Jul 28, 2011
I was listening to a Pastor Chuck Smith message through the book of 1 Samuel. When he got to chapter 10, 1 Samuel 10:26 says, “Saul also went to his home in Gibeah, accompanied by valiant men whose hearts had God had touched.” Pastor Chuck shares how awesome and beautiful it is when God touches the heart of a man and how much potential there is when this man gives his life to serving the Lord. Pastor Chuck goes on to share how at one time Christianity was thought of as feminine and not really very manly. Pastor Chuck corrects that and says, “the most manly thing you can do is to give your whole life in undivided devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ and in serving Him…that’s the most manly thing you can do!” Be a man or woman of God! Pastor Chuck continues on to share about firecrackers and how they have the ingredients for a big explosion while in the same way a man who has had his heart touched by God has such potential for a real big spiritual explosion! But then there’s also those firecrackers that are still packed with the ingredients for a big explosion but when they’re lit they’re duds and they fizzle out, just like in a similar way there’s those christians who have the ingredients inside him or her for a big spiritual explosion but they waste it and fizzle out.
Don’t be a fizzler with your life! Be a man or woman of God…that’s the most worthwhile and manly thing you can do! This will last for eternity! This is something I’ve been thinking about over these last few months. This message from Pastor Chuck has been encouraging, challenging and foundational to my life to not fizzle out and waste my potential for real big spiritual explosion.
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Jul 12, 2011
It has been too long since I’ve posted a blog but I wanted to share a big thing God is teaching me through His Word in the book of 1 Samuel. I decided I wanted to do a character study on King David. But I don’t like topical studies as much and instead wanted to just read through 1 and 2 Samuel. But along the way, the Lord has changed my plans and instead I found myself looking at all of the other characters, including King Saul.
This book shows us that both King David and Saul started good, humble and young. Its the same when God callers us into the ministry, we started good, young, humble and full of zeal and passion and eager to do whatever God would have us do and to joyfully do what those above us ask of us. At least, this was how it was for me!
You probably know the story…Israel was a theocracy (God was their King and ruler). They rejected God as their king and wanted to be like all of the other nations who had kings. So God gave them what they wanted and gave them King Saul, Israel’s first king. He was not God’s idea for a king…he was what the people wanted so God gave them what they wanted. But it would cause problems and a downfall of the nation Israel into evil, corruption and all kinds of problems.
After Samuel’s anointing of Saul to be king, in 1 Samuel 9:21 it says, “Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?”
As it came time for Saul to be chosen among the tribes as King over Israel, they tried to bring him out to show the people but he was not found. Finally, with the help of the Lord, the Lord showed them that he has been hiding among the baggage (paraphrased from 1 Samuel 10:20-22)
Those two passages show Saul was a humble man. The Lord was also with Saul and Saul had the Lord’s anointing on his life. This to me sounds like an awesome beginning for the leader of Israel and to lead the nation in godliness.
He started out so good! But it didn’t continue like that nor did it finish that way. Saul’s first act of unbelief and disobedience came when he waited for Samuel to come bring a burnt and fellowship offering. But after 7 days (the time set by Samuel) he took the role of priest into his own hands and offered up the burnt and fellowship offerings. Samuel finally came and upon seeing what Saul had done, he rebuked him and called him foolish. Because of this, God rejected Saul as king and Samuel declared his unfitness to being Israel’s King. From here, Saul went down hill.
Later on, Saul was commanded by the Lord to go completely kill the Amalekites because of what they had done to Israel. First of all, something I never thought of before is that the Amalikites is a picture of our flesh. God commanded Saul to completely take them out and leave nothing alive. In the same way, God calls for us to completely kill and crucify our flesh and leave no room for it. Saul disobeyed and spared some of the animals including King Agag, the Amalikite king. In this way, we are not told to change our flesh, reform it or in some ways spare certain parts of our flesh…we’re told to completely kill it! This was just a side thought!
Upon Saul’s disobedience to completely wipe out the Amalikites, Samuel approaches Saul with rebuke and says in 1 Samuel 15:17, “Although you were once small in your eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you as king over Israel.” That verse shows that Saul was once humble and small but is no longer. You see Saul then voicing a confession and repentance but I don’t believe it’s sincere, but rather that he’s trying to defend his position, title and fame as he says in 1 Samuel 15:30, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel;come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” Saul goes down hill and the Lord’s anointing and spirit left him. God had sought after a man after His own heart who would then be king of Israel, this being David a young shepherd boy.
As Saul grew to know David he saw that David was met with more success then Saul and his name became well known (1 Sam 18:30). In 1 Sam 18:20 it says, “Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” And from that time on, Saul kept a jealous eye on David.”
1 Samuel 18:12- “Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had left Saul.” Saul was afraid of losing his position as king and someone else taking that spot.
As this story of Saul goes on, he gets worse and worse and spends the rest of his life bent on killing and getting David. He became jealous, took his eyes off God, and tried to defend his kingship!
Looking at my life I see that in many ways in ministry I have been a Saul at times. I’ve started out good and humble but I’ve found myself jealous of another brother or sister’s success and I’ve been worried about going to a different department in the ministry and I’ve been worried and jealous about someone else taking my position in my department. I have struggled with this and one day it got the worst of me and found myself falling, emotionless but yet just wanting to cry and I had to step out. Thankfully this hadn’t led to bitterness, anger and revenge like it did to Saul. I’ve been praying every day that I would stay humble and rejoice in others successes. Later on, God showed me that it was He that humbled me because of my pride and desiring position and defending it and being jealous of others’ positions and successes.
Thank the Lord he protected me and my heart as I gave it up to him and now it’s so freeing to be able to work together with my brothers and sisters at GFA with no hard feelings of bitterness and jealousy of their position or success. The Lord is the one who puts people in positions and makes people successful…I’ve been learning to praise and thank God for this! We’re a family and we’re the body of Christ but I find myself being like Saul or being like the 12 disciples and trying to be the greatest, when instead we should rejoice and praise God for each others’ positions and successes in the ministry and work together in love and unity realizing that God has everyone in the place He desires for them at the time. Maybe someday God will raise me but I must be faithful in the ministry to where He has me now! There’s freedom in this! After all, it’s God’s ministry and in the process of reaching the lost in Asia He gets all the glory!
We see that King David sinned badly and made huge mistakes such as murder and committing adultery. But after all this, God still kept him as King and called him a man after his own heart and even made Jesus come through his family line. Why did David still have this? Because even in his faults and failings, he still allowed God to work with him and he sincerely repented and chased God’s will, didn’t defend his kingship, unlike Saul who was the opposite! Ultimately, Saul dies and falls on the sword…such a wasted life to someone who started out good, humble and had so much potential!
So, it’s not about how good we start, it’s about how well we finish! This to me has been a warning to my heart which has helped me to stay in the ministry, following God with all my heart! I’ve been praying and desiring to stay humble and therefore I believe God has given me practical situations to practice it and it’s been a struggle, but He never gives more than we can handle!
I could go on and on about this topic and all the things God is showing me through his word. Praise God!
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Sep 21, 2010
September 17th-19th I had the opportunity to go camping with the Bales family to the piney woods of East Texas. It was so nice getting a break from the city and getting to enjoy the outdoors. I love camping. It’s refreshing and a wonderful time to get out and spend time with Jesus in the woods. God showed me something on this trip and that was through some visitors we had. They were Walking Sticks. Walking Sticks are like the coolest bugs ever! These cool bugs were all over the place and we sure were entertained by them all weekend. But I started thinking about these bugs and God showed me something about these bugs as I observed their charecter and just how much they do look like sticks. I observed these bugs up close and oh man they looked like little twigs. These bugs would even freeze to make themselves look like a stick or a twig. We’d have fun with them and move one of their legs up and they’d just be stiff and frozen. It’s amazing that they look like sticks and even know to protect themselves by making themselves stiff and looking like a stick.
I started thinking and realized that this proves that there is a God and it proves all of those theories that scientists have come up with to be false…it proves that there is only one true and holy living God whom all men can know through Jesus Christ! To me, something as simple as a stick bug gave evidence that the One True and living God is very much real and who He says He is! How can evolution or a big bang creat a bug that so happens to look like a stick and who knows to defend himself by looking like a stick. Just think about it for a moment. It’s amazing. These creatures amazed me. The only way these creatures could have created to look like a stick was for God to have creatively created it. God wanted variety and He wanted to creat a bug to look like a stick and God even gave him the defense and protection to stiffen up and pretent to be a stick when threatened. Just think about this. God is amazing and this simple bug proves the existance of the God whom we can know. It’s not that we need this bug to prove to us God’s existance ( We just need child-like faith and to simply believe everything God says), but it sure does add to my faith and helps confirm it and reassures me that God loves me and wants to have a personal relationship with each of us.
Anyways this is something God showed me on this camping trip. He always shows me something new when I go camping, even if it’s simply through a Walking Stick bug. Ah! This gives me such great joy in the Lord!
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Sep 19, 2010
Something I really like about GFA is the community and closeness we have with each other as brothers and sisters with the same purpose. I have never experienced a more closer community of Christ then I have here at GFA. Every day we work together, pray together and occasionally we have GFA family nights here at the ministry…those are just good times to talk with one another, encourage one another and just enjoy each other’s company. Often, we eat together as a GFA family. I enjoy the fellowship here so much as we all work together to reach the lost in Asia.
Along these lines, I enjoy playing soccer, as do many others here at GFA. As often as we can, we try to plan a soccer game at a soccer field near the GFA office. It looks like we’re shooting to have these soccer games about every other week. I love soccer…it’s probably my favorite sport to play and I enjoy doing this with my GFA family. Sometimes it can get pretty competitive but for the most part it’s just for fun. We have anywhere between 10-20 people that end up usually showing up to these games. The age range is anywhere between little kids to adults to whole families showing up. Over the last couple years, I’ve seen some of the kiddos really develop and get good at soccer, making it harder for an old folk (I’m 22) like me to play soccer against them…hehe. The reason I say all of this, is I just love playing soccer with my GFA family and I love just seeing all of the kids and adults coming out and playing together. It’s good exercise, it’s fun and we try to be safe and respectful of one another, making sure not to hurt each other or get too competitive that it takes the fun out of the game for others. It really is edifying too as a body of believers. I’ve never left these soccer games feeling down, disappointed or like I wasted a couple hours. I’d rather do this then watch TV! hehe.
Another thing I like doing with some of my brothers here is just the enjoyment of wrestling…hehe. No, we do not have a GFA wrestling team or club of any sort. But ever since my brother Stan came to do the School of Discipleship we’ve seen wrestling matches start in the living room of GFA families’ houses! I’ve taken an enjoyment in that too. It’s good exercise and it’s just fun. As I was thinking about our wrestling matches (they’re friendly!) I realized that I used to do this kind of thing back in Junior high but I did this out of anger towards someone and I’d beat people up. But now that has all changed and I was thinking about this with my brothers here at GFA and just realized we’re doing this because it’s fun and it is a guy thing. We’re not doing it because we’re mad at each other…we’re doing it because it’s a thing that we brothers like doing and it’s good excercise and I find it rather edifying and builds character too….what I mean by it builds character is that when I lose (which I often do…hehe!) I know it’s just for fun and I still love that brother who won and we’re still friends and we’re still brothers!
Along with this at GFA, there is volleyball available to people. Though I don’t enjoy volleyball as much, others do enjoy it. There’s opportunities to play basketball too and many other recreational things with your brothers and sisters here while still working together to reach Asia with the Gospel.
I cherish these times of fellowship and it’s something I’ve learned to not take for granted. I haven’t got this kind of fellowship and close community anywhere else like I have here. Aw, I love hanging out with my GFA family in this way!
These things mentioned above are just a few things I’ve thought about or the Lord showed me in regards to these activities that some of us enjoy doing together here at GFA. Ah, what a blessing it is to be here and apart of this GFA family!
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Jul 3, 2010
The other day I didn’t have any cash on me. That evening I was planning to go watch some GFA kids at their swim meet…The only problem is that it costs $2 to get into the meet and I did not have time to go to the bank.
Anyways the day went on and I was thirsty for a root beer (not a root bear) and it costed 35 cents. I was looking around for change and I only found 70 cents. I was able to get a buddy to come get a soda pop with me. God provided in this way. But it doesn’t end there.
First of all, I probably should’veused that 70 cents to help provide for my entrance into the swim meet. I was thirsty for a root beer though and I followed through and got one. But get this, I remembered I had 2 crumpled up dollars on my desk for a while. I had been ignoring those 2 dollars for a while but that day I noticed them and they were my means to getting into the swim meet. I now didn’t have to go to the bank and be late to the kid’s meet. The Lord provided $2.70 that day for me to buy root beer as well as being able to get into the swim meet. No worries or stress needed anymore here. The Lord was faithful and provided in this very simple and awesome way.
He knows what He’s doing and we can trust Him. I thought I’d share this, that it’d be an encouragement to you. This experience of God’s provision and faithfulness amazed me and made me laugh…God does have a sense of humor! When I thought my world was all bent out of shape and God said, “look, I got this. There’s $2 on your desk. No need to worry.”
Stay encouraged brothers and sisters!
Yeehaw!
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