April 22, 2015

“But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” Numbers 14:24

Wouldn’t it be great if God could brag on you?

If God were to brag on you, what would he brag about?

God was bragging on Caleb in our Scripture text today. In yesterday’s post I mentioned three things about Caleb that impressed God.

First, he was a dedicated servant.

This morning I want you to notice the second praiseworthy trait Caleb possessed. He had a different spirit – “Caleb has a different spirit”.

What was different about Caleb’s spirit?

Caleb had faith!

“Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” Numbers 13:30

When nearly every other Israelite was overcome with fear over the report from the Promised Land, Caleb had the contrary opinion. Ten spies were moaning and lamenting the giants that would confront them across the Jordan River. Those spies saw the same things when they scouted out the land for forty days. But they returned with vastly different reports.

Why were there two such opposite forecasts about their future when all twelve of the spies went the same places and saw the same things!

At least part of the answer lies not in WHAT they saw but in HOW they saw.

The ten spies who gave the bad report were looking through eyes of flesh while Caleb was looking through eyes of faith!

They saw the giants in light of their own weaknesses and inadequacies, while Caleb saw them in light of God’s strength and power!

That’s the difference that faith makes!  And it’s a BIG difference.

Facing giants in the flesh is a losing strategy that incites fear. But Caleb’s spirit, the spirit of faith, inspired hope!

Caleb had fervency!

“Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.  If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” Numbers 14:6-9

Caleb was zealous for the will of God. He knew how God had delivered them from the bondage of the mighty Egyptians.  He was mindful of how God had brought them safely through the Red Sea and then closed it back to destroy their enemies! He was convinced God was able to give them the Promised Land as well!

He could not let the skeptics and the doubters have the last word! He fervently pleaded God’s case before the people!

Caleb was fearless!

“Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.” Numbers 14:9

Caleb’s courage came from his conviction that God had the power to keep His promise! He had seen what God had done in the past and believed He would do it again!

Caleb had a “different spirit”! His spirit was a spirit of faith, a spirit of fervency and of fearlessness. His spirit stood in stark contrast to the defeated, discouraged and doubting attitudes that surrounded him that day.

No wonder God took notice of him!

No wonder God was pleased with him!

No wonder God bragged on him and help him up as a model for all His people.

How is your spirit today?

Are you living by faith?

Are you fervent for His will?

Are you fearless in His promises?

There is a spirit better than Caleb’s spirit available to you this day! It is God’s Holy Spirit offered to those who will ask for it, believe and receive it.

April 21, 2015

“But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” Numbers 14:24

As we have been diligently seeking the Lord’s will concerning FredWes’ relocation prospects I have spent considerable time in this portion of Scripture. God had led His people to the edge of the Promised Land as He promised when they left Egypt.

But Numbers 14 records the troubling way God’s people reacted upon receiving the report about what the 12 spies had spied in the Land of Promise. It wasn’t a good reaction. In fact, it was a very bad and irrational reaction!

I encourage you to read the entire chapter. When you do this 24^th verse will jump out at you because it is such a contrast in tone with the rest of the chapter. Caleb stands out like a shining star!

Caleb reminds me of Andrew in the New Testament. You won’t see him mentioned much, but every time he shows up in Scripture he is doing something significant! The world can’t have too many Calebs! Neither can local churches!

I want you to notice three outstanding descriptions God gives when He commends him to Moses. As you meditate on these three God-given compliments, think of what God might say about you if He were to describe you to someone!

Here’s the first!

Caleb was dedicated servant – “my servant Caleb”.

What does a dedicated servant do?

He dedicates himself to serving his master faithfully and fervently! Whatever the master desires a servant provides or performs. A servant obeys his master promptly and in the way that pleases the master.

Caleb was a dedicated servant!

Are you?

Who are you serving?

How are you serving?

Is pleasing God your greatest desire, as it was with Caleb?

Do you have a servant’s heart?

If not, what needs to change in you?

April 20, 2015

"LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land. Answer me quickly, LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, or I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Rescue me from my enemies, LORD, or I hide myself in you. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. For your name’s sake, LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant."  Psalm 143

Do you pray just to get an answer?

Would you still pray if you didn't get prayers answered?

Why do you pray?

Have you ever thought about it?

You don't get everything you ask from your spouse but you don't stop talking to them, do you? You have no hope for a continuing relationship if you stop communicating.

Someone has said there are two primary reasons for prayer. One reason for prayer is to know the will of God and the second is for grace to do His will. 

The Psalms are filled with passionate prayers. One of those is found in our text, the 143rd Psalm. If you want to have a passionate spiritual relationship with God you must understand prayer. And if you believe that the main reason for prayer is what you can get out of Him, you are missing the better half of prayer. Prayer is also about what God wants to put into you!

Prayer connects you with God allowing you to communicate with Him. Communicating with God brings contentment. Communicating with God means you learn to listen to Him. Listening to God helps you get to know Him and learn to love Him. Connecting and communicating are extremely important to your spiritual health and growth.

Prayer allows you to confess your sins to God and that brings you peace. Peace is evidence that God has heard your confession and lifted your guilt.

When you pray you can contemplate His Word and His works, and His wonders. Meditating on God stretches your mind, expands your spirit, and encourages your heart. Contemplating how much He loves you and how powerful He is and how imperfect and needy you are.

Praying develops conviction within you. As you connect and communicate with God and when you spend regular time contemplating His goodness He will become increasingly more real to you and your faith will strengthen and grow.

Character will develop within you - His Character - as you devote time to praying His Spirit will begin shaping your Spirit. Your thinking will begin to be shaped by His Spirit as you commune with Him and contemplate His word.

So, you see, there are plenty of good reasons to pray to God beyond getting answers to your prayers. We have mentioned five or six of those.There are more reasons but these are certainly good enough!

Prayer is a powerful tool. It can be hard work but it is incredibly worthwhile. Even if you never got what you really wanted and requested from God, you discover all the joys of living in an intimate spiritual relationship with the eternal God of the universe! Worry less about what you can get out of prayer and rejoice about what it can put into you!

April 19, 2015

^"About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.  He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”  “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven."  Acts 10:9-16

God was preparing Peter to help an entire new group of people belong to the Faith and particularly, the Church.

Belonging is a very important and necessary thing for everyone. It is essential to the human psyche and soul. The breakdown of the family over the past several generations has only intensified that need.

What is involved in belonging? What needs to happen in order to feel like you belong?

There is a "Me" aspect to belonging and there is a "We" aspect to it. Belonging involves acceptance but it also involves commitment. Here is how it works:

Obviously, you or I cannot belong to something unless we are accepted into that group by the members. Acceptance is a warm welcome. Acceptance is permission to enter the group. You can't really be part of a group until the group allows you to join it.

Of all the groups that are available for people to belong to, a local church should be among the most welcoming. Anyone who comes to worship at a local church should find an immediate and sincere acceptance from the members of that body. No one should ever leave a worship service with the feeling they were not accepted.

Acceptance is essential but it is not enough. No matter how accepting a group is and regardless of how warm the welcome, a person doesn't belong until he is willing to commit to belonging and submit to its ways.

If you were to read on to the "rest of the story" followings Peter's vision of the clean and unclean animals you will see that Peter did extend acceptance to Cornelius and his family as God commanded. That obedience and acceptance allowed God's Spirit to work in a powerful way. But, then it became incumbent on Cornelius and the other Gentiles to respond with a commitment. Acts records that they did! They believed and were baptized and as a result, truly belonged to the Faith and the Church!

Acceptance is the role of the "We" in belonging and that acceptance should be as sincere as possible. But in order to belong, there must be a commitment made to the "We" by the "Me".

In my considerable experience in local churches, those who struggle to belong struggle as a result of a "Me" problem rather than the "We" problem. If you are not willing to commit and to submit to the group you will have trouble belonging.

Does that make sense?

April 18, 2015

“That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” Numbers 14:1-4

There is so much wrong with these statements I hardly know where to begin.

One obvious lesson is you never make decisions when you are in a poor state of mind and panic qualifies as a poor state of mind.

Let me show you what I mean.

Even in their panic mode they admitted that God had led them to this place. And I quote, “Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?”

Frankly, they were in a MUCH worse spot on the shore of the Red Sea. They were backed up to the sea with the Egyptian army bearing down at full speed. If there was ever a time they would die by the sword that was it! But they didn’t because God opened up the sea!

If God could deliver them from that army by opening up the sea for His people and then closing it on His enemies, would He not also be able to overcome the giants in Canaan?

Sure he could!

So, their own words indicted them!

If that was the worst of it that would be bad enough, but it gets worse!

Not only did they fail to have faith because of what God had already accomplished, but they presumed on Him at the same time!

What do you mean, Brad?

Think about it! Review this statement, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Just as they could not have arrived where they were without God’s protection and provision, neither would they make it back across the desert to Egypt without His provision!

So, they apparently had faith He would lead them BACK but couldn’t believe He would lead them forward. The same God who opened a SEA can’t split a RIVER?

In case you may think it doesn’t take faith to go back, here is an illustration to the contrary. But it is presumptive faith not prevailing faith.

Do you see what I mean?

How’s your faith?

Is it presumptive faith or is it prevailing faith?

Can you believe God has brought you this far?

Why would you fail to believe He can take you further?

What part of “Red Sea” don’t you understand?

April 17, 2015

“That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” Numbers 14:1-4

Why all the panic?

They had just received the report of the twelve spies on the perils of the Promised Land. There were giants over there!

Although there were two versions of the report, they chose to believe the one offered by the ten spies rather than the faith-driven opinion of Caleb and Joshua.  When you believe a false report you are going to end up in fear.

I share this story because it illustrates how easy it is to become entrenched in and attached to comfort even when the comfort zone is a desert.

The fact that we can become comfortable with life in a desert should be enough reason for concern. But for the past forty years God had led them with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. God had fed some 6,000, 000 people every day for four decades with manna from heaven and given them water from a rock. For forty years their clothing and their shoes did not wear out.

I think it is fair to say they had grown comfortable with God’s power and provision as He fed them and fought their battles.

So you would think that now they stood on the verge of entering the Promised Land, they would have been excited about following Him into Canaan to claim their destiny. But the thought of a new adventure was uncomfortable to them.  A more comfortable thought was to retreat back to slavery in Egypt.

Such is the power of comfort! In times of doubt or fear the known becomes more comfortable to us than the unknown even when the known is a desert and the unknown is your destiny.

God had delivered them from the cruel bondage of the pharaoh. And God had opened the Red Sea to lead them through on dry ground!

Why could they not trust Him to bring them safely into the Land of Promise?

Think about it! If they would choose to trust Him in this one more uncomfortable challenge of crossing the Jordan and conquering the Promised Land then they would know comfort and safety for the rest of their lives.

But, they wanted to elect a new leader and retreat to the comforts of the past. Obviously, they must have assumed that God would continue to feed them and give the water as they headed back to slavery.

That begs the question, “If they could trust Him to provide for them on their trip BACK, why wouldn’t they trust Him to provide for their trip AHEAD?

The past was familiar and familiar is comfortable.

I love to be comfortable. I have as many comforts as I can afford. But I don’t want to become a captive to comfort. I don’t want to ever become more comfortable in the past than I am in the present. I don’t want my comfort level with the desert keep me from capturing my destiny.

I want to learn from the mistakes of Israel here in Numbers 14.

I want to learn to listen to the “Calebs” and the “Joshuas”.

I want to remember that the God Who led me TO the Jordan River can lead me THROUGH the Jordan and into His promises.

I want that for you, too!

I want that for FredWes.

There are some giants in our future.

It will require some risks to reach the next great thing God has for us.

When the time comes to stare down the giants and weigh the risks, I pray we won’t retreat to a comfortable past. I pray that we will remember all that God provided to get us this far. I pray that we will recognize His presence with us now. And I pray we will reach from His promises ahead. I pray that whenever we become uncomfortable with what He calls us to, we will learn to find our comfort in Him. 

April 16, 2015

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,  in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:5-11

We've all done something uncomfortable over these last few days when we wrote the check for our taxes, placed it in the envelope, sealed it and mailed it off to the I.R.S. But it’s not like we had a choice in the matter.

Jesus had a choice in the matter of surrendering His exalted position among the Godhead and subjecting Himself to a horrific death.

It must have also been very uncomfortable for His Father, God, to have allowed Him to suffer.

No parent is comfortable seeing his child suffer. Sometimes it is necessary for a parent to inflict some suffering on his child in the form of punishment. That, too, is uncomfortable.

If it was in my power to do so, I would spare my children from every painful and uncomfortable experience. It isn’t.

It was within God’s power to prevent His Son from discomfort of any sort. It is so hard to imagine that.

But He didn’t spare Him at all. That is hard to imagine.

Rather than use His power to save His Son from pain, God was more concerned about your pain and my pain. Can you imagine that?

Would you sacrifice the comfort and safety of your own child to spare the child of a stranger?

God did!

It would seem like a very uncomfortable choice, but it was His idea! Because of your sin and because of my sin God chose the uncomfortable option of sending Jesus to suffer.

Your world changed because God the Father and God the Son made uncomfortable decisions.

My world changed because God the Father and God the Son made uncomfortable decisions.

World-changers live outside their comfort zones.

Our world is in desperate need of change.

God is looking for some who are willing to be uncomfortable for His cause.

Will you be one!

Will I?

God help us.