Held in Captivity
Looking back on my childhood as I was growing up, I can name about three things that I loved doing. One, playing baseball… Whether it was at South Side Little League, in my back yard, or simply playing Hot Box, it seemed that I had a glove on my hand nearly every day it was nice out. Two, playing Ghost in the Graveyard… We couldn’t wait for the sun to go down in the summer time so we could start this game. And when our parents called us in for the night, we’d always ask for more time to play and run back outside. (Do kids even play outside at night anymore?) And three, Guns. Ya. As kids, we’d play guns… Or war, or cops and robbers, or whatever you want to call it.
Growing up, our neighborhood had plenty of kids to make two teams. We’d all bring our guns outside day and night. Most of us had multiple guns that we brought… one, because why not? And two, there would always be a kid who wasn’t from our block that was staying the night at a friend’s house who didn’t have a gun. So one of us would loan one out to him.
After dividing the teams up, each team would go separate ways and find a base to defend. And then… the game would begin. The goal? Well, capture as many “enemies” as you could. Locate the enemy base. And occupy the enemy base for the win. We loved playing that game. It seems like we played that game nearly every other night of the summer.
And us Ruth boys… We took it serious. Crawling through bushes. Hiding under houses. Hiding up in trees. Just so we could jump out, shoot the enemy and take him captive. Once we had our prisoner of war, we’d walk him back to our base while the other teammate would provide us with cover. Now, our base was almost always our garage. We made it our base for a couple of reasons. One, we had windows on three sides. Meaning, we could see our enemies coming and shoot them before they reached our base. And secondly, it provided a great opportunity for interrogation.
You see, a garage has a what? Yup, a garage door. Now, what do you put prisoners in as you hold them captive? Yup, handcuffs. And you can bet that the Ruth boys had handcuffs. And do you remember what the most important goal was of playing this game? Yup, finding out where the enemy base was so we could go conquer it. Clearly our enemy captive wasn’t going to give up where his base was easily. So we developed an effective means of interrogation that included handcuffs and the garage door.
It was quite simple, brilliant, effective… and well, a little cruel as well. To get our captive to talk, we’d place him in handcuffs, hook the handcuffs to the garage door, then slowly lift the garage door up. And as we slowly lifted the garage door up by our hands (we didn’t have an electronic garage door opener), the captives hands would raise up along with it causing tension and pressure on his wrists. The result? Oh ya, he talked pretty quickly and would reveal where his base was.
We were masters at holding our enemies captive and getting them to talk. Once we placed them in handcuffs, we could essentially get them to do whatever we wanted, because they knew what was coming next. They didn’t want to tell us what we wanted to hear, but in reality, they had no choice because they were captives of the Ruth boys. If we did any of this now, we'd probably be arrested and prosecuted... man I'm glad we grew up in era we did!
Captivity.
It’s an interesting word. The Bible has some things to say about it. Check this out:
Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to Me in the desert.’” Exodus 5:1
You see, the Israelites were held captive in Egypt for about 400 years. During this time, the Egyptians held the Israelites as slaves and worked them extremely harshly and made their lives bitter with hard, cruel works of service. As a result of this captivity, the Israelites were broken in spirit. And as the Israelites cried out to God, He hears their cry for help and provides a way to deliver them out of their captivity.
Fast forward now to Bethany, an area just outside of Jerusalem. A man named Lazarus became sick. Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that their brother was seriously ill. And while Jesus was making His way back to where Lazarus was, Lazarus died. Now, when Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, Larazus had already been in the tomb for four days. And when Jesus arrived at the tomb, he told the people to take away the stone. But Martha was worried that there would be a bad odor because of the decaying of the dead body after four days.
But Jesus reminded Martha that if she believed that she would se the glory of God. And after telling Martha that… He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Just like Moses told pharaoh to “let my people go,” Jesus told death to let Lazarus go. Just as God called the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt, Jesus called Lazarus out of captivity of the grave. And God is still calling people out of captivity today through Jesus Christ.
Jesus has told us with His own words that everyone who sins, is a slave to sin. But Jesus came so that we would be set free from the captivity of sin. But how many times do we forget about that captivity if for just a brief moment because we either get some enjoyment out of it, are comfortable in it or are afraid of living without it.
I don’t know what you’re struggling with right now. I don’t know what’s holding you captive. Maybe you’ve asked God to help you with your anger. Or maybe you’ve asked God to help you give up a relationship you’re in. Maybe you’ve asked God to help you be more patient. Or you might struggle with pride, or greed, or envy, or lust, or gluttony. You know these things are wrong, but it’s hard. It’s hard because you enjoy it. Or you’re comfortable in it. Or You’re afraid of living without it. But one thing you do know, is that you know you are held captive to it. Captive to that thing or feeling or emotion or person that you can’t let go of… and you know… you know there’s a better life on the other side of sin. And when you go back to your captivity, you feel alone and depressed and scared… that’s what captivity does to us. You want so desperately to be freed from this captivity, but it’s just not happening.
Can I suggest one possible reason? Maybe, just maybe you need to believe that God is good before you can be set free. Maybe, right now, the reason that you haven’t been set free is because you don’t believe that God is good. Satan knows that as long as we keep believing that God is not good, we will stay stuck, unable to trust and believe God and, as a result, unable to be set free. But just like God didn’t give up on the Israelites until they were free, he won’t give up on us. Just like Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the captivity of death, Jesus is calling each one of us out of the captivity of sin.
Captivity.
If you are held captive today, there are three things that you can do to start your journey to freedom…
- Believe God really is good.
- Trust in Jesus as your Savior
- Surround yourself with friends who will take off your grave clothes. That was the last thing that Jesus said after He called Lazarus. He knew, that the friends in our lives have the ability to help us be free from captivity.
It’s my prayer that you will take steps today, even now, out of the captivity you find yourself in.
Caught In A Rain Storm
The Jeep Life. We decided to embrace that life over a year ago now. And let me just say… It’s been a blast. We’ve had some great times in the Jeep. Jami and I have loved it. The kids have loved it. Lola, well, she’s really loved it too. All winter long we look forward to the day when we can finally take the doors and top off and ride around town for our mini adventures. It really does make the everyday, ordinary drives fun… And at times hilariously funny.
Like in the spring of 2020. It was actually a nice, warmer day for May around here. We decided to take the doors off, put the top down, and take a drive to get lunch in Elkhart, ice cream in Goshen, then run to Menards on the way back home.
As we were driving to Menards, we noticed that a few clouds had rolled in. And once we pulled into the parking lot at Menards, it became clear that it had just poured… Like pouuurrrrred. So we quickly ran in to grab what we needed, and we quickly ran back out.
Now, once back in our Jeep, Jami checked the radar one last time as we began to head for home. What did we see? Oh, we saw a line of heavy rain heading our way. So we decided to try our luck and run for home. 10 miles. 18 minutes. That’s all the distance we were from home. With just seven minutes to go and three miles left, the sky opened up on us. Rain like we had never seen before started to pour down on us. It was raining so hard that I couldn’t see through the windshield. The only way I could see to drive was to hang my head out of the side of the Jeep where the doors would have normally been.
The windshield wipers were wiping back and forth. But they weren’t clearing the water. I thought it was just because it was pouring rain so hard. And that was sort of true. Once we got home and pulled into the garage, I noticed that the wipers were still going… But they weren’t wiping any of the water off the windshield. I literally sat there for close to 30 seconds wondering why the wipers weren’t working. For a moment, I thought that maybe they weren’t touching the windshield. So, I put my hand on the glass. And guess what!? There wasn’t any water on the outside of the windshield. All, and I mean, all of the water was on the inside. It was pouring down so hard that the rain was literally wrapping around the inside of the Jeep and hitting the inside of the windshield. Of course the wipers weren’t helping! They weren’t working because the rain was on the inside of the windshield, it wasn’t on the surface of the windshield.
And as I was thinking back and reminiscing on this story, I began to wonder. How many of us are living our lives this way. We know we have problems or issues going on in our lives. Problems at school. Issues and fights with parents. Problems in our marriages. Problems at work. Problems in our personal life. Problems in our relationships. We know. We know that, right now, it’s pouring rain in different areas of our life. We are cruising down the road just trying to see just enough to not crash our lives.
And we’re trying everything we can just to make it to the next day. A relationship doesn’t work out, so let’s try a different guy or a different girl. This job isn’t working out either. So let’s try a different job. Surely this will be the right one. This marriage doesn’t seem to be working. So we try another marriage. The problems in our personal life seem to be too much to handle, so maybe we turn to alcohol or drugs to solve them. Or maybe we just want to sleep, so we can forget everything… Every problem. Every issue. Every day.
And we try to solve the issues and problems we face by what we currently know how to do. But everything we’ve tried just isn’t working. It’s not solving the issues. It’s not solving any of our problems. It’s not solving the hurt and pain and holes we feel. Everything we try just isn’t working. And our life feels like one giant storm.
I’ve been there. And a few other people have been there too. Check this out:
As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.
Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!” - Mark 4:35-41
The disciples face a storm themselves. Well, they would face many storms, but this storm was out on the Sea of Galilee. The boat began to fill with water and they began to freak out. I wonder how many of them tried to bale the water out with their hands. The Bible doesn’t tell us. But it does tell us that they woke Him up in a frantic shout. They didn’t wake Him up trusting that He could help them. They woke Him up and basically accused Him of not caring about them and their problem. But Jesus, being who He is, calmed the storm. There was nothing they could do to stop the boat from sinking. Everything they had tried or could try just would not work. Only Jesus could calm their storm.
And the same is true for each one of us. You see, everything we try to solve our problems… Everything we try to stop our life’s storm… To heal our pain… To heal our hurt… To fill the hole in our hearts… It’s all just wiping the issues away on the surface. The true pain and problems and hurt and holes are under the surface where the solutions we come up with just won’t work. Just like the wipers not working on our Jeep because the rain was on the inside of our windshield, what truly needs to be wiped away in our lives is on the inside of our hearts and our souls. And the only thing… The only person that can heal our hurt and pain… The only person that can solve our problems and calm our storms… The only person that can fill the hole in our hearts is Jesus Himself.
I’ll leave you with this, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1-10 says this:
Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. - Ephesians 2:1-10
It’s Jesus. The person who can make you whole, calm your storms and heal your heart. It’s only Jesus. And it always will be Jesus.
Following Your Dreams
Growing up, there have been a lot of different things that I had dreamed of doing with my life. Depending on what age I was when you’d ask me, the answer would have been different. Like, when I was about four or five, if you would have asked me what I dreamed of doing, I would have told you that I wanted to ride on the back of a trash truck or drive the trash truck that flipped the big trash containers (I called them “dipsee dumpsters”). If you would have asked me when I was between six years old and eight years old, I would have told you that I dreamed of being a police officer. (I really loved watching CHiPs, TJ Hooker and Hunter back in the day.) And when I was nine years old to about 15, I wanted to be a professional baseball player.
As I look back over my life, those were just three of the dreams that I wanted to follow. There have actually been more, but we don’t have enough time to talk about them all. And as you look at your life, you can probably remember some of the dreams you wanted to follow. The reality is, is that we’ve all had dreams we wanted to follow. And most of us, might still have dreams we want to follow. But when I read the Bible, it doesn’t say to follow your dreams. That’s not the call. The call has never been to follow your dreams.
So, what’s the call? Check this out, it’s found in Matthew chapter nine, verse nine:
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew 9:9
The call on each of our lives, as it was on Matthew’s life, is to follow Jesus. That’s always been the call. Don’t get me wrong. Having dreams isn’t a bad thing. It’s a great thing to have dreams. But the problem begins when the call to chase the dream drowns out the call of Jesus. The problem begins the moment when our focus is greater on the dream than on the call of God to follow Jesus.
You see, Matthew, he was living the dream. Or at least I think he was for the time he was living. Was he disliked by many Jews? Sure. But he held a lucrative government job for the Roman Empire. He was making some serious dollar bills ya’ll. He was making bank. He was making that coin. And when Jesus walked up to him, he was in the middle of that job collecting taxes. And so, when Jesus rolled up to Matthew and said, “Follow Me,” Matthew had a choice to make. To follow his dream of making a great living working for the Roman Empire. Or to follow the call of Jesus. Matthew chose to follow the call of Jesus and leave everything behind.
The call to follow Jesus.
For some of us, the call to follow Jesus is a call to leave the dreams we have behind because we know those dreams will lead us down a road that will be opposite to what Jesus wants for our life. For all of us, though, the call to follow Jesus is a call to leave our old life behind and start a new life in Christ. Essentially the call to follow Jesus is a call to have an undivided heart. Check this out, Psalm 86:11 says this,
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name. Psalm 86:11
David, the writer of this Psalm, was praying for an undivided heart in order to give all of it to God in his praise. “Heart” in the Bible doesn’t refer simply to emotions, no, it’s referring to the whole person. David was literally praying for help to aim himself in a single direction towards God. You see, David knew that he needed God to direct his life. He knew that his success, his safety and his soul’s satisfaction depended on the God in Heaven, YAWEH Himself. And that’s still true for each and everyone of us today.
When Jesus called Matthew to follow him, it was easy for Matthew to know what Jesus meant… to drop what he was doing and literally begin to follow Jesus. But what does the call to follow Jesus mean in our lives today. I mean, Jesus isn’t physically standing in front of us saying “follow me.” So, if the call to each one of us is to follow Jesus, what does that mean?
First, the call to follow Jesus is a call to turn your heart towards God’s Word. Psalm 119:36 says,
Turn my heart towards your statutes and not towards selfish gain. Psalm 119:36
In other words, live your life in such a way that you truly are asking God to turn your heart to Him each and every day. The call to follow Jesus isn’t a one-and-done call. It’s a daily denying of the desire to be our own boss. To give up the rights to our lives. Jesus Himself said that if we want to follow Him, we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23). It’s quite literally asking that God’s Kingdom be worked in and through our lives and that God’s will would be done as well.
Secondly, the call to follow Jesus is a call to be humble. How many of our arguments, fights, contentions and divisions happen because we aren’t humble. For me… it’s almost every single one of them. Our homes, neighborhoods, country and world would be a completely different place if we would simply live our lives out of humility… if we would simply be humble. It was something that Jesus demonstrated when He walked the earth. Philippians 2:8 says,
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Philippians 2:8
How much more should we demonstrate humility in each of our own lives. Jesus, God Himself… literally God in the flesh, humbled Himself for each of us… the ultimate demonstration of humility… died for each of us. And it’s in humility that God calls each of us to follow Jesus.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
Third, the call to follow Jesus is a call to love others. Your neighbor. Your family. Your friends. And yes, even your enemies. Matthew 22:39 says,
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:39
Jesus was always teaching His disciples to love others. As Christians, we are asked to love not only the people who live next door to us but to love and show compassion to everyone we interact with. A part of being a disciple of Jesus is showing His love to everyone we meet. Everyone. Even our enemies. Matthew 5:44 says,
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… Matthew 5:44
Everywhere we turn the corner, online and on tv, we are consistently watching people hate each other. People going after each other. And then it comes to our lives. How many times have we wished evil on our enemies? How many times have I shown hate towards others? Not everyone is going to like you. Not everyone is going to like me. But one way to follow Jesus is by praying for those that despise us. To Show the love of Jesus to the very people that hate you. To treat them with kindness even if you never get it back in return. Loving people who love you back or first is easy. To love those who hate you, well, that’s what Jesus did which means it’s possible with God’s help that we can too.
And fourth, the call to follow Jesus is a call to worship the living God with our entire heart and mind. Matthew 4:10 says,
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. Matthew 4:10
You see, Jesus was tempted just like we are tempted. Satan took Jesus up to the top of a high mountain and offered to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. But Jesus, knowing God’s Word, and showing complete commitment to His Father, told satan to bounce. Jesus’ heart was undivided. He loved and His only worship was of God alone. Satan offered up what looked like a great deal if Jesus only worshipped him. But Jesus knew that the true reward lies within His worship of the living God. Satan does the same thing with us… consistently tempting us with the attractive riches of this world. But our true reward, our greatest reward lies within our worship of the living God and His Son, Jesus. John 4:24 says,
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. John 4:24
Worship, praise and thanksgiving should be an everyday part of the follower of Jesus routine. When we pray to God, we shouldn’t forget to worship Him for everything He has done for us. Our worship should be an ongoing event as we live every day. Our worship of the living God should be continually in our mouths, in our hearts and in our minds.
The call of God. It’s a call to follow Jesus each and every day of our lives. It’s a call that each of us can choose to answer or to ignore. God doesn’t call us to follow our dreams. He calls us to follow Jesus. And when we do, new dreams are born. Heavenly dreams found in Jesus Himself.
Good for Nothing
It’s crazy to me how our minds work. How we can hear a song and it take us back to the very spot we heard it years ago. How it can cause us to feel what we were feeling at that time. To smell the smells. To literally be transported back in time to the very place we were. Or, to travel down a childhood road and go back to playing Kick the Can when you were six years old. Or, to read two words and remember everything about a trip you took. Those two words for me... Monterrey, Mexico.
It’s a place that I’ve been to three times. It’s an area that holds a special place in my heart. Reading those two words transports me back to the dirt roads we walked. It takes me back to the trash heap where some of the residents built their homes from. I remember buying homemade flavored ice drinks. Monterrey, Mexico.
For three years I spent seven days with those people as part of a mission trip with our church. The main reason we went was to help do building projects and minister to kids who lived at a local orphanage down there. It broke me. The kids at that specific orphanage were dropped off by their parents because they couldn’t afford to keep them. Some of them, their mother’s boyfriend made her drop them off because they couldn’t help their family make any money. Some of the kids that had been there since they were babies, would be picked back up by their families as soon as they were old enough to work. It. Was. Heartbreaking. Essentially, those kids at that orphanage were good-for-nothiings in the eyes of their parents. They weren’t good for anything, so their families had given them away. I will never forget those three summers and I often wonder what happened to those kids.
As I was reading the Bible, I came across this phrase, “good-for-nothing.” Check this out:
At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the Lord and the royal palace — King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted. But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Cabul, a name they have to this day. 1 Kings 9:10-13
King David, because of the wars he faced, couldn’t build a temple for the Lord. But Solomon, because he and Israel were enjoying a time of peace, wanted to build a temple for the Lord God. The king of Tyre had always been on friendly terms with king David. And so, Solomon, now king of Israel, asked the king of Tyre to provide cedar for the temple. Not only did the king of Tyre provide cedar for the temple, but over the next twenty years, the king of Tyre gave Solomon cedar, juniper and gold to help build, not only the temple, but also Solomon’s palace as well. And so, at the end of twenty years, Solomon gave away part of God’s promised land to king Hiram… 20 towns in Galilee as a gift for the king’s services. And after king Hiram went to visit these towns, upon looking at them, he called them, “ the Land of Cabul.” Essentially, he called them good-for-nothing towns.
I don’t know where you’re at right now in life. What’s going on in your world. What’s going on at work. In your relationships. As an adult. Or as a student. I remember back to high school, as a skinny freshman, sophomore, Junior and senior. Seeing friends in relationships. And then there was me. No girlfriend. No relationship. Wondering what was wrong with me. Maybe that’s you right now. Or maybe you’re struggling at the sport you play. While you have fun playing baseball, soccer, football… whatever sport it is… the team you’re on is hard to play with because when you make a mistake, they jump down your throat and you start to feel like you can’t do anything right. Or maybe work just sucks right now. You feel like you can’t win. Sales are down. You feel like you’re doing your best, but your best just isn’t good enough. Or maybe life is simply hard. You feel all alone. Down. Depressed. Connected with nobody. And you feel, well, good for nothing.
The Land of Cabul. Good-for-nothing towns. Some days, that’s the land that you live in, maybe more days than you care to admit. Here’s the thing with these towns… the very towns that the king of Tyre called good for nothing… these are the very towns that Jesus chose as the early focal point of His ministry on earth. The very towns that king Hiram didn’t want anything to do with, are the very towns that Jesus chose to go to. You see, what someone calls worthless, Jesus calls valuable. What someone calls good for nothing, Jesus calls loved. King Hiram didn’t see the value in these towns. But Jesus saw the people in these towns. And Jesus sees you, right now, where you’re at.
You might feel worthless. But Jesus sees you as valuable. You might feel unloveable. But Jesus sees you as you are and loves you as you are. You might feel alone. But Jesus is calling out and wants a relationship with you. You might feel good for nothing, but Jesus is calling you to join His team and His movement.
I don’t know where you are at in life right now, but I do know this… God Himself, sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to save you out of whatever you find yourself in right now. The hurt. The pain. The confusion. The trouble. Jesus has come so that you can find relationship and love and healing. Jesus has come to find you. You aren’t a good-for-nothing. You are loved and wanted and valued… by God Himself… by Jesus.
His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor His delight in the legs of a man; the Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love. Psalm 147:10-11
You see, God is a God of strength. But He doesn’t delight in power. No. More than anything He loves to be in a close relationship to the very people who respond to His love. And it’s my prayer that you’ll respond to His love, even right now.
Behind the Shed
It’s finally the warm months here in northern Indiana. With it, at least for the Ruths, brings more time outside. More walks. Beach trips. Making food on the grill. Cookouts. And… time spent making our front yard look good. You know, mowing the yard diagonally, planting flowers, laying down mulch and fertilizing the grass. For the Ruths, we do what we can to make our front yard look good… or at least presentable.
Our backyard? That’s a bit of a different story. We have a couple of dogs, so we don’t fertilize the backyard. We have weeded less. And there are piles of sticks and branches that we need to burn. I know, that at some point, we’ll have people over. And that means that, in the summer months, they’ll see our backyard. So we’ve begun to make it look better. As I was out in the backyard cutting down tree-weeds, I walked past our shed. And, Jami, knowing that I had cut down some not-so-lovely-tree-weeds, said, “Doesn’t behind the shed bother you too?” “What? Behind the shed?” I hadn’t looked behind the shed since last fall. So, when she asked that question it made me stop and think. And then, I went to look behind the shed. You guys… what I saw… it was awful. It literally looked like a junk yard. Check it out... guys... I'm not lying!
Our front yard looks fine. It looks pretty good. Outside of a mole that’s been terrorizing us this year, our front yard looks good. We’ve got people fooled. When they walk or drive by, they see our nice flowers, diagonally-mowed grass and our American flag. If only they knew what was behind our shed. The literal trash that sat behind there for so long. They would know that our front yard was… well… a farce. All for show to make people think we’ve got it all together. To make it so we aren’t living in embarrassment.
Behind the shed.
We’ve all got a “behind the shed.” I’m not talking about a physical shed now. I’m talking about the metaphorical shed that’s found in each of our lives. We nicely manicure ourselves and our social media to make it look like we’ve got it all together, only to have a mess behind our shed, afraid of what people would think if they only knew. Well, you might not. But I definitely have been there. And as we read the Bible, there’s a story of a woman who had people find out about the mess behind her shed. Check it out:
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:2-11
The woman had what she hid behind her shed shown for everyone to see. I mean everyone. Jesus wasn’t just teaching to a group of five people. No, He was in the temple courts where he was likely speaking to a large crowd of people. Can you imagine, literally being dragged down the street. Past onlookers walking by? Past person. After person. After person. Wondering where you’re being taken. And as you look up, trying not to look at anyone in their eyes, you see a large crowd. Now, as you pass through the back row of people, you’re being bounced off of people who are listening to someone teach. Crying and scared, you’re continuing to be pushed to the front of the crowed for all to see. Can you imagine? Everything that she has tried to hide… all of the trash behind her shed is being put on display for all to see. Can you imagine?
The Bible doesn’t tell us anything else about this woman. Only that she was caught in adultery. What was her life like? Who was she married to? Did she have kids? Did people respect her? What was her life like? How long did she try to hide the mess she was living in behind her shed? We don’t know the answers to any of these questions. In reality, the answers to these questions probably don’t matter. What we do know, is that the mess… the trash behind her shed was put on display for everyone to see. EVERYONE. Can you imagine the shame and guilt and embarrassment she felt as she was being dragged past people she probably knew? And then, as she was finally being dragged to the front of the crowd, her head hanging low… she sees the feet of the one who was teaching. The man everyone came to hear. Jesus. And they made her stand in front of Him and everyone else.
“Jesus,” the Pharisees said. “This woman, she was caught in the act of adultery. The Law says to stone women like her. What do you say we should do?” And as we picture this scene in our mind’s eye, the Bible gives us two simple words in response to the question the Pharisees had… in response to all of the mess and trash behind this woman’s shed. Two words. Eight letters. That would lead to a life changed and renewed. The two words?
“But Jesus”
A life filled with embarrassment… “But Jesus.” A life filled with shame and guilt… “But Jesus.” A life filled with fear and hurt… “But Jesus.” A life filled with pain and sin… “But Jesus.” This woman… was brought out into the public… dragged by people she probably knew… through a crowd of people… the Pharisees, filled with hate… hate for Jesus… and hate for this woman. They wanted to make an example of her in her shame and guilt and hurt and pain… and was willing for her to die by stoning… But…
“But Jesus,” out of His compassion, instead accepted the woman in her shame and guilt and hurt and pain… He accepted all of the mess behind her shed… and didn’t condemn her but forgave her sin. You see, all of the Pharisees who brought her in front of Jesus… who brought her in front of the crowd of people to humiliate her… they too had things behind their shed that they didn’t want anyone to know about. Because when Jesus asked for any of them without sin to throw the first stone, they one by one walked away.
You see, when it comes to the things behind our shed… the things that we would be embarrassed about if people were to find out… it doesn’t phase Jesus. We don’t have to get pretty to come before Jesus. He accepts us as we are… with all of the mess and trash behind our shed. But He doesn’t just accept us as we are… it’s not just that He doesn’t condemn us… He also wants to help us clean up our lives behind the shed and live a life that chases after Him.
The Bible says that all of the Pharisees walked away until it was only Jesus and the woman who was left. But, when I sit and think about that woman’s story, I can’t help but think about how many in the crowd who were left, stunned by what they just witnessed. Sure, none of the Pharisees were left. But in a crowd that size and where they were at, I believe there were still onlookers who witnessed a life saved and changed. And in each of our lives, as we come before Jesus with the mess behind our shed, you can bet that there will be people who will witness your life saved and changed as well.
We all have things that are hiding behind our shed… “But Jesus” will meet you where you’re at and help make your life new again.
Bank Accounts and ATMs
Growing up, there are certain milestones that kids look forward to hitting. Double-digit birthday... When you hit the age of 10, now you’re big. Or, thirteen… now you’re an old teenager. How about 16! Now you can drive! Or when you turn 18… the age you can finally vote. If you’re an adult, one of the milestones was the age of 25… the year your car insurance finally went down in cost a bit.
For our kids, there was one more milestone that they looked forward to hitting… 14 years old. The age at which they could open their own bank account. Carter had been talking about this a while before he turned 14. And when he finally turned 14, it was almost all he could talk about. “Can I open my bank account now? When can you take me to open my bank account? Today? Can we go after school? I really want to open my bank account. Can we go tomorrow?” He kept asking. And pushing. And finally, the day came when we took him to open his very own bank account.
That day, we sat down with one of our bank’s representatives and filled out the paperwork to open Carter’s first bank account. He was so excited. As we were going through the process, it finally came time to get what he really wanted… his very own ATM card. The bank representative talked to him about what the card was and how to use it. And she asked him what he wanted his security number to be (he was a 14 year old boy, but held it together enough to NOT give the number he wanted to give the lady). We finished up the process and walked out the door. Needless to say Carter was super excited.
Over the next few months after opening his bank account, Carter and a couple of his friends would meet up on their bikes and head to the ATM to pull money out to get snacks at the local store. He’d get a text from his friends and then tell me or Jami that he was riding his bike to take money out so he and his friends could get a pop, chips, or some candy. He loved that ATM card. It was there, in his pocket, whenever he needed money to get what he wanted.
It’s interesting to me, that as I look back over this story about Carter and his ATM card, how it relates to me and my relationship with God as I look back on my life. Like, how, when I played baseball, I’d pray and ask God to help our team win. Or, as I walked up to the batter’s box, I’d pray for God to help me get on base. Or when I needed help on an exam, I’d reach out and pray to God. Or when things got tough, or I got in trouble, I’d pray to God and ask Him for help.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that doing any of those things are bad or that we shouldn’t pray to God in those circumstances. But as I look back over my life… even into my adult life, I can definitely see a pattern where I placed God in my pocket only to pull him out when I needed to make a withdrawal for help. He was in essence, my ATM card. More times than I care to admit to, I’d treat God as my ATM when I wanted things to go my way.
But there’s so much more than that when it comes to our relationship with God. God isn’t simply an ATM. And, in reality, God really does want to bless you... to bless us. Check this out:
The passage I want to share with you today is from Numbers chapter seven, verses 22-27
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”’
“So they will put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” Numbers 7:22-27
All throughout the Bible we can look and find where God wants to, and chooses to bless His people. From the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament. And that still holds true today as well. It’s not lost on me that, about two weeks ago I was at a camp with a bunch of middle school students. These kids came together from different schools and different families to have fun and experience God as one group. Being at camp, I knew that what I spoke over those kids had the potential to help change their lives. It had the potential to either make camp or break camp.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had someone speak into you or over you. I have. I’ve had people speak life into me. And I’ve had people speak what amounted to death into me. And I’ve had people who were very close to me call me the worst of the worst names. Names that would affect me and mark my life for years to come. All throughout camp two weeks ago, counselor after counselor spoke life into and over those middle school students. We wanted those kids to know that God is for them. That God wants to bless His people.
And just like those middle school campers, the Israelites in the verses we just read, were in their own camp from their own areas and families. Sure, they didn’t have “the blob” or “the gusher” (water rides at camp.) But God still wanted to let His people, the Israelites, know that He longed to provide a blessing over them. It’s important to know that, by this time the Israelites had already been freed from slavery in Egypt. And even though they had seen numerous miracles by God, they had still turned from God over and over again. They had still questioned God. They made idols into gods. They had longed to go back to where they had come from as slaves because they hadn’t trusted God to provide for their needs. In other words, they weren’t perfect people who always had their eyes and hearts pointed towards God. Yet, out of God’s love, he wanted the Israelites to know His very specific blessing on them.
First, He wanted the priests (Aaron and his sons) to say, “The Lord bless you and keep you.” This is not just a general blessing, but it's the specific protection of the Lord as we ask Him to “keep you,” words that have the sense of guarding or watching over someone. For Israel, this would have had a very practical application as they were surrounded by enemies, and God had promised to protect them as long as they were faithful to Him. For believers in Jesus, the protection of God has a somewhat different meaning. While believers hope and pray for physical protection from enemies, we know that God has not promised this. In fact, He has promised persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). However, God has also promised that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:36–38).
Secondly, the prayer also says, “the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.” This line of the blessing has to do with experiencing God’s favor. When a person sees a loved one that is liked or loved, his or her face “lights up right.” Well, God’s “face” radiates divine favor. Ancient Israel could expect God’s loving, gracious response to their calls for help. Believers in Jesus have the promise of God’s never-ending love (Romans 8:26–38, mentioned above) and have already experienced God’s gracious response to save us from our greatest enemies—sin and death through Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:56–57).
And thirdly, the prayer says, “the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.” We all know the faces of mom... or of a parent. We’ve all had "the look,” you know, the glare from an upset parent. I’ve experienced it MANY times over. And I’ve given it MANY times over to my own kids as well. This isn’t what this is referring to. It’s the face of a smiling mom or dad towards their children. It’s quite literally the look of love. This line of the Aaronic Blessing continues the theme of the “face” of God and has the idea of His people receiving His full attention. When the people were faithful to God, His “face” was toward them with the result that they would have peace. Peace (shalom) is more than just an absence of warfare but a completeness or wholeness and maturity. Judges 2 records what happened when God turned His face from His people for a time and they lost shalom, but He quickly turned to them again when they repented. The believer in Jesus has been granted peace with God though Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1), and we can also access the peace of God by trusting Him to take care of us. Prayer is the active means by which we can experience this peace (Philippians 4:6–7). Meaning, when we pray to Jesus as a believer in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will infuse us with the peace of Christ.
You see, for ancient Israel, the Aaronic Blessing expressed the highest state of blessing that the nation would enjoy as they were faithful to God. For us today, when we trust in Jesus and call on His name to save us from our sin, we too can have and experience this complete blessing from God Himself. We don’t have to be perfect. We just need to trust in Jesus and call on His name to save us.
God desires to be more than an ATM blessing that’s tucked inside our pockets only to be pulled out when we need Him. He longs to speak a complete blessing over our lives. And it’s my prayer that you’ll experience that blessing as you trust in Jesus and seek to have a true, joy-filled relationship with God.
Simple Math
I. Hate. Math.
To this day, I really don’t like math. I’m kinda embellishing a bit… and kinda not… But part of the reason I chose my major in college is because it required the least amount of math I needed to take. Ok. Ok. That wasn’t actually one of the reasons, but it was a huge plus!
I think the reason why I hated math goes all the way back to second grade. We’d have these math competitions in class where we’d have to go up to the black board (yes, I’m old enough to have had “black boards” in school) and compete against another student by doing the same math problem. I’m usually all for competition, but when I was up at the black board, my mind would freeze. Second grade was also where I’d get lunch detention for not being able to finish my math homework in class prior to lunch. I’d routinely eat alone because I wasn’t simply able to “get” the math work we had to do in class. As you can tell, the teacher was a real peach of a woman.
Needless to say, this affected me not only my entire second grade, but followed all throughout my school career and beyond. To this day I hate math and can feel all those feelings I had years ago when faced with a math problem that might be a little challenging.
Math. It was my worst subject in school (with the exception of multiplication). History? Loved it. Government? Yes please. English/Writing? Those were classes I could excel in. But math? Nope. I wanted nothing to do with it. I hadn’t really given my math issues much thought until about a week ago. And then as I was reading a few mornings ago, God gave me a math problem. Yup. You read that right. He straight up gave me a math problem to complete. But don’t worry, it’s a simple addition/subtraction math equation…
Check this out. It’s found in John chapter three, verse 30…
He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30
When it comes to mathematical equations, it’s pretty simple. But in life application, it doesn’t always equal easy. But it’s exactly what needs to happen in each of our lives… and John knew this truth for his life as well as ours.
You see, John chapter three records and talks about when Jesus came to Judea… Many people received Him and were being baptized. John the Baptist’s ministry was already established and doing really well (the Bible tells us that “people kept coming,”, but now people were going to Jesus rather than John. Not only were people going to Jesus, but verse 26 says that, “all were going to Him.”
John’s disciples were like, “What the heck? This isn’t cool.” To John’s disciples, John was “The Guy;” But John, knew he wasn’t. You see, John’s mission was to proclaim and point people to Jesus who is the Christ – The Actual Guy. John realized that his ministry success he experienced, people coming to him to baptize them, was the result of God’s blessing and not because of anything he said or did to make it happen (“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven” John 3:27). John describes himself as the best man at a wedding (in this case the marriage of Jesus and His Church) who understands that the groom is to be blessed, and that the best man’s joy flows from helping to bring the bride and the groom together on the day of the wedding (John 3:29).
Then, John declared this Kingdom principle, “He must increase, but I must decrease”. The reason for this statement comes from John’s next statement in John 3:31, “He who comes from above is above all ; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all.” The reason that Jesus must be increased is because He is above all and has all authority.
You see, this simple math equation takes our whole life to complete. And it means that we need to know where we stand in relation to Jesus. John knew where he stood. He knew that in order for Jesus to increase, he had to decrease. In order to gain more of Jesus, John knew that he had to give something up. You see, I think John gave up the hardest thing to give up… his ego. He was doing well, in terms of ministry… in terms of an occupation… in terms of a calling. People were coming to him to be baptized… a lot of people. Then, when Jesus showed up, they all went to Jesus instead. But John knew where he stood in relation to Jesus… and he knew what he had to give up. And bigger than where John stood in relation to Jesus… John knew where Jesus stood in his own life.
Can I ask you a question? What do you need to give up in order for Jesus to increase in your life? For some of us, it might be our ego. The desire to be known so much so that it over shadows Jesus. For others, it might be a secret relationship. Still, for others, it might be choosing that substance to cope in life and/or to ease some pain. So, what do you need to give up? Where does Jesus stand in your life?
Secondly, John didn’t misunderstand who Jesus was and is. As I look back over my life, I can look back and see how I misunderstood Jesus. Sometimes we simply miss Jesus because we simply misunderstand Jesus. As I look back on my second grade year, I couldn’t understand math because my math teacher misunderstood what I needed. Make no mistake, Jesus doesn’t misunderstand what you need… what I need… what we need. And John didn’t misunderstand who Jesus was and is. Check this out:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17
I think a lot of us misunderstand who Jesus is. We think of all the fun we can’t have if we follow God and His Word. We think of all the things that go away if we give our lives to Jesus. And that’s what I used to think when I was growing up. The churches we went to were boring. The people in the church were boring. It. Was. Freaking. B.O.R.I.N.G.
But that’s a misunderstanding of who Jesus is and what He came to give you and I. Not only did He love us so much that He came to give His life for us to save us. John 10:10 tells us that Jesus came so that we could live life to the full. John 3:29 says, “…For this reason (talking about Jesus increasing and John decreasing) my joy has been fulfilled.” You see, when Jesus increases and we decrease, then and only then will we experience true and life-long joy. The math equation of, “Jesus increases and I increase too” doesn’t equal lasting joy. We only get small intermittent glimpses of happiness that are connected to life’s fleeting moments. It’s only when Jesus increases and we decrease do we experience a true, life-long joy.
So, where do you stand in relation to Jesus? Where does Jesus stand in your life? What do you need to give up so that Jesus increases and you decrease. And is there, or has there been anywhere that you have misunderstood Jesus? It’s my prayer that I’m filled with more of what Jesus wants and desires in my life. And it’s my prayer that you are filled with more of Jesus in your life as well.
The Uniform You Wear
I. Loved. Getting. Dressed. To. Play. Baseball.
The pants. The jersey. The baseball cleats. And most of all… the stirrups. You see, the stirrups are what goes over the baseball socks. When I was growing up, these were a separate piece of the uniform. I used to love getting my baseball uniform. I looked forward to it each summer. I’d literally get dressed hours before a game just so I could wear my baseball uniform. Then, if I made the all star team, that meant another pair of special stirrups and another jersey… that if you simply wore an under sleeve with the baseball pants and the blue stirrups, everyone at the park knew what team you were on… it was a label of honor… proof that I was chosen for that team.
Uniforms. We all have worn one at some point in our life. Some of us still wear them today. Whether it’s for a sports team, a school uniform, or a uniform for work. We’ve all worn a uniform. Uniforms mark us. They say some things about us. Some uniforms we love to wear. We’re proud of how we look. And there are other uniforms we think are ugly. I’ve worn uniforms that I’ve loved. And I’ve worn uniforms that I’ve hated. Kroger, it was a great first job. But I hated the poop-brown uniform.
Uniforms. We’ve all worn them. And we all wear them now to a certain extent.
And I wonder, what kind of uniform do you suit up in? Each day, what uniform are you putting on? Is it a uniform of fear? Is it a uniform of worry? I want to ask you a question. Every time you wake up, what uniform are you putting on? Are you putting on a uniform of fear? You hear that voice that ‘you’re all alone and nobody is with you.’ Or do you put on a uniform of guilt and shame and you think you’ve done too many things that prevent you from making a difference or from God using you. Or maybe you put on the uniform of insecurity that tells you you’re not good enough or equipped to be the parent you want to be… the husband or wife you want to be… the employee you want to be… or the servant of God you want to be. How on earth can I do this? Maybe it’s a uniform of doubt. God surely can’t use me.
Every day you wake up, the enemy will try to get you to put on any other uniform other than the spirit of God and confidence and truth. The problem is, is that when we put on any other uniform of shame or guilt or incompetence or insecurity, then when we wake up we aren’t living our lives with authority, we’re not living with joy and confidence. We’re not parenting in a spirit of joy and confidence. Our relationships aren’t lived out of joy and confidence. But we should be the most joy-filled confident people on earth. God wants you to live your life in confidence and joy. And when we put on a uniform other than God’s uniform, I believe it breaks His heart every time we listen to the voice of the enemy as we live our lives.
I hope this doesn’t overwhelm you, but as a follower of Jesus, we are called to a life that shifts our community around us… to shift our children’s worlds… to shift the worlds of those we are in relationships with. He’s made us to bring heaven down to earth. God has given us that authority as believers in Jesus. And if you’re not a believer in Jesus quite yet, this is what God wants of you when you do become a believer in Jesus. But each time we wake up and put on a uniform of fear or insecurity or of shame we forfeit the opportunity to release joy, freedom, passion and love in the lives of those we do life with. And we weren’t created to wear a uniform other than the one God created for us to wear.
So how do we become people who wear the uniform God wants us to wear? You see, how you suit up when you wake up matters.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:10-11
This is the uniform God has for us to wear… the full armor of God. But that’s easier said than done right? So how can we daily put this armor on? How do we develop confidence to suit up?
First, don’t let your circumstance change your attitude or your confidence. Gideon, in Judges chapter six, battled insecurity and had a million reasons why he shouldn’t lead the Israelites. For seven years the Midianites demolished the Israelites stuff. When the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites invaded the country. When they invaded the country they ruined all of the crops and killed all of their livestock. For seven years this happened because of the evil that the Israelites did in the eyes of the Lord. So when the Israelites cried out to God for help, He sent them Gideon. So an angel of the Lord came to Gideon and said, “Yo, you’re the guy that’s gonna help conquer the Midianites." The angel of the Lord actually said to Gideon, “The Lord is with you mighty warrior.” Have you ever felt that God has called you something like that and you’re like, “What, really? Me?” And then Gideon says, “But if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” Gideon also says, “But how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Excuse after excuse after excuse. But the Lord replied to Gideon and said, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” Have you noticed that God tends to use the least over and over again throughout the Bible?
The very first thing that Gideon does is look at his circumstances. And this will be a temptation that you and I might do every time the Lord calls us to do something great or of great significance. The first thing that I do a lot is look at my circumstance and say I’m not good enough. I don’t have the influence. I don’t have the platform or the job title for that. And my circumstances become my excuse of why I can’t do what God has called me to do. The first thing that the enemy wants us to do is to think about our circumstances. When God calls you to do something great, the enemy will use every little thing to distract you from that great thing that God has called you to do. The enemy loves to distract us. But we can’t look at our circumstances and allow it to change our attitude and confidence. Even in the worst circumstances, God can do His best work. So don’t let your circumstances change your attitude and confidence. God is bigger than your circumstances.
Secondly, recognize the lies the enemy is telling you and replace them with God’s truth. Ninety-nine percent of the battle is fought in our own minds… what we believe or don’t believe about our own selves. And so we need to start to recognize the lies that are being fed into our minds by the enemy and replace them with God’s truth. Like, when you think you aren’t good enough or you’re nobody special, you think about and quote:
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Or, when you start believing in the lie that you’ll never do anything of any significance, start to think about and quote:
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Or, when the enemy starts to tell you that you’ll never overcome this fear, read and quote:
2 Timothy 1:7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
I don’t know what your lie is or what you’re facing. For me, it’s that I’m not good enough or smart enough and that God can’t use me because of my past. But those are lies from the enemy that I need to recognize and replace with the Truth from God’s Word.
And the third way to put on the uniform God has for us is to allow God to stretch us. You see, there are times where or what God calls us to will make us uncomfortable and/or nervous. As I look out over my life, specifically the last 20 years, there have been times where I’ve resisted the call of God because it would have made me uncomfortable. Instead of saying yes to the call of God, I said yes to the other thing that made me comfortable. You see, sometimes chasing after the comfortable could be you running from the call of God. And that was me 20 years ago… chasing after the comfortable. I think this came from TikTok, but over the last year or so, Morgan has wanted Jami and I to have a “yes day” where anything she asks for we have to say “yes” to. What would happen if we gave God “yes days?” No matter how uncomfortable we may feel, no matter how insecure we feel, no matter the fear we feel, we instead of saying no to God, we say yes to God. When we give God our yes, He in turn gives us confidence and blessing. Being obedient to God brings blessings to our lives and the lives we interact with. Can you imagine how different the world would be if we simply said yes more to God. I don’t know what God is calling you to do, but I encourage you to say yes. Give God a “yes day.” It may be scary, but it is always good.
You see, God wants us to have an Ephesians 3:20 life. Check this out:
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, Ephesians 3:20
God wants to do some crazy extraordinary things with your life. And if you’re obedient, I believe He will bring incredible blessing to your life as a result. Learn to put on God’s uniform in your life and to cultivate this God-confidence. Don't let your circumstances change your attitude and confidence. Recognize the enemy's lies and replace them with God's Truth. And allow God to stretch you and keep saying yes to God. That's how to wear the uniform God has called you to wear.
What Is It?
I miss the younger years of parenting. Not me being younger. But the kids being younger. Don’t get me wrong, I love parenting teenagers. As a parent, that’s my sweet spot. But I miss when they were two, three, four and five years old.
When they were that young, everything was new to them. And it was fun helping them experience those new things. Like jumping off the side of a pool. As a parent, you know the fun and joy they will experience. But for them, they haven’t experienced that joy quite yet. And so their focus was on the fear they feel. They’d look at me. Look at the ledge and the drop to the water. Then they’d look back at the cement they were standing on and would start to walk backwards to what was familiar. But after a few words to make them feel better and helping them “jump” into the water, they’d eventually trust their mommy and daddy and jump themselves.
Then, in the very same summer after trusting their daddy and jumping into the pool, I remember taking a trip to a water park with friends. You know what’s at water parks, right? Yup. Water slides. Once again, as a parent, I could look at that slide and my kids and know the joy they’d experience going down that slide into a pool of water. So I took the kids up to the top of the slide, talking up the excitement and how fun and cool it was going to be to slide down the water slide into a pool of water. But once we got up to the top of the slide, fear crept back in and they insisted on not going down the water slide. They instead wanted to go back down the stairs to the familiarity of what they already knew.
I don’t suggest this as a parent, but when Carter was four or five, I actually picked him up, sat him down, then pushed him down the slide as he screamed throughout the process. Once down, he came running back up to go down the slide by himself.
Time and time again through different experiences our kids would have to learn to trust and depend on their parent over and over again even though we’d proven trustworthy through previous experiences. Time and time again they’d crave and desire the familiar over choosing to depend and trust the call of their mommy and daddy. That doesn’t change with age. And it hasn’t changed throughout the years. What is true now, was and is true hundreds of years ago.
Check this out:
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. Exodus 16:1-3
Facing the question of where their next meal would come from made them question everything. The Scripture says, “they grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” I believe this is the first reference to a people being “hangry.” Only, it was more than simply being hangry. The Israelites actually wished they were back living as slaves in Egypt.
At this point, the Israelites had already experienced a number of miracles from the Lord. He had turned bitter water that they couldn’t drink into sweet water by having Moses throw a piece of wood into the water. And bigger still, they had just witnessed the Lord parting the Red Sea allowing the Israelites to walk across on dry land with a wall of water to their right and to their left. Once the Israelites had crossed, the Lord allowed the sea to flow again, washing the entire army of Pharaoh to their death.
But now, instead of trusting and having faith in the Lord, they begin to worry that they would die in the desert from hunger and they began to wish for the familiarity of what they had known. And they Lord heard the Israelites grumbling.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. Exodus 16:4
Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Exodus 16:8
In the midst of their worry and their grumbling the Lord heard them and decided to provide for the Israelites once again even as they were grumbling against Him. But this is the Lord’s character. You see, back in Exodus 13, as the Israelites were leaving Egypt, God decided to lead them on a longer path through the Red Sea instead of a shorter path through the land of the Philistines because God knew that if the Israelites faced war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.
Even when the Israelites didn’t know it, God was still looking out for and taking care of them. And, in the midst of their fear and grumbling of where their next meal would come from, God would still keep that commitment to the Israelites.
As I look back over my life, there have definitely been times where I can see how God took care of me… exactly when I didn’t even know it. Protection from dumb decisions I made as a teenager. Doors closing which led to better doors opening. The list could go on and on. And I’m sure, if you look back on your life, you would see the same thing.
So, here the Israelites are. Grumbling against a God who has already provided visual miracles for their safety. Grumbling against a God who had already provided protection that they didn’t know about. And now, Aaron is standing before them, speaking to the whole Israelite community. And as they looked toward the desert… the desert they’d be wondering through for 40 years… and what did they see?
The glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.
While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud. Exodus 16:10
In the midst of their fear. In the midst of their grumbling. In the midst of their worry and their desire to just go back to what is familiar. In the midst of their desert, the Lord God was there with them. What is true hundreds of years ago is still true today. While God was with the Israelites in their desert, God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit is with us in our desert. You see, God doesn’t just lead us through our desert, He’s there with us in it.
And then the Scripture goes on to say…
That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’” Exodus 16:13-16
The word, manna, literally means, “What is it?” That’s what the Israelites first reaction to what the Lord provided. Manna is the clear example of the Israelites’ dependence on God was. They had to rely on Him every day for 40 years just to survive. But this isn’t anything new, it’s just different. They had to rely on God to change Pharaoh’s mind to let them go. And when Pharaoh freaked out and changed his mind again, the Israelites had to rely on God to escape from Pharaoh’s army. Time and time again we see the Israelites’ dependence on God while in their desert. And when God says, “Trust me” to the Israelites one more time, we see them again wanting to go back to the familiar out of fear and worry. But God, each time, provided for the needs of the Israelites with just enough for each day… with exactly what they needed to survive for that day.
You see, what’s true hundreds of years ago, is true now…
God is acting on our behalf even when we don’t know it. God shows up in the midst of our desert. And God provides for all of our needs when we follow His Word, His guidance and keep His commands. I pray that you see the Lord and choose Him and His Word even as you read this now.
Are You Ready
As a kid, I loved looking forward to things that were good… Christmas. Birthdays. Getting my drivers license. My first day going away to college. And before college… the last day to any school year when that final bell rang and you got on that bus for the last time before summer.
Anticipation… for the good things, is a feeling like no other. Anticipation for something that isn’t good is… well… not anticipation… it’s dread. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the feeling of looking forward to something that’s good that’s around the corner. As an adult, this has become counting down the days before a family vacation to our favorite place in the States… Charleston, South Carolina.
Jami and I took a trip there last July for our anniversary… and we fell in love with that place. Now, we’re planning on taking our kids back there this June to see a Charleston Battery soccer game. And we can’t be more excited to show them what we experienced. Including showing Morgan the locations where Outer Banks is filmed! (In all honesty, I’m just as stoked to go back to those locations.)
I really can’t wait to get back to Charleston and take our kids along. I’m sure we all have our stories of anticipation. Childhood stories. Adulting stories. And as we read God’s Word, there’s another group of folks who might have had the same anticipation story as us. Check it out:
So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’” Joshua 1:10-11
For 40 years… FORTY. YEARS. The Israelites had been wandering around in the desert waiting for this moment. For 40 years they couldn’t enter the land that had been promised to them because of their disobedience to God. You see, God promised Abraham that there would be a Promised Land for the Israel nations to come out of his son, Isaac. And after God freed the Israelite slaves from Egypt through Moses, they ran low on their food to live. So much so that they wished they were back in the good old days of slavery in Egypt where they didn’t have to worry about where their food would come from. But God didn’t leave them to starve and instead provided manna to them all.
At one point, God told Moses to send twelve spies into the land of Canaan, one spy for every tribe of Israel. The spies went out and traveled the land for forty days. The spies came back and reported to Moses what they saw. The land was flowing with milk and honey. There were many places to grow food as farmers. But there were also many strong clans of people living there and many of the spies were afraid of them.
Caleb and Joshua wanted to lead the Israelites to take the land right away. They weren’t afraid of the Canaanites. The other spies lied and said that they saw very tall and strong people, some of them the size of giants. When the Israelites heard this, they became angry with Moses for leading them out of Egypt. They were afraid, too, and cursed God for bringing them there. They forgot God’s promise that he would help them.
God was angry with the Israelites for their complaints. They didn’t trust in Him no matter how many signs and gifts He gave to them. Moses prayed for forgiveness on behalf of the people. “Forgive the mistakes of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love,” he prayed. The Lord responded, “I do forgive, just as you have asked, but I will punish this generation of people for their lack of faith. You will wander in the desert for forty years, the same number as the number of days you spied out the land.”
Then, after 40 years, Joshua gives the order to the people… Get ready. You only have to wait THREE MORE DAYS! Can you imagine what they must have been feeling!? What must they have been thinking? The anticipation must have been like they hadn’t felt before.
The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. Moses and the Israelites had to have struggled at times throughout those 40 years. Life was probably hard at times. I don’t know where you’ve been these last 40 years. These last 40 months. Or these last 40 days. Maybe you’ve been through hell. It might have been rough at times. Things might have been a struggle. Life may have certainly been hard and in your life you may feel like you’ve been wandering.
But God is telling you right now that your promise land is waiting for you right now to cross over. God is telling you right now that there is a better life to be lived and that He will provide for you if you will simply put your trust and faith in Him. And while He has a promise land for you to find, just like the Israelites, in order to find it there’s a couple of things God wants you to do to see it.
First, keep your eye on the Word of the Lord and follow it. Then you will know which way to go… you will know how to live.
Joshua 3:3-4 says, “…When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”
You see, in order to know how to get to our promise land… In order for us to know how God wants us to live, we need to keep His word continuously in front of us. When we do that, then can we know how to get to the promise land He’s provided and how to live.
Second, consecrate yourselves to God. In other words, promise yourself to God and follow Him. Devote yourself to following God. It’s surrendering all of you to all of Him. It’s a simple recognition that every second of your time, every ounce of your energy, and every penny of your money is a gift from God and for God. Consecration is an ever-deepening love for Jesus, a childlike trust in your heavenly Father, and a blind obedience to the Holy Spirit.
Joshua 3:5 says, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”
When we consecrate ourselves to God… When we recognize that every second of our time, energy and money is a gift from God and for God, then can He do amazing things with and for and through our lives. Then can we enter the promise land.
I don’t know where you’re at right now. Whether you’re just entering your desert. Or whether you feel like you’ve been wandering for years. But I do know this, God wants you to enter your promised land. He has promised a better way of life. And it’s right around the corner waiting for you.
Can you feel the anticipation? I can. And God can too. The question is…
Are you ready for God's promised land in your life!?