The Story Chapter 17 / Be Available for God’s Assignment for You

Sally Edwards is a highly esteemed third grade teacher at Jacksboro Elementary in Texas.[1]  She was preparing her students for the TAKS test and compiled an exam to prepare them for it.  There were twenty questions.  Number eleven on the test was this question: “List in any order the four seasons.”

A whopping 67% of her 3^rd grade students answered: “Dove season, deer season, duck season, and turkey season.” ¹

I don’t know what season of life you are in, but I do know this.  God has something for you to do.  He did for Jeremiah.  He told Jeremiah he had a work for him to do.  His assignment?  Stand in the rubble of Jerusalem and weep.  He was also told the people would not listen to him.

That was it.  And oddly enough, Jeremiah did it.  As the people of Judah were leaving Jerusalem in single file as captives, Jeremiah stood weeping and reminding them that God would bring them back with these words:  “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21-23).

God had something for Jeremiah to do.  And he has something for you to do too.  In the New Testament book of Ephesians the apostle Paul writes to the church, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God created in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10).

In God’s employment contract for us today, he does not ask us to be successful by the world’s standards but rather to be faithful to him to do good things.  God is not so much concerned about your ability as he is your availability.

Just like Jeremiah, God is calling you to play a role in his Grand Story.  It may be that this is your time to change the direction of your family. Turning from a focus on you alone to a concerning yourself with the things of God.  It may be that God is calling you to reach out to a neighbor.  Perhaps he is laying on your heart a ministry where there is a need you can’t even see at the moment.

 

Whatever season of life you are in God is calling you to make a difference.  And he is desiring to equip you to make that difference. Right now.  Today.  Are you available for his purposes?

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[1] Story told by Randy Frazee in The Story sermon, Chapter 17.

For the Wanderers

The Israelites are so fascinating, aren't they? Scripture is rich in its story of relationship between God and His people. I so often see myself and my own relationship with God on the pages that tell of the Israelites great devotion and great unfaithfulness.

In Exodus, we see a God of freedom who leads His people out of captivity after 400 years of slavery. He gives them a wise leader in His friend, Moses. He shows them His awesome power by parting the Red Sea and giving them victory over the Amalekites. He provides for them food from heaven and water from rocks. He takes them to Mt. Sinai where He shows His great love by giving them the law which sets them apart as holy. All of these things take about a year (13-14 months according to most scholars). Then God tells His people it's time. This is what I brought you out of Egypt for...to possess your land of promise. It's time. 

and then an 11 day journey became a 40 year desert...

The journey to their land of promise took them through the wilderness...God showed them great wonders in the wilderness, but they were never meant to stay there. God did not bring His people out of Egypt so they could wander around in the desert. That was never His plan. He brought His people out of Egypt to take them into to the sweet land of promise. His desire was to give generously...to richly bless His people.   Finally, disobedience, lack of focus and unfaithfulness kept them from receiving the richness God had planned for them. He wanted so much more for them.

He is still a God of freedom who longs to give generously to us.

Jesus frees us from captivity to take us into our land of promise. We are each created with God given purpose and designed to bear much fruit to God's great glory, but, like the Israelites, we spend so much time in bondage or wandering in the wilderness. He wants so much more for us.

Are you a captive? Troy gave a great way to know if you are enslaved in a sermon a few weeks ago. Is there something that brings you to your knees asking for forgiveness before the Lord over and over again? Do you spend communion, a time of remembrance and repentance, focused on the same area of sin each week? Scripture tells us that sin entangles...it binds us. But, Praise Jesus, Scripture also tells us that we have been set free in Christ. Allow the freedom found in Christ loose the sin that binds you...allow His grace and forgiveness seep into the areas of your heart broken and wounded by sin and heal you.

Are you in the wilderness? Look for His wonders. Our God who parted the Red Sea, defeated enemies and fed His people from heaven is with you. He is working even when the desert seems driest. He is leading you to your land of promise. Follow Him. Guard against disobedience, lack of focus and unfaithfulness that can turn an 11 day journey full of His wonder into a 40 year season of wandering through the desert.

Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of venegeance for our God; to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor

Live in freedom. Possess your promise land. Trade ashes for beauty. Claim the Lord's favor in your life this year. Live to display His splendor.

Kelly

The Story Chapter 7 / Face Your Battles with Strength and Courage

When someone keeps telling you to “be strong and courageous,” you might suspect you are up against something big.  And the Israelites were.

About to enter the land that had been promised them 600 years before, they had a giant-sized task awaiting them.  Literally.  Forty years earlier ten spies had come back and told the Israelites that the inhabitants of the land were so big they felt like they were the size of a grasshopper in comparison.  Fear took them captive without a battle and sent them off as a group to wander around in a wilderness where they took their chances against wild animals rather than face their giants.

They wandered so long that those who had grasshopper-sized faith died out.  Forty years later their children were ready to take the land.  They were physically no taller than their parents had been.  The enemies in the land were no smaller than before.  But the Israelites’ faith muscles had grown. 

There were two spies who had reported the land was theirs for the taking. One of them, Joshua, is now the Israelites’ leader.  He was courageous.  And God wanted to keep him that way. So God tells him three times in the first nine verses of the first chapter of Joshua: “Be strong and courageous.”  He also reminds him “the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

My guess is you have a few giants in your life too.  Some uphill battles that appear insurmountable.  A task demanding more than you think you have to give.  One too many things on your “to do” list than you have the time or energy to do. Unemployment is staring you down.  Depression has a grip on you.  Bills have raided your bank account and left it empty.  An illness hovers in your life like a threatening storm.  You’d rather just run and wander.

Instead, be strong and courageous.  You have a Joshua that will lead the way.  The New Testament equivalent of the name “Joshua” is “Jesus.”  And he has promised to be with you always (Matthew 28:20). 

Jesus knows how to lead you through battles.  He had a few of his own while he was on this earth.  Enemies attacking him with accusations (Mark 3:22).  No home and no bed (Luke 9:58).  Crowds and expectations pressing in on him (Luke 8:45).  The religious establishment eventually insuring he was sentenced to a brutal death. (Mark 15:14).

Yet he took on the most barbaric giant there is, death, and lived to tell about it.  He can help you do the same.  You need only be strong and courageous in your faith.

  

The Story Chapter 4 / When You Are Walled In, Look for the Way Out

There’s a wall in front of you.  Behind you is a past you are running from.  Beyond the wall awaits the promise of a new life.  But you’re not moving because there is this “wall.”  You feel trapped.  No way out.  This is just the sort of situation in which God does some of his finest work. 

You need only ask the Israelites.  Behind them was a life of back-breaking work and slavery.  Ahead of them was a life in the land of Promise.  Behind them was the fierce army of a fanatical Pharaoh coming towards them.  Ahead of them was a wall.  Their obstruction was made of water.

Your “wall” may be a fear of failure.  Or maybe it’s a lack of confidence that has grinded your progress to a halt.  Or it could merely be too many problems that have piled up in front of you at the same time.

And you have no clue which one to tackle first. 

So you stopped. 

And you aren't sure if there is a way over, around, or under this imposing impediment. 

At this point many people panic.  Anxiety courses its way through the body, atrophies the movement muscles, and rigor mortise overtakes their resolve.  Eyes which once had clear focus now only focus on the wall just inches away.  But some look elsewhere.  The Israelites looked to Moses.  They began belting him with blame.  Have you done the same?    Blame the boss.  Blame a co-worker.  Blame your dog.  Blame God.  Maybe even blame yourself?   Blame all you want but the wall remains.  While the Israelites were body punching Moses, he opted to look elsewhere.  His options?  He could have looked at the enemy’s army.  He could have looked at the ungrateful people he led.  He could have looked at the wall of water spread out before him, sat down, and given up. 

Instead he looked to God.  And God opened an unlikely route through the wall of water.  Safely on the other side, the very wall that had halted their steps closed in on and covered the sources of their fears. 

The very name of the book where we find this story serves as a reminder when we face our “walls.”  “Exodus” is a compound Greek word meaning “the way out.”  And in case you might have missed it, the way out was not a better job, a different spouse, or a victim mentality.  No, the way out is God.  Next time you find yourself up against a wall try looking to Him.