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Moses was a mess. He knew he was one of God’s people while he was in the home of Pharaoh. One of the first acts recorded about him was his murder of an Egyptian. He later found out that his deed had been seen. He fled Egypt and ended up in Midian.

He couldn’t return home, so he settled in Midian, got married, had children and retired.

His first 40 years, he had lived in Egypt in the court of Pharaoh. For the next 40, he lived in the desert of Midian. Then, at age 80, God called him out of retirement.

Moses had always been God’s choice to lead his children out of the bondage of Egypt. Moses act of murder delayed the plan, but it didn’t change it.

Moses was reluctant to go back  to Egypt. He argued that he was not able to speak well enough. Probably because he had been away for 40 years and had forgotten much of the Egyptian language. God provided his brother Aaron to be his spokesman in the beginning.

In a short time, Moses went from a reluctant servant to a dynamic leader. He quickly grasped hold of his mission and fulfilled it energetically.

But, he was never perfect. He had a temper. Soon after they crossed the Red Sea, God made a proposal to his people for them to be his covenant people. They accepted the proposal. Moses went up on the mountain for 40 days. Just him and God. While there, he got the agreement, which we call the 10 Commandments, written in stone.

As Moses descended the mountain, he saw that God’s people had abandoned the agreement and had made and were worshipping one of the gods, in the form of a golden calf, they had worshipped in Egypt.

Moses temper kicked in. He went into a rage. During the process, he threw down the stone tablets and broke them.

Later, we see him losing his temper again and struck the rock instead of speaking to it. For this, he was banned from entrance into the promised land.

Despite his weakness and shortcomings, Moses was invited to sit down and talk to God face to face. He was the one God entrusted with mediating the agreement between God and his people. He was truly God’s friend.

In Scripture (James 2:23), Abraham is referred to as the friend of God.

Abraham was far from perfect. When a ruler of the land found his wife Sarah to be attractive, he told him she was his sister because he feared that ruler. She was his half-sister, but he concealed that she was his wife.

God promised him an heir. Because both he and his wife were old, she was beyond child bearing age, she suggested that he sleep with her servant. He did. Ishmael was born as a result.

God had instructed him to leave his land and all his relatives, but he took his nephew along.

Abraham messed up often. But, at the most important times, when God put him to the test, he followed through. He frequently misunderstood God, but he always believed. He was loyal.

Once he understood that he was to have an heir by Sarah, he followed through. Isaac was born in their old age.

When he faced the most important test, when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, he believed in God enough to follow through. We see in Hebrews 11:19 that he believed that if he did put his son to death that God would raise him from the dead. 

When he failed, it was because of fear or because he misunderstood the instructions. When it mattered most, he trusted God. He followed through. That is why God considered him a friend.

I hate to see unnecessary laws passed. They are a burden. But, some laws are necessary to keep people from being wronged.

The House just passed a bill barring men from competing in women’s sports. It should pass the Senate and go into law after being signed by President Trump.

It is sad that parts of American culture are willing to sacrifice female athletes at the alter of their ideologies.

I see the tide turning. We must press forward. Many of us have been fearful of the false gods of our day who demand sacrifices that destroy the vulnurable.

One victory in the House is not enough. The tide is turning in our direction. Keep praying. Keep fighting. Keep moving forward.

It is an old question. It was asked by Pontius Pilate two millennia ago. It is a question we need to ask today.

We have an abundance of information. Our problem is determining what is true, what is partly true, and what is false.

I have learned not to trust my own memory of events. Perhaps 15 years ago, I was recalling an event from my high school days in the early seventies. Fortunately, my mother had kept records of my school years. I pulled out the records and researched the event. I discovered that my memory of the event had exaggerated my actual performance. In my own mind, I had grown in stature over time. As I read, my memory was corrected. It was a bit humbling to realize that I was not as good as I remembered myself being. It was a good and necessary correction.

For some of you, the opposite is true. You are better than you think. Your errors and failures have clouded your thinking. You see yourself as less than you are.

Scripture encourages us to test ourselves and examine ourselves. We also need to test what we see, hear and read. It is impossible to filter every piece of information. We need an automatic filter that alerts us when a piece of information may by false.

My practice is to continually build and improve my filter by reading and meditating on Scripture daily. I also seek to maintain a close walk with Christ. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. As I maintain these daily habits, I get inner warnings when I am confronted by false information. We need that.

This painting took about 10 hours to complete.  It is 14 x 11, oil on canvas, painted wet into wet.  I painted it in two sittings on consecutive days.

It turned out to be the last painting I would do for a little over a year.  I had a major life event that took me away from my art for that period of time.

Now, a little over a year later, I am painting again.  In addition to the deterioration of skills that will take a few weeks to sharpen, I have also lost the ability to focus for long periods of time.

It turns out that the ability to focus gets out of shape like a muscle that has atrophied after a period of being out of use.

There are other activities I perform that require focus.  But, nothing I do or have ever done requires the focus that producing art requires.

Non artists have made the statement to me, “I bet painting is very relaxing.”  Obviously, they know not what they say.  There is nothing relaxing about producing art.  It requires such intense focus that relaxing is not a word that ever comes to mind to describe what I do.  It is mentally exhausting.

While it is true that you can get in the zone, so to speak; it does not happen without intense focus.

I find that even when I am in shape to focus, there is still a limit to how long I can last at one sitting.  When I am producing art, I usually paint for about 45 minutes, then rest for 15.  During the 15 minutes, I walk around, relax, talk to someone; anything to get my mind away from my task.  Then I go back to my easel and go hard again.

Now that I am out of shape, I find that I need to cut down to about 30 minutes and then take a break.

It takes discipline to be an artist.  You have to learn the skills.  You have to get in shape.  Don’t get frustrated and give up.  You will improve with disciplined practice.

“Conform.” “Conform.” “Just conform,” He shouted.

He was exasperated.  I was confused.

Could he not see, I was trying.  Could he not see, I was desperately seeking to understand and follow confusing rules.

Dad was 30.  I was 10.  That scene described our relationship.  He put down the rules.  I tried to follow them.

But, it was not his fault.  It was the way our Christian culture of the early ’60’s worked.  We followed rules.  We did the right thing.  We did what our culture expected.

Imagine my surprise and relief when, years later, I found these verses:

For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all! And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace! (Gal 5:1-4 NET)

Following rules that made no sense always felt like a yoke.  The Bible says the same thing.  It calls the pressure to follow rules a yoke of slavery.

But, the most surprising of all was the last part.  It says if you are trying to gain God’s favor by following rules, you have fallen away from grace!”

That was so different from what I had always heard from the Christian culture I grew up in.  I heard about an uncle who was drunk again.  “He has fallen from grace.”  I heard about the girl in high school who was pregnant.  “She has fallen from grace.”

But, the Bible says something entirely different.  It says, “You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!”

Did you know that.  Does it make a difference in your understanding of the Bible.  It did for me.