December 6, 2009 - Traveling Mercies #2:

I am Haunted by Waters ...

Moses' Watermarked Journey

Key Focus:

• Moses journey to the promised land ... and all that he endured and he did and means to our family of faith!
  • What would be the key image of our family faith story?
  • What image or metaphor or event keeps popping up in our faith journey?
  • How do you want your story to end?
  • Can you be satisfied with the mark that God makes through you if you don't get what you longed to see?

Time in the Word Focus:

• Kernel Thought

Focus is on Moses journey from birth to overlooking Jordan. His story is told by water. He is "saved" by his little ark in the River Nile, the plagues center around the Nile, he delivers the people through the Red Sea, he helps them find water in the wilderness wanderings, he disobeys God with the water from the rock, and he cannot cross Jordan because of his disobedience.
Connection Point: Like many ancient people, Moses life was defined by water. This life journey is remarkable on many levels, but like most of us, Moses story is a mixture of saint and sinner, dreaming and drudgery, as well as miracles and minutia. The traveling mercy we want to take from Moses journey is the realization that God can take our failures and limitations, and use us in spite of them, to do His amazing work at any age and in any age. I will emphasize how Moses' life was defined by water, but the key point is very simple: Moses story is really God's story and when Moses got angry with God and rebelled, he lost sight of it being God's story. His rebellion cost him the opportunity of entering the promised land, even though he got to see if from afar. There is a part of us that understands this, and a part of us that feels this is a bit unfair to Moses because of all he did and went through. This is a reminder of how easily we lose sight of the great grace God has lavished on us and the importance of our realizing our lives are tied to a bigger, grander, more important story that is being told -- the story of God's deliverance -- and how our lives must be offered up as a praise to bringing God glory for our his awesome story of redemption.

At the same time, it is so easy for us to be haunted by one event, or one bad time in our life, that we wish we could go back and do over ... or maybe not do at all. It is the scar in our heart ... on our family ... on our legacy ... that we wish were not there. Moses' anger on several occasions, but on one in particular, an event that of course involved waters, was his scar. But just as there were consequences for his rebellion and ours, too, there is a legacy that remembers the waters crossed, the waters of grace and mercy and love and victory and faith and not the waters where we failed and we were not allowed to cross. Moses life is quite remarkable and without parallel. And God allowed him to see what He promised him. And for us, who are haunted by our own waters, our own Meribah, we are reminded that it is God who writes our story and by His grace determines our legacy -- not our failures, flubs, and rebellious and weak moments. And that, dear friend, is why our story is not haunted by waters, but redefined by them! John 7:37-39; Acts 2:38-39.

See A River Runs Through it Clip for "I am haunted by waters ..."

For quote read below:

On the Big Blackfoot River above the mouth of Belmont Creek the banks are fringed by large Ponderosa pines. In the slanting sun of late afternoon the shadows of great branches reached from across the river, and the trees took the river in their arms. The shadows continued up the bank, until they included us.

"... but you can love completely without complete understanding."

Now nearly all those I loved and did not understand when I was young are dead, but I still reach out to them.
Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn't. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.

• Key focus of the Time in the Word

• Some people, some families, have their stories bound up with water
  • "I am haunted by waters ..." the ending to a River Runs Through It
  • Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer & Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
• Moses is such a person: his amazing and strange life-story bound up with water!

  [Even today, most journeys, most adventures are tied to water, we can't live without it]

• In the Nile
• First 2 Plagues tied to water
• Meeting Zipporah at the well
• Through the Red Sea
• Water from the Rock I
• Water from the Rock II
• NOT Crossing Jordan
• Our story is also told by water
  • Finding the water of life (Jesus)
  • Sharing in the Savior's life (baptism)
  • Empowered by Living Water (Spirit)
  • Drinking from the water of life (Revelation)

• Holiday Traveling Season and Ministry Opportunies
• The Giving Tree
• Others

• Acts 7 tniv

Text will go here

• Hebrews 11 tniv

Text will go here

Drama, Media, & Connecting Pieces:

• Pre-video:
• Video Piece: TBD
  • Direction
• Scripture readings
  • TBD
    

Daybreak Focus: (See emphasis above! Team Working on Planning Order - Names)

Refresh Focus: (See emphasis above! Team Working on Planning Order - Names)