Thought Exercise on Moses

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Moses’ Need for Adaptive Leadership

Author

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 12:2, Hebrews 5:12-14, Deuteronomy 8:2-3, Numbers 14:1-4, Exodus 16:2-3, Numbers 18:17-21

[Jonathan] Sacks comments on this passage, tying it back to his study of adaptive leadership concepts. In the first occasion, Moses was faced with a technical challenge: the people needed food. On the...

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When the Israelites Abandoned God’s Authority

Author

David Klinghoffer

Keywords

In the Bible, the children of Israel fall into disastrous behavior patterns whenever they abandon the majestic authority of God revealed to them through Moses at Mount Sinai. In fact, they commenced r...

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God’s Self-Revelation

Author

Vaughan Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:13-14, Exodus 6:2-3, Isaiah 42:8, Exodus 33:19, John 17:6, 1 Kings 18:36-39, Exodus 34:5-7

There are no vowels in the Hebrew (YHWH), which makes it impossible to know exactly what the word is. Some old translations say ‘Jehovah’. Modern scholars tend to speak of ‘Yahweh’. When the word appe...

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Why Strike the Rock?

Author

Steven C. Roy

Keywords

Scripture

Numbers 20:, Exodus 17:1-7

Why did Moses strike the rock? He was a man of faith, whose life had been characterized by trust in God (see, for example, the description of Moses in (Heb 11:24-29). So why did he fall into unbelief ...

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Your Cell Will Teach You Everything

Author

Thomas Merton

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:9-18, Matthew 5:5-15, Daniel 3:19-27, Exodus 13:21-22, Mark 1:35-39, Luke 5:16, Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Genesis 32:24-30, Psalm 62:1, Hosea 2:14, Habakkuk 2:1, 1 Samuel 3:1-10, Isaiah 26:3

A certain brother went to Abbot Moses in Scete, and asked him for a good word. And the Elder said to him: Go, sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything. An elder said: The monk’s ce...

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Reading Scripture as a Black Man

Author

Bryan C. Loritts

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 2:13, Acts 8:26, Exodus 2:21, Numbers 12:1, 1 Corinthians 7:21, Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22, Acts 10:null

As a black man, I pause when I see that Jesus was taken to Africa as a baby for refuge (Matthew 2:13–18). My blackness will not allow me to gloss over the Ethiopian man whom Philip cozies up to in Act...

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The Heroes of the Bible (mostly) had Regular Jobs

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Most of the heroes in the Bible had what we would think of as secular vocations. Isaac developed real estate, Jacob was a rancher, and Joseph was a government official (in charge of agriculture, the e...

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When God Shows up…People Get Blown Away

Author

Mark Labberton

Keywords

Worship

Nobody ever went up to Jesus after his blistering warning about religious hypocrisy and shook his hand and said, “Thanks, rabbi. That was a nice talk." Nobody went up to Moses after the thunder, ...

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A Marinating Process

Author

Christian George

Keywords

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage is a marinating process. The Bible is bursting with people who traveled to places of retreat where God seasoned and tenderized them, preparing them to take the next step of the journey. Mos...

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The Most Holy Place

Author

Vaughan Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 25:22, Exodus 40:34-38

The tabernacle consists of a courtyard and a tent inside, separated into two sections: ‘The Holy Place’ and ‘the Most Holy Place’ or ‘Holy of Holies’. Inside the Holy Place is a table that holds ‘the ...

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Be a Catalyst for Change

Author

David Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:7-8, James 2:15-17, Luke 10:25-37, Proverbs 3:27, Micah 6:8, Matthew 5:16

At the 5-mile mark in the Old Kent Riverbank Run a guy passing me said, “Hey buddy, you dropped your key.” There was no getting home without my key. Like a salmon swimming upstream I headed back into ...

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Teaching Us His Name

Author

Marlena Graves

Keywords

Wilderness

God uses the wilderness experiences in our lives to teach us his name. If we, like Moses, wish to see God’s glory, it will often be in the wilderness that we see it. The beauty of the desert experienc...

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The Desert Monk with a Leaky Jug

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 18:21-35, John 8:1-11, Luke 18:9-14, Matthew 7:3-5, 2 Samuel 12:1-13, Galatians 6:1-3

Solitude... keeps us from making judgments about other people’s sins. In this way real forgiveness becomes possible. The following desert story offers a good illustration: A brother . . . committed...

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The Essential Preparation of Wintering

Author

Shelly Miller

Keywords

We may not see tangible evidence of where we are going, what God is doing, or how we are growing, but wintering is essential preparation for life to flourish. Uncertainty, like winter, clears the land...

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The Power of Divine Calling

Author

Tom Nelson

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:1-12, Isaiah 6:1-8, Matthew 4:18-22, Acts 9:1-19, Romans 8:28-30, Psalm 139:13-16

God calls people. Whether it is the calling of Abraham to leave the land of Ur and go he knew not where, or the calling of Moses, confronted with the burning bush, or the calling of Isaiah who encount...

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Becoming the Person God Wants Us to Be

Author

Trevor Hudson

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 43:1, Ephesians 2:10, Galatians 6:4-5, Romans 14:4, 12, 1 Corinthians 12:4-18, 2 Corinthians 10:12, Matthew 25:14-30, 1 Corinthians 12:

Each one of us is called to live the truth of our unrepeatable uniqueness. We are not meant to model ourselves after others, however wonderful they may be. A delightful Jewish parable makes this point...

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Joy must be morally clean

Author

Christopher H. J. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 5:19–23 , 1 Peter 4:3–4 , Psalm 100:1–2, Deuteronomy 16:14, Numbers 25:31:16, Exodus 32:34

Joy must be morally clean. God warned Israel not to be tempted by the kind of debauched “joy” of the Canaanite festivals, which included sexual immorality, drunkenness, gluttony, and idolatry. They ha...

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God loves to use those that the world deems

Author

Ben Lansing and D. J.Marotta

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 4:1–5, Judges 6:14–16, 1 Samuel 17:40–50, Luke 9:12–17, 1 Corinthians 1:27–29, Psalm 8:2

God loves to use those that the world deems too small, too weak, too insignificant to make a difference. As Francis Schaeffer wrote: Consider the mighty ways in which God used a dead stick of woo...

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God’s Spiritual Growth Plan

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Imagine a doctor’s office where every patient is told, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” If I have a headache, that is great advice, but if my appendix has just burst, I will be dead befo...

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The Holy Wild

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 6:, Hebrews 12:29

A few years ago a grizzly attacked a hiker not far from our home and mauled him badly. The hiker had heard of the wonder and beauty of the mountains of Montana and drove across the country from North ...

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The Holy Spirit’s Literary Genre Of Choice

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

Story is the primary way in which the revelation of God is given to us. The Holy Spirit’s literary genre of choice is story. Story isn’t a simple or naive form of speech from which we graduate to the ...

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Life in Reverse: Short Term Spiritual Memory Loss

Author

Casey K. Tygrett

Keywords

Scripture

Joshua 4:6-7, 2 Peter 1:12-13, James 1:23-25, John 14:26, Revelation 2:5

In the film Memento , we meet Leonard, who is searching for the man who killed his wife. He appears to be the typical Hollywood hero of the early 2000s. The hair is right; the jaw line, the atmospher...

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The Challenge of Planting a Vineyard

Author

Caroline Cobb

Keywords

It takes at least three years to for a grape vine to begin producing fruit. The planting site must be carefully chosen, the vine planted at just the right depth and at just the right time of year, the...

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How Our Limits Help Us

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 32:1, Genesis 18:10–14, Habakkuk 2:3, Acts 1:4, Romans 8:23–25, Psalm 27:14

We must learn to see our limits as the entrance into the good life, not what bars us from it. But as we grow older, waiting feels like an inconvenience or affront. We take out our phones when we’re...

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Has Religion been a Force for Evil in Human History

Author

Francis S. Collins

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:7-10, Isaiah 58:6-10, Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 23:27-28 , James 1:26-27, Psalm 146:7-9

A major stumbling block for many earnest seekers is the compelling evidence throughout history that terrible things have been done in the name of religion. This applies to virtually all faiths at some...

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Works Versus Gratitude

Author

Casey Clark

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 19:4-6 , Micah 6:6-8, Romans 4:1-5, Ephesians 2:8-10, Psalm 116:12-14

Since our savior is also our Lord, we are called to follow his ways. And whenever discussions arise about what those ways look like in a church, confusion is bound to follow regarding grace and works....

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Turning the Other Cheek

Author

John R. W. Stott

Keywords

They see in it an unattainable ideal. How can they develop this heart-righteousness, turn the other cheek, love their enemies? It is impossible. Exactly! In this sense, the Sermon is ‘Mosissimus Moses...

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Mental Illness Creeps Up on Us

Author

Ryan Casey Waller

Keywords

Which is mostly how mental illness works. You don’t know you have it until it’s all up in your grill trying to destroy your life. This happens, most often, because getting honest with ourselves about ...

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Like a Sleeping Bat

Author

Flannery O'Connor

Keywords

Deception

In The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor’s character Tarwater works hard not to think about his lost faith. But ultimately, we can only lie to ourselves for so long before we acknowledge the tru...

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Summarize Your Life in Six Words

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Legacy

If you had to summarize your life in six words, what would they be? Several years ago an online magazine asked that question. It was inspired by a possibly legendary challenge posed to Ernest Hemingwa...

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