February 7, 2017 · 5:49 AM

Get Moving


In Exodus 14, the Israelites had left Egypt and were near the Red Sea. When they looked up, they saw Pharaoh and his army quickly approaching. When they realized they were trapped, they panicked. They yelled at Moses and cried out to God for help. I love God’s response to them. He said in verse 13, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!” (NLT) Moses then raised his staff and parted the waters for them to go through.

How many times have we been panicked and have cried out to God for help? I don’t know if I can count that high! I’ve spent many nights begging God for help in desperate situations. I’ve felt hopeless as I’ve cried out needing Him to act on my behalf. I can imagine what they were feeling in that moment. But God’s response to them was not what I expected. “Why are you crying out to me?” God had already told them what to do and where to go.

I wonder how many times God is saying that to us. How many times has He tried to tell us, “Get moving”? How much time have we used on panicked prayers when God is looking for us to have some action? They were at a seemingly dead end, but God still said, “Get moving!” You and I have not come to a greater dead end than they were at. If God told them they could move forward, I believe He’s telling us to move forward. 

There’s a time to pray and a time to act. If God has called you to do something and you’re at a dead end, move forward in the direction He told you to go. Take that step of faith and watch the waters part. God honors big faith. Hold your hands up over the waters that stand before you and your destination, trust God to part them, and move forward. He didn’t call you to a dead end. He called you to see with faith what your eyes cannot see. Trust in His calling and get moving. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 6, 2017 · 5:50 AM

Asking For Help


No matter who you are, you’ll need help at some point in your life. You will face things that you can’t do on your own. If you’re like me, you try to do it alone anyway. My pride says, “You don’t need anyone’s help. You got into this by yourself, you can get out of it by yourself.” I try to project strength instead of admitting my weakness. What inevitability happens is that I end up wearing myself out in the process. One time, I collapsed on the floor and cried out to God, “I can’t do this anymore! Help me.” He replied, “Finally.”

God was waiting on me to look to Him for help, but my pride kept me from it. I had to endure a lot more pain than necessary because I wasn’t willing to admit I needed help. Since that time, I’ve learned to look to Him first when I need help. It doesn’t take long to pray, “God, I can’t do this on my own. I need your help.” It does take humility though, but God honors that. He wants to help us with our daily issues.

David learned this lesson as well. After being anointed king, he was constantly in danger and was running for his life. He learned to quit trying to go at it alone, and to go to God. In Psalm 25:15, he wrote, “I look to the Lord for help at all times” (GNT). He didn’t just go to God with some things. He went to Him with all his issues, and God came to His rescue. It wasn’t because David was any different that us. It was because David was humble enough to recognize he needed help from God daily.

Whatever you’re facing today, God stands ready to help. He’s waiting for us to trust His all sufficient grace to help us get through life. Don’t wait until you’re mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted before you cry out for help. Let go of your pride, and look to God for help at all times. It’s not a weakness to admit you need help. It takes strength to overcome your pride and admit it. Once you do, you’ll find that God is willing and able to step in and do what needs to be done. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 3, 2017 · 5:43 AM

Being A VIP


With the big game being in Houston this weekend, there are a lot of celebrities in town. Wherever they go, they don’t have to who to get in. They get VIP treatment. They get attention wherever they go, and people are usually fawning over them. It’s human nature to want to be important and treated that way. We wish we could get that kind of treatment wherever we go, but being a VIP is often at odds with scripture.

God seems to value things differently than we do. In many cases, it’s opposite from us. Being important is one of those things. God uses the least important to do some of His greatest works because they feel nothing is beneath them. The humble are open to doing what He asks without question. That’s why He values humility over being a VIP, and we should too.

Here are some verses about being important. 

1. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.
Galatians 6:3 NLT

2. He must become more important while I become less important.
John 3:30 GNT

3. Better to be ordinary and work for a living than act important and starve in the process.
Proverbs 12:9 MSG

4. In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.
1 Corinthians 12:22 NLT

5. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.
Matthew 19:30 NLT

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 2, 2017 · 5:00 AM

Faith Over Feelings


Everyone of us has had some dark valleys that we’ve walked through. There are those days, months, and years where we just wish we could see a ray of hope. We want to know that we are not alone. That God has a plan. That He hasn’t forgotten us. We want to know that this time won’t last forever. In those times, it’s critical that our faith over rides our feelings. Our feelings interpret circumstances, but our faith dictates them.

I remember walking through a long, dark valley. God spoke to me and said, “I see you where you are. I have not left you or forgotten you. I’m walking with you through this. I am not in front of you or behind you. I’m right beside you.” Those words boosted my faith over my feelings. They reminded me that even when I can’t see or feel God, that He is with me no matter what. When my prayers feel like they’re falling on deaf ears, He hears them because He’s a whisper away. He’s walking with us in the darkness. 

In Psalm 23:4, David gave us some words to remember this truth. He wrote, “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me” (NLT). In the valley, our feelings produce fear, but our faith produces peace and reassurance that God has not left us. We don’t have to fear or fret in the valley. God is walking right beside us each step of the way. He has not forgotten us. Trust your faith over your feelings.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 1, 2017 · 5:24 AM

Getting Started


In Genesis 6, we read where God gave Noah the blueprints for the ark. He told him it was to be 450 feet long, 45 feet high and 75 feet wide. He told him what kind of wood to use, how many levels to have, how to waterproof the wood, to build stalls and even told him why he was to do it and how it would happen. I got a little jealous of Noah as I read all of that because he got a blueprint of exactly what God wanted from him with each step.

I’d love for God to do that for me. Instead, I feel more like Abraham who God told, “Leave your native land and go to the land that I will show you.” There were no blueprints, no reasons or navigational directions. He was simply told to pack his stuff, leave his relatives and everything he’d known for a land that he would be shown without being given a reason. I don’t know if he felt the doubt, frustration and fear that I do from being in those shoes.

At first, I started to think that Abraham was the one who really acted in faith. After all, he didn’t get a step by step guide like Noah. The more I think about it, the more I see how much faith it took from Noah to accomplish his task even with a blueprint. When God shows you something you’ve never seen or heard of and asks you to do it, that requires a lot of faith. Even with a blueprint, you are venturing into the unknown, the uncomfortable. It requires your faith to start building.

Whether God has given you a set of blueprints or has asked you to follow Him with blind trust, it requires faith on your part. Faith to pick up that first board or faith to pack your bags and take that first step. Those first actions are often scary and difficult. When facing that fear, we need to remember the words Jesus spoke in Mark 5:35, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith” (NLT). Take courage today and do something today that moves you in the direction of what He asked you to do.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

January 31, 2017 · 5:39 AM

Don’t Look Back


I ran several different events in high school for our track and field team. Besides working on our form, our coach gave us another bit of advice: never look back. Looking back costs you time, disrupts your form, and changes your wind resistance. We were told, “Even if you hear footsteps close behind, don’t look back. Just look straight ahead at the finish line until the race is over.” What was good advice for track is good for us in life.

Proverbs 4:25-27 says, “Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil” (NLT). It’s hard to stay in a straight line when you’re not looking forward. My son is a perfect example. He’s constantly looking everywhere except where he’s going. I keep reminding him, “Look ahead or you’ll run into things, fall down and get hurt.” 

We all need to be looking where we are going. What God has for you is not behind you. It’s ahead of you. Yes, your past happened, but it’s not where you’re going, it where you’re leaving. Think of Lot’s wife. She looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. The Angels told them to keep moving forward and not to look back. I don’t think it was an instant change to salt. I think she got caught up looking back, forgot to move forward, and was covered with the salty soot from the destruction. 

In Philippians 3:13, Paul wrote, “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,” It’s hard to forget the past and the things that happened, but if we allow them to distract us from our future, we could end up like Lot’s wife. We could become stationary and get stuck in that place. We need to be looking forward to what lies ahead so we win our race. Learn from the past, but keep looking where you’re going or you’ll run into things, fall down, and get hurt.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 30, 2017 · 5:32 AM

Hidden Sins


Years ago, I found myself sitting in my room holding a loaded 12 gauge shotgun. I had two people in mind as I sat there knowing where and when they’d meet. At that moment, I realized that every sin lives in me. It’s only waiting for the right circumstances to be woken up. It scared me to death that I could be capable of such a thing. I put down the gun and drove for over an hour away. I then parked on the shoulder and sat there fighting the mental battle to not return home. I didn’t want to make an emotional decision that would affect the rest of my life.

David knew that struggle as well. The wrong circumstances plus the wrong thoughts equals the wrong action. In Psalm 19:12-13 he prayed, “How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin” (NLT). He found that certain circumstances awoken hidden sins, and the more he thought about it, they became deliberate sins.

I think this is something we all struggle with at some point in our lives. We get caught up in a moment and time, combined with our emotions, our thoughts have the ability to run wild and direct our actions. A momentary weakness creates a lifetime of regret. A hidden sin in our heart, when woken up, can cause us to do or want to do the unthinkable. David prayed against those. He didn’t want to be controlled by thoughts that caused him to sin against God and others. That’s why he continued the prayer to go a step further.

He prayed, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” If thoughts control your actions, why not pray that your thoughts would be pleasing to God? What we think and meditate on grows in our lives. We can choose to entertain thoughts that develop hidden sins or we can choose to meditate on good things. Proactive prayer can keep us from the hidden sins lurking in our hearts.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 27, 2017 · 5:56 AM

Being Rescued


One evening in Cairo, some friends and I rented a sailboat on the Nile river. Our driver sailed for a while down river with the flow. Then when it was time to head back, he sailed side to side to go back upstream. As he got to the far side of the Nile, he lost control and sailed us deep into some reeds. We couldn’t get out and had no phone or radio communication to come rescue us. We yelled for help, but none of the other boats were coming close enough.

As it began to get dark, our hopes of being rescued were going down. We were getting hoarse from yelling and we were getting bit by mosquitoes. We climbed on top of the overhead canopy where there was enough wind to keep most of the mosquitoes away. Finally a boat with a motor on it saw us. They found out we needed to be pulled out, left to get rope, returned, and rescued us. Each of us had no voice and were covered in mosquito bites, but we were safe.

Being in need of rescue is not a fun place to be. It’s hard to find hope when you’re helpless. I’m thankful that God doesn’t leave us hopeless or helpless in the times of our greatest need. He hears us when we call out to Him. He sees us in our struggle. He rescues us when there is no hope. He is our very present help in time of need. If you’re in need of being rescued in any fashion, call out to Him today. He will meet you in that place and do what only He can do.

Here are some verses on being rescued. 

1. He reached down from heaven and rescued me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me.
Psalms 18:16-17 NLT

2. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.
2 Corinthians 1:10 NLT

3. Is anyone crying for help? GOD is listening, ready to rescue you.
Psalm 34:17 MSG

4. And so the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgment,
2 Peter 2:9 GNT

5. Do not say, I will repay evil; wait [expectantly] for the Lord, and He will rescue you.
Proverbs 20:22 AMPC

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 26, 2017 · 5:36 AM

Fruitful In Affliction


Joseph’s adult life was marked by many afflictions and sufferings. His brothers turned on him to kill him. They decided to sell him as a slave, and he was taken to Egypt where he was sold. He worked as a slave until he was falsely accused of raping his master’s wife. After spending many years in prison, he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker only to be forgotten. For 13 years his life spun out of control and seemed to be going away from the dream God gave him. 

What he didn’t know was that God was setting him up to fulfill that dream. Through it all, he developed the character necessary to be a leader that would lead a nation through a crisis. We don’t know about the dark nights he must have questioned God. We don’t get to read how hopeless he felt at times. We don’t even get to find out the depth of his affliction, but we know it was there. He went through these things because he was human like us.

We get a sense of it by the names of his children after being made second in command of Egypt. His first son was named Manasseh which means “God has made me forget all my troubles.” The name of his second son is even more telling. Genesis 41:52 says, “And the second he called Ephraim [to be fruitful], For [he said] God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction” (AMPC). Not only did God help him to leave the past behind him, He helped him to become fruitful where he suffered.

Whatever pain or suffering that you have endured or are enduring, know that God has not forgotten you. He is fulfilling His plan in your life and will cause you to be fruitful and prosper because of what you are enduring. Even if the pain is unbearable, in time God can help you to forget these troubles like a mom forgets labor pains. The joy that comes after is greater than the pain you endured because life is born. Just as God developed Joseph, He is developing you so you can be fruitful in the land of your affliction.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 25, 2017 · 5:30 AM

God’s Hiring


As a kid, I remember praying, “Lord, I’ll go wherever you want me to go….except to Africa.” I don’t know why I was afraid of going there, but as a kid, that was scary to me. For many of us, we don’t mind serving God as long as He doesn’t uproot us from our way of life. We might pray, “Lord, use me any way you want, but please don’t make me leave my family or this area.” We don’t mind serving, but we don’t want to be a foreign missionary.

One day, as Jesus was ministering to people, He looked up at the crowd waiting for Him to touch them. His heart broke with compassion for them. He turned to His disciples and told them to look at the crowd. He then told them that the harvest was ready to be brought in and that they should pray that God would send more workers to help Him. That tug in your heart to want to be used by God anywhere except abroad is an answer to those prayers.

The great news for those who don’t want to travel far away, is that if you will look up and around you, there is a harvest everywhere you go. In Matthew 10, right after Jesus told them to pray that, He sent them into the harvest. Before they left, in verses 6-7, He told them, “Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood” (MSG). 

I believe He’s saying that to us. We do t have to travel to a foreign land to find lost people. Start nearby. There’s a Harvest right outside your front door. You don’t have to be an eloquent preacher to help bring in the harvest. You just have to know what God did in your life, and begin telling it to one person at a time. That’s how a harvest is brought in. He’s still looking for laborers. Will you look up, see the harvest, and be willing to help? God is hiring laborers in your neighborhood.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,