Who is God?

The question of who God is comes up often. I was asked to write an article about the subject for a writers site I am a member of which caused me to think how I could describe who God is within such a brief span of time. Fact is, I can't do that. However, people cannot see Him and most do not really know Him and any visual I can bring out on paper to help someone experience the slightest glimpse of our God is worth the attempt. Over the past several years I have developed a personal and in-depth relationship with my heavenly Father. It is from this thirty two year relationship I draw this small amount of commentary on who I believe God to be.

First, let's look at the visible signs of who God is. We can see in His creation through nature God is the master painter and poet. The colors, the landscape, the variations of plants, animals, clouds, sky, and water are all a testimony to who God is. He is the creator of all things large and small. God is the sustainer of all things large and small. The Bible tells us God feeds the birds of the air, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” So, we can see just in one tiny aspect of nature a Creator who cares for His creation and sustains His creation.

Have you stood at a distance looking up at majestic mountains before? Some with snow caps, rocky ledges, and trees scattered about their slopes. Other mountains seem to be covered by low flying clouds or the image of smoke veiling their majestic peaks. Only a God who creates all things could possibly make something so beautiful. From a prayer of Moses we find this, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.” Here according to Moses, God has been God since before the formations of the earth. God created the heavens and the earth as Scripture tells us.

I remember picking up a very small rock one time to find on the bottom settled into the rock a tiny creature fossilized into the rock. The creature that made up this fossil was once alive, breathing, moving about the earth. Humanly speaking, I could only visualize what my finite mind could imagine this creature looked like and how it moved about only a few thousand years ago. I have no real way of knowing if what my mind would let me see was actually fact or not. However, God was the Creator of this tiny being and He saw it as it was moving about and breathing brand new on the earth. The fact is God gave that tiny creature its very breath and heartbeat to live by. God also, knew the very last breath it took and how it died. God in His vastness observed every living creature on this earth and knows were all of them from thousands of years ago are buried. Our God who reigns supreme over all the earth is also in the tiniest details of our life.

Since we have established Him as creator let’s look at something He created in His own image. This should, also, help us to understand who God is. In Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So, God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; both male and female He created them.” We find two interesting documentations of truth here. First, God is speaking in terms of “Us” making man in “our” image. Wow! The implications are huge in this fact of Scripture. This is not saying more than one God existed. What it is stating clearly is God comes in more than one part. We find the first concept of the Holy Trinity in these verses as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In plain English, the Father is speaking to His Son about the creation. Secondly, we find humanity is not an animal or a plant. God here has given man dominion over all the animals and mammals. God, our supreme authority, has endowed us humans with authority as well. We are to view God's likeness through the example of the Son, Jesus Christ, as He walked and lived here on the earth.

This brings me to a main point of who God is. However, let me make something clear at this point. No human being can contain the depths or the heights as to who God really is within any volume of papers. God is beyond huge and there is no end to His depths. So, this is a small attempt to give the reader a mere glimpse at who God is. Now, Jesus taught His disciples if you have seen Him then you have seen the Father and vice versa. Many teach today a distorted view of Jesus. The portrayal of Jesus in most people's eyes is a man without deity, without authority from God, and just one of us on a spiritual journey while leading others to do the same. I want to assure you Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was not merely just one of us. Sure He came to earth through the birth canal of His mother Mary. She conceived Jesus by a miraculous conception only to be understood by God Himself. However, Jesus was still full deity, fully God with our human skin wrapped around Him.

Jesus walked on this earth teaching grace, love for our neighbors, taking care of the poor and hungry, but most importantly He taught first we must repent of our sins and follow Him. Jesus spoke often about repentance, sin, hell, and the kingdom of God. We find here God is serious about sin. He wants sin out of our lives as far as having control over us. As part of our Christian life, God wants us to exemplify in our life the love of God for His people. We do this by feeding the poor, clothing them, and loving on them while sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ at the same time. Food, clothing, and shelter is not the gospel nor will it get these people to heaven, however, it is a doorway by which you have the opportunity to share the gospel with them and glorify God by your testimony to them. The gospel is we are a sinfully depraved humanity in need of a Savior otherwise we are doomed to an eternity in hell. God is a righteous judge, but He loves His people so much He provided His Son as a sacrifice for our sins in order for us to be reunited in relationship to Him in a way He no longer would have to turn His back on our sinfulness. Jesus became for us the mediator between humanity and God the Father. By placing our trust in Jesus Christ as our perfect Savior and mighty Lord, and believing that Jesus Christ did come back to life on the third day as Scripture tells us, we are then saved from eternal damnation in hell and have the full power to be obedient to God. We are at that moment a son of the living God. God adopts us at the moment we place a total loyal trust in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Do you still wonder who God is? Well, without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ you will never have a good understanding of who God is. By knowing Jesus, the Son of God, over time you will start to understand just how vast God is. You will understand that for a Believer suffering is a part of life yet God directs every aspect of the suffering. Nothing in all His creation is out of His reach. God is a loving God, true! God is, also, a just, holy, and righteous God too. He hates sin and hates sin in His people’s life. God hates sin so much, He was willing to sacrifice His only begotten Son in order for those who believe His Son can have eternal life. In John 3:16 we observe both the wrath and judgment of God while at the same time we discover the grace, mercy and love of God.

In a one sentence statement to help someone begin to think about who God is: “God is loving, our creator, gracious, Almighty judge, perfectly righteous, completely holy, Sovereign over all things and events, full of mercy, our protector, supreme healer, omnipresent, Infinite, Immense, good, Immanent, and so much more”. As I said before, I cannot within the pages of any book explain who God really is. This is a very brief glance at who God is. The understanding of our finite glimpse at God comes only when our Infinite God has accepted us in a relationship with Him.

Colossians 3:1-4 "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

To know God is to know the Son, Jesus Christ. Trust in the Son today and begin a tremendous relation with the Father you will never regret in all eternity.

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Training up a child to:

Originally posted by Scott on August 29, 2009


What is it we as parents are suppose to train up our children to do, be, want, or come back to? Have you as a parent ever wondered that? I know I have numerous times.
The entire verse goes like this:

“Train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will come back to it” -Proverbs 22:6

I have seen the numerous wayward children just like everyone else has that so far has never come back to anything their parents taught them or have they gone the exact direction their parents taught them? Interesting subject I know. I have started exploring exactly what it is we are to teach our children growing up that when they are “seasoned” rather than just old they can come back to it and it be of some profit to them.

Proverbs 22 builds around this verse 6 it seems. It tells us some of what we are to teach our children as they are growing up. Each stage of their life we can teach them more and more, going deeper and deeper into each subject. I want to warn you that very little has to do with what job they will have, what college they will attend to what degree they should get. God has placed within each child a “bent” that they are moving towards regardless of what us parents really think or desire for them. It is our job as parents, in tune with our heavenly Father, in the power that He entrust to us, to learn over time what our children’s personality traits are, what kind of character God is moving them to be, and build that training around this.

One example I will share:

Train up the child to: (Proverbs 22:3 “A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.”)

-exercise sound, good judgement and to use their God given common sense on a daily basis.

-be careful about their conduct around other people

1. be cautious in their decisions on what they are doing from what they eat, to what they are wearing, to what they say, to how they act, to the people they hang out with, to how they spend their money and time and so on.
2. look for the danger signs, the warning signs around them of doom that might be coming if the continue in a direction they are going. Teach them to seek out shelter and refuge in the Lord if they can see those danger signs.

-provide carefully for the future

1. not be frivolous with their time, financial spending and actions
2. learn to save not only spend
3. budget their time, resources, and money at all times
4. be looking ahead as best they can to be sure they are not caught off guard
5. be a person worthy to be trusted by others and accountable

This is one example of our parental training. This example of course can go as deep as anyone would want to take it of course. Most of us parents can teach this from past experiences, from what our parents taught us, and most importantly from what the Word of God instructs us in these areas of life.

In the Proverb to train our children, this comes as no easy task, but it is commanded to us by our heavenly Father as instructed to us in His Word. So, if we only teach our children worldly things without any of the important points here, we are setting our children on the path of doom to never to stay on the path of godliness or to return to it if they get off track.

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What child is this?

Christmas is a great time of the year to bring the central focus of our spiritual lives back in focus towards the One we owe every single breath we take. Jesus Christ was gloriously and majestically seated in heaven before this span of time came into existence. However, His creation was fallen, sinful, drastically depraved to the core. Murder, adultery, paganism, atheistic, idolatry, cursing, drunkenness, vileness, cruelty, wickedness, and more was the astonishing, but Sovereign result of such a perfect beginning.

God the Son, knew He must enter into the world He created someday, step into our corrupt skin and decaying bodies in order to live out a life of perfection, making war on sin, die a horrific brutal vile death on two splintered wooden planks called a cross, willingly accept the rusty bone crushing spikes into His hands and feet, and in the end defeat the cold dark musty smell of death in a deep cold dark rocky grave in order to save His lost family from a rapidly disastrous world.

Some two thousand years ago a Jewish baby was born in Bethlehem on a dark night in the late summer or early fall. His mother only a young lady of about 13 years old having never been with a man gave birth to this child. To her amazement in later years her baby boy named Jesus would actually be the Christ, the long awaited and predicted Messiah.

You have to wonder if in Mary's mind throughout her life with Jesus if she ever really understood the magnitude this baby boy would play in the coming history of the world. Yes, an angel of the Lord did tell her what was coming, but at 13 could Mary realy grasp Who this Messiah would be or what His life would really be like. She had never known a Messiah. Most likely her closest encounter with the Messiah was read to her by her mother or father. However, she had a simple faith in her God enabling her to trust the fact her pregnancy was everything miraculous and was nothing of her own will or doing. She did not ask to be the one to bare the Christ child. However, she handled the situation with much grace and trust while dealing with some fear and trembling along the way.

Today, just a little over two thousand years since the birth of our Savior into this world, we celebrate His birth each year. Every year seems a bit more commercial from the year before. I am ashamed to say, but the church does not do much to fight this commercial battle only perpetuating it further by in some form or fashion instituting a mythical character called Santa into the Christmas story. It is all about the stuff, people, getting and giving, good health, great parties, elegant decorations, seeing lights, and more. Nothing wrong in any of those when kept in the proper perspective, however, the world has chosen these things to be the focus of the Christmas holiday season rather the entrance of our Savior into the world.

I do think far too many of us both in the church and outside the church keep Jesus lying in the hay packed manger with aHis swaddling clothes on, cooing at His mother. Something to bring attention to is the fact Jesus was a baby for only a short while like any of us. He grew up into a strong vital young man with a purpose only He and His heavenly Father knew. For three and half years He had a strong following of twelve close associates and crowds of people only a few evangelist today could dream of. But once Jesus started delivering His real messages, the twelve close followers and associates began to get nervous, with one figuring out he was not following the future ruler he signed up for, and the large crowds started diminishing. The message He began to deliver was the fact the kingdom of God was near and they must repent of their sinfulness, asking God for forgiveness of their sins, and committing their total and complete trust in Him as their Savior, the Messiah, God the Son. This message tore these people into a restless bunch which many in the crowd being Jewish leaders began to plot His death after these messages.

Today, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, keep the focus on the fact He is at the right hand of His Father in heaven, robed in glorious splendor, taking His rightful place on His throne. He is not in a manger surrounded by sheep anymore nor was the focus, in my humble opinion, suppose to be on the manger scene. He is not riding on a donkey with his mother Mary anymore. Jesus is not wrapped in swaddling clothes, He is not walking the countryside anymore...He is preparing a place for each of His "beloved" to live with Him for all eternity. Jesus Christ is the victor of a life which started in a manger, but ended up on His throne.

As the day draws to an end think of Christmas as the beginning of our eternal blessing found in the Savior we celebrate on this day. For the most part all the world stops in celebration of Christmas. Whether they acknowledge Jesus or not, they still uphold the holiday in some form or fashion. No other so called 'savior' can boast of this in all of history. Jesus Christ is the long awaited Messiah, the Son of the living God, God in the flesh. Celebrate Him today in spirit and awe...remember He is the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS!

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Exceedingly and abundantly powerful!

REPOST from a post by Scott on January 12, 2009

Ephesians 3:20-21 is a doxology Paul places in this letter to the Ephesians. A doxology you might ask is a praise or glory given to Almighty God. Every prayer should have a doxology if not entire prayers most of the time. Think about our prayers for a minute. How much time do we honestly spend in praise and glorifying our God compared to the amount of time we spend asking for something. It is absolutely amazing the time spent in “asking”.

Of course, God wants us to come to Him and ask. He already knows what we will ask for, but He still wants that open line of communication with us to ask for anything in accordance with His will. As true Believers we should have in mind that which God wants not really what we want in the flesh. In taking a closer look at this doxology at the end of chapter 3 from Paul to the Ephesians we find out much more than we might imgaine.

When we ask or confirm something of God, in accordance with what we believe He wants for us, it would be good to do so with this mindset:

1. God has the power to do whatever He wants to do…He is our Sovereign Lord.

2. God can produce, make, or fashion in us whatever He desires…He is our Sovereign Lord.

3. God can go far beyond in delivering what we have ask or begged for. He can go exceedingly, unthinkably far beyond anything we can even dream up or think in our minds. Think of asking in these terms: desiring, craving, begging, calling out for that which God has placed on our hearts to ask for…He is our Sovereign Lord.

4. God does this in accordance with His power, His unending ability that He has put on display within our lives..He is our Sovereign Lord.

5. God’s exceeding abundance is a great reflection of His inexhaustible fullness of mercy and grace. The “well” can never be overdrawn. The “well” of God’s grace and mercy will never go dry. We are always welcome at this “well”. Remember Psalm 81:10 “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it with good things.” (NLT) He is our Sovereign Lord.

6. God’s power is all-sufficient and almightly powerful that He has saved each of us as Believers. This same power (awesome ability) is the power that was able to take a spiritually dead bag of bones like me and bring it to Himself in salvation. No one has this kind of power except God…no one! He is our Sovereign Lord.

7. God is looking for excellencies and praises to be ascribed towards Him in our prayers…He is our Sovereign Lord.

8. God provided us with a mediator in Jesus Christ His Son…He is our Sovereign Lord.

9. All of the praises and glories that we garble towards God goes through the hand of Jesus Christ our great mediator (high priest)…He is our Sovereign Lord.

10. All of graces, mercies, and gifts that come to us from our heavenly Father comes through that same hand of Jesus Christ our Lord…He is our Sovereign Lord.

So, this is how I offer up this doxology personally for me this morning:

“Finally, O Sovereign God, who has the awesome ability to produce unthinkably far beyond what I have desired or begged for or can even fathom in my small mind to ask for, according to Your great power that is constantly on display in my life daily, it is to You, my Almighty God that all the honors and glory and praises through my perfect Lord Jesus Christ be lifted up and may they be lifted up from every generation for ever and ever! AMEN.”

Just remember while praying to give God the praise and glory for your life today…He is our Sovereign Lord.


References:

-Matthew Henry Commentaries

-Logos Strong’s Lexicon Greek guide

-NIV Bible, NLT Bible, KJV Bible, & NASB Bible

*This was copied from an original post dated January of 2009.

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A root canal without pain-killers, ouch!

In the wilderness, spiritually speaking, we find ourselves in a deep hurt most of the time. To be gutted out, cleaned out, and scraped out, will not be a pleasant experience. However, it is necessary to prepare you for what God is about to do next in your life. I would compare this process to a root canal without pain-killers. The "no pain-no gain" motto of past years concerning the need for people to work-out physically speaks volumes and still rings true in the spiritual work-out of life too. It is painful in order to gain the insights God has for us. The pain, hurt and dejection makes us stop and listen. Without it we would not be transformed into what God is sculpting us to be. It is in this broken state where God stops our progress and shows us what the end result will be if we continue down the path we are currently on. He takes the sin in our life and crushes us under the weight of it in order to have something worthwhile to work with. He rebuilds us at this moment from the ground up to be a holy and righteous vessel in Christ for His greater use.

We need to stop the natural human instinct of avoiding pain, brokenness and quick fixes and allow this crushing process to take its course in our lives. I did not say this would be easy, but once you settle your mind to the fact God is working on something in your life, it can make it somewhat more bearable. It is this brokenness before God that could actually save your life in the future.

Make plans now for long periods of time in the Word of God and in prayer to God. Spend the first moments of your prayer time listening quietly, listening intently to God. When you are compelled to speak, make sure the focus is on God and not on yourself. Our tendency is to focus our prayers on wants, needs, hurts, and selfish desires. However, the challenge is to get beyond ourselves and focus on God, His holiness, His honor, His glory, and to desire Him like you have never desired Him before. The challenge for each of us is to be completely satisfied in God alone, even when our life is at its lowest mark.

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Who can stand against us?

If God is for His Believers then who can really stand against them? Can anyone separate His people from His love? Can trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, job losses, danger, hunger, or even the threat of death separate them? No! Why? Because God's people are more than conquerors through Him who loved them. Paul's says he is convinced that nothing can separate God and His people. Read the entire context in Romans 8:31-39

As it is written in Scripture "For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." God loves His people with the most effectual love anyone could ever imagine...He will not let anything get in the way of that love.

I know of so many of my friends, family, and even friends of friends who are jobless right now and many have been unemployed for nearly a year. Most of them the severance pay has run out and the savings is getting low with only a hint of a possible job. You can take great hope in the fact that even though it seems you can only see life through the shadows right now, and everything has a dim fuzziness to it, God is in complete control. He is working all this for your good in the end from the far side of this wilderness you find yourself wondering through. Right now, it may seem dry and hopeless, but just remember who you are living this life for...the glory of God.

Be most satisfied in Christ even on the darkest most depressed day of your life....find your satisfaction in Jesus not in worldly securities...that is our temptation, but "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him"-Piper. The wilderness experiences in life are training grounds...it is boot camp for anyone God intends to use greatly for His glory. Take hope in the fact you will make it to the other side of the desert. Bruised, beaten up a bit, matured, and hopefully "all ears" towards the heavenly call from God on your life. God will make a way through the wilderness for each of His own. Right now, settle in your mind and in your soul, the fact the road ahead may get more rough. The darkness surrounding your circumstances may in fact seem unbearable at times. Keep on the forefront of your mind a promise from God, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you." -Deuteronomy 31:6 Learn to live on the promises of God especially when times are tough just like Moses and David did several thousand years ago.

"When God wants to use His people in a greater way to further His kingdom, a dark and lonely journey through the wilderness is absolute." -A Pilgrimage Through the Wilderness

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A Buzz About Nothing!

The house is buzzing with the sound of 10 children stir crazy from being inside too much. Christmas music is playing somewhere in the background over one kids cries for mercy as his big brothers wrestle with him mercilessly. I can smell the wonderful delightful spicy chicken soup on the stove while siren's sound down the street as a neighbor tried to kill himself today.

What a crazy life we all live these days. Christmas is coming on like a freight train as we try to slow it down, but nothing works anymore. The noise, the hustle, the bustle, the commercials, the toy magazines, the attitude of society...this all plays havoc on my family and the nerves in my body.

I am growing older with less energy to fight it all now. The old lion is much more tame, but not necessarily by choice. My patience wears thin much faster and yet my kids continue to grow older. Many times I wish I could turn back the years it seems I have wasted. Most would say I didn't waste them, but I know better. Too many worries over the years when I could have better spent them enjoying life, my family, and my friends.

It is cold this winter which is unusual for us. My bones ache from the cold, my joints creak from movement, my teeth hurt sometimes when my sinuses are sick, but each evening I lay my bald greying head down in a nice warm bed and can think of nothing better than to reflect on my Lord who keeps me going each day.

You know, I enjoy listening to what many would call silly songs. Waylon, Cash, old jazz, and blues. These beats sometimes strike a cord with me, I don't understand why. The words of the songs tell a story I sometimes can identify with. I am not into drinking, dancing or going with women who do, but at times a rebel thought can emerge from deep within. Thankfully the Lord pulls me back in, shows me the right direction, the glory of His Son, and teaches me to follow hard after Him.

As another year slips quickly by, I can only reflect on what has been the toughest year of my life to date. The life of Job I don't live and don't wish to live. My life by comparison is not even close. But many times I can too closely relate having to pinch myself to make sure I am really awake. All I can think of is how nice it would be too receive twice what has been taken away. I don't expect a return of even what has been taken. I don't feel as I deserve any of it. To use money, fame, or fortune for worldly good seems so trivial to me now. Why I could not have used it for God's greater glory earlier on I don't understand? Selfishness irritates me to the core these days as it permeates the roads, the shops, the schools and yes, even the church. Some of us or should I say most of us learn the hard way and suffer the rest of our lives for it. A fortunate few learn a lesson, receive another chance, and live out dream years into eternity.

People, if you have taken the time to even read this far, I want you to understand one final thing. I am not complaining my life away. My utmost satisfaction is in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. No matter the pain I endure each day, the suffering a fallible man can create the suffering has such a sweet aroma in comparison to my Lord's violent death on the cross. Ah, yes, that cross Jesus had to bare...so many of us forget about that for most of the year. The cross so rugged and raw, splintering into the back of my Lord. Yes, the one those soldiers hammered nails deep into my Lord's hands and feet on...the blood drenched plank of wood called a cross. That old cross which has now become a symbol of both salvation to the chosen and mere trendiness to the world, leaves all my suffering in the dust. What is this cross we are to bare? Well, not the same one as Jesus, but the cross we bare is not having just a bit less than someone else. It is not living with joint pains for the rest of your life. It is not cancer, blindness, or hearing loss. Oh, no...the cross we must bare is far greater than any of that. The greatest ills brought on man cannot compare and is over no noble affair.

The cross we are too bare is completely and totally based upon the testimony of our faith before the world. It is the suffering brought on by the bold claims of a Lord coming to this earth to suffer and die and be raised to life. It is the bold and offensive message that one must repent of sins then place complete and total trust in Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior.

The cross is for the aliens of this world...those who call themselves "followers of the way". How does one carry his cross like an alien you might ask? Well, an alien certainly doesn't look much like a citizen of this world for one thing. We talk of a cross which by many opinions never existed. We live for a God who many say doesn't exist. We serve a Savior who most laugh at because they ask why do we need someone to save us. An alien is scorned by the masses as dregs on this world, the cause of what pains the world, and blind followers of a dead faith. This cross cuts to the quick, pierces the deepest darkest areas of our soul. This cross is not under a Christmas tree, not at a job, not around our necks, not in a hospital, not on a ring, doesn't hang from our car mirrors, but this cross sometimes can push us into a depressed state of mind by the pain it draws our way, injure us to the point we cannot walk much longer, take us places we never thought we would have to go, or merely bring about our ultimate death, but immediate entrance before our heavenly King. The cross we must bare is not pretty to look at or hang on a wall. It is not shiny, sparkly or desirable to the human eye. It is ugly, it raw, and it is ours to bare.

So, pondering another cold restless day, one with out much money, sparse food supplies, only one car to get a family around in, loudness, depression sometimes, and simply unrest in a persons bones...I can still raise a brow to reflect on one important thing. Something that cannot be lost or taken away. A most prized and cherished relationship unlike any on earth. Jesus Christ is my Lord and He is my Savior once and for all!

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"Follow Me!"

Matthew 8:18-22 & Luke 9:57-62

This conversation starts out somewhat honestly with “I will follow you…” I am sure Jesus replies with something like this, “Oh, really!” Jesus states to him, “You understand that the foxes have a place to live, birds have a nest to live in, but I, the Son of Man, does not even own a pillow to lay my head on at night?” We find no further conversation between Jesus and this eager man wanting to be a follower. What was the man eager to follow? Could it have been to be part of a revolution to over throw the government? Could it be that he had a vision of being in the top cabinet of this new government? Whatever the heart issue was, Jesus put it to the test immediately. Jesus knew whether this man could make it on the journey and this particular person may have been weak in the area of traveling rough. He knew the fellow would not last on the journey not knowing where he would sleep or what he would eat, so Jesus addresses the issue upfront.

Then we have the next person, who interestingly, Jesus calls out to him to follow Him. Imagine for a moment you are walking along a road beside a person you suspect is the Messiah, the Christ, but you are not sure yet. You are simply walking along silently listening as your heart is developing a love for this man. You can’t explain it to yourself much less anyone else, but you long deep within your heart to give your life to Him and follow Him wherever He goes. I can only envision this man being that way. So, Jesus looks over to him and says, “Follow Me.” This was not a question. This was a direct statement from the Lord to him, “Follow Me.” I can just see this man take a huge gulp in his throat before answering back. I am sure the palms of his hands were starting to sweat some. However, not exactly ready to commit just yet, he comes back to Jesus with “Let me first go back and bury my father.” I can only imagine some of the disciple’s mouths flung open wide. You can almost hear them muttering between them, “You have got to be kidding. Jesus just told you to follow Him and you want to go back and wait for your daddy to die so you can bury him? What a loser.” Well, that is my rendition of what the disciple could have said in today’s language. Anyway, the man’s father was most likely not dead yet or really that close to being dead. Jesus’ call to him to follow was not an open ended call for whenever he got ready to come. Jesus was asking him to drop what he was doing that day, commit in his mind and soul to follow Jesus and proclaim the gospel to the world.

Amazingly, in this case Jesus did not quickly move on to the next subject. He comes back with a further statement. “Let the dead bury the dead. You go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” I believe it is possible this man became a true follower of Christ that day. You see, Jesus called out to this man not this man calling out to Jesus. Furthermore, Jesus did not let the man off the hook easily either by telling him “Ok, you go back to your family and once your dad dies and is buried then catch up with us and you can be a part of our club.” No, Jesus tells him immediately to let the people who are spiritually dead bury the physically dead. Jesus further says, “You go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Jesus never asked him one question. He only gave this man direct commands.

The final “would be” follower blurts out loudly I am sure after watching everyone else, “I will follow You, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.” I call this guy “Mr. I will, but…” I am sure we can all fill in the blanks after the “but…” God has often called us out to do something for Him and all we can say is “Yeah, but…” It is human nature to want to do anything eagerly on our terms. However, God does not call us on our terms. He calls us out to follow after Him on His terms. This man here wanted to go back or look back to his family. He was not ready to follow after Jesus that day. This is not to say he didn’t follow after Christ, but the example would indicate he didn’t.

Jesus simply replied once peering into the mind and soul of this man knowing he could not follow Him with a heart so attached to his family. Jesus touches the very issue of this man’s heart and most likely many others in the crowd probably by this time gathering around. At this point in time everywhere Jesus went and started speaking people would soon gather. So, I imagine a crowd has gathered to hear Jesus. They might have even thought a miraculous healing could take place too, who knows. In this case, Jesus directly addresses the heart issue with this reply, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” I want to say to you right here, that was an “ouch” moment. This statement Jesus comes back to this man with must have hurt deeply. This was not a little light laughing moment. I imagine complete silence in the crowd. So quiet you could hear a small worm chewing on a leaf fifty yards away. This is dead silence. We don’t find a response from the man at all recorded. I am sure the man recognized he was not really ready to commit to follow after Jesus, but being swept up in the emotion of the moment thought he needed to blurt out his desire to follow Jesus, but not thinking about what “following” really meant. Jesus was not looking for those wanting to do a two week mission trip each year in order to get there good deed in for the year. He was looking for those willing to fight the spiritual battles ahead of them. Jesus was looking for obedient men He could train and pour His life into. Jesus was looking for those chosen by His Father to come and follow Him into full time ministry.

We find ourselves at this moment dealing with three responses. Only one man was truly called by Jesus to follow after Him in this lesson. We don’t conclusively know if any of the three really followed Him at all. We do know this, Jesus calls each of us if we are hearing His Word’s this day, to follow after him. Jesus calls us to stop the consuming infatuation with this world, with all the stuff and activities society tells us we must do in order to be good citizens, but has nothing to do with furthering the kingdom of God.

When you really commit to follow Christ, you could find yourself homeless, friendless, without a family, without a job, or even your neck stretched out before an executioner. To follow after Christ requires us to not be so involved in the activities of this life we stop proclaiming the gospel of Christ and stop living a holy life. We are called to be “aliens” to this world, a very strange people. The one Jesus called to follow Him was struggling with his earthly duty above the calling to follow Christ proclaiming the gospel. Jesus does not expect us to stop being a human and taking care of our duties here, but He expects us to do it secondarily to serving Him by spreading the gospel every chance we get. We must be heavenly minded to the point some people might think we are of no earthly good. The calling on our life is to the bottom of the soul not just the surface of it.

Finally, once fully committed to the cause of spreading the gospel daily, never look back on your former life with any regrets of leaving it behind. Lot’s wife is a perfect example here of someone commanded not to look back as the city was destroyed, but her attachment to this world, the world she loved was far greater than her love and commitment to God. It is doubtful she had any attachment to God, but He did give her an option to which she failed and was consumed immediately into a pillar of salt as Scripture tells us.

The call from Christ is open to all. Repent of your sins, turn from the wickedness and wrongful life you have lead up to this point away from Christ and place your complete and total trust in Jesus Christ and follow hard after Him. Don’t look back, don’t worry so much about your future, God has everything already planned out and He is in full sovereign control. Once you have placed your lives in the hands of Christ put your hand to the plow without any regret and go forward without allowing your heart to look back.

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Be My God in the Wilderness!

In 1823, Glass signed on with a crew of trappers heading up the Missouri River to Ft Henry, in southwestern Montana. Halfway to their destination, Glass, who was about 40 years old, was tracking game when he stumbled upon a mother grizzly and her two cubs. The bear reared up and dug her teeth deep into his flesh, ripping off large chunks of raw flesh. His companions came down the path and shot the large six-foot creature through the head and the bear collapsed dead on top of Glass. The hunters, thinking there was no way the man could live through the night, made him a bed out of buffalo hide and watched for him to die. However, the next morning, Glass was still alive. The leader of the mission, Major Andrew Henry, decided that the trappers needed to move out of the hostile Arikara Indian territory and paid two men to stay with Glass in what they thought was his final hours of life. Glass, however, held on to life. After three more days, the men paid to stay with Glass abandoned the trapper, taking his knife and his gun.

Glass woke up and found himself alone and unable to stand up and walk. he began to crawl on his belly the estimated 100 plus miles back to Ft Kiowa. This crawl was through the middle of the feared Arikara Indian territory. So, inch by grueling inch, Glass, crawled along and had learned as a young man from the Pawnee Indians how to survive off the land. He dragged himself through the rough rugged land, getting his strength by eating wild berries and rotting meat from carcusses of buffalo calves killed by wolves. After nearly six months, Glass crawled into the town of Ft Kiowa. After a lengthy time of healing, Glass, resumed his life as a trapper again. It would be a nice ending if he lived happily ever after right, but ten years later while on a trip along the Yellowstone Rive, the feared untamed Arikara Indians killed Glass dead.

A story like this keeps us glued to each sentence does it not? The trauma, the pain, the desolation, the coldness, then the heat, the spilled blood, loss of flesh, the fear, the loneliness and more are all a part of the wilderness. People who have survived such traumatic situations in the wilderness have experienced some or all of the traits I mentioned before. Nearly anyone who found themselves in the wilderness would tell us they really did not think they would come out of it alive.

All of us probably could tell of a story of wondering in the wilderness while setting in the middle of our living rooms, setting in a pew at church, at our desk at the office, or any other day to day place we go. The wilderness does not have to be hundreds of miles from us, it can be right where we are at this very moment. The lonely feeling in the middle of twenty friends, the coldness on a ninety five degree day, or the depression before the sun comes up over what most would seem is a great life, all of these expressions and more can infect our very souls when captured in a desolate wilderness that no one can drag us out of or possibly even find us there.

This takes us to another true story from the Old Testament of the Bible. We find Moses as a young man in his late thirties living life large. He has everything he could ever want or need. He has the finest education in the land, can go wherever he so desires. I would say that Moses was not found “wanting” for anything by today’s worldly standards. However, Moses found himself growing deeply troubled by the treatment of his blood kinsmen in the land. He could sense God’s calling on his life to get his people out of Egypt, but how or where. After the death of an Egyptian soldiers at the hands of Moses, he ran…he ran so far the Egyptians could not find him.

Moses found himself in the desert wilderness, desolate and starving at a sheep ranch. The smelly, dirty, rank life of a sheep herder was before him. So, for forty years Moses went from the top of the business world to tending the backsides of nasty sheep. The arrogance, self-determination, and self-reliance faded away over the forty years in the desert wilderness. Moses learned a great deal while in this desolate dry land, but most of all he was pressed down to total obedience to God and ready to take commands and do things God’s way in the release of the Israelites from Egyptian captivity.

God places us in humiliating situations in strange ways, but it is necessary in order for us to understand the importance of total denial of our self and total obedience to His commands. Self-denial is described in many ways, but most vivid is we are to murder everything about our selves that gets in the way of obedience to God. Whatever we do, say or think that draws our desires from doing what God wants us to do should be spiritually mortified. The wilderness experiences of professional trapper, Hugh Glass and God’s commander on the ground in Egypt, Moses, came at what they would tell you a “strange time”. As Believers, however, we must embrace the wilderness experiences as a purposeful part of God’s sovereign plan. God’s plan is to use us in the advancement of His kingdom and His greater glory. We must yield ourselves to this season of life when we feel lonely, traumatized, in horrific pain, bleeding from exposed flesh, so hungry our ribs are showing or thirsty. The strength, direction, and ability to learn are planted deep within us by God Himself and when needed, He will draw out of that well.

The wilderness in my own life has been a time that God has revealed, through His Word, just how big He really is. He has pulled me beyond my comforts, pummeled my arrogance to the ground, humiliated me into a corner, and jerked all of my securities not founded in Him from underneath my feet putting me on my back looking straight up to Him. He uprooted my family, taking our home and placed us in another land. At times it does get lonely, desolate, jobless, food-less, painful, and emotionally draining. I have been jerked awake many mornings in a sweat in fear of the unknown followed by days of deep debilitating depression. I hope to show in future writings just what God taught me in my travels through the spiritual & financial wilderness. The training ground found in the wilderness yielded such rich spiritual food directly from the hand of God that no silver spoon found in this lush plentiful land of the world are not worthy to deliver it to my mouth.

I have a favorite saying that I have internalized that has been adapted from John Piper, “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him in the deepest parts of the wilderness.” I must be found totally satisfied in His glory, His presence, His Being even in the middle of the most traumatic depressing wilderness I could ever imagine.

The wilderness is not easy, it is not a time of pampered rest. The wilderness is a working season of life that we are required to trust God more, listen to God more, lay our souls bare, mortify our sinfulness daily, and speak only when God prompts us to do so. It is a working ranch that smells foul at times, causes us to be sick to our stomachs, can leave your wondering, and may cause blisters on your heart, but at the end of the wilderness is where we meet the foot of the mountains and start our ascent to better lands…our climb to the higher ground of God’s greatest pleasure, His own glory.

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What Are You Hiding in the Corners of Your Closet?

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” -Psalm 19:14

Some of the darkest areas of any house are in the closets, especially, a corner of the closet underneath the stairs. The kids love to play in the closet underneath the stairs. It is a secret place, dark, even cozy for some, a place to hide or get away from it all and a place to hide our most precious valuables.

In our spiritual life, think about the darkest corners of your life. What closet is it that holds the ugly smelly skeletons of our life we want no one to know about? I mean, most of us walk through life and especially, our prayer life with a closet or two that we do not want God to go into. We allow him in every other area of our life to clean up and make holy, but these dark, dusty, smelly corners of a particular closet we say…”God don’t go in that area, it belongs to me and I will take care of the corners of that closet.” Of course we do not verbally say that, but if we are really honest, that is exactly what our hearts and minds are saying to God each time we pray, “O Father, holy is Your name.”

We are talking with our heavenly Father, calling Him “Holy or Hallowed” yet we hold back certain areas of our life from Him when we pray. Think for a moment about certain areas that you really have not handed over to God for Him to make holy in your life. It could be a career move, your sex life (hey it is so good now, please don’t try to make my sex life holy that might be weird), money, serving in church, your “things”, your children, your friends and so on. You can name a hundred other areas that could be withheld from the holiness of God making us all hypocrites when we pray “O Father, holy is Your name.”

To pray, “O Father, holy is Your name” is really saying in all honesty, “May the whole of my life be a source of delight to You and may it be an honor to the name which I bear, which is Your name.” The quote above from Psalm 19:14 from David sums this up nicely. It is saying “may we be pleasing to God when we pray, because we have opened up every closet, pulled out every stinking skeleton from those closet’s to be laid out before a holy God, every oozing sin carcass left to rot in the far dark corners of that closet underneath our stairs”. As we go before such a holy Father, we must come to Him leaving nothing behind, holding nothing back, and not hiding anything in any closet. Coming to God and calling Him “holy” is allowing Him to examine every single aspect of your being. Let Him into the tiniest corners of your heart and mind in order to clean it all up. You are allowing Him to create within you a clean and holy life. Is this a perfect life? Absolutely not! However, we are to strive to be a holy vessel before a loving and holy God.

Until we really mean “O Father, holy is Your name” from a stand point of total commitment, total honesty, complete openness…we cannot and will not have any real contact with God, any real touch of the power of His Majesty, any genuine sincere experience of His glorious fragrance and wonder of Him at work in our life. We must place it all out before Him and desire the holiness of God in complete devotion to Him by allowing Him access to all of our lives not just parts of it. This is a cry of helpless trust in God. The focus is off ourselves and placed on a holy God as it should be.

Stand still at this moment in your daily prayer life. Be quiet for a moment after saying “O Father, holy is Your name”. Allow God this moment without rushing to get the prayer over and done with as someone would do a chore. Your prayer time should not be a chore…it should be an honor to even speak to such a holy God and further, to call Him “Father”. This is a moment that we are placing God first in our lives…we are not presenting our problems, our desires first…we are honoring Him first by bowing before Him in holiness.

When we pray with an attitude of total submission to our heavenly Father, we will come to understand that God will enter the darkest corners of our life, the places the stink from our sin is so bad we do not even want to go there and clean it up and our Lord, our heavenly holy Father will clean those areas out and make us a holy vessel He can now use. We could pray something like this:

“Father, there is no area of my life that I hide from You. Search me; illuminate the darkest corners of my life. Reveal to me the flaws and sin in my relationships, my social life, my sex life, my thought life, my business life, my school life, my recreation and vacation time, my ________ (you name the others).

This is getting brutally honest about our sin and our desire before God that we want to be holy, too. In 1 John 1:7, John tell us, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” Well, to walk in the light means that we are willing to walk honestly and openly before God, so that the light of His truth can illuminate or light us up and clean the darkest of the dark corners of our lives.

So, when you pray next time, think about this small beginning in your prayer time. Open up to God by being honest. Let Him into those darkest parts of your heart and mind. Let Him clean those up for you. I think we will all see tremendous changes in our prayer lives and our daily lives we live for Him.

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What is behind that ugly scaffolding?

“Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill

He treasures up His bright designs,

And works His sovereign will.”

-Cowper


Back in the mid 1980’s the United States underwent the straining task of rehabilitating the Statue of Liberty. It had been around 100 years since much had been done to the statue. Private donations were sought after years before and finally they had the money to get it started. In 1984 the largest free-standing scaffold ever assembled at over 300 feet in the air over Liberty Island was assembled. This metal scaffolding boxed the nearly 100 hundred year old statue in. The scaffolding was ugly of course to anyone looking at the statue from the outside, but what a tremendous work was being done on the other side of it. The crew that worked on the statue cleaned her copper skin, repaired holes and tears in her body. On July 4, 1984 the original torch had to be removed and replaced with a new one, because the old one was beyond repair. A major overhaul was underway.

In our lives, we can find ourselves in despair and tragedy. We may find ourselves out of work, in a divorce situation, child very sick, a parent with an illness, or whatever trauma event you can fathom. The point is, any of us Believers will find ourselves behind the scaffolding of God’s mighty and sovereign work at some point in our lives and possibly more than once.

In our prayer life, in keeping with another portion of Christ model prayer to us, “Your kingdom come” is the cry to heaven. We all dream and yearn for the day when God will rule in righteousness over this entire earth again…free from sin and torment. Also, this cry out to God that His will be done now, in the middle of our torment, trials, sweat, blood, and tears in this life. Our hope is not just our future home in heaven, but our kingdom hope concerns our trials right now being used as a greater part of God’s sovereign plan.

This kingdom, much of the time, is built by God in total secret. Understand this, that God is much of the time accomplishing most of His plan when it is the least evident to us that He is even doing anything. He puts up the scaffolding of what we can call trials, tragedies, turmoil, suffering, or despair. Then in the midst of that, He starts cleaning us up, “building His empire of love and glory”. We will catch ourselves thinking God is silent in our lives, He has removed Himself from us, He no longer likes us, we cannot sense the warmth of His presence anymore and so on. It is at this juncture of our lives that we can rest assured God is at His greatest work accomplishing the greatest good for us, for others, all the while accomplishing His perfect eternal sovereign plan.

Sir Winston Churchill of England found himself behind a very ugly scaffolding system in the 1930’s. He had served the British military most of his young adult life, served in the parliament for years, and finally found himself at 56 years of age banished from parliament altogether with no influence on his party and no favor left with much of the British people. He went back to his home at Chartwell, built walls, painted, played with his children and grandchildren and occupied his time as best he could keeping up with what was going on around the globe especially in Germany. This was to be his greatest wilderness time and being behind the ugliness of the scaffolding around him was hard to bear. However, it would turn out once the scaffolding was removed to be he and Britain’s finest hour. Churchill emerged in 1940 as the wisest man Britain had ever known with his foresight on Hitler. In late 1940, Churchill was again back in Parliament and ready to take Britain on to victory in WWII.

For most of us, we may never see a time as great as Sir Winston Churchill’s. We may never be known by the millions of people in our country or around the world. But whatever scaffolding God has placed around you, rest assure, God is at work in your life and whatever emerges once the scaffolding has been taken down, will be of His sovereign perfect will…it will be of His perfect plan. You will be made ready to take on whatever God calls you to do.

Remember, the scaffolding is only temporary…it is the secret work in our lives by the Master Builder. Much like on July 4, 1986, when the scaffolding around the Statue of Liberty had been removed, a tremendous piece of work emerged and a great celebration was given…our lives will be much the same way. Our God never leaves His sheep, He never leaves His people or His Church to the wolves…He is always at work in our lives for our greater good and His ultimate glory. Through this we pray, “Your Kingdom come”!

“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” -Psalm 127:1

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Don’t stand next to the edge and you won’t fall in!

Another portion of the model prayer that Jesus used to teach His disciples, is “Lead us not into temptation”. Luke 11:2-4 Jesus used a shorter version of the model prayer to teach them with. The first part of any prayer should deal with God, who He is, His character, His holiness and our relationship with Him. However, in the second part of the prayer we are to deal with our shortcomings, our sin, our forgiveness of sin as well as us forgiving others for their ills against us or even things owed to us, our attitude, our indebtedness, and our selfishness.

What is temptation anyway? I have found from the Greek original text can be an enticement, trial, trouble, an affliction, an adversity, to make stumble into a situation to sin, an examination. The “temptation” is not what the sin is, however, it is what we do with the temptation that can become the sin, the shortcoming, the unlawful act. As it is revealed to us, all Christians, will be tempted…there is no escape from it on a daily basis. It is a necessary part of the Believer’s life in order to become the instruments or vessels God will use. These most difficult and trying situations come in our lives to see how we will react and to build upon. These discouraging events in our lives are there to build us up in Christ, strengthen us in Him, and ultimately deliver us into victory.

Why should we ask God not to lead us into temptation if it is a necessary part of life? That is a very good question. So, let’s jump into that end of the pool for a moment. Remember, Matthew 4:1 it tells that “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil”. So, why should we ask not to be lead into temptation? Well, as one mentor would say he thinks Jesus meant, “we should pray to be kept from unrecognized temptations”. If we know a temptation is coming, then we can prepare for it in prayer and be resistant to it…as we resist it becomes a source of strengthening and growth. However, many places we go and find ourselves at we may not be able to discern a temptation in that moment without asking the Lord to keep us from that temptation in the first place. Many times we fall into temptation and end up sinning, because it has caught us off guard and we had not prayed.

Look at Peter the day Jesus was taken prisoner and crucified. Jesus asked him to pray with Him in the garden. What did Peter do, slept. Peter could not stay awake. Jesus was not asking Peter to pray for Him, but to pray for himself and to use the teachings on prayer that Jesus had taught Peter just days before. Peter was not “prayed up”, as some call it, for the events about to take place in his life and the life of Christ.

What happened that night in the garden…Peter ended up chopping off a soldier’s servant’s ear to which Jesus had to miraculously put back on the servants head. Then near the courts, when Peter was confronted, he failed again and cursed Jesus and denied any involvement with Jesus or that he knew Him at all. Peter should have prayed before all this, but he learned a valuable lesson on why he needed to pray daily and pray that he would not be lead into unforeseen temptations. In Peter’s case, Ray Stedman said “Satan wrung out his courage and hung him up to dry”. We certainly do not want to be caught in this same situation. Jesus has told us how to pray to our God, now, we must simply put that into action.

So, when we pray as we should, we need to think while we pray about what we are praying. Use this prayer a guide to keep us on track and in proper order to be in God’s will. I understand times when we are mumbling to God out of despair, when we cry out in a humble situation, and that takes on a different type of prayer. This is dealing with our daily communication with our heavenly Father. When we come to this part of our prayer time, we are simply recognizing that we are foolishly weak and that we constantly battle to stay out of trouble. We need to admit this and ask God for His assistance in keeping us from the edge of the “well of sin”…show us where the edge is, so that we can stay far away from the edge. If we are not playing at the edge, then it is good to say we will not fall in.

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It Isn’t Fair!

An old missionary couple was returning to the states from the mission field in Africa. After years of service, they both contemplated their situation. With absolutely no retirement put away since they did not belong to any mission boards, no job prospects, no friends in New York, etc. they just did not know how they would make it. Also, their health was not so good either, so they were beginning to worry.

As they began to pass by the Statue of Liberty a band started to play and a crowd of well wishers begin to cheer as another passenger on this ship was President Teddy Roosevelt. The old missionary told his wife, “Here we have served the Lord faithfully for years and for what? No one even knows we are here, yet the President returns from a hunting exhibition in Africa and everyone greets his return home. It just is not fair.”

The old missionaries wife just comforted him until they arrived at the port. Once at the port the crowd grew larger and louder for the returning President. The old missionary and his wife slipped through the crowd into the city unnoticed. They rented a little flat on the east side of town and began looking for someway to make a living. One night the old missionary snapped. He jumped to his feet and said that he had had enough.

“God is not fair. We have served Him for years, risking our lives without anything to show for it.”

The old missionaries wife told her husband that he should go and tell God about it. So, that is exactly what he did. After an hour or so on his knees struggling in prayer, the old missionary returned and seemed to be different…he was changed to the notice of his wife. He was calm and collected with a smile on his face. His wife ask him if he had told God of His unfairness to them.

“The Lord settled it with me”, he said.

The old missionary said further, “Yes, I did exactly that. I unloaded my entire years of trials, service, and thanklessness to Him. I told Him that no one welcomed us home, no crowds or cheers for serving Him. Once I was finished, it was just like God placed His big hand on my shoulder and said in a soft simple voice ‘But your not home yet!”

God does reward His people, but it is not always rewarded here on this earth. We may not have a fan fare here on this earth, but angels in heaven will rejoice when we finally return home to be with the Lord someday from this earthly mission field. All of our service for Christ has not gone unnoticed to the heavenlies.

Moral of the story here is that we have no claim on God by reason of service. We are not to try and hold God hostage because of some great things we think we have done for Him. Serving Christ is our duty and we have no right to demand anything of God in our prayer time because of some service we have done. Prayer is not about listing our accomplishment before Him, but of pouring out our hearts before Him and listening to His answer, His call. Receving His promises, His comfort, and desiring to praise Him and glorify Him even more. Prayer is a time of growing closer to our God and be instructed by His smooth voice.

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The Rock that will not move!

“The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer.; my God is my Rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my Shield and the horn of my Salvation, my Stronghold.” -Psalm 18:2

-God is my rock that cannot be moved.

-God is my fortress that cannot be penetrated by any human invention.

-God is my deliverer in times when it seems impossible.

-God is a refuge of rest and revival.

-God is a shield that covers me from above my head to my feet that no one can go through, over or around.

-God is my salvation!

-God is the stronghold of strongholds who will not let me go when the winds of the storms of life rage past me.

Who is this God? This God is God Almighty, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ my Savior, the Faithful, the True, and the Lamb of God! This is the God I serve and put my trust in.

“They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and with Him will be His called, chosen and faithful followers.” -Revelation 17:14

Who is this King of Kings and what will He look like one day?

“…there before me was a white horse, whose rider is Faithful and True. With justice He judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. he has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven follow Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter,’ He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” -Rev 19:11-16

That describes the Lord I serve. Nothing wimpy, feminine, or sissified about my King. He will return someday as conqueror and ruler over all.

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What holds the substance of your kids heart?

WisdomIn keeping with my series on Training up the Children or “Which way did they go?” it is imperative that we as parents know who has the heart of our child. This is an individual glimpse not corporate. Each child will give their heart to someone, something, or a multitude of someone’s and/or things whatever that is, their heart does not remain dormant once alive on this planet. Our job as caring parents is to know just who owns our child’s heart in order to help them grow into that fact or away from that fact. Parents must use the Scriptures such as this in order to deal with the deepest core of the child. Sinful prostitutes are positioning themselves to lure the heart of our children away. These prositutes are not limited to just female or male, but the television, movies, cars, trucks, money, houses, vacations, video games, sports, clothes, the “in” crowd, the latest fads, and so on….these can all be prositutes to the heart of our children.

Proverbs 23:26 “My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.”

Wisdom is speaking in this instance. Wisdom is another name for God or the Lord Jesus who is the incarnate wisdom. Wisdom calls out, demands that we give Him our heart. To train our children to be wise is a very important lesson. As our kids get older all kinds of activities, events, people, and obsessions will make every attempt at luring them away from God.

Why does God call us out and demand our heart? As Spurgeon so eloquently put it “Only love will thus seek love.” He is not calling for our heart in order to spoil our lives. God knows that the heart of man is an evil destructive machine and without us giving Him our heart this destructive vessel will destroy not only our own lives, but the lives of others. Wisdom is greatly increased by one giving their heart to God in totality.

The saying goes “He who has the heart has the man.” Whatever object, person, or place that enjoys being the king or queen of our child’s heart will lead them down a destructive path. As parents we need to be sure that we are training our sons and daughters to refuse by the power of God to allow their hearts to be given away or even taken away by anything that would pull us from the feet of Christ.

They must see in us a heart that belongs to Christ. Our actions speak of what is in the heart…from our mouths gives a picture in words of the scene going on in our hearts. We must be careful to exhibit from our actions and our speech a reflection of God living vibrantly in our lives. Our children will know the owner of our hearts by who they hear and see us to be. A quick study was done recently about this very thing. The study was done on children to see if their parent’s actions spoke louder than their words or visa versa. The results are astounding. The test was done concerning charitable giving. The parents that would say to their kids, “Don’t give too much, keep your money” yet would always end up giving much more themselves resulted in children that would give very much of their time and money. However, the results from the parents who taught their children in word “Give much of your time and money to these great causes” yet they themselves never gave much money or time, those children became the worse givers of all.

As parents our actions really do speak loudly. If we are going to train our children it must be done from the position of action not just words. Whenever we mess up, a training opportunity was created and they can learn from our mistakes as well. We must let the kids know that our hearts belong to God and then be transparent on that. Make sure our actions even in a mistake prove to our children that we belong to God. God called David “A man after His own heart”. We all know that David was not perfect and sinned violently…yet, when confronted about his sin, immediate repentance and crying out before God. This is the transparency we want to pass to the kids. This is the training that will build wise respectable young adults someday.

Hugh Stowell said this:

“For two reasons we should give God our heart: 1) unless the heart be given, nothing is given. Read further in Hosea 7:14, Matthew 15:8-9 and 2) if the heart be given, all is given. Read further in 2 Chronicles 30:13-20

So, in the daily event called “life” we are training our children in a direction to go. An important part of this training is that they give their hearts over to God completely without holding back anything. Many o the greatest missionaries of the past 200 years would tell you that without the giving of themselves over to God 100% their mission work would have been in vain.

Spurgeon went even further to say “At once-give God your heart. Delay is wicked and injurious.”

God desires not half a heart or trust nor does He want a divided loyalty or trust. He commands total obedience which requires a complete heart. Great training is done when they understand they should give their heart or trust to God.

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Holiness…new concept to many, but older than the Scriptures!

In todays selfish climate even in the evangelical movement of the day “holiness” is a new thought to many. Holiness seems not to enter into the thought process of masses of those calling themselves “evangelical”.

I started reading back through a book I read through a few years ago to touch base with someone who was passionate about the subject as I am. JC Ryle, born in 1816, died in 1900. He had a life long ministry to the young and old of the day in and around England. However, Ryle could see a movement, mostly coming from America, that greatly disturbed him. This movement was taking away the holiness found in our sanctification. The mantra was just believe and you are justified, which is the requirement to trust in Christ, however, they were taking this further to even say that sanctification was merely to believe and the sanctification was given to us. This is the rub between the two and holiness was then as it is today being pushed out of Believers lives and thus people could see no real change between those calling themselves Believers and those than admittedly denied Christ.

Quickly and briefly:

1) Justification is only to trust in Christ, believe

2) sanctification must be to guard, pray and fight against sin in our lives on a daily basis.

From Ryle:

“There is an amazing ignorance of Scripture among many and a consequent want of established, solid religion.”

Willowcreek church in Chicago experienced this recently as they admittedly have been wrong for twenty years in their “seeker” focus without establishing among the congregants solid biblical growth…in other words, those true Believers were starving to death for real biblical meat from the pulpit of the church.

Ryle says further after quoting Eph 4:14:

“There is an Athenian love of novelty abroad, and a morbid distaste for anything old and regular and in the beaten path of our forefathers.”

Again, I can show you contempt after contempt from so many young, Scripturally ignorant pastors today that viciously preach against the old, established religion of the day. This is not completely unfounded of course, but overall it causes their listeners to distaste all, when really the focus should be on the few unholy older established religions that are NOT true to the Word of God, but are pretenders to the faith.

Ryle continues:

“Thousands will crowd to hear a new voice and new doctrine, without considering for a moment whether what they hear is true. There is an incessant craving after any teaching with sensational, exciting, and rousing to the feelings. These are an unhealthy appetite for a sort of spasmodic and hysterical Christianity. The religious life of many is little better than spiritual dram-drinking, and the “meek and quiet spirit” which Peter commends is clean forgotten (1 Peter 3:4). Crowds and crying and hot rooms and high-flown singing and an incessant rousing of the emotions, are the only things which many care for. Inability to distinguish differences in doctrine is spreading far and wide, and so long as the preacher is “clever” and “earnest”, hundreds seem to think it must be all right, and call you dreadfully “narrow and uncharitable” if you hint that he is unsound!”

Sounds like much of what we see today going on the “Seeker-sensitive” & “Emergent” movements.

Ryle starts out the book:

“Sin is the transgression of the law.” -1 John 3:4

Ryle “…to attain right views about Christian holiness must begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin. He must dig down very low if he would build high.”

I compare this depth as we must build a faithfully true theology as we build a faithfully holy life. Unless we get our mind right on sin, we will do little good in building a Christian life. Think of a 100 story building. Do they just set it on top of the ground? Absolutely not if they intend the building to last and not sink into the ground. The first activity is to go down deep into the earth to set up the foundation and then they start building above the ground. The same is true of the Christian life…dig into the Word of God deeply, developing the truths of God’s Word in doctrine and theology. Then a holy life can be built. Remember, the holy life is not built over night or with a little prayer. The holy life is built over our lifetime by being on guard against the adversaries lies and distortions that cause sin, by spending great moments of time in prayer with our heavenly Father, and fighting against sin at every turn which is the mortification of sin…the murder of sin in our lives daily is required.

One final note from Ryle on what thoughts and actions about sin can cause:

“Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day. If a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul’s disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies.”

The danger the church faces today and the problems the identity of the church has today from centuries of not viewing sin as serious is our witness has diminished to the point people do not take Christians serious anymore. The dim view of sin in the Believer’s life has been tampered with to the point that many cannot even recognize their sin as being sin anymore. I can assure you that sin is still prevalent today as it was 200 years ago….even more so. The internet has brought far more filth and sinful opportunity into peoples homes and lives than one would have ever thought. So, the need to be on guard, pray and fight sin is all the more necessary.

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My Light in the Wilderness

John 8:12 “Again Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”


One of the books that has had a remarkable impact on my life is William Manchester’s
magnificent biography of Winston Churchill entitled The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill:
Alone (1932-1940). In this book Manchester describes those years when Churchill was the single
voice in the House of Commons who tried to warn his country against the impending threat of
Nazi Germany. He begged his fellow citizens to arm their country and to prepare for what he
knew would be a German takeover of Europe.
Churchill later referred to these years as the “Wilderness Years.” He was alone. He was
jeered, made fun of, and ridiculed in every imaginable fashion. For eight long years he was a
lone voice in the wilderness, urging his people to wake up to the evil that surrounded them on
every side.
But in that terrible spring of 1940, when the Low Countries fell to the German
Wehrmacht and France finally collapsed in defeat as well, the King of England, George VI,
turned to Winston Churchill as the one person in England who had the power to unite his people.
He was the one person who had warned England of what would happen with Hitler in power. On May 10th Churchill was summoned to Buckingham Palace and invited by the king to form a coalition government. On his way from the palace back to his home Churchill commented to his driver that he believed that every event in his life had prepared him for this moment: every
disappointment, every heartache, every ridicule, every set back had prepared him for the task that was now before him.

History tells us Winston Churchill was prepared in the wilderness for such a time as WWII. Each event had prepared him for this special mission in history. God had exhibited light on Churchill to catch a vision for what the future would hold if two or three wild dictators were let loose on the world. Churchill was called on to come out of the wilderness into the foothills of a great mountain to climb in defeating the Nazi army and fascism. In similar fashion, we should remain in God’s light while taking this pilgrimage through the dark wilderness. It is from His great light we need for the next step, not necessarily a lighted pathway revealing our entire future.

“You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turn my darkness into light.” -Psalm 18:28 (NIV)

Have you ever been out after midnight or later without a glimmer from the moonlight, or even street lights? It is a deep dark and scary place. It is so dark you cannot even see your hand in front of your face at first. At some point in our life we all find ourselves in such a dark place spiritually. Cold and lifeless, quiet and without motion in a darkness difficult to explain can be one of the most fearful times in any Believer’s life. Matthew Henry states:

“Let those who walk in darkness, and labor under discouragements, take courage; God Himself will be a Light to them.”

In those darkest hours of our life, when all hope seems to be lost, our Lord will pierce through the darkness with the purest Light of the Son of God. Jesus presents us with hope for those long waiting periods for the dawn of day and He conquers our darkened fears with the Light of His Word.

Go to the Word of God

I hear and see so many people find themselves deeply troubled in finances, marriage, health problems, unemployment, with friends, neighbors, family, and enemies. Troubles will find us no matter who we are and each day has many issues, rest assured. When those times clearly present themselves our reaction shows who we are and the character our foundation is built upon. Today, I would say most run to another person, mentor, counselor, psychiatrist, psychologist, or minister. This is not all bad, but most people want some kind of quick fix to deep rooted issues. If these professionals or willing volunteers will point people to God’s Word for direction, encouragement, answers, and healing our psych-wards would be empty today. Fact is these people take a “worldly” approach to advising people which only serves to compound the problems even more. Go to the Word of God and immerse yourselves in it. I cannot stress this enough. All of the answers, guidance, encouragement, revelation, healings, and courage can be found there. Make God your counselor, your healer, your mentor, and the light for the pathway through the darkest hours of each day.

An unknown author once quipped, “Faith is the light that guides you through the darkness.” We must understand something here, many people around us face dark times. Some commit suicide to escape this unbearable darkness in the wilderness. Others get on drugs or alcohol to escape the dark world. Some use sexual encounters, whether real or fantasy, in an attempt to forget those dark sorrows for a moment. Whatever the release you can think of people use it, but the sad part is they have no faith in Jesus Christ and are never healed from their darkest season of life.

Those of us claiming to be trusted Believers, should face our darkest moments with a faith that sheds a bright light which pushes the darkness away. The awesome power of the Word of God cannot be encroached by any darkness. If this is what we believe then why do we make every excuse and effort to stay away from God’s Word? Do we find it too hard to obey? Is it that we cannot commit ourselves into the waiting arms of Jesus and admit we cannot fix our problems and neither can anyone else? One of the biggest struggles I see in the world today is people refuse to trust in the Light only Jesus Christ offers. They would rather set in the dark, cultivating self-pity, feeding their sinful desires, pumping up their own egos, rather than living victoriously in the Light of Christ. This shows just how sinfully depraved people are by refusing the Light in order to stay in their own darkness.

David sings a song in 2 Samuel 22:29:

“You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light.”

This great verse in Psalm goes much further to describe what David would do because of God’s tremendous enablement. This would be the Old testament version of Philippians 4:13. David understood his abilities were possible because of God’s blessing and favor on his life. The same song is found in 2 Samuel repeated in Psalm 18:28. David knew the light was in his life. He knew who his sustainer was. David did not mind singing about it either.

Do not fear

Many times darkness will come over me and the tendency is to fear it. At times I can identify the darkness and at other times it comes from out of nowhere like a thick fog dense fog around a swampy pond. I have to remind myself God will turn this dark moment into His precious light. I look at it like this; I am on a journey in this life, on a narrow road or pathway, with dark places covering the road. My reliance is found with the Lord. He becomes the lamp for my feet and the light on my path. So, this darkness pushes me to watch the light my Lord provides me in order to go another step on this pilgrimage through it. Notice I said “through it”? We will go through dark valleys, dark wildernesses, or even dark deserts. These dark dry times are not going to be easy. Remember, anyone’s pilgrimage through the wilderness is through a dark, lonely, dry place, where the snakes are venomous and nights are cold, but God tells us in His Word:

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”(Isaiah 41:10)

God tells us over and over throughout Scripture, “Do not fear” or “Do not be afraid”. If God is the One who is telling us this, we can rest on the promises He has made concerning our situations in life. He says, “I am with you”. He also tells us, “I am your God.” So, why do we serve other gods at times? Why do put fame, fortune, and our own selfish desires ahead of God? He tells us here in these verses, “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you…all with His righteous right hand.” Believer’s have nothing to fear in this world. When the time comes to do what God has asked us to do, the strength will be there. When we find ourselves in a hole and not able to get out, the help will be there. When our body feels week and it seems we cannot take another step, God will uphold us. Folks God’s righteous right hand is mightier than the mightiest armies on earth-past, present or future. Learn to live on the promises of God; this is why God gave us promises, they are like food for the mind and body.

To borrow a story that Dale Carnegie used in his famous book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, which was published in the 1940’s, Dale described a young medical student anxious about his formidable future. His thoughts were on graduating high school, then graduating from med school, and then on to making a living. In actuality he was working himself into a nervous breakdown. Then one spring day in 1871 this young man read twenty-one words from the writings of Thomas Carlyle that changed his entire way of thinking. This young doctor became the most famous physician of his era. He organized the John Hopkins School of Medicine and became Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford. His name was Sir William Osler and the words he read: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

We will experience times filled with darkness, temptations to fear and give up, attacks by our enemies, heavy burdensome tasks and more. The seasons of refinement are not easy to endure, but each Believer must experience a time like this in their life. Not all seasons of life are the same, but the lessons to be learned are for God’s greater honor and glory. Do what you can see is clearly before you and stop worrying about what you can only see vaguely out in the future. We do not need to be anxious about what tomorrow has for us, what lies in that dusky darkness, but let God take care of the tomorrows while we take one small step at a time as God lights each step of the way for us. An old saying goes like this, “Step into the light.” As Believers in Jesus Christ, we are to step into His wonderful light.

Humiliated into usefulness

The darkness exists to bring humility into our lives. God uses this time to teach us humility and then raising us back up to glorify Him. Being humbled takes time and usually dark harsh circumstances. Moses spent forty years enduring humiliation while in the desert to the point when God called him out to deliver His people, Israel, Moses thought he was unable for the task. Moses has been proud and fearless, but God transformed over a 40 year time period this arrogantly educated man into a bumbling, stumbling, speechless, sheep-herder. God would not use the Moses at forty years old, but He would use the Moses of 80 years old.

Why does God choose people with little to no influence on the world, the nobodies to carry His message forward? I believe for the most part it is because of what God teaches us in the Bible that we have nothing we can boast in of ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9). We have not created anything apart from His work in our lives, we did not save ourselves, and we cannot save others. However, we can give glory where glory is due…to God the Father! It is Him who sustains us, gives us strength, and guides us through those dark wilderness valleys. Nothing comes from us; everything is from God and Him alone. Without God’s Light in the darkness we will never succeed or go forward. Churchill was humbled tremendously in the years between WWI and WWII. They refined him, humbled him and prepared to finish the race strong. He led the British Empire to an over whelming victory against the greatest odds England had ever known. We too are up against those same odds, however, we serve a God who is willing to submerse us into the desert wilderness and humiliate us to the point of submitting to His commands in order to raise us up another day to victory.

In a story told by Isobel Kuhn, missionary to China some 60 plus years ago, as she ran from Communist who were over taking China with her son Danny in tow. She ended up in upper Burma stranded at what she called “the worlds end”. She had no money and could not speak the language and was half a globe away from home, she later wrote, “I cannot tell you the dismay and alarm that filled me.” In her perplexity, in her wilderness, feeling very helpless at that moment, she made two decisions. “The first thing is to cast out fear, because the only fear a Christian should entertain is the fear of sin.” Isobel’s second determination was to “seek light for the next step.”

Isobel did make it home safely with her son, but she had to travel trusting God for His guidance each small step she took under the guiding light of her Lord. We, too, have to take each step of our pilgrimage in the wilderness in small increments as God shines His light on the steps…if no light shines then stop and wait. He will give us the ability to withstand the waiting as He prepares to shed glorious light on our next step.

from the new book “A Pilgrimage through the Wilderness” by Scott Bailey

author Scott Bailey (c) 2009

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Early One Thanksgiving Morning!

The adventure of two young boys on their greatest hunt!

The sun was rising early one winter morning over the eastern horizon just barely peaking above the tall pine trees like the glitter of a shiny new diamond ring. The temperature was below 30 degrees, and it felt as though icicles could form on the end of our nose. Although, you could see the smoke from our breath it seemed once in the air it just stopped in midair for a moment before finally floating away. The morning was deadly still, no wind at all. With every heartbeat you could feel the pains of freezing cold run through your veins.

My brother, Jake and I was up early at the edge of the woods watching down a small natural clearing between the pines for the largest Tom Turkey we had ever seen on the last hunt we took. Jake, my younger brother, had caught a quick glimpse of him once before and the last hunt in September, both of us saw him up closer. This turkey would feed a large family for days we thought. So, this morning, the day before Thanksgiving, we were determined to bag this old Tom and bring him home to feast on for Thanksgiving. Both of us had twelve gauge shotguns and three loaded shells total between us. So, we must be accurate and selective with our shots.

As we waited next to a couple of huge pine trees almost frozen to the tree from the cold, we heard a noise coming from behind us. It was a noise we had not ever heard before. It was the sound of a large giant grunting through the woods, bouncing off the trees, tumbling in the leaves, and splashing in the creek bed. At times it sounded as though there was more than one, but then at other times only one of whatever this was. Jake and I would watch intently behind as we tried to keep a corner of one eye down the lane for the old Tom Turkey.

In a brief moment of silence, we could hear in the distance the gobble call of a wild turkey. We rubbed the frozen fog out of our eyes to make sure our sight was as clear as possible in order to see the turkey. The sound seemed to get closer to the lane, but nothing was in sight yet. Behind us the noise was also getting closer. Jake and I were perplexed at what we should do…it seemed as though what was behind us would collide with us head-on about the time the turkey would come into the clearing just 50 yards down the lane.

I told Jake to move to his right just behind the tree next to the one near the clearing in order to get a better look behind us to see whatever was tumbling, grunting, and somewhat squeeling down the hillside. We could not imagine what it could be. One thought crossed my mind maybe it was another big turkey. Jake said it may be a stray cow wondering through the woods trying to get back to its herd. Neither of us were satisfied with those ideas, because the noises did not sound like a turkey or a cow. We had to focus on the turkey. Our main goal was to get the biggest Tom Turkey from those woods for our Thanksgiving feast.

All of the sudden the racket behind us finally stopped. We finally took a deep breath which almost froze our lungs as our focus went back to clearing and the call from a turkey. “Still no sign of a turkey”, Jake whispered. We looked all around as far as we could see through the clearing in order to spot the first sign of a turkey. The gobbling noise was getting closer, but still we could not even see the hint of a turkey. By this time, the smoke from our heavy breath seemed to freeze midair as it clouded our vision of the clear lane in anticipation of the wild turkey entering the lane with what we supposed would be splendor. As it seemed like a decade of time waiting for that turkey to come out into the clearing, Jake tapped me on the shoulder with a shaky kind of tap.

I shrugged off his attempts to get my attention for a moment as to indicate to him “stop and watch the clearing”. A few seconds went by when the tap on my should was more forceful and now quivering. So, in disgust I turned to give Jake a stern look of disgust, when I caught a whiff of a smell that was undescribable. The smell was similar to a packing plant, but the stinch was even worse than that. As I peaked over Jake’s shoulder I caught a glimpse of the largest nostriles I had ever been eye to nostrile with attached to one of the biggest, stinkiest, angriest wild hogs we had ever put our eyes on. There it was peering down at us on the ground, with a half cocked grin on its face, teeth gleeming just a bit, its breath fogging out the sides of its mouth like a steam engine train about to leave the station and with a glare in its red glowing eyes as though it had found fresh meat for its own winter feast. It was not moving, but my thoughts were “this beast is definately trying to decide which one of us to eat first”.

Jake was frozen in fear on the ground. He had a huge hunting knife on his belt, but could not move towards it for fear this wild beast would attack. To my surprise the wild hog was not attacking. It was glaring at us, mouth half cocked open, and breathing hard with a labored breath. I was not sure the smelly pig could even see us, but I was not willing to just set there and find out either. Knowing we could not get up and out run the horrible pig, very carefully and slowly I raised my twelve gauge shotgun just above Jake’s shoulder. Working carefully to move it forward so the end of the barrel of the gun was clear of the side of Jake’s face while pointing it directly in the face of this wild beast. What seemed to be huge chunks of time slowly passing by was only a few seconds. As I was trying hard to steadily pull the trigger, all of the sudden without warning something startled the hog and the hog jumped backwards and my shot fired directly through the left ear of the stinking beast. The hog ran off tumbling on the ground and bouncing off the trees grunting and squeeling as it ran the opposite direction up the clearing. Our guess at the time was the hog weighed in around 155 pounds. This was a big hog. “We could have eaten that big hog”, Jake confidently exclaimed. I told Jake the hog was much closer to eating us than we were of eating him. Let us just be thankful the hog is gone. We came to get a turkey anyway.

Now, Jake and I figured the shot of the gun would have destroyed our chances with the old turkey down the lane. Jake looked down the clearing and saw the head of a turkey picking something up off the ground through the tall tickle weeds lining the clearing. He rubbed his eyes again to make sure he was seeing what he was seeing and sure enough, it was that huge Tom Turkey. About the same time as our shot a big gust of wind came up from the direction of the turkey. Apparently the shot of our gun had been muzzled by a number of factors including the strange wind and the turkey had not heard the shot.

About the time I got a good glance at the turkey, he started moving up towards us just outside the tickle weeds and johnson grass pecking pebbles and seeds off the ground on his way towards us. My thoughts going through my mind was, “Lord, on this day will You deliver this turkey into our hands?” “You, Lord, always know our needs and You know this Thanksgiving my family has nothing to eat. You always make a way for Your people don’t You?” I knew in the back of my mind the wild hog that got away would have supplied meat for our family too, but Jake and I were especially wanting that turkey.

We are now down to two loaded shells for this turkey. My thoughts went towards mom back home with our three younger sisters and my grandfather who is in bed ill from cancer. My dad had died in an accident at the local mill several years before and the old farm house was cold, drafty and musty. It seems when the wind picks up from the north it comes right into our old house without any trouble, swirling around everyone’s head and does not stop going through our house until it exits the other side. The living room is where most of the family stays all day and the cold wind always seems to swirl vigorously around the room as we cover in blankets and huddle closely to the fire built in the little pot bellied stove. The vinyl on the kitchen flooring would raise up from wood as the wind tried to get into the house from underneath. What wallpaper was left on the walls flapped to the breeze of the strong north winds. The lighting in the old house was minimal at best. The owner of the home was an elderly man at the next farm and he could not afford to replace anything in the home and really we were grateful he was allowing us to rent the place in return for taking care of some of his cows and a few pigs on the old farm.

Today, however, if this old turkey continues in the direction he is moving, we will feast tomorrow with enough food to warm our bellies and help us to celebrate in true thankfulness for what God has given to us this day. Sure, we have lots to be thankful for already, but would it not be nice to say grace over a big turkey God provided for Jake and I to hunt down?

My thoughts cleared up and I could refocus on the turkey still moving up the lane was within twenty feet of us. Jake told me to take the first shot and he would back me up if I missed. I zeroed in on the old Tom Turkey, placed my steady trigger finger firmly on the trigger. What seemed to take me hours I knew was only split seconds in pulling the trigger, calmly and methodically I aimed at the head of the Tom Turkey, when all of the sudden out of the brush with a fluttering motion and noise from within itself a fine looking ringneck shot up right next to the turkey causing the old Tom to run off into the weeds while at the same split second I fired off my shot. I could not believe Jake and I had been out in that clearing since before the dawn of the day, in the bitter cold, nearly eaten by a wold hog, and now this old turkey was getting away again. Jake and I never recall seeing many pheasant in that area of the woods before. For that matter we do not recall ever seeing any wild hogs roaming those woods either. What a disappointment this morning has been. Such anticipation on getting that big old turkey and now it is gone. I quietly exclaim, “Could that old turkey just be a ghost turkey or something? No one seems to be able to kill it.”

Jake and I packed up our stuff and headed back towards the house empty-handed with one final loaded shell in Jake’s gun. We were extremely disappointed. With our heads dropped low and our walk kind of dragging we made our way back towards the house. Our family would not eat very well this Thanksgiving. My mind began to wonder as I began to remember the promises I had heard from the stories momma told us about God. Promises like He would never leave me alone by myself or forget about me. Other promises like our Lord would feed us when we were hungry, give us clothing when we need clothing, and shelter from the elements when we needed it. Momma always said no matter what, God would take care of His own and we needed to be found faithful and obedient to Him above eerything else. The further we walked towards home I took great comfort and peace in those promises. I could tell Jake was not as convinced as I was, but he would learn. I reminded Jake about those promises momma had read to us from the big Bible in the living room about how God would provide food for us and put food on the table this Thanksgiving and probably even better food than what we were hunting for that morning. Discussing this for a moment it seemed to lift our spirits and we raised our heads as we picked up the pace heading home.

As we climbed up a small hill on the path back to our house, we heard something strange coming towards us on the path just behind a patch of dried up sunflowers. All of the sudden out of nowhere a much larger Tom Turkey was pecking around on the lane right in front of us. The turkey had not seen us or heard us yet, but as soon as the turkey rounded the corner I had my eyes on him. Jake was not bashful either. He knew exactly what he needed to do and he confidently put his finger on that trigger without much of a thought and he fired of his gun. The last loaded shell we had was now spent towards this big old turkey. For me, it seemed like I could see each and every little ball of BB’s from that shell move through the air towards the turkey. All of our hopes was in that last shot. Jake had nailed the Tom Turkey dead. Feathers fluttered up into the air like dust from a storm. Both of us looked towards each other with a confident smile as though we had never doubted this moment would come. As Jake was picking the old turkey up, he looked at me with a strange, but satisfied look. “Well, we can eat well tomorrow”, Jake said loudly.

Jake further said, “God knows exactly what He is doing. This turkey is far bigger, younger, and better than the other one was”. Looking back I started to see God’s providential hand in the entire hunting experience. We only had three loaded shells on us. I started to conclude that God caused that old hog to come right on top of us, but did not allow the hog to attack us, yet He had us waste a shell trying to kill the beast. Then He directed the big Tom Turkey up the path right beside a pheasant and allowed that turkey to get away. God knew we were down to one bullet shell and was disappointed in our failure on the hunt. All the time God knew He had a bigger and better turkey up that path for us. He wanted me down to my last bullet so I had to rely on Him for the provisions for our Thanksgiving dinner. God is His infinite wisdom was building a faithful character in Jake and I that morning unlike any other time in our lives. As Jake and I took off half way running towards home, I simply looked up to the sky and quietly spoke, “Thank You my God for providing for us this Thanksgiving. Thank You, Lord, for proving my momma right as she told us about the promises you make to us when we are faithful to You”.

Our family was humbly thankful to God for providing us with such a treat as that big delicious turkey. It had so much meat on it we ate turkey for three weeks savoring each bite. I can tell you Jake and I have never doubted God’s hand on our lives from that day forward. We trust He always is working His perfect plan to the end and we need to step in and take part in whatever He is doing.

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