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In our bedroom is a small wooden container – built as an art piece in the 1980’s.

We are calling this our ark of the covenant.  Inside are now pictures of our wedding, the marriage certificate and other items that relate to our covenant of marriage.

One day in the not too distant future our children and grandchildren will be around.  We’ll ask them if they want to see the ark of the covenant.  We’ll have to explain that this is not the ten commandments – and Moses is not about to appear.

But God is there.  In the details – that work out as reality in our daily lives.

Come over some day!

See the ark of the covenant!

Within my sphere are various groups of people I love.

One of those groups is housed in an active living seniors complex called “Caleb Village”.  Not only do they find their house there, they have great meals and tea times and social events.  Some of which I get in on every  once in a while.

One of my privileges is to do a devotional time there in a rotation with other pastors.  Recently I ventured over and talked about Gazing on God (a theme I seem to keep returning to!).

Now, if you were to close your eyes and gaze, what would you see?

Here are some of their answers:

• Arms open
• Disappointed with the way our world is going
• Smiling – happy we are there
• Jesus sits on God’s right hand
• Inviting the heavy laden
• Welcome, my child

Not a bad list!  What else would you list?

I ran across some interesting statistics.

In the online world, people look up and share Bible verses.  The presumption is that these verses are close to the heart, and worth passing along.

I primarily use two online portals for finding Bible verses.  One is www.Biblegateway.com and the other is www.youversion.com.   Both have different translations and quick lookups. 

In 2013, there were more than 456 million visits to the Bible Gateway site, with visitors spending more than 76 million hours on the site.  When I watch people with their smartphones looking up verses during a church service, they are mostly using youversion.com.  Our youth began using this site a few years ago for their Sunday School class!

On Bible Gateway, here are the top three searches for Bible verses:  John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11 and Philippians 4:13.  One on salvation and two on living lives of hope and victory.  On YouVersion, people shared verses, with Psalm 118:24 at No. 1 (This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.).  John 3:16 didn’t even make it into the top ten shared verses.

I wonder how our life circumstances affect the verses we read?  Joshua 1:9 (strong and courageous) made it into both lists.  Are we finding that the world around us squeezes us so much that we need assurance we won’t be flattened?  Are we more interested in ourselves than in verses that gaze on who God is?  I wonder how often we would look up Genesis 17:1 type of verses? 

I am El Shaddai – God Almighty.  Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life!

I was sitting with some pastors when one of them said:

There is a difference between calling and sending

Now, I’ve always matched those two words together.  As a pastor I have sensed that God has called me, which means I am sent to do something.  And when I am sent, I had better have had someone tell where to go!

The conversation continued:

We are called to be.  We are sent to do. 

When the disciples were called, Jesus just asked them to be with Him.  All they had to do was spend time with Jesus.  We need to develop the disciplines needed to fulfil that calling.  Things like meditation, scripture reading, quiet, waiting, patience, fellowship.  Anything that let’s us be with Jesus.

When the disciples were sent, they were given direction.  As the Father has sent me, so send I you.  Out of the clarity of direction that God gave to Jesus, we need to find clarity in what we do.  Clarity makes uniqueness undeniable, direction unquestionable, work more meaningful, focus more sustainable, leadership credible, the future approachable and enthusiasm transferable.

Calling and sending – two different but intertwined words!