faithfulness Love

Walking With The Invisible God

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This post is from a devotional book I wrote a while back but I posted it today because it is so much like the battles many of us are going through today. It is a reminder that when our spiritual walk seems more like a spiritual trudge we need to remember who we are trudging with! We walk with an invisible God on an invisible road to an invisible destination! What a totally insane thing it is to live by faith – and yet – God delights in exactly that. The apostle Peter puts this crazy walk of faith in different words, 

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Peter 1:8

If your walk of faith feels like you are wading through mud, remember that God has chosen those times for us to have opportunity to know Him better. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find a mysterious letter written from the future as happened in the film “The Lake House”? If you haven’t seen the film it has an odd twist of two people from different times who have never met yet through their letters they come to know each other and fall in love. That is in some ways like our own mysterious love letter “The Bible”! 

We would love to know more details but by God’s design we are given His word. It is our staircase to heaven. The word of God is a light that shines in our dark place and it is our shelter from the storm. God’s word is a treasure hidden in a field and it is our pearl of greatest price. The more we don’t know or understand the more precious the riches of God’s eternal word become. I don’t understand this plan God has chosen yet by faith I am walking with my invisible God on His invisible road to His invisible destination!

Though I did not write this post to promote this book, ff you would like to order a copy you can find it here _ God bless and have a great week

Launching Out Again

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And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”  Luke 5:5

My grandfather was the captain of a destroyer during the war and long after retirement he remained firmly in command of the ship at home. Though we loved him dearly, we grandchildren learned to respond quickly whenever He barked “All hands on deck!” when it was time for chores; or “No excuses sir!” if we got caught doing something wrong. But one of his favorite sayings happened when we made excuses. He would pause with a smile, then point his finger directly at whoever was the excuse maker and say; “No if’s and’s or but’s”

Maybe Peter had a grandfather a lot like mine, because when Jesus asked him to go back out into deeper water to throw his net out again he simply obeyed. When Peter said, “I will let down my nets” he knew that meant that he would need to load them back in the boat, then call his brother and some of his friends and go back out after having worked all night. Last of all he had to throw the heavy, water soaked net back into the water with the possibility that it would just come back in empty again. It would have been a lot easier to say, “I’m so tired Jesus, why not ask John or James?” But none of those excuses kept Peter from obeying Jesus. He trusted what Jesus said by a faith he probably didn’t yet fully understand and launched out.

When God calls me or you to launch out with him we often have plenty of if’s and’s or but’s. “If you first give me this Lord, then I’ll be happy to obey.” or “And what about my sister, why can’t she do it this time?” or even “But Lord you know I always mess this up!” But God did not call someone else. He is not interested in a faster or more efficient way of getting things done. What He cares about is teaching us to trust Him. So instead of wasting time with our “if’s and’s or but’s ; why not just load up our nets, and launch out into the deep? Until we let down our nets we’ll never know what God can do to fill them!

The Good Fight

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I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith.  2 Timothy 4:7

In 1964 Muhammad Ali became the youngest challenger to ever win the heavyweight boxing title when he beat Sonny Liston. Every time Ali stepped into the ring he brashly proclaimed his superiority over his foe. Ali never imagined losing because it was not in his DNA to process losing. The only good fight Ali planned was a knockout!

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The Apostle Paul was in many ways just like Muhammad Ali. Every time Paul entered into spiritual combat he had only one goal in mind: complete victory through His Lord Jesus Christ! Throughout Paul’s ministry he was often persecuted, tossed in prison and finally executed and yet He boldly stated that he ended his life a victor. When Paul wrote to his young friend Timothy; he was in effect tag teaming his successor in the ongoing battle. Timothy later passed that fight onto the churches under his care. If we listen we will hear the bell is ringing for the first round of our own match to begin. Centuries have passed and the world is a different place, but God’s challenge remains the same. It is our turn to fight our own good fight with that same boldness and faith. When we trust in Christ in our fight we will win, because we are tag teaming with the greatest heavyweight champion of all time: our Lord Jesus Christ!