THE PLACE OF PREPARATION

One of the heroes of faith in my life is the prophet Elijah.  Over the course of the next few weeks we’ll be looking at some of the high-points of Elijah’s experience and learn how those same parts of his journey from so far in the past can instruct us in our life journey today.

Today we look at how God called Elijah aside to prepare him for the purpose God had ordained him as a prophet.

1 Kings 17:1-9
¹ Now Elijah the Tishbite, from the Gilead settlers, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, I stand before Him, and there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command!”
² Then a revelation from the Lord came to him: ³ “Leave here, turn eastward, and hide yourself at the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. ⁴ You are to drink from the wadi. I HAVE COMMANDED the ravens to provide for you there.”
⁵ So HE DID WHAT THE LORD COMMANDED. Elijah left and lived by the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. ⁶ THE RAVENS KEPT BRINGING HIM BREAD AND MEAT IN THE MORNING AND IN THE EVENING, AND HE DRANK FROM THE WADI.
⁷ After a while, the wadi dried up because there had been no rain in the land. ⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹ “Get up, go to Zarephath that belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Look, I HAVE COMMANDED a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.”

Elijah, by the power of God declares that there would be no rain until he spoke and caused it to come.  This is a judgment on Ahab, the wicked king, for turning his back on the Lord and leading the nation into sin.  Shortly after this the word of God came to Elijah and called him off to a remote place.  The following is an outline of the lesson learned by that brook in the wilderness.

I. God’s Recognized Plan (1-3)

* ‘hide’ not hide in fear but rather be alone.

Consider: God’s command to “hide yourself” would bring a second drought to the people, a drought of God’s word and work among the people. Their disobedience had brought this judgment. Oh, how difficult the days when there is no Word from the Lord.

Cross Reference:

Amos 8:11-12
¹¹ “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. ¹² And people will stagger from sea to sea, And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it.”

Psalm 74:9
⁹ We do not see our signs; There is no longer any prophet, Nor is there any among us who knows how long.

* God’s plan is that we must be prepared for ministry by

spending time alone with Him.

II. God’s Restricted Promise (4)

• ‘there’ is the key.
• Are you where God has called you to be?
• Are you THERE?

We all have a “there” in our live.  The most important thing we can know is that we are “there” in the “there” God has for us.

III. God’s Required Prerequisite (5)

• Elijah was obedient.
• God will only bless us in obedience.

IV. God’s Released Provision (6)

• *God is Faithful when we:
• 1. Spend time alone with Him in prayer.
• 2. Are in His will. (We are there.)
• 3. We are obedient to Him.

V. God’s Revealed Purpose (7)

• Why does God allow the brook to dry up?
• To teach us to trust not in His gifts, but in HIM! (8-9)

Take This Home With You:

• God has a Specific and Personal Plan for you that Includes Place, Provision, and Purpose.
• It is your responsibility to seek God’s will and plan for your life and to be obedient when you find it.
• The time may come when the Lord moves you on to something new. Trust God and follow.

Coming Up:

Next week we’ll pick up the story from here and…well, let me just say that you don’t want to miss the lesson from Elijah’s experience next Sunday because it’s a lesson that will encourage and equip us for some of the “drought seasons” we all face through life.

How do I even start to tell about what God did in my world this evening?  I started off before our youth group meeting feeling a mix of excitement and disappointment—an odd combination to be sure.  I was excited because I love seeing the kids come out on Friday nights to the youth group and studying the Bible and connecting with each other.  I was also disappointed for a variety of reasons, all of which link back to the symptomatic smallness of my faith.

• Financial resources we need but don’t have
• People not committing and serving when it’s so needed in our community
• Kids who had just let me know they weren’t coming tonight

So, I was feeling a little low and talking my concerns over with Andie, Pat, and Heather before the start of youth group.  No one gave any answers or berated me for feeling the way I did, just silently listened and silently prayed.  I know they prayed because unknown to me at the time within the next fifteen minutes God was going to show up and show off in a dramatic and affirming way.

One of the big concerns that I had shared with them was that I didn’t know how we were going to rent the theater as we had hoped to for our Easter Sunday service, or if we even should be trying to do that because the commitment has been so slim among our little congregation. 

LESS THAN FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER I WAS HOLDING A TOTALLY UNEXPECTED CHECK TO PAY THE FULL AMOUNT OF THE RENT FOR THE THEATER!!! 

In addition there was a commitment of help in the process as well. 

As I had wondered if we would have more than one or two students join us for youth tonight with the number of kids who had messaged me that they were going to be involved elsewhere tonight.  By the time they all arrived we had 11 youth and four adults present for the evening!  We missed a number of the kids who had been coming, but we had two new faces, and before we concluded for the night one young lady had believed in Jesus and become a Christian!! 

We have been tired, burdened, ill, frustrated, discouraged, and more….but God showed up tonight to remind us that we CAN TRUST HIM and did things in our midst this evening to affirm that we CAN TOTALLY BELIEVE HIM. 

Sometimes when God shows up in the midst of our life circumstances He does that to show off, and I am so glad that He did that tonight. 

It’s been a long week, but if all that I have faced in the course of this week was to lead me to this point I count it all worth it.

James 1:2-4
² Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
⁴ And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Blessings!

Pastor Dave

Have you ever done something and you just got mad at yourself for it?  This morning I slipped on the ice heading to work at the middle school…again.  See, I had done the exact same thing at a slightly different location yesterday on my way down the hill. 

Besides the obvious pain from the fall…now I am bruised on both knees, my elbow, and my hand…it was a serious blow to my confidence and pride this morning.  I tried really hard this morning to walk upright and stay that way because I don’t enjoy falling.  I had made it all winter without falling and was feeling pretty good before my slide yesterday.  Today I passed the spot of my fall yesterday and felt a sense of relief.  I was actually proud that I had made it without falling today.  About twenty feet later my pride in my accomplishment disintegrated.  Lightly glazed across the road was an ultra thin sheet of ice that was barely visible—until I got an up close look at it from the ground.  In a nanosecond I hit the ground on my knee and elbow, winding up partially into the road.  Fortunately there was no one there to run me over (or see me fall).

So, why talk about it now?  I have some thoughts that came from it—big surprise I know—that I think might connect to things in life for most of us.

The Personal Experience

First – Falling can Happen With Little to no Warning

On both of these days things seemed clear and safe.  Actually, in yesterday’s case I was feeling pretty good.  I love working with the kids at the middle school and I like the brief walk from my apartment to the school.  In addition it was a gorgeous—albeit chilly—morning.  When I hit the ground yesterday I had no idea it was coming.  My left foot slipped quickly and I went down fast and hard on my right knee (which has been in pain for other reasons since October) and dropped my lunch which scattered into the road and down into the ditch.  As I knelt there in pain I was stunned by how unexpected and swiftly everything had happened.  Sometimes we fall without any warning.

Second – The Things that Cause us to Fall aren’t Always Apparent

The science of what had happened is obvious, and thinking back over it I should have been aware of the potential danger.  The warm days and evening have lead to slow melt of the snow and ice that remains.  Over night these tiny flows have refrozen leaving thin sheet of what is commonly known as black ice in places.  Unlike stepping onto a frozen puddle or pond where I would have been aware of the ice, in this case it was practically invisible, but no less slick.  Sometimes the things that cause us to fall aren’t seen.

Third – When We Fall there is Often a Cost that Follows

Fortunately the costs I faced in these falls was relatively small—unless I have some lasting damage in my body.  It cost me an orange that rolled down into the ditch.  It cost me some pain in my physical body.  It may have cost me my favorite pair of pants which now have tiny holes in the knees that I fear will eventually become bigger holes.  However, I’m also keenly aware that these costs could have been so much greater because in both instances I ended up partially into the traffic path of Fairground Rd. which is terribly dangerous.  Sometimes there is a cost involved when we fall.

Fourth – When We Fall there is a Need to Get Back Up and Go On

Obviously I didn’t just lay down in the road and stay there.  That would have been stupid and dangerous.  When we fall we have to get up.  As Frank Sinatra might have told us musically:

Now nothing’s impossible, I’ve found for when my chin is on the ground,
I pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again.
Don’t lose your confidence if you slip, be grateful for a pleasant trip,
And pick yourself up, dust off, start over again.

Life isn’t over just because we fell, and we’re not done just for stumbling.  It might be hard—I’ve noticed that it gets harder to get up as the years pass.  When I used to be able to bounce right back, now I find I need to take an inventory in the process.  When you fall get back up and press on.

The Spiritual Application

As you know I’m a pastor and teacher so I try to find lessons in everything I can, and this is no exception.  Besides the lesson of looking a little more closely at the path before me as I walk and paying closer attention to the presence of ice and snow, there are some relative lessons that may aid us through life.

Falling isn’t Final

This is a great hope and good news for me.  I proudly declare that—before this episode—I had not fallen all winter.  However, on a daily basis I miss the mark in my life and fall in other ways.  It would be tragic if I chose to let these daily falls finish me.  By faith I have found forgiveness and strength in the midst of these daily tumbles.  The term sin isn’t a popular idea, but it is a real part of our experience as humans.  The Bible—which is like a Text Message from God for our daily lives—gives us some pretty clear insight on this.  Consider:

Romans 3:23 ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

However, though I fall it doesn’t have to be final:

Micah 7:7-8 ⁷ But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. ⁸ Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the LORD is a light for me.

The difference is the foundation of faith in God.  That leads to the second SPiritual truth I thought of today:

We All Need Help to Get Back Up

The fall yesterday and this morning were painful and hard, but the hardest part was getting back up because I was on unstable ground.  I had to get up very carefully.  Gratefully, I was able to get up.  The spiritual fall is different.  We can’t, nor are we expected to, get up on our own.  That’s why we have Jesus and the availability of the faith relationship.  He came so that He could convert the fallen—all of us.  The passage I referenced earlier (Romans 3.23) is followed by these verses:

Romans 3:24-26
²⁴ being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; ²⁵ whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
²⁶ for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Last weekend I had the chance to see my niece playing hockey.  It was fun, and one of the best things and most entertaining parts of the game for me was watching these girls fall and slide on the ice.  At one point Skylar went down and slid into the wall with a loud thud.  I was concerned for a moment and then I was amazed.  Like nothing had happened she leapt back to her feet and kept on skating.  In skates, covered with pads, and on this really slick rink, these girls bounced right back up every time they went down.  I learned later that they actually practice how to fall and get right back up.  Pretty impressive, but not at all a picture of the condition of man-kind.

Jesus came and bore the penalty for our sin because it was truly the only way we could ever have hope.  There was no way we could get up on our own, no matter how much effort or practice we put into it.  We can not bounce right back up from that sin fall.  We need a Savior.

Concluding Thoughts

I know, it’s a lot to pull from a couple of slips on the ice, but I hope that what I have shared here from those experiences reveals something about you, and most importantly your need for a relationship by faith with the God of creation.  He invites you daily to that connection with Him.  What will you do with that invitation?

Oh, and watch where you are walking…it’s dangerous out there!

A Lesson from the Wee Hours of the Night

The lesson at our youth group (Rebels of Faith) “sleep over” was on Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Feast.  It is a familiar story, which can be a problem because sometimes when we become familiar with something we lose sight of the significance of it.  So, watching the lesson and thinking about how to help the kids relate to it was helpful in that it forced me to keep it fresh. 

Matthew 22:2-14
² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent out his slaves to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come.

⁴ Again, he sent out other slaves, and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet. ’ ⁵ “But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business. ⁶ And the others seized his slaves, treated them outrageously and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged, so he sent out his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned down their city.

⁸ “Then he told his slaves, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ⁹ Therefore, go to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ ¹⁰ So those slaves went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests.
¹¹ But when the king came in to view the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. ¹² So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. ¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

WHAT IF NO ONE COMES?

There are a lot of ways to approach this text, but tonight (and this morning) I’ve been focusing on what it would be like to put together something as significant as a wedding celebration—all the cost and effort involved in that—and have no one care enough to attend.  It would leave the bride and groom devastated.  I have been to weddings that were sparsely attended for one reason or another.  Sometimes that’s part of the plan, but other times circumstances have interfered and though many invitations were sent few were able (or willing) to attend.

As disappointed and hurt as a couple might be in that circumstance, I can’t imagine the heart-break that God feels on a daily basis as those He has invited to enter into a relationship with Him repeatedly turn their backs on Him and reject His invitation.  That’s the story in this parable.  God has made the invitation to all human-kind, but so few have been willing to respond. 

The reasons might be many, and some might even start to sound sensible or practical, but all ring somewhat hollow when measured against the depth and bredth of the love of God that prompts the invite.

• For some they might think it is inconvenient
• For others they might consider themselves too busy
• Others might be concerned that too many things would change
• Some might be reluctant to accept or believe all the claims of Christ

Everything is Taken Care Of

The other truth that contrasts these responses is that God has done everything needed to make our attendance at His celebration possible.  All we need to do is RSVP.  Did you catch that…Everything is taken care of!  If we are willing to come He is ready to receive.  I love going on trips or two events where everything is taken care of for us.  It’s incredibly relaxing to leave everything in someone else’s capable hands.  This is the scope of God’s invitation.  All the details are handled by Him.

Variety of Lessons

There are, as I mentioned, a number of different lessons you can pull from this passage of Scripture.  What do you see there?  What things stand out to you?  Most importantly, do you see the impact God’s love and grace can have if we respond to His invitation?

Blessings,

Dave “Big D” Bentley

An excellent article I read this morning that falls right in line with the things the Lord has been doing in my life and teaching me.

Blessings!

Preparatory Faith – Life Action Revival Ministries.

It probably won’t shock anyone when I confess that I’m not very good at dieting. But, it’s not for the reason that you might think. I’m generally not an “over-eater” as that might be defined. In fact, I have the opposite problem. Most days I don’t eat enough. That, I have learned, can be as detrimental to the effort to lose weight as over eating might be. I don’t understand all the science of it, but essentially I have fooled my body into thinking that I am starving, and that leads the body to begin storing fat and slowing down the process of metabolizing the food I consume. Who knew?

The remedy for this is to eat properly. It’s really taking a lot of discipline for me to do that. Getting up and actually eating breakfast everyday is not “normal” for me, but I recognize that it is necessary.

Here’s my question for you: “Are you getting the RIGHT spiritual nutrition?” Much like I was inadvertently starving my body, if we aren’t regularly and vitally connected with God through reading and studying His Word, the Bible, we can starve our spirit. If we aren’t feeding our spirit we won’t have the strength and stamina we need when the trials and battles of life come.

Consider this passage from Psalm 119:

⁹⁷ How I love Your teaching! It is my meditation all day long.  ⁹⁸ Your command makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me.
⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers because Your decrees are my meditation. ¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the elders because I obey Your precepts. ¹⁰¹ I have kept my feet from every evil path to follow Your word.
¹⁰² I have not turned from Your judgments, for You Yourself have instructed me. ¹⁰³ How sweet Your word is to my taste— sweeter than honey to my mouth. ¹⁰⁴ I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every false way.   [HCSB]

So, I invite you to eat regularly at the table of God’s Word. Get engaged and study His Word. We would love to have you join us Wednesday night as Andie is teaching an excellent Bible Study on living the adventure of Faith in God. We meet at 7:00 in our apartment.  If you need more info. drop me a line or give me a call. 

Is that the dinner bell I hear?

I’ve been thinking a bit about ol’ Job.  One moment everything was going well and, like the beer commercials I’ve seen in years past, he might have thought “it doesn’t get any better than this.”  Then, without any warning or explanation, he loses everything.  Family…assets…eventually even his own health and comfort.  All gone in a flash.

After the storm of such tragic loss and sorrow we find Job sitting on a pile of ashes scratching at the sores of his flesh with a broken piece of pottery. (Job 2.8)  Even his wife pushes Job to lash out at God and simply die.  If every there was a person who knew what it was to suffer loss it was this man.  If ever there was a man who know how to endure loss it was Job.  One of those verses that could be the testimony of Job’s life during this experience is this: Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.  (2.10b)

Job wasn’t “cut from a different cloth” than I am.  He felt pain…hurt…sorrow…and grief as I do.  I have certainly never experienced the sort of losses over the course of my whole life that this man did in mere hours.  However, the contrast is stark.  Job sat in that pile of ashes, covered with sores, having lost everything, and listening to his beloved wife tell him that he would be better off without God and dead.  In all of this Job didn’t sin.  He didn’t lash out at God.  Yes, in the next chapter we’ll hear some of Job’s sorrow spill out as he questions why he was born and regrets that he’s walking in the shadow of suffering.  But, he doesn’t lash out at God…and more importantly he doesn’t give up on God.  Hear these words he spoke a little later:

Job 19:25 “And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.” (NASB)

How humbling it is for me, because—sadly—it really takes so little at times for me to get discouraged, despondent, and depressed.  How swiftly at times I find my faith failing and I begin flailing about like a child in deep water crying out for rescue.  I enter into “Crisis Mode” with so little stimulus.  I wait with dread for the proverbial “next shoe” to drop.

• Loss of a job – CRISIS
• Bounce a Check – CRISIS
• Car Breaks Down – CRISIS
• Milk spoils – CRISIS

 

Now, honestly, at times I can weather things in my life like a champ, walking with God and trusting in Him completely.  Then there are times that the smallest thing will drive me to panic.  Since I don’t believe that God is any less powerful or present then He ever has been, the change has to be somewhere in me.  I think I have found what makes the difference in my reactions and experiences.  It’s about the preparation time before the storm hits.

• I need to spend time in prayer
• I need to spend time in the Bible
• I need to spend time in worship
• I need to spend time in meditation
• I need to spend time in fellowship

I NEED TO SPEND TIME WITH GOD.

See, what I have discovered is that preceding those times of uncontrolled panic in my life I have usually been neglecting my spiritual needs.  When I do not feed the spiritual aspect of my life the “non-spiritual” part of me can exert greater control on my feelings and actions.  This is not a cure-all for loss—they will still come into my life.  But I can be better prepared to deal with them if I don’t neglect this crucial part of who I am as God’s child.

If you need a clear picture of this, consider this very moving picture of Jesus in the garden.  It’s been captured in so many way by artists through the centuries.  The reason it is so captivating, I believe, is that it shows us the need that our Lord felt before the “crisis of the cross” to be prepared by spending time in prayer with the Father. 

If Jesus needed this time of preparation how could I ever think that I could do it myself?

I know that I will experience loss in my life.  I don’t like it, but it’s a reality of living here.  One day the Lord will welcome me home and there will be no more loss.  In the mean time I hope in Him, and that He will provide me with what I need to face and endure the losses of life.

Praying this helps you as you face difficulty and loss as well.  Look to Him.

 

It Happens

Loss, as stated before, happens in all of our lives.  A few years ago someone said that because I was encountering losses in my life I must not be spiritual enough or doing what God wanted.  I have to admit that blow really hurt.  It came at a very vulnerable place in my life when I had been going through a number of losses, and for weeks I struggled over that.  Could these painful and significant losses be a sign that I was not who or where God intended?  My faith was really rocked and I was on the verge of giving up. 

A deeper look at the Bible though, and the experiences of loss among the saints of old restored my faith and enabled me to have a different perspective on loss.  Most of the followers of Christ encountered loss.  The Old Testament heroes encountered loss.  Sometimes it was because of choices and actions they made.  Other times these losses occurred because of the course of the world we live in.  I realized that, even though the losses were hard and painful they were in fact a part of life.  I could let them rob me of joy, or I could seek to learn and grow through them.  I pray for the strength to choose the later.

Some Losses We Can’t Forget

The Loss of Death

As I have been looking and evaluating specific losses in my life I have experienced both a sense of nostalgia and at times a sting of pain.  It’s interesting the losses that I can remember so vividly from early on.  For example, death is a significant loss, and it has touched my life in a variety of ways.  I very vividly remember one of those childhood encounters with death as I watched my puppy, Pokey, hit and killed by one of our neighbors.  We had already had relatives die, and I know we had other pets that had gone to the great bone yard in the sky, but this death really impacted me.  It effected me so much so that now, some thirty years plus later, I can still recall it clearly. 

Death of loved ones brings loss.  It’s a hard thing to endure, but I have come to discover that these feelings and this loss are proof of our ability to love and be loved.  They are evidence of our connections with others, people and pets alike.  When you feel this loss through the death of a loved one, grieve, mourn, hurt, and don’t be afraid of these feelings, for they are the proof of love and the proof of life.

The Loss of Innocence

I would not have considered myself naïve or unaware of situations in the world around me, but I remember, again like it was yesterday, the moment that the darkness of lust and sin and adultery really slapped me in the face.  I was working with a small company of people that I had come to really like.  We spent a lot of time together and for a while we were pretty successful.  I was selling sweepers throughout Vermont and the surrounding states, and was doing fairly well with it.  Then one night I came back to the office to find the husband of one of our friends entangled with the secretary.  It crushed me.  Within in moments I discovered the owner of the company was having a fling with the wife of one of the other salesmen.  I left that night bewildered.  For these people it all seemed so nonchalant, but at home there were spouses who were totally unaware and I knew would be left devastated by this. 

I left the company that night and sought a new line of work.  But the greatest loss was not the job or the friends, the greatest loss was the sense that something inside of me, a sort of idealism I guess, was gone.  I knew that things like this happened, and not just on the soaps or in the movies, but it had never been as real to me as it was then.  In the wake of this loss of innocence I found cynicism and skepticism and a feeling of distrust that threatened to consume me. 

Forgetting is not Necessarily Healing

Forgetting is not healing.  People have told me that until I don’t remember pain of the past I won’t be healed.  I don’t believe that is accurate.  I do believe that if I am “consumed” by the pain of the past it is a sign that I’m not healthy, but not simply the remembering of the pain.  It’s part of who we are, and it’s among the things that help us grow and develop, even into the people God intends for us to be.  So, remember with respect and reverence the losses of our life, and seek God in the midst of those losses.  Perhaps we might even be able to bring some of the comfort of God we experience into the lives of those around us who need it.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. ⁴ He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

More to come.

Big D

Introduction

In the year 1620, how could 120 pilgrims safely sail to the New World? The answer lay in the belly of the Mayflower. In its hold there was a room full of oak barrels that had been filled with drinking water, then refilled with sea water.

The weight of these barrels provided the ballast that was essential for stability in the stormy waters of the Atlantic Ocean. There is ballast available for you to help you through the rough seas of the coming year, but it is by your choice that you will utilize it or neglect it. You can be certain that storms will come, the question is will you make the preparations now to be ready to face them when they do come across your horizon?

EARLY WARNING SYSTEM ACTIVATED!

· What storms can you see approaching on the horizon of your life?

· How will you prepare for the storms you see and the ones you can’t see?

Jeremiah 6:16

So now the Lord says, “STOP right where you are! LOOK for the old, godly way, and WALK in it. TRAVEL its path, and you will find REST for your souls. But you REPLY, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’

THE REQUIREMENTS

· Stop – before going too far

o We often see, but keep going

o RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!!

· Look – a path is already cut

o Lit. “Ask, Enquire” (Job 8.8; Dt. 32.7)

§ Father, Elders, Previous Generation

o The Path is Old – Established

§ We might walk a little different, but the path we travel remains the same.

o The Path is Godly – Holy

· Walk – move ahead on it

o We need to make a response

· Travel – Journey

o Implies a Length of time

o Implies a Distance of Travel

THE REWARD

· Rest – Rest area ahead

o A Place/Time of Rest is Coming

THEIR RESPONSE

· Rebellion

· Rejection

THEIR RESULT

· Ruin (see Jeremiah 18.15-16)

Jeremiah 18:15-16
¹⁵ Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to false [idols] that make them stumble in their ways— in the ancient roads— to walk on [new] paths, not the highway.
¹⁶ They have made their land a horror, a perpetual object of scorn; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and shake his head.

It’s Your Choice for 2012…Ballast or Bust

There’s no escaping the irony.  I start this series of BLOG postings on the subject of loss…I have a great conversation with a new believer last night about losses in life…and this morning my car leaves us stranded along side the road.  (sigh)

Couldn’t you just picture me pulling my hair out.  Believe me I wanted to…but… (For those reading this who don’t know me I am bald-so this is where you would chuckle at that thought.)  I’m not immune to discouragement, and honestly felt and feel a little discouraged and worried about what is broken and how we will pay for this.  However, let me tell you where my primary focus has been. 

On the Bright Side

I know, sometimes you just want to deck the people who always seem to be “looking on the bright side.”  However, I can see so much of the “bright side” this morning that it is inescapable how even in the midst of this trial and trouble God is taking care of us.  I don’t know a lot of things (what exactly is wrong, how we’ll afford the repair, what we’ll do for transportation, etc) but what I do know is that what we are experiencing right not could have been so much harder.  Here is some of the bright side.

First, let me tell you what happened.  We had stopped for a cup of coffee because we woke up later than we had planned and didn’t take the time to make a pot at home.  As we pulled back out onto the highway from the convenience store we heard a couple of loud pops under the hood, and then there was absolutely no steering!  I had no control over the direction the car was going.  in that context these are the “bright side” things I consider:

• We were only going a few miles per hour and not at highway speed.
• We were within a mile from home and not in some deserted place or somewhere between Danielle’s place in New York and home
• The timing of the steering breaking was such that the car simply drifted slightly to the right and we were able to safely pull off the road.
• There were no other cars immediately around us that could have been affected
• I was with Andie and she wasn’t on her own
• Pat was available and able to give Andie a ride home while I waited on the tow.
• A few years ago I signed up with AAA and the tow was free as a result.

Listen, I know that it is really hard to “look on the bright side” when you are going through the trial.  I know that I’m going to have plenty of moments where I wonder, question, doubt, and fret over this.  But, I’m glad that God gives us the possibility and choice—it is a choice—to decide to focus on the “bright side” when we face things like this. 

Here was my moment of real testing and choosing this morning.  After Pat had picked up Andie and I was left there alone to wait for the tow truck I got a special invitation to my very own PITY PARTY.  At that moment I started to slide down the slippery hill of discouragement and despondency.  However, a verse from my Bible memory shot up and landed in the center of my thoughts.  Psalm 43:5 says this:

Why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God.

At that moment I had to choose whether I would be sucked in to the “dark side” or I would focus on the “bright side.”  So I chose the bright side and I’m glad.  Perhaps pausing for just a moment and looking for the “bright side” in some of the struggles you might face could make a real difference for you as well.

Blessings even in the Struggles!

Pastor Dave “Big D” Bentley