Marching Forth!

A person does not need to be a dairy farmer with decades of experience or have a master's degree in microbiology to know milk has gone bad.  Children who have been drinking milk from infancy would be able to realise milk is sour by tasting it, and curdled milk looks and smells different as well.  A similar dynamic applies when we hear teaching from God's word.  Even a child who is born again and has been taught the scripture can know when doctrine is off.  A Christian does not need a degree in theology to realise a doctrine is suspicious or strange, even though we might not be initially able to put our finger on it. Elihu exhorted his hearers in Job 34:2-4 ,  " Hear my words, you wise men; g ive ear to me, you who have knowledge.  3 For the ear tests words a s the palate tastes food.  4 Let us choose justice for ourselves; l et us know among ourselves what is good ."  Elihu spoke to men who had knowledge of God, and he bid them to wisely ...

" Let the rivers clap their hands; l et the hills be joyful together before the LORD ,  9 for He is coming to judge the earth. w ith righteousness He shall judge the world,  a nd the peoples with equity ." Psalm 98:8-9 When I heard this verse recently, it illustrated how changes in modern English can hijack the meaning of a text.  In this passage, the psalmist exhorted the earth and everything in it to rejoice in God coming to judge the world in righteousness.  Since man's fall into sin, creation groans to be delivered from the oppression of pride, wickedness, greed, selfishness and violence. Lately "equity" has taken on a new meaning in modern vernacular, in fact almost the opposite of what it historically has meant.  The first definition in the Webster 1828 Dictionary says, " Justice; right. In practice, equity is the impartial distribution of justice, or the doing that to another which the laws of God and man, and of reason, give him a right to clai...

At some point we've all probably done it:  inserted the batteries the wrong direction in a toy, torch or remote control and it did not work properly.  Even when we know batteries need to be in a particular orientation to work, we can still make this simple mistake.  I wonder how many functional items have been discarded due to operator error because batteries were incorrectly installed. I remember how amazing it was when our family bought a TV that used a remote.  It was far more convenient to turn on the TV or flip through channels while sitting on the couch rather than standing up all the time.  Today there are a myriad of battery powered tools that enable us to do work we cannot perform by hand.  Without a correctly fitted, charged battery, these tools cannot perform the function they were designed for.  A drill can be used as a paperweight, but that is not helpful for drilling holes or countersinking screws.  Imagine, that a person might be co...

When I played baseball on a team as a kid, the coach would bring out a big cardboard box with all the jerseys in it.  It was a mad scramble for people to find their preferred number because, unlike playing positions in the field or placement in the batting lineup that could change, this was the number you would wear all season long.  It was obvious that there could only be one pitcher on the mound and one #7 jersey, and this was difficult for some teammates to process.  Thankfully disappointment and grumbling didn't last long, and important life-lessons were learned:  sometimes you won't get the number you want, but it is fun to wear that jersey and contribute as part of the team by doing your best. In His wisdom God chose to arrange the camp of the Hebrews as He led them through the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt.  His presence in the tabernacle was the point of reference to orient the campsite of each tribe.  The same was true for the Levites that...