Leaving the Wasteland

"For I am about to do something new.  See, I have already begun!  Do you not see it?  I will make a pathway through the wilderness.  I will create rivers in the dry wasteland."  (Isaiah 43:19, NLT)

At times we all look at our lives and see nothing but a dessert.  There doesn't seem to be any life any where.  Perhaps you are in a desert right now.

• You feel stuck in a career that's going nowhere.  
• You've been unemployed for a while and all you keep getting are dead ends as you search for a job.
• Your marriage seems dead.  A relationship that was once vibrant and alive has dried up and you wonder why you are even staying together.
• The town you live in is just dead.  There doesn't seem to be any life in it at all.  Every day you see the same old people doing the same old things.
• Your church seems to be just going through the motions.

When we find ourselves in the desert, we are tempted to jump ship.  Our solution for a boring, going-no-where job is to find another one.  If a marriage is dead, many simply trade in their current spouse for another one.  If our church isn't all we think it could be, we jump to yet another one.  Other people just settle.  They accept the desert as their lot in life and suffer through the hot, scorching, arid atmosphere of a life going no where fast.

We need to understand that in the midst of our desert experiences, God is already working.  He is working, on our behalf right now to turn the desert places into an oasis.  If we try to handle it our way, we will most likely find ourselves walking in circles through the desert, just like the Hebrews did with Moses for 40 years.  We change jobs, but stay in the desert.  We trade spouses, but still we are in the desert.  We hop from church to church and find the same desert in every one of them.

Jesus promised to be living water to all who trust Him.  "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'" (John 7:37-38)

As you look to Jesus and find him in the desert places of our lives, we experience his powerful ability to take what was dry and dead and bring it to life.  He is at work right now in you and in your surroundings.  He is preparing you for something new and fresh.  Look to him and stand in faith.  There is a river flowing right where you are!

Stressed?

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the LORD always, for the LORD GOD is the eternal Rock (Isaiah 26:3-4, NLT)

Here's a fact of life that nobody can deny: life is stressful.  Here's something we all need to come to grips with: stress is not going away.  It's part of life, and nowhere in Scripture does God promise us that life will be easy.  In fact, He tells us just the opposite!  Psalm 34:19 states, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous..."

The word  "affliction", in it's original language, was used to describe an Assyrian form of torture where a person would be tied to a stake, then have huge rocks piled up against them until the weight of the rocks eventually suffocated or crushed them to death.  That's an accurate picture of stress.  We can handle one or two huge rocks.  That deadline at work or that issue between you and your spouse, standing alone, isn't the end of the world.  You can work through it and overcome it.  BUT... when everything else starts piling up: the complaint from your best customer, the email from your boss, the car needs repair, your son now has a drivers license, and it's once again time to go to the dentist... now you feel crushed and suffocated.

How do we handle stress without being overwhelmed? Interestingly, God is often described in Scripture as "the Rock."  Here in Isaiah, He is "the eternal Rock."  Think about it.  Afflictions are rocks, but God is the BIG ROCK.  If we stand on the BIG ROCK we will not be crushed by the little rocks!  It doesn't mean that the little rocks of stress are not there, but that our perspective has changed.

Psalm 34:19 doesn't end with "Many are the afflictions of the righteous."  It goes on to state, "But the LORD delivers him out of them all."  This happens as we learn to focus on the BIG ROCK and trust Him to uphold us through whatever stress we are currently having to endure.

Let Isaiah 26:3-4 be God's promise to you today.  Whatever you are facing, ask yourself, "Is it bigger than God?"  If it isn't, then focus your attention on Him and what he says about your situation.  As you fix your mind on Him, you'll see the BIG ROCK get even bigger and the little rocks will become like mere pebbles.

Mondays

Mondays are foggy for me.  I think it has something to do with the spiritual, emotional, relational, and even physical intensity that goes into most Sundays.  In any case, most Mondays I wake up and check my pulse to make sure I'm alive and then spend most of the morning trying to find my brain.  I know a lot of pastors who take Mondays off.  I would do the same, but I don't want to feel this way on my day off.

On Mondays I find myself reviewing Sundays: what I said, what I should have said, and what I wish I hadn't have said.  I remember who was at church... and who wasn't... and wonder what's the deal.  I think through conversations I had both before and after the worship service.  I think through the Small Group we lead on Sunday nights and wonder if it's really making a difference.  Mondays are a gut-check for me as we look at numbers, both attendance and giving.  Are we going in the right direction?  Are we going to make it?  Do I have any idea what I'm doing?

It's kind of weird.  Deep inside, we know it's not about us... but on Mondays, if we're not careful, it's all about us.  That's why spending time with God is really helpful.  This morning, in my Bible reading time, this verse was part of my day:

"My old self has been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So I live in this earthly body by trusting the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

What a faith builder!!!

God has called me (and all of us) to do one simple thing: die to self.  He has not called us to improve ourselves or try harder to please Him.  He knows we can't.  The reason so many of us find ourselves stuck and frustrated with the Christian life is because we have bought into the lie that we have to work in order to earn God's favor.  The inevitable conclusion we come to with this is this: we can't.  It won't work.

Most Mondays I wake up with this gnawing frustration of what could have been done better, as if I could control any of it.  This verse of Scripture reminds me that it's not about me.  It's not about my abilities, strengths, weaknesses, or desires.  All God asks me to do is die, let it go and trust Him to do His work.

When I stand in myself, all I see are inadequacies.  When I die to myself, those inadequacies die as well.  When I trust Jesus to live in me and through me... He has no inadequacies.  None!  And I think (because I did find my brain this morning) that one thing He wants me to learn this Monday morning is that as long as we allow Him to live through us... that's all we have to do.

With that in mind, the Monday fog is clearing away and I'm planning on having a victorious day!  Hope you have one as well!

Making the Team--part two

An elite high school athlete can expect to receive scholarship offers from many different colleges.  As coaches are courting these blue-chip recruits, they will seek to persuade them to join their program by sharing the benefits their school has to offer.

For example, Alabama, who has won three of the last four College Football National Championships, will sell this as a benefit.  "Join our program, and you will compete and win championships on an annual basis."  Other schools will show the number of players they have put in the NFL and use that to convince the recruit that should he join their team, he will have a greater chance of one day playing in the pros.  Other benefits that colleges will point out to recruits might include playing time, attendance at home games, and television appearances.  Since the vast majority of college football players will never play in the NFL, schools also tout their academic standards.

Joining God's team also comes with benefits.  These aren't temporary benefits but eternal benefits that are priceless.  What do I receive when I join God's team?

1. Forgiveness from My Past.

Every one of us has a past that is riddled with our share of mistakes, blunders, miss-ups, and bad decisions.  Paul put it this way, "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard" (Rom. 3:23 NLT).  The result of this is a life that is broken.  The only one who can put it back together is God, and He promises us this as a benefit for trusting His Son, Jesus: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23 NLT)

2. New Life for Today.

When we give our lives to Christ, and join His team, He offers us a life worth living today.  Eternal life begins the moment we trust Him!  We are not "on hold" waiting until we die to experience all He has for us.  In fact, Jesus Himself put it this way, "A thief is only their to steal and kill and destroy.  I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of" (John 10:10 MSG).

What does this "more and better" life look like?  For one thing, it is a life with PURPOSE.  Jesus gives us something to live for.  We realize that we are not a cosmic accident, but that God has a reason for our being here.  It also means a life with POWER.  As the Holy Spirit fills and indwells us, we realize that we have all we need to conquer old, debilitating habits and accomplish what God has for us.

3. Hope for the Future.

Many people are depressed about the future.  They worry over what it may hold.  But when we join God's team, we live with an assurance: "For I know the plans I have for you, "declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11).  This includes both the next few years of our future on earth and eternity in heaven.

Making the Team--part one

I'm not a Clemson fan.  I don't hate Clemson.  I'm just not a fan.  It doesn't bother me when they win (well... it bothered me a lot on August 31).  I don't lose any sleep over it when they lose.  I grew up in Georgia, and I cheer for the team in Athens.  Some things don't change and that's one of them for me.  The Dawgs are my team.

Having said that, there is a tradition in Clemson football that means an awful lot to the Tiger faithful and has become known as "The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football."  Many of you know what I'm talking about.  It's when the team clad in orange (hopefully it's orange because those purple jerseys are just plain out ugly) gather at the top of the hill that leads into the stadium, rub their hands across "Howard's Rock" and then storm down the hill, ready to take on their opponent of the afternoon.

Not just anybody can run down the hill.  Fans don't get to run down the hill.  The Marching Band doesn't get to march down the hill.  The opposing team certainly doesn't get to run down the hill.  The only people allowed to run down the hill into "Death Valley" are the players.  You've got to make the team in order to rub the rock and run down the hill.

Only a very small percentage of would-be football players have the chance to play major college football.  Out of the thousands of young men playing Pop Warner, Middle School, and High School football... all with aspirations of playing for their favorite college team one day... only a select few will ever have that opportunity.  On average, college football teams, like Clemson, offer 20-25 scholarships per year.  In order to qualify for an offer, a potential player must be skilled enough, strong enough, fast enough, big enough, and agile enough to garner an offer.  Academic records are verified, and many drop through the cracks because of a low grade point average.  The bottom-line is, more players don't make the team than do.

If it is so difficult to make a football team, is it even possible to make God's team?  If major colleges only offer a few, highly-skilled elite athletes; who would a perfect, holy God be willing to offer the chance to join His team?

Interestingly, although none of us qualifies to make His team, God makes an offer to any of us who will sign up!  Jesus makes a plain-stated offer to all of us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  This is remarkable!  The God of this universe makes an offer to all who will join Him!

Major college football teams offer young men whom they deem as worthy.  God makes an offer to us, because to Him, we are worth it.  Although most of us will never have the opportunity to play football, or any sport, at a major level, every one of us has a standing offer from God to join His team.