Its been way too long since I've posted anything here, so I'll try to get the most pertinent information out first. Germany update: I want to thank all of you who are supporting me either through giving or through prayer. I appreciate both, and both are vitally necessary to the success of any ministry. Based on my wonderful number crunching skills (cough... former English major) I'm around %55 total support - I need to be at %90 before leaving. I, personally, would love to see the total closer to %100 simply by virtue of there not being too much "wiggle room" in the budget, especially if the Euro has a substantial jump against the Dollar. That being said it is a blessing to see my total increasing with every update that I get. And for that I thank the Lord, and all of you.
I've been reading from Deuteronomy lately - it may seem like an odd book to be looking at, but I find it fascinating. We, as Christians, often focus on the historical parts of the Pentateuch: The Creation Story, Noah's Ark, The Exodus, The Giving of the Ten Commandments, The Children of Israel wandering in the desert for forty years, Moses going to Mt. Nebo to look into the promised land before he died. And the stories are useful, but I find it odd we skim over the actual meat of the law. Sure, some of it is kind of obscure (rules and regulations for clean & unclean animals, laws for ceremonial cleanliness, etc.). Overall though I'm struck by several things, so I'll leave you with a couple of thoughts, and observations that are striking me as I read:
1) the demand of God for his people to holy unto the Lord. Some of the commandments are given with the simple reasoning that God called the Israelites to Himself, and that they should be different from the other people in the land. 2) The demands the Law makes to force the Israelites to rely on God, rather than conventional Human power structures. The way the "nation" of Israel was set up in Deuteronomy. 3) The inherent tragedy of the circumstances. Not only is Moses writing these things fully knowing he will not be able to enter the promised Land... It is only a matter of a few years after their initial conquest of the Land, that the Lord begins to raise "judges" up to rescue them, and the spiral further and further downwards. Judges may be one of the most tragic books of the Bible, as with every revolution of the Judge cycle Israel moves further and further away from God.
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