Overcoming – Page 36

The reason for two tablets

1 Comment / Overcoming, Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

“See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” Hebrews 8:5 (God speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai)

Most people mistakenly think that the reason God used two stone tablets for inscribing the ten commandments was because all ten of them would not fit on one. This assumption is not only erroneous but it robs us of the true meaning and intention of God extending His covenant to humankind.

In Mel Brook’s 1981 movie The History of the World we have a comedic rendition of Moses and the Ten Commandments. We see Moses coming down the mountain with three stone tablets. Just as he is in the process of presenting them to the Israelites he accidentally drops one of them. “Hear me, oh hear me, all pay heed, the Lord, the Lord Jehovah has given unto you these 15 …. (a tablet slips from his hands and shatters on the ground) . . .These 10 . . . .10 commandments for all to obey.”

The truth is, and Biblical scholars agree, God instructed Moses to chisel two stone tablets because His intention was to create two exact copies. We know from the scriptures that the very finger of God inscribed them “on both sides, front and back.” (Exodus 31:18 & 32:15) What isn’t specifically communicated, but is commonly understood in the context of Biblical times, is that whenever a covenant was made, duplicate copies of the agreement were created so that both parties would have a copy. That same principal of course continues to this day with every legal agreement. Both parties are supplied with exact copies for their reference and compliance.

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word for covenant, berith, is used nearly 300 times. There are basically two types of covenants: covenants between equals and covenants between a greater and a lesser. God’s covenant with humankind is the latter. It is a covenant initiated and extended by Him as the ultimate greater, to His creation, the lesser. It can be accepted or rejected but it cannot be changed. This is typical of most greater to lesser covenants, like that of a ruler to a subject. However, as with all God’s promises, His covenants are initiated primarily to benefit of the lesser, for the purpose of protecting and prospering them.

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Faith the Divine Exchange

Overcoming, Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

“Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” Psalm 2:12

Faith is a divine exchange.
We exchange the visible for the invisible. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
We let go of what is tangible to obtain what is intangible. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
We forgo trust in self, in order to trust in God. (Proverbs 3:5)
We relinquish what we can control, to give God control. (Proverbs 3:6)
We surrender our will so we can live in His will. (Luke 22:42)
We give up doing it our way to do it His way. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
We renounce self-centeredness for God centeredness. (Mark 8:34-35)
We confess our unrighteousness to receive His righteousness. (1 John 1:9)
We risk temporal loss for eternal gain. (John 12:24)
We exchange the ashes of our lives for the beauty of His. (Isaiah 61:2)
We ignore what we can see to discover what He can see. (Romans 4:17)
We set aside what we know in order to learn what He knows. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
We exchange the unpredictable for the predictable. (Hebrews 11:1)
We give away what we have, so He can give us all He has. (Luke 6:38)
We forego our time-table for God’s time-table. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
We disregard the natural to appeal to the supernatural. (Romans 4:19-20)
We silence the negative to speak the positive. (1 Thessalonians 5:18 & 2 Corinthians 4:13)

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7 time management principles from the wisest man who ever lived

4 Comments / Life Balance, Overcoming / Tom Stuart

“There is a time for everything.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

That is quite a statement. Why is it sometimes that does not appear to be true? Too often it seems like there are just not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything we feel we should do. Solomon, considered to be the wisest man who ever lived, penned those words. As the most productive king in Israel’s history he obviously knew something about time management.

Time management experts tell us that time management at its core is really life management. That is an important distinction and makes sense when we consider that Solomon’s book of Ecclesiastes is essentially a book about life management. Wasted time produces wasted lives. And as the Solomon, continually reminds us, wasting time in meaningless pursuits produces meaningless lives. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (1:2)

Since this extremely wise and accomplished man knew both the profit and pitfalls of life management we would do well to glean as many nuggets of truth as we can from his writings. A careful study of his book reveals what I would consider to be seven of the greatest time management principles ever written. Here they are.

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Why we cannot say “No.”

4 Comments / Overcoming / Tom Stuart

“Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.” Proverbs 29:25

Why is it so hard sometimes to say “No”? I am referring to saying “No” to people’s requests, work’s demands, and the inner voice saying “you ought to.” There is nothing inherently noble in always saying “Yes.” As dwellers in the midst of 10,000 lakes we might want to write it off as Minnesota nice. But this problem is not unique to Minnesotans and dates back even to the time of Christ.

Jesus warned all human kind about making promises we can’t or don’t want to keep. “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:37) Everyone knows the regret that comes after saying “Yes” to something when you really wanted to say “No”. You end up kicking yourself for making such a commitment and find that trying to get out of it is much more painful and anxiety ridden than if you had just said “No” in the first place.

There was a time in my life when forming the word and stuttering “N-o-o-o-o” was nigh unto impossible for me. Fortunately the Lord provided people in my life who began to take me to task for the unwanted and often injurious commitments that I was making through my chiming “Yes” to every request that came my way. They challenged me to learn to say “No” both for my sake and also for the sake of my family. Painfully, I realized saying “Yes” all the time was taking its toll not only on my own mental and emotional health but also on those closest to me.

What helped me the most was acknowledging that my inability to say “No” was rooted in fear. The verse in the Bible that opened my eyes to this was the “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.” This is a great verse because it offers both the diagnosis and the cure. It reveals that the fear of man is the source of our dis-ease in saying “Yes” when you really want to say “No.” And it states that trust in the Lord is the prescription for saying “No” in the first place. That trust establishes a place of peace and freedom in our hearts from regret.

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Keeping an ideal from becoming an ordeal

Overcoming / Tom Stuart

The joke is told of the young couple who entered into their marriage looking for the ideal, discovered it was an ordeal and ended up wanting a new deal. Unfortunately whether it is a relationship, a job, a home, a purchase or some project, all too often our pursuit of the ideal can end up just like this marriage – becoming an ordeal in search of a new deal. It is this common pattern of regression, from ideal to ordeal, that produces so many unfulfilled expectations in our lives.

Sadly, unfulfilled expectations are toxic to faith and idealism. They tempt us to give up on our ideals and to stop dreaming. In the process they discourage us from hope and perseverance, in making a better life for ourselves and for those we love.

Here are three ways to keep your pursuit of the ideal from becoming an ordeal. They are based on biblical principles from the teachings of Jesus.

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