Tag Archives: Abraham

God Didn’t Make You Do Anything

11 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by in Our Spiritual Process

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Who You Are

 

Sometimes our identity becomes what we think or believe God “makes” us go through in life. Have you ever thought or told someone else that God is making you do something? Abraham sure did. Listen to his words to King Abimelech.

and it came about, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house… Genesis 20:13

 

Abraham had drifted out of the Promise Land, lied about his wife being his wife, and allowed Sarah to be taken into Abimelech’s household… now he had some explaining to do. In his explanation, Abraham accused and blamed God for his troubles. The truth was… God didn’t “make” him do anything … he chose to be obedient the day he left Ur for God’s promise. God didn’t make him “wander“.

When we go through stuff in life (stuff being difficulties, hardships, and trials) it is easy to blame God. The truth is, like Abraham, we also choose our obedience. Stuff always happens because the devil will be given the opportunity to test our words and obedience. Unless we are dead to self and our desires, it can become easy to fall back into old patterns and blame God.

This is one of the reasons God changed Abraham’s name. It is why God calls us by different names. If we do not know who we are, how are we going to convince anyone else we serve the Lord. Like Abraham, God is not making us do anything, we choose our obedience. Calling our obedience anything else is an insult.

We choose our obedience. In other words, we must own our spiritual decisions. Our identity is not what we believe God makes us do, but it’s found in knowing who we are in Him. We are who He says we are. God called Abraham a prophet and told him to pray for Abimelech and his family in this chapter. This is the first mention of the word “prophet” and “prayer” in the Bible. Abraham found out a lot about himself and his mission after he was confronted with his disobedience. We will find our purpose and destiny too – once we repent, choose obedience and find our identity in the Lord.

 

Blessings – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor

 

 

Kingdom Awareness

29 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Kingdom of God, Luke

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Bride Not Harem

The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.  Luke 17:20-21

Jesus said people miss out on what God is doing in and around them because they fail to detect or discern what the Lord desires to accomplish in them personally.   In this verse Jesus calls His followers to become Kingdom Aware.

So are you Kingdom Aware?  Are you looking for the Lord to work outside you or inside?  When we are looking for the Lord’s action some other place rather than inside ourselves, we will probably miss the Lord’s movements.  I wear glasses.  Occasionally, I misplace them and go searching for them.  In desperation, I will finally ask my wife… “Have you see my glasses?”  She will give me one of those looks and say… “They are on top of your head!”  It is embarrassing.  It must have been embarrassing for Jesus’ followers to hear Him say, “Stop looking and expecting the Kingdom of God to arrive with physical signs…The Kingdom of God is within you.”   Jesus could have said, “Hey, stupid… the Kingdom is starring you in the face… can you feel me now?”  Jesus is, was, and will continue to be a perfect gentleman.

The major focus for Jesus was the Kingdom of God. It still is! The power of Rome and its occupying force was hardly a blip on the radar for Jesus, even though it was foremost in the minds of almost everyone else.  Jesus wasn’t concerned with the power of Herod, the Jewish leaders or even Pilate.  In fact, when Jesus was being questioned by Pilate at His trial, Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:10-11).

Jesus’ focus was not on the power of the government, but on the power of God. He stood before Pilate in complete confidence. What was it that freed Jesus from fear and gave Him such confidence? It was the constant awareness of the presence of the kingdom of God. The same Kingdom that ruled and reigned in Jesus’ heart and life should be ruling and reigning in ours as well.

Unfortunately, we miss Kingdom’s movements all the time.  Most of our favorite Bible characters did too.  It started in the garden with Adam and Eve. God told the first couple they could do anything they wanted and eat anything they wanted except for one small item.  As soon as they thought God was off somewhere snoozing, they proceeded to make a dinner of the forbidden fruit.  They acted as if God didn’t exist anymore.  Because God was absent, His presence didn’t seem to appear as important. Bottom-line, the first couple didn’t value the Presence of God or His Kingdom.

God broke into the world of both Abraham and his son.  He made special promises to both generations.   Apart from these special visitations, they seem to be unaware that the Lord was continually with them.  It was mainly during down times of testings and trials in which they doubted God’s word and forgot His promises.

Abraham’s grandson, Jacob was on the run when God spoke to him in a dramatic way.  While he was sleeping, the Lord revealed to him that earth and heaven were not two separate places, but connected. Jacob saw a ladder connecting heaven and earth with angels traversing in between. Jacob called the place “Bethel”, which means “house of God.”  He was partly correct.  God did live there, but He also lived everywhere.  This dream was not a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence…. it was an eternal truth about the Presence and Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is always waiting to be discovered by seekers.  Bethel was not an unusual experience for one man way back in history, but a reality for every person, in every place, in every time. How many of us have had times when God’s presence broke through into our everyday lives?  These experiences should have made us want more of God and His Kingdom.

I have had Bethel type experiences in prayer or when reading the Scripture, and I have had them when I least expected it. The point is, God is always trying to break through our world, if we will only be aware of Him. I believe God had been attempting to speak to Jacob many times earlier in his life, but he was not ready to experience Him.  It was only until Jacob became desperate enough and needed the Lord that the Lord was able to capture his heart.

At first Moses tried to force the Kingdom of God into action and killed a man in the process. It was not until Moses had spent a long time away from Egypt, and came to the point of desperation that he was ready for God to speak to him.

The Bible says, “There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up… When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’ ‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:2-5).

I believe that every place can be holy ground, and the only thing that keeps us from experiencing God is our willingness and readiness to experience Him.

Elijah may offer the best example of how the Kingdom of God should move in our life.  Elijah knew and experienced the power of God. He had witnessed God consume the sacrifice on Mount Carmel.  Immediately following this great victory, Queen Jezebel sought to kill him.  Feeling dejected and depressed Elijah ran. At this point he desperately needed a word but couldn’t get one from the Lord.

  • God sent a great a powerful cyclone, but the Lord voice couldn’t be heard in the cyclone.
  • God sent a great earthquake, but God’s voice was absent here as well.
  • Then the Lord sent a consuming fire that ravaged the area, but God was not in the fire.

NOTE: This is why it is never a good idea to attempt to discern God’s will right after a natural disaster.  Yet, you hear people all the time attempting to do so.  If you find it difficult to hear God in peaceful quiet times, how much more difficult do you think it will be to discern His voice when melee ensues.

Finally, Elijah heard God’s voice in a gentle whisper (small voice).  This gentle, small voice was so holy and full of the presence of God, it made Elijah pull his cloak over his head, cover his face and fall on his knees.

Maybe you have been in this place?  You desperately needed a word from the Lord, but couldn’t hear.  You sought for the Lord to speak in a big way, but heard nothing.  Later, God spoke in a still small voice.  Why does God move in this way?  Because the Kingdom of God will not arrive with signs to be observed… the Kingdom of God is within you.

The Good News is the Kingdom of God is coming!  The better news is even though God’s Kingdom arrives in small ways… it doesn’t have to stay small.  Jesus confirms to us that God’s Kingdom will grow if we water, nourish, and allow it to grow within us.  It is a mistake to believe that just because the Lord is quiet at times, He is not with us.  Our job is to be constantly Kingdom aware. We bless the Lord when we value His presence whether we sense it or not.  Keep Seeking!

Blessings – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor

Why Doesn’t God Stop Me?

08 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in Dying to Self, Luke

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Sin Would be so Attractive

 

I have had the opportunity to talk to a lot of Christians who have fallen into deep sin. Occasionally, some of these folks have opened up and confessed something like this…“When I first started to drift into sin, I noticed God didn’t stop me. If it was so wrong, why didn’t God stop me? Since God didn’t do anything, I assumed it was alright to proceed. So I kept sinning because God didn’t do anything.” I have even had people tell me after they were married,“I knew I shouldn’t have married this person, but God didn’t say ‘No’. Why didn’t God stop me? Since God didn’t say anything, I thought it must have been alright.”

Why doesn’t God stop people from sinning, especially from participating in “big sins“? Shouldn’t God’s voice get louder when we are about to commit some whopper sized sin? God doesn’t stop us from sinning for the same reason He didn’t stop Adam and Eve from eating the forbidden fruit. God didn’t stop Adam and Eve for the same reason He didn’t stop Noah from making moonshine and exposing himself. God didn’t stop Noah for the same reason He didn’t stop Abraham from lying to everybody he met about his wife being his sister. God doesn’t stop us because He loves us and gives us the freedom to choose.

In Luke 15 we are introduced to the story of a loving father who allowed his younger son to walk out the door with his inheritance in tow. This younger son insulted his father by asking for his inheritance early, long before his father passed. The son basically treated his father like he was dead. I am sure the father was wounded by this harsh demand, but he granted it. He basically said, “If you want to act and live like your father is dead, then go ahead… I will let you. It will hurt and wound me, but you are free.”

God doesn’t stop us from sinning for the same reason the father in Jesus’ parable didn’t fling himself across the door and say, “Stop it son, I won’t let you leave!” It is not the nature of God. God loves each of us so much, He allows us to make our own choices, even though He knows what the consequences will be. Even though some consequences are more devastating than others, He voice will not modulate.

There’s a very important principle all believers need to understand. We cannot sever our relationship with God, but we can break fellowship with Him. The whole time the prodigal son was away, he was still a son but He had left the presence and favor of his Father. Christians can do this. Through Jesus Christ we have a “blood relationship” with God… Jesus’ shed blood. Even though we break fellowship with God, the blood relationship remains… we are still His children.

Once you become a Christian, God establishes a love relationship with you. He is your Father and nothing can ever change this. But if you choose to rebel and disobey the Father, He’ll allow it. He will never leave you, but if you walk out of fellowship with Him–He will let you go. One of the messages of the Bible is that God loves us so much we are free to go. He will never force any of us to stay in fellowship with Him. So, if we are bound and determined to do something as foolish as walking out on God, He won’t stop us. This is how so many believers have gotten themselves into their messes. God doesn’t coerce obedience and loyalty; He wants us each to freely love and serve Him.

 

Blessings – From God’s Incubator

Pastor

 

Christmas Present

24 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by in Christmas

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A W Tozer - Quote

 

A lot of folks get a little melancholy around Christmas time. Thinking about Christmas’ past makes them get a little whimsical. Nothing wrong with this as long as you don’t stay in that place.

Christmas always reminds me that a new year is coming. It is a fresh opportunity to start new… to get a fresh word from heaven… to get new revelation and relevant marching orders for the new year. I don’t want to be stuck in Christmas past. I want to live in Christmas present with hope in Christmas future.

Don’t get me wrong… I believe we should learn from the past. But when you hear believers constantly chirping about the past…”what God did” or “how the Lord used to move” …. It is easy to get stuck worshiping, talking, and focusing upon what God did yesteryear. We must remind ourselves that our God is the great “I Am“!

  • I don’t want to only read about Noah, I want to be Noah in my generation.
  • I don’t want to only study about Abraham, I want to be a “Father of Faith” to my generation.
  • I don’t want to simply admire Kind David, I want to be a “Warrior of Worship” to my generation.
  • I don’t want to just marvel the prophet Elijah, I want to walk in that same power in my generation.

When we get stuck in the past, we only examine “What God did.” We lose focus on “what God is doing right now.” I love hearing stories about evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and saints of old. They inspire me. But, what about today…isn’t God doing anything fresh and relevant now?

Yes! He is for those willing to get their head and spirit out of Christmas past. The hardcore faith of Noah, Abraham, and others is still available to each and every believer willing to seek the Lord for a fresh revelation. Stop saying, “I wish I had so-and-so’s faith.” Allow the Lord to speak into your “now”. The Lord will speak and move if you are looking for Him in your present.

All this reminds me of the young nun who was on a much desired mission assignment to the Apache Indians. She was so excited that she drove past the last gas station without noticing she needed gas. She ran out of gas just a mile down the road and had to walk back to the station. The attendant told her he would like to help her, but he had no container to hold the gasoline.

Sympathetic to her plight, he agreed to search through an old shed in the back for something that might suffice. The only container which would hold fuel was an old bedpan. Not to be detained any longer, the grateful nun told him the bedpan would work just fine. She carried the gasoline back to her car, taking care not to drop an ounce. When she got to her car, she carefully poured the contents of the bedpan into the tank.

A truck driver pulled alongside and noticed the care given as the nun was emptying the container into the tank. He rolled down his window and yelled to her, “I wish I had your faith, Sister!”

See, you don’t need someone else’s faith. I believe the Lord has a fresh word for you today. This word will change your life and those around you. Maybe you will be the one we all will be telling stories about next Christmas. Lets all strive to be “children of the burning heart.”

 

Blessings,

Pastor

Testing the Blessing (3) – To Make us Deeper and More Productive

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Abraham: Life of Faith

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If I were to take a survey among Christians asking, “Does your personal faith need testing and trials?”  Most would tell me their personal faith is in good shape.  Yep, most believe they are in very good shape.  James, Paul and Jesus paint a different picture for the average believer.  In James we are told…

the testing of our faith … produces endurance, and endurance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:4 )

 

Paul tells us that

suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.” (Romans 5:3-5)

 

Jesus paints a picture so clear, it cannot be ignored.

every branch (or believer) that bears fruit “he prunes so that it may be more fruitful”.

 

In reality, most of us are like a nail in search of a hammer.  A nail would certainly question the value of a hammer. To the nail, the hammer is a cruel instrument. But what it doesn’t see is that each blow forces the nail to bite deeper and hold more effectively. Without the hammer, the nail would have no purpose in life.

If metal had feelings it probably would question being scrapped by a file and being thrown in furnace. Metal doesn’t want to be shaped and is quite comfortable remaining the same shape. The rough scraping of the file would seem tortuous, but it is necessary to fit the metal for its part. The furnace would be met with screams and dread, but the furnace is necessary to purify and strengthen the metal.

 

Chuck Swindoll has some great words concerning this illustration.

Heartaches and disappointments are like the hammer, the file, and the furnace. They come in all shapes and sizes: unfulfilled romance, a lingering illness, and untimely death, an unachieved goal in life, a broken home or marriage, a severed friendship, a wayward and rebellious child, a personal medical report that advised immediate surgery, a falling grade at school, a depression that simply won’t go away, a habit you can’t seem to break.  Sometimes heartaches come suddenly . . . other times they appear over the passing of many months, slowly as the erosion of earth.  Do I write to a “nail” that has begun to resent the blows of the hammer? Are you at the brink of despair, thinking that you cannot bear another day of heartache? Is that what’s gotten you down? As difficult as it may be for you to believe this today, the Master knows what He’s doing. Your Savior knows your breaking point. The bruising and the crushing and melting process is designed to reshape you, not ruin you. Your value is increasing the longer He lingers over you. [Encourage Me p. 36]

 

Abraham certainly wondered “why”. “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” (Genesis 22:2) Perhaps he felt like a nail being attacked by a hammer. But Abraham also understood that the nail and the hammer were both held by the hand of the Lord. He knew that God knew what He was doing and so he trusted him.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

Testing the Blessing (2) – To Keep Us From Getting Distracted

09 Wednesday May 2012

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In a time of momentary victory, what gets most of us so distracted that we forget where we were, how we got there, and where we should be going?   We forget our purpose and destiny.  This may have been the danger with Abraham. Maybe he became so satisfied with Isaac and the sweetness of knowing God’s promise fulfilled. Maybe he forgot the real goal was not Isaac, but the Lord.

How common is this in our lives? We experience the blessing of the Lord and become satisfied with the blessing instead of in the One who originally blessed us. When times are good we often find that our spiritual life grows stale, our prayer looses intensity, our Bible study becomes sporadic, our worship becomes optional, and our giving becomes superficial.

All of a sudden a trial or test arrives from nowhere and rouses us from our spiritual coma. In our slumber, we discover God wants us to continue to strive for holiness. He wants us to hunger for a relationship with Him and not settle for the blessings He gives.

I had a colleague who was invited to give a devotional at a ladies missionary meeting.  She pondered what to share to this group.  Eventually, she remembered a word the Lord had given her four weeks prior.  In fact, she had shared that same word several times to other groups.  She decided to go with it, instead of developing something new.   She related to me afterward that the devotional didn’t have any impact upon the group or upon her.  In other words, there was no anointing or unction in what she shared.    As she prayed about it afterward, the Lord spoke these words to her. “You offered up stale bread.  That word was one I gave you weeks ago. At that moment in time, it was fresh bread and now it is stale. You haven’t sought Me since, therefore there wasn’t any fresh bread coming out of the oven.  You didn’t have anything fresh to give that ladies group and that is why the devotional was flat and lacked anointing. Don’t rely on stale bread.”

I have been in church services when people stood up to give testimonies.  Some could only relate what God had done in their lives years ago.  Thus, they only offered stale bread.  What a travesty! We all need to be asking, “is God speaking and moving in my life today?” The answer is He wants to move today… not just yesterday.

Abraham and Sarah probably had a thousand pats-on-the-back and a thousand congratulations.  Why not, they were a hundred years old when God graciously moved.  But, this wasn’t the end, simply the beginning. The Lord wants us to seek His “well done” everyday.  He wants us to seek holiness, not just the comfort knowing we once were victorious. So times of testing often come to get us back on track.

When were your most intense prayer times?  When did you felt closest to the Lord?  I’m ashamed to say that my most intense and focused prayer times were often during intense battles with Satan and during times of tremendous need.  These occurred not on mountain tops but in valleys.

We see our life most clearly in the difficult times. We search for the Lord most intensely when trouble looms. It doesn’t have to be that way . . . but most often it is.  The next time you are tempted to complain in the storm, remember that very storm may have been sent to take you to the next level.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

 

 

Growing, Growing, Until Its All Gone!

07 Monday May 2012

Posted by in Abraham: Life of Faith

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Isaac grew and sometime between the age of three and five years old he was fully weaned. This was an important and joyous occasion because a child which reached this age was far more likely to survive to adulthood. The family celebrated this event with a great feast. But there was trouble brewing just under the surface. (Genesis 21:8)

Ishmael, who by now was a young man between sixteen and eighteen years old, would not have seen this as a reason to celebrate. Isaac’s survival meant he would not receive Abraham’s fortune or God’s covenant blessings.  So Ishmael began to “mock”- i.e. persecute Isaac.

 

But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. (Galatians 4:29)

 

Sarah understood this to be more than just childish play. She realized as long as Ishmael was around, he would be a threat to Isaac inheriting the promise and blessings of God.  She suggested that Abraham “get rid of that slave woman.”  I find it interesting to note Hagar’s status in the past twenty years.  She began as a handmaid to Sarah. Then she was promoted to be Abraham’s second wife.  Once the promised seed Isaac was born, Sarah called her a “slave.” How we view things differently when God’s promises come to pass in our life.  How differently we talk when we want freedom for ourselves and our children.  If we would just view and speak the way God speaks before the promise comes to pass.

 

Getting the Fraudulent Heir out of Their Hair

 This was a most difficult situation.  Ishmael was still Abraham’s son.   For the last sixteen years he has fathered this boy and loved him.  How could Abraham just toss Ishmael out?  Wouldn’t this be considered child abuse?

Understand, the more critical the issues are, the more critical our obedience. I could literally spend a whole day talking about the ramifications of the decision Abraham made by sending Hagar and Ishmael away. Some have even suggested that Abraham should have sacrificed Ishmael for the future good of the world and Middle East Peace. But this is man’s solution, not the Lord’s.

The real issue here was who would be the heir according to the Promise of God?  God made it clear many years earlier that Isaac was the ONLY child He would receive.  Why could only Isaac be the heir?  Was God being unfair or hard nosed by not receiving Ishmael?  No, Isaac had to be the heir because this was God’s original word.  (By the way… When you have to use the word “orginal” and “God’s word” in the same sentence, something is wrong!) If Abraham’s heir was from any other woman, God’s word would be false and He would be a liar.

What should Abraham and Sarah do?  They have birthed the Promised Child, but in the process have also birthed Ishmael. Should they allow God’s Promised Child to grow up as rivals in the same home with the fraudulent heir?  Should they simply let Isaac fight it out with Ishmael. No, Sarah had a word from the Lord.  “Hagar and Ishmael must go!”

Let me chase a rabbit for just a moment.  Gentlemen….use your spouse’s discernment. What we cannot see due to our proximity to the problem, our wives can easily discern.  Listen, your wife was not given to you by God to torture you.  No, God has blessed you with a helper. This is especially true in the areas of discernment. It is high time you use her gifting.

At some point-in-time we have to give back to God all our sins, errors, and mistakes. Most of these are birthed by our own hands.  Even though we did it doesn’t mean it has to remain this way.

Abraham did exactly what the Lord told him to do and sent Hagar and Ishmael walking. But don’t think for a moment God had abandoned Hagar and Ishmael.  This was the God’s best for both camps. Now God could provide Ishmael the one thing Abraham could not give him, legitimacy.  In Abraham’s world Isaac must be God’s chosen heir.

God cared deeply for Ishmael.  He had previously told Hagar He would take care of them and we learn later that is exactly what the Lord did.

All those who choose to walk in the promises of the Lord must follow the same process as Abraham and Sarah.  What “fleshly impediments” have we left uncrucified which are now challenging God’s real or legitimate work in our life?

 

 

Paul likens the removal of Ishmael with the removal of the flesh. (Galatians 4-5) Why must the “flesh” be removed?  Like Ishmael, the flesh challenges, mocks, and ultimately persecutes the Lord’s spiritual work in our life. If you are going to walk in the Spirit and Power of God, then you must remove the impediments to the Spirit of God. These impediments are our flesh, which belong to our old nature. That which is fleshly can never inherit the promises of God. The Ishmael in you must go!

Allow the Lord through His Holy Spirit to point out to you what things you have allowed to grow in your flesh. Remember, it is these very things which choke the real legitimate work God has desired to accomplish in you. The flesh rivals God’s promises to us. This is one of the main reasons why many men and women of God miss their ultimate calling in life.  They have yet to ask the Holy Spirit to examine them for needless fleshly growths. If you are sitting there today and you want to move higher in your walk than ever before… this is the move you need to make.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

 

 

Blaming Someone Else for Our Failure

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

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We Miss God’s Plan for Our Life When… We Blame Someone Else for Our Failure.

Then Sarai said to Abram, You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.(Genesis 16:5)

 

I am sure Abraham said to himself; “What have I done? It was all my wife’s idea.  If she hadn’t insisted on me sleeping with Hagar, then I wouldn’t be in this mess.”  Even though assessing and shifting blame makes us feel better, it accomplishes nothing. The moment we begin to blame others, we lock ourselves into permanently missing God’s will.  Why?  Because we never come to the knowledge of the truth about our own condition.  There is no room for confession and repentance.  If this happens, we hinder ourselves from coming back into God’s will.

How many times has it been beneficial for you to say, “It’s his fault or it’s her fault?”   Has this type of rationalization helped your spiritual walk or simply comforted your flesh?  Everyone loses when we try to play the “blame game.”

 

People who are out to find fault seldom find anything else.

 

In our passage it was Sarah who blamed Abraham for the problems with Hagar’s conception. Maybe Abraham remained quiet because he knew he had stepped out of God’s will.  Even if we blame no one else but ourselves… it is wasted time and energy. The reason is because we don’t move on to learn from our mistakes and correct them.  The time and energy you could have spent on making a U-turn is spent on blaming yourself.

It appears all parties here in this story hope their “problem” would simply disappear.  Sarah mistreated Hagar and Hagar left. Notice Abraham didn’t send a search party to find Hagar, and Sarah wasn’t pleading for Abraham to go out and find her. God has a way of making us deal with our mistakes rather than hoping they take care of themselves.

The story is told of two hunters who came across a bear so big that they dropped their rifles and ran for cover. One man climbed a tree while the other hid in a nearby cave. The bear sat down between the tree and the cave. Suddenly, the hunter in the cave came rushing out, almost ran into the waiting bear, hesitated, and dashed back in the cave. The same thing happened a second time. When he emerged the third time, his friend frantically called out, “Woody, are you crazy? Stay in the cave till he leaves!” “Can’t,” panted Woody. “There’s another bear in there.”

Running only causes our problems to reappear. Whenever we run away from problems we need remember we will often face very same or similar problems down the road. What we don’t deal with today, we will deal with someday.  Running doesn’t solve anything. Even if everyone seems to agree with you, if you are running away from problems and conflicts in your life, you are running the wrong way. Even if everyone is running alongside of you, you are wrong.

The best course of action is to always take it to the Lord, confess, repent, and get directions on how to solve the problem.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

What Happens When We Abandon God’s Timing…

22 Sunday Apr 2012

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We Miss God’s Plan for Our Life When…

We Abandon God’s Timing and Settle for Self Timing

 

So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. (Genesis 16:3)

 

It is a mistake to forsake Godly foresight, especially when it is surely given.  One mistake often births a second and then a third.  I don’t know about you, but I barely recover from one detour, never mind a second or third detour.  The scriptures reveal that Ishmael was born because Abraham and Sarah couldn’t wait any longer. Because they couldn’t wait for God, they also failed to detect the potential disaster their mistakes would create for millennia to come.

Now maybe you still don’t think that looking ahead is important and disobeying God is no big deal. Maybe you think that your mistakes are “your mistakes” and they do not affect anyone else.  As believers, it is imperative we look ahead and seek Godly foresight.

Our sins, errors, or mistakes have lasting consequences.  In the case of our passage today, Abraham and Sarah missed the fact that their “Ishmael” would create dissention.  First, Hagar and Sarah began to argue and disagree due to jealousy and envy.  Eventually, God’s promised child was born.  Now this same dissention carried over to the next generation.  As you know, the conflicts between the seed of Abraham (Isaac and Ishmael) continue to this day.  Does all this seem like a good idea? What seemed like a good idea soon became a colossal disaster.  Now it might have seemed like a good idea for Abraham to have a son by Hagar, after all Sarah was too old, but they failed to look ahead.

Have you ever received a speeding ticket?  Did you conclude, “I shouldn’t have received that ticket.  I wasn’t speeding.”  But I ask – Are there consequences to speeding?  You may think not if you conclude… “There are no consequences if I don’t get caught.”

Yet the ones who do not get caught are the same ones who wreck and cause others to wreck or kill themselves.  Speeding has consequences.  One teenager in Philadelphia has received 440 tickets! He faces possible fines of up to $88,000, 6 years in prison, and a lifetime ban on driving.

One of our prayers should be –  “Lord, catch me now.  Give me a ticket now before I make a big mistake.  Help me to look ahead with Godly foresight. Help me to slow down and go in Your speed and time.”

SPEEDING – Is thinking your “time” is more important than the law.

SPIRITUAL SPEEDING – Is thinking God is moving too slow, therefore I need to speed things up.

If God were passing out spiritual speeding tickets today or if Gabriel were to pull you over, would he give you a spiritual speeding ticket for getting out of God’s timing?  It is far better for the Lord to “ticket” you before you get out of His timing and bring lasting consequences upon you and your family.

  • Sometimes we must wait so God can prepare us for what lies ahead.
  • Sometimes God makes us wait so that He can work on some weaknesses we have.
  • Sometimes God makes us wait to strengthen our faith.
  • Sometimes God makes us wait to benefit those who are watching our life.
  • Sometimes God makes us wait in order to give us His very best, not just what is adequate for the moment.
  • Sometimes God makes us wait for reasons only He knows.

Whatever the case, the better choice is to wait upon the Lord.

 

Blessings,

Pastor

Lot, A Believer Who Never Grew Up

12 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in Abraham: Life of Faith

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 1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?  1 Corinthians 3:1-3

 

This verse explains exactly why Lot was in such awful spiritual shape. He never grew in his faith or out of Abraham’s shadow. He only grew to a certain stage because he never pursued God outside Abraham’s faith.  The end result was that Lot was spiritually dwarfed. Lot’s heart continued to pursue things of the world rather than spiritual things.

Lot had a righteous soul but was living in sin and was miserable because of it. He was trying to have the best of two worlds. That prevented him from being able to enjoy either one. He felt all twisted inside and had a continual knot in his stomach that just would not go away, no matter how he tried to get rid of it.

Did you know that Christians can be more miserable that nonbelievers?  You would think that even in their worst state, a Christian would still score less on the misery index.  Why?  It is absolutely impossible to live in two worlds.

I grew up under TVA power lines and heard them constantly buzz from the flow of electricity. I used to wonder why birds never got electrocuted standing on those hot wires all day.  I came up with all sorts of reasons why the birds did not die.  I began to believe if I climbed the tower and grabbed the wire, I too would not be shocked.  How faulty was this thinking?

Before I ever had the opportunity to try out his little experiment, someone told me the truth.  The reason that the birds were not hurt was because they were touching nothing but the cable.  I, on the other hand, could not reach the cable without being connected to something else that was touching the ground. The reason the electricity would kill me is because I would have tried to grab hold of something high in the sky without letting go of his world below.

Lot fought those same temptations. He wanted the high-powered cable in the sky, but he also wanted the life on the ground. Since he could not let go, he was suffering greatly.

What causes a person to continue living in the midst of a situation that is tormenting their very soul?  They have no true peace or joy.  They can’t fully enjoy sin in reality. Did the king of Sodom chain Lot to the city gate?  Was Lot made to live in Sodom or was he free to leave at any time?  Even though Lot was free to leave, he was bound.

A rancher once described how cows wander off and get lost.  “The cow starts nibbling on a tuft of green grass, and when it finishes, it looks ahead to the next tuft of green grass and starts nibbling on that one, and then it nibbles on the tuft of grass right next to the hole in the fence. It then sees another tuft of green grass on the other side of the fence, so it nibbles on that one and then goes on to the next tuft. The next thing you know the cow has nibbled itself into being lost.”

I have never talked to one believer who thought or said, “Today I am going to start wandering away from God and in a few weeks or months I will be so far away I will be unable to connect with Him.”  No, most gradually nibble their way right out of the green pastures God has provided. The means may differ, but the result is the same.

This is a real life story to illustrate how quickly things can get mixed up when we go the wrong way.   A woman attended a large funeral at a church one afternoon.  Since she had appointments to make later in the day, she decided not to join the procession to the cemetery, but to just go her separate way after the funeral. After the service she drove out of the parking lot as planned. However, as she reached the street, the officer directing traffic slapped a sticker on her car and instructed her to put on her headlights. Then he signaled her to fall into line with the other cars going to the cemetery. She rolled down her window to explain that she wanted to go in the opposite direction, but he had already moved on to the car behind her. It was too late. She was stuck.

Feeling awkward, she had no choice but to follow the long line of cars winding its way to the cemetery. Along the route, she noticed the entrance to a supermarket parking lot. She suddenly had a clever idea, she thought, then she acted upon it. With resolve, she turned into the driveway to pull herself out of the string of cars. At last, she assumed, she was free and could proceed to her appointments. But to her horror, the entire procession behind her followed her into the supermarket parking lot! It took half an hour and two policemen to straighten out the confusion. Furthermore, she missed all of her appointments because of the delay.

Sometimes, for seemingly innocent reasons, we allow ourselves to be forced into following the crowd. When that happens, we must force ourselves to break away from the wrong direction we are going, and proceed on to our God-appointed direction.  Even though we are believers, unless you and I take appropriate action we all will be drawn into the world’s gravitational pull. The world wants us to go with its flow, which can often seem so reasonable and logical to the natural mind, but we must only flow with the Holy Spirit if we are to live a victorious, fruitful life.

 

Blessings,

Pastor