Okay. Show of hands. How many of you derive a secret

I’ll confess, I do that most of the time as well. There are

Tracking the “Begats”

Why did God make sure these genealogies survived in

Maybe this inventory of names, so carefully preserved down

As soon as sin marred the Garden of Eden, God promised Adam

Well, that got all the begetting started. Adam begat Cain

Soon Seth begat Enosh who begat Canaan who begat some more

Then, all the begetting stops.

Jesus gave birth to no children in the natural. Yet Paul

He reaches out his hand to us from his place in the

It may feel odd to think of merging our bloodlines with his,

He knows both the beautiful and the ugly in our genealogy.

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#TerryMurphy, #TMurphyWrites, #Begats, #Biblegenealogy

Today we’re going to look at a story in 2 Chronicles 22-24 that I think vividly demonstrates the power of a mentor. It proves we don’t have to have fancy credentials or be high in some government pecking order to make a significant difference in the world.

The books of Chronicles are all about King David and the sons who reigned after him. David’s kingdom eventually split in two, becoming Israel in the north and Judah in the south. After that, the books of Chronicles dissolve into a series of good king/bad king stories.

Israel was notorious for producing nastier kings than Judah for the most part. One of the worst was the great King Ahab (husband of Jezebel). His bad influence drifted south with his sister Athaliah when she married a king in Judah named Jehoram.

The Power of a Mentor for Evil

The son of this marriage was Ahaziah who ruled in Judah briefly after his father died. He had apparently taken naughty lessons from his mother because he proved to be particularly bad. Mercifully for the kingdom of Judah, he was assassinated in short order. Not so mercifully, his momma, Athaliah, used the opportunity to make her own power grab. She swept through the family killing any remaining heirs to the throne she could find.

Things looked bad for Judah, but God had a couple aces up His sleeve. Dead King Ahaziah had a sister. She had no claim to the throne, but she and her husband (a priest by the name of Jehoiada) rescued one of Ahaziah’s babies from Grandma’s purge. They took little Joash into hiding and raised him in secret.

The Power of a Mentor for Good

When Joash turned seven, Uncle Jehoiada organized a conspiracy, set the boy on the throne, and got rid of his crazy grandma.

Jehoiada spent the rest of his life standing at King Joash’s side. The one great legacy of Joash’s reign was restoring Solomon’s temple (previously desecrated by earlier bad kings) and putting it back in service. The only reason he accomplished this was because of his faithful Uncle Jehoiada’s influence. As long as the priest lived – and he lived 130 years – King Joash did what was pleasing to the Lord and the whole nation reaped the benefits.

Sadly, as soon as his uncle died, King Joash went bad, but I think that proves my point. The real hero of the story in 2 Chronicles 22-24 wasn’t the king, but his mentor. The strongest power for good in the land for all those years wasn’t the king who got the credit, but the mentor who took him under his wing.

A Testimony for the Power of Mentorship

Jehoiada’s example should be an encouragement for each of us.

It’s probably more important than we realize to faithfully execute our duty as mentors–whether by counsel, advice, support, or example. Who knows what good our influence might do? As with the story of Jehoiada and Joash, there may be a whole world of people who will be grateful for the mentorship we provided.

Who do you influence? Is there a friend, a family member, a co-worker, a neighbor who looks to you for guidance and encouragement? How can you better administrate the gift of mentorship God has placed in your hand?

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Want to learn more about the tabernacle? Check out my devotional, A Place for Me in God's Tent

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#Mentor, #Mentorship, #Influence

 Welcome to Scripture to Go. I hope you'll take a moment to pause with me just long enough to taste and see how good the Lord is. Hi, I'm Terry Murphy.

Today we're going to start in Exodus 30 where we find two recipes that produced fragrance in the inner rooms of the Tabernacle. One was for the holy incense burning on the golden altar. The other drifted into the holy place with the anointing oil that permeated the clothing of the high priest and his sons.

So let's start with the four spices on the incense altar. These were stacte (stack-tee), onycha (on-ee-ka), galbanum (gal-bah-num), and pure frankincense. Now, for some of you, these are household words. Your old factory memory is already producing its effect. The rest of us are going to have to work a bit to imagine what they might have smelled like.

So let's start with stacte. This spice probably came from a styrax plant--what some of us might recognize as a snowball or snowball bush. Its white spring flowers smell something like orange blossoms.

Scholars differ on the true source of the second spice, but most agree onycha came from the resin of a rock rose. This tough evergreen ground cover has aromatic leaves that add a musky, almost medicinal smell to the incense.

The third ingredient, galbanum, comes from the same plant family as parsley, fennel, or carrots. It exudes a strong green aroma (think crushed pine needles or snapped green peas).

Finally comes frankincense, collected as tears dripping from the slashed bark of the Boswellia tree, it offers an earthy balsamic aroma that is at once soft, sweet, and citrusy.

These were burned together in only one place--atop the golden altar of incense directly in front of the Holy of Holies. Though the smoke of the incense is often associated with prayer, you might say it also represents the presence of God in fragrance form.

Rich, sweet, healing, homey, comforting, calm. It was an aroma found only where God and man had sweet communion.

Once upon a time, only Levitical priests could enjoy the pleasing scent. Today, Jesus has taken Aaron's place as the great high priest and we have become sons and daughters in the same order of Melchizidek in which he serves, and we too have access to the fragrance of his presence whenever we serve at his incense altar.

Think of this, whenever you go to him in prayer. A heady fragrance awaits you there, whether you can physically smell it or not. His balm is there, his sweetness, the welcoming scent of home, the promise of comfort and healing are in the air.

Knowing he prepares this sweet place of welcome to us. Why wouldn't we then come boldly to his throne of grace.

Mercy and grace? They await us in the smoke.

Thanks for joining me on scripture to Go. I hope today's snack helped you taste and see that the Lord is good. Be sure to click on the follow button so you know when next week's table is spread with more to Nilan. If you get hungry in the meantime, slip on over to my [email protected] to read my latest post and subscribe to my blog.

Bye for now.

Check out my blog at tmurphywrites.com

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Want to learn more about the tabernacle? Check out my devotional, A Place for Me in God's Tent

Thanks to Dreamr Productions for my theme music.

This month, we've been contemplating the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. In episode four, we looked behind the veil into the Holy of Holies. In episode five, we checked out the innermost lining of the tent with its embroidered angels flying overhead. Today we're looking for light in the tabernacle, because linen wasn't the only fabric making up the tent.

Dark goat hair curtains covered the linen and great slabs of red leather lay over the goat hair. All these layers muffled the noise of everyday life and made the rooms private and quiet, but they also made it dark. If God and man were going to have a conversation in here, it would be nice if both parties could see each other.

Now, God wasn't going to have any trouble spotting the human in the room. Darkness and light are the same to him as it says in Psalm 139:12. The other member of this tête-à-tête, on the other hand, was going to need a little bit of help.

No amount of sunlight was going to penetrate all the leather camel hair, and linen. So God appointed a lampstand to keep his conversation mate from groping about in the dark. He had the light made of a single piece of pure gold hammered into the shape of an almond tree, complete with buds and flowers and nuts.

The central trunk held up three branches on its left and three more on its right. The tip of each branch was equipped with a small clay lamp filled with oil and supplied with a linen wick.

This was the Menorah. Menorah. Can you feel your breath flow out as you say it?

Breath of God. Light of God.

This lamp was so special, no ordinary fire would light it. It required a flame from a supernatural source. The priests would step outside the tent to retrieve a burning ember from the fire on the brazen altar. Only flames from the holy sacrifice would bring the lamp stand to life.

You know, our hearts can be so like the dark tent without the menorah. No amount of natural light or understanding can penetrate our soul to reveal who we are, where we are, why we are. So, Jesus died as the holiest of sacrifices and sent the light of his Holy Spirit to breathe on our hearts and drive the darkness away.

As this new year gets rolling, let's ask the Holy Spirit to blow his supernatural light into our innermost being. Only then will we see the path for our feet, the purpose for our lives, and the way we should go.

I hope today's snack helped you taste and see that the Lord is. Be sure to click on the follow button so you know when next week's table is spread with more to nibble on. Meanwhile, if you're in need of a heartier meal, slip on over to my website at tmurphywrites.com to read my latest post and subscribe to my blog.

Bye for now.

Want to learn more about the tabernacle? Check out my devotional, A Place for Me in God's Tent.

Check out my blog at tmurphywrites.com or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

Thanks to Dreamr Productions for my theme music.

#tabernacleinthewilderness, #tabernacle, #menorah, #lightofgod, #breathofgod

Welcome to "Scripture to Go." I hope you'll take a moment to pause with me just long enough to taste and see how good the Lord is. Hi, I'm Terry Murphy.

God had Moses create a framework of wood laminated in gold to support all the fabric he was going to lay over them. The first of these layers was one of linen embroidered with colorful angelic creatures. These are described in Exodus 36:8–10 in meticulous cubit-filled detail.

The numbers make reading the passage a bit dry, but if we take the time to lay everything out and compare curtain sizes with the walls, we find this decorative linen completely envelops the tent framework—over the top, across the back, and side to side—making the angels appear to be flying all across the tabernacle.

He Shall Cover You

Imagining this makes me think of Psalm 91:4. “He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge.”

Still, if we step inside the tent, the only angels in sight would be those flying directly overhead—only about a fourth of them. The rest are still there. They’re just scattered across the fabric draped outside the gold framework.

And isn’t that like life? We only see in part. We’re aware of some ways God shields us, but it’s nothing compared to the whole of his protection. If God took this kind of care to cover his fabric dwelling place, how much more will he take pains to completely enclose the tabernacle which is our heart?

Here’s how the writer of Psalm 125:2 put it. “As the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.”

Like the curtains of the tabernacle, we can know he’s there even when we don’t see him. My friends, when we dwell with God, this is where we live. Inside the folds of his tent, we don’t need to fear any tumult raging on the outside. Whether we see them or not, his everlasting arms completely surround us and we are truly safe.

Thanks for joining me on "Scripture to Go." I hope today's snack helped you taste and see that the Lord is good. Be sure to click on the follow button so you know when next week's table is spread, with more to nibble on, and if you get hungry in the meantime, slip on over to my website at tmurphywrites.com to read my latest post and subscribe to my blog.

Bye for now.

Want to learn more about the tabernacle? Check out my devotional, A Place for Me in God's Tent.

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Thanks to Dreamr Productions for my theme music.

#tabernacle, #tabernacle in the wilderness, #holy place, #Psalm 91:4, #Psalm 125:2

Inexpressible beauty lay hidden behind the veil. How could we ever hope to see it?

 Welcome to "Scripture to Go." I hope you'll take a moment to pause with me just long enough to taste and see how good the Lord is. Hi, I'm Terry Murphy. Let's go back in time today and take a peek at the Tabernacle Moses. Picture, if you will, a giant rectangular courtyard surrounded by a linen fence.

Inside the gate, a large bronze altar is burning sacrifices day and night. Behind the altar is a two-room tent. The front room is called the holy place. From the doorway, we see a large gold lamp stand to our left, and a gold table loaded with bread to our right. Between them right in front of and blocking the entrance to the next room is a small gold altar with burning incense on top.

This golden room sounds pretty nice, doesn't it? But if we had lived during Moses' time, we'd never have seen any of it. Only Levitical priests came into the holy place, and only when it was their turn to serve. But this wasn't even the most exclusive room in this tent. Behind the incense altar hung a curtain called the veil, marking the entrance to the Holy of Holies.

Here rested the glorious arc of the covenant. Not even priests could come into this room. Well, unless they were the one and only high priest, but even he could only peek in once a year.

So What?

So what does any of this mean for us today? We are not Levitical priests, much less high priests. What does the tabernacle have to do with mere mortals who lack the qualifications to go inside?

A better question might be, "If God only expected to share this space with a few special people, why did he spend so much biblical ink on describing it?" Exodus 25–40 presents the tabernacle in detail after meticulous detail, making it so tempting to just skip over giant swaths of scripture when we read.

But what if these details are included, not to bore us, but to stimulate our desire to imagine that place so clearly we begin to drool over it? To yearn, to linger in a place that only includes he and we, him and us.

I think this was the "one thing" Mary desired in Luke 10:42 when her sister Martha wanted her to leave Jesus' side for kitchen duty. It was the "one thing" David sought in Psalm 27:4—to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life and to behold his beauty. Remarkably, Hebrews 10:19–20 says, we now have access to this place we could only dream of before. The blood of Jesus purchased a new and living way into these rooms.

So next time we come across these passages, let's resist the urge to skip over them and take the time to see what's here. The Holy Spirit just might take the opportunity to lure us even deeper and show us even more of his beauty.

Thanks for joining me on "Scripture to Go." I hope today's snack helped you taste and see that the Lord is good. Be sure to click on the follow button so you know when next week's table is spread, with more to nibble on, and if you get hungry in the meantime, slip on over to my website at tmurphywrites.com to read my latest post and subscribe to my blog.

Bye for now.

Want to learn more about the tabernacle? Check out my devotional, A Place for Me in God's Tent.

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Thanks to Dreamr Productions for my theme music.

#tabernacle, #tabernacle in the wilderness, #holy place, #Holy of Holies, #veil to the holy of holies

What are you waiting for this Christmas? Can you mark it on your calendar or does it only have a due date right now?

Welcome to “Scripture to Go.”

I hope you'll take a moment to pause with me just long enough to taste and see how good the Lord is.

Hi, I'm Terry Murphy.

So, are you old enough to remember the Heinz ketchup commercial—the one that uses Carly Simon's song “Anticipation”?

Before the age of squeeze bottles, ketchup consumers knew the virtue of patience. To get the sluggish condiment to emerge from a glass jar, you had to tip the bottle just so, to allow a little bit of air to ease behind the ketchup and release it. The not-so-patient method was to give the bottle a good whack on the bottom. Of course, this might result in a slop of red lava on your clothes instead of your hamburger, but that was the price of success.

Christmas anticipation offers similar challenges. We see it coming inside the “glass jar” of our calendar. More than anything, we'd love to give it a good rap on the behind to make it move faster. But this is nothing compared to the suspense of the first Christmas.

In the annals of waiting, nothing—not sluggish, ketchup, or slow days on a calendar—outstrips the anticipation of the birth of a child. This was Mary's experience. Today we have Jesus' birthday marked on a calendar, but for her, the due date was still a mystery.

Christmas continues to arrive two different ways for us. Some happens on schedule. We know when the family is on the way or when we're headed out to meet them. But other advents promise less predictable due dates.

For example, have you had a new idea stir in your belly, like an unborn baby waiting for the light of day? Then you've known Mary's uncomfortable ride to Bethlehem. Uncertain how much more you can stretch to contain the promise. You grow increasingly uncomfortable with each sway of the donkey's back.

Whatever we're anticipating this season—whether we know its arrival time or only have a due date—we can lean on the author and finisher of our Christmas story. He is tipping the calendar and his promise is flowing more predictably than ketchup toward the opening.

And we can wait for it joyfully because, as it says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, God will make everything beautiful, in its time.

Thanks for joining me on "Scripture to Go." I hope today's snack helped you taste and see that the Lord is good. Be sure to click on the follow button so you know when next week's table is spread with more to nibble on. If you get hungry in the meantime, slip on over to my website, at tmurphywrites.com to read my latest post and subscribe to my blog.

Bye for now!

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Thanks to Dreamr Productions for my theme music.

Whatever the history of Christmas Trees, their evergreen nature makes them fitting heralds for the reappearance of the Tree of Life.

You know, Christmas as a holiday has some hazy history. It wasn’t even a “thing” to celebrate until somewhere in the mid-300s AD according to Wikipedia.

The date of Jesus’ birth, and when, or even if, we should recognize the event has long been the subject of controversy. No place in Scripture do we find God asking us to observe Messiah’s beginning moments as a particular holy day. There have even been times and places where the celebration of Christmas has been banned for being papist, for having too many similarities to pagan rituals, or for engendering entirely too much gluttony, drunkenness, and frivolous behavior.

Whatever its background, Christmas celebrations have initiated some fun traditions—evergreens in our living rooms being one of them. Now, I know the Christmas tree has its own controversial background, but it also carries some pretty fun spiritual symbolism we can appreciate.

Trees are first mentioned in Genesis with the creation story. That tree of life in the Garden of Eden, held such promise for mankind. But we were cut off from it before the third chapter of Genesis was over. Fortunately, it makes another appearance at the end of the book in Revelation 22:2 bearing twelve kinds of fruit and healing leaves.

In between the beginning and the end, the tree often resurfaces in Scripture as a symbol of Jesus hanging on the cross to restore our access to life itself. He is described as a shoot from the root of Jesse, the Branch of righteousness from David’s line who hung on a tree with transgressors so that we might have life.

Whatever its background, the Christmas tree is a good reminder of Christ. The use of ever-greens for this purpose more significantly represents the ever-living tree in Revelation that offers its fruit and healing all year long.

As we decorate our evergreens this season, let’s remember the one who truly lives forever. May these dressed-up pines and spruces honor the tree of life who not only begins but ends our Christmas story.

Thanks for joining me on "Scripture to Go." I hope today's snack helped you taste and see that the Lord is good. Be sure to click on the follow button so you know when next week's table is spread with more to nibble on. If you get hungry in the meantime, slip on over to my website, at tmurphywrites.com to read my latest post and subscribe to my blog.

Check out my blog at tmurphywrites.com

or follow me on Facebook

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Thanks to Dreamr Productions for my theme music.

There's nothing like fresh-baked bread at Christmas. And no wonder. Bread is part of what Christmas is about! Listen to see why.

Welcome to “Scripture to Go.” I hope you'll take a moment to pause with me just long enough to taste and see how good the Lord is.

Hi, I'm Terry Murphy.

Hey, guess what? It's December already. The month of acceleration of activities and preparations. So, let's take a moment to take in the fragrance of the kind of bread that provides energy without calories.

One of my favorite parts of preparing for Christmas is fixing all sorts of homemade breads for the season. There's nothing like pulling and stretching on dough until its gluten starts screaming for mercy. And nothing says home to me like the welcoming fragrance of bread baking in the oven.

It's really quite biblical, you see because part of the original Christmas had something to do with preparing bread.

You probably know the story. Joseph and his very pregnant wife, Mary, made their way to the family homeland to take part in a census. Their destination was Bethlehem. In Hebrew, Beth-le-hem means house of bread. Once there, Mary gave birth to her son, Jesus. Draping him in cloth, as we might with dough preparing to rise, she laid her little loaf in a feeding trough called a manger.

One day he would rise into a full-sized man and declare in John 6:35 that he was the Bread of Life. Feeding on the substance he provided would so satisfy people they'd no longer hunger for a lesser bread. Jesus even dared to equate himself with the manna that dropped down from heaven to feed the Israelites in the wilderness so long ago.

Deuteronomy 8:3 said of that manna, that it came to let God's people know that natural bread would never be enough to sustain them. They needed the supernatural nourishment that came from every breath, every word, proceeding from the mouth of the Lord. Distilling from heaven like dew on the grass, this man was the spirit of the Son of God taking on flesh at the last supper.

This self-proclaimed Bread of Life would rise at the table and lift up the Passover bread. Blessing it, he passed it on to his disciples saying, “Take. Eat. This is my body broken for you.”

So, if any of your preparations for Christmas include making bread, think of Jesus as you mix and knead and wait for it to rise.

Let its fragrance in the oven remind you of the gift of bread—the manna from heaven laid down in a manger in Bethlehem. Inhale his goodness and exhale your gratitude for the loaf that ever satisfies.

Thanks for joining me on scripture to go. I hope today's snack helped you taste and see that the Lord is good.

Be sure to click on the follow button so you know when next week's table is spread with more to nibble on. Meanwhile, if you're in need of a heartier meal, slip on over to my website, at tmurphywrites.com to read my latest post and subscribe to my blog.

Bye for now.

Check out my blog at tmurphywrites.com

or follow me on Facebook

or Twitter.

Thanks to Dreamr Productions for my theme music.