WHEN THE WAY SEEMS DARK

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"All of you that honor the Lord

and obey the words of his servant,

the path you walk may be dark indeed,

but trust in the Lord,

rely on your God."

-Isaiah 50:10 (GNB)

WHICH WAY AM I LOOKING?

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Just like us old kids, they are looking back.

You know how it is around us old people.

We all look back into the past. The great things we did when we were younger

and life was so much better than now.

But now we are too old to do anything.

It is never encouraging to be around people who are living in the past.

For myself, regardless of what stage of life, the most depressing times have been

when I'm not looking forward to something.

God gave me as word of encouragement this morning.

He (God) was speaking to the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah.

"But the Lord says,

'Do not cling to events of the past

or dwell on what happened long ago.

Watch for the new thing I

am going to do....."

-Isaiah 43:18 (GNB)

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Other places God tells us to remember what he has done for us.

Then we can thank him for it. And, realize that he can and will help us again.

But God does not want us to dwell in the past,

but take him by the hand and move on into the future,

regardless of the situation we are in now.

I'm looking forward to what God is going to do

for me next.

AM I USELESS ENOUGH FOR GOD TO USE?

Moses "...was taught all of the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in words and deeds."

-Acts 7:22 (TEV)

This is outstanding. Here is God's chosen man;

educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,

a great man in words,

a great man in deeds.

He is in the prime of life, forty years old (v.23).

And he knew what his God given mission was (v25).

I have read that Josephus gives an account of Moses even being general of an Egyptian army.

Wow! What a man to lead God's people out.

But God could not use him like that.

God had to send him to the desert for forty more years to get all the wisdom of the world out of him.

And as God does with all his outstanding saints,

Break him.

After forty years we see in the account of the burning bush, (Exodus ch. 4)

that Moses could not even talk well any more.

We see a man whose self esteem was shattered.

[Sorry, but even self esteem can get in the way.]

Moses is finally a "nothing".

Now God can use him.

Remember Peter?

Bold and confident. Going to follow Christ to death it's self.

But with his denial of Christ it broke him.

He cried like a baby and then went back to fishing.

Or the apostle Paul.

A proud Pharisee trained at the feet of Gamaliel.

But on the road to Damascus busted, brought to nothing.

Now that you have all of your degrees,

titles,

abilities

and experience.

Are you read to serve God?

It might hurt.

Let's learn from the apostle Paul.

"But to keep me from being puffed up with pride because of the many wonderful things I saw, I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan's messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud. Three times I prayed to the Lord about this and asked him to take it away. But his answer was; 'My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are week.' I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

-2 Corinthians 12:710 (TEV)

HOW TO ACCOMPLISH MORE

"The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months;

and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household."

-2 Samuel 6:11 (NRSV)

Alright! I want the Lord's blessing on all I do.

Where do I get one of these "arks"?

First what was the "ark", or what did it represent?

"Spiritually, the Ark was the manifestation of God's physical presence on earth

(the shekhina)."

-David Shyovitz

in the Jewish Virtual Library.

Simply put it means,

God's presence = God's blessing.

That is why Moses was so concerned for Israel.

"Moses replied, 'If you do not go with us,

don't make us leave this place.

How will anyone know that you are pleased with your people

and with me if you do not go with us?

Your presence with us will distinguish us from any other people on earth.'".

-Exodus 33:15,16 (TEV)

Martin Luther is reputed to have said,

"I have so much to do that if I didn't spend at least three hours a day in prayer I would never get it all done."

Several times I have read of people getting more done by spending more time with the Lord.

It seems backward. But it works.

Personally I am a goal or project orientated person.

Generally I figure out what tasks need to be done, and which one's I can accomplish in a given time frame. Then dig in.

So, I purposely begin to spend more time with the Lord.

Guess what?

When I spend more time with the Lord,

I get ahead of schedule,

then look for something else to spend the extra time at.

"Seek the Lord and his strength;

seek his presence continually."

-Psalm 105:4 (NRSV)

WHOSE IDEA IS THIS?

"From the time I rescued the people of Israel from Egypt until now, I have never lived in a temple; I have traveled around living in a tent. In all my traveling with the people of Israel I never asked any of the leaders that I appointed why they had not built me a temple made of cedar.

- 2 Samuel 7:6,7 (TEV)

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The idea came from man, not God.

See 2 Samuel 7:1 - 17

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On the mount of transfiguration the disciples saw Jesus in his glory. Then,

"Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said."

- Luke 9:33 (KJV)

It is man that wants to build. That is something creative we can do - even in the flesh.

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What was God's response to Peter about building a tabernacle?

"A voice said from the cloud, 'This is my Son, whom I have chosen - listen to him!'"

-Luke 9 35 (TEV)

There is our responsibility.

"When the voice stopped, there was Jesus all alone..."

- Luke 9:36 (TEV)

Jesus alone is our need

Photo courtesy buildingdesign.remodeling...

Halley Bible Handbook on p.859 says,

"The First church building was erected in the reign of Alexander Severus (222-35). After the edict of Constantine they began to be built everywhere."

Wow! From Pentecost to 222-35 AD. with out a church building.

You don't suppose the "church" was too busy turning the world "upside down" (Acts 17:6 KJV) to worry about building a church building.

All those years with out a church building,

printing press,

radio,

TV,

or the Internet.

yet turning the world upside down.

Then the church went into the construction business.

And we lost something.

Photo courtesy www.peterbrownconst.com

Is it possible that the real motivation behind our mad drive for buildings is the same one that motivated;

King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:12,

or "wannabe" king Absalom 2 Samuel 18:18

to build a "Monument"?

Yes, a monument to a ministry or

a monument to a churches presence in the community,

or a monument to our successful "Christian" program.

LEARNING

That is two of my great grand kids at work. They caught me in one of my shops. Their question, "Grandpa can we make something?"

After granting permission they headed straight from my scrap metal pile. They did not know what they wanted to make or how. But they jumped right in making "stuff".

It almost hurt watching them TRY to work. I was very tempted to step in and do it for them. But how else are they going to learn?

As I watched them I could not but wonder, are we like that in God's sight. Does he in love let us blunder around so we can learn?

The little boy made this for grandpa. It is a weapon. Something to throw at the bad guys. And all I had to do was tie the string for him. Can't beat that.

JUST WONDERING

This is the picture of an old computer. It is all set up and ready to use. (I know, it is not a nice new one like you have. But it will work.)

Now what is the purpose of a computer? Just to admire? Simply to have one more asset? To play with? (That can be a valid reason, I know.) Something to brag about?

Now I'm not real smart. But I am under the impression that the purpose is to set down at the keyboard, grab the mouse and either start entering data or look up something or other. To put the thing to work for you. Right or wrong?

Huh!

I must be a little on the "geeky" side. Then it is not to tear up and see what makes it tick. You mean I do not have to try and find out the difference between the; motherboard, hard drive, raid controller, video card, fan, heat sink, expansion card, Ram and Rom memory or a processor. You mean the purpose is simply to use it, put it to work?

This is not a plea for ignorance nor neglect of the Word of God. God wants us in his word and he gives us wisdom.

But with all of our Bible study, conferences, seminars etc, we still have one of the most impotent churches on the face of the earth here in this country.

Is it we Christians are too "geeky". We think study and service are synonyms . That godliness is the by product of knowledge.

Let's face it. The heathen could tell us where Mesopotamia is. A pagan could give us the proper way to pronounce Mephibosheth. And an atheist could probable tell us more about Petra than we could.

I would like to suggest that the need is not more scholarship, but more discipleship.

Gene Edwards in his book - Living Close To God When you're Not Good At It - makes a very interesting observation on page 15.

"I am a theologian with more degrees than a thermometer!"

"I come from six generations of complete illiterates - my father and five fathers before him. My Cajun grandfather had a closer walk with the Lord Jesus than any theologian I have ever known. Being a theologian is not in any way a passport to spirituality. In fact, it can be a hindrance."

...

"...the man who had the closest walk with Christ was my utterly illiterate grandfather, a man who could not identify a single letter of his signature."

Just something to think about.