He always provides.

    A few weeks ago I finally received the acceptance letter to Fruitland. I was thrilled. I knew I would get in but I was still waiting with only a month to go until classes start. Well, time has been ticking by and everyone keeps asking when I am going to school. My boss wants to know so he can look for a replacement but most were just curious or excited for me. I kept telling them I did not know for sure. I wonder sometimes what would happen if we actually told people what we believed. I have been telling Crystal for weeks that I was going to prepare like I was going and that I felt God would provide in the end. I went out and bought a backpack when they were on sale to hold my books and my computer. I have been trying to slowly pick up jeans and some decent button down shirts so I would have enough clothes to make it through the whole week. I picke3d up spare toiletries and priced out bed sheets as well as planning out the heavier blankets I would need to bring with. I have been crunching down to pay off as much outstanding debt as I can before I go.

    Hal asked me s couple of weeks ago how I was feeling. I told him I felt the kind of anxiousness that a guy feels when he has a vacation road trip planned at the end of the week. You may be all packed and ready to go, have all your sightseeing planned, and have a good stockpile of roadmaps in the car, but the day is Monday and you still have to wait all week for Friday. Well, the waiting is over and Friday is here. I told Crystal that now that I had been accepted, all I needed was the tuition money and a job. I told her that if we got the tuition money I would let God worry about the job as well since He has done all the rest anyway this is His plan. Things were getting close and even my boss was starting to wonder if I was ever going to give notice. Today I received an e-mail from Pastor Bobby. He informed me that someone had come forward and asked volunteered to pay my first quarter tuition. Now to some people this may sound odd. I was thankful and happy, but not at all surprised. Deep down I knew God would move I someone's heart to help us out. I knew that these walls that seem insurmountable to us are just cracks in the sidewalk to God. If it is in His plan He can overcome any odds to accomplish it and will if we ask Him to.

Thank you for guiding my path, Lord. Please help me to never let you down and to lean on your word day and night. Help my family and I learn whatever lessons you long to teach us and give us joy through all our trials.

What do you treasure?

Matthew 6:19-24 (NIV) ¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 
20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 
21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 
23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

 

A couple of weeks ago when Hannah and I were driving home from church she started talking about how she hopes that eventually we can move somewhere and stay for a long time. It breaks my heart sometimes that they have been moved around several times in the last few years. She and I started talking about it and I explained that God has been leading us to a certain place in our lives. He has guided us to be in a position that we will be able to do His will.

There are usually a few things that motivate people to chase after stuff. Some people are always looking for the next greatest thing hoping this will fill their void. I would enjoy having some cool toys. I can picture myself driving around in a four door Jeep Wrangler, a nice boat, and a nice house. Many people chase after that stuff every day. Sometimes it is hard not to focus on them. People spend their live accumulating stuff thinking that it will make their life better or the empty holes in their lives will be filled up. The problem with this view is there's never enough stuff. Has there ever been something you were dying to get? You may have saved for years to get it or begged your parents all year to get it for Christmas. When you get it you are so excited you feel as you if might burst. That feeling will usually last for about a day or so (if you're lucky) and then settle into a mild warm feeling for a few weeks. After that it sort of dissolves and goes away. Sure you may still be glad that you have whatever you wanted, but it's not as important to you as you thought it would be. Pretty soon you're back longing for the next toy.

I can understand the desire to be settled somewhere. Most people want stability in their life. Everyone likes to have something in their lives that does not change. Something we can count on, trust, and lean on. I know a man that used to make almost $840,000 per year. That breaks down to $70,000 per month, $17,500 per week, $2500 per day, or $250 per hour. He had a large brick house, nice cars, lots of computers, TV's, movies, nice furniture, lots of presents at Christmas, etc…. He was able to take his family on expensive vacations and pay for his kid's colleges. He did all this partly because it made him look good in the eyes of the world and partly because he wanted stability for himself and his family. However, he had no relationship with his children. His children had no relationship with him or with God. But isn't that what we are supposed to do according to the world? The world tells us to chase after wealth. It tells us the more we accumulate the more respectable and wise we are. Jesus tells us that we should not work on storing up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. Jesus is telling us that the things of this world are fleeting. They can be here today and gone tomorrow. Nothing in this world lasts forever. I explained to Hannah that there is nothing stabile in this world that we can count on. If we put our hopes in the things of this world we will be severely disappointed. How many people in the last 4-5 years have had a rude awakening? How many people have lost their homes to foreclosures? How many have lost their jobs due to cut backs? How many had cars repossessed because they could not afford the payments? Even in recent events not associated with the economy, haw many homes were destroyed by the fires in California? Anything we think is secure in this world can subject to destruction at any given moment. It can be here today and gone tomorrow.

Jesus does not tell us it's wrong to be well off or even rich. What He teaches us is not to put our faith in them and treasure them. It does not mean having them but treasuring them. Have you ever seen a miser counting his money in an old movie? That is what is meant by treasuring. He has complete faith in his money and an unequaled love for it. Jesus tells us to store up treasures in heaven. If we make the focus of our life or the pursuit of our life to follow after heavenly things we can't go wrong. The treasures we earn by working for our Father in heaven while we are here on earth will never be destroyed. They will not rust. Moths will not eat them. Fire will not burn them down. The economy of heaven will never collapse and the bank of heaven will never foreclose. If we spend our earthly lives serving or Lord in heaven no one will be able to take away our wages and the laborers for His kingdom have never experienced a layoff. I said earlier that there is nothing in this world that we can count on. There is nothing stable in this world.

The only thing we can count on while we are in this world is God. He will never change. His love for us will never change. His promises to us will never change. The man we talked about earlier is now working just to pay his rent; he has no house, and drives an older car he has had for years. But, he now has a relationship with Christ. He now has a relationship with his children. He now knows that pursuing the things of this world are a waste of time. He still is trying to earn a good living, but not to pursue earthly wealth. He now works to further God's kingdom. He would now be more proud to hear his children say they have come to a relationship with Christ than to say they made CEO of a mega corporation. I urge you to make your life's pursuit to follow after the Kingdom of God and to secure a place there. Don't pursue the things of this world. They will not last and they are fleeting. The incredible feeling you will get from feeding a hungry child, providing medical care for the sick, providing an education to a village, or showing love to someone who is lonely will never go away. Step out of your world to serve those around you. When it comes to managing their 401K many people spend hours a week following the stock market to be sure of where to invest their plan for a maximum return. They want to make sure that their stocks won't crash. I have news for them. God's word will never come back void. It is a guaranteed investment every time.

Faith like a Child

As summer time is quickly coming to an end I find myself acutely aware of how soon my school is supposed to start (Still waiting for all the details). I can't stop thinking about all the things we hoped we could get done and all we wanted to save up this summer. Crystal and I keep talking about it and sometimes I feel very discouraged about whether God is trying to tell me the timing is not right or something. I think about how crazy it seems to drop everything and go off to school with no idea of where the money will come from. I know the church says they will help, but I don't know how much and I am assuming that is referring towards tuition. If it was just me that would be fine but with a family I need a real income as well. Thinking about all this can get very frustrating….then I feel like I just don't have enough faith which just gets me angry at myself.

This week for Sunday School we were covering some material that got me thinking. One of the scriptures we were discussing was from the book of Judges.

Judges 6:13-16 ( NIV )
¹³"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian." 14The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" 15"But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."16The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

The more I read this passage and others like it I started to realize how when God wants to use us for something, He tends to stack the odds against us. Look at Gideon. As he said he was the weakest member of the weakest clan in his tribe. I mean we are talking about the kid that always got picked last for kickball on a co-ed team. It's no wonder the poor guy had doubts and was more than a little nervous. Like Jeff, my Sunday School teacher, said….imagine if God told you that He wanted you to go and single handedly defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan and bring our soldiers home. Any sane person would be asking more than their share of questions. However, look at verse 16; ¹⁶The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together." God does not call us to do something and then hang us out to dry. He leads us through it and see's us through to the end. He also provides us everything we need to accomplish the task He has set before us. God did the same thing with Moses. Moses was raised as a Prince of Egypt. He most likely knew the full complement of the Egyptian army, how they were trained, and their skill in battle. He probably led many soldiers in campaigns for Egypt. He also had seen the Hebrew slaves and knew how broken they were. He knew that none of them had skill in battle or any weapons to speak of so when God told him to deliver His people out of Egypt I am sure he was having a different strokes moment, "Whatchu talkin about…." But God told Moses the same thing He told Gideon.

Exodus 3:12 ( NIV ) 12And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
We find the same thing with Joshua when he took over the mantle of leadership after Moses died;

Joshua 1:1-9 ( NIV ) 1After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide:
2"Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.
3I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.
4Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west.
5No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

Time and time again God tells us and then shows us that He will be with us carry us through whatever task He sets before us. So here I am with all this scripture that records all different people that God called to His service and just like me looked at the obstacles in their path and wondered how on earth it would ever happen. It also shows how God stacked obstacles so big in front of them that they could never, ever do it on their own. In my head I know God does this because not only does it show how great He is and how He can accomplish anything even using such poor tools as us. So, as I started asking myself whether this is what God is doing for me, building my faith through exercise the same way you build a muscle, by working it out and stretching its limits, Alyssa overheard Crystal and I on the phone talking about money. We were discussing where it was going to come from and how we would make it stretch to cover everything. Well, Alyssa asked Crystal, "Why are you worried about money? God will give us what we need." It was like WOW. It's one thing to know it from a intellectual knowledge of scripture but to here it voice so faithfully from the mouth of a child makes you focus on the truth of it. Luke 18:16 ( NIV ) 16But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Oh that we all had the complete faith of little children. I know some people will think I am crazy, but I believe God will see us through. I have no idea how, but I believe he will and I look forward to the day that we can look back and thank God for the way He provided for us and taught us how to trust Him.