Dinners and Sinners

⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’^[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Matthew 9:9-12

Maybe you have noticed it before, but until now, I had never thought to connect the Matthew of this story to the author of the gospel you find this story in.  Here we read of Matthew's account of Jesus calling him, and then it follows up with the story of Jesus dining with 'tax collectors and sinners' who had come to him.

These stories are connected.

Matthew as called of Jesus, and he was a tax collector.  These two ideas in that day probably wouldn't go together.  How would Jesus, one whom many saw as a teacher and prophet (they fell short in seeing him as a Messiah) call a tax collector (a cheat, a dishonest man, in partnership with Rome) to follow him?

This didn't fit their narrative, and it often doesn't fit ours.

Jesus then, with his disciples, proceeds to dine with MORE tax collectors and sinners!  The Pharisees, in  seeing this, stop to question his disciples (why go directly to the source?).  Jesus response is so honest and true: He came to demonstrate mercy and to call those outside of God's family into it.

Matthew, the sinner, was shown mercy by Jesus, who then fellowshipped with him and brought him in to the family of God.  Matthew was the demonstration of what Jesus was teaching in this moment.

Matthew would become a write of one of our four gospels.

That's redemption.

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Some other observations:

1. Jesus mission was Redemption, even if it caused some to question his reputation.  Maybe yet, its a model to the church on how to act.  What can and are we doing to welcome sinners and tax collectors?  It'll offend the religious, but not Jesus.

2. Jesus demonstrated mercy in calling Matthew.  He was on the 'wrong side' in so many ways, yet Jesus called to him to follow Him.

3. Pharisees ironically were just as much sick as the others.  The mere attitude of questioning revealed the deep sinfulness in their hearts.

4. I can't help but think Matthew recognized where we had come from, and this is him telling his story of redemption.

5.  MY DIFFICULT TRUTH:  The reality is, I am probably too much like the Pharisee at times.  My attitude toward those on 'the wrong side' of things brings out a sinfulness in my heart that is in need of healing as much as those I am sitting in condemnation of.

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This is another story of God's heart for lost people.  May it also be ours.

Anxiety and the Red Puffed Up Balloon

Ever blown up a balloon? I am sure you have.  If not a balloon, maybe a piece of gum.  

I remember as a kid, I would see how big I could make the balloon get it popped.   I sometimes  would compete with friends to see who could make it bigger.  This idea has even worked itself in to carnival games!  

The bigger I blew up the balloon, the more it filled the space of which I could see, and pretty soon, all I saw was a big balloon in front of me.  It was massive, probably red, because I liked red balloons, and it was taking all my time and energy. 

Then it would pop.

On the floor would be remnants of a stretched out red balloon that had nothing left to show for itself but scraps on the floor. 

It was just full of hot air.  There was no substance to it,  and yet, at the time, it seemed like the biggest thing in front of me.

That's how I often have felt when it comes to anxiety.  It looms large and takes up a lot of space in my mind and my heart.  

I have struggled with anxiety for quite some time, as I am sure many of you have.  There have been times that it has felt crippling.  It seemed to be the largest thing in the room.

Yet I am realizing something to be true:

Anxiety doesn't tell the truth.  

I was reading through Matthew 6:25-34 and the Holy Spirit used this passage to remind me of some things that are true about anxiety:

It minimizes my ability to think effectively, bringing me to a place of compulsive worrying and ineffective overthinking.  It's like being in a hamster wheel stuck on a treadmill.  It's exhausting and goes nowhere.

It diminishes proper focus on situations at hand, keeping me fixated and agitated about the smallest things that loom large in my mind.  It's the largest balloon right in front of me filled with nothing but hot air.

It weakens my trust in others, It makes me think me think that people that are for me are my adversaries and that no one can be trusted. It creates in me a defense posture toward those who seek to provide me safety.

It diminishes my faith in God.  I begin to believe that God is something that He actually is not.  It distorts my image of God who made me into a false idea of who I think He is what I think He can do, which keeps me distant from Him.

It distorts the truth of my own value.  It tells me false ideas of who I am not and what I can't do.  Like a megaphone, it becomes the loudest voice in the room.  Just because it's loud doesn't mean it's true.

it diminishes the power of the moment I am in.  I can't enjoy the beautiful moments I find myself in because I am stuck worrying about the hypothetical things that probably never will happen.

The more I remember these things, the more I realize anxiety is a liar.

My pray for you is the same one I pray for myself.  Let the truth of scripture be greater than the lies of anxiety in my heart, and my the loudest voice in my head be the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking life in to who I am and who God has called me to be.

Summer Letter 2019

Neighbor.

I have been broken down 

Been beat to the ground

Nothing left to see of me

But my shame and despair

Yet you pass me so quickly 

Never glancing to see me

To be of any help to me

You who called me  friend

I have been left bruised

Lay wounded on the dirt floor

All has been taken from me

But my sorrow and pain

Yet you pass me so swiftly

To busy to notice my plea

Or have your turned from me?

You who called me  brother

I am left to be be undone

No one to see my calamity

Heart and soul betrays you

Too busy with your religiosity

Yet a stranger passed by me 

Noticed me lowly and wounded

In mercy he looked to help me

I had called him my enemy.

----------------------

God gives us mercy.

The Convenience of Cecil the Cat

"It is a growing trend of internet mob justice, one that often bleeds into real-world harassment with real-world consequences." (Article here: http://www.vox.com/2015/7/30/9074865/cecil-lion-palmer-mob-justice)

'Cecil' tells me two things: we love pointing fingers and being quick to cast judgment.  We also love deflecting from our own shortcomings.  Admitting our own faults is either to painful or inconvenient.

It's always been easier to point fingers at others. It is driven by our tendencies to deflect away from our own short comings as individuals, and at times collective shortcomings as a nation or culture.  

We are also quick to react to assumptions, half truths, and flat out lies with no time given to allow truth to come forth or information and facts to be collected.  

Often it is led by alarmist mentalities, the loudest voices (but not the wisest), and built on faulty views of other people (prejudice), and is often driven less than honorable motives (we call them politicians).

We fall for the typical problem of believing the first thing read, or the loudest voice we hear,  all too often becoming too little to late when much of what we first read or heard can often be simply untrue.

An emotionally charged response based on feelings, fed by our own prejudices and assumptions, which is based in little information does not lead to justice but revenge.

These mob mentalities (revenge for a cat) are so minor compared to much greater, a real issues that deserve much more, and necessary attention (Planned Parenthood, anyone?)

The convenience of Cecil is that it is easy to fight this "injustice" because it  allows us to "feel good" by vilifying someone, and yet doesn't force us to justify our own sins committed for the sake of convenience nor does it force us to look on our own individual sins or our cultural soul and wonder what we have become.

Tides Unexpected.

There is a beach near my home that I frequent because it’s relatively unknown to the non-natives.  I probably don’t help the situation as I have often taken friends and family who visit from out of town to this beach for bonfires and good times.  It’s a beautiful setting nestled between two small cliffs with easy access,  a gorgeous view, and free parking.  That’s important.

I recently took a group to visit this beach.  The whole time leading up to going,  I told them how great of a spot this was, how quiet it would be, and how there would be more than enough room to accommodate our group of 40 plus people.  I found out how wrong I was when we arrived.  I’d never seen it this way before, the tide was unexpectedly high, taking out 30 feet beach that was usual there.   The waves were crashing up to edge of the beach, and there was little room on the small crowded patch of sand we were hoping to claim.  I suddenly began defending the situation.  “It’s never like this,”  and “we always have room.”  But we didn’t. 

We would find a small area that we tried to make work so that we could have our bon fire and sing our songs.  To the skim boarders, the situation was perfect, and entertaining.  To the rest of us, we were busy dodging waves and residue washing up onto the beach which was  claiming more and more of it away from us.  At last we realized we had lost the fight to stay, when one set of waves came so high, it washed up over to where we were and took out most of what we had set down, dragging sandals, instruments, and bags back into the ocean.  Thankfully only shoes were lost to the sea.

It made me realize how unprepared I was for the situation, and how much I relied on what I thought I knew.  I had been to this beach many times before, but usually late at night, when the tide was lower.  I had not bothered to look up any information to see if things had shifted. Not unlike my assumptions of what I knew of the beach that day, we often thrive off what we think we know of people and ourselves.  We are caught unprepared for what the high tide reveals to us

 When the local crowd gathered to stone the woman caught in adultery, they were hoping to “trap” Jesus in to saying something that would get him arrested.  Instead he spoke right to the heart of the matter, and they were face to face with their own sin. They were caught.   It says in John 8:9 that “When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one.”  He caught them in their own trap.  He made them realize their own sin was right before them.  They had assumed one thing, but reality brought truth to light.  He uncovered their own sin buried in the sand.

And maybe this isn’t a bad thing.  Perhaps we need Christ to bring ‘unexpected tides’ into our lives to challenge the assumptions and bring truth to light in our own lives, in the places we try to keep hidden. We need these tides to wash up and reveal what we have buried in our hearts, and held on to for so long.  Perhaps his ability to shine light to truth in our lives will help us deal with that we often push back down back into dark parts of our soul.

When we allow God to bring light to dark places in our moments of prayer, in moments we remain in His presence, we risk little in what God may reveal to us and challenge us to change.  It is in the moments we keep hiding, and don’t deal with our sin, that circumstances, in most unexpected ways, reveal darkness in the most humbling ways.  And this of our own accord, for we have worked so hard to bury it deep through our sin and arrogance.

When Jesus found the woman sitting at a well in Samaria, he found someone broken and wounded.  He in no time spoke right to the situation she was in.   But he didn’t condemn her in the moment.   He did bring her sin, her brokenness to light, he put it before her, and then offered her hope.  In John 4:13 says to her “the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  Eternal life built on the “living water” found in Christ.  Perhaps this ‘living water’ was the high tide needed to disrupt her life and bring her redemption.  Jesus did just that.  Love Eternal broke through her darkest situations and brought life.

Our fear is not in what tides washing up may reveal, instead it is in the grace God offers us in our moment we allow ourselves to be vulnerable before Him.  God convicts us of sin to bring us to redemption.  He sheds light on our circumstances to help us to become who He created us to be.  So we should welcome the tides, be honest with our brokenness, allowing Christ to bring wholeness. We go from unexpected tides, to welcoming them.  In doing so, we become more like Jesus.

Misty Sea

Sleepy dreams along a misty sea
Fragile hearts held at the seams
What did you hope it would be
When the stars still gave us dreams

Down windy roads stretched ahead
That lead us to a work unseen
Of a life imagined in fairy tales
And seen on shows and magazines

The city lights make a bright sky
That light a midnight path this way
To memories that keep us hoping
For what we thought life would bring

The imagination of what could be
At times fall short of our reality
Dreams left to linger on and on
Waiting to be come to life again

In the mundane of our menial tasks
We keep to dreams we long to see
That give us hope for another day
To be where we've never been before

Amos

]Your hearts have grown bitter cold

Like the wind on a winter’s night

Compassion has left you like a thief

And love has been lost to the storms

Woe to you who are complacent

You who hold high to your comforts

Woe to you who feel you are secure

You who have obtained great wealth

Turn our hearts again to You Oh God

May our souls once again be made whole

Weep for sins of our fathers and their fathers

We cry for redemption in You, oh LORD

Woe to you who live in abundance

You feast on food that is not yours

Woe to you who leisure about

You entertain yourselves to no end

Our hearts have turned away from justice

Our ears turn away from the cry of hunger

Our eyes have closed to the oppressed

God cries out for righteousness and mercy

Woe to you who have great position

You use those with no power themselves

Woe to you who have great influence

You grab with a tight fist your high place

To you alone oh God have we sinned against

It is you alone we have turned away from

To our own way, to do as we have pleased

We have sin against you and no other

Let us find righteousness for our offenses

Let us pursue justice for the oppressed

Let us seek mercy for what we have done

Pardon us for our sins against You, God

May we see justice flow like a river,
righteousness like a never-ending stream

Let’s be compelled to love once more

Hearts born again out of holy compassion

Tattered and Worn

Worn down from wear
And torn from its use
It sits on a small shelf
As a reminder to me

That in life's struggles
She turned the thin pages
To affirm her hope and faith
As the days wore down

Words that did speak
Of an everlasting life
To a body broken down
And took toll over time

It's Truth that gave hope
From red letters she read
Looking to another time
That would never end

And her Bible sits tattered
As a reminder to us all
that all we must long for
Is found in this sacred text

The Plight of Birds

The bird used the stairs.  I used them too.  The difference between the bird and myself was that I didn’t have wings.  It would have seemed much easier for the bird to flap it wings and quickly escalate the stairs, avoiding the unnecessary hop up each step (I’ve done this as a kid, it’s quite a bit of work.)  I don’t know why it used the stairs, it didn’t need to.  Maybe for the bird hopping up the steps was akin to us flying in a plane.  Maybe the bird had a great fear of stairs and wanted to get over this fear.  Maybe it was taking a break from flapping its wings, or maybe it was injured.   Whatever the reason, it simply struck me as ironic.  He had wings.  He would have made pet birds angry.

I remember the kid who sat in the back of the room and refused to use his talents because things didn’t go his way.  I remember the girl who sat on the side not even aware of her own beauty because she believed the lies others have told her over and over and over again.  They simply hop up the stairs either unaware or just simply refusing to use the wings that are right there for them to use.  It seems we live in a world of clipped wings.  The reasons are endless but the results end up being the same:  we hop up the stairs. 

For many, they know they have wings, they simply refuse to use them.    It’s too much work.  They don’t like how they look or they don’t want to use them they way others are asking them to, or how they were designed to.  I heard one bird got his wings clipped because it was the latest trend.  Kinds of regrets that now.  Perhaps they don’t think they will work right, or they are embarrassed to use them.  Maybe that was the bird’s problem.  There were a bunch of people around, and it was too busy worrying about what all the people would think of how he flapped his wings.  One awkward flap and it becomes a bad day.

Others are not even aware of their wings.   I’ve often wondered how many Mozarts we’ve never heard or how many Rembrandts we’ve never seen because they potential artists never knew they had it in them.  How many worship leaders have never led, how many missionaries never leave their homes, or how many preachers never preach a sermon?  How many doctors never heal, or teachers never see the light bulb go on in a child’s eye?  They never knew they had the wings to do it.  No one ever bothered to tell them.

Both are equally frustrating.  How many times have we seen a student’s enormous potential, and they remain blind looking in the mirror.  Or how many times has a student seen it, and the take the path of least resistant or in some cases worst resistance, only to clip themselves through poor decisions, never knowing their full potential. 

As leaders, we must help students discover their wings, and to use them as God intended.  Can you imagine the impact they would make if students truly lived up to their potential?  I think the world would be just as impacted now, as it was 2000 years ago when Jesus took 12 cast offs and made them world changers.  He simply showed them their wings, and what an impact they made. 

The reality is the world is greatly impacted by the missionaries, pastors, teachers, doctors, and laypeople every day many times over who have simply used their wings and trust the Holy Spirit to do the rest.  If we can convey to our students to simply trust God, being willing to grow, and know that our failures are not fatal, there will be no holding them back.  They just need to stretch their wings.

A while back, I sat in a coffee shop and in hopped a bird.  He was pecking the crumbs off the floor.  I sat at the table eating a scone, which was right above him.  He had also hopped in.  A hot warm scone sat right above him, and he was settling for crumbs on a floor.  He and the hopping bird seem to have the same problem.  They didn’t know what they had right in front of them.

I wonder if it was the same bird.  

Soul Reawakened

He reawakened our souls

From a slumbering sleep

Away from the darkness

That held us down deep

We sing to the broken parts

And rejoice with broken hearts

That become mended again

As time slowly presses on

Found is grace in our griefs

Cast forth for our redemption

From pain that held down

Our oft intended ways

Walk along a narrow road

Dance among broken souls

That find a hope in shadows

Of a cross that bore our sorrows

So come back to eternal life

Back from a widening wake

That brings us all this far

Here to a luminous Grace

Old Road

There is an old road

 That takes us home

 To a place all along

 We are meant to go

 So we will travel

 This simple path

 straight & narrow

 That carries us on

 We will grow weary

 For the journey we take

 Is so often unknown

 And not made easy

 So simply we tarry

 With childlike faith

 Called to a holy life

 That is a different way

 In the end we will find

 True mercy and grace

 For we put our trust

 The Spirit who leads us

Black Friday

In a land of more than plenty

We never seem to have enough

On a day of giving thanks 

We're always looking for more

And before the night is done

We will pitch our little tent

Wishing for the next big thing

They sell at the big box store

Dream

Sleepy streams into a misty sea

Fragile hearts held at the seams

What did you hope life would be

When the stars still gave us dreams

Down windy roads stretched ahead

That lead us to hopes and dreams

Of a life imagined in fairy tales 

And seen in shows and magazines

The city lights make a bright sky 

That light a midnight path this way

To memories that keep us hoping

For what we thought life would bring

The imagination of what could be

At times fall short of our reality

Dreams left to linger on and on

Waiting to be come to life again

In the mundane of our menial tasks

We keep to dreams we long to see

That give us hope for another day

To be where we've never been before

Worship That Shapes Us

The strength of our theology shapes the depth of our worship and the depth of our worship transforms the core of what we believe.  This truth stems back to the time of the Exile when God allowed Israel to be scattered.  Up to the time of Exile, the people had a temple, a system of worship, and teachers to study the law.  After the exile all of this had been displaced.  In response, the people searched for a way to preserve their faith and what they believed.  This came in what we now know as the 150 chapters of Psalms.  The Psalms did not simply give them a worship book for Sundays, it gave them a way to learn what they believed and preserved it, no matter where they were.

We are the teachers of truth to this generation, and what we teach must create a space in which obedience to truth is practiced.

We are the teachers of truth to this generation, and what we teach must create a space in which obedience to truth is practiced.  What does this say to us now and what does it challenge us to do as we pastor students?  How are we teaching them to translate worship experience in to a transformational opportunity?
Here are some things to consider:

1. We must go beyond just an experience.  How can what we do and how we worship become transformational in the life of a student?  How do we take what happens at an altar or a worship service and translate it in to everyday life?  Our challenge is to teach students how to carry their “altar time” in the rest of the week.  This challenges us to go from simply creating experience to transformational moments.  It requires us to go deeper and take our student deeper as well. Simply being satisfied in how worship makes us feel is not enough, because that is not what worship is about.
2. It cannot be about worship unto itself.  Sometimes I think a tragedy of the modern church is we worship the experience worship. We like the goose bumps and we like the response.  Worship was never meant to be about us, it is about us coming before God as an act of humility. How are we allowing him to speak to us and transform us?   Our worship must move us forward.   Sadly, I can count too many times I have seen students who actively engage in “worship,” yet no life change takes place, no obedience to the Spirit is manifested, and no desire for Truth or a pursuit of holiness is developed.
3. Our worship must shape our theology.  Consider this, most students won’t remember what you said, but they will remember the song playing in their head.  Music and worship become a powerful tool in shaping the lives of our students and what they believe.  This puts great responsibility on us to examine what we sing, how we worship and what we teach week in and week out.  Is it offering depth?  Will it teach them? Will it alter their spiritual DNA?

John 4:23-24 states, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The true impact of worship is not found in how good it makes you feel, but in how much it changes you. Worship moves us to seek and implement Truth and causes us to become people dependent on the Spirit. It is not tied to a place or a song, but instead it is tied to a deep dependency on the Spirit leading us as we follow. Great worship doesn’t respond with loud noise and shouting, it responds through obedient action to what the Spirit is saying to us and calling us to do in response to our worship, after all true worship is how we live our life out in the everyday facets of our lives.

Let us worship and let it transform us. Let us teach our students to do the same.

A Bird's Eye View

The bird used the stairs.  I used them too.  The difference between the bird and myself was that I didn’t have wings.  It would have seemed much easier for the bird to flap it wings and quickly escalate the stairs, avoiding the unnecessary hop up each step (I’ve done this as a kid, it’s quite a bit of work.)  I don’t know why it used the stairs, it didn’t need to.  Maybe for the bird hopping up the steps was akin to us flying in a plane.  Maybe the bird had a great fear of stairs and wanted to get over this fear.  Maybe it was taking a break from flapping its wings, or maybe it was injured.   Whatever the reason, it simply struck me as ironic.  He had wings.  He would have made pet birds angry. 

I remember the kid who sat in the back of the room and refused to use his talents because things didn’t go his way.  I remember the girl who sat on the side not even aware of her own beauty because she believed the lies others have told her over and over and over again.  They simply hop up the stairs either unaware or just simply refusing to use the wings that are right there for them to use.  It seems we live in a world of clipped wings.  The reasons are endless but the results end up being the same:  we hop up the stairs. 

For many, they know they have wings, they simply refuse to use them.    It’s too much work.  They don’t like how they look or they don’t want to use them they way others are asking them to, or how they were designed to.  I heard one bird got his wings clipped because it was the latest trend.  The bird kind of regrets that now.  Perhaps they don’t think they will work right, or they are embarrassed to use them.  Maybe that was the bird’s problem.  There were a bunch of people around, and it was too busy worrying about what all the people would think of how he flapped his wings.  One awkward flap and it becomes a bad day.

Others are not even aware of their wings.   I’ve often wondered how many Mozarts we’ve never heard or how many Rembrandts we’ve never seen because they potential artists never knew they had it in them.  How many worship leaders have never led, how many missionaries never leave their homes, or how many preachers never preach a sermon?  How many doctors never heal, or teachers never see the light bulb go on in a child’s eye?  They never knew they had the wings to do it.  No one ever bothered to tell them.

Both are equally frustrating.  How many times have we seen a student’s enormous potential, and they remain blind looking in the mirror.  Or how many times has a student seen it, and the take the path of least resistant or in some cases worst resistance, only to clip themselves through poor decisions, never knowing their full potential. 

As leaders, we must help students discover their wings, and to use them as God intended.  Can you imagine the impact they would make if students truly lived up to their potential?  I think the world would be just as impacted now, as it was 2000 years ago when Jesus took 12 cast offs and made them world changers.  He simply showed them their wings, and what an impact they made. 

The reality is the world is greatly impacted by the missionaries, pastors, teachers, doctors, and laypeople every day many times over who have simply used their wings and trust the Holy Spirit to do the rest.  If we can convey to our students to simply trust God, being willing to grow, and know that our failures are not fatal, there will be no holding them back.  They just need to stretch their wings.

A while back, I sat in a coffee shop and in hopped a bird.  He was pecking the crumbs off the floor.  I sat at the table eating a scone, which was right above him.  He had also hopped in.  A hot warm scone sat right above him, and he was settling for crumbs on a floor.  He and the hopping bird seem to have the same problem.  They didn’t know what they had right in front of them.

I wonder if it was the same bird. 

They Are Only Giants

One of the realities of ministry is that we will face obstacles and challenges.  The question then is do these challenges stop us from what God has for us, or do we face the challenges and move forward?  Issues such as worry and doubt can become giants that keep us from entering the blessing that God has for us and our ministry.  

When we look at Numbers 13:27-32 we see spies who allowed the limitations they saw keep them from receiving the blessing God had for them.  God sent them in to the land to spy out what he had already promised them.  Instead of realizing that God had already given them the land, they instead respond with fear and doubt, leaving them wandering for 40 years, never receiving what God already had given them!

The ‘giants’ we face can come in many forms, but how we respond will determine the end result. What is keeping us from receiving what God has already promised and given to us? What can we consider as we face challenges? 

Consider these things:

DON’T TURN OPPORTUNITIES IN TO OBSTACLES -  Two saw land and blessing, while ten saw walls and giants. So often we miss the opportunity hidden in the problem. Just beyond the challenge lies the opportunity.  Obstacles are meant to be pushed out of the way. Often we here people mus-characterized as “the bad kid that won’t change” or we hear people speak how “things have always been done this way.”   How often do we write people off, not realizing that God has brought them our way?  We become the agent of change to shape them and direct them toward the kind of life God had intended for them?  

OVERCOME THE ASSUMPTIONS.  The ten spies were looking through the wrong lens.  They already assumed they couldn’t defeat the giants.  What we think we see is not always the reality.  We often approach situations assuming we know the outcome.  This outcome is often based on the limitations we let dictate our lives.  Don’t let the assumptions you have of people, places, or situations remove you from moving forward in what God has for you.  How often do we misjudge or misread a situation, which keeps us from having the opportunity to make a difference?

DON’T LET FEAR BLOCK THE BLESSING.  The ten spies saw the giants, and forgot the blessing God had for them.  The promised land became an unopened gift they would never receive, because fear became the roadblock.  The land was already a guarantee.  They simply needed to take it. Focus on what God has placed before us, not on what stands in our way.   What stands in our way will eventually be behind us if we continue to move forward.  Remember, the giants only look big, but often it is simply a facade.  Fear is a facade that has no power.

TRUST WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY GIVEN YOU. Don’t let Go of What God has already given you.  God has already given you everything you need to overcome the obstacles that stand in your way. The size of our obstacles always diminish when held up to the glory of God. In the end, when we trust God and allow him to lead us, we find out the giants weren’t giants at all. 

What we Must Do?

a.    Trust God and trust that He is leading you

b.    Find and work with those who are going the same direction

c.    Keep your eye on the promise not on the problem

d.    Change your perspective of how you see obstacles

e.    Seek wisdom and counsel from trusted mentors and leaders

f.     Always keep the vision before you of what God has called you to do

What became of the other two spies?  For 40 years, they wandered with the others.  However, God remembered their faithfulness and willingness to move forward and take the land. In those years, they would come to be trusted men who stood beside Moses, and were raised up to lead.  Of the twelve spies, Joshua and Caleb would be the only ones to enter the land of promise.  Not only did they enter the land, but they led the others into what God had already given to them so long ago. Trusting God not only becomes an opportunity to be blessed, but also an opportunity to lead.   

So when you look at obstacles and when you face challenges, remember this: they only look like Giants

Tragedy and Comedy

The fiction in my head 

Tells me of stories untrue

And memories that never were

The plot spells my fate

Of epic tales and folklore 

Penning  the end of  my demise

The antagonist lies within

Dancing with woes and worry

Prancing around the masquerade 

It's a tall  tale to believe 

That the story now unfolds

With no consequence in the end

All that leaves me undone,

Is it tragedy or a sad comedy,

Playing over and over in my head?

A Thousand Sounds

As the water whispers

We listen so intently

To a thousand sounds 

Played out in our hearts

The trees wave to us

As we pass quickly by

Carried along the way 

By the beauty of it all

Mountains stretch out 

And pave a way for us 

To behold the majesty

Of all that He has made

White clouds float on by

Against a light blue fresco

Moved by a rushing wind

That leaves us so amazed

All these things He has made

By speaking them into being

But by His hands we are formed

Because of His great love for us