Yes, YOU can!

Have you ever side-stepped an invitation to do something because you doubt yourself? Maybe you were urged to apply for a job and decided, last minute, not to go for it, questioning your ability. We all know that over-confidence can land us in a real mess. However, a more common issue is the failure to live fully because of fear.  A crisis of confidence is not unique to you or me. It happens to us all.

Moses, the one-time prince of Egypt, failed and ran off to the wilderness, where he disappeared into obscurity, tending Jethro’s sheep for 40 years! Then, in the purposes of God, it was time! Israel needed a leader and God knew the right man for the job. God met Moses at a miraculously burning bush in the desert. It was aflame, yet not being consumed. When the shepherd saw it, he was intrigued and on investigation, found that the LORD used the phenomenon to get his attention! Once He had Moses’ focus, He called him to return to Egypt and deliver his people from slavery, leading them to the land of promise.  

So did Moses say, "Great! When do I start?"   That is not the way it went. He grasped the apparent impossibility of the job, looked at his resume which included murder and flight to avoid prosecution, and asked God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”(Exodus 3:11, NIV)   In the dialogue with the Lord he points out his inability and God answers, not by reminding him of his charisma, intelligence, education, or court access.  

 God says to Moses -I'll be with you! … "The LORD said to him, “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." (Exodus 4:12, NIV)  

You and I share a high calling, too!  We are ministers of grace, agents of reconciliation, and ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. We are invited to live a holy life and to extend His rule into a world in rebellion, to lead those who are captive of Satan's deception, out of the darkness into the Light!  Which one of us is smart enough, pure enough, to be able to say, "Follow me as I follow Christ."?  (1Corinthians 11:1)  Not one, no one. If we look only to our training or our natural abilities as a qualification for taking up the call of God, we will say, “Lord, you have the wrong person here. Look for another.”  

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, a prideful bunch, people who were abusing spiritual gifts and failing to truly honor God. He tells them the true Source of their strength is God, the Spirit.

"Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.. . .   who is equal to such a task?. . . Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Corinthians 2:14-16; 3:4-6, NIV)

Meditate on these words from the Word.  Humbly thank God, the Holy Spirit, for empowering you for the task, then just do it.  Let Him amaze you with how much He can make of so little! 

"You light a lamp for me.
The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.

In your strength I can crush an army;
with my God I can scale any wall.

God’s way is perfect.
All the Lord’s promises prove true.

He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.

For who is God except the Lord?
Who but our God is a solid rock?

God arms me with strength,
and he makes my way perfect.

He makes me as surefooted as a deer,

enabling me to stand on mountain heights."  
(Psalm 18:28-33, NLT)

Now, let’s go in His strength and lead people to the Promised Land. Ready?

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Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

(A song that talks about His invitation.

God used this song to comfort Bev and me when we faced her cancer.)

You call me out upon the waters

The great unknown where feet may fail

And there I find You in the mystery

In oceans deep my faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise

My soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters

Your sov'reign hand will be my guide

Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me

You've never failed and You won't start now

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Saviour

I will call upon Your name

Keep my eyes above the waves

My soul will rest in Your embrace

I am Yours and You are mine

Joel Houston | Matt Crocker | Salomon Ligthelm

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Not Forgotten!

What encouragement I found in the story of Israel today, a reminder that in the worst of times, the Lord is present – but we do not always sense Him there, do we? When we make a long journey through sorrow, when we do our best with few visible results, when major disappointment comes our way, we can be tempted to reach the conclusion that God does not know or does not care. Are you in that place this morning?

Exodus opens with Israel in Egypt, grown from a small clan into an enslaved people. The favored status that they had known under Joseph was lost since gone. They had become the labor force of Egypt, building Pharaoh’s cities, a people without a future. About 4 centuries came and went since their grandfathers came to Egypt seeking relief from famine. When they prospered, the Egyptians responded by taking away their freedom, killing their sons, and making them slaves. Where was God?

The inspired text says "Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites still groaned beneath their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their pleas for deliverance rose up to God. God heard their cries and remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He looked down on the Israelites and felt deep concern for their welfare." (Exodus 2:23-25, NLT)  Let’s focus on four verbs – God heard! God remembered! God saw! God knew! 

And, He had already started the process of their deliverance, though neither the Israelites or Moses were yet aware of that. When we read their story, we do so knowing the outcomes, years of experience compressed into a chapter or two. With our perspective, we wonder why they were afraid, faithless, and failing. 

When we are living life, working through the trials, waiting on the Lord – it is so different. A month of struggle seems endless, doesn’t it?  The Word should remind us that we are not forgotten, that God has not abandoned us to work it out alone.  In the middle of the night, the prayers of the Israelites were cries, “God help us. Save us.” And, nothing happened …. It seemed.  

God was there, unseen for the moment, but active.

Centuries later in the history of the people of God, they were once again subjected to the power of their enemies. Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by Assyria, the best and brightest taken to be slaves in Babylon. They felt abandoned. Isaiah reminds them of God’s care. "But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." (Isaiah 49:14-16, NIV)  His love for them was as intense as that of a nursing mother for her infant. Their names, He says, are written like a reminder on His hands.

He is near you today, too. The choice we make is one of faith. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about intense persecution that nearly drove him to despair. People rejected his message. There were attempts to kill him. The law was used against him. Was it hard? You judge as you read his words. “We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken.”  Been there?  Here is the truth - God hears! God remembers! God sees! God knows!  

Let this word from the Word inspire you. Paul, after telling of the troubles he knew, says that God’s Spirit resides in him, like a ‘treasure stored in an ordinary clay pot.’  Don’t you love that? God’s Spirit is with us today. "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NIV)

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Lord I Need You

(A prayer in song.)

Lord I come I confess

Bowing here I find my rest

And without You I fall apart

You're the one that guides my heart

Lord I need You oh I need You

Ev'ry hour I need You

My one defense my righteousness

Oh God how I need You

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more

Where grace is found is where You are

And where You are Lord I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

Where You are Lord I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

So teach my song to rise to You

When temptation comes my way

And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You

Jesus You're my hope and stay

And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You

Jesus You're my hope and stay

Lord I need You oh I need You

Ev'ry hour I need You

My one defense my righteousness

Oh God how I need You

My one defense my righteousness

Oh God how I need You

Christy Nockels | Daniel Carson | Jesse Reeves | Kristian Stanfill | Matt Maher

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Working with the Lord?

When we are exhausted by life, there is a common symptom:  complaining! We begin to feel that nothing is good enough, that no one is on our side. The food isn’t right. The music is too loud/soft. Angry, sometimes bitter, emotions flourish like weeds in our soul and we start to see only the bad, the unpleasant, the hard. When I hear myself whining too much about too many things, I know it is time for an attitude adjustment. I sometimes speak myself aloud - “Jerry, just give it a rest!”  If possible, my next choice is to find some time to pray and praise, to ask God for a reset of mind and heart.  In those choices I find renewed hope, the sun shines brighter!

Do you know that God cares for you?

We fret, stress, and struggle trying to make life into what we think it ought to be.  All the while, the Lord says, “Give it a rest!”   "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7, NIV)  Jesus also reminds us that for all our worrying we cannot ‘add a single hour to life!’  God does not ask us to minimize our concerns or to pretend that life has no stress, but He invites us to let Him care, to entrust those things that we cannot control to Him. By faith we can choose to enter into a place of rest, even in the most difficult of circumstances. 

In the Psalm that celebrates God care for us (23) there is a wonderfully strange line - “You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies!”  David says that God makes dinner for him right on life’s battlefield!  Dinner can be  respite at the end of a busy day, a time to reconnect with family and renew body and soul. God says that when the war of life rages, He offers dinner – renewal, hope, rest, and restored strength.

On this Monday morning draw strength for the challenges of this new week from the Spirit. Present yourself, your needs, your responsibilities to Him. Please know this:  God’s rest is not about retiring from life, about finding a place away from engagement with the world. He wants us to learn to work with Him. When we learn to work with His strength, we multiply our effectiveness. When we strive, fret, push, and press ourselves to prove to Him that we deserve His blessings our efforts become dutiful, exhausting, and often more about appearance than substance.  There is a better way!

Find it as you meditate on Jesus’ words. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV)   He wants to come alongside and bear the weight. Will you allow Him to do that?  There is rest waiting. No, not the kind of rest we find in a hammock in the backyard on a Summer afternoon.  It’s a sense of fulfillment and purpose that comes from knowing He is pleased with us. 

Our word from the Word is that same passage from The Message: "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message)

________

Abba, the conspiracy of evil will attempt to
draw me into hurry and worry.

In that place, I know that You are not honored,
nor do I do my best work.

So, remind me often that You are here, near,
and ready to prepare dinner in the middle of the battle.

Teach me to work with You,

To release to Your care those things over which I have little control,

To walk obediently so that Your peace can keep me.

As You bless me, may I be a blessing to others.

In Jesus’ name. Amen