by Shannon Tillman | May 22, 2024 | Thoughts
When I was around twelve, I recall meeting a beautiful older woman in an airport. Somehow, we began discussing ballet. She asked me questions about dance and I shared about my newly acquired pointe shoes and my love of ballet. I recall her as being so elegant and gracious in speech. Months later, I opened a book from school and recognized the picture as the lady from the airport. She was a prima donna ballerina! I had no idea that I was speaking to a woman internationally known for ballet. She had talked to a shy, awkward youth about her love for dance without having to share about her accomplishments. (Of course, I kind of wish she had, then I would have asked for her autograph. But then she would not serve as the excellent example for this blog post!)
Humility is a beautiful quality that truly is astounding to see. We live in a culture that enjoys showing off. When humility is shown, it stands against the world demanding to be seen, heard, and recognized. Often, the ones who deserve accolades make themselves more endearing by not believing they should be honored. Moses gives an amazing portrait in humility in the midst of experiencing a spiritual miracle that no one else had ever seen.
Exodus 34:29-33
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.
Moses had the honor of talking to the Lord, face to face, like talking to a friend. These encounters with God caused him to shine, to reflect the glory from being in the divine presence. His countenance was so brilliant that an entire nation attempted to run away from him! Yet, Moses called to them to share the message he had received from God for Israel.
Moses allowed the shining of his face to confirm the word of the Lord to the people. However, Moses refused to allow the shine to confirm his own words, to give false authority to anything he might speak. In other words, Moses did not use the shine to manipulate or control others. Only when he knew the word was directly from God would he allow his brilliant face to show.
I marvel at this because I have seen the opposite so many times. I witnessed “church leaders” use their words as manipulation tools. These men expressed their opinions and frustrations but added their own version of “thus sayeth the Lord.” I recall one “church leader” that would use social media as a weapon against anyone who dared to challenge him. He would spiritualize his agenda, but it was a façade for his own pride. Yet, Moses who had a physical manifestation of the glory of God refused to use the words or ways of the Lord to bolster his own agendas, opinions, or thoughts. How many of us would let the shine be used to make others cater to our own opinions? “I have the shine of God on me, what do you have?” Instead, Moses would remove the veil when speaking on behalf of God, and then put the veil on the rest of the time so it would not be confused as what was of God and what was not.
Moses was willing to be inconvenienced by the veil. It would have muffled his regular speech, been a barrier in eating, irritated his face, and looked awkward in appearance. Yet, he would not let the shine confirm him as a person but only confirm the word of the Lord. He was willing to be uncomfortable in order to distinguish between the words of God and the words of Moses. He wanted to ensure that only God would receive the glory for the words during the “shine”.
Exodus 34: 34-35
But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.
The manifestations of God in our lives are to confirm the Lord to others, not to edify ourselves. We must inconvenience ourselves to guard the glory. What if Moses said a harsh word as the shine was fading on his face? Imagine the pain and the confusion that would have caused others! It was as if Moses was saying “these unveiled moments are of God, but sometimes the veiled moments are just me. So don’t confuse the words of God coming through a man to the words coming through a man used by God but at times fails.”
May we all show the humility of Moses with our words. Let the words of God shine brilliantly and let our words simply fade away.
by Shannon Tillman | May 15, 2024 | Thoughts
My mom enjoys science fiction. She used to watch episodes of the TV show “Star Trek”. When an enemy vessel would approach, the captain would say “shields up” and some sort of force field would be employed to protect the ship.
I had difficulty even writing that paragraph because I am not a sci-fi fan. I prefer a biography any day. I love learning about people and events. However, there are some passages in the Bible that feel more like a sci-fi movie than historical fact. Truth is stranger than fiction.
In the book of Exodus, the ten plagues ravaged Egypt. Pharoah refused to let the Israelites leave the country so the Lord allowed plague after plague to hit the nation. In the first six plagues the people experienced water turning to blood, frogs invading the land, gnats swarming around, flies covering everything, livestock dying, and skin boils causing extreme pain to the people. The seventh plague sent to Egypt was hail.
Exodus 9:22-26
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt—on people and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt.” When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields—both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.
This was a storm of enormous proportions. The hail killed both animals and people in the fields. Miraculously, in the plague of hail, Moses and Aaron traveled freely to Pharoah without suffering any harm.
Exodus 9:27-29
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t have to stay any longer.” Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.
Moses and Aaron walked out of a city ravished by hail without a problem. I imagine huge hailstones falling within feet of them but they could walk in the confidence of God’s protection. It was as if the Captain of the Universe said “shields up” and Moses and Aaron were completely covered. Moses and Aaron walked in faith of God’s care for them.
When we are in God’s will, He protects us. Even in judgment against a nation, the Lord can provide supernatural covering over us. This covering provided another testimony to the people of Egypt. They saw Aaron and Moses walking through the land unharmed. Animals and people outside had died, but not these two men. It clearly proved the message that the Lord was the true God, while the gods of Egypt were nothing and could not provide security or help.
When others see how God cares for us even during difficult times, we will be able to share with them our testimonies of the Lord’s protection and rescue during our lives. We can walk through the storm without harm. We may see the lightning, feel the wind and rain, but what could knock us over or take us out is not allowed to come near us. God is our shield in the storm. We can trust Him not only to walk us through, but also to pray for others in their storms, just as Moses did.
Exodus 9:29
Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.
Our safety in the midst of the storm allows us to pray for others in the storm so that the Lord is glorified. He protects, rescues, and delivers us from the storms, even ones we ourselves have caused. Whatever storm you are in, trust the Lord to guide you safely through. Shields up!
by Shannon Tillman | May 8, 2024 | Thoughts
My family does not like it when I am in control of the remote control. I always pick a biography to watch. I enjoy learning about the lives of others. I am inspired by how people persevered in their difficulties and chose to make a difference despite the obstacles. I cry during the stories while the family waits for a moment to wrestle the remote control from me.
Recently, when I had the remote, I picked a documentary on Charles Wesley. Charles lived in England during the 1700s. He was a clergyman, hymn writer, poet. He and his brother, John Wesley, began the Methodist movement. Charles wrote close to 9,000 hymns over a course of fifty years. They said he averaged around ten poetic lines a day to accomplish this feat.
The documentary was broken into segments, one being the hymns, others being topics such as early life, education, conversion, family, etc. However, I believed that separating the hymn accomplishment was a disservice to Charles Wesley. Because when you put the poems next to his life, it is even more of a marvel to realize he wrote ten lines a day.
Charles was married to Sarah Gwynne. They had eight children together. However, five of their children died and never reached adulthood. Charles wrote ten lines of Christian poetry a day. The documentary stated that their children that did live did not share the same faith and one lived in rebellion. Yet, Charles wrote songs to the Lord, ten lines, every day. While preaching, Charles was often barred from pulpits, despised by many church leaders. Yet, he wrote ten lines of a hymn daily. He was attacked by mobs while preaching in open fields and had objects and mud thrown at him. Charles wrote his ten lines of poetry. His brother and he had heated arguments and painful separations. Charles still penned his ten lines of praise. He dealt with serious illness. Somehow, the ten lines were written each day. His wife almost died of smallpox, which did take the life of one of his sons, and she was scarred horribly by the disease. And Charles wrote his ten lines each day.
In the midst of pain, Charles wrote hymns of praise, or sorrow, of searching out God’s heart. That is his true legacy. He pressed into the heart of God in the pain instead of closing off the Lord because of his difficulties. Around the world, his songs are song hundreds of years after they are written. The one that would be most recognized today would be “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. He wrote these hymns, line by line, day by day despite his losses and pain.
We all suffer difficulties. We choose our response. We may not be writers, poets, hymn writers. But each day we can choose our “ten lines” of praise. Maybe it is prayer, a song, a psalm, a Scripture, or a quiet commitment to trust God in the heartaches of life. Charles Wesley is an example of this to us.
That is the reason why I believe I should have the remote control more often! We can learn and apply spiritual lessons from those who have gone before us. Give me the remote!
by Shannon Tillman | May 1, 2024 | Thoughts
I often return to the bible passage in John 4, the meeting of Jesus with a Samaritan woman. There is so much in these verses that are life changing. In this post, I want to focus on one sliver of the spiritual riches given in this encounter.
John 4:16-19
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.
Jesus lets the woman know that He knows the secret, the disgrace, the shame, the sin, the issue. Jesus already knew. But He wants her to know that He knows. She takes the revelation as proof that He is a prophet, which He is. Yet, I wonder if His revelation was a set-up for a later part of the conversation.
John 4:25-26
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Jesus revealed to a woman, a Samaritan woman (Samaritans were considered less-than by the Jews), a woman living in sin, a woman with a shameful past, that He is the Messiah. He does not tell anyone else this amazing truth. He picked the most outcast of society to declare that He was the long-awaited Messiah, the One whom the world has waited upon for thousands of years. The disciples were not told this. The crowds never received this verbal affirmation of His title. But this woman heard the word first-hand.
I believe Jesus told her that He knew her past and current shame and sin so that she would know that He reveals Himself despite ourselves. She could never think “If He only knew the real me, He would never have told me that He was the Messiah. He probably wouldn’t have even spoken to me.” Instead, she knew that He knew and still revealed who He is to her. Amazing! Jesus wanted to make it clear that He was declaring the message that the world had been waiting on since the fall of Adam and Eve to a woman with a shady past and sinful present. Jesus knows and still reveals the mysteries of heaven to unworthy vessels.
Jesus knows. He knows our failures, our sins, our issues, our wasted time, our neglected dreams, our…. All the things that come to our heads and bring shame to our hearts, He knows. And He still wants to have a conversation with us. And He still wants to share the mysteries of heaven with us. And He still tells us things that others may never have heard first-hand. Jesus the Messiah, loves us and shares who He is with us. May we marvel at His heart toward us!
