Grumbling

Numbers 11: 1 And the people of the Lord complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.

I was preparing and praying this morning to teach Exodus 32 and 33. They are critical chapters and highly relevant (as is every chapter) in my walk. 32 deals with the Israelites worshipping a golden calf (while they think they are worshipping God as he meets with Moses on the mountain). Their sin deludes them as Aaron exclaims “these are your gods oh Israel that led you up out of Egypt.” The calf itself was made out of the gold God gave them as they plundered the Egyptians on the way out of Egypt. The bottom line is we can easily make false gods out of the gifts of God and all the while think we are worshipping the true God.

Exodus 33 begins with God giving Moses a choice between the promise land (His gift of promise) and God’s presence. He in essence makes Moses choose between His blessings and God himself because of the sin of the Golden calf worship….Moses chooses wisely as he chooses God’s provision (note Moses never got the gift of the promise land as he only saw it, but he was deeply satisfied with God and did not need it. That should be our mark…satisfaction with God and if the gifts come or not, our spiritual walk is not altered.

So I was praying on a staircase before my class. My mind drifted to the not so great amenities at the hotel we are staying at in Delhi. I will not go into details but comfort would be no where in my vocabulary if I would be asked to describe it. As I was doing that God brought the passage and others like it to my mind…..at least the hotel has some measure of AC (if it did not, it would take a real miracle for us to be able to minister as the lows at night are mid 802 and the highs are around 115 and ice is as rare here as Christians)….the hotel at least has a bed (though hard), a shower (with no hot water, I was used to this one) and so on….God showed me that he had given us a safe place with the base provisions to be able to minister here….was that good enough for me?

That was a hard lesson. I have felt God here very tangibly. I guess it is only when we are not so overly satisfied with our stuff that we are able to take a more fuller delight in His tangible grace. I am sure that all of these street kids and rickshaw drivers that sleep in their sweat on the side of a busy 5 lane road would love to stay in my hotel for a night. It is all relative! I do know that I will have a greater praise for God’s blessings on my life after really seeing my grumblings against Him. I will have an even deeper affection for My Jesus that stands in the way of the judgment my grumblings deserve! Praise Him.

On the health side Chris is better. We are going out tonight as a group to eat and then are trying to get home around 9 to get some sleep. Tomorrow is our last day for ministering to these slum kids….we got to go and see what these slums look like. I have ministered n 3rd world slums in Honduras before so I had a comfort. What made it a little different was that they were Muslim and Hindu slums….and they sprawl forever and ever. The sheer size and density of these populations is insane to think through. They build these shanties all over each other and they look like card houses ready to fall down at any time. It truly brings you to the end of yourself.



Oh –one last thing that has been a sure sign of a society that is built on false religions…one of the primary modes of travel is mopeds, scooters and motorcycles. It is very common to see a family of four on a scooter….the only one with a helmet will be the man….the wife and the children, and yes even babies are unprotected and are completely vulnerable. Now to get a picture of what this would look like, imagine being on I- 65 just south of 459 on a Friday at exactly 5:00. Now imagine that the cars, rickshaws, tractors, cyclers, cows and pedestrians have turned the 3 lanes into about 12 as cars dart in and out and in the middle of it all are these scooters with totally unprotected women and children on a scooter with their father protecting only himself. I know that I have sin in my life, but I could not fathom protecting myself at the expense of my family. No matter how macho these guys think they are, I see them as cowards that totally are not operating in the headship that God has designed Him in. I know it is probably cultural….it still does not make it right any more than premarital sex in America’s culture is…….


Oh and if you ever want to see total oppression come look at one of these Muslim women in a completely black burkha that covers everything but her eyes on the back of a motorcycle in 115 degree weather. I believe that the Webster dictionary would have a tough time trying to better define misery and oppression. Many of these women were just born into that situation and will never hear of any hope in Christ!

I always ask myself – Do I APPRECIATE the grace that God placed me in America enough? I did nothing to be born into the blessing and I need to thank Him and praise Him more intently….


I do believe that is a sign of my immaturity as I look at people like David and Abraham who where flush with cash and stuff yet seemed to truly find Intoxicating pleasure in communion with God. I pray that God will grow me in loving fulfillment in Him.

Please keep praying that the Lord would bring a harvest with these kids we are ministering to....it is going well.

Thank God for the hope we have in Jesus!