned about the blood?

Levity From Leviticus

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (Lev. 6-9)

After reading the first nine chapters of the book of Leviticus, you might need a little humor to spur you on. I thought this was very funny.

Charlie and I and my friend, Betsy all went to high school together. Yesterday she sent me an e-mail. (I'll call her Betsy "I" to avoid confusion.) She was chit chatting and encouraging me to keep writing this blog. Then she asked,

"Charlie, did I ever mention my encounter with our dear little advanced algebra teacher a number of years ago?" (She didn't address me because I'm sure she remembered that my English major type mind never ventured to0 close to higher math classes.)

Betsy "I" proceeded, " I was visiting Oakridge Gardens' - the convalescent home - and there she was sitting up straight and erect in a wheelchair in the hall. I approached her with a greeting and introduced myself. She was very sweet and polite. She looked at me and said, "Let me see, I may have forgotten ...ah, just WHO is your coefficient???"

Betsy went on to say, "I no longer knew what that word MEANT but I knew she was referring to my husband. She was asking me who I'd married."

Thanks, Betsy "I" for taking time to give me a great laugh as I progressed along my joyful journey through Leviticus.

Do greet your "Coefficient" for me!

Love, Betsy "II"

A Celebration of Finishing

“So Moses finished the work. Then, the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."” (Ex. 40:33b,34)

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (Ex. 39-40)

Yesterday evening our favorite north wood’s logger and his wife came over to eat with us. Shadows were lengthening across the lake as they arrived. They had just walked in when the telephone rang. Our “neighbor” across the lake was stuck in a snowdrift. Could Charlie come? Charlie and Brent drove over and pulled her out with a towrope attached to Brent’s truck and she headed back to civilization. The men returned –mission accomplished, task completed – to find Martha and I curled up in front of the fire, glasses of cranberry juice in hand, catching up on life’s latest happenings.

I could tell you more about our time together. About how I made meat loaf and mashed potatoes and “southern” beans, like Mrs. Hartley taught me as a young bride in South Carolina many years ago. About how Martha brought a cherry pie made with cherries from their very own tree and applesauce grown from fruit picked in their back yard. About how much we laughed as we ate our dinner.

Afterwards, Ethan called from Alaska and Ted called from Appleton –just to check in. When they heard that Brent was here, they wanted to talk to him about chain saws and deer feed and trees they planned to plant. Lots of camaraderie and hilarity and good conversation. When they left, we had a prayer time. As we finished praying, I looked up at the peaceful fire glowing with the crackling wood that Brent had cut for us last summer, and I thought again about what a gift friends are as we travel along the joyful journey toward heaven.

My friend, Annabelle, once gave me a plaque that said, “I didn’t choose my friends, the Lord gave them to me.” So true!

Later, the dishes were put away and the house was quiet. A huge full moon was shining over the lake. Charlie and I read Exodus 40 together.

“Why, we’re done!” I said. “We’ve finished Genesis and Exodus. I think God gave us tonight’s dinner as a feast to celebrate being one twelfth of the way through the Bible in 2010! ”

As he reached up and turned off the light, Charlie smiled and said, “Maybe, Betsy.” As I drifted off to sleep, I knew it was.

“So Moses finished the work.” The extensive work of completing the tabernacle was accomplished in nine short months. The people worked together and they did it. They must have been very excited. We are told that “the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”

Isn’t there a great joy in finishing something? Whether it’s a little task or a big project, it’s always “a fight to the finish” to get it done. But what a wonderful feeling to be able to say, “I’ve finished.”

Today we leave Exodus, the book that mean’s departure. As we exit Exodus we head toward Leviticus, the book of holiness. Leviticus shows how God’s people are to fulfill their priestly calling in their worship and walk. Let’s plunge in and see what new lessons God will teach us about “our Joyful Journey.” February 1st is a great time to start reading through the Bible with us.

Maybe we can look forward to another celebration at the end of February!