Gleanings From The Word

Tag: Devotional

  • Nobody Told The Bees – Lessons in Obedience

    Yesterday, I was once again enjoying the busyness of the bumble bees at the lavender in the backyard. I was pondering the myth that bumble bees and honey bees shouldn’t be able to fly and wondered where that came from.

    I did some research, and according to one source, “The origins of the honey bee flight myth are hazy, but the most enduring version involves an aerodynamics engineer casually calculating that a bee’s weight-to-wing-area ratio made flight impossible. Though some accounts attribute the claim to scientists like Ludwig Prandtl or Jakob Ackeret, it likely stems from a misunderstood 1934 observation by the French zoologist Antoine Magnan, who applied fixed-wing flight equations to insect wings and concluded — incorrectly — that insect flight defied aerodynamic theory”.

    Of course, both bumble bees and honey bees can fly, as we well know. Apparently, nobody told God that they couldn’t fly and certainly no one told the bees.

    That took me down the rabbit hole of thinking about how we come up with reasons we can’t do things that God asks of us.

    I thought of Moses standing beside the burning bush. He had plenty of excuses.

    But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:10

    Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am about to come to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ And they will say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” Exodus 3:13

    Then Moses said to Yahweh, “Please, Lord, I have never been a man of words, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your slave; for I am one with a hard mouth and a hard tongue.” And Yahweh said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? So now, go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and will instruct you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Please, Lord, send now the message by whomever You will.” Exodus 4:10-13

    Let’s make that more current, no burning bush. “Kevin, I want you to invite your neighbor to church”, saith the LORD.

    “Who me? You must be mistaken. I wouldn’t even know what to say.”

    “Yes, you! Did I stutter?”

    “You must be mistaken. Send someone else to ask them. Someone who has the gift of inviting.”

    Now, it might not be inviting that the Lord has called us to do, but all of us have something the Lord has told us to do that we fight Him on with excuses, pass the buck to others, or just plain pretend not to hear.

    The Lord knows our shortcomings as well as He knows that bees are perfectly capable of flight. If we have a shortcoming, He will provide what we need.

    For consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may abolish the things that are, so that no flesh may boast before God. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

    As someone once said (and I can’t find an accurate attribution), “God doesn’t call the equipped; He equips the called.”

    Obedience when we know it’s our gifting is easy. When we’re not certain, or worse yet, convinced we can’t do what God asks, it’s even harder. Still, if God has called us to it, it’s for a reason.

    It’s time we traded our excuses for obedience. God knows what He is doing, even when we think He’s wrong. Maybe I’ll just go talk to that neighbor today.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    Bees and the Sweetness of God’s Word

    Every member is necessary

    Big News: Gleanings is now on Instagram

  • Why the Old Testament Still Matters to Christians Today

    Two Christian friends were debating the value of the Old Testament to Christianity. One was spouting the heresy that the God of the Old Testament was different than the God of the New. Of course we know Scripture explicitly claims that isn’t so. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

    He went on to say there is no need for the Old Testament, since we have grace in the New Testament and are not under the Law. When asked about what Jesus thought of the Old Testament, he stammered and changed the subject.

    Jesus knew the Old Testament perfectly both in wording and spirit. Depending on how you count, He explicitly quoted the Old Testament ~40 times and alluded to it is somewhere between 180-250 times in the gospels alone. 

    Many “new” things Jesus taught are straight out of the Old Testament. In Psalm 105, we read a recap of the Exodus story. Here’s an excerpt:

    Then He brought them out with silver and gold,
    And there was none among His tribes who stumbled.
    Egypt was glad when they went out,
    For the dread of them had fallen upon them.
    He spread a cloud for a covering,
    And fire to give light by night.
    They asked, and He brought quail,
    And He satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
    He opened the rock and water flowed out;
    It ran in the dry places like a river.
    For He remembered His holy word
    With Abraham His servant;
    And He brought His people out with joy,
    His chosen ones with a shout of joy.     Psalm 105:37-40

    Jesus takes His audience back to the Old Testament and shows Himself to be the chosen one, the long awaited Messiah.

    Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread. Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:31-34

    I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and also the bread which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” John 6:48-51

    Jesus shows from a historical passage that He is the one they have been waiting for. That doesn’t count the estimated 300 places that there is a prophetic mention of His coming.

    Without the Old Testament, we have no idea that there was even a Messiah who would come to rescue us. With it, we would have no basis to evaluate His claims.

    Augustine said, “Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet.” For most of us who don’t speak Latin, that is “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.” Or as it is sometimes translated, “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.”

    While certainly there are passages in the Old Testament that don’t apply to us directly, like the ceremonial and dietary laws. There are passages that seem obscure and uninteresting, like the long genealogies. Still, the Old Testament is vital to our understanding of the New and to our understanding of God and our need for Him.

    Praise God we have both.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    Did you ever wonder? Is the God of the Old Testament than the God of the New?

    What if I asked you, What is your favorite book of the Bible?

    Some thoughts on the importance of Reading the Word