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| Easter Sunrise Service |
“A land for livestock and your
servants have livestock.” Num. 32: 4b
This
is the rationalization the tribes of Reuben and Gad made to Moses and the
elders of Israel regarding why they were choosing not to enter
into God’s Promised Land, the land of their inheritance, His best for them. I think of this when I drive home from work
or picking the kids up from school because I see large tracks of land fenced
with weathered barbed wire keeping massive cattle from wandering out into the
road. Sequim is a truly beautiful area
and the whole N. Olympic Peninsula is very idyllic, in fact, I couldn’t think
of a more beautiful place to serve God while we wait for doors to open for our
next step in missions. Australia is still on our hearts and we are continuing
to press into God to receive direction and eagerly wait for Him to open doors. Ps. 33 has also been a source of
encouragement for me as the psalmist focuses on God’s wisdom in His plans.
Verses 20 and 21 express the personal application, “Our
soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because
we have trusted in His holy name.” His “holy name” speaks not just of God’s name
but His nature and character; that He is perfectly righteous, all wise, just,
and perfect in His purpose and plans, therefore we can trust Him with all
confidence. Our church planting team is making their preparations for
transition. Some are ready to leave in a
matter of weeks, others are in the middle of the process, while still others,
like ourselves are waiting for God’s direction in acquiring a visa and the
finances to proceed. Waiting can be at times, a difficult
thing and we have ups and downs of great faith and sometimes doubt, but we’re
excited to see what God’s going to do.
One advantage of having our teammates already relocating is that they
can begin the work of preparing the spiritual ground for the future ministry and also, can potentially assist us more effectively in attaining our visa.
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| Opening Day at the Disc Golf Course |
This lesson of not
settling for less than God’s best has been on my heart quite a bit lately, in
fact, that was the title of a recent message that I gave at Calvary Sequim and
again, to be sure I got the message, I taught it once more at Island Christian
Fellowship in Camano Island. I broke the
message up into three main points all dealing with the issue of their
compromise:
1) Convenience (comfort)
2) Caution (un-certainty)
3) Choices (consequences of compromise)
Num. 32: 1-6
Convenience (comfort)
»Reuben, Gad, & ½
the tribe of Manasseh decide not to cross the Jordan, instead they want to settle in the land on
the eastern side…A land very good for pasture.
»Lot did this same thing about 550 years previous (Gen.
14) when he and Abraham settled in the land of Israel…and he met with the same results as the 2½
Tribes…
Our Society is Based on
Convenience…Capitalism is
based upon giving the customer what they want…not necessarily what they need.
Some Examples
Remote
controls, Convenience stores, Drive-thru Coffee (We’ve even shortened “through”
in drive-thru out of convenience!), Fast
food, etc.
Often we compromise God’s best for us
because it’s hard and takes work, it’s not convenient…
- Does God want us in debt? No, but it’s easier to use the credit card
- Does God want us to wait until marriage before getting physically involved with one another? Yes, but it’s easier to give in and not wait.
- Does God want us to be honest? Yes, but sometimes it’s inconvenient to tell the truth, especially at tax time.
Rom. 6: 23 “For the wages of sin is death
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Gal. 6: 7-8 “Do
not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also
reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he
who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
What we need to do is…be content with God’s will, then plan and choose
daily to surrender to Him knowing that He is good and has our lives and future
in His hands.
Micah 6: 8 “He has shown you, O man, what is
good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?”
Num. 32: 7-15
Caution (un-certainty)
What are
the 2 ½ tribes saying by settling for the land on the East of the Jordan? That God doesn’t know what He’s doing…They’re
questioning not only His planning, but the heart and character of the Planner…
»It’s as if they’re
saying, “This is a great place for cattle and sheep, there
can’t be anywhere better than this…Beside, if everything falls apart on the
West side at least we’ll have our land over here on the East!”
→This is exactly what
we do when we settle for less than God’s best…When we choose to take the
short-cut or disregard the clear teaching of His word in order to do what we
want.
Gen. 3 This is essentially the strategy that Satan
used in tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden…
- “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree in the garden’?” (questioning God’s word)
- “You will not surely die.” (flat out contradicting God’s word)
- “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Satan’s saying, “God does not want the best for you, He’s keeping good things from you”, he’s questioning God’s nature and character)
The Key to trusting in God’s plans are: His Character (all loving) and His Nature (all knowing and all wise)…When we forget or disregard these, we end up
compromising and subjecting ourselves and others to danger and/or limit God’s
effectiveness in their lives though us.
Choices (Consequences of compromise)
What
were some of the consequences of their poor choices
1) Unfulfilled Commitments: A Job
Left Unfinished…Short-cuts
Joshua 13: 13 Israel did not fully complete the job of subduing
the land and driving out those who were entrenched in idolatry and destructive
behavior. »Many of the people mentioned
are located on the land allotted to the 2½ Tribes.
»These become enemies of Israel from here on out and reappear during David’s
reign…Absolom’s mother was a Maachathite
2) A Dangerous Location…Too
close to the world…Compromise puts us in line with the world…We team up with
the world.
»Just like Lot back in Gen. 14
1Kings 12
Israel is divided as a nation into two kingdoms…In
the north, Israel goes heavily into idolatry…Judah, to the south, waffles back and forth between
serving the Lord and idolatry.
»The
2 ½ tribes are the first into idolatry and soon loose their identity.
2Kings, the Latter Chapters…Hosea, Micah, Amos: As a result of their rebellion
against God, a few years later the Assyrians war against Israel, defeat them killing thousands and lead them into
captivity.
…The
Good News, Jesus is our Redeemer! He takes bad situations and redeems them (but
better for us not to make bad choices in the 1st place!).
Luke 8 The New Test. shows this
part of the land (where the 2½ tribes settled) as “Decapolis” and the “Gadarenes”. The place where Jesus came across Pig farmers
and the demon possessed man named Legion
who lived in a cemetery. After Jesus
delivered the man of the demons, the people of the city came and pleaded with
Him to leave! Even so, Jesus instructed
the man to go back into his own land to share the good news of salvation.
We’ve all made mistakes and have opened
ourselves up to be tormented by the demons of our sin…Some of us are surrounded
by the swine of terrible choices and even work in and among it everyday. But God wants to deliver us from the demons
and send the filthy swine to the bottom of the lake. He wants to give us new life and send us back
to those who we love and care for to bring the good news of freedom and
deliverance through Jesus Christ.
Heb. 12: 1-2 “Therefore
we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares [us], and let us run
with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of [our] faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God.”
God
has been pressing on us the importance of embracing our current position at
Calvary Sequim and being faithful to serve where we are planted. He’s keeping us challenged with many
activities at the church: We recently
completed constructing and installing a nine-hole disc golf course and have had
a wonderful response from our church family and from many in the community who
are visiting the church grounds to take advantage of the beautiful
surroundings, challenging course, and all around good time. I have also been challenged to grow musically
as Pastor Hans has inserted me into the Sunday worship team to lead worship for
both Sunday services. Also, I’ve been
enjoying teaching a few beginning guitar classes during the week and the Lord’s
been consistently giving me songs to write and record, so I’ve been busy trying
to figure out that process. Teaching the
Bible is always a joy and blessing and I’ve been privileged to preach from the
pulpit once a month and as there are needs in the Youth Ministry, I’ve been teaching
a study and leading worship there as well (not to mention mowing a few lawns).
Cameron has been busy teaching Sean and
Kay in our home school while at the same time leading the women’s Bible study
every other Friday. She’s happily involved
once again in women’s ministry and really looks forward to it. Cam
and I are also staying busy taking an online class in order to receive
certification to independently home school in Washington State. This
is important not only for legality sake but to gain more knowledge and skill to
transfer to Australia in order to start, or to help develop an
existing home school program. In our
experience, home schooling does not seem very popular except in very remote
areas of the interior of the country.
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| Surf Ministry Salt Creek |
Praise
Reports:
The
Family is happy and healthy
The
Sydney team has begun to relocate
Great
things are happening at Calvary Sequim
School
is almost out for Ryan and Aubry
Many
of our relatives have been up for visits recently
Prayer
Points:
Continued
guidance and provision for visas
Financial
provision (God has been providing perfectly for our daily needs but our mission
savings is very low)
Ryan’s
camp to go well and for the Lord to ignite the fire of missions within him
Health
insurance for Jeremy and Cameron
Preparations
for home schooling all the kids for the coming year
