Greetings and Salutations,

Yep, still have a LOT of snow in our neck of the woods.  Just hunkering down while we await more melt-off.

Carla made her potato soup for us to eat.  That along with a toasted cheese sandwich is pure comfort food, she always fixes me that soup when I am not feeling well.

My mom used to make potato soup, but she would put cabbage in it, that is the way dad liked it.  I didn’t particularly care for it and fortunately we didn’t have it often.

Carla used to babysit at the house, it started with a friend whose husband left her and her two boys – they were about our children’s ages.  The mother worked as a cook for one of the service clubs.

She was and excellent cook. 

Carla would make potato soup every once in a while, for lunch, and the kids ate it up.

Once day the mother came to Carla and asked her how she made her soup.  Seems that the boys wanted some potato soup so she fixed it for them – but, it wasn’t as good as Carla’s.

Recipe wasn’t a secret, potatoes, milk, onions, garlic, salt and pepper, thickening and fried-bacon cooked in a cast iron pot.  But the combination is fantastic and left overs are even better as the flavors blend together.

Anyway, I shall partake of that delicious soup in a few minutes.

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We all too often take the commands and directions from God as if they were suggestions.  We rarely see serious repercussions from those decisions although it does happen at times.

But how serious IS God when He tells us something?

How serious is our refusal or forgetfulness in not doing what He has told us to do?

We may not take it seriously, but God does:

Numbers 20:8-13  KJV  “ Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

⁹ And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

¹⁰ And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?

¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

¹² And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

¹³ This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them.”

Moses, one of the most beloved men of the Old Testament.  A man, handpicked by God, who led the children of God out of Egypt at the age of 80.  A man that often-beseeched God not to destroy His people for their disobedience.

A man whose faith and conduct were as close to being perfect as any human can possibly be – ‘made a mistake.’ 

That, as we must realize, is a euphemism for SINNING.

Yes, He was angry with the people and He had a lapse in judgement, he was told to speak to the rock, not strike it and he sure wasn’t supposed to make himself equal to God “he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?”  “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice:”

He besmirched God’s name and inserted himself in the miracle of obtaining water.

And because of this one incident, he lost the privilege of leading the Jews into the promised land.

God takes His commandments very seriously.

This seems to be an incredibly harsh punishment for such a minor offense in the scheme of things – or so we might rationalize.

But, we think in terms of our own judicial system, especially here in America; it just doesn’t appear to be THAT serious to us – but it is just one of the examples that God give us telling us that He is the judge and there is no appeal from His decisions – and He takes disobedience to Him seriously; especially when HIS authority is usurped!

And Aaron, who was but the spokesperson for Moses (and of course the first high priest) – and who had actually done ‘far worse’ sacrilege when he commanded the golden calf be formed and worshipped was also told he would not be part of the people going into the promised land, but that wasn’t all.

Numbers 20:24-28    KJV  “Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah.

²⁵ Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor:

²⁶ And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there.

²⁷ And Moses did as the Lord commanded: and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

²⁸ And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.

So, not only did Moses suffer the humiliation and pain for his disobedience, but HE had to remove the garments signifying the high rank of Aaron, his brother, the man who had been his spokesman, the man who he was extremely close to and who he respected and love, and lead him up to a mountain where he would die.

God takes disobedience very seriously.

We are far too casual in our service to Him.

Because Christians have been washed with the blood of Christ and we can go before God and ask His forgiveness any time day or night, we often forget that God is quite serious about our disobedience.

AND there are always consequences to that failure.  We may not recognize them, we may not understand when it happens, but I have seen ‘promising’ Christians not go as far as they should have in Christ because of disobedience. 

But, our God is also a forgiving God.

He did not remove Moses from his leadership position.  He continued to use him as the person who spoke directly to Him, who He used as the leader right up and until the time of the crossing into the Promised Land.

That had to hurt Moses.  His spirit had to be heavy because he had disobeyed God; and as a result of his disobedience he was going to miss the opportunity on which his entire life had been designed for, leading the people into the Promised Land.

However, Moses continued his service to God.  He continued to stand as the intermediary for the people to God. 

He did not quit because of his humiliation, pain and maybe even being angry with himself – or even God, although it isn’t recorded – for what he had done and the punishment that he was given.  He accepted the judgement and continued to serve God.

God did continue to bless him.

The fact is we fail God almost daily.  We do things that we know we shouldn’t; say things that are inappropriate for a follower of Christ; do not do things we know we should.

We also know that we can go to God and ask forgiveness, knowing the He will do so because of His covenant with us through His Son, Jesus.

But we lose something each time that happens.  Even if we do it without thinking or unintentionally, we have sinned and need that forgiveness anew.  It is even worse if the sin is deliberate.

Sinning is not a minor matter.  We need to be mindful of our actions at all times and the closer we are to God the less chance we will have of not following the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

The final thought though, is no matter our sins, we can be forgiven and we can still serve God.

Maybe not in the capacity we may like, but He can and will use us to His glory, the important thing is to keep as pure as possible and rededicate ourselves to His service. 

Daily.

Later, Art (-: