Memo From the Mann

His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet ~ Nahum 1:3b
 
The closest thing to God’s fury that I can think of is weather related. I’ve experienced some harrowing weather events in my lifetime, events that made me reflect on how I was in control of very little, if anything at all.
 
Those are great equalizer moments. In those moments we realize just how weak and small we are. In fact I don’t know of anyone who enjoys those kinds of situations. In general, we strive to be in control at all time, that’s our happy place. So when the world starts to spin out of control we’re uneasy and uncomfortable.
 
In Nahum 1:3 we read,
The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet
 
The Lord is slow to anger but great in power (this was revealed to Moses; in Exodus 34). We’re told the Lord will not stand by and let wickedness destroy his planet.
His generosity and forgiveness are staggering, but for the non-repentant there will be judgement. Well, I don’t want any part of that! I do however, want to linger in his staggering generosity and forgiveness.
 
In our world of questionable behavior; in our world of lost and angry souls; in our world of darkness induced blindness; let us as Nahum did, shine a light; a light of comfort; and a light of hope, through the love of LORD.
 
Pray on...
Song: Divine Nature

hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea ~ Micah 7:19
 
My daughter once lost a teething ring in a swampy bit of water in St. Augustine Florida. What compounded the retrieval of the ring was that it settled onto the snout of a rather large alligator. Just relocating where the ring was a miraculous achievement on my part as I realized after the fact that it was gone, but the sight of this rainbow colored ring on an alligator’s snout was not one that would ever be forgotten. Now to be clear, we were guests at an alligator farm so this wasn’t a wild and dangerous setting, and the walkway that we were traveling on made it impossible for me, dad, to do anything stupid, as in trying to retrieve the ring, but the hurling of the teething ring into the swampy water was the end of it. It was gone and after a short period of time very rarely ever thought of.
 
Micah 7:19 says of God, he hurls all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
 
Corrie ten Boom (Dutch Resistance Hero) says,
“When God buries our sins in the deepest sea,
he then post’s a sign that says, no fishing allowed.”
 
There is no need for us to return to the scene of the crime, to continue to replay the act, or to cry over the broken moment.
 
God pardons, ...shows compassion, ...triumphs over his peoples’ sins, ...and seals those sins away. By his unfailing love, God continues to offer hope to those who trust in him.
 
Lord, help us to live for today’s opportunities, and to remember your pardons, your compassion, and your unfailing love.
 
Pray on...
Song: Relentless Love

He will stand and shepherd his flock ~ Micah 5:4
 
There are countless stories where love lies bleeding. Where the love for another is the driving force for sacrifice that sometimes leads to death. Have you witnessed this kind of love in your life time?
 
Seven hundred years before the gospel, in Micah 5, we read about a deliverer that is foreseen. The character of the deliverer will be that of a shepherd. He’ll be wanting to feed and nourish his people. This is in direct contrast to others who’ll be oppressive dictators. This deliverer will bring peace. He’ll be the source of peace. The prince of Peace.
 
Skip’s Heitzig said, “One of the most beautiful descriptions of Jesus is when he said,
‘ I am the good shepherd.’”
 
But between the first coming and the second coming, is a cross where the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. His unmatched love will lead to him sacrificing his life ...for all mankind.
 
He will stand and shepherd his flock ~ Micah 5:4
 
O’ that we’d recognize and embrace the great sacrifice of the good shepherd.
Today ...and everyday.
 
Pray on...
Song: Through His Life

and peoples will flow to it ~ Micah 4:1
 
Have you ever been caught up in a moment when time didn’t exist? A moment when your mind was so occupied that the passing of time was oblivious to you. That’s to say at some point you stopped to realized a large portion of it had passed without your recognition. That’s being in the flow.
 
As a musician I get to experience (flow) it in those special improvisational instances, the ones that we can’t really explain, but that inspire us and make us want to return again and again.
 
Here in Micah 4 we read that the people will flow to it, it being Mt Zion; to the house of the Lord, to worship ...and here let me share that I’ve also experience the flow in worship. What a glorious experience to get lost so in worship that time doesn’t exist; that seconds, minutes, and hours can pass without notice.
 
Both Isaiah and Micah echo this piece of scripture. I’d like to believe that the Holy Spirit thought it was that important, that it needed to be mentioned twice. As they use it, it means spontaneous movement; you’re not compelled to do it, but you want to do it.
 
Skip Heitzig shares that, “There’s coming a day when the nations of the world will want to go to flow to Jerusalem. Because the Messiah will reign and rule from there for a thousand years, and the world will be at peace.”
 
What a prayer for our world, that all nations would flow to the house of the Lord ...to worship him.
 
Pray on...
Song: In the House of the Lord

Let everyone call urgently on God ~ Jonah 3:8
 
When is a time where you have urgently called on God? Urgently meaning you required immediate action or attention. It certainly would’ve been a serious, and probably even a life threatening moment. I mean we’re not gonna urgently call on God to shine on tomorrow’s day at the beach.
 
In Jonah 3 we find the king of Nineveh, the most powerful man in the city, an arrogant villain, putting on sackcloth, and sitting in the dust because he’s heard a message from God (through Jonah).
 
He leaves his seat of authority and  power, and takes off his royal clothes of pride... and he sits down in the dust where we all came from, and will return someday.
 
The king who allowed and  commanded violence and oppression for so many years has humbled himself and commanded a fast, telling everyone to urgently call on God.
 
Why? Because this non-believer heard from God.
The heart of the answer lies right here...  change begins when a person believes God!
Not just believing in God, but believing God!
 
O’ Lord, that you hear our urgent prayer for the world...
That all nations!
That all peoples!
would know and embrace You!
 
Pray on...
Song: Where Heaven Touches Earth

But Jonah ran away... ~ Jonah 1:3
Have you ever run away from something? I’m sure you have ...we all have, and hindsight usually reveals just how foolish and wasteful the behavior was.
 
But imagine running from God ...as if that’s even a possibility. What foolishness to think that the omnipresent God would not be able to track us down, that he’d somehow lose us in the world’s mass of humanity. Silly, I know!
 
The book of Jonah reveals that Jonah’s not running from the danger of Nineveh, the city he’s been sent to preach in, but that’s he’s running from God. He knows God’s compassion,  and he doesn’t want to see God forgive the Ninevites.
 
What we’re asked to consider is this -
What if God’s word reveals something about God that we don’t like?
What if he calls us to people we don’t like?
 
We can talk about the fish at another time, but for today, let’s consider the idea that we can’t turn and run away from God’s work and expect not to be exposed.
Lord, help us to remember that following is our calling, and that fleeing is the opposite of following.
 
Pray on...
Song: Sittin’ in a Belly

A library is a house of  hope (we could stop there) ...
It’s a place where we all, whatever our situation,
can feed our ideas and developed our dreams.
 
A cartoon showed (a father handing a child a book to his teen-age son):
“It’s a book you say, ..uh, what do I plug it into?” You mind!
 
Apart from the word of God, human life knows only chaos. It is the word that speaks order into creation and that sustains all the processes of nature. It is the word that motivates all history and brings it to fulfillment. It is the word alone that gives guidance, and forgiveness, and blessing, and fruitful life. It is in the word that God draws near to his chosen people and abides with them.
 
I share this because just as in (the Minor Prophet), Amos’ time...
(a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. ~ Amos 8:11)
There are many today who are tragically ignorant of their Bible.
...and some are weekly church goers!
They don’t’t know scripture, they don’t read it, or study it.
...I heard it said that those that do dabble with commentaries
are guilty of not creating their own.
The Biblical illiteracy among Christians is epidemic.
 
Father, our land is ripe for the hearing of your word
Let each and everyone of us begin a disciplined approach to your word
Reading it, studying it, digging deeper into it,
questioning what it means, praying on its application...
and then sharing with those around us the riches of doing so
sharing it in a way that excites others to join us
In your Son’s name we pray...
 
Pray on...
Song: His Word is Good

...break up your unplowed ground ~ Hosea 10:12
One of my daughters was a stubborn child. She knew what she wanted, and wasn’t going to have it any other way. Her will was strong, her heart could turn hard during such an exercise, her upsetment occurred because she wasn’t getting what she wanted ...much like many adults, like many unhappy souls in the world ...dare I say much like our politicians ...their stubbornness, their inability to see past their hard hearts, is the cause for much turmoil in their world and ours.
In Hosea 10:12, God uses metaphors from agriculture to set forth his requirements. Sandy Adams shares, We need to prepare the ground before we plant a garden. The strongest plants grow in the worked, and softened soil. The barren spots were the ones that were unworked.
Repentance does to our spirit, what a tiller does to the hard ground. A repentant heart sees its sin’s true ugliness. True repentance turns my life over and over breaking up my hardness. It allows the seeds of God to take root and create spiritual growth. But if the heart is not prepared the seed won’t take root. This why we need to turn up the soil of our heart. We need to work over that soil with a thorough repentance.
Tilling ground is laborious, hard, backbreaking, agonizing work ...and so  is real repentance ...the results though are worth the effort. The strongest stands of spiritual fruit, will grow where you have worked the ground.
Pray on...
Song: Once Again Lord

Woe to you who are complacent ~ Amos 6:1
Don’t you just love people who are full of themselves? They have an arrogant way about them, one that seems to allow them the belief that we commoners, we sheep,  just grazed around them as they carry on the important aspects of their day. 
Smugness wears ugly ...don’t you think. I mean we don’t wear it as a compliment. We don’t greet a great man or woman with ...my, you really look smug today ...I love that jacket, you look really smug in it ...or maybe, you know, you wear smugness well!
The self-important quality rests on an innate security that they have, even when based on a faulty premise. In Amos 6, God tells Israel that their security is false. 
It’s truly amazing just how many examples over so many years, that we’ve seen or read, about the same arrogance revealing itself. Human kind just can’t get over itself. 
The ideal of physical power has always been at the forefront of disagreement, battle, and death. 
The Israelites saw judgement as very far away, much like children and young adults. There’s always a false comfort in putting off what we don’t want to face until tomorrow or some time in the distant future.
Let’s agree to rest on these on two things -1. God is universally in control ...not us, ...ever!2. Today, tomorrow and everyday after, are judgement days for someone, somewhere
Pray on...Song: I Don’t Know (Album: Stars Under My Feet)

 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? ~ Amos 3:3
I’d like to share some common agreed upon thoughts about this statement.
Persons do not walk together unless they have agreed to meet; lions do not roar unless they have captured some prey; birds do not fall to the ground for no reason; alarms don’t sound without causing fear. (Indeed, our natural disasters come not from happenstance, but from God’s governance of the world,)
Now for you and I, and anyone else, to walk together - We need to have a strong mutual agreement (a healthy understanding) We need a shared vision, a common purpose (common ground) We need to have compatible goals, and a mutual respect (a realistic path) Does this sound like you and God?
 Amos’s question is for us to consider... Can two walk together unless they’re agreed?
 (*Keep this in mind when you go to choose a spouse,  a friend, a business partner, or even a church.)
So ignore God’s warnings if you like,  think the rules don’t apply to you if you’re foolish enough, but (Amos 3 makes it quite clear that) in the end  you’re going to find out the hard way, that God makes no exceptions.
Pray on...Song: It’s A Cold War (Album: Trio)