Monthly Archives: February 2026

Are Borders Biblical?

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Numbers 33-34

I believe there is a repeated theme in these two chapters. Borders.

Every city, every territory the Israelites camped in as they traveled from Egypt (defined by borders) to the Promised Land had borders. We know from Scripture that if the ruler of one of those territories didn’t want the Jews crossing their border, they would refuse entrance, and the Jews had to take another route.

God Himself established borders to separate the Promised Land from the rest of the world. And with it came a warning: Drive out everyone who is not a Jew, or I will punish you as an enemy.

Yes, I believe in strong borders. I believe the USA is feeling the effects of allowing our borders to be breached. I believe we need to drive out everyone who is not a citizen or a legal immigrant.

Now, if you are still reading this post after that, let’s not make this only political.

Let’s talk about the border that ought to be protecting the Church. The Body of Christ is intended to be holy. This whole philosophy of welcoming sinners into our fellowship is like inviting one little cancer cell into our body, hoping it will heal surrounded by healthy cells.

“Invite your unsaved neighbor to church” is not only lazy evangelism, it is ignoring Jesus’ command to “You go. You make disciples.” I believe the Church is seeing the effects of having its borders breached. Watered-down theology. Homosexual pastors. Emotion driven false worship. It’s become more and more evident our borders aren’t just weak. We have no borders protecting the Church.

Let’s go deeper. What about the borders protecting your family? What do your kids see you watching on TV? What do you ignore concerning what your kids are being taught in school? How important is Scripture in your family life? Do you accept your child’s “furry” or trans friend? Do you entertain “pronouns” in your home? What music do you play in your home, or allow to be played in your child’s room? Do you know what your child is doing with his or her phone/computer? What of the world has found a crack in the border that’s supposed to be protecting your family?

Well, now that I’ve meddled a bit I might as well go the whole way. How is the border around your own heart? Do you strengthen that border every day by spending quiet time reading God’s Words, praying, listening to His voice through the words he inspired? Have you truly repented of sin, turned away from sin, or are there still sins you are holding onto – even just in your thoughts? How committed are you to live a holy life, not just a good life? If your heart has a weak border, you don’t really have a border at all.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 23:12)

And there’s the rub. The borders around the country, the Church, the family are crumbling because we haven’t guarded the borders around our own hearts. It starts – and ends – there. Scripture says that everything that happens in our nation, the Church, and our families flows from our individual hearts. Everything.

I titled this post “Are Borders Biblical?” What is your answer?

Whatever God Says

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Numbers 23-25

Balaam made some mistakes. He should never had been in Balak’s presence in the first place. He disobeyed God, and as a result had to endure three tests he wouldn’t have had to face had he stayed put. But, dear ones, there is a precious lesson here I don’t want us to miss.

Remember Balak was dangling great wealth in front of Balaam if he’d only put a curse on Israel for him. I think some people might wonder why Balaam didn’t just throw out a meaningless string of words that sounded like a curse. That could have made him a rich man, and it would have appeased Barak.

Plus, Barak was a king. If he didn’t like what Balaam said, or if Balaam refused to say the words it could have meant Balaam’s death. So there’s that.

Balaam put himself in a difficult position. But here’s what spoke to me today:

Earlier Balaam had tweaked God’s Words. (see chapter 22). He edited what God told him to say to Balak’s representatives which opened the door for trouble. Then, after meeting the angel of God on the road, Balaam faced Barak with a renewed determination to surrender to the Words of God no matter the outcome.

Balak said: Curse Israel
God said: Bless Israel

So when Barak heard a blessing instead of a curse, he was livid. Balaam’s reply to the king was:

“Shouldn’t I say exactly what the Lord puts in my mouth?” (23:12) Then again, “Didn’t I tell you, whatever the Lord says I must do?” (23:26) And, “I will say whatever the Lord says.” (24:13)

Side note: I love how God gently restored Balaam kind of like he did Peter after Peter denied even knowing Jesus. Both men sinned by what they said or didn’t say. So God gave them repeated opportunities to speak the truth. God is so good!

What changed Balaam from being someone who could misquote Gods Words, into a man totally surrendered to the integrity of God’s Words? I believe it was that personal encounter with the angel of the Lord, AKA the pre-incarnate Jesus.

Let me ask all of us: How seriously do we consider the Words of God, those written in the precious Book we hold in our hands? I think we need to ask ourselves if we tend to omit certain verses that offend us. Do any of us change the meaning of the text in order for it to fit our skewed world-view, or the popular opinions of the day?

Or do we consider whose Words these are. Balaam asked, “Shouldn’t I say exactly the words the Lord puts in my mouth?” Shouldn’t we echo that and say, “Shouldn’t I say exactly the words the Lord has put into print in the pages of the Bible?” Those ARE God’s Words!

Another side note: I knew a woman who told me “God told me I was going to live in this apartment complex.” Years later and never having lived there she said, “God told me I was going to live in this high-rise.” Friend, beware of anything that starts out with “God told me” if what follows is not Scripture. Just beware.

I believe if we have an encounter with the living Lord, the way Balaam encountered Him on the road, we will also have a renewed respect for God’s Word, and a determination to let God’s Words speak for themselves.

Consider Psalm 19:14:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

May the words of our mouths be God’s Words, used exactly the way God said them. May we meditate on the Words of God as found in Scripture and not on someone’s opinions on the meaning of those words.

If we, like Balaam determine to “say whatever the Lord says,” according to Scripture, our words will be acceptable to God, and His Word will never return void.

All The Difference

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Numbers 11

I laughed out loud as I usually do when reading this chapter. The Israelites are complaining. I know, shocker. This time they are sitting outside their tents wailing because they are tired of the manna God had graciously provided for them to eat every day.

I guess we’re not the first generation that thinks they need to put their emotions on public display. Take a selfie and post it on social media. Or just sit outside your tent so everyone can see you cry the ugly cry. Clicks and likes the Old Testament way.

The sound of thousands of people boo-booing must have grated on Moses’ last nerve because we read how he talked to God about it:

“WHY ME? What have I done for you to treat ME like this? Did I give birth to them? I can’t carry them myself. It’s too much for me!” Do you sense a pattern here?

I’m pretty sure most, if not all of us have a tendency to think like Moses here. “Why me?” seems to be our first response to hardship, too.

Now here comes the LOL moment. Moses says to God, “If this is how you’re going to treat me, JUST KILL ME NOW!”

I find that hilarious every time. Moses is whining about the whining of the Jews. Doesn’t that make them all whiners?

The Jews: “I’m sick of manna. I had it good in Egypt. I want meat.”

Moses: “I’m being treated unfairly. I’m sick of their complaining. I can’t take this.”

Once again the sin of self lifts its ugly head. It’s amazing God didn’t answer Moses’ plea and just wipe them all out in one felled swoop.

But God is slow to anger, with love overflowing, gracious beyond belief. Aren’t you glad?

As long as we are focused on ourselves we will be miserable, too. This fallen world comes with all kinds of trials big and small. Instead of thinking, “Me,” think “You.”

What do YOU want me to do, Lord? How can YOU use this for YOUR glory? How can YOU be seen in and through this situation as I submit to YOUR will?

It will make all the difference. Because God makes all the difference!

Bitter Water

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Numbers 5

Modern feminism has made us hyper-sensitive to the roles of men and women. “Equality!” they cry. They see misogyny in the eyes of every male. So I imagine if your sympathies lie with the feminists, you went ballistic as you read this chapter.

“You mean if some jerk gets jealous of his wife – even without reason – he could take her before the church and force her to drink dirty water that could cause her to blow up like a balloon, in great pain, and maybe leave her unable to ever have children? He’s jealous… and she pays?”

I know. It’s awful if that’s what you get out of reading these verses. But is that really what we see here?

Notice this is a ceremony of a husband who recognizes HIS sin of jealousy. He brings a sacrifice to the priest to atone for HIS sin. Hearing his wife’s public declaration of her innocence, then watching her drink the cursed liquid without having all those horrible things happening to her, was proof that his jealousy was unwarranted, and he is right to confess his sin in order to be forgiven.

Do I think even one innocent woman suffered those physical ailments as a result of drinking the disgusting water? No.

Do you know why I’m 100% sure of that? Because God commanded a jealous husband to confess his sin in this way. And God doesn’t make mistakes.

Yes, more than likely there were women who had affairs, and maybe they did suffer the harmful effects of the bitter water. Scripture doesn’t say one way or the other. But I am looking at the innocent woman and the seemingly unfair treatment of her.

God is not a misogynist. In fact, I see a God who gave dignity to a women unjustly accuse You don’t treat women like that and expect God to be ok with it. This jealous husband who may have wanted to humiliate his wife, was publicly humiliated himself. His jealously was a sin everyone could see. He needed to repent of that sin.

If you were upset by what you read in Numbers 5, go back and read it again. This time remember the character of God, and see if you don’t recognize his love and mercy for both the man who needed to repent, and his wife who needed to be exonerated.

It’s in there.

They Did Everything. It’s a Miracle

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Numbers 1-2

God organized the Jewish people in a very specific manner. There were boundaries. You heard me boundaries. But I digress.

Each family unit was assigned their place within the nation. They knew where they were to pitch their tents, and where they were to get in line when they moved. I got to wondering what that looked like with thousands of tents pitched around the bigger tabernacle tent. Then I thought about what it must have been like to see them all pack up and move out.

I mean, the 600,000 number is the number of men who were of the age to serve in the army. So we are talking about maybe 2 million people counting women, children, and men too young or too old to be considered army-ready.

That’s a lot of people. Wouldn’t it be like trying to herd kittens? The word chaos comes to mind.

I’m a visual learner so I tried to picture what 2 million people would look like. I live close to Jacksonville, but their population in only 1,038,787. That’s not even close to the number of Jews we read about in the book of Numbers. And I thought Jacksonville was a big city.

I’ve never been to Houston but there are 2,435,715 residents there. I wonder what it would take to organize all of them to do what the Jewish nation did there in the wilderness.

I mean, I live on an island off the coast of Georgia with a population of a mere 16,800. Let me tell you what hurricane evacuation looks like here. Where’s Moses when you need him?

But here is what stood out to me as I read these numbers. The Jews did everything the Lord commanded Moses. They didn’t go rogue. They didn’t argue, or think they had a better plan. They listened. And they obeyed.

And because they did, God was able to miraculously lead them to the Promised Land. It wasn’t the organization. It wasn’t the leadership. It wasn’t even Moses. The people surrendered to the will of God.

The lesson? God can do amazing things in our lives when we submit our wills, when we humble ourselves and obey His Word. Every time we think we have a better idea, or for some reason simply ignore His Word, we just may be stopping God from doing something amazing.

They did everything God commanded through Moses. I think if we, if the Church stopped telling God what He ought to be doing, or tweaking the Word to say what we want it to say, and simply obeyed what He commands through His written Word, we would see miracles. We would see people come to Jesus. We would see lives changed, starting with our own.

Let’s open our Bibles and let God tell us His will. Let Him tell us what to do, where to go, when to go and what to say. Let’s do everything that God commands.

Then hold onto your hats. It will be miraculous.

The Fabric of My Life

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Leviticus 11-13

I learned something today. The CSB uses the words, “warp,” and “weft” and I don’t remember hearing those words before. Google tells me they refer to the woven threads in fabric. One is the horizontal threads, the other the verticals ones. (The NIV uses the words “one side or the other.” The ESV says “warp and woof.” Whatever. It all speaks to me today.)

If there was a question about mold or disease on a piece of fabric, the priest evidently examined it closely enough to consider each thread. Sometimes a good washing took care of the problem Sometimes a diseased patch had to be cut from the rest of the cloth and destroyed. Sometimes the whole garment had to be burned. (lots of spiritual imagery there if you think about it).

But what occurred to me is that the spot in question was not ignored, dismissed, or pushed aside to be addressed at a later date, no matter how simple or drastic the treatment it required.

Looking at these chapters as a picture of Jesus helps me appreciate the cross even more. I can be assured that when Jesus examines my heart He doesn’t do a quick look-over. He carefully touches every thread in the fabric of my life, and deals with the microscopic disease of sin that, if left there would grow and contaminate my life.

Jesus absolutely took care of my “big” sins there on the cross. But He also dug deeper and died for the unclean thought, the unclean attitude, the little shift away from His Holiness. Now, when I am convicted at the first sign of disease, I can repent and know God forgives and cleanses me before that thought or attitude or shift begins to grow.

I thank God for a conscience, for conviction that addresses the uncleanness of the warp and weft in the fabric of my life. Those are signs of God’s loving, gentle. and personal care of my life to save me from a world of hurt later on if those things are left untreated.

May I – may you – allow God to cleanse us at the first sign of sin. The disease of sin is never stagnate. It either spreads left unchecked, or it is stopped by God’s hand. One leads to contamination. The other to holiness.

Let’s choose holiness.