God Encounters /A New Task

We have been talking in the last couple of  post about Ezekiel and the encounters he had with God.  We talked about how God called him to do some pretty crazy things  – read Ezekiel 1-4 if you want to get a picture of his calling and just a small taste of the crazy things he was called to do.  He was called to do these crazy things by God when he realized his dream of going home (he was in exile) was not going to happen.  God gave Ezekiel a fresh dream and a fresh vision of what he was to do and Ezekiel probably did not understand all that was going on in the vision but he moved forward in obedience and trust.  That then leads us to see a few more things that we can learn from Ezekiel’s encounters with God.

Another thing I think Ezekiel learned  is an encounter with God is a private thing. God spoke to all of the Jews in Babylon through the letter from Jeremiah, but God encountered Ezekiel privately. There are some things in life that are done in public and other things in life that are done in small groups and then there are certain things that are always experienced alone. Ezekiel encountered God by himself. God will come to you and call you privately to do some things that others will not understand but you must seek His face during these times and then be sure to follow through.

You can seek the face of God with others but sometimes you must do it alone and that is really what an encounter with God is – it is when you seek His face. The exiles were told to seek God with a whole heart in Jeremiah 29:13: You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Can you say that you are seeking God with a whole heart? Psalm 27:8 tells us this; When you said, “Seek My Face”, My heart said to you “Your face, Lord, I will seek”. Are you seeking the face of God? When you do – you will find Him and encounter Him powerfully and things will change! Dreams will come alive. Passions will arise. Direction will be given!

Why will things change? They will change because an encounter with God can give us new visions or direction for life. Ezekiel got a vision of God in his encounter with Him, and received a two-fold message. First, to warn Israel of her being defiant and second write the predictions about the new Temple of God that would be built in the future. Ezekiel led people to God so that God could do what He wanted to do through them. Ezekiel gave them God’s vision but first Ezekiel had to be in a position to receive the vision from God. Are you in a position emotionally and spiritually to receive a new vision or direction from God? We must have open hearts and attitudes towards God to receive the vision or direction from Him. Are you ready for it?

When you have this new vision then you need to know that an encounter with God may result in a new task in life. Ezekiel had prepared for the priesthood and at age thirty he was at the doorway of his life-long goal. But at the last minute Ezekiel encountered God who had him embark on a new ministry. He would become one of God’s Major Prophets; no longer would he be a priest. Out of his encounter with God came a new task. God has tasks for all of us.  For some God wants to change your task and for others He wants to renew the task he has already given you, but the real question is are you ready for it?

What is a new task that you think God could be leading you into?  What are the reasons you think that?

God Encounters – Dreams Die

As we continue on in the series of post on God Encounters, I want you to first remember the most important God encounter is where we encounter God and understand salvation that comes through Christ. After that there are other encounters we can have with God where he shows us things like direction in life or seeing Him in fresh and new ways. God encounters are where we have an overwhelming sense of the presence and power of God in our lives and they happen when we have an open heart and attitude toward God.

So far in these posts we have looked at two encounters – the first was Jacob and Jacob had trouble on every side and he was a manipulator and one who was fearful but God changed him. God changed his heart and God even changed his name. God encountered Jacob and Jacob held on to God until God made him let go by knocking his hip out of joint! Jacob gladly left that encounter with God with a limp that reminded Him of who God was and how great God was! The other person we looked was Elijah who had great a victory – he defeated over 400 prophets of Baal – but quickly after that victory Elijah turned into a man who is discouraged, thinks he is all alone and who is running for his life. God encounters Elijah not in a strong wind, or an earthquake, or in fire but in a gentle breeze and with a still small voice. In that encounter God gives Elijah a job to do. He was to anoint two men as kings of nations and anoint the one to take his place. God forced Elijah to look forward to the future with the job He gave him and that is how God dealt with Elijah’s discouragement. Elijah’s encounter with God changed him and helped him out of his discouragement.

This week we will look at Ezekiel and his encounters with God through visions and some of the apparent crazy things that God asked him to do. The first thing we need to do is get to know something about Ezekiel. Here is what we know about Ezekiel. He was a priest and he belonged to the family of Zadok, who was a famous priest. Ezekiel was taken into exile and taken to Babylon. He lived with other exiles at the river called Chebar. His wife died in the 9th year of his exile. Ezekiel lived at the same time as Jeremiah the prophet, but Ezekiel does not mention Jeremiah. Jeremiah was still in Judah while Ezekiel was with the exiles, but Jeremiah still plays a part in Ezekiel’s life as we will see later.

The book of Ezekiel is full of personal experiences where Ezekiel encounters God and God asks him to do things that would look foolish to the rest of the world.  Here are some other things that seem pretty crazy that God told Ezekiel to do – for instance in Chapter 4:4-8 you can see that God told Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days then to lay on his right side for 40 days as a sign to Israel of the siege of Jerusalem. Later in Ezekiel 4 God put a limit on Ezekiel’s food and drink during that period and told him to cook his food over human excrement and Ezekiel obeyed and again is was a sign to Israel about eating defiled food. In chapter 5 God calls on Ezekiel had to shave his head and his beard and divide the hair up and burn part of it and again it is all done as a sign to Israel. In chapter 24 God did not permit Ezekiel to be sad at the death of his wife and then takes Ezekiel’s use of speech away. These are just some of the thing that happen with Ezekiel’s encounters with God and you might wonder why? It comes down to this, God intended Ezekiel to give a message to Israel by means of the experiences in his life. God uses our obedient experiences in the lives of others.

If you want to get an idea of Ezekiel and his call click hereand read at least the first three chapters.  If you read these chapters you will see that the call on Ezekiel’s life is a tough one because he is called to go to a defiant and obstinate Israel.  When you read this you will see why when God asked him to do things that seemed crazy that he obeyed him fully. He had encountered God in a very real and personal way that was life changing for him.

You might say this is all well and good but difference does this make in my life today?     Let me share a couple of areas this will make a difference in:  the first is that an encounter with God can come after our dreams fail and we do not know what to do. The Jewish captives were exiles in a foreign land. Most of us do not understand the experiences of the exiles and we do not have the experience of being a prisoner. God’s people were living in Babylon and there was no kosher food, nothing that resembled the comfortable surroundings of their home and really all they wanted to do was to go home.

In Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah writes a letter to those in exile and in and in that letter the exiles are given news that their dreams of going home were not going to happen. The letter from Jeremiah told them that they should build houses and settle down and have families because it would be 70 years before they could go home which meant that most of them would die there. It was in this disillusionment that Ezekiel encountered God and learned what it was like to be a prophet to Israel. Ezekiel as a prophet gives both a message of judgment as we have heard and a message of hope at the end of the book. It is in this encounter that Ezekiel gets are fresh dream or a fresh direction – a dream and direction that would replace the one that died when he realized he would not make it back home.

God can encounter you in the midst of your dreams that seem to have failed and give you a new dream and a new direction. Do you have a dream that has failed or died? God wants to give you a new dream and new direction but you need to have an open heart and open attitude so that He encounter you and give it to you. You also need to be receptive of the new dream but the problem is this – we do not like to change and so a new dream means change. Here is the thing – we serve a God of change! He changes lives and people – it is all through the Bible.

To go along with the fact that God can give a fresh dream in an encounter he can also prepare us for an encounter with him like he did Ezekiel here. When Jeremiah’s letter came it produced gloom and pessimism and some rejected it because of what it said. Jeremiah in his letter warns against false prophets who were predicting prosperity for Israel. God used the letter from Jeremiah to prepare Ezekiel for the encounters he had. God will prepare us with what is happening around us to encounter Him. Again – are you open for an encounter with God? In life’s circumstance you can encounter God!

This then shows us that God uses political and cultural conditions to prepare us for an encounter with Him. When Nebuchadnezzar brought 10,000 Israelite captives to Babylon, he brought the best 10,000 he could find. He brought the young warriors, statesman, and spiritual leaders because they were all young and impressionable and would in the end make his country stronger because he would train them in the Chaldean ways. Ezekiel was one of these smart ones brought to learn the Chaldean ways. Here is the thing – God was using this experience to prepare Ezekiel for what it was that He had planned for his life. God used what was happening in the country to prepare Ezekiel for his encounter with Him.

God can and will use what is happening in our lives and experiences to help us to be molded into who we are to be in Him. When you are going through life – look for the opportunities that God is giving you, look for the ways that God wants to teach you, find the ways that God is pointing you. He is in the middle of all that is happening around us and He is pointing us toward His goal for each of us. Are we looking and willing to take the opportunities God provides regardless of if they are big or small? God is providing and now we need to trust Him in it.

Have you ever had a dream die and then God give a new dream or vision or passion?  What dream died and what was the new dream, vision, or passion that God gave?

God Encounters – Seeking the Lord

In the last few post we have been talking about Jacob and his encounter with God.  Jacob in his encounter with God  wrestled with God and it changed everything for him.  It changed the direction of his life and even changed his name.  In this post we will continue to look at Jacob and again if you are unfamiliar with him please read Genesis 31 and 32 – if you wish you can click here to read it.  The minimum I think you should know about his encounter is in this paraphrase of the Scripture of Jacob wrestling with God:

Jacob stayed behind by himself and this is where there is real mystery in what happened is written. We know that Jacob wrestled with a man until daybreak. We do not know how this happened but Jacob wrestles with the man. When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint.

The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.”  Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.” The man said, “What’s your name?”  He answered, “Jacob.”

The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it is Israel; you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.” Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?” The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him. Jacob named the place Peniel  because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!” The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip being knocked out of joint.

In looking at the last couple of days we have seen that different motivations drive us to God and for Jacob it was family issues and problems.  We have seen family issues do drive us to seek the presence of God and they push us to seek direction from God about them.  We also talked about the paradox that we must give up the most precious things in order get all that God has for us.  There are some tough things to learn but if you wrestle with God you will find that God does not want things easy for us but He simply wants us to hold on tight to Him through all we go through.

Another tough thing to understand in all this is this thought: We encounter God in the darkest of night’s experiences. Sometimes God doesn’t come to us when everything is rosy. When we have health, happiness, money in the bank and no threats, we usually don’t think much about God. But the darkest nights scare us because we can’t see where we’re going, we can’t see things, we can’t see ourselves; nor can we see God. In those dark experiences, we can seek God and He will reveal Himself to us. If you are in a dark black night – it is time for you to cry out to God to show you His presence and power and light – it is time for you to encounter the light of the world! God who is light want to shine into that dark night and provide for you – but you have to trust him for that to happen! You have to be willing to change – unwillingness to change means things will remain the same. God will shine his light into your life for change!

For an encounter with the Almighty God we need sometimes to get to this place: The place where everything seems lost and it is at that place that we must seek God’s face. Jacob thought he was about to lose everything. His greatest fear was the fear in his own heart. When all seemed lost, God came to him. In our lives, God lets us experience extremes in our hearts, because man’s extremes, are God’s opportunities. It is in these experiences that God reveals Himself to us. Has God allowed you to go through deep waters? It will be in those deep waters when everything seems like it is lost that God will encounter you and change things. You must seek him in those times – go hard if it seems like everything is lost! God is always right there with you – know, believe, and understand that! Seek Him and hold on tight like Jacob did!

In Psalm 73 we see this; “But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,
My steps had almost slipped. With Your counsel You will guide me,
And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.”

Could that be your prayer – do you desire only God – you say yes but what about you actions and attitudes – what do they show?

How desperate are you for God? You see: God reveals Himself to those who desperately seek Him. Jacob was not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination as seen by his deceiving of those closest to him in his life –he deceived his family. He put them at risk to save his on hide and to take advantage of them. He was not perfect and had real problems.

That brings to my mind a question – So why did God reveal Himself to Jacob if he was such a schemer and liar – Because above all else, Jacob sought the Lord. He is an example of someone who had an open heart and was willing to change and God encountered him in spite of how bad he looked to others. Remember that He exerted all physical energy he could to hang on to God when wrestling. It was only when God touched his hip that Jacob released his grip on God. You will realize God’s presence only when you seek it more than pleasure, food, financial security, sensual things or any other thing in life. We can encounter God when we give up everything to experience Him. Many of you unfortunately will not have a God encounter like I am talking about because you are not willing to give up things. You might not want to give up that sin that so easily besets you because you like the power it gives you so you just tell people you cannot change. You might want to have money more than an encounter with God so you seek money hard and just give God your left over time. You might want entertainment more than God so you continually skip godly activities so that you can be entertained. Let me ask you – could it be said of you – above all else, you seek the Lord?

If you had to explain what it means to someone to “seek the Lord” – what would you say?

God Encounter–Wrestling with God

In the last several posts we talked all about what God encounters were and were not and now we are going to look at one of the  people of Bible who encountered God in a powerful way.  The next several posts we will be looking the Old Testament character Jacob.  He had quite the encounter with God that left him limping and changed in  many ways – if you do not know this story please go and read at least Genesis 31 and 32 – if you wish you can click here to read it.  The minimum I think you should know about his encounter is in this paraphrase of the Scripture of Jacob wrestling with God:

Jacob stayed behind by himself and this is where there is real mystery in what happened is written. We know that Jacob wrestled with a man until daybreak. We do not know how this happened but Jacob wrestles with the man. When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint.

The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.”  Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.” The man said, “What’s your name?”  He answered, “Jacob.”

The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it is Israel; you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.” Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?” The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him. Jacob named the place Peniel  because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!” The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip being knocked out of joint.

There is so much we could look at with this encounter but for today let me get you to focus in on this thought -  Different motivations drive us to seek God. Jacob was running scared before this encounter; he was running from an angry uncle and running towards an angry brother. He had nowhere else he could go so for a moment he was frozen in his fear, and then Jacob sought God alone in the night. But something happened in the night changed his life in many ways. Once he encountered God in the wrestling, Jacob would not let go of God – he held on for dear life. A constant thing in Jacob’s life was to hang on as seen by his willingness to work so long for his wives, so what Jacob always did in the past became the source of changing his life. He held on to God until he was changed by God. He held on tight!

Whatever your motivation for your encounter with God, be it fear, financial stresses, changes, cancer, divorce, or other problems or issues, whatever motivates you to seek God, hang on to Him and do not let go. When you get close enough to grab a hold of God, hang onto Him. Hold on to Him and get into the presence of God and intimate with Him, it will change your life. Hold on to God. Do not give up or in but hold tight!

A verse to cling to in all this is Psalm 56:3 which says: “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You”. Jacob was holding on when things looked bad – he was trusting God. His way did not work and now He was trusting God’s way.

Another thing we need to see is that: Concerns for family drives us into God’s presence to encounter Him. Jacob had wives and children, he constantly prayed for their safety. While his own life was a great concern, his prayer for his family was also on his lips. When God can’t get our attention any other way, He might reach us through our spouse or children. When you have concerns for your family – it will move you to the point of seeking God with everything you have so that you do not lose those most precious things in this life – your family. Sadly some are not moved to hold on for their family – they let go and it devastates all involved including the children.

If I can say anything to you – it is this – Hold on to Jesus!  When you have problems and issues happening in life – Hold on to Jesus!  Hold on till that encounter changes you!

Would you say that you have ever wrestled with God?  If so, with what and how did it turn out ? (if your wrestling is over)

God Encounters – God wants You to know Him!

In the last couple of post we have been talking about God Encounters. We will pick up from yesterday and continue to look at some things that we need to recognize when we encounter God.

We need to recognize is that many times we will have an encounter with God when we expect it the least.  The Lord is there for us and he is faithful too us in those moments when we least expect it. Most mornings we do not expect it but God is there fresh and new with mercies ready for us.An example of this is seen at the tomb of Christ on the first day of the week when Mary and the other women went to the tomb to put spices on the dead body of Christ they ended up having an encounter with the risen Savior! They were able to fall at his feet and worship Him – it certainly was  not something that they expected to happen that day.

Along the same lines but in a different way you also have examples like Jeremiah and Ezekiel who prayed for God to bless them and God’s blessing overwhelmed and surprised them. There are times that you will want God to come and encounter you but you will surprised by the magnitude by which God blesses in that encounter. God will come at that time you least expect it and will bless you beyond what you could ever imagine!

Know this – if God encounters you – it is for a purpose. Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us this; The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. God always has a purpose when he encounters us and a message that is meant directly for us. God’s message will be one where we are encouraged to obey God and observe what he tells us to do. When you encounter God – He is going to give you a message that will give you purpose in life! He has a purpose for you so find it and live in that purpose!

Part of that purpose is that God wants us to know Him intimately, which is something else we need to recognize and it is a reason why God will encounter us. He knows us intimately and wants us to know Him intimately!  He encounters us so that we will meet with Him and worship Him. John 4:23 tells us; But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. The Father seeks people to worship Him! When we worship Him we learn more about him and the better we know God the better we can serve Him! He will encounter you so that you become more intimate with Him and then you will be a better servant of His! God wants you to know him better – we all need to know Him better!

What is one thing you have learned or  have been reminded about God in recent times?  How has this thing changed you?

Recognizing a God Encounter

The post yesterday we looked at God encounters and talked about what they were and were not.  So  today we will look at how we recognize them.  How do we do it? How do we live with an open heart? How do we have an encounter with the God of the universe that will change the trajectory of our lives? It is my desire that each one of you have an encounter with God that will be life changing and transforming. That you will find direction, or peace, or personal revival, or conviction of sin and sinful attitudes – that God will do something powerful in your life and in our midst. In order for this to happen we need to recognize some things. Let us look at these things  the rest of the week.

The first thing is that God will intentionally meet you. When you are intentional in meeting and encountering God, God will meet with you. What we will see in the coming weeks is this – some encounters with God will happen when the person least expects it and at other times we will see when the person was so fervent in prayer that they will not back off and God comes to them and encounters them in a powerful way. It is about being intentional about meeting God and having His presence in your life in a powerful way.

Think about what Moses says – he does not want a mere angel to guide them into the promise land. Moses in Exodus 33:15 says “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here”. It was all about having the presence of God and that needs to be true of us if we wish to have an encounter with the God of the universe we need to desire His presence. When was the last time you felt the power and presence of God? We need to be passionate about having the presence and power of God in our lives. We need to be like Moses and not move until the presence of God is upon us and when it is we will shine like Moses shone!

Something else we should recognize is an encounter with God many times will come in a time of great need. Ezekiel 34:11 – For thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.” God is looking for those wish to have an encounter with him and those who need to have an encounter with him. We will see later that Elijah meets Gods when he was in a time of great discouragement. Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel all encountered God when their country was falling down around them. We will see that Jacobs encounter comes when he was afraid to come face to face with a vengeful brother.

Here is the real deal, problems and stresses in life are many times motivators to seek out and search out God like we never have before. Sometimes terrible times in life are times that are a great catalyst to trusting and following of God. Sometimes even when we are not seeking God, God will come and encounter us. We will see this with Saul on the road to Damascus and Peter after he denies Jesus three times. When people need God and their heart is open even though it may not look like it on the outside – He will come to them. He will come to you!

When was the last time you really sensed the presence of God and what were the circumstances of it?

God Encounters–What are they?

The first kind of encounter people should have with God is the most important one. It is an encounter with God where we understand who he is and what he has done for us. It is an encounter that results in a conversion of our lives.  It is an encounter with Jesus where you believe in Him and His work on the cross and your eternal destination changes.  That is the most important encounter people should have with God.

Now that is the most important and basic of the encounters with God but I believe and see that there are many other types and encounters with God. A way that God encounters people is to show them a new direction in life. They might be headed in a direction that is not the best for them and God can come in and point them another direction. There are other times that God encounters people to show them a call to a particular ministry to lead or be involved in. There are other times that God encounters people to remind them of who He is and how He works – it is about Him and His ways and not them and their ways. There are times that God encounters people to show them His Holiness in a fresh and a new way which brings about personal revival. God encounters can be for a variety of purposes and happen in a variety of ways.

What are God Encounters? They are extraordinary experiences with God in His presence. God encounters beyond salvation only happen a few times in your lifetime if at all. I truly believe that people who have encounters with God do so because they make themselves available to God. God will not force himself upon you so you must have an open attitude toward God and be willing to change in order to have an encounter with God beyond salvation. Here is the thing that you will see in all this – God does not just encounter people who have it all together but he encounters those who make themselves available to Him.

What does it mean to encounter God? The best way that I can explain it is to tell you what an encounter with God is not. It is not just praying, it may happen when you are praying, but it is much more than praying. God encounters are not just meeting with God in your daily quiet time, although you will meet God many times in this way but a true God encounter is more than this daily meeting. You see a God encounter is a life changing moment because the presence of God will become so extraordinarily real and you sense God moving in your life like never before in your life. God encounters have elements to them that will not necessarily happen again in your lifetime.

God encounters are not about the place it happens – whether a sanctuary or a chapel or a garden or your living room. God can encounter you anywhere and He will but again it is going to happen when you are open to Him. Another thing is that it is not about just encountering God through insights from a Bible study, although you might encounter Him that way. God encounters happen at specific locations and ou will have great insight from it but it is not about the place or the insight but it is about God and what He wants you to do. God encounters are not about the place – it is always about God and God alone!

You might think that only biblical characters from the past encountered God but that is not the case because God still does it meet people and encounter them today. Age is not an issue when it comes to encountering God. Gideon and Jeremiah were young men when they encountered God. Moses and John were old men when they encountered God. Geography, culture, and language are other circumstances that make no difference when it comes to encountering God. When we look through the Bible we see that the geography, the culture, the language are non factors because all different kinds of people in all different places encounter God. Again, the prerequisite to a God encounter is an open heart, not a place, an age, a culture but an open heart to what God wants to do.

One more thing here and that is God encounters are not the answer to all your problems in life because it is not a “fix”, nor a feeling. The encounter itself is not the most important thing – God is. You must meet God; it is Him that you need. He is the only one who can help you through your problems and the only one who is the glue that can hold your life together. It is not about the encounter but it is about God and when God comes upon you like this, it will change you. God’s presence changes people and transforms life.

You see God has promised all of us a better life. Jesus has promised us an abundant life in John 10:10 but do we live in it? Paul wants believers to be rooted and grounded in love as we read in Ephesians 3:17 but are we rooted and grounded in the love of God? Paul also promised us that we can be more than conquers in Romans 8:37- do you live as a conqueror? We can read in Malachi that God says he will open the windows of heaven and pour his blessings out on us – has God poured his blessings out on you? Peter said in 1 Peter that we could have joy inexpressible and full of glory- would you say your life is full of joy inexpressible? So what I am saying is that we should be seeking God daily and praying that we will experience God’s presence in the powerful way that God’s Word describes. We should be living in the promises of God but it is a matter of being open to God to do so.  When we do this – I believe we will experience a God encounter and we will experience these promises of God.

What are your thoughts on God encounters as I have described them?

Risking it all (Part 2)

The last post we started looking at taking risks  through the lens of the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48).  We will continue today looking at fear and why we do not take risks. 

Why do we not take risks? – The first reason that people do not take risks has to do with “the Fear Factors.” What are these fear factors?

1. The Fear of Loss – but there is the old saying “nothing ventured nothing gained”.

1. Loss of reputation

2. Loss of Friends/Family

3. Loss of Money

Here is the thing – are we really going to fear losing things that are not ours – they all belong to God. Our reputation belongs to God, Our family and friends belong to God, and our money belongs to God. When we understand that, it should make it easier to know that we need not fear.

2. The Fear of Failure – Risking and not making it is the fear. There is no such thing as failing – it is all opportunities to grow. The greatest lessons in life come through failing.

· A winner first knows what losing is like – Malcolm Forbes

Just because you do not succeed does not mean that you failed. The only time we fail is when we quit. You do not measure a man or woman by what they do but by what makes them quit. All too often people quit just before God comes in and shows His power and His answer. Let me just say – if you never taste defeat you really do not understand how sweet success really is – especially God’s success! Never fear failing!

3. The Fear of Humiliation – The definition of humiliation is interesting – it is to reduce to a lower position in one’s own eyes or others’. Whose eyes is it important to be in – that is the real question?

1. What will others say? – Is this really something we should be asking ourselves?

2. What will I think of myself? – Again, is this a right question to ask?

3. Here is the Right question – What will God say? It is all about being faithful to Him!

Fear is a healthy thing if it is put into it proper place. Fear is there to protect us, but we are wrong and off base when we allow it to run and rule us. This woman that touched the hem of Jesus garment did not allow fear of loss, failure, or humiliations keep her from taking the risk of faith that she took. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear – (Mark Twain) and I see that this woman most likely had fear but she allowed faith to rule her life and not the fear. Do you allow fear or faith to rule your life?

The second reason we do not take risks has to do with”the Comfort Zone.”

We all desire to be comfortable. I lived in an apartment that the heat unit was called the comfort zone. You would put the dial on the comfort zone and walk away. It was the area on the dial that made the room or apartment comfortable so that you would not want to leave it. We all desire comfort but sometimes being uncomfortable brings about positive change. The Bible nowhere promises us that we are going to be comfortable in this life. I do not know of anytime that someone died from being uncomfortable – it will not kill you but will most likely build character in you. This life is not about our comfort but it is about Christ. All too often we just do not risk because we do not want to get out of that comfort zone.

We stop challenging ourselves. When we are comfortable we are not challenged. There are times at home when we need to not to be challenged but we need to rest. There are also times that we need to be challenged. You really do not know yourself until you have been challenged. You need to be stretched out. A challenge brings about growth. Challenges show us who we really are and even more than that challenges show us what we really believe. You can tell me all about your faith in Christ but what happens when the challenge comes – do you seek Christ or do you blame Him? The challenge really shows what you believe.

Again, going back to the woman who touched the hem of Jesus garment, she had to step out of her comfort zone to get healed. She had to put herself in a position that was uncomfortable and she did and it was well worth it because she found the healing she was looking for. She had to challenge herself to go and do something that I am sure she did not want to do. She had to push herself to get through the crowd just to touch that fringe of the robe of Jesus. It paid off for her and the same is true for all of us – if we are willing to be uncomfortable and challenge ourselves – we are putting ourselves in a position where Christ can do even more amazing things in and through us!

The third reason we do not take risks is “the Can’t Syndrome.”

You have told yourself you can’t do it – You in your mind tell yourself that there is no way that you could take the risk and you will not do. Or you tell yourself that you are not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, strong enough or whatever and you don’t! If you do not believe you can – you won’t. What we are doing when we say these kinds of things is – limiting what God can do through us. We make ourselves unavailable to Him for use.

Someone else has told you that you can’t do it – Maybe you did not tell yourself that you can’t but someone else told you that you would not be able to do it. The sad part is that you believed without ever trying and seeing. You never took the risk of trying – you just gave up and believed them. I am here to tell not that you can but you will never know until you do you best to do it!

The women who touched the hem of the garment pushed past all the excuses she made and others gave her to touch the garment. She did push past and got her goal.

What is something that you fear?

Risking it all (part 1)

Over the next several post we are going to look at risking it all.

A farmer was walking through his pumpkin patch early in the growing season, and while walking near the road that ran by his farm, he found a one-gallon glass jug. He stood looking at the jug for a few moments, and then, for no particularly good reason, he picked up the jug, laid it near a plant and then he poked a small pumpkin into the jug without damaging the vine and then wondered on his way.

Later when the pumpkins were full grown and were being picked and stacked, he came across the jug again, this time completely filled with the pumpkin he’d poked inside. The pumpkin had filled the jug completely, and had stopped growing; it was the size and shape of the jug. It did not break the jug but just grew to the limits that glass provided. The other pumpkins around it had grown to be full and mature but this one pumpkin was the size and shape of the jug and it was stunted.

Now, what we need to understand is in life there are many people who are like the pumpkin in the jug; they only grow to a certain point or in other words they are stunted because they are living their lives in a jug that holds them back. They have allowed themselves to be held to certain limits because of the jug they are living in. They have never grown to their full potential or full maturity.

For us in life – in order to grow to our full potential and to really be mature we will need to take some risks to get out beyond the boundaries of the jug of life. When you do this you will grow to full maturity and reach your full potential. You might think – I am too old for this or too young for this or too set in my ways – but read carefully over these posts because I think God has something in store for you.

We are going to talk about what those boundaries are that keep us in the jug and stunted. We are going to talk about what keeps us from being all God intends us to be. God does not put us in a jug but God wants us out of the jug to grow fully and to maturity. God does not want us to be stunted! Sadly we put ourselves in the jug or allow others to put us there and it is not what God has intended.

In these posts we will look at a woman in the Bible who got tired of living in her jug of life. She got tired of the limits that she had on her. She wanted and desired to be all God intended her to be and she knew she could not be that living in the jug. She got sick and tired of being sick and tired and so then she was willing to do whatever it took to break out of the jug and to have the full life that she knew God intended for her.

Luke 8:43 -48: ⁴³ And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, ⁴⁴came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped.⁴⁵ And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You.” ⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.” ⁴⁷ When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed. ⁴⁸ And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

This is a story of a woman who got out of the jug by taking a risk of faith. You see every one of us is like this woman. We are all sick and in of healing from the master in some areas of our lives. All of us in one way or another are trapped in a jug and not growing to our full potential. What we need to do is take a risk of faith like this woman did here. We need to take this risk and become all God intends for us to be.

What are Risks? According to Webster – they are the possibility of loss or injury. There are negative risks. These are times that the possibility of loss overshadows any of the benefits that come from taking the chance.  There are also positive risks. These are times that the possibility of loss is overshadowed by the benefits that come from taking the chance.

What are the risks that the woman in the story took? She was ceremonially unclean and could not practice her faith and she would make everyone she touched unclean and they would have to be purified.

• She risked making crowd unclean – she was unclean because of here issue of blood and touching others even in passing would make them unclean.
• She risked making Jesus unclean – touching even the hem or fringe of Jesus’s garment would have made Jesus unclean.
• She risked telling Jesus it was her that touched him and sharing how she was healed– Now the crowd would know that she was unclean and admitting to Jesus that she made him and them unclean.
• She risked the crowd turning on her – The crowd could have easily turned on her because of making them unclean and they now know that if they touched her they would have to go and be purified.
• She risked the possibility of getting healed – this is the one risk that would make it worth it all.

She had four negatives and one positive – but that one positive overshadowed the four negative.  She had a lot to lose but she had more to gain by taking the risk.  She risked it all to be all that God intended her to be.  Something for you to think about which we will discuss in the next post – why do so many avoid taking risks when there are such great rewards?  Let us not live our lives in the jug!

What is the greatest risks that you have taken in you life?

Evangelism Numbers and Thoughts

I did a message talking about evangelism and started thinking about numbers of people in the world that do not know Christ.  I then read something that kick started me down this path and these numbers have been ringing through my head.

So think about this:

There are about 7 billion people on Earth right now and the average life expectancy is about 70 years.

So if you divide 7 billion by 70 years you get 100 million and that on average would be how many people die in the world each year.

If you divide 100 million by 365 days you get 273,973 which are how many people die in the world each day.

If you divide 273,973 by 24 hours you get 11,416 people die each hour.

If you divide 11,416 by 60 minutes you get 190 people who die every minute.

If you divide 190 by 60 seconds you get approximately 3 people die every second.

Just think – the reality is that 3 people die in this world every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month of every year!

How many of them know Jesus? I am going to be very generous and say about 33 percent of those who die know Jesus. That means for every second that ticks on the clock 2 people go to hell and 1 person goes to heaven.

In the time that it took you to read this about 180 people died and went to hell.

That is the truth and that alone should motivate you to want to “Go” share with people who Jesus is and the difference He makes in life (Matthew 28:19).

If that does not convict your heart – you need to check yourself spiritually!

What keeps you from “going” to others?  When was the last time you shared your faith with anyone?