MARCH 21 "THE EAST SIDE OF THE JORDAN"

         Imagine this conversation, "I have a better place, than what God has in mind, I would prefer this, no really, go ahead, this is good, trust me, I know, but God had ......I know, I know, but this will do, thank-you for offering Lord, but I'm good, really!!  That's what this group of people is saying to God. And I say, "are you kidding me?"  What is this, what can you call this, I don't even know...is it stupid, arrogant, ignorant, fearful, or all of the above and more?!  Imagine telling God, who knows what's best for us and is trying to offer us "His" best and we turn around and say to Him, "no thanks, this will do just fine".  I know I've tried to offer people good things I had for them and had them tell me "no thanks", I was a little insulted, but can you imagine a human being saying that to God himself.  Maybe this group was thinking "at least we won't have to fight for this, we already have it, it may not be the best but we could have this NOW and why not just settle for this!  Notice the first issue Moses addresses (and you can tell he's angry) is..."don't think you're going to sit here while we go fight!".  Could I, could you, could "we" be guilty of doing this with God at times? I wonder.....???  I think we have.  I believe many of God's people are living on "the east side of the Jordan" rather than crossing over and contending for God's best.  Why would a human being that believes in the goodness and omniscience of God, say "no thanks" to what God offers them and "willingly know" they are settling for God's 2nd best.  And what's even scarier, is God lets them!!! He doesn't force them to cross. We force our will upon others, we force what we think is best because we don't want to have to deal with the heartache and this is how different we are from God.  God knowingly let's people choose what's not best for them and suffers the heartbreak. There are certain situations where we have forced our will, but if we would watch our God and his methods we would realize, in the larger picture, we have accomplished nothing.  God does this in all areas of our lives, even in the most critical decision of our lives, Heaven and Hell He does this, He lays his best before us, Heaven and even then He says, "if you want Hell, than I give you the full right to choose hell". If God will allow us to do this with our eternity, how much more so will he allow us to choose in the every day decisions; who we will marry, where we will live, what church we will go to, what city we will live in, what carreer path we will choose, in all these decisions God has an opinion, God has a will, God knows what's best and often impresses upon us what's best but he will ALWAYS allow us to tell him, "no thanks Lord, this is what I choose, I choose to remain on the east side of the Jordan" and though his heart aches, he lets it be.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NOVEMBER 6 "DOES GOD STILL DO MIRACLES?"

 The Psalmist writes, "who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord!" I dare say, there are some reading this blog that might challenge that!"  They would say, "list them, I'm hard pressed to think of one! How'' your miracle life? Miracles go hand in hand with opportunity. We have our lives so structured and we don't venture out in faith, we keep it safe. Well then don't complain you have no miracles. Peter had to step out of the boat to experience a miracle, but don't forget there was a handful of other disciples that stayed in the boat, safe and experienced no miracle! You can have it both ways.  Christians who venture, in faith, are the ones that have the "lists of miracles" to write about.   "Does God still do miracles? In your intellect you say, "yes of course", but in your heart what do you say? God does miracle, yes! Does He do miracles for you? Do you encourage others to believe in miracles and now you need
Read more

FEBRUARY 8 "ABANDONED IN MY TIME OF NEED"

   This may end up being one of the greater indictments against The Church of Jesus Christ at our judgement; that we abandoned our brothers and sisters in their most dire time of need. In our reading today, the Psalmist eludes to a time of great anguish in his life and because of this his strength is failing; he then goes on to say concerning his friends, "I am a dread to my friends....I am forgotten by them". Unfortunately, it is when we are not at our best that our brothers and sisters in Christ seem to get turned off by us and often abandon us when we need them the most! Why is that? Is it because of selfish reasons, after all, who doesn't want to hang around upbeat people full of joy and victory, but are there not times that we need to also grieve with those that are grieving?! Another reason is their weakness probably turns us off, "why are you even struggling with this ....what's wrong with you!!?" Thence, we're turned off and leave them to struggl
Read more

OCTOBER 17 "DON'T THROW IN THE TOWEL YET"

    "Don't throw in the towel yet" ....This idiom comes from the world of boxing, when a boxer's manager or coach throws the white towel into the ring, signaling that his boxer is done, he can fight no more. We should have this idiom up on our fridges, up on the mirror in our bathroom or we could simply read the Word of God and get it there. "It will be a time of trouble for my people, yet in the end they will be saved." How important it is to know that. If we can see the goal in sight, it re-invigorates us to keep pushing forward. We've all heard the story of the world distance swimmer that stopped short of the beach because it was hidden by the clouds and fog. Had she seen the shore was so close in sight, she would have pressed on, but exhausted and discouraged, not be able to see the shore, she gave up. Praise be to you, who does not need the shore in sight to keep pressing on, but for the rest of us, we do. Hold on there are better days ahead. As I m
Read more