“If you turn away from following him, he will again leave all this people in the desert, and you will be the cause of their destruction.”
~ Numbers 32:15
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you know what happens when you do not do your Father God’s will? Your grandpaa totally believes that whatever a guy, gal or kid does is God the Father’s will. Your Father God is sovereign. Your grandpaa believes that your Father God knows what you are going to do – and what you are not going to do, because He programmed and choreographed before He created planet Earth the life of every single baby who has been and will ever be born on planet Earth. An existentialist believes that life experiences are life’s building blocks. An existentialist may believe in a benevolent spirit being; he or she though would not equate that the spirit being as being God. Your grandpaa believes that existentialism is a prime driver in the postmodern movement. A perception that is pertinent to what a postmodernist believes is that he or she perceives himself or herself as being the core recipient of everything that takes place. Your grandpaa knows that he is overstating, generalizing and simplifying a mindset or a belief paradigm that has been infiltrating cultural and societal norms and mores – particularly in the lives of guys and gals who are living in developed countries. This self-centered mindset or belief paradigm – which denies that absolutes exist, which has been catalogued postmodernism and which is underpinned by a belief paradigm that does not include your Father God is purportedly a twentieth century contemporary attempt to answer the evolution of cultural and societal norms. Your grandpaa does believes that some cultural shifts and societal adjustments are inevitable. The universal Christ-follower body of believers is made up of all the guys, gals and kids who through making a decision of faith have internalized what took place on a cross going on 2000 years ago when God the Son gave His life as a ransom payment for all the guys, gals and kids who God the Father specially elected for Himself to be His adopted kids before He formed planet Earth. Your grandmaa and grandpaa received a letter a couple of days ago from an elderly widow lady who is a member of the church where your grandpaa’s dad and ma are members – which is the Volga Christian Reformed Church. Mrs. Buehler in her letter to your grandmaa and grandpaa asked for their opinions or thoughts regarding what name that she and the other ladies who are members of the Ladies Aide in the church should call their pastor. Mrs. Buehler said in her letter that she wanted to respect the position of the pastor of the Volga Christian Reformed Church by calling the pastor who is there now Pastor Dykema instead of calling him Pastor John – which is Pastor Dykema’s first name, which some the guys and gals who are members of the church are doing. When your grandpaa was a kid, the pastor of a Christian Reformed Church was always referred to as Reverend. Mrs. Buehler in the letter that she sent to your grandmaa and grandpaa mentioned having always called the Volga Christian Reformed Church’s pastor as Reverends while at the same time, Mrs. Buehler referred to Reverend Dykema in her letter as Pastor Dykema. Rarely is a pastor today referred to as Reverend as Reverend no longer fits into today’s cultural and societal settings. Mrs. Buehler has already made a societal shift.
Your grandpaa believes that holding to personal values is very important. Your grandpaa could have called Mrs. Buehler by her first name – which is Jo. Your grandpaa when he was a kid was taught by his dad and ma to always respect guys and gals who were much older than he was by calling them Mr. or Mrs. That no longer happens today as every guy, gal and kid – no matter how old he or she may be, sees himself or herself pretty much on the same life playing field as every other guy, gal or kid. Technology is driving cultures and societies through new mindsets and worldviews at about four year intervals (less than two year intervals now at the date of this editing). A burgeoning people group of guys, gals and kids was on the move 3400 years ago. This rapidly growing people group of guys, gals and kids was the extended family of Jacob or Israel. Israel was Abraham’s grandkid. Your Father God had told Abraham that He would build a nation of guy, gals and kids out of his ancestors who would always live it the land in which he was presently living. By the time that Moses led Israel’s ancestors out of Egypt, there were more than two million guys, gals and kids in the Israelite people group. Everything was in place for Moses to lead the exodus of a motley nation of guys, gals and kids through the Kadesh Barnea route directly into the land where God told them that they would always have as their very own land. When ten of twelve spies though came back after spying out the land saying that the giants who lived in the land were too many and too massive for them to capture the land which led to a decision not to go into the land, God responded by punishing His specially chosen guys and gals for their unbelief by having them wander about a hot, dry, barren, miserable desert for forty years.
It is now forty years later. It is Number 32. God’s specially chosen guys and gals are about ready to finally go into the land area that God had told them that . . . when the Rueben and Gad tribal clans asked Moses if they could stay on the Transjordan side of the River Jordan – as there was plenty of land there for their large herds and flocks. Moses first began to panic – remembering what had taken place forty years earlier. Verse 15 is Moses’ response, “If you turn away from following him, he will again leave all this people in the desert, and you will be the cause of their destruction.”” Your grandpaa does not just see God’s will driving your grandpaa as your grandpaa would drive a car; your grandpaa believes that there is always a teaching component in God’s preplanned or predestined will that will lead His specially elected guys, gals and kids to continually experience foundational underpinning and learning.
Numbers 32 (498)