Moses was in the palace. He was placed in the perfect position to free the slaves. But, like all men, when we have freedom we get to make choices …
Exodus 211 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian …
I have to think that the Hebrew people did not just feel like they lost a prince … they lost a promise. I have to think that when Moses fled for Midian he took all of the hope that they had of gaining freedom.
How often does God set our lives in motion with the very intention of giving us freedom … and we walk into trouble as Moses did?
I love the name YHWH. Because in my pronunciation of it, it ends in “way”. Jesus gives us something that we can not have without Him. A Way. And without a way, we have no direction. And before long, we are snapping, like Moses did, and acting in ways that will not even be acceptable to those who do not know Him.
In the attached worship song, I think it says it best:
I Won’t Forget
The Wonder Of How You Brought
Deliverance …
The Exodus Of My Heart
You Found Me
You Freed Me
Held Back The Waters For My Release
John saw this after Jesus left our midst.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
Thank God that He loves us too much to leave us enslaved.
With YHWH, we have a Way.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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When Jesus chose to walk to a well and meet a rejected Samaritan woman, He was making a statement.
And it is a statement that we would do well to adopt today.
He was crossing out every possible human divider. He was not the least bit concerned about religion, culture, race, class, or even optics.
Not only was Jesus’ decision unpopular, it was a ministry killing choice for anyone who wanted to be a teacher. And that is just the point.
Matthew 123 … and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
He came, truly, to set the captives free.
He came to save the sinner.
And He came to cross out all of our reasons to be divisive or hateful or judgemental.
I find it amazing that some would call followers of Jesus racially or politically biased or tilted.
It is just the opposite.
John 413 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” …
21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem … 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
As we walk through our day, let us remember this: Jesus dropped everything to meet with one broken soul.
It was a decision that would cast doubt on everything He stood for that mattered in the eyes of man.
But for you … it was the very decision that would save your soul from the pits of Hell.
Come And Meet The Man Who Told Me Everything I Ever Knew
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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He had overcome his fear and literally cut the head off of the enemy’s Greatest Champion Warrior.
And it had led him to this very moment.
All he could do was beg God to save him.
Psalm 101 Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. 3 He boasts about the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. 4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. 5 His ways are always prosperous; your laws are rejected by him; he sneers at all his enemies. 6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.” He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”
Cornered. Terrified. And certainly wondering why he had been put in this position, David hid in a cave as Saul purposed to end David’s life and strip away the divine favor that David had built.
And God would provide his chance. Saul wandered into the very cave where David hid. Vulnerable and positioned as a sitting duck, David’s chance to strike down Saul was right in front of him. It was the logical thing to do. And David was poised to do it.
But God had convicted a man who did not act in fear, but in faith. And in his faith David put God ahead of his own desires.
David’s actions followed God … not his own heart’s desires.
1 Samuel 245 Afterward, David was conscience- stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” 7 With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul.
What a story.
The legend of the Warrior King grows the more you look into it.
And yet, this Warrior King is nothing more than a sinful man, as we find out in reading about his fall from grace due to his choices with Bathsheeba.
But that’s just it.
God isn’t looking for Perfect.
He is not looking for Flawless.
And He is not looking for Glorious.
Those are the descriptions only applicable to Jesus.
And we can thank God that we are not called to anything but Him. Because in our pursuit of being God’s own, we would simply crumble in the face of evil, just like David.
Our pursuits and endeavors are not directed to be perfect.
They are not supposed to be without blemish.
They are required to be REAL.
Jesus uses the phrase “depart from me, I never knew you” in Matthew 7 and Luke 13 because we are required to be vulnerable before God. Not perfect. Vulnerable.
And REAL.
As David spoke to God in Psalm 10, he was REAL. He worshipped, he celebrated, he questioned, he begged, and he cried out in all the ways that he could.
And he found that by walking with God, he would get through it.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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In a recent conversation, I was contemplating a concept called “my theology”. To be honest, I am not sure what that even means.
It’s not that I do not understand the concept, it is that I am not totally sure how to describe it.
As I got out of bed and grabbed a cup of coffee, I thought that I might take a crack at it.
Here is what I know:
John 11 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
Just as sure as Genesis 1 is the start of the Bible, John 1 is too. And some 2000 years ago, Jesus walked the earth with a common man. And this common man, John, wrote one of the greatest literary works of all time, and in it He claimed to be Jesus’ favorite.
John 314 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus showed up in the night not too long after that to meet a Religious scholar named Nicodemus. And in one of the most incredible conversations in human history, Jesus connects to the Old Testament scriptures WHILE opening up a door for all of man kind, saying that God loves the world so much that He is going to give His only Son, who was with Him in the beginning, so that WE, you and I, will no longer have to be sitting ducks for Hell.
Luke 420 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus then goes into the synagogue, reads a scripture from Isaiah, and then declares Himself God, surely setting Himself up to be killed. And in this activity, He breaks every political rule. He angers people in power, stops His day for people who are outcast, hangs out with unqualified and broken people, and lives out His days as a homeless itinerant preacher.
John 1835 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Jesus, is arrested, brought before a man named Pontius Pilate, and somehow avoids even defending Himself. He is exposed to an unfair trial and treated as a common criminal. Pilate KNOWS that He is not guilty, yet fears the repercussions of what that might cost him. And so he allows Him to be turned over to a mob that will beat, mock, accuse, and execute Him.
John 1930 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
In His final action before dying, Jesus says something that translates to “it is paid in full”, a statement that business people use to say that a loan is paid. To many, it must have been a crazy last statement of a man taking His last breath.
But to me, it makes perfect sense.
Acts 1629 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Not long after that, a man named Paul, who is traveling the region to punish, humiliate, and kill the followers of Jesus, changes teams. He converts. And in his conversion he has conversations like the one in Acts 16, where even his jailer can come and be saved.
To me, this is the craziest set of writings that I have ever read.
The most powerful man dies.
The King doesn’t rule, he submits to people who don’t have the ability to lead.
The champions of His story are former opponents who have converted.
None of it makes sense.
And yet, it does.
Our world is broken.
The people in it are broken.
The system is broken.
None of it makes any sense.
Until you read John, and then Ecclesiastes, and then Romans, and then Acts, and then …….
The reality is … it makes so much sense that I will chase it. And I certainly surrender to Jesus … He … is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.
And that … is my theology.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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As I drove to school this morning, I couldn’t help but be touched to the core at how much choice we have in who we are.
We are allowed to reject God in all of His glory.
We are allowed to choose a path that goes totally against Him.
But the one that scares me is the place where I live … in a spot where I can declare His Name and yet not even come to the fountain where He is serving the water.
Two scriptures and a worship song immediately come to mind as I reflect on this topic.
Psalm 13923 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Revelation 320 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
We have a choice in knowing Him.
We even have a choice on whether He comes to know us.
And in that choice, we get to decide.
This is an incredibly humbling power that He has given us. And as I took account of this as I was driving this morning, it shook me to the core.
We can go through our entire lives and declare and proclaim … yet not come to the foot of the cross and give Him the car keys.
In scripture, Jesus tells us to do this daily. I am not sure if I even do that weekly.
But today …
I sit at the foot of the cross in His presence and ask Him to come and know me. I ask Him to come and find every offensive way in me. I beg Him to love me enough today that He won’t leave me the same stubborn, unrepentant, incorrigible man that I was yesterday.
Lord Jesus~
Come and know me
Find every offensive way in me
Help me to hear Your amazing voice
Help me to get rid of what You do not want me to have
Help me to take in what You DO want me to have
And help me to SEE AND KNOW the difference
Let me be Your son and allow you to be my Father
Help me Lord … I need You more than anything in the world
Amen
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Surrounded and cornered by evil men who wanted to kill me and had all of the power to do just that, He stepped in.
And in one decision, He destroyed an evil mob with a strikingly powerful action, dropping them like they were not even formidable.
Relieved, Grateful, and Full of Adoration, I stepped in to thank Him. But my self centered perspective had missed something. In His defense of me, He had suffered a mortal wound, and the pain He was in was incredibly hard to watch. He dropped to the floor at my feet and labored into His last breaths. Before He expired, He looked to the ceiling and declared “it is Paid In Full”.
I had life.
I had hope.
My enemies were dead on the ground.
And I had a new purpose.
Though I am not perfect, I am aligned.
Though I am not a good example, I am loyal.
And though I do not do a good job showing it, I love Him as my greatest friend.
Romans 56 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I wish I could declare myself perfect.
I wish I could be a beacon that shows the way.
I wish I were half the man that He was … and IS.
But the reality is this:
Jesus saved my life.
And I have an eternity to try to thank Him for this … because I RECEIVE HIM, and those who RECEIVE HIM have the right to be Children Of God.
RECEIVE HIM.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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One concept that has been on my heart a lot is simply this:
REMEMBER
This is not a terrific act of Faith that God is calling us to … just a simple one. To remember where we came from and what He has done for us.
The enemy will oppose this. And we must oppose him opposing us.
Deuteronomy 816 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
This is important for all of us. You see, there are many in our society who would oppose the wealthy. This idea is unamerican, and it flies in the face of God. God holds all of us accountable. He tells all of us to come under, and worship, Him alone. And one way we do that is to REMEMBER.
He brought the Hebrew people out of slavery.
He defeated an enemy that wanted to slaughter them.
And He freed them to go to the promised land.
And so it is with you. He has freed you. He has single handedly defeated your enemies. And, as you sit here reading this, He is preparing a place for you.
So when the enemy attacks you and reminds you of your failures, pull out your journal and remind yourself of how many times you have been spared, or forgiven, or rescued, or given something that you did not deserve.
REMEMBER
When you are in a place without hope, ask Him. As the verse above says:
the Lord your God … gives you the ability to produce wealth … which he swore to your ancestors … as it is today.
REMEMBER
And if you are in a place of much, the verse says:
He gave you manna … to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
REMEMBER
We are called to be humble and remember who blessed us and to give God the glory in all things.
The bottom line is this:
He owns the cattle on a thousand hills …
And he has adopted you so that you might inherit the kingdom.
This is wealth that you can not comprehend or fathom.
So raise your hands and praise the Father … who provides for all things!
And as an act of worship:
REMEMBER
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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I can’t stand what we did to ourselves…And I can’t stand what the devil does to us as a result of it.
We sin. And he attacks. He gets us on the ground and he kicks and kicks and kicks until he has us broken and bloody.
Romans 3:23 says that we all fall short of the glory of God. And with that falling short, we exist in a broken world. That will never change. And there is nothing that we can do about it.
I am glad that is not the end of the story.
Since we were sitting ducks for hell and all of the things that go with it, God made a decision.
He sent Jesus.
And Jesus came as a Lamb so that He could come back as a Lion.
Romans 515 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
Romans 837 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
His grace is enough. It is enough to bind the enemy’s plan, it is enough to overcome our sin, and it is enough to raise us from the dead. And we can be assured that this Jesus … this Lamb of God … is also the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. And we, are More Than Conquerors.
He is the Holy One.
And He is coming to rescue His bride and bring justice for those who were pushed into the pit.
These are not just words in a book … They are the hope of ages.
They are not unattainable wishes … We HOLD these promises.
We are not the victims … We are More Than Conquerors.
So do what you have to do.
Cry.
Mourn.
Sit in sadness.
But get up.
And when you get up … throw haymakers. Swing for the knockout and go for blood. You are not called to lay on the ground and take a beating.
You are called to get up and fight.
And FIGHT you will … because Jesus took on the gates of hell so that you could be free.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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In my world, navigating my spiritual life sometimes feels like a Roller Coaster. I go from the mountaintop to the valley back to the mountaintop.
As I sat in prayer, my thought was: Doug, Stay In Your Lane
For me, staying in your lane involves three things:
Pliability
Hope
Dwelling
Pliability is allowing Jesus to change your heart daily. It means that we are willing to adjust and repent, that we are willing to never use the excuse “that’s just who I am” as we navigate life’s challenges. As we get older, we lose our flexibility. This is not just physically, it is in life. We want things to be exactly the way that we see them to be. God wants us to pick up our cross daily. As I used to tell my children: “God loves you too much to allow you to do that.” Amen.
John 56 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
My prayer today is: “Come and know me, Father. Find every offensive way in me. Mold my heart to follow You.”
Hope is constantly opposing the enemy’s plan to tell us we have nothing in our future. In Jesus, we have an eternal future with nothing but good.
Matthew 724 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
As we navigate life, we have everlasting hope. The problems here will not exist in the Kingdom. I am constantly taken aback by Dan Piper’s testimony in 90 minutes in heaven. His desire to be dead far outweighed seeing his wife and kids here on earth. The bottom line is simple: God has prepared a place for us. And we have no comprehension of how great it will be.
Dwelling in the future will be incredible. Dwelling in the house of the Lord starts today. Our energy, our commitment, our pursuit of being with Him will change our today drastically. It will define our day in a way that truly matters.
Psalm 235 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
As we walk into the business of the day, we must not let go of our invitation to Dwell in the presence of the Almighty God. He is the only thing that makes the day worth living, the only real meaning, and the only one who will give us hope. In Him, we have meaning and purpose and fulfillment. Without Him, we have nothing.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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2 MINUTE WARNING 