Sometimes all it takes is a little coercion. So I left a message:
“Hi, unless I hear back from you today your mother’s power will be shut off and it’s still 105 degrees here in Vegas.
She doesn’t want to bother you after all these months but I’d rather not read about her in the weekend paper.
Here’s my number. Together, I believe we can keep it on. Thanks”
My phone rang in 11 minutes.
Against all hope, Abraham, in hope, believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
Romans 4:18, 21 NIV
Against the odds.
Against all hope.
When your back’s against the wall, what do you do?
Most of us back off or back down out of pride, fear, or worry that our wobbly faith won’t be enough to sustain us.
But against all hope, Abraham, in hope, believed that the power to accomplish such a destiny set before him was gonna have to be a God-thing.
Wobbly faith misplaces the value of possibility on us instead of on God with whom ALL things are possible.
So summon the faith you now possess, then dig in your feet, and watch God use it do what He does best.
Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.
Romans 4:7-8 NIV
If we’re entirely honest, the things that plague our consciences worst of all are the harms done to others at times when we knew better.
Swept under the rugs of time, our place looks nice, but all those accumulated wrongs block a truly clean conscience.
Dirty rugs full of hidden secrets.
Rugs may cover sins but they don’t forgive them
Take ownership and responsibility and present your dirt at the cross of Christ for the promise of complete freedom.
A clear conscience weighs nothing and wastes no mental energy.
Get real. Time is too precious to waste on tending to dirty rugs.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
Romans 1:18-20 NIV
Many people today are stupefied by the things some share as truth.
Eons of what the history of humanity has regarded as basic facts are now being questioned without the benefit of evidence required of other assertions.
The gaslighting can make you crazy.
And if you’re God, pretty angry.
They are like toddlers defying truths purely for defiance’s sake just to assert that nobody’s the boss of them.
It takes an incredible amount of determination to hold tight to a lie in the face of the truth, yet some do so at any cost, indeed, costing them both their sanity and their eternity.
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:32 NIV
Satan is the great deceiver and the father of lies. And in this increasingly fallen world, people are desperate to know who and what to believe in.
Truth is truth, regardless of who believes it to be.
Be testimony-ready always, and share the truth about Jesus to others like their life depends on it.
Because it does.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.
Luke 6:23 NIV
It might just be that the greatest threat to the gospel taking root these days is immediate gratification.
Ours is a world of such plenty that we’ve eroded our own patience.
Though patience is a godly virtue, it’s become among the least popular.
Great is your reward in heaven—glorious as it is—means the expected payoff may arrive much later than sooner.
We’re not programmed for that.
Waiting upon anyone is inconvenient at best. Waiting upon the Lord is worse.
Shouldn’t an omnipotent God skip the waiting room for those he loves? Concierge treatment should be the norm instead of the exception.
Self, again, is at the heart of this type of thinking, as if we deserve better consideration.
Have we learned nothing?
If God promises something, he always delivers. Rest in that truth and be anxious for nothing.
Great is your reward in heaven.
Go to these people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’”
Acts 28:26-27 NIV
In one ear and out the other.
Arguments and evidences, no matter how persuasively presented, oftentimes have little to no effect on senses seared shut by ‘truths’ presented by the world.
Whether faith, politics, or even travel advice (read Paul’s unheeded advice about God’s warning and promise) at some point, you have to move on to others whose hearts and minds are unafraid to change and whose pride hasn’t yet walled them in.
When you present the way to save someone’s life, soul, or even way of government, and they won’t listen, it moves out of your responsibility to report and wholly into their choice to accept.
Motivation from a place of love, care and compassion is never lost in the effort but the fact remains that it still takes two to tango, and there are plenty of others out there eager for a dance partner
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Luke 5:10-11 NIV
No bait, just a net.
The preferred, most efficient method of fishing was to capture an entire school of fish in one toss.
Then he said to his disciples,“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Matthew 9:37
Just as Jesus’ instruction where to cast their nets for a full catch, discipleship for Simon (Peter,) James and John began with a miracle.
Large numbers of people are lost, caught up in their sins, just waiting for a net.
No bait, no sneaky lures, just a net of love and salvation found in Jesus.
While not everyone is called to travel to far away mission fields, we are all called to be disciples who will fish in local lakes and ponds within reach.
Leave the distractions in your way and cast your net into your own ponds and become a disciple equipped with the good news of God’s salvation.
Tell your own fish story.
Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
The desperate and imposing faith of friends.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.
Luke 5:18-20 NIV
Never underestimate the power of your circle.
So sold out and convinced of the power of Jesus, it was the man’s friends willing to go to great lengths on his behalf, that resulted in his healing.
Recently hospitalized myself, the most important outcome wasn’t so much my healing as the discovery of my own circle.
My nearest and dearest friends and even Facebook people from around the globe held me up to Jesus in faith that I would emerge to walk out of that hospital whole and healed.
Who in this life can you count on to carry your mat?
Being and staying connected with people who pray for you and are willing to lift you up is the very heart of Christian community.
Get connected and stay connected.
Be a reliable link in a circle you can count on, and one who can also count on you at desperate times to help carry their mat with a desperate and imposing faith.
There will be terrible times in the last days.
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Have nothing to do with such people. -2Timothy3
Argue all you like that these are the last days. But frankly, last days have been with us for millennia since the first days and the signs are nothing new, just more evident and more laden with examples with the passage of time.
‘Having nothing to do with such people’ is a harder route to navigate as these people proliferate and insidiously take down what remaining truth and civility we have left.
The truth becomes increasingly difficult to discern but they are known by the fruit they produce.
Terrible times breed some terrible people, but terrible times also breed increasing discernment and resilience in those whose only end game is to follow Jesus.
