Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

Last week, I wrote about the possibility of entering into a friendship with God.  Moses and Job enjoyed a friendship with God so we know it’s possible.  We can also look at what the Psalmist said for further affirmation of this wonderful possibility:  “T he friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,   and he makes known to them his covenant.”  (Ps 25:14) Katarina von Schlegel, who wrote the words for the hymn “Be Still My Soul” (translated by Jane L. Borthwick) referenced a friendship with God in this way:  “Be still, my soul!  Thy best, thy heavenly Friend.”  Could it be that God can also be a best friend?  In regard to friendships, one of the ways that we demonstrate human friendship is by holding hands.  We hold hands to lead, protect, reassure, help, comfort, feel close, among other things.    Did you know that God wants to hold your hand?  Well, perhaps not exactly in the sense as we know it, of flesh p...

Of all the things written about Moses, an Old Testament man of faith, the thing that strikes me the most is that the Lord used to speak to Moses as a man speaks to his friend. Here is the account and it attests, for all time, of this remarkable relationship:   “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.”  (Ex 33:11) It is highly unlikely that any of us will be able to enjoy seeing God in that special tent that Moses and Joshua had access to in their day.  Yet, amazingly and perhaps almost incomprehensibly, we can still have a friendship with God.  In fact, God made a covenant of friendship:  “Even if the mountains are removed and the hills displaced, my devotion will not be removed from you, nor will my covenant of friendship be displaced,” says the Lord , the one who has compassion on you....

Sometimes a phrase in a verse can really grab my attention.  But, beyond being an attention grabber, sometimes the phrase can take on a whole new level of importance, even to the point of being critical for life itself. A phrase that recently did all that is “my soul shall abide in well being.”  This phrase is part of a verse from Psalm 25:  “ His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land. ”  (v 13) The context for those whose soul shall abide in well-being is very interesting.  From verses 1-12, it appears that there might be some prerequisites or conditions for a person to be able to abide (or dwell) in well-being.  Such seems to include being a person: who lifts up their soul to God; who trusts in God; who waits on God; who seeks to know God’s ways; who is led by God; who has their sins remembered no more; who is humble; who keeps the Lord’s covenant and testimonies; who has their guilt pardoned; who...

In these days of a global pandemic and rampant social unrest, it is easy to feel like our world is falling apart. For me personally, it also seems that my old “normals” have been turned upside down.  Along with that, I’ve been realizing that my preference is often just to be comfortable.  And whatever level of comfort I had before all this just seems to be a vague memory. I looked up the definition of comfort.  It includes:  “ contented well-being, a satisfying or enjoyable experience.” A similar word to comfort is “ease”.  One aspect of that word is the absence of difficulty.  That, in fact, is how the word is used in the book of Job:  “I am not at ease , nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”  (Job 3:26).  That missing quietness, that lack of rest, that dread of trouble coming, all contribute to feeling of being not at ease.  But I’m not sure that being at ease should be my goal or focus in life.  Again, in t...

What do you do when you don’t know what to do?  Panic?  Call for help?  Give up?  Hide?  Pretend you know what to do?  Just plow ahead anyway?  For many of us, it’s hard to admit it when we don’t know what to do.  On top of that, we often respond to that which we don’t know with the same management strategies that we’ve relied on in other situations.  What would you do if a great army was coming against your nation? The kingdom of Judah faced such a situation.  They didn’t do any of those things described above.  In fact, their response is very much worth our consideration:  “O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”  (2 Chr 20:12)  You might wonder, what good does it do to simply have our eyes on God? Where our eyes go to or turn to is very important.  The psalmist wrote...

In my last post, I wrote that I was quite intrigued by Isaiah 30:18, specifically one particular phrase:  “he exalts himself to show mercy to you.”  (ESV) I read another verse in Isaiah that is also so very intriguing:  “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isa 43:25) The big question that comes to mind is that why would He blot out my transgressions for His sake?  I would have thought that He does that for my sake! So, I turned to other versions of the Bible to see if they could shed some light: “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.  (NASB) “I, I am the one who blots out your rebellious deeds for my sake; your sins I do not remember.”  (NET) ‘I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”  (KJV) “But I, yes I, am the one who takes car...

I recently read a very interesting verse in the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible.  While I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, I am very intrigued by it.  The verse is:  “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you .  For the Lord is a God of justice;   blessed are all those who wait for him.” (Isa 30:18 – emphasis mine)   If God exalts himself to show mercy, what could that possibly mean?   I looked at some other versions of the Bible in an effort to answer that question:   “He waits on high to have compassion on you” (NASB)   “therefore he will rise up to show you compassion”  (NIV)   “he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you”  (NET)   Comparing versions didn’t really seem to help so I looked at some online dictionary definitions of the word exalt.  Exalt is to:   1.  Raise in rank, power, or character; ...