In Pursuit! Interval 1 Mile 1

In Pursuit!

We live in a world of “immediacy” – instant messages, spontaneous purchases with overnight shipping, instant access to information from all over the world, even instant access to the Word through our iPads and phones.  We don’t even have to know where the books of the Bible are any more – technology will do the thinking for us.  But how has that affected our relationship with the One that has created all things?

For many of us it has become difficult to slow down enough to truly live the life to which He has called us.  How do we pursue Him instead of life (and allow Him to pursue us)?  More importantly how do we operate in the full power He has given to us?

In the weeks ahead we will be exploring that very challenge.  Through the Word of God and with assistance from some excellent guides along the way, we are going on a journey……..

·         Of Walking with God  (John Eldredge)

·         Of Practicing His Presence  (from The Lost Art of Practicing His Presence  James W. Goll)

·         Of being Awakened by the Spirit (Ron M. Phillips)

·         Of advancing into a life of miracles When Heaven Invades Earth (Bill Johnson)

      I encourage you to check in with us weekly as I post the next leg of our journey.  The various progressions will be marked as Interval 1(or 2-4) and then Mile 1 (to whatever!)  As Holy Spirit has been downloading this study, it has been fascinating to observe the absolute relevance to the struggles so many of my brothers and sisters in Christ are experiencing.   

      We will begin our journey this week with a series of questions and thoughts to assist you in determining your starting point.  Where are you now in your pursuit of intimacy with Him?  Without that information, it will be difficult to gauge your progress along the paths He is laying out for us. So let us begin....

      Interval  1 – Mile 1

     Does God still speak?

    Questions to be answered:  How does He speak to you?  How do you know it is His voice?

·         We are created for intimacy  Psalm 139:1-18

o   Identify additional scriptures that speak of His intimacy with us

·         Intimacy requires communication  Genesis 1:26-27; 3:8-9

o   Identify additional scriptures that speak of the importance of communication in intimacy

  Communication with God is throughout the Bible  - what are your favorite encounters?     Example: Hagar meets God in the desert Genesis 16:1-15

o   Identify your favorite encounters in scripture

 We are meant to listen – to hear direction – Holy Spirit is our counselor, guide, comforter.  What do those titles tell us about listening?

Being whole and being holy – how are they related?

·       What does wholeness have to do with our walk with God?  Hebrews 10:14; 2 Peter 1:3

o   Identify additional scriptures that speak of our wholeness in Him

 What does holiness have to do with our walk with God? Romans 6:4; Philippians 1:6

o   Identify additional scriptures that speak of His intimacy with us

·        What is the relationship between healing and the ability to walk in and with holiness?       

         Hebrews 13:3-17

o   Identify additional scriptures that speak of His intimacy with us

 Questions to be answered: 

                       o   How do I view my “wholeness” versus what the Word tells us?

                       o   What change can I make in my daily routine today that will help me walk in holiness?

       My prayer for you is that these questions will stir a desire in you to know Him more and to  pursue Him relentlessly!  

     Until next week,

        Blessings!

I 

What's Your Egypt?

If you have had an opportunity to study Old Testament, you understand the trials Moses encountered in trying to lead God's Chosen People out of Egypt and through the wilderness.  Consistently Moses faced a rebellious people who failed to remember with clarity what their bondage in Egypt was truly like.  Rebellion would be answered by the Lord with visible consequences.  Multiple times Moses interceded with pleading for the Lord to restrain from destroying the rebellious and the Lord answered Moses' prayers.  Recognizing that there is purpose in every word that is recorded in Scripture, we need to grasp why the Lord gave us such a detailed record of rebellion in the face of His favor and blessing.  We all encounter seasons of our life when we look back to our Egypts instead of ahead to what the Lord has waiting for us.

Numbers 16:12-14  Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they replied, "We refuse to come!  Isn't it enough that you brought us out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us here in this wilderness, and that you now treat us like your subjects? What's more, you haven't brought us into the land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Are you trying to fool us? We will not come."  These three verses are packed with truth that we need to understand.  First we need to remember that at this stage, the Lord is not speaking directly to the tribes of Israel.  He is using Moses as His representative.  He has demonstrated multiple times that Moses hears Him and He is faithful to fulfill that which He communicates to Moses.  But the people refuse to obey the instructions given to them through Moses.  Rebellion.  

Second they describe Egypt as a land flowing with milk and honey.  Really?  We do not have to go back very far in scripture to read about the horrendous treatment they received as slaves to the Egyptians.  Exodus 1:13-14 The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.  Exodus 2:23  After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God.  Something does not connect here.  If they were so happy, so fulfilled in this land of milk and honey, why did they groan and cry out?  Forget the additional fact that their sons were all being murdered upon birth.  Why would they even consider going back to that, nevertheless cry out to return to slavery when they had received freedom?

Let me pause here for a moment before moving on.  There is so much here for us to learn.  Most of us have been held in spiritual captivity before accepting the freedom offered to us through the blood of Jesus.  However many of us continue to battle with captivity issues even after accepting Jesus' offer of salvation.  Battling the bondage is a daily part of our walk because we live in an atmosphere of spiritual warfare in which our enemy has one goal - to stop us from operating in the freedom which is ours.  The master of liars speaks lies into our lives convincing us that we need to go back to our Egypts.  The distortion of what that was really like is a strategic weapon that he utilizes.  

So why in the world would anyone consider returning to slavery once they have experienced freedom?  Fear of the unknown.  Fear growing from being unable to see the future that God has prepared for us.  Fear rooted in the wounds of our past and the lies with which we have lived all of our lives.  Why would we experience this fear?  Verse 14  What's more, you haven't brought us into the land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards.  While we are in this transition or this journey to our God given land of milk and honey, we are required to operate in faith.  2 Corinthians 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.  The promises of the Lord are true and steadfast, yet we often have to walk in faith for a season before we begin to see the manifestation of those promises.  Just because we have yet to see them, does that mean that they are not going to happen?  Absolutely not.  We just have to KEEP WALKING in order to walk into them.

To return to our Egypts, we must turn away from the direction God has destined for us.  We must turn away from God Himself and His promises.  What was that I heard you say?  "But you don't understand.  Egypt is what I know and there I know how to operate.  I know what is expected of me.  No matter how bad it may have been, at least I know it.  I am comfortable there."  Comfortable in slavery?  Comfortable in turning your back on God and all that He has offered to you?  God has His arms outstretched in front of you, urging you to walk forward.  Urging you to trust Him and believe the future and hope for you.  Jeremiah 29:11-14 11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.  When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes.   

My brothers and sisters, life is a journey for all of us.  Many of us have taken detours that were not God's best for us, but He is faithful to continue to pursue us, to guide us, to urge us to come to Him.  He delights when we persevere and move towards the milk and honey that He has set aside for us.  We must be patient and wait on Him and His timing.  The one thing that we must not do is turn away and return to Egypt.  We have free will and He will not stop us from making that decision.  But rest assured that He will never give up on us even when we give up on ourselves.  Hang in there, please, and don't delay in running to Him and embracing whatever He has for you. 

Brokenness to Beauty

When reading the Bible many of us reach the various genealogies and decide to skip over them.  After all we cannot pronounce most of the names (talk about embarrassment when you have to read aloud in a group!) and we really don't have a clue who these various folks are.  Yet when we study the genealogies there is much to learn.  God is intentional about every word that is in the Word, so surely He has something for us in that long list.  Recently I was reading Matthew and as most of you know, it begins with the genealogy of Jesus our Savior.  What little nuggets does God have for us in this line?  Actually, there are multiple nuggets, but today I want to focus on only one aspect.  How God used broken people, especially women, to advance His plan and His purpose.  

I will save you reading through the text here, but if you want a refresher, click on this link Matthew 1.   In the fourth generation from Abraham, we have our first departure from the ordinary.  This is Tamar.  If you are unfamiliar with Tamar's story it can be found in Genesis 38.  Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law and had been deceived by Judah, when following Levitical law, she should have been given in marriage to Judah's third son upon the death of her first husband, his eldest son and then her second husband, Judah's middle son, but she was not.  Understanding the importance of her role in advancing the line of Judah, she ended up presenting herself to Judah as a prostitute.  She conceived and then when facts came to light, Judah himself proclaimed that Tamar  "is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again.  Verse 26.

Tamar was rejected by her second husband who spilled his seed on the ground preventing her from becoming pregnant.  She was rejected by her father-in-law and his third son when a marriage was not arranged according to law.  As a widow she was rejected by society in general, a characteristic of society at that time.   She had been sent back to live with her family in disgrace.  But God.....  God knew the plans and purpose He had for Tamar and that she was a critical link in the chain that would lead to Jesus' birth.  She may not have felt significant at that moment in time when she gave birth to the twins Perez and Zerah.  There is another story there with Perez pushing ahead of his twin, but that is for another time.  We continue the genealogy through Perez the fifth generation.

With the tenth generation we come upon Salmon, son of Nashon, who was both a prince and captain of the tribe.  Salmon married Rahab, the prostitute turned proselyte who aided Joshua by hiding his spies from the king's men.  As a reward, Rahab and her family were given protection as well as a secured future within the nation of Israel.  The Lord once again used the brokenness of a women's life to insure the future line of the Messiah.  When Rahab turned to the Lord and offered protection to His men, the Lord honored her by promoting her to a position of acceptability with a future.  Rahab gave birth to Boaz, a name with which most of us are very familiar.

Imagine the upbringing of Boaz.  We know from our study of Ruth that Boaz was a tremendously respected man of honor in Bethlehem.   Just imagine the passion with which his mother shared with him the magnificent majesty of Jehovah the Lord who had delivered her from bondage.   It is no surprise that Boaz would through his own life respect and honor the passion for the Lord of Ruth, another proselyte.

Ruth, another very broken individual, was from Moab.  Disgraced in the eyes of society because she was not only a widow but a childless one as well.  She was not an Israelite.  Her deceased husband had married outside of the tribes of Israel.  She abandoned her own culture and family to follow Naomi and care for her, loving her as her own mother.  She arrived in Bethlehem as a true outsider, yet God rescued her and once again used a broken vessel to continue to the line of the Messiah.

Speaking of brokenness ponder the case of Bathsheba.  Essentially King David kidnapped her and raped her.  When the king's men come to your home and command you to appear before the king and he then has intimate relations with you, I believe it is fair to say you would not be a willing partner.  How do you say no to a king?  Then you find yourself pregnant and you have not been with your husband.  To top it all off, the king has your husband killed so that you can be his and he won't have to deal with a righteous husband (which clearly Uriah was).  Broken life?  Most definitely.  Yet in spite of David's sin, and the subsequent death of that child, Solomon was born who had the ultimate opportunity to project the epitome of God's extravagance.  The line to the Messiah continues.

The generations continue until we reach Joseph, fiance of Mary.  Once gain, God used a situation that society rejected completely as unacceptable.  Mary (who was also from the line of King David through his son Nathan) was chosen by the Lord to conceive through Holy Spirit.  However from the perspective of those living in the villages surrounding Mary's and Joseph's, she was a harlot who had been unfaithful to Joseph her contractual fiance.  Have you ever wondered why God did not wait until they were married or almost about to consummate the marriage?  Mary could have still been a technical virgin and society would have been none the wiser.  Jesus could have grown up without the stigma that He did.  Yet that was not the path that God chose.  Consider Philippians 2:6-8 Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross.  Is there anything more humbling than being born an illegitimate child?    Consider at the same time Mary's emotional and social status.  Wouldn't you have felt broken in spite of knowing what had been revealed to you about the child in your womb?  Agony and ecstasy perhaps?

So often when we encounter the difficult times of our lives, when we come face to face with our brokenness, we feel dejected and depressed and question how can God possibly use someone as messed up and broken as me.  The answer lies in part in the stories of these wonderful women who in spite of how society looked at them and how they felt inside, submitted themselves in trust to the Lord.  We must with trusting eyes gaze upon our loving Lord and say, "Use me, Lord, however You can and however You desire that I may advance Your kingdom.  Use me, Lord, just as I am."