“Claims to special divine revelations are not so much a sign of super-spirituality as they are of evangelical or pietistic megalomania. The days of prophets and apostles, genuine agents of revelation, are past. Such claims today are spurious and exceedingly dangerous. To cloak one’s desires, hunches, or opinions in such claims is to make use of a godless form of persuasion. What does one say to the person who claims, ‘The Lord told me to do this?’ To use such devices is to place oneself above criticism by bathing one’s opinions in divine sanction.” – R.C. Sproul.
1These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan–that is, in the Arabah–opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2(It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road).
v.1-2 The Israelites spent 40 years on a journey that should have lasted 11 days. It wasn’t distance that stood between them and the Promised Land. It was the condition of their hearts. GOD’s purpose went deeper than simply transporting a huge group of people to a new land. He was preparing them to live in obedience to Him once they arrived. What good was the Promised Land if the Israelites were just as wicked as the nations already living there? The journey was a painful but necessary part of their preparation. Through it GOD taught the Israelites who He was: the living GOD, the Leader of their nation. He also taught them who they were: people who were fallen, sinful, prone to rebellion and doubt. He gave His rebellious people the law to help the understand how to relate to GOD and to other people.
Life Application: Your spiritual pilgrimage may be lengthy, and you may face pain, discouragement, and difficulties. But remember that GOD isn’t just trying to keep you alive. He wants to prepare you to live for service and devotion to Him.
3In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them. 4This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. 5East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:
v.1-5 The 40 years of wilderness wandering comes to an end in this book. The events of Deuteronomy cover only a week or two of the 11th month of the 40th year (verse 3). The 12th and last month was spent in mourning for Moses (chapter 34, verse 8). Then the Israelites entered the Promised Land the first month of the 41st year after the Exodus (cf. Joshua 4:18).
6The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. 8See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers–to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob–and to their descendants after them.”
v.6-7 Notice that Moses’ summery of Israel’s 40-year journey begins at “Mount Horeb” (Sinai), not Egypt. Why did Moses leave out the first part of the Exodus? Moses was not giving an itinerary–he was summarizing the nation’s development. In Moses’ mind the nation of Israel began at the base of Mount Sinai, not in Egypt, fo it was at Mount Sinai that GOD gave His covenant to the people (cf. Exodus 19-20). Along with this covenant came knowledge an responsibility. After the people chose to follow GOD, they had to know how to follow Him. Therefore, GOD gave them a comprehensive set of laws and guidelines that stated how He wanted them to live (these are found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers). The people could no longer say they didn’t know the difference between wrong and right. Now that the people had promised to follow GOD and knew how to follow Him, they had a responsibility to do it.
Life Application Question: When GOD tells you to break camp and move out to face a challenge He gives you, will you be ready to obey?
The Appointment of Leaders
9At that time I said to you, “You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. 10The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he as promised! 12But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself? 13Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.”
9-13 It was a tremendous burden for Moses to lead the nation by himself. He could not accomplish the task single-handedly. As nations, organizations and churches grow, they become increasingly complex. Conflicting needs and quarrels arise. No longer can one leader make all the decisions. Like Moses, you may have a natural tendency to try to do all the work alone. You may be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help. Moses made a wise decision to share the leadership with others.
14You answered me, “What you propose to do is good.” 15So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you–as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials. 16And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. 17Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it. 18And at that time I told you everything you were to do.
13-18 Moses identified some of the inner qualities of good leaders: 1) Wisdom, 2) experience, 3) understanding, and 4) respect. These characteristics differ markedly from the ones that often help elect leaders today: good looks, wealth, popularity, willingness to do anything to get to the top. The qualities Moses identified should be evident in us as we lead, and we should look for them in those we elect to positions of leadership.
Spies Sent Out
19Then, as the Lord our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful wilderness that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea. 20Then I said to you, “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 21See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” 22Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.” 23The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe. 24They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshkol and explored it. 25Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, “It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.”
22 The scouts had been sent into the land to determine not whether they should enter, but where they should enter. Upon returning, however, most of the scouts had concluded that the land was not worth the obstacles. God would give the Israelites the power to conquer the land, but they were afraid of the risk and decided not to enter.
Life Application: God gives us the power to overcome our obstacles, but just as the Israelites were filled with fear and skepticism, we often let difficulties control our lives. When we follow God regardless of the difficulties, we demonstrate courageous overcoming of faith.
Rebellion Against the Lord
26But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27You grumbled in your tents and said, “The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. 28Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.”
28 Canaan was a land with giants and imposing fortresses. The Anakites may have been seven to nine feet tall. Many of the land’s fortified cities had walls as high as 30 feet. The Israelites’ fear was understandable, but not justified, for the all-powerful God had already promised them victory.
29Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” 32In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, 33who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go. 34When the Lord hears what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: 35“No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, 36except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.” 37Because of you the Lord became angry with me also and said, “You shall not enter it, either. 38But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it. 39And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad–they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. 40But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.
23-40 Moses retold the story of the scouting mission into the Promised Land (cf. Numbers 13-14). When the scouts returned with reports of giants (descendants of Anak) and walled cities, the people were afraid to move ahead and began to complain about their predicament. But the minority report of Joshua and Caleb pointed out that the land was fertile, the enemy was vulnerable, and God was on their side.
Life Application: We become fearful and immobile when we focus on the negative aspects of a situation. How much better is it to focus on the positive–God’s direction and promises. When confronted with an important decision and you know what you should do, move out in faith. Focus on the positives while trusting God to overcome the negatives. Problems don’t have to rob you of the victory.
41Then you replied, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us.” So every one of you put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country. 42But the Lord said to me, “Tell them, ‘Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.'” 43So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the Lord’s command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country. 44The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah. 45You came back and wept before the Lord, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you. 46And so you stayed in Kadesh many days–all the time you spend there.
The depression that really hits me this time of year (roughly between just after Halloween and New Years Day) has been particularly heavy; being haunted by memories and struggling to keep numb, and all that, a bit harder this year it seems; I’ve been drowning myself in music and writing, and trying not to break down completely…
This, too, shall pass; I have notified those whom I trust to reach out to during these bouts with the darkness about this, those I know understand the nature of depression and won’t just offer up the standard “it’s just the winter blues” stock response and possibly some peppermint Essential Oils to rub on my feet or something. I refer to these trusted friends as my “tent poles”…
However, as my health continues to fail in spectacular ways, and my feelings of uselessness and isolation continues to grow, it’s more of a struggle to keep from giving up…
I asked a bunch of my friends to answer the questions in the Gauntlet and discuss their thoughts on the music that means the most to them*; here’s one of the responses…
Back in the 90s, when I was still in my early to mid 20s, there was this kid in my youth group that listened to punk and hardcore, and spiked up his hair with wood glue. That kid was Matt Wilwerding, and we bonded quickly through (among other things) our love of music. We’ve remained friends to this day, and he agreed to go through the Gauntlet…
THE ALBUM THAT CHANGED MY LIFE WAS:
Gomorrah’s Season Ends (Earth Crisis)
“I was introduced to this album at the ripe age of 12 by a neighbor up the street who was really into hardcore and straight edge. At the time I was dabbling with a lot of mainstream harder rock, but this wooed me. There was something more aggressive, more sincere and clandestine about this music than the “hard stuff” playing on the radio, and since that point I’ve taken a deep dive into underground punk, hardcore, metal, assorted weirdo music, etc for the past 2+ decades.”
THE FIRST ALBUM I BOUGHT WAS:
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Smashing Pumpkins)
“I can’t remember if I bought this or received it for Christmas around age 10, but it was definitely one of my first CD’s that I owned. At the time I had this it was the denouement of grunge, and I was attracted to harder rock stuff. It seemed to somewhat satisfy then. However, I no longer own this and I really couldn’t stand to listen to it now at this point in my life.”
THE ALBUM I BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT TO IS:
Pleasure To Kill (Kreator)
“Jumping Jehoshaphat on a pogo stick, this is a neck breaker! Thrash at its finest and fastest! These Teutonic shredders know how to push the tempo. Besides being in my top 5 thrash albums of all time, I had the immense fortune to find an original LP version of this in Germany (on a recent trip I took) for only 20 euros!”
THE ALBUM THAT SHOULD NOT BE IS:
Grave New World (Discharge)
“After becoming stalwarts of the 80’s hardcore punk genre for the first half of the decade, these Brits released this horrendous take on metal/crossover. Besides the horrible production, the singer decided to change his style from a ferocious, rabid bark to a D-rate Robert Plant caterwaul. Oy Vey…all remaining copies of this should be thrown down a bottomless hole.”
THE ALBUM I NEVER THOUGHT I’D LOVE IS:
Under Lock And Key (Dokken)
“In my teens I was diving head first into harder music, and was gobbling up a lot of death, black, and thrash metal. However I still couldn’t stand any type of hair/glam metal, especially Dokken. This was compounded by the fact that my stepdad liked them, seeing as how they were the background music of his wild, rip-roaring 20’s. However, after “maturing” and opening myself up to more diverse styles over the years, I came to be more receptive to other metal genres, and ended up loving this record.”
SOMEONE ASKS ME WHAT METAL IS, I GIVE THEM A COPY OF:
The Last In Line (Dio)
“Opening with the anthemic and speedy “We Rock” this release grabs you by the throat and keeps your attention for the whole amazing album. Plenty of faster paced songs (“I Speed at Night”) and foot-stomping, fist-pumping plodders (“One Night in the City”), this should be in every metal head’s collection.”
THE ALBUM I WOULD WANT WITH ME ON A DESERT ISLAND IS:
Is Nothing Sacred? (The Lords Of The New Church)
“Is it Goth? Is it New Wave? Is it Punk? Is it all of the above? Yes, and despite having a hodge podge of these styles on one record, the Lords are still able to write some catchy songs and create a cohesive album. I would predict if this was the only album I had, I could scratch my itch for all those great genres with this one LP.”
NO ONE WILL BELIEVE I OWN A COPY OF:
True Blue (Madonna)
“Ok, I’ll admit I have a soft spot for 80’s pop. Even though this is overproduced, shined-to-a-glossy-sheen commercial music, it has some very catchy numbers on it. Though this belongs more in the collection of a Valley Girl or some former cheerleader, I have to come clean and confess this guilty pleasure.”
THE SOUNDTRACK TO MY LIFE IS:
High School Rock (Huntingtons)
“Although I’ve definitely moved on from my High School years, I still feel that the cliquey-ness endemic therein spreads throughout multiple areas in life beyond the confines of a school building. However I love how the compilation of songs and the stories therein seem to resonate with my life, whether it’s about eccentric individuals we meet, 80’s movies, lost romances or other amusing anecdotes. High School Rock covers them all, and has found a special place in my heart.”
THE BEST SOUNDTRACK ALBUM IS:
The Return Of The Living Dead Soundtrack
“This is a recent find for me, but this album just has a great spooky mix of songs across various genres. Whether it’s straight up punk, new wave, synth pop or garage rock, all these styles coalesce on the soundtrack to prop up the creepy-but-campy (in proper 80’s fashion) atmosphere of the movie. You’ll definitely have a craving for more brains after Side A and Side B have been played through!”
*If you want to participate in discussing the music and albums that mean the most to you, DM me on Facebook, Twitter or email me
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.
Scripture promises those that preach the Gospel to expect suffering and persecution. Here, the Apostle Paul tells his young protégé Timothy to expect suffering, but also promised him that God would give him strength and that he would be ready when it was his turn to suffer.
In his time, Christians were being persecuted, jailed and put to death loving and following Jesus and spreading the Gospel. In modern times today, while there is no outward persecution of Christians like that of the First Century, sharing our faith, the Gospel of Christ Jesus, can be difficult. Fortunately, the promise that Paul gave Timothy all the way back in the First Century CE1 applies to us now: we can rely on the Holy Spirit–Who was imparted to all believers the moment we repented and trusted in Jesus’ atonement–to give us courage, whenever we need it.
This courage I need…on a daily basis…I praise You, Lord Jesus…have mercy on Your unworthy servant…
She sneered at me as I was lead into her chamber. “Well,” she said, not even attempting to hide the contempt in her voice, “it looks like the enemy of my enemy has become my friend. For now.”
“I still don’t understand why we’re enemies,” I said. The guard on my right drew her knife faster than I could see, and held it up to my throat in the unmistakable universal warning to not speak the their leader again.
But then…what was this? There, but for a split second, there was a crack in her façade, and a look of sorrow and regret betrayed her hard exterior shell, the mask she had to wear for the benefit of leadership during this war. That was quickly gone, however, and the hardness returned.
“Put that away,” she said to the guard that held the dagger to my throat. Then to both of my consorts, “Undo his bonds, and leave us.” They complied, and soon we were left alone.
I believe I can work with this bit of whatever my brain concocted while I was unconscious…
OT and then PT before lunch, both done inside my room; rainstorm overnight caused my knees as well as my leg and foot to be rather painful, requiring the stronger pain med over Tylenol. Got the flamboyant PT therapist this time around, however he didn’t just break out in song like I have seen him do with the other residents here. Otherwise there may have been bloodshed.
Watched The Expendables 2 and 3, finished the current novel I was reading, and wrote a review for the new Fear Not album. There may be more storms later. Fine by me.
In our own country we have enjoyed enormous human freedom. But at the same time this freedom has been founded upon forms of government, law, culture, and social morality which have given stability to individual and social life, and have kept our freedoms from leading to chaos. There is a balance here between form and freedom which we have come to take as natural in the world. But it is not natural. And we are utterly foolish if we do not recognize that this unique balance which we have inherited from the Reformation thought-forms is not automatic in a fallen world. This is clear when we look at the long span of history. But it is equally clear when we read the daily newspaper and see half the world locked in totalitarian oppression.1
The freedom that once was founded on a biblical consensus and a Christian ethos has now become autonomous freedom, cut loose from all constraints. Here we have the world spirit of our age–autonomous Man setting himself up as God, in defiance of the knowledge and the moral and spiritual truth which God has given. Here is the reason why we have a moral breakdown in every area of life. The titanic freedoms which we once enjoyed have been cut loose from their Christian restraints and are becoming a force of destruction leading to chaos. And when this happens, there really are very few alternatives. All morality becomes relative, law becomes arbitrary, and society moves toward disintegration. In personal and social life, compassion is swallowed up by self-interest…when the memory of the Christian consensus which gave us freedom within the biblical form is increasingly forgotten, a manipulating authoritarianism will tend to fill the vacuum. At this point the words “right” and “left” will make little difference. They are only two roads to the same end; the results are the same. An elite, an authoritarianism as such, will gradually force form on society so that it will not go into chaos–and most people will accept it.2
1Francis A. Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster, 1984 Crossway Books, p.21-22 2Ibid, p.22-23
Most “deconstruction” is simply the revelation that there is a difference between who Jesus is and how He has been represented; Christian leaders fearing deconstruction aren’t really worried about people leaving the faith, they are worried about losing power over people of faith…
In our own country we have enjoyed enormous human freedom. But at the same time this freedom has been founded upon forms of government, law, culture, and social morality which have given stability to individual and social life, and have kept our freedoms from leading to chaos. There is a balance here between form and freedom which we have come to take as natural in the world. But it is not natural. And we are utterly foolish if we do not recognize that this unique balance which we have inherited from the Reformation thought-forms is not automatic in a fallen world. This is clear when we look at the long span of history. But it is equally clear when we read the daily newspaper and see half the world locked in totalitarian oppression.1
Confessions Of A Christian Freak 