Do Not Leave Your Bag Unattended

Have you ever planned a trip and it didn’t go as expected? You took things with you that you didn’t need or even use. Before 911 we were asked at the airport, “Did you pack your own bag?”

In the journey of our lives our parents or ourselves, not terrorists, have helped pack our bags for us with things we definitely didn’t need. Our bags became too heavy. If your suitcase is too heavy at the airport you’re going to pay more fees.

We used to hear "Do not leave your bag unattended.” You and I can benefit from attending to our bag and seeing how we can pack lighter so we have a more enjoyable trip.

When Israel went on their long Exodus trip they took some excess baggage with them as well. The Bible says the mixed multitude (the Egyptians who saw the miracles) went with them along with their beliefs and idols. At that time Israel had yet to receive any written revelation from God, but they had heard the stories about their forefathers all their lives.

They took their difficult experience of 400 years of slavery that impacted their perception of who God was and their expectation of what their journey would be like. A land flowing with milk and honey.

God told Israel, 'I will be your God and you will be my people and I will lead you and provide for you along the way, you just got to trust me.' (Ex.6:2-5). It was not just on this trip alone that the Israelis got involved in things that got them stuck on their journey.

Over the millennia Israel has had a long history of following other lovers and the allurement of alternatives to Gods’ way and it’s no different for us. We have the same human tendency to follow our own way.

Like Israel, there’s a time in all of our lives when we must learn to let go of loved ones, our possessions, our own expectations, or the control of people, places, and things. I’m afraid that too much of the time our lives are about what we want when we want it and how we want it. Israel desperately needed to let go of Egypt's false security. Their constant favorite theme song was, “I want to go back to Egypt,” even though God delivered them from bondage. Go figure.

Like the Israelis have you ever thought, “I’m tired of wandering around and waiting for my inheritance. How long oh Lord must I wait for that some kind of wonderful person or thing to come into my life?”We are constantly being told about a lot of things that just aren’t so, like this smoking ad.

It would help us to accurately understand what letting go means. Letting go doesn’t mean that we forget, ignore or deny that our past trauma or relationship didn’t matter and we can simply move on.

None of us are absolutely free from our past. While we cannot change the past we can experience freedom in the way we respond to it.

Your future can be better than your past.
Like the Israelis, we need to know that letting go is accepting your circumstance and your part in it, no matter how unfair. God intended the Israelis to go the long route to the Promised Land and not the seemingly easier route along the Mediterranean Sea, but just not for forty years. They got themselves into that mess.

Letting go is learning how to let go of your past relationship or if it’s ongoing, not controlling the other person. That’s hard even with the best intentions. Although we should not give disproportionate power to our past the past is not our enemy.

Understanding and acknowledging our past is not a meaningless exercise. While we can’t change the past, but we can learn from it. Like it or not our past can become our identity inventory. It can be good or bad. God asked the Israelis to REMEMBER their past in the celebration of the Passover feast every year for thousands of years.

Being aware of the dynamics of a broken relationship is one thing, but understanding what our part was in a broken relationship is never easy, but extremely helpful for our future relationships. Your past doesn’t need to be a ball n' chain. Don't let it be, it gets heavy and is not very attractive.

Join us next time for part two of this blog as we explore three impacting relational dynamics that can help us have the best possible relationships. Your comments are welcome and appreciated.

When No Is The Way

Most of us don’t’ want to hear a no, especially if it’s something that we really wanted or was for a good cause. Yet, could you imagine if God said yes to everyone’s request? When God has said no to your heartfelt plans what was your response?

We so desperately want our reasoning to be God’s reasoning. When God says no some are tempted to wonder if God loves them. In reality it’s because he loves us He sometimes says no.

When God says no we can experience contentment by understanding and responding in two ways
Realize God has a better way!
On the Apostle Paul’s second missionary journey, the Spirit forbade Paul to speak in the province of Asia and kept them out of Bithynia near the Black Sea and led them directly to Troas, on the coast of the Aegean Sea. While in Troas, Paul received a vision of a man in Macedonia (in northern Greece) asking Paul to come and help them. This change of course became an open door for the gospel to Europe.

A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9

Our lives can a take a turn we didn’t expect or plan on. The lord has said NO for some unknown reason, but he does have a better way.  Fretting over that from which we have been removed or which has been taken away from us, will not make things better, but it will prevent us from improving those which remain.

Respond with acceptance and humility
After tragically losing everything dear to him, Job fell to the ground in worship and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” Job 1:20 -22

When God has said no to you, you are in good company. Over the millennia God said no to King David, the Apostle Paul and countless others because He had a better way that they were not able to see. God’s answers are never wrong, although they may be surprising.

Sometimes He says no and other times he says yes, but in either case His answer is always the best!  Even though David was kept from building the temple God promised Him that his son Solomon would construct and finish the temple and from his lineage would be a kingdom that would have no end. From the tribe of David inevitably came the promised Messiah.

He has a promise for you too!  “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  When you know Him one day you’ll hear Him graciously say to you, “Welcome home, I’ve been waiting for you.”  May we look forward to that day!

When God Says No

We all have been told no to something that we really wanted. It might have been about a job, a relationship, a goal or a worthy pursuit. We can be so sure about something that it’s a given to us. Most of us don’t’ want to hear a no, especially if it’s for a good cause. Yet, could you imagine if God said yes to everyone’s request?  

After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him. David said to Nathan the prophet, "Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent."  Nathan replied to the king, "Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you." 2 Samuel 7:1-3

During a time of Israel’s relative peace King David desired to build the temple for the Ark of the Covenant. It was certainly a great godly goal. Like David, during times of peace and relative calm we too can think to ourselves that this is what I’m going to do, but is it God leading you? Our passionate desire might be a great plan, but it might not be God’s plan.

We all have sincere friends like Nathan who can say to us “Go for it David” and later to find out it’s not God at all. That’s hard to hear indeed, especially after a prophet tells you to go for it.

That night the word of God came to Nathan, saying: "Go and tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD says: You are not the one to build me a house to dwell in.” 1 Chronicles 17:3-4

Now then, tell my servant David, “This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel.  I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth.

When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body (Solomon), and I will establish his kingdom.  He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.  

                                                                                                                  2 Samuel 7:8-9, 12-13

One of the hardest things in life is to have a vision or a goal and God uses someone else to carry it out. That’s hard stuff, yet that is what happened with David. Here’s David’s response to God’s no.

Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said: "Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? … And as if this were not enough in your sight. What more can David say to you?  For you know your servant, O Sovereign LORD.  2 Sam.7:18-20

What an excellent response from David. God, you are so good to me! Can you say that too? God said no to David even though his intentions were noble. It does bring up the question though, is it wrong to dream like this? Absolutely not!!

Have you ever wanted to do great things for God? I hope so. When God said no to your plans what was your response? We so desperately want our reasoning to be God’s reasoning. When we do get a no we can become hurt and disillusioned. Getting a no does not mean we are being disciplined for poor choices or faulty logic. 

Like David, our intentions may be good, but we need not force our passionate will.

God doesn’t ask everybody to build temples, but he does call everyone to some purpose. Many would have been extremely devastated, but David praised God. God’s will was more important to David than his own desire or need. Some day we shall understand that God has a reason for every NO. 

Join us next time to learn more how we can experience acceptance and contentment when God says no.

It's Not Too Late To Look up

When our circumstances do not turn out the way we hoped and dreamed we have three choices.
We can look down with discouragement and despair OR look around and find blame OR look up to God in hope. Maybe you feel that time is running out and it’s too late to... Maybe you can relate to the psalmist when he said,

I’ve had my fill of trouble; I’m camped on the edge of hell. I’m written off as a lost cause, one more statistic, a hopeless case. Psalm 88:3-4 (TM)

Not exactly the verse to have on your frig. Yet, no matter what’s happening in your life, no matter how grim, it’s not too late to look up and experience hope. Maybe you’re like a lot of others who wait for the circumstances to change when they’re hungry for hope? What if your situation doesn’t change then what? You might be in very hard place right now, but you don’t have to live without hope.

In Genesis 12 God told Abraham to leave the security of his homeland and go to the promised land and there God would make his name great. Note that God promised His blessing, but on that God directed trip Abraham encountered extreme hardships and relational conflict all throughout his long journey.

Abraham eventually got deeply discouraged. He had been waiting for God’s promised heir for over 25 years. Maybe like Abraham you’re wondering how much longer can I wait? What do you do when you don’t know what to do?

The good news is that in the midst of Abraham’s mistakes and deep disappointment we read, “When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.” Romans 4:18 TM

God wants us and the people we know to have hope.
Where or what do we direct people to? What do we tell people when they ask us where to find hope? Go online and find someone to put your hope in, have another drink, get a change of venue, just be positive… and on it goes.

So, how can we look up with hope despite our desperation? There are some choices we can make when were in this place. The first choice is to…

Allow God’s love to be your life preserver.
Hold unto Him when you don’t have anything else to hold unto. For so many it’s so easy to give up hope and distract ourselves with every imaginable thing that simply doesn’t help. It just prolongs our hopelessness and disappointment.

Don’t allow your job or a significant other to be your life preserver. Yes, your friends and family can help you with encouraging support, but to make them your life preserver is expecting from them what only God can do. Who do you look up to as your life preserver? Only God’s love is there at every moment.

I look up to the mountains— does my help come from there? My help comes from the LORD, who made the heavens and the earth!  Psalm 121:1-2

It’s never too late to look up to God triumphantly in trust and surrender.

But I have hope when I think of this: The LORD’S love never ends; his mercies never stop. They are new every morning. Lamentations 3:21-23

Okay, how do you do that? Every day and every morning even when you feel helpless and hopeless remind yourself that God’s love is your ultimate life preserver. Tell yourself before you get out of bed, “no matter what He loves ME!”

In order to look up to God with real hope we have some other choices to make as well, but they’re harder.  Stay tuned for those other practical choices next time.  

God Knows What You Need

As we saw last week God intimately knows our faults, feelings, frustrations and our future.  He has already seen this day and every interruption and …

He knows all our fears.
He knows if we’re uptight and angry about something. If we think God doesn’t know or care about us, we can take matters into our own hands and take responsibility for things that God never intended us to take on.

Many of our emotional problems can be traced back to NOT really grasping the true nature of God. We misunderstand who he is and what he does. Many times when we are fatigued and weak we forget can that God  knows everything. 

God knows about every single issue you have and knows what you need. You don’t need to get his attention, He already has it.  You have his undivided attention. It’s no problem - that’s why he’s God.

He’s waiting for you and I ask for his help. He’s measured your tears in a bottle. He wants to offer his help. He loves you so much and he knows what’s happened in your life, so look to him for comfort and strength.

He knows all about your faithfulness.
He knows all of your efforts of peacemaking and helping others. He knows when you do the right thing! He sees it! He knows when you stand up for him. He knows every opportunity you had to gossip and you didn’t and every opportunity to be critical and you weren’t!

No matter how seemingly insignificant, every good deed, every encouraging word, every compliment, and every act of kindness God knows about it. He doesn’t miss who you are and what you do.  He will reward you.

Imagine you’re the only one on stage and you’re acting out your whole life.  There is only one person in the audience and that’s God and he’s clapping. That’s all that really counts! You might think nobody saw what you did, but God did and does every day. Even your positive thoughts God knows.  There’s no moment when his eyes are off you.

‘God, I’m trying to live out my faith, it doesn’t matter how I appear in public.’ Character is who you are when no one is looking, but your reputation is what other people say about you.  It matters when nobody’s looking because God is. God says, “I saw that… way to go my child, I’m watching you!”

Your heavenly father is always watching you, He sees you all the time. He sees your faithfulness. He saw what you did. His opinion is what really matters! Since God sees the good things you do and he’s cheering you on then don’t be discouraged! He loves you so much and he knows what’s happened in your life, so look to him for comfort and strength

Maybe you’ve been trying to be a godly person and seems like it’s not paying off or it isn’t making a difference. Rest assured God sees it. It doesn’t matter what everybody else does, but it does matters what you do. 

God Knows You

We live in a world where satellites and drones can see license plates thousands of feet above ground. Where government officials and hackers can find out about you and I. Knowledge is power! Imagine knowing what’s going to happen in the future like shootings, hurricanes, North Korea, the Middle East, terrorist plots before they happen. Imagine knowing tomorrow’s news.

God knows everything possible - all events in the past, present and in the future. He’s never surprised about what we did in private. He’s never shocked. He knows every detail of our entire life history.

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. Isaiah 46:10.

He knows what has happened, what is happening and what will happen! He knows everything that could’ve happened that didn’t, what can happen, but won’t. It is encouraging to know that…

God knows our faults and failings. Psalm 69:5
He knows absolutely everything about us. We forget this sometimes because it can make us feel uncomfortable. None of us have secrets from God. We always have an audience of ONE - there’s nothing off the record! Everything you think about, God is aware of. Ezekiel 11:5 God knows about everything you see, do and say!  Ps.139:4  

Aren’t you glad your life is not in the National Enquirer at the checkout lane of the grocery store for all to see? He knows our hypocrisy and he still lavishes His love upon us. Amazing!  He doesn’t hold it against us. We can respond by being honest with God. He knows all about it, but he understands and He still loves you!

God knows our feelings and frustrations.
We might think that nobody knows what we’re going through, but God does.  He sees the crisis in our soul. There is no hurt unnoticed by God. Often when we’ve been deeply hurt we can feel isolated and lonely and think, “Nobody understands what I’m going through” but God does!

I will be glad and rejoice in your love for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.
                                                                                                                                               Psalm 31:7
God knows your feelings and frustrations more than anyone else. Ps.103:13-14 In the midst of your weariness God is sympathetic. He NOT only sees, but He cares for you!  He understands why it happened. He knows the reasons that brought you to a certain place in your life. He sees the hurt in your heart that no one else can.  Psalm 142:3. 

Maybe you feel like giving up? He knows your hurt and your heart. He’s measured your tears in a bottle so look to him for comfort and strength and cast your burdens upon Him today and every day.

God knows your future.
Fortune tellers, astrologers, seers or tea leaf readers sell the future, but these are the wrong sources. God sees tomorrow and what you will face and He is not limited to time.  God is like the blimp at the Rose Bowl parade, He sees the beginning and the end of the parade. He is the alpha and the omega. He knows your future and is not surprised.

Since God knows your future you can ask His advice. God will not lay out your whole life at once. If you did know your future you could be discouraged or filled with pride or both. If you’re driving on a two lane mountain road and there is a slow car in front of you, you could pass the car so you could get to your destination sooner. God is like a helicopter, He sees the other car coming toward you in the other lane. 

He knows what’s coming. Don’t forget that. Being that God sees all of your life ask Him for His strength and direction for your future. You’ll be glad you did.

God Knows About Closed Doors

God knows the agony of more closed doors than anyone ever will. God has given to every person the key to the door of their own heart, but God will not force his way in. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock…”(Rev.3:20)

It’s not just that we hope God will open a door for us, but God hopes we will open a door for him.

We have or inevitably will someday stand in pain at a closed door. I cannot provide an explanation or reasons your heartfelt felt prayers are not answered, but I can point you to a Person. I can tell you that at the heart of the gospel is a desperate unanswered prayer.

Jesus prayed, “Father, if it is possible, may this cup, this suffering, this death be taken from me.” Yet not my will, but yours, be done.” As author John Ortberg said, “This is the most desperate prayer ever prayed from the most discerning spirit that ever lived, from the purest heart that ever beat, for deliverance from the most unjust suffering ever known. And all it got was silence. Heaven was not moved. The cup was not taken from him. The request was denied. The door remained closed.”

That unwanted and unjust suffering became the hope of the world because the ultimate answer to every human drama is a blood-soaked cross where the Son of God himself suffered. Nobody has all the answers, but what if our most difficult prayer requests were answered yes?  

What if God had said yes to His son’s request? What if Jesus had been spared his suffering? What if there had been no cross, no death, no tomb, no resurrection, no forgiveness of sins, no birth of the church? What if? I don’t know why some prayers get yeses and some prayers get nos.

I know the disappointment of a no when you desperately need a yes more than anything in the world, but I don’t know why. I only know that in the cross God’s no to his only Son turned into God’s yes to everyone who ever lived. Yours and my unanswered prayer or a closed door just might be to other people’s benefit, we just need to trust God that He knows what's best!

Myths About Open Doors

“This, too, shall pass.” “God helps those who help themselves.”  “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” Sounds biblical, but these phrases are not in the Bible. That happens quite a lot. “God will never give you more than you can handle.”  You’ve heard that before.  The Bible says, God will not allow someone to be ‘tempted’ beyond what they can stand, but the Bible never says God will not allow you to be given more than you can handle. People are given more than they can handle all the time.

“When God closes a door he opens a window.” Yet, the Bible says, “What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open” (Revelation 3:7) Our own desires and ideas about God opening doors can be full of misconception and superstition, maybe even spiritualized wish fulfillment.

People have told their soon to be spouses, “You can’t break up with me; God already told me you’re the one.” Sometimes we cite God opening a door to justify our choices.  When I try to use God the way someone uses a magic eight ball or a horoscope I make God my genie in a bottle. 

Here are some myths about divine doors.

If I’m unclear about which door to choose I’m doing something wrong.
Big decisions are rarely simple. We can say, “God just tell me what to do.”  Sometimes were not looking so much for God’s will for our lives, but to simply be relieved of the anxiety that comes with taking responsibility for making a decision.  God is the door opener, but not a magical enabler.

God’s will for your life often is, “You decide.” God cares more about whom you are becoming and not so much what you do for a living, were you live or who you marry. He wants you to become a person of character and love.  

Sometimes God may have a specific assignment for you and God is perfectly competent to make this clear. But it’s helpful to understand that a lack of guidance from heaven regarding which door to choose does not mean that either God or I had failed. God knows that I would grow more with having to grapple with a hard decision than if I got a memo from heaven.

An open door means the way will be less difficult or easy.
If I choose the right door, I’ll be able to tell because my life will get easier. If this is my criteria for door judging, then every time I hit “hard,” I can doubt God, myself, and my choice. When God calls people to go through open doors, what generally happens is life gets much harder.

“A wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”

                                                                                                                  1 Corinthians 16:9

Not just a door, but a wide door.  Paul knew that resistance and opposition was part of the confirmation of the door God had opened for him. Avoided trouble is tempting, but not the path to maturity. Jesus never said, “Your life will be easy.” Jesus used the word easy only once, but it wasn’t about our circumstances.

He did say, “I’ll give you an easy yoke.’’ A Rabbi’s yoke was a way of saying a follower would take on his way of life. That is, daily receiving God’s transforming grace that brings peace and strength beyond yourself that will enable you to live life to the fullest. Are you?

Join us next time for more myths about doors.
   

God Knows

After Joseph’s prison release and his several years of faithful service in the Pharaoh’s court he becomes the equivalent of Egypt’s Prime Minister. During a severe famine twenty years later Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt seeking food for their literal survival. Ironically, they have to bow before Joseph to buy food (remember his dreams?) not recognizing their brother.

Because he deeply yearns to see his dad and younger brother Benjamin Joseph not only provides for them but suspects they are spies and in order to prove their innocence they must leave their brother Simeon behind until they bring back the younger Benjamin from Palestine.

After Joseph’s request his brothers are absolutely undone, "Surely we are being punished because of what we did to our brother Joseph.” In an extraordinary contrast we read, before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, "It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and my entire father's household." The second son he named Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering. Gen. 41:50-52.

Ultimately, none of Joseph’s rejection and heartbreak was wasted. Nothing in our lives is insignificant in the hand of a loving God for He does not waste our pain, but uses it (2 Corinthians 1:4).

The brothers return to Egypt for more food and as requested bring their younger brother. At the sight of Benjamin Joseph hurriedly runs from their presence and is overcome with emotion. Joseph plays another ploy on them and keeps Benjamin with him in order to get them to bring back their father Jacob.

The oldest brother Judah emphatically tells Joseph that their father will die of grief if they don’t bring back Benjamin alive. At the hearing of this pleading Joseph can no longer restrain himself and openly weeps as he tells his brothers, “I am Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt,” His brothers were unable to speak because they were terrified at his presence Gen.45:4. Can you imagine being there right then?

Then Joseph kindly said to them, “do not be afraid, and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” Genesis 45:1-8  Absolutely amazing! Joseph maintained that God had his best in mind.

God knows and understands your life and can turn evil into good
You can be so easily disillusioned when your hope is in man or the very common shallow fixes the culture readily provides. If you come to place where you think God doesn’t care about you, you are in a very dark place indeed. But it’s just not true. I don't have to know all the answers. I just have to know that God knows, that he is good, and that he loves me. God does care about you and is intimately acquainted with your life.Ps.139:3; Heb. 4:25; 1 Pet.5:7

God wants you to be free from bitterness.
God doesn’t want your heart to become callous and hard. Guard you heart and don’t allow it to slowly become bitter and closed. If you do, you will not be fun to be around. There is a more excellent way.

Joseph had every reason to be bitter, but we have no indication that he hated his brothers after all they did to him. After his 27 years of imprisonment Nelson Mandela who also could have sought revenge said, “People learn to hate, they can be taught to love.” Love that!

“The most difficult ingredient of suffering is often time. Short periods of pain can be endured, but when a sorrow drags on its long and weary way year after monotonous year, returning day after day with the same dull routine of hopeless agony, the heart loses its strength. Without the grace of God, the heart is sure to sink into dismal despair.” C.W. Cowman

God knows your story and He sees every tear drop fall.Thankfully God’s grace is always available to you, it will never run dry. God has not forgotten you. He does cares about you and has the all of heaven’s resources to help you right now! Like Joseph, will you trust that He has your best interest in mind? Trust Him you’ll be glad you did.

With hope and assurance,

Mark