Chillin’ with Jesus part 2

Numbers 16

Korah, Dathan and Abiram

¹ Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent ^{[a] 2} and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. ³ They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD’s assembly?”⁴ When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. ⁵ Then he said to Korah and all his followers: “In the morning the LORD will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him. ⁶ You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers ⁷ and tomorrow put fire and incense in them before the LORD. The man the LORD chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!”

⁸ Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you Levites! ⁹ Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the LORD’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? ¹⁰ He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. ¹¹ It is against the LORD that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”

¹⁶ Moses said to Korah, “You and all your followers are to appear before the LORD tomorrow—you and they and Aaron. ¹⁷ Each man is to take his censer and put incense in it—250 censers in all—and present it before the LORD. You and Aaron are to present your censers also.” ¹⁸ So each man took his censer, put fire and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁹ When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of the LORD appeared to the entire assembly. ²⁰ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹ “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.”

²² But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”

²³ Then the LORD said to Moses, ²⁴ “Say to the assembly, ‘Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’ “…

³¹ As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions. ³³ They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. ³⁴ At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!”

³⁵ And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

…

⁴¹ The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the LORD’s people,” they said.

⁴² But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tent of Meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. ⁴³ Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Tent of Meeting, ⁴⁴ and the LORD said to Moses, ⁴⁵ “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” And they fell facedown.

⁴⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has started.” ⁴⁷ So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. ⁴⁸ He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. ⁴⁹ But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. ⁵⁰ Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, for the plague had stopped.

Ok so if you actually took time to read all those verses then your absolutely awesome… if you didn’t you’re still awesome

But I hope I did a good job tweezing out the verses that are of important for this entry without confusing and removing important sections of the Bible.

But I learnt a whole bunch of stuff from this passage about being a leader, being under a leader and what is the cause of the problem.

1. These 3 guys rose up against Moses, got others involved, confronted their leader and then tested God and ended up dying.  Somethings you learn:
   • When you rebel against your leader, you are also directly rebelling against God and He really doesn’t like it because He has appointed them and when we rebel against them we basically are telling God that we don’t agree with Him.
   • Don’t drag others into your disputes.  The 250 men that were well-known Israelite community leaders we’re pulled into this rebellion and ended up getting burned… litterally.  Our actions, gossip and slander don’t just hurt ourselves but we can cause others to fall into Sin and they suffer the consequences as well.
2. Pride is poison, pride is cancer, pride is just plain bad.
   • This is the second incident of people in the community rebelling agains Moses, the first was Aaron and Miriam back in Numbers 12.  After having a ponder and asking God “what is it that made these leaders rebel against Moses?”  God clearly spoke to me PRIDE.In both incidences we can see that the leaders who opposed Moses thought they knew better, in Numbers 12:2 Aaron and Miriam say, “Has the Lord only spoken through Moses?”  they asked.  “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?”

     And in Numbers 16:3 it says, they came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone to far!  The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them.  Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD’s assembly?”

     We can clearly see that in both cases the people who opposed Moses clearly thought they knew better than Moses.  Pride often makes us think we are better than we really are, but 1 Peter 5:5 says “God opposes the proud but gives gace to the humble.”  God hates pride because pride makes us unmouldable while humility keeps us soft before God.

3. Leader’s need to love their people… no matter what…
   • I was really feeling bad for Moses, here is a guy that God considers more than just a vessel but someone he can converse with (Num 12:8), who has done nothing but trust in God even though he felt inadequate and unable.  Who has taken his people out of bondage, performed miracles and had to deal with their endless complaing.    I wouldn’t be surprised if Moses just said to God one day… “yea go ahead smite them all.”  But No… Moses continued to love his people through all their crapness and stupidity and unthankfulness.In verse 22  Moses knew that it wasn’t the 250 people’s fault for rebelling and he asked God to spare them… and from verse 41-50 Moses didn’t want the people to die and sent out Aaron to make and offering to God to atone for their sins and moved the hand of God and the plauge stopped.

     I can’t help but feel convicted by this passage on all levels.

Jesus deal with the pride in my heart, teach me to love through all circumstances & to submit to your appointed authority & leadership over my life.

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Chillin’ with Jesus

My tute finished really early today and so I had a few options with my moment of freedom

1. bludge it
2. friend it
3. study it
4. Jesus it

Hmmm… badly I went for every option before reaching option number 4… (study it didnt work because… i dont have any lecture notes printed out lol)

So I pulled out my Bible and continued to read through the book of Numbers as I lay in the glow of the cancer-causing noon day sun in the Great Court (an idea stolen by reading Jien-mae’s tweet about 4 hours back) and man did God speak a bunch of stuff to me!

Numbers 12:6-8 (New International Version)

⁶ he said, “Listen to my words:
“When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.

⁷ But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.

⁸ With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?”

The whole passage is bolded because it is an amazing piece of scripture!  Here we have Aaron and Miriam gossiping about Moses and how he married a Cushite women.  God being omnipresent heard the two and called Moses, Aaron and Miriam together and he spoke to Aaron and miriam the above verse…

But what get’s me God describes a prophet in verse 6… now that is pretty awesome being able to see visions and dreams given by God himself… but nooo apparently Moses wasn’t a prophet… he was more than that!  In verse 7 and 8 God… GOD… this is GOD HIMSELF describing His relationship with Moses as being more a vessel for His works but someone God RELATES with PERSONALLY!

If God had a facebook His relationship status might just have been In a relationship with Moses!

*FLOORED*  God can i be you friend!!!!???!! PLEASE!!!!

I’ve gotta go to a lecture now but will be blogging more when i get back from the VERSACE TONIGHT!

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Do Pretty Girls Fart?

finally the question answered

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Numbers 9:19-23

The past couple of days of reading the Bible have been really tough.  Getting through Leviticus and asking God “What am I supposed to learn from this?” and feeling bad because I really felt like I walked away from those Bible reading sessions a little bored.

But today something caught my eye’s and my heart for a moment

Numbers 9:19-23

¹⁹ When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the LORD’s order and did not set out. ²⁰ Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the LORD’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. ²¹ Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. ²² Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. ²³ At the LORD’s command they encamped, and at the LORD’s command they set out. They obeyed the LORD’s order, in accordance with his command through Moses.

This verse got me thinking about how frustrating that would have been for the Israelites especially if it was only from evening to morning that the cloud settled on top of the tabernacle.  Because the tabernacle wasn’t just a small tent that could bet set up in 5 minutes.  I think moving the tabernacle would be like moving house, but not just your furniture, beds and belongings, I’m talking about moving your WHOLE house to a new location… and then setting it up and 2 days later God decides to move again.

But then God asked me, “how willing would you be to obey me if I kept changing the direction of your life?”.  Hmmm tough question… and that isn’t sarcasm.  I would be willing but I think I would get agitated knowing that there will be times where I will unpack my life only to repack it again and go somewhere else.

But a thought that has popped up – make the most and leave a mark at every station of life God brings us to before you are called somewhere else.

Teach me to obey and trust in your direction and leading for my life Lord.

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weeee

I’m literally writing this blog entry on a wacom tablet pc UQ is techy .

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Spot the Difference

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Nainby – Friction

Say hello to Nainby’s first Music video!

Man really blessed to be able to watch these two girls go from just writing songs and dreaming of making an impact in the music world to living out that dream! If you don’t remember, Nainby has played at previous Ablaze Services!

rock on Nainby!

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Worldly Culture doesn’t negate Biblical Culture

Leviticus 18:1-5

¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the LORD your God. ³ You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. ⁴ You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. ⁵ Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.

Leviticus 20:22-23

²² ” ‘Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. ²³ You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them

Something God has really convicted me about is this “worldly culture doesn’t negate biblical culture!”

Just because you live in a country, or are apart of a circle of friends, or go to a school, or are apart of a family where it is ok to do somethings like pay out people, treat each other unfairly, gossip and so on, doesn’t mean that it is right before the eyes of the Lord.  God clearly said to the Israelites that no matter what land they are in they gotta stay true to the Word of God and to the laws and decrees set by the LORD Himself and not by the land.

Continually being convinced to live by the Word of God!

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J-Bombed

So LG today was pretty awesome.  I really believe God is calling this group to start growing more as a community as the last 6 months, I believe, have been about growing as an individual in the community.

But today we stuck our spiritual lives in front of the mirror and shared about our reflection and I was hooked, I felt like I needed a bucket of popcorn (well we did have one but Anita ate it all lol) as each person shared something from their holidays.

There were testimonies of how God spoke and then confirmed prophetics words, how expectations we’re met dispite the doubt, how relationships are beginning to be restored post-conference, the relisation of how much time we waste with our infamous friend Mr. Pro Crastination, speaking in tongues confidently and so much more!

But after I shared the famous talk about not leaving what happened at Confernece at 275 Wappa Falls Rd, Yandina but to bring it home with us and do something about it… but honestly this talk needs to be re-packaged and so here’s my version of it!

Ablaze Conference is one of those events where you’ve been hit by the J (Jesus) – Bomb, in that, the impact of Christ in your life completely shatters your expectations, breaks you down to the ground and feels like you’ve been wiped out by the presence of God.

But much like a nuclear bomb that leaves radiation that mutants cells on the inside, so should our lives be radiated with Christ! We should walk away from conference with our souls radiated with Christ allowing him to mutant our DNA to be more Christ-like every single day.  And radiation doesn’t just disappear over night its a life-long thing that even gets passed on to our children… so our radiation should be passed on to our future sheep and people we disciple!

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (New International Version)

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect^[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

So my question is…

How have you been hit by the J-Bomb?

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The Uphill or the Downhill

On my run today I really wanted God to speak to me something.  After running up some hills and being seriously pooped and running down some hills and catching my breath God spoke to me something about my spiritual life.

When we run downhill we normally allow gravity to do all the work and we just control how fast we actually we run down the hill.  Sometimes my spiritual life can be like this… I put it on auto pilot and just “go with the flow”.  Everything in my personal life starts to feel “easy” much like running downhill.  But I realised that often when our lives are on the spiritual downhill it leads to Sin normally in the form of complacency.  And much like reaching the bottom of the hill we realise… crap i gotta run back up… and I’ll complain… alot…

But when I run uphill it hurts… it really hurts… it really really hurts… i gotta push myself physically, mentally and emotionally… I gotta remind myself that I can do it, that i can make it… i gotta envision being on top of the hill.  But once I make it I feel such a mental charge… as if i could do anything and I also know that I am physically fitter than i was when i was at the bottom of the hill.

Much like when my spiritual life is on the uphill it really hurts… it really hurts… it really really hurts… i gotta push myself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually!  I gotta trust in God, draw from his strength and encouragement… grab hold of his vision for my life, my ministry and for the great commission.  But when I reach the top I feel charged… I feel like i could win the world for Christ but more importantly I’ve grown spiritually, I overcome the challenge and my spiritual man is fitter than it was before.

So God gave me a perspective change… I don’t dispise the spiritual uphills as much anymore infact I said to God… BRING THEM ON because i know at the end of it my spiritual man is gonna be fitter than ever.  But where would life be without their peaks and valleys.

So here’s my question to you:

What would you rather be on?

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