I was reading a very interesting book this morning. I was into what was being said and looking forward to the pages to come. Then something interesting happened.
As I turned the next page, I noticed I was nearing the end of the chapter. I could see the last page-and-a-half and the title of the next chapter on the following page.
Suddenly, I felt myself getting anxious about finishing the current chapter. I started reading faster, even skipping some words. I had to literally make myself finish the chapter.
What is it about "The End" that causes us to start getting impatient? Why is it that so often, when we can see the finish line that we feel like quitting?
You may not think this describes you, but I would challenge you to go home and look for signs of "unfinished business". Paint on the walls that is still missing that one little spot. Clothes that are folded but not put away. Letters that are written, but still sitting on the counter waiting to be mailed.
There are plenty of signs all around is in our everyday lives that remind us of just how much effort it takes to complete a task.
It is no different as we climb the hills we face in our quest to become King of the Hill.
I believe it is this thought, this obstacle we face, that could be at the heart of what the writer coaches us to do in Hebrews 12:2...
"Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith..."
As we get closer to the top of our hill, closer to overcoming the mountain we have faced, it may be a challenge to stick with it.
Sometimes, just seeing the top can feel like we have arrived, but there is still more climbing to be done. We cannot give up now, we are almost there.
And having someone who is at the top saying, "come on up" will give us that extra courage to keep moving!
Who is that someone? Jesus. He has already conquered the hill. His hill was Calvary. He climbed to the top and never came down! He is, always has been, and will always be our King of the Hill.
And it is His life, His example and His Word from which we draw the strength to stay in faith and leg-it-out for those last few yards, until we reach the top and become King of the Hill.
Don't give up. You are almost there. You can see the top. Now do what the NIV version of Hebrews 12:2 says...
"FIX you eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..."
Let's go to the TOP!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
King of the Hill: Get the DOUBT OUT!
So you're standing in your front yard walking your dog. You notice a small strange light out of the corner of your eye. You turn to see a bush has caught fire. You run to see how bad it is and notice that the bush is not burning up even though it is on fire.
Then, as you stare at the bush in awe, a voice speaks to you!
That is pretty much the way it went for Moses.
He would soon learn that God had an amazing task for him to do, and this is where we find the next step for us on the way up our hill.
As you climb the hill you face, one of the obstacles you will encounter is the same obstacle that Moses encountered at the burning bush (that did not burn). That obstacle is doubt.
As God commissioned Moses to set His people free, Moses began to doubt, on many levels.
First, Moses doubted himself. Then he doubted the message. Then he doubted the plan would work. Then Moses doubted his ability to deliver the message.
Doubt now stood between Moses and the deliverance of 3 million Israelite people.
But Moses overcame his doubt as he put his trust in God.
On your way up your hill, you will have to overcome doubt. There will be times when you say to yourself, "I don't know...", "I can't make it", "Is this really worth it?"
Doubt can rob you of energy and excitement. It can rob you of peace. But most importantly, doubt will rob you of faith.
Without faith, we will not continue. Without faith, we cannot please God. Without faith, we will begin DEscending our hill instead of moving UPward!
Don't come down now, you have come too far! Don't give up! Don't doubt, have faith!
Faith in what, you might ask? Faith in the same thing that got Moses past doubt...God!
Matthew 21:21 tells us that, "if you ave faith and do not doubt...you can say to this mountain 'Go throw yourself into the sea' and it will be done."
Have faith - don't doubt! Get the DOUBT OUT!
How do we get the doubt out?
1. We read God's Word and get to know God!
2. We go to church so we can be around other people of faith
3. We change the way we think and begin believing God instead of blaming God!
And we do all those things over and over and over again!
Yes, you will encounter doubt, but don't let it stay. Get the DOUBT OUT, and you will soon find that you are King of the Hill!
Then, as you stare at the bush in awe, a voice speaks to you!
That is pretty much the way it went for Moses.
He would soon learn that God had an amazing task for him to do, and this is where we find the next step for us on the way up our hill.
As you climb the hill you face, one of the obstacles you will encounter is the same obstacle that Moses encountered at the burning bush (that did not burn). That obstacle is doubt.
As God commissioned Moses to set His people free, Moses began to doubt, on many levels.
First, Moses doubted himself. Then he doubted the message. Then he doubted the plan would work. Then Moses doubted his ability to deliver the message.
Doubt now stood between Moses and the deliverance of 3 million Israelite people.
But Moses overcame his doubt as he put his trust in God.
On your way up your hill, you will have to overcome doubt. There will be times when you say to yourself, "I don't know...", "I can't make it", "Is this really worth it?"
Doubt can rob you of energy and excitement. It can rob you of peace. But most importantly, doubt will rob you of faith.
Without faith, we will not continue. Without faith, we cannot please God. Without faith, we will begin DEscending our hill instead of moving UPward!
Don't come down now, you have come too far! Don't give up! Don't doubt, have faith!
Faith in what, you might ask? Faith in the same thing that got Moses past doubt...God!
Matthew 21:21 tells us that, "if you ave faith and do not doubt...you can say to this mountain 'Go throw yourself into the sea' and it will be done."
Have faith - don't doubt! Get the DOUBT OUT!
How do we get the doubt out?
1. We read God's Word and get to know God!
2. We go to church so we can be around other people of faith
3. We change the way we think and begin believing God instead of blaming God!
And we do all those things over and over and over again!
Yes, you will encounter doubt, but don't let it stay. Get the DOUBT OUT, and you will soon find that you are King of the Hill!
Monday, September 14, 2009
King of the Hill: The Next Step
Have you ever had to give something up that was very important to you for the sake of progress?
A job, a routine, an important possession?
Sometimes, on our journey up the hills in our lives, we face tough decisions about things that must be given up.
Sometimes these things can weigh us down, and we find that we have to lighten our load if we are going to make it to the top.
Sometimes we may even find that the thing we love so much is keeping us from moving upward.
Paul said, in Hebrews 12:1 that we should "lay aside every weight, and sin" that stops us from completing our race, or in this case, our climb.
Notice he said "every weight, and sin". If the weights in our lives were only bad things, he would not have needed to add, "AND sin". So it must be possible that the things that keep us from climbing to the top of our hill can also be "good" things.
This is what we find in the life of this week's "King of the Hill"...Abraham.
God had promised Abraham that he would be the "Father of many nations", but Abraham had no son.
God blessed Abraham and Sarah with a son named Isaac, even though they were very old, and Sarah was barren.
After Isaac had grown to a certain age, God came to Abraham and told him to take Isaac to the region of Moriah, a mountainess region, and sacrifice him to God.
That is hard for us to wrap our minds around in our world today. Even in Abraham's time when animal sacrifices to God were common, the idea of sacrificing a child probably seemed extreme.
But when we read the story, what we hear Abraham saying are words of faith that would lead us to think that he believed all along that God would spare his son Isaac.
Abraham took Isaac to Moriah and was following God's command and was about to offer Isaac as a sacrifice when God again spoke to Abraham and told him to stop! Do not lay a hand on the boy, God said.
And the Lord provided a ram for the sacrifice in place of Isaac. In fact, Abraham named that spot Jehovajireh, The Lord Provides.
When we trust God with our most precious possessions, our dreams and our plans, He will always give us something greater in return.
It was because of the obedience of Abraham that God made a covenant with man, the same covenant we live in today, only now it's better.
Like Abraham and Isaac, God gave his only son Jesus to be a sacrifice for us, and it is through the life of Jesus that we enjoy an even better covenant today.
On the way up your hill, you will encounter a time of personal sacrifice, a time when something precious will be required of you if you are going to make it to the top.
Let me encourage you, as hard as it may be, as impossible as it may sound, when that time comes, be willing to let go of whatever it is you are asked to release and trust that God will give you something greater in return.
We all have to give up to go up, and when we do, we can become King of the Hill.
A job, a routine, an important possession?
Sometimes, on our journey up the hills in our lives, we face tough decisions about things that must be given up.
Sometimes these things can weigh us down, and we find that we have to lighten our load if we are going to make it to the top.
Sometimes we may even find that the thing we love so much is keeping us from moving upward.
Paul said, in Hebrews 12:1 that we should "lay aside every weight, and sin" that stops us from completing our race, or in this case, our climb.
Notice he said "every weight, and sin". If the weights in our lives were only bad things, he would not have needed to add, "AND sin". So it must be possible that the things that keep us from climbing to the top of our hill can also be "good" things.
This is what we find in the life of this week's "King of the Hill"...Abraham.
God had promised Abraham that he would be the "Father of many nations", but Abraham had no son.
God blessed Abraham and Sarah with a son named Isaac, even though they were very old, and Sarah was barren.
After Isaac had grown to a certain age, God came to Abraham and told him to take Isaac to the region of Moriah, a mountainess region, and sacrifice him to God.
That is hard for us to wrap our minds around in our world today. Even in Abraham's time when animal sacrifices to God were common, the idea of sacrificing a child probably seemed extreme.
But when we read the story, what we hear Abraham saying are words of faith that would lead us to think that he believed all along that God would spare his son Isaac.
Abraham took Isaac to Moriah and was following God's command and was about to offer Isaac as a sacrifice when God again spoke to Abraham and told him to stop! Do not lay a hand on the boy, God said.
And the Lord provided a ram for the sacrifice in place of Isaac. In fact, Abraham named that spot Jehovajireh, The Lord Provides.
When we trust God with our most precious possessions, our dreams and our plans, He will always give us something greater in return.
It was because of the obedience of Abraham that God made a covenant with man, the same covenant we live in today, only now it's better.
Like Abraham and Isaac, God gave his only son Jesus to be a sacrifice for us, and it is through the life of Jesus that we enjoy an even better covenant today.
On the way up your hill, you will encounter a time of personal sacrifice, a time when something precious will be required of you if you are going to make it to the top.
Let me encourage you, as hard as it may be, as impossible as it may sound, when that time comes, be willing to let go of whatever it is you are asked to release and trust that God will give you something greater in return.
We all have to give up to go up, and when we do, we can become King of the Hill.
Monday, September 7, 2009
King of the Hill - Part 1
There's a great game I used to play when I was little. Me and my friends would find a small hill and then try to be the one who stood at the top as King of the Hill.
During the game, we would wrestle and push each other in an attempt to keep them from making it to the top. All the while, we were trying to get there ourselves.
Sometimes in life we face hills, seemingly insurmountable challenges that would keep us from the top of our hill, from the best life.
These hills can be large, even mountain-like at times.
Maybe the hill you are facing is a physical issue, a sickness or chronic pain.
Maybe your hill is a struggling relationship or a financial crisis.
Sometimes when we face hills, we can wonder what we have done wrong, or why we may find ourselves in a valley again.
But it may give you some relief to know that everyone faces hills. In fact, Jesus tells us in John 16:33 "...in this world, you will have trouble..."
So if you find yourself in a valley, facing a giant hill, let me encourage you with these few thoughts.
1. Valleys are unavoidable!
As we just saw in John 16:33, Jesus told us that we would have trouble, that we would experience valleys.
But the fact that you may be in a valley does not mean that you are less of a Christian or that God is mad at you. We have an enemy who wants to keep us down. His plan is for us to never experience the hill-top.
But in the same verse that Jesus told us we would experience valleys, He also told us to "...take heart, I have already overcome the world."
2. God is still with us in the valley!
In Psalm 23, David said, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, FOR YOU ARE WITH ME."
A great attribute of God is faithfulness. Even when everyone around us may stop believing or even abandon us in times of trouble, God does not!
In fact, Jesus said..."I will never leave you nor forsake you..." YES! God is here, in the valley, in the low times, in the bad times, GOD is WITH US!
3. The Valley is NOT our final destination!
Davis reminds us in Psalms 30:5 "…weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."
We may experience valleys, but we don't have to live in them. Remember the words of David from Psalm 23, "...though I walk THROUGH the valley..."
Let's not stay in the valley, let's begin our ascent to the top of our circumstance, our challenge and be KING of the HILL!
In the coming weeks we will look at four obstacles we must overcome on our way to the top. We will look at great men of faith who, in spite of unimaginable challenges, ascended to become King of the Hill.
During the game, we would wrestle and push each other in an attempt to keep them from making it to the top. All the while, we were trying to get there ourselves.
Sometimes in life we face hills, seemingly insurmountable challenges that would keep us from the top of our hill, from the best life.
These hills can be large, even mountain-like at times.
Maybe the hill you are facing is a physical issue, a sickness or chronic pain.
Maybe your hill is a struggling relationship or a financial crisis.
Sometimes when we face hills, we can wonder what we have done wrong, or why we may find ourselves in a valley again.
But it may give you some relief to know that everyone faces hills. In fact, Jesus tells us in John 16:33 "...in this world, you will have trouble..."
So if you find yourself in a valley, facing a giant hill, let me encourage you with these few thoughts.
1. Valleys are unavoidable!
As we just saw in John 16:33, Jesus told us that we would have trouble, that we would experience valleys.
But the fact that you may be in a valley does not mean that you are less of a Christian or that God is mad at you. We have an enemy who wants to keep us down. His plan is for us to never experience the hill-top.
But in the same verse that Jesus told us we would experience valleys, He also told us to "...take heart, I have already overcome the world."
2. God is still with us in the valley!
In Psalm 23, David said, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, FOR YOU ARE WITH ME."
A great attribute of God is faithfulness. Even when everyone around us may stop believing or even abandon us in times of trouble, God does not!
In fact, Jesus said..."I will never leave you nor forsake you..." YES! God is here, in the valley, in the low times, in the bad times, GOD is WITH US!
3. The Valley is NOT our final destination!
Davis reminds us in Psalms 30:5 "…weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."
We may experience valleys, but we don't have to live in them. Remember the words of David from Psalm 23, "...though I walk THROUGH the valley..."
Let's not stay in the valley, let's begin our ascent to the top of our circumstance, our challenge and be KING of the HILL!
In the coming weeks we will look at four obstacles we must overcome on our way to the top. We will look at great men of faith who, in spite of unimaginable challenges, ascended to become King of the Hill.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Responding to God
Often in life, we equate a response to a nodding of the head, or a voiced agreement.
But truly responding is so much more than a verbal affirmation or a visual suggestion that one is listening.
In fact, when we look into what it really means to respond, we find that listening is truly only half of the equation.
Just because someone listens does not mean they are responding. A true response requires action. A true response results in activity, something getting done.
In 2 Timothy 4, Paul is instructing Timothy in how to lead people, and in verse 6 he says something that sounds a little strange at first:
2Timothy 4:6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.
Paul says I am being POURED OUT like a drink offering. By saying this phrase, Paul is actually giving us a visual description of the word RESPOND.
The root meaning of the word RESPOND means to make a covenant, to give ones self as an offering, to be poured out!
WOW!Paul is actually showing us that a Response to God is a pouring out of ourselves.
John the Baptist said it this way, "I must decrease so that He may increase".
Romans 12:1 encourages us "...in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—THIS is your spiritual act of worship."
Our response to God is not just an "Amen" on a Sunday morning, or hands lifted as we sing, it is a daily pouring out of our own desires and goals so that we can be filled with His desires and goals for us.
It is a daily sacrifice of self for the sake of God's purpose through us.
We see this idea as Jesus prayed in Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
Jesus poured himself out so that He could be filled with God's purpose and plan.
How are you responding to God today? Have you emptied yourself of your dreams so that God can fill you with His? Have you released control of your situation so that God can bring Wisdom and Peace?
Let me encourage you today to Respond to God, not just in words, but in action, in love and in deeds!
But truly responding is so much more than a verbal affirmation or a visual suggestion that one is listening.
In fact, when we look into what it really means to respond, we find that listening is truly only half of the equation.
Just because someone listens does not mean they are responding. A true response requires action. A true response results in activity, something getting done.
In 2 Timothy 4, Paul is instructing Timothy in how to lead people, and in verse 6 he says something that sounds a little strange at first:
2Timothy 4:6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.
Paul says I am being POURED OUT like a drink offering. By saying this phrase, Paul is actually giving us a visual description of the word RESPOND.
The root meaning of the word RESPOND means to make a covenant, to give ones self as an offering, to be poured out!
WOW!Paul is actually showing us that a Response to God is a pouring out of ourselves.
John the Baptist said it this way, "I must decrease so that He may increase".
Romans 12:1 encourages us "...in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—THIS is your spiritual act of worship."
Our response to God is not just an "Amen" on a Sunday morning, or hands lifted as we sing, it is a daily pouring out of our own desires and goals so that we can be filled with His desires and goals for us.
It is a daily sacrifice of self for the sake of God's purpose through us.
We see this idea as Jesus prayed in Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
Jesus poured himself out so that He could be filled with God's purpose and plan.
How are you responding to God today? Have you emptied yourself of your dreams so that God can fill you with His? Have you released control of your situation so that God can bring Wisdom and Peace?
Let me encourage you today to Respond to God, not just in words, but in action, in love and in deeds!
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