Month: August 2024

So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. Numbers 21:9 There was a time in my life when the faith I practiced was simply a belief in my head. I knew God existed. I believed in…
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Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly . . . Numbers 20:10-11 Occasionally,…
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But on the next day all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the LORD.” Numbers 16:41 Recently, I sat listening, as a man addicted to stimulants told me an all-too-familiar story. He’d been depressed his whole life and just wanted to…
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And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” Numbers 16:20 Back when I drank, I enjoyed ice fishing. Or, rather, I should say that I enjoyed the environment of ice fishing. My wife never came out to the fish…
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And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. Numbers 15:39 I didn’t get addicted to opioids on purpose. I didn’t start out planning…
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While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. Numbers 15:32 To pay the bills in college, I waited tables at an Italian restaurant where we served wine, poured from a box kept back in the cooler. I remember the first time I poured myself…
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If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. Numbers 15:27 My first exposure to opioids came in my fourth year of medical school after a surgery to remove a thyroid cancer. Postoperatively, I got a prescription for opioid pain pills and immediately fell in love…
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Do not go up, for the LORD is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. Numbers 14:42 When my addiction came to light and I lost my job, my wife was understandably hurt and angry. I’d shattered her trust in me, robbed her any sense of security she ever had, and…
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And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. Numbers 14:33 I wrote yesterday about the pain we inflict upon ourselves in following our own way instead of God’s. Sin, by definition, is doing that which…
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None of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. Numbers 14:22-23 There was a…
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