Allow Me to Introduce My Son!

      Last week, I was reading Isaiah 42, a suggested passage as we approach Advent. It was in the neighborhood of 700 years before the birth of Christ that Isaiah recorded the words God gave him, yet they clearly point to the One God would send to save the world.  As I read the passage several times over, an image began to come to mind.  I began to picture our Heavenly Father proudly standing over His Son, speaking about Him as He introduced Him to the world.  Read it like that, and see if it comes alive for you in a new way like it did for me.  Maybe hear Him speak it with a whisper so as not to  startle Jesus:

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope."

     Then the direction of the conversation changes.  Isaiah reminds who is speaking, then records God shifting from talking about His Son to speaking directly to Him:

 "This is what God the LORD says-- he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it (Again, allow yourself to hear Father speaking gently):

 "I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and  to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. "I am the LORD; that  is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."

     Next, filled with the Spirit, Isaiah breaks out in celebration worship!  Now  things get a little loud!

"Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them. Let the desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops.  Let them give glory to the LORD and proclaim his praise in the islands. The LORD will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies."  (Isaiah 42:1-13)

   As we celebrate the arrival of God's Son to the earth, may we too respond with worship, adoration, and gratitude, for having our eyes opened, for being set free, and for being brought out of the darkness into the light.  The LORD  has triumphed over our enemies!  Sing to the LORD a new song!

Don't Despair

A couple of weeks ago I was praying next to my bed, noticed it was 10:45 close to the time I needed to head to an appointment, and I looked up at my book shelf of Bible study resources. I started to feel some anxiety about returning from my sabbatical to preach again. I love to preach, but the preparation feels overwhelming to me sometimes. I agonize in prayer over what to bring, then, after all these years, I still don't have any systematic process of preparing (I like to think I'm just too spiritual for that :) ) I said, "Father, I love to hear people teach well-researched, insightful messages. Is it in me to do that?" I felt like I heard Him say, "Yeah, Tim. I've put that in you."  

Later in the day, I retrieved a voicemail from my brother in Christ, Mike Berger. He shared that he had been praying for me earlier in the day and that God had given him a word for me. He said God had been putting it on his heart over an over again all day until he finally called. Then he gave it to me verbatim: "Don't despair. I've given you the voice of angels that you may preach the word of God, with fire in your eyes, that they may know that I am God." He said that he didn't know if it would mean anything to me, but that's what he heard. After hearing the message, I thought, "That's cool." Then I listened to it again, and thought, "Wait a minute." I listened to it a third time and thought, "Whoa!" I thought back to the morning, what I was praying, and realized I really had been despairing. I called Mike to thank him for being obedient to deliver the message. He explained how he wasn't used to doing that and how much he agonized over whether or not to call. The enemy was telling him how stupid he was to think that he was hearing from God. I told him what I had been praying that morning and I asked him what time he had heard the word. He said, "I noticed the time. It was 10:45."  

Whoa. That word has really ministered to me in the last couple of weeks when I've found myself feeling inadequate compared to other ministers I've been listening to.

How awesome is it to be loved by a Father who wants so much for us to know him and wants us to know that He really is speaking to us.

Your Spiritual Journey and Mine

I  believe one way or another, our spiritual journeys look very similar to that of the Israelites as recorded in Exodus.

• In Egypt the Israelites were held captive and, although they were God's children, they lived as slaves for 430 years.   We are all created as God's children, but are born slaves to our sinful nature.
• God heard the cry of the Israelites. He sent Moses to rescue them and deliver them from slavery, taking them through the Red Sea and crushing their oppressors and enemies behind them. We cry out to God and by faith in Jesus Christ, we are rescued and delivered from slavery to sin.  We are brought through the water in baptism and God destroys our enemy's authority to rule over us ever again.
• The Israelites were led through the desert by their God and provider to the Promised Land, a place of rest and abundance.  We are invited to experience the abundant life and rest found in and made available to us through Jesus Christ's life.
• The Israelites saw the inhabitants of the promised land as giants and the challenges of occupation insurmountable.  They saw their situation through the eyes of slaves rather than through the eyes of sons and daughters of the God who saved them.  They longed for the life they had in Egypt even though they had been slaves. Although our reality is that we are saved and are co-heirs with Christ, we still do not fully walk into the Promised Land of life and abundance "in Christ."  We still are left with a slave mentality and are often drawn back to the temporal, counterfeit substitutes for true life.
• God took the Israelites back into the wilderness for 40 years where they had no choice but to trust Him as provider. The old, slave mentality was collectively destroyed as He took them through a process of renewing their minds.  The next time the Israelites were invited to occupy the Promised Land, they did exactly what their Father told them  to do, even when it made no sense to them.  We must be taken through a process where our old slave mentality is put away, where we are weaned off of trusting anything but our Father to provide for us, and where we grow in learning how, like Jesus, to rest in doing only what we see our Father doing.

How I hunger for the promised rest of the Promised Land.  I know it's available to me now, because I've gotten a taste of it.  Oh, to eat at that table every meal of every day....

What I Love

In September, I announced to my church that I was taking some time away to connect with my Father in a desire to orient myself to Him and to give Him some time to do a work in my heart.  It has been an incredible journey as I spent October with my family, preparing for Band of Brothers Weekend, and attending a retreat myself focused on uncovering the desires God has placed in my heart.  The journey has been one of peeling back layer after layer to get to the core of who I am and what my life is about.  It seems God has orchestrated so many events and conversations to take me through this process.

Here are some conclusions I have come concerning what I love, what makes me come alive:

I love seeing people who have been hurt of disenfranchised with the church come to realize that their church experience is not a reflection on their Heavenly Father.

I love to see people realize that church is not something we do, it is who we are.

I love to see people discover that God still speaks and that "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" is the daily bread that gives us life.

I love to see people connect with one another on a heart level, beyond the surface, and experience the thrill of having a "friend that is closer than brother."

I love to see people come to the knowledge that their identity is not defined by what's been done to them, spoken over them, or by their sinful responses to the lies they have believed were true.

I love to see people exchange their lives with Jesus Christ and to realize that He is their new and true identity.

I love to see people set free from what enslaves them, and to realize that they are a growing, "planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor."

I love to see people step across denominational lines and for the body of Christ to realize what binds us together.

I love to see people people realize they can call God, "Father," and not only Father, but "Abba,  Father," or Daddy.

I love to see people minister to Jesus by ministering to others, not out of duty or obligation, but out of an overflow of a ransomed, restored heart filled to the brim with Father's love.

I love seeing people praying for people on the spot, on the phone, in public places, and sometimes with their eyes open.

I love creating a safe place, a room of grace, where people can be real about their struggles, where they can realize that we are all in process and we are all in this together.

I love seeing people discover that Father is always up to something, that He is always ready to show off in any given situation, and that they are God-bringers into those situations.

I love seeing people realize that Jesus' "yoke is easy and His burden is light."

I love freely giving to others what Father has freely given to me. 

I love joining brothers and leading the charge in the battle for the hearts of men.

I love having front row seats to watch Jesus transform lives.

May the process continue, as God reveals what He has put in me and what He wants to release into the world through me....

Do You Know What I See?

Do you know what I see? What a powerful question that set's the stage for a life-altering answer!

I'm thinking this morning about a men's retreat I recently lead called Band of Brothers Weekend.  It's a passion of mine to take men through such an experience because it was a retreat like ours that was a turning point in my life.  On the drive home from that weekend,  I was blessed and blown away as I read story after story of the healing and freedom Jesus brought to the hearts of the men.  My favorite testimony included this line: "For the first time I was able to call God, 'Father.'"  It's what Jesus lived, died and was resurrected for...to reconcile us to our Father so that we may live in and be transformed by His love.

One of the things that is unique about these retreats is we use lots of movie scenes, visual stories really, to illustrate the truths we present.  On the first night, something new stood out in a scene from "Braveheart."  Braveheart is the story of William Wallace, a mythic Christ-figure who gives his life to free Scotland from British oppression.  The scene we show is the first open-field battle at Stirling.  The Scottish Nobles are backed by a rag-tag army of commoners who are overwhelmed by the size of the British army and are ready to go home.  These men are uninspired by the nobles' appeal to their self-preservation:  "Do not flee!  Wait until we've negotiated!"  Then covered in war paint, Wallace rides in and addresses the army calling them "Sons of Scotland."  He reminds them of their identity, their true strength.  (Scotland was such a stubborn country the Roman Empire gave up on overtaking them and just built a wall around them.)  He then identifies himself and conveys to them what he sees when he looks at them: "I am William Wallace, and I see a whole army of my countryman here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men and free men you are!  What will you do with that freedom?"

Have you ever considered the power of words spoken by a person of high regard?  As children, we just assume how our parents see us and the messages they convey are true about us.  And then there are teachers and coaches, pastors and bosses, not to mention peers, boyfriends and girlfriends.  I was just telling my wife Michelle the other day that I think our relationship is still affected by a message of rejection conveyed by a girl in high school that I had pined away for, for years...twenty-five years ago.  We elevate some people's voices above others.  And ultimately we all-too-often elevate the voice of a mere human over the voice of our Father and Creator.

Listen to what your true Father says about you and consider this question for each: "Does it ring true?"

You are created in my image. I planted you and redeemed you to be a display of my splendor ( Genesis 1:27/Isaiah 61:3).

Even while you are still steeped in sin, I love you enough to have made the ultimate sacrifice for you. (Romans 5:9)

I chose you even before you were born. (Ephesians 1:11)

You are my treasured possession! (Exodus 19:5)

If those phrases rang true, you are receiving them.  If they don't, what you are doing, in effect, is telling yourself that's not true about you. You are rejecting those statement and, probably unknowingly, are calling God a liar.  These statements are true, however, and they are just a sampling of what your Father and mine sees when he sees us.  What kind of love would overflow from you onto others if you saw yourself as God sees you and loved yourself as God loves you?

May this be a reminder that you have a voice in someone's life especially those who hold you in high regard.  It's your opportunity to see them with God's eyes and to convey what you see.  Words that are true and consistent with Father's voice will bring life.  Words of condemnation will bring death.  May we receive the words of life and love from our Father into our hearts and then pass them on.  May we look someone in the eye and ask, "Do you know what I see when I see you?", and then may we convey the very sentiments of God Himself.

What do I do?!!

A friend of mine was sharing the pain and fear he is experiencing as a result of the slow economy.  He is a single parent and told of how he tries to stay strong for his eight-year old son, but cries when he is alone almost daily.  Losing his house is only a couple of months away.  The vehicle has to go.  And it broke his heart to tell his son that they could no longer afford the cable bill. He so wants to be a good dad and faithful provider for his son.

Hurricanes.  Gas shortages. An economy on the brink of collapse.  Fear of terroristic attacks.  It is a very humbling time.  We are a people who are being reminded that we need God.  What are we to do in response to the crises we are facing personally and as a nation?

When Jesus was asked what He believed was the greatest commandment, He responded, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and will all your strength.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."  He then said, "All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments."  I believe he gave us the answer to every, "What do I do?" question.  "What do I do with my life?"  Love God and love others.  "What do I do if I get cancer?"  Love God and love others.  "What do I if it looks like I'm going to lose everything?"  Yes, love God and love others.

It raises the question, "Ok, how do I love God?  What does that look like?"  Think of how you love anyone.  You delight in them.  You give your heart over to them.  You devote yourself to them and their desires become your priority.  It is your joy to serve them and bless them, and you constantly want to let them know their worth in your eyes.

Communicating to God His worth to us is what we do when we worship.  Worship is more than just singing songs to God.  We are "worshiping" whenever we give our hearts and lives to something in hopes of a return of life.  Sadly, we don't always worship God, the source of life.  We erect idols in our hearts that we believe will bring us security, comfort, or pleasure.  Anything we look to for life and for our needs to be met outside of God or that which God provides is an idol.

If we want to love God with all our hearts, we have to take an honest look at our lives and identify the idols we, even as Christians, are worshiping over God.  The present crisis in our nation is exposing our idols in a powerful way.

The prophet Ezekiel brought the word of God to his children, the Israelites, when they had given themselves over to idols, and the result was to be the destruction of their nation, including the temple of God in Jerusalem.  In chapter 14, he gives the reason why. God says to Ezekiel, "Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces.  Should I let them inquire of me at all?  Therefore speak to them and tell them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says:  When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and goes to a prophet, I the LORD will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry.  I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols. Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent!  Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!" (vs. 3-5)

God, who is always, always, always, motivated by love "answers" his children's idolatry in order to recapture their hearts.  In verse 13, he speaks of his response to a nation's idolatry: "Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, even if these three men - Noah, Daniel, and Job - were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD.

It is a tragic reality that when a nation's unfaithfulness brings God's loving judgment, even the children of the most righteous in the land will not escape its effect.  Would anyone argue that our country has sinned by being unfaithful?  We've legalized the killing of unborn children. We're beginning to legally affirm same-sex marriages that only helps to keep God's children from experiencing the healing and restoration from the Fall that He longs to provide.  Our greed is ranked among the highest in the world and we are the greatest producer of immoral entertainment. And it's quite obvious that we, as a nation, have a trusted plastic cards and the banks they represent, to give us the life we think we need rather than trusting God who is life.  Ultimately though, the problem is not that the nation has been unfaithful.  What is bringing God's judgment is that we, God's children, the Christians, have been unfaithful.  We have stood silent, we have set up idols in our hearts over God, and we taken on lifestyles of sin.  We have done what anyone will do when they do not know, experientially, the love of God demonstrated on the Cross of Christ, that fills every need.

Loving God with all our hearts requires we acknowledge the idols to which we have given our hearts, and that we renounce them and every detestable practice.  "Repent" is a beautiful word as it admonishes us to reorient ourselves to God who always loves us, who is always for us, and who always is ready to give us true, abundant life.  He is perfectly faithful and committed to providing for our needs, spiritually, physically, and emotionally.  The present crises is not a time for panic.  It is a time to be grateful to God for doing whatever is necessary to turn our hearts back to Him.  He knows how good He is and He wants us to experience just how good He is.  He wants to show us again what life is all about.

My friend told me how his son responded to the news about the cable bill.  Smiling lovingly, he said, "Dad, don't worry about it.  We don't need that TV.  That just means we'll have more time to play together."  Isn't that beautiful? The desire of his heart was to be a good dad and provide for his son.  In losing the trappings of this world, he hears his son communicate what he really wants and needs from him: Time together. It's the kind of thing God knows will be experienced all over our nation as he reminds His people what life is all about.  Yes, loving God and loving others.

God Loves a "Pest"

Several years ago, some friends of ours gave my sons a trampoline for Christmas.  They loved it, and they loved for their daddy to jump on it with them.  I admit, I enjoyed it too, but it was exhausting, especially with my, then four-year old  sonwho always wanted me to hold him while we jumped.  One weekend, I had already been talked into a trampoline session by my two youngest sons, had spent all my energy and had flopped into a lawn chair to recuperate when my oldest son appeared.  

"Dad, let's go jump on the trampoline."  

"Sorry,  son. Already did that and I'm all worn out.  Sorry you missed it."  

C'mon, Dad.  Please!"  

"Son,  I'm sorry.  You could have jumped with us, but you were inside watching tv."  

"But I didn't know.  Nobody told me." 

"Son, I'm just too tired. You snooze, you lose."  

"Dad, P-L-E-A-S-E!"

Somewhere in the midst of that conversation, it dawned on me: This is really important to him.

 

Because I love my son, I let him help me out of the lawn chair and returned to the trampoline, jumped with him, wrestled with him, and had a great time.  Of course, because I love my son, if he had asked for something that I knew wasn't good for him, he could have asked an infinite number of times, and I wouldn't have budged.  But, either way his persistent pestering would have communicated something to me about him and his heart.

When Jesus teaches on prayer, a consistent theme is persistence.  In Luke 11, He tells a story about a friend who comes at midnight to ask for bread for another friend.  "Don't bother me.  The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything."  Sounds familiar.  Then Jesus adds, "I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend,  yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs."

Then again in Luke 18, Jesus told his disciples a parable to "show them that they should always pray and not give up."  He describes a godless judge who didn't care about people, but who was being approached with a plea for justice, over and over again, by a persistent widow. "For some time he refused.  But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'" (vs. 4,5)  

Have you ever thought about how much faith it takes to "pester" God, or for a child to beg a parent to do something?  If my son had no hope that I would grant his request to jump on the trampoline, he might ask once for the heck of it, but there's no way he would plead and plead if he didn't really believe his pleading would rouse me to move.   We typically spend our energy on what we believe makes a difference.

What if God is willing to help, to heal, to give guidance, to restore, to bless, but is waiting to see if our hearts are fully engaged, and watching to see if what we are asking is really important to us. What if He's waiting to see if we really believe?  No, waiting to see is what I did with my son.  It took me "realizing" that jumping on the trampoline was important to my son to get me out of the reclined position. God already knows what's important to us .  He knows we won't ask and ask and ask if we don't believe we'll receive.  He knows we won't knock and knock and knock if we don't believe the door will be opened.  He knows we won't seek and seek and seek if we have no hope of finding Him.  We can sometimes fool the people in our lives, or even ourselves, with half-hearted efforts, but we can never fool God. Since He already knows, I guess our persistence in prayer give us an indicator of our faith, because if I really believe and something is truly important to me , I will persist.  I will plead.  I will pester. 

The weird thing is, the more I plead, the more I believe. 

Stinging Questions

    Last week I enjoyed the fruits of a revived hobby of mine.  I had taken a season or two off from beekeeping after a not-so-glorious first attempt several years back.  It wasn't a great year for honey since the summer's first heavy rain came just as the long-awaited sourwood blooms appeared.  However, I was blessed with more honey than some, and I remembered the lessons I had learned the last time I robbed the hives.  Some of you may remember my story about taking the honey and putting it in my garage, not realizing how good bees were at finding what they had worked so hard to produce.  I'll never forget the sight of that swarm and having to walk right into the middle of it to get the bee suit I needed to start the whole process over again.  I didn't make that mistake again, and there were new lessons to be learned this year.  Thanks to Tony and Dana Southern who sold me the hives, I learned how to spot the queen, how check to see how she was laying, even how to raise a new queen and start a new colony.  And, as the summer wore on, I learned what would be a no-brainer to most of us: you don't mess with the hives unless you're wearing your bee-suit, especially when you're young in the hobby and the bees can detect your nerves.  It actually took a couple of times of getting stung during what I thought would be simple, non-disturbing procedures, before I vowed to alway work fully clothed with protection.

     It might not take too many bee stings before making such a vow, but what would it take for us to vow to face each day's challenges of life fully clothed with the armor of God?  Do we wake up each day with the awareness that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" as Paul explains in Ephesians 6?  I mean, really?  Is that our conscious reality?  Do our lives reflect that we have taken Peter's warning seriously when he said, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour"?  Satan's mind is not set on tempting us.  He wants to kill us! To "steal, kill and destroy" is the way Jesus put it in John 10.  Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God so that we may take our stand against the devil's schemes.  I'm pretty sure if we were fully aware of what he is scheming to do we would be much more motivated to suit up.

     Here's my take on the pieces of the armor Paul mentions.  The "belt of truth" that holds the pieces together and on which the weapons hang is remembering the truth of our new identity in Christ.  By faith in Christ's death and resurrection for us, we become, not slaves, but sons and daughters of God and blood-brothers with Jesus Christ.  We are no longer just sinners saved by grace, but now are saints being formed in the image of Christ.  We are no longer slaves to sin, but are free.  We are co-heirs with Christ and we have access to all that He earned on our behalf. He is our life (at least He wants to be) and in him is the abundant life.

     The "breastplate of righteousness" that we put on was earned by Jesus' perfect performance.  Because of it, the enemy has no power to condemn us any more with those foul words, "Look at you!  You're nothing but a ________!  You might as well give up and give in to who you "really are" because you'll never be good enough!"  By putting on the breastplate of Christ's righteousness, we protect our hearts from the attacks on our true identity in Christ that come from Satan and often through the one's in our lives that we love the most.  He was and is "good enough" in our place.  And, when we act in obedience and our lives are consistent with this righteousness, we don't give the devil "a foothold."  If we realized how much power we give the enemy over us when we sin, we would be much more motivated to fight and not give in to temptation.

      The "shoes of the gospel of peace" that we are encouraged to wear each day remind us of our new purpose and calling.  A Christian's life is not his own any more, but he now shares Christ's mission of reconciling people with God through the good news of the peace Jesus made available to us.  By focusing on what we are now about, we are not as vulnerable to the enemy's efforts to distract and derail us into making life about us and our own comfort again.

     The "shield of faith" combats the original lies of Satan:  You can't trust God and you're on your own to make sure your needs are met.  If you think about it, every temptation to sin is just an attempt to entice us to look to something besides God to meet our needs and desires.  In a time of great economic challenges, the world needs to see us putting our faith in God and not allowing Satan to rob us of our peace and our purpose of living to bring God glory.

      The "helmet of Salvation" protects our minds and the control center of our bodies as we remember what Jesus has done and what it cost him.  It took one sin to corrupt the entire human race and to require Jesus' death on the cross.  Would we give in to Satan's lie that sin is no big deal, that it's inevitable, that "it's covered anyway so enjoy it" if we were aware of what our salvation cost Jesus or how our sin breaks the heart of God?  We are saved, and the truth is we have His Spirit in us that is willing and able to resist every effort of the enemy to lead us into life-sucking, glory of God diminishing sin.  And the helmet of salvation reminds us that WE ARE LOVED!

       The "Sword of the Spirit, the word of God" is the weapon in hand that Paul tells us to wield against the enemy.  Satan, the father of lies, flees whenever truth is swung at him.  He knows his power is in his deception.  He constantly throws out, "You're alone and on your own."  "You're not lovable."  "You'll never be good enough." Or, "You could be good enough if you would just try harder."  "You need this or that to feel complete."  The truth is we are not alone and never forsaken.  God has proven how much he loves us, that "while we were still sinners Christ died for us."  We will never be good enough, but Christ is good enough for us.  And we are complete in Christ, and all we need is what He supplies!  You and I need to know scripture so we can "remind" Satan of the the truth and that he has been defeated.

     And last, Paul tells us to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."  If you and I ever want to know that our prayers are powerful and effective, we will need to grasp what Paul is talking about when he says to "pray in the Spirit." (That phrase would be something great to study or even "google"!) When we agree with what the Spirit that lives in us is already praying, and allow our voices to speak it out, something powerful happens in the effort to bring the kingdom of God to earth. Satan's schemes will again be thwarted.

     So may you and I live in reality as God's word describes, with an awareness of what we are facing as we go about each day.  And may we vow to suit up each day so that we take our stand against the devil's schemes.

 (Men, if you would like to grow in understanding the reality of the story you were born into, who you are in Christ, and how to fight against what the enemy is up to as he schemes against you, your wife and your children, you may want to read "Wild at Heart" and "Waking the Dead" by John Eldredge and check out a retreat opportunity at the end of October at www.bandofbrothersweekend.org.)

Next Steps

The prophet Elijah, James says, was "a man just like us."   He's no superhero bible character, but simply a man whose life was yielded to God.  "Elijah" means "the Lord is my God," and that summed up his life and mission.  He is most famous for confronting the prophets of Baal and King Ahab, the king of Israel, but who did more to provoke the Lord to anger than did all the kings before him.  He had led the people to worship Baal, who was believed to be the god of fertility and the lord of the rain clouds.  Elijah declared a drought to remind Ahab of the true God.

What I see in 1 Kings 17 is that Elijah walked with God and was accustomed to taking "next steps" with God.  I'd like to define a next step with God as a "revealed direction that makes perfect sense to God, but may not make sense to us. Such a step of obedience requires faith and results in God being experienced and glorified."

Elijah's first step was to declare the drought.  Once he did that, the Lord directed him to take a "next step," to go hide in Kerith Ravine, and God told him that he had ordered the ravens to bring him food morning and evening and that he was to drink from the brook. The Lord had already taken care of his provision before He gave the order.  Provision was in place and Elijah was simply to walk into it.

Later the brook dried up.  If Elijah was a man just like us, he probably had a moment where he said, "Uh-oh. What am I  going to do now?"  But being a "the Lord is my God" guy, I assume he quickly re-oriented his thinking and moved into rest, wondering what the Lord would do next to guide him and provide for him.

Elijah's next step was given.  The Lord instructed him to go to Zarephath in Sidon where He had commanded a widow to give him food.  No, not "go to a wealthy landowner who is generous and is looking for a tax deduction," the kind of step that would make sense to us." Nope, go to a widow who was not even a fellow God follower.  What Elijah found was not only a widow, but a widow who was broke, and who was preparing to die.  Elijah invited her to take a step of faith as well, asking for her to make him some bread first.  Their faith was rewarded as God never let the flour and oil run out until the drought was over.  God was experienced and glorified.

In my walk with God, I want to get used to just taking "next steps" without having to know where the path will take us and how things are going to work out.

A couple of Sundays ago, I shared with our body how God has shown himself faithful to me and how I have grown in trusting him with next steps. I watched God give me a place to live for the three years of seminary after I took the next step of dedicating my life to His service.  We saw the Lord lead us to Ellijay to work with students when we had never been youth ministers.  And when God led us to help start CrossPoint, there was no visible financial support.  We felt completely confident the Lord would provide.  And he did!  We experienced Him and God was glorified. For the two years before God provided with support from CrossPoint, He provided week by week, month by month.

Over the past five years of receiving a salary from our church, Michelle and I have had a desire to return to the days of ministering without receiving a paycheck from the church.  And out of that desire, we have tried to come up with ways to make it work.  I considered doing real estate on the side.  Michelle did real estate for a couple of years.  I thought of starting a business. But each time we felt like taking another full time job would compromise what we were called to do and what our church needed.  However the desire didn't go away.

On Spring Break in March, Michelle and I got away for a night together.  We were enjoying a morning relaxing and reading, and I sensed the Lord, saying, "Tim, it's time."  I turned to Michelle and said out of the blue, "I think God is saying it's time to let CrossPoint know we want to stop taking a paycheck."  She immediately said, "I think so too."  We realized we both felt that God had been asking us to do this, and wanted us to simply step out and trust God and not to figure out how we could accomplish it ourselves. We immediately felt the rush of peace, excitement, and anticipation that comes from taking a step of faith and obedience.  

We have some exposure to and relationships with people who have made similar steps in their journey of faith, and we have heard testimony of these people losing their material possessions in the process of entering into the abundant life of experiencing God.  One day, after reading one such testimony, Michelle prayed, "Lord, PLEASE don't take my home.  I love this house!" She realized that she was trusting God in many areas, but not with our home.  The Lord asked her to rise early to talk to him about it.  The next morning Father asked her to share what she was feeling.  She told him how much she loved what happens in our home, that people feel welcomed, loved and cared for when they are here.  What she heard Father say was, "Michelle, that's not about this house.  That's about you and Me and what we do together.  And we're going to be together wherever you are."  

She surrendered her house.

That was huge.  The joy I feel is incredible, knowing that Father has blessed me with a wife and partner in ministry that is willing to give up what is most precious to her materially.  We know that this road is not going to be easy.  There will be tests requiring more and more surrender each step of the way.  What I truly believe, though, is that on the other side of this painful process is the abundant life we have always sensed was available but have yet to fully experience.  Father is calling us out, and this step is the next one we've been asked to take.

Soooooo, here we go.  Pray for us and watch with us how God brings himself glory!

Jesus, the Cowboy

Did you know Jesus is a "cowboy?"  At least he was today.

My home is wrapped by pastureland, owned by others, and this morning I walked out on the back porch to find my farmer neighbor walking in my back yard.  It's unusual, but such an occurrence typically means a cow has escaped, and he's trying to round her up.  Greeting my neighbor, I got the story.  Sure enough, a two-day old calf had gotten out and was separated from its mother.  He explained that when they get scared, calves will just lay down and remain deathly still, making them hard to find.  I told him I'd get dressed and join him in the search.

After a brief walk through the wooded parts of my property, I remembered how Jesus had helped me find things that I had lost. (I have many such testimonies.)  My typical prayer is, "Jesus, you know where (such and such) is. Please show me!"  Once, I  experienced my eyes immediately shift to an obscure location, finding in a moment what I'd been looking for, on my own, for hours.

So, as I walked, I talked. "Jesus, you know where this calf is. I'd love to find it and help my neighbor.  Where is it?"  I felt my attention shift to another neighbor's  pasture, surrounded by the electric fence  that my children love to toy with.  The pasture is typically populated, but today there were no cows in sight.  All I could see was 20 or so acres of tall, ready to cut hay, wet with dew.  After ignoring the pull for a moment and walking a little more through the woods, I took a dead branch, laid it across the bottom wire and pushed down while I stepped across into the pasture.

Still aware I had invited Jesus into this situation, I began to walk, feeling my jeans and shoes quickly becoming drenched from the dew.  Looking back at my tracks, it may not have been a beeline, but within two minutes I had walked directly to the little black calf, curled up and asleep among the tall grass.

I was a hero!  I had saved the day, not to mention the thousand dollars that the calf will eventually bring my neighbor!  Right? No, Jesus is the hero of this story.  He had become a cowboy, using my body to restore the calf to its mother.  It sure brought me a lot of joy being a part of it, though.

As His disciple I wanted to learn something.  From my heart, came the question, "What are you wanting to teach me, Master?"  In response to my earlier prayer, Jesus had not, in this situation, pointed to the spot in the field, saying, "The calf is here."  No neon lights.  No flashing arrows.  There was just praying and walking, seeking and...finding.  Jesus reminded me, again that He is concerned about the little things that I am concerned about, and that He is delighted to be invited into every situation.  And He showed me that, having invited Him in, what felt like my thoughts ("I should walk this way...I should look here") were actually His directives.  Without knowing where I was going, I arrived at my destination.

Joy.  Life.  Adventure. I love walking with God and expecting to hear His voice...every time I choose to do so. 

"The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.  The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice." - Jesus, John 10:2-4