” So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force (strength) abated.” DEUTERONOMY 34: 5-7 

This was essentially the point when the Lord allowed Moses to view the promised land but not actually enter it due to the disobedience by him and Arron in hitting the rock to bring forth water rather than speaking to it.

As he had been commanded because it was a display of unbelief and God was in the process of building faith in the Hebrews to realize that he works in the realm of impossibility and that through belief in his power, his power can allow water to flood from a rock simply by speaking to that rock under the command of God.

What I actually wanted to get into with this story is that Moses was one-hundred and twenty years old, and the Bible tells us that he still had his normal body strength and good vision, but it was time for him to go home, for a while anyway.

He appeared on Mount Olives with Elias at the transfiguration of Jesus (MATTHEW 17:1-3) I personally believe that he is one of the two witnesses spoken of in Revelation 11: 3-14

But just so you dig me, dude was old but in good shape, he was eighty when he received his calling, kinda like Abram from our last post.

Did anyone happen to catch the new movie “The Last Rodeo”? If you didn’t, check it out if you have a chance.

First movie I had went to in years. I happened upon an interview with Neal McDonough, loved him for years, always played a bad guy in action movies, scary, but not at scary as Clancy Brown in “Highlander”, (something about a hysterically laughing psycho with safety pins holding his neck together just gives a person the willies)

I discovered Mr. McDonough is a believer when he hosted Mormon Tabernacle Christmas a few years back. It just isn’t the holidays without the annual Mormon Tabernacle grand finale of ‘Angels from the Realms of Glory’.

Kinda rambling there! 

In the interview on CBN he talked about the movie, how the idea came and really got detailed about his life, career, and fall of it all.

He had refused to do kissing scenes and sex scenes in his work; he is Catholic and chose to honor his beliefs that he should only kiss his wife and that decision led to him being blacklisted, costing him his career, and his house, and his car, and sent him into a battle with the bottle.

I respect honesty and anyone willing to admit struggles and I really respect anyone who stands for what they believe. And honestly how many marriages in the film industry have been destroyed by co-stars who went past the line of the fabled screen-kiss.

A kiss really is a kiss and being up that close and personal with someone is a really good way to fall into temptation. MS Sheridan in particular, a well-known actress, probably sex-symbol status would be temptation many men could not endure, not to mention other actresses that he refused to be in that situation with.

JAMES 1:13-15: ” Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither he tempteth any man: But every man (person) is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 

Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin bringeth forth death.”

It’s our responsibility to not play with fire and more to the point, if anyone is tempted by another, look past that person and see the fire of hell that is truly behind it and of course there is forgiveness for stepping out.

God is merciful, gracious, and forgiving but the damage done to relationships will never be worth it and the price so much higher than one would ever expect to pay.

We watch out for such things and God takes care of the rest:

1 CORINTHIANS 10:13: ” There hath no temptation taken you but such as common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to (allow you to) be tempted above which you are able (tested beyond what you can bear), but with the temptation also will make a way of escape.”

Now to be crystal clear, I am not saying all that he ever stated that this was his reason, he just stated his beliefs, but I wanted to point out why it is the right decision and one well work supporting.

It’s classic underdog movie also and we are all underdogs at some point in our lives especially as we age, which is what this post was supposed to be about but sometimes “sermons” go in a different direction, so we’ll consider it two, how to deal with temptation and all about getting older.

The funny thing about aging is that we never feel our age inside.

Our bodies like to remind us that we can’t always physically do the things we once did, but with every flip of that calendar we realize that we are still just us. I have to come to believe this is because our souls are agelessly eternal.

We grow and change in many ways but our core being is who we always were and forever will be.

Which explains the horror of waking up one day with the realization that those double digits are now well past half of a century and wondering, quite bewilderedly, where did all that time go?

Immediately, for most of us, that those thoughts are followed by a list of the things we had planned to do, and the business of life constantly pushed those plans forward, so forward that we have discovered those opportunities are long passed.

Thinking back over our lives and remembering all the stages and all the changes, me and my best friend have discussed all these things in great depth.

My life began when we met, as a child I had four brothers, my only sister married when I was six, so spending summer vacations, as both our parents worked, with boys really didn’t give me anyone to do girl stuff with, gave me a lot of others though, toughens you up, as far as willingness to  smack someone in the head with a foreign object if need be, and  the ability to speak fluent dude.

Not so much in the area of the need for girl talk and someone who actually liked lip gloss and nail polish and pop stars, or someone could understand why my furry boots with pom-poms were fabulous.

We met through the marriage of our siblings when we were eleven, we were inseparable, looking back I don’t know how our siblings stood us, they were newlyweds, with two preteens at their house almost every single day, never a moment alone.

We had so much fun and so many adventures, many with my late brother, doing things that kids today would be blessed by, playing outside until dark, playing in a creek catching minnows and crawdads, and being rescued by my brother from the occasional snake.

Some craziness, we got into the occasional mischief, there was no internet, no cell phones, no caller id, which was really good for us, considering we really enjoyed making prank calls.

We both kept our hair long and loved to ride in the back of a truck whenever the opportunity arose, which always led to my hair being more of a nest of tangles taking an hour to brush out and as we grew older that tangle brushing evolving into her patiently braiding for that crimped look.

Being young, there is no sense of danger and that in retrospect is horrifying, I lived literally under a dam at that time, and for some reason one day we thought the coolest thing to do would be to walk across the dam.

Now this is the dam for a town water supply, the joker is huge, and the water level was down so it was dry, but on one side is the water, (bright for one who doesn’t swim) the other side is falling to our deaths.

To us it sounded like a great idea, we did it, walked across this thing and now from time to time I have nightmares about being really high up looking over into water as far as I can see then turning to look at the horrendous drop off on the other side, I wake up and ask myself sarcastically,, just wonder what fear deep down in my psyche could have caused a dream like that.

Our moms would have killed us but thankfully they didn’t know back then.

As time does, things change and so did we, carefree creek days morphed into dating and growing up, as we often proclaimed that we could not wait to be eighteen as most kids do, we would soon find that that magic age of eighteen would bring challenges that would make us grow up far too soon.

She with motherhood and marriage, raising her babies and the normal struggle of independent life, heartaches and a man who never deserved her, she worked hard and cared for her family.

And me through trauma taking a much darker path, life changing me from that tangle headed girl that knew the lyrics to every SRYX song by heart as they were the most among our jam to a person that I no longer recognized with the self-destruct button unbeknownst to me fully pressed.

Leo Sayer, and REO Speedwagon gave way to Johnny Gill, BBD, and clubbing. My new hanging buddies were all guys with guns and at some point, the fun turns dark when your every move is met with who is he? where are you going? what are you doing? And your life is completely taken over when white knights suddenly turn black.

Fix that, rebel and just date more guys, when that plan fails, just jump into a really bad marriage, uproot, move away come back crying nine months later feeling like you had just given your life away.

Let’s add a little more self-destructive behavior, still running with those scissors, not dealing with any of the trauma issues, which went back much farther than the break-in, and have now has just been added to with the failed marriage.

Another great idea… just run faster with those scissors, destroying life, keep running from God as he sent many to offer help.

But no, I was one that I call the hard way people, God calls us, and we can take this easy way and accept salvation, or we can just go right on and be brought in the hard way.

My life had to be destroyed beyond recognition before admitting that I was never going to be able to fix myself and that no one else could fix me, God and only God if his offer still stood.

And HE DID!

New Chapter, new life and whoever I had been before, all the brokenness, and hurt, and pain was melted away by the love of a Saviour who didn’t condemn, accuse, or question my behavior. He just heard my cries and accepted me, his love changing everything about me and my life.

He truly gave me beauty for ashes and peace that I had never known and hope that my life was not over and could be beautiful, I could be whole. I no longer needed to try to outrun my pain, I could give it to him, and he could take it all away.

That was twenty-five years ago and now here we are, new lives and good husbands, we laugh about getting old, our aches and pains and the sorrows that have been many and days that are beyond tough, we do wish for eighteen again but with the wisdom we have now and a chance to do it all over again.

One day we will feel great again, in God’s eternal promised land. running and laughing, tears all gone as we see once again those precious that we have lost.

As with our last post, that is the deal, we never know what God has prewritten as the next chapter of our book, we may be struggling today but that does not mean that our freedom from that struggle is not already on the way.

Do not underestimate his power in your life, we do not know our hour of end to this life, don’t base tomorrow on what you are feeling today, growing old, going gray does mean sorrow and doom are here to stay.

Abram was seventy-five when he received his divine commission. He was one hundred and Sarah was ninety when their promised child was born.

Samson’s parents were too old to have a child, but at the word of the angel sent from God, that is exactly what happened.

John the Baptist’ Mother Elisabeth was past child-bearing age but yet again, at the word of an angel, the prophet of God from her womb came.

Moses was eighty years old when he received his commission, aging every day while dealing with Pharoah and leading his people through the desert.

Naomi had lost her husband and both of her sons when God lead her back home with Ruth to marry Boaz, their child bringing new life, and blessing Naomi with a new life.

We could discuss many more.

I hope this encourages someone today, sorry for the length, sometimes it just goes that way, it became a memoir and two sermons all in one day!

Blessings, Love & Peace till next time!

Φλογιζω NBJ 2025/ Rev N Brown Johnson