Today I woke up feeling motivated to make a nice breakfast.  Though 5:00 am and having to leave to work in 30 minutes, I baked some Pillsbury croissants with chocolate chips wrapped in them, as well as made an English muffin with a sausage paddy, an over easy egg, and maple syrup.  And of course: Coffee – black!

After eating and spending some time in Isaiah, I headed to work a little later than I wanted. On my commute, I noticed a certain car in front of me. I should point out that my morning commute is endless stop-and-go for anywhere from and hour to two, so I often find myself wanting to maneuver to the fastest lanes, and I mentally mark cars in my mind to know if I am making progress.  I decided to move to a faster lane this morning; but somehow, miles ahead I noticed the car I used to be behind way up ahead of me. This bothered me – all my work and I lost ground!  I made it my goal to get back behind that car, as if that would be some sort of victory.  But as I made progress, I began to think: “do I live all my experiences this way?” (my wife will likely chuckle at this point, knowing me all too well)

I realized that if my greatest goal when things get rough is to get back where I started – behind someone else – then I am missing out on a lot in life!!  For one thing, comparing myself to someone else’s progress makes the assumption that my success is based on criteria set by others. For another thing, hopefully I picked someone amazing to follow because if I am always trying to catch up to others, then the most I can ever accomplish is whatever the other person is able to accomplish!

So I decided that wouldn’t be my plan anymore.  Instead, I would trust God’s timing in my life and let Him take me where He wants to.  In this case, I passed that car – leaving them in the dust.  This isn’t the point though, as I could have easily fallen further behind in terms of “who’s ahead on the road”; yet, having put my trust in God to lead my steps I would find that His timing would have advanced me further in the purposes HE has for me.

An example is from my wife who went to a party not knowing it was a formal ordeal as she dressed in jeans.  This could have been seen as a failure except that another woman was sitting outside the event devastated and upset because she also didn’t dress appropriately.  My wife was able to encourage her and they both went boldly into the party and had a great time despite the error.  My point is that the upset woman had compared herself to the expectations of others and found herself lacking; yet, God’s plan for my wife was to be a comfort to her, and so my wife’s mistake ended up not being an error at all, but a blessing. This is how it is with all of us when we entrust our paths to God.  To the world we will appear foolish, but God will shut the mouth of the world through the fruit produced by our foolishness.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. – 1 Cor 1:25-29

This morning I was inspired to do a twist on the age old classic – egg in-a-frame – by adding bacon to it.  Simple, but delicious!  Even my two-year old enjoyed it. Honestly, I don’t really like toast, I am not a huge fan of eggs, of course I like bacon, but when you put them all together it satisfies the soul and provides the energy to get through the day.

Isn’t that how the body of Christ works?  I don’t really like Smith, and Jude bugs me, and Fred and I get along well, but when you put us all together, led by Christ, our souls are satisfied, and miraculous power wells up and overflows to the people and to the world.

As I eat, I talk with my two-year old, Simon, and ponder our trip to the ocean over the weekend.  As soon as he saw the water, he got very excited and wanted to go play in it.  As he entered the water, with me at his side, a small wave caused him to lose his balance and he fell.  He was so upset, and I could also clearly see fear in his eyes.

I instantly reassured him and helped him up, telling him I wouldn’t let him get hurt if he held my hand.

He looked right at me, as if to say, “agreed!”, and he turned and ran, hand in hand with me, straight into the waves.  I was amazed to see such faith in him. Some big waves hit him, but I kept my promise and he never fell or got hurt.  It was a blast!!

I immediately thought about how God has made similar promises to me. He calls me to be united with Him and other believers to find stability

“be built up together until we all reach unity in the faith. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves” Eph 4:14 (para)

His word says that I am safe in His hands, and as long as I hold firm to my faith and trust in Him, He will not lead me to ruin

“Anyone who believes in Jesus will never be put to shame. – Rom 10:11

But in pondering this, I can’t help but think about how many times I let go of Daddy’s hand, and found myself on my behind, soaked-and-wet, crying like a toddler.  I realized looking back at those times that even then God was by my side, limiting the damage and reaching out to me; wanting to restore me to my feet and to His hand.

My two year-old displayed this perfectly, in that after a while he got so comfortable with not falling that he forgot that my stabilizing hand was the reason for his not falling.  His grip got looser, and looser, until a wave almost knocked him down again – had my grip not tightened to hold him.  How exactly like our experience with God – as our faith in him shifts to faith in ourselves. Luckily, even a loose grip is more than enough for God to keep us safe. His grip is more than sufficient!

What is amusing was how I myself gained confidence in myself as being stable and unmovable.  We looked on at a larger oncoming wave, and as it hit us, I was prepared and kept Simon stable. Afterwards, we were both laughing at how big it was when suddenly a tiny little wave sputtered up and almost knocked us BOTH over.  How like life this is, that we can manage even the worst situations if we anticipate it, but even the smallest things can knock us down when we are unprepared.

I asked God about this for myself, and He spoke to me in a vision, comparing me to a baby tiger – with a baby growl.  I have enemies in the spiritual realm that are very afraid of my Father, but they are less afraid of me because I don’t have a history of showing the power that’s inside of me.  I may be a small tiger, but I still have more than enough power in my claws and bite, and in the power that comes when I call out to my Dad for help, to devastate any enemy.  Because I have neither believed nor “walked in” the identity that God says is true of me, I have been easily destabilized even by life’s smallest inconveniences.  It is time to put a stop to this, and God has shown me that my “believing Him” is the path for me now to walk to no longer be so easily tossed about.

There’s so much more I’d like to say here, but to keep it short (er) I will say only this: If you have believed in Jesus, you have become a part of a perfect mix of ingredients, which when brought together will result in incredible stability and even power in your life and the lives of those around you.  I challenge us all to seek God on what that means for us individually.

Today I am having a toasted English muffin with butter and honey and a light-roast Day Break coffee with a little half-and-half.

I was thinking about this past few weeks and how I have allowed my fatigue and emotions to control my behavior and attitude toward those I love.  As a little context, we have a group of people that come over once a week to spend some amazing time listening to God and walking in the ways He leads us. God has been using this group to build some incredible things that are resulting in His power and glory being made manifest.  It has been a powerful and incredible time together, and as such, I think we have attracted some spiritual resistance.

The day of getting together – every week – it seems like everything that can go wrong does.  The nights before are often filled with bad dreams, my health seems to deteriorate that day, fatigue overwhelms me, I am often unprepared, and thoughts enter my mind that seem unlike me, such as depression, judgementalism, and a desire to just quit.  Scripture has shown me something about all this that I think will be an encouragement to us all:

When Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild the fallen walls around the newly restored temple in Jerusalem, he regularly met with fellow believers to accomplish the task. He too faced an enemy who provided resistance, wanting to see him fail.  This enemy did five things to try to stop Nehemiah.

• Question his worth: He ridiculed the builders, reminding them of how impossible the task was that God has called them to, and pointing out how incapable the families and children were of accomplishing it. The builders knew that what this enemy said was true, but continued to labor, knowing that the Lord said the work would be accomplished.
• Assaults on their security: The enemy became angry, and tried another tactic. They plotted to send soldiers to Jerusalem to stir up trouble, attack them, and frustrate the work. Word of this and fear-filled rumors circulated, threatening to cause the builders to abandon the work, but Nehemiah led the families and children to stand guard over the work, a spear in one hand and tools in the other, and God used their obedience to instill fear into the enemy.
• Draw their attention elsewhere: The walls were growing toward completion and the enemy was so angry he plotted to trick Nehemiah to come out to meet him, with the intent that he would harm him. Four times he tried to entice Nehemiah, four times Nehemiah replied that he was too busy doing what God told him to do.
• Cause division: The enemy became frustrated, and tried again to entice Nehemiah to come out to meet him by stirring up lies and rumors that the Jews were divided against Nehemiah. The enemy’s intention was to cause division and fear so that the work would stop.
• Inspire fear: Then the enemy hired one of Nehemiah’s own people and used him to try to convince Nehemiah to be afraid of an impending attack, encouraging Nehemiah to go stay and hide in the temple, which would have been a sin for Nehemiah to do, and would have discredited Nehemiah, causing the work to stop.

Nehemiah held firm to that which God showed him, rejecting the enemy’s “offers” and standing firm in his faith that God would take care of him.  The wall was completed with extraordinary swiftness, and the enemy lost their confidence and became fearful at what was done.

I can see all these things at work on the days we meet.   I look at my knowledge and experience, and I can see clearly that I don’t have what it takes to accomplish the task God has called me to. Thoughts come to mind as to whether or not we can afford to provide a snack or tea. Fear comes as to how much damage the enemy is doing to my health. All the things that need to get done – such a cleaning, printing materials, and keeping the needs of my family met – become overwhelming, drawing my attention away from what God is doing instead to the “stuff” around me.  Unwarranted thoughts enter my mind, unlike my normal thinking, which question whether or not my wife supports me, or if my friends in the group are truly united together, or if such-and-such friend is frustrating the ‘work’. My health often gets worse that day, stress rises, and I fear I will be destroyed and should retreat or hide rather than get together with the group.

These things all have one thing in common: they are all lies, attacks from the enemy intended to rob me of what is factual in Christ.

I have learned that we have been given (already) all kinds of amazing things from God when we came to trust in Him, but that our unbelief and corrupt thinking prevents us from experiencing those things in our experience.  I can see clearly that God’s Spirit is working in me and other Christians to unite us and to manifest all that He has given to us, but there is a process leading there where we are vulnerable to being deceived.

God tells us that we are His temple, and just like for Nehemiah, the temple and all its riches have been restored and “sealed” by God’s Spirit, but the walls and gates around it need rebuilding. As Isaiah says, “your walls will be called salvation, and your gates praise”.  In other words, the only way to rebuild our walls is by placing our confidence in God, rejecting those things that undermine God’s promises to us.

This is the work of the body – our work – and we have an enemy that doesn’t want to see that happen.

If we want to see the kingdom experience in this life, we must reject all the enemy’s undermining “offers”, and continue doing that which God has shown us to do. So keep building and keep believing that God will protect you when you hold firmly in Jesus as the source of your salvation and hope.

So enjoy your english muffin in one hand, while you stand firm with your spear in the other, and the Lord is faithful to bring you to victory through all your trials.

Eph 6:¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God,so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvationand the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.