May 9, 2020
Naw, never said do that…
Jesus never called you to follow His people. He said “Follow me.”
Note to self: DUH! (Can I try and encourage you today?) What keeps you away from Him? Been hurt by flawed people and hypocrites?
HEY, YOU’VE MESSED UP AT TIMES, I HAVE TOO. ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALLEN SHORT..
The Lord won’t do the walkin’ for you. He can sure carry you for a time if you are beat up and wounded, but it’s your responsibility to start and stay walkin’ with Him where He leads you.
May I ask.. Are you enjoying peace with God and the peace of God in your walk today.. like there at home while stuck at home? (Wish this Covid 19 would go away!)
Do you claim to have peace.. from who, from you, or peace from what?
God some brokenness, or broken dreams? Do ya need some peace, joy and love inside? Need a broken relationship fixed? Need your heart healed? Today, you can enjoy peace with, and the peace of God as you turn, trust and appropriate peace with Christ. Life is empty without Him.
You know that lasting peace and happiness doesn’t come from sin ..that could be fun for a season.. but it comes from the Lord! Not everyone wants to change, and God won’t make them change. It they don’t want to then you, me, and God can’t change them.
Many people today are looking more to food for fulfillment and happiness these days.
They say this covid-#quarantinelife for many.. is adding some 15 pounds as they use Ubereats and Gruhub.
SADLY FOR SOME PEOPLE THE ONLY EXERCISE THEY TEND TO GET IS…
- Running down others,- Jumping to conclusions and..- Sidestepping hard work with all the other responsibilities
PEOPLE DO THAT KINDA STUFF, BUT WE ARE CONFIDENT OF BETTER THINGS FOR YOU.
Have you kinda made a mess out of your life? Sorry about that. God can work in and through you as you cooperate and work with Him.
Work out… outside. The Beatles sang ‘bout that.. “We can work it out.” I like those words about now.. “going out!” So wanna go outside!
Not alone indoors while home alone, believer — He’s with you.
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
Right there with you, believer — He delights in you.
The good news for Christians and their leaders who have messed up.. who have made a royal mess of their lives s this:
The Lord first catches His fish and then he cleans em
(sinners don’t need to clean up their lives first and then come to Christ. We first turn, trust and just come as we are).
He sanctifies us and He’s really good at it. He cleans up our messes. Doesn’t always remove the consequences, but the does clean us up.
You’ve heard it said that there’s no testimony without a test, and that Jesus can turn our mess into a message. It’s true.
Moses got angry and messed up his life — he actually became a murderer. King David did that too.
Moses was an Israelite who, through adoption, had been taken into the Pharaoh’s court.
Presumably, not a hundred percent sure about this, but it would appear that Moses was being trained to become the next leader of Egypt. So what happened?
Moses wanted to help his fellow Israelites as their leader and he went about it all wrong. He killed a mean Egyptian taskmaster who was beating up an Israelite in the sand..and then Mo buried him in that sand.
It was going to go sort of viral so Moses then escaped to far away Midian — the Pharaoh at that time wanted to kill him for that. That’s how it goes when one really blows it bad.
He remade himself so to speak, had a new quiet life. And Moses had been there in Midian for 40 years without hearing from his God. But then one day low and behold, the Lord spoke to this 80-year-old man.
He addressed Moses through a burning bush experience. Yeah, a bush that was on fire. He said,
“I am the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6 nlt).
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are great patriarchs of the faith. But they too messed up. They were flawed people as well.
As godly as he was, Abraham blew it some. He had some serious lapses in judgment regarding his faith. Of course I’m not great like he was, but I’ve done that before. Have you?
Isaac didn’t listen to the Lord — he was biased at times. What about Jacob?
Well, his mistakes are known and legendary.
So.. I think God was basically reaching out to Mo saying something like,
“Moses, I am the God of men who have failed and of all those who need second chances. And that means I can help and use you.”
It’s because God is and was then.. really concerned for His people. He said,
“I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:7–8 nlt).
The Lord has seen, the Lord has heard, and this same Lord knows your situation.
The Bible, speaking of Jesus, tells us, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15 nlt).
He is very aware of what you’re going through at home (or wherever you are) at this moment. Yep, right now. God sees it, He hears it, and He knows all about it. And He really cares about you.
My SoCal pastor Greg Laurie says of this: The Lord was basically saying to Moses, “You are the man. And just like this burning bush here, you’re going to burn with my message.” You would think that at this point, Moses would have fallen down on his face and said, “Thank you, Lord, for second chances!” But instead he became a human excuse machine. He said, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” (verse 11 nlt).
It may sound humble at first to say you’re not worthy. But in reality, God had called him. So it was an act of disobedience. Moses did have a point. If you were God, would you have picked Moses? Yet the Lord seems to go out of his way to choose flawed people. Maybe it’s so that he will get the glory, ultimately.
If you’ve messed up like Moses, then admit you’ve messed up. Try to fail forward. That means learn from your mistakes.Moses learned some important lessons. In the court of Pharaoh, he was schooled in the ways of Egypt. He knew Egyptian culture, Egyptian art and Egyptian military strategies. He knew about all the Egyptian deities. All this would come in handy when he was facing off with the pharaoh.And in the wilderness, Moses worked as a shepherd. He learned how to deal with wayward sheep. This would come in handy as he led an army of people through the wilderness for 40 years.
Moses learned why impulsiveness was a bad idea, and he learned how to wait on the Lord. As I’ve said many times,
God is not looking for ability; he’s looking for availability. God does not call the qualified; he qualifies the called.
What he really wants is just for someone to say, “Lord, I’m in. I’ll go. I’ll do it if you want me to do it.” For instance, look at the story of Gideon in the book of Judges. He seemed to be afraid of his own shadow. Yet the Lord basically said to him, “Hey Gideon, you mighty man of valor! You’re going to lead Israel out of their bondage to the Midianites.”
That’s because God didn’t see Gideon for what he was. Rather, God saw Gideon for what he would become.
In the same way, God sees potential in you. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you look in a mirror and see flaws. You see shortcomings. But God sees what you will become: a mighty man or woman for him.
Yet all too often we offer the same excuse Moses did as to why God would never work through us. But it isn’t based on what we deserve. It’s based on the grace of God by which he calls us. Jesus’s last miracle was covering up the blunder of a disciple. And your failure, mistake, or sin is a part of your story. Jesus can take whatever wrong you’ve done and forgive you and be glorified in your life still.
Maybe you’ll use it as a lesson in your life and decide not to make the same mistake again. That is failing forward, friend, and that is turning your mess into a message. You have something to offer. You have something to do.
May I ask you, Kurt with all sincerity here: So sorry about the hurts and brokenness. Got some? May I ask you.. have you messed up so badly, or some, or so many times that you need a second chance in life? Have so called Christian leaders, other so called Christians, or church organizations let you down before? I am sorry about that, really am.
I’ve had Christian friends, and leaders let me down before. That’s life in this fallen world. In my heart I forgive them. Some played friend and weren’t really. A few were much into money. Some wanted me to carry on a church work that they personally ditched and then got mad at me cuz the Lord led me back to the USA. My former college roommate friend who became a pastor in a suburb of Kansas City just died in his 50s..in his car this week. He’d left his office to go meet his wife — half written text on his phone and he was found leaning on his steering wheel. You never know when it’s your time — be ready.
Man, earlier, there were months when he and I couldn’t even talk to each other (his wife always believed him, even at times when she shouldn’t have), but who among us is perfect? We had forgiven each other.
Life is just too short to carry a grudge, unforgiveness, and bitterness inside. The same bridge you and I need to get across is the bridge we are to build.
We all need forgiveness. When you forgive someone you set the captive free…you!
The Bible gives us 76 word-pictures for forgiveness cuz it’s really important. Hey there, forgiven people should be forgiving people!
Q. Let me ask.. Wanna be a happy person? A blessed person saying blessable?
A. Go win the lottery! No, just kidding. Here’s how you can be a happy person.. forgive and pray for people who need that.
Not forgiving them doesn’t mean there’ll be no consequences for them with their bad behavior. Listen, not forgiving a person that has wronged you is like eating a pile of rat poison and then waiting around for that other person to die. That’s dumb, foolish, in vain. It doesn’t really go good on the eater of it (the one who refuses to forgive, or be forgiven).
Perhaps you need forgiveness? Need me to pray for you today?
Have you stumbled some or fallen down on the ground? Did someone push you over.. or shove you down? I say fall forward, learn from it and get back up again. Walk wise now..forward. Not alone or backwards. Advance.
Have you suffered some? So sorry ‘bout that. Trials come and go, think em not strange here. Choose to suffer strong.
Never let a hypocrite (or a temporary periodic hypocrite) keep you away from God, and walk not as a hypocrite (any believer who commits a sin does that so we all need cleansing at times). In God’s church there’s always room for one more..willing to be changed by the Word!
In heaven (if not sooner for believer here) all will be sorted out and fixed. There seems to be nothing worse than church hurt, of those from believers we look up to. Ever been kicked by an animal when down? I hate sheep bites and goat bites. Sometimes Christians have done stuff like that. Jesus wouldn’t. Not ever.
We serve a good Good Shepherd. We serve a good Good Father, and a good Good Spirit. A God who loves you and is perfect in all of His ways. He never messes up and He can dust you off and help you up again if you’ll come close to Him. Just as you are.
He can help you forgive the Church and church leaders (I mean lost religious folk, and those who are really saved, those in His real Church). He can help you forgive worldly, lukewarm carnal believers.. and other “spiritual believers” too. Those who sometimes blow it.. and forgive the unchurched irreligious people too a.k.a. those unregenerate who also need Christ. Come to Him now. Facebook.com/shareJesus .. Fish4souls.org .. www.F4Skurt.blogspot.com
