I have mentioned before that one of my favorite movies is Ben-Hur. The old version. Does anyone recall what causes one of the big turning points of the movie? Right, Juda saves the Roman officer who in-turn makes him his son and gifts him his ring as a sign of his covenant with him. Suddenly the man goes from slave to master and his whole world changes. In the same way, when Johnathan-Saul’s son-meets David he takes off his cloak and ring and bestows them upon David, acknowledging him as the man worthy to be the next king. Johnathan was ten years older than David and the rightful successor of Saul, so to willingly relinquish the throne was an act of true respect, and also (I feel) the act of a true ruler. He saw that David was full of God and that God had chosen him to take the throne, for the good of the people Johnathan gave away his birthright because he knew that David was the one who would lead Isreal the right way, only a true king would give up his throne for the good of the nation. Unlike Johnathan, Jesus was always the one we needed and no other could take His place; but like Johnathan, Jesus gave up His throne (temperarily) for the good of His people. Jesus also gave up his birthright. He had the right to be the only child of God, no adopted sons and daughters were necassary for the kingdom to continue, we orphans were never something that God needed in His kingdom, but because He loves us He sent His only son, the only child that He had, to save us, to die for us and to make a way so we could be truly part of the King’s family. He gave us His cloak and Ring and let us live with Him in glory. That is the love of a true king. Like Juda Ben-Hur, we were once slaves and now are inheritors of the kingdom. Like David, we were unworthy in the eyes of the world, but are accepted by the Prince and the King to be children in the kingdom. Let that sink in, and in your own words, thank God for all He has done. Oh how great the Father’s love for us.
Category: dreams do come true
You don’t know what God is doing behind the scenes, so never give up and never stop striving. Don’t let fear stop you from seeing God’s great gifts for you. I know first hand that staring your dragons in the eye can feel catastrophic; your body begins to reject your decision causing your internal organs to protest and your muscles to feel like jelly, and then your mind seems to second guess your heart, next thing you know you are being throw into the mouth of a giant whale by the other people in the boat. Because when God has a purpose for you, it won’t be easy. You will fight and claw your way through every moment some days, but that isn’t reason enough to not follow God’s plan. You will never be the hero of your story if you aren’t willing to fight. The best thing about your story being the fact that Jesus has already won the war, your battle is just a fight for one small part of your life, the eternal battle has been waged already, just don’t let the enemy have your part of the kingdom, Don’t give up! Jesus has planned everything for you and you will win this because He is fighting along side you!
I’ve got your back
We are a church family and our family is holding up our hands. When we grow weary and can’t keep praying, others are praying for us in our stead. That’s why God has given us so many people in our Church community. Even if you watch Church online and don’t attend a service physically at this time, most churches have a prayer request section, you are never alone. Even if you have no connection to a church at all right now, Jesus is praying for you and with you. We are many so that when one falls we can lift them up until they can stand on their own again. That is the body of Christ.
On the move
The children of Isreal lived in tents for a long time. I, personally, love tenting. The rugged out doors, cooking over a fire, showers heated by solar power; Sand in your sleeping bag, a buddy system for walking to the bathroom because it’s dark. It’s great! For about a week. Could you imagine spending years in a tent? It would be managable, but not comfortable. And tents break. Much more easily than I thought they did. So you would be repairing constantly. So why were the children reduced to tenting? Because tents are mobile. They weren’t where they were supposed to be yet, so God didn’t let them settle down. He wanted to keep them moving so He kept them in tents.
If you are uncomfortable right now with life, it may be because God doesn’t want you to remain where you are, spiritually, financially, geographically; God may be trying to keep you moving. He might be saying to not put dow roots, to stop building a foundation, because you aren’t where He wants you to be yet. Maybe He wants you to toss your tent in your rucksack and keep moving forward.
The one with the magic
The Magician’s Assistant
The stage is saturated in fake fog. The lights are set low and a single spot lights up on stage. Out you step to the roar of the crowd and you begin your show. In the backgroud your assistant sweats and works as He pulls the cords and activates the sounds and releases trap doors, meanwhile you make elaborate hand gestures and cascade around the radious of your spotlight. In the end you sit on the edge of the stage signing autographs, and the hard working helper? He is still working to clean up the tricks before anyone comes and sees how the magician pulled it all off.
We are magician. Sitting on the edge of the stage, basking in the glory of what we accomplished. But it wasn’t us. How often do we take credit for what God has done? He sets the stage, He makes all the lights and props do what they are supposed to. He cleans up the mess we make. But do we even give Him the credit He deserves? Shouldn’t He be the one signing autographs?
We all need to remember to give the credit back to God. Because He should be the magician we assist. We are nothing amazing without God. No one is.
What was that God?
It isn’t that God no longer speaks to us, we have just forgotten how to listen.
God has never been very loud. To be honest there are times when I feel like Horton listening to the clover. And usually while listening you get a lot of loud and obnoxious things come up to distract you and then you lose all hope ever hearing what you thought was the voice again so you give up. Yep. That’s me too. But the point is to not give up entirely and to instead try again. You might be surprised at how Good God is at repeating Himself. I was. He doesn’t get annoyed and say, ‘weren’t you listening the first time?’ He just quietly repeats Himself again and again until you nod and go, ‘okay God, I’ve got it now.’ Just keep listening, and when you think you hear God pause and ask, ‘what did you say God?’ See what He says.
Power of a leader
In a land untouched by modern schemes and civilization lived a man. He was in training to be a powerful warrior of his land. Once he passed his final test he would be privalaged to read the tribe’s two scrolls of power, the scrolls were the reason the tribe was so powerful. On a bright and moon filled night the tribe was attacked, the man fled with the two scrolls so that the attackers would chase him and leave the tribe alone. In a desperate flight he managed to avoid the attackers for a very short period of time before being captured, but he managed to hide the scrolls. After several days of suffering the man was rescued. He returned to his tribe a different person until his people found the scrolls and the tribe leader chose to show them to the man. He opened the scrolls with care, in astonishment the man read on one worn scroll the words, kindness, on the other he read, loyalty. The man stared at the tribe leader, who nodded with a smile. “Our power comes from being kind to all our people and being viciously loyal to them also. We would have given the scrolls to the attackers if need be, their presence means nothing to our tribe, but their words are the foundation of our whole existence. Those words are worth protecting. As are those cheractoristics within your heart. Guard your loved ones loyaly and always treat them with kindness and you will always find a helping hand where you need one.” The man’s heart swelled and he realized that it was the kindness of his leader and the loyalty of his people that had rescued him from the attackers, and that when he thought about it, that truly was the heart of his tribe.
To be a powerful leader you require loyalty to your people and your cause, and kindness to those around you. Jesus is the most powerful leader, and He leads with kindness to us and loyalty to His Father. Because, as the little girl in children’s church said, “That’s because our Father God loves all of is equally.”
Where is Jesus?
My aunt told me a story once. Her Church had put on a skit about Jesus and His relationship with us. In the skit, the main character decides to have his prayer time, he hadn’t done it all day and knew he needed to knuckle down. First a friend calls and offers to take the person to a football game. ‘Jesus’ puts on a jersey and gets ready to go, but the person tells the friend that he can’t go and needs to pray, so Jesus takes off the jersey and sits down. Next a friend offers to take the person to a concert, Jesus starts to put on his shoes to go but the person refuses the friend because he needs to pray. Jesus takes His shoes off and sits down again. A third time a friend calls and this time invites the person to a party and says that the person’s crush will be there, that convinces the person to give in and go, Jesus gets up to put His shoes back on but the person turns to him and says, ‘no, you stay here.’ Before leaving.
What’s the point?
Jesus isn’t the God of the moment you choose to read your Bible, but not God of the drive to work, the marathon you choose to run for cancer, or the afternoon you spend binging Netflix with your friend. He is the God of all of it. He wants you to have fun, but He wants you take him with you when you go to have that fun. He doesn’t want to be left behind to guard the sanctuary of your prayer room, He wants to go with you so He can guard the sanctuary of your heart. Jesus wants to be with you. And if you feel like you are going someplace you can’t take Him, then should you be going there in the first place?
Don’t leave Jesus on the cross. Let Him live in your heart and follow you where you go, as you follow where He leads you.
IF
IF
If is such a funny word. It can change anything just by existing. I am going for a walk…if. I will finally get my dream…..if. Or switch it around, if I get my wish. If I score that goal.
If changes things.
If. Jesus didn’t die.
If. It was all made up.
If. There is no world after this one.
The ifs suddenly look like a black hole don’t they?
If the ifs were true then there would be no point and the world would just burn. No Jesus means no salvation and IF we all just stop existing anyway then what’s the point?
Change the if to a why on the second one. Why would somone go to the trouble of making it all up, AND setting in place the evidence we have found? It would be ridiculous.
If there is no Heaven or hell and we all just stop existing then why do we exist at all? Because the world needed us? That is clearly not true, we are killing the world. Then why?
The truth is is that we could argue the ifs for years. Many have. But what it all comes down to is this. In our hearts we know the story is true. We have met Jesus and know Him. Then the ifs don’t matter.
One more if for everyone out there who still doesn’t believe.
WHAT IF IT’S ALL TRUE?
Then where are you at the end?
Armor
Armor?
When we were kids in Sunday School, we would sing the armor of God song. Remember standing up and patting yourself down as you named the different parts of the armor. It sort of looked like a rendition of ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes.’ Today I was reading Stormie Omartain’s ‘prayer warrior’ and she was talking about the armor of God. She mentioned how we need to put it on every day and it gave me an idea. What if we start each day by doing the armor of God song? Bear with me. What if we got up and did the helmet of salvation, breastplate, of righteousness, belt of truth, shoes of readiness, shield of Faith and sword of the Spirit? A. we would be verbally and physically acknowledging God’s power over our day
B. We would be getting in some morning cardio.
It is just a thought. But don’t forget how mutch we need our armor if we are going to make it through the day.
Credit to owner for cover image
Carried in the cross 