March 24

Proverbs 11:27 Luke 6:12-38
He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it.
George Carlin said, “some see the glass as half-empty, others see it as half-full. I see it as twice as big as it needs to be.”
When you visit old people, you quickly learn if they are half-empty or half-full people. Don’s mother is a half-full person. She always saw the bright side of everything. She was sweet, affable and kind. Even in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s, she is cheerful and sunshiney. I visit another little old lady and *she* is definitely a half-empty person. Nothing makes her happy. If I want to walk, it is too hot or cold. She hasn’t done her hair or she is too dressed up. She is ready for lunch or really full. This is true about everything. When we talk, she always says that I will come to rack and ruin believing the best about people because they will take advantage of me. I usually laugh about that. I have fallen for so many, many lines. But I do usually believe the best of people. I assume, and you know where that can get you, that if someone says they will do it, that they will. Until they have blown off the task. I will give you the first opportunity and maybe the second. After that, I’m not going for it. Does this make me a half-full or half-empty girl? There are moms at school that I will not be on a committee with. They don’t pull their weight or they commit and then don’t follow through. The second is worse.
But back to our proverb. If you go looking for goodness, do you always find it? What about miracles? God’s providence? Is this just like the researchers who are set on proving something about a substance and so they design the experiment to prove it?
Is the reverse true? The second little old lady says I make her ‘cross’ because I am so ‘RELENTLESSLY cheerful. ‘ Isn’t she expecting bad things?
What happens when we do mission work and no one is saved? Or we are not what was needed? Or things are not improved at all? Keep plugging along?
Want one more quote? This is from Teddy Roosevelt, my son Cole’s most hated president. Cole blames Teddy for World War II.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick. You will go far.” I believe that Teddy was a twice as big person himself.

OT – Deuteronomy 2:1-3:29
The space of 40 years is summed up in 13 verses. Moses is not always so terse.
Here is what Rashi has to say about Deuteronomy:
The Sages refer to Deuteronomy as Mishneh Torah which is commonly translated as “repetition of the Torah. Since all the commandments were given to Moses at Sinai or the Tent of Meeting in the first year after the Exodus, the question remains on what basis the narratives and commandments contained in D. were chosen. This book was Israel’s introduction to the new life it would have to forge in Eretz Yisrael. Once they crossed the Jordan, the people would no longer see God’s Constant Presence and daily miracles, as they had in the Wilderness. They would plow, plant and harvest. They would establish courts and a government. They would forge social relationships and means to provide for and protect the needy and the helpless. They would need strong faith and self-discipline to avoid the snares and temptations of their pagan neighbors and false prophets. To stress these laws and vlues and exhort Israel to be strong was the function of D., its laws and Moses’ appeals.
Stone Chumash p. 938
What we read today was part of sermon that Moses gave, apparently more than once as a reminder of where they had been in the Wilderness. I think we also see Moses’ human side as he really, really wanted to cross the Jordan. God had given into him so many times as he intervened. I am amazed that he did not on this one issue.
Moses, in this sense, is a lot like Jesus. He really had a special relationship with God. The give and take and the acquiescence that God occasionally provides Moses is amazing. It is no wonder that the apostles see Moses with Elijah at the Transfiguration. He was clearly the savior (small s) of the Jewish people until God sent Jesus as the Savior (big s). And, just like Jesus, Moses clearly had a bunch of rabble-rousers who were bent on doing him harm and stirring up trouble. I even see some of Moses’ plaintiveness in Jesus’ Garden of Gethsemane prayer.
I really hadn’t noticed all the similarities between them until I started to study them simultaneously with this study.

Friends, have a lovely weekend. Rest, relax and rejuvenate. But stay in the Word.