Change Your Direction!!

repentance - sincere regret or remorse. I went on a mission tour to Jackson Hole Wyoming a few years ago.   On that trip we were serving a church in the town that was located at the foot of the big ski mountain for Jackson Hole.  Since we were there in the summer, no snow was to be found and we hiked up and down that mountain quite a few times.  Looking up the mountain it seemed tall and majestic, but looking down it took on a whole new view, STEEP!  I'm not too good with heights so I kept my feet on solid ground and safe with a strong intent for survival.  Our group decided we were going to have some "fun" one day and went to the concrete luge run that goes down the mountain.  Everyone was anticipating this very fast trip down the hill on this incredible looking luge they used only in the summer months.  I was not so anxious for what was to come and actually thought about sitting it out, but felt I would be labeled a chicken, which was very accurate that day.  We went to the top of the luge and readied ourselves for the trip down.  Once again,  at the top of the mountain the word "steep" applied easily to what I was looking at and I was really regretting the prospects of going down the hill.  The worker assured me it was safe, so I climbed in the little seat of the luge, eyeing the brake he said I could use if going too fast.  I put my hand on that brake first, and then proceeded to lift a strong prayer for safety to Jesus.  I'm sure He was probably laughing at the funny way I was perceiving this ride and how scared I was to go down.  Then it happened.  The worker released my cart and as I began going down the hill I thought, "This isn't so bad."  But that is when the hilll took a turn almost straight down and my luge cart tripled it's speed, so here I go....screaming uncontrollably.  It seemed like I was flying as I approached the first curve and I was sure I was going to fly of the track and plant myself in the nearest tree....but I didn't.  As I barely made it around the first curve the hill took another downward angle and that's when I thought, "I regret getting on this thing!"  At that moment it became more survival to get to the bottom than enjoying the ride and my little time of "fun" turned into something very stressful and bad.  Of course, I made it fine and acted like everything was great and even commented on how amazing the whole ride was, but I was lying.  I didn't think it was amazing at all and regretted even getting on it.  One of the workers said, "You gonna ride again?"  To which I replied, NO!!  I spent the rest of the afternoon cheering on the others who were finishing their rides.  Regret drove me to repentance.  I felt like I had made the biggest mistake of my life getting on that luge and regretted whatever it was that took me there.  I also felt great remorse for putting my life in that situation and  decided not to ever do that again.  But I did.  A few years later I ended up on the bottom of a rope connected to a bungee tower, and looking up I thought, "why am I doing this?"  Once again, regret and remorse as I coaxed myself to the end of the plank and jumped 85 feet off a tower and bungee jumped.  You would think that the regret and remorse of going on that luge was strong enough to make me not even get near another thrill seeking event, but over time I forgot that terrible fear and fell into the daredevil trap again.  When will I ever learn?  

Webster's definition of repentance is true, but it falls short of the Biblical Mandate given to each of us who need to repent.  There is one more step.  Turning the other way and walking off, never to come back again.  When I completed the Luge I continued to watch others come down having a great time and I it lessened the affect of the scare I got when I went on it because I saw others having a great time because they were not fearful of it.  Had I turned and walked down the hill with my fear still frozen in my heart, it would have gone a long way toward nixing the next thrill event.   The part Webster's leaves out is walking away.  Change your direction.  It's the same way for Christians as we have the thrill of the moment many times drawing us into doing something that is not right or dangerous for our faith and the whole time we know it's wrong but we attempt it anyway.  When conviction comes we repent by making a comment to not do it again, but we should also be walking away or changing direction.  Let me put it in easy terms, if satan tempts you to go north, you go south.  If satan tempts you to do something from your former nature, you turn to God for something from your new nature.  When I accepted Christ I turned from my old way of living and walked into a new way of living and I am headed in that same direction today.  I am tempted regularly to turn back the other way, but that is not who I am and it is scarey and unfamiliar now to me because Christ is in my life now and all things have changed.  Repentance is real and lasting if we actually do the whole thing.  Turn and walk away. Change Your Direction.  Too many Christians still want to do the thrill seeking thing in life by living on the edge, but the edge you are living on is already on the wrong side of where you should be.   You know it's scarey, but you think you can handle it, but you can't.  Time to Change Your Direction and go the  opposite way.  Paul wrote to the church in Pilippi about some who lived on the edge and what that caused. Phlippians 3: 18 There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I've warned you of them many times; sadly, I'm having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ's Cross. 19 But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites. 20 But there's far more to life for us. We're citizens of high heaven! We're waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He'll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.

The questionable life of those who are living their life on the edge is a life that experiences weak repentance at best and fall back into doing the same wrong thing again and again.  But you do the right thing.  Don't straddle the fence in your commitment to the Lord.  Strive for Godliness, not Worldliness and see the wonderful plans God has for a live going in the right direction.

The Pilgrimage  continues.....

David Warren

Improvise!!! The MacGyver App

Improvise - To do or make something from whatever is available.  I like to call it the Boy Scout Effect or The Macgyver App.  If you ever saw Macgyver, you will remember he could make something out of whatever in the most strenuous situations and make it look like no big problem.  Now Macgyver is remembered more in spoofs than as being a good example of improvising.  When we get in a comfort zone it is so difficult to get out of it.  A teaching becomes an interest, an interest an inclination, an inclination a habit, and a habit a lifestyle. What began so small and innocent, can impact our lives forever.  This slippery slope of laziness can possess us quickly and if we don't have everything perfectly in line for us to do something we freak out!  Why is that?  Well, first of all it is not just laziness, it is much worse.  It is apathy.  Apathy comes in many forms and satan has developed it in our society and masked the outcome until apathy has become an accepted way of living.  I'm not talking User friendly here, because user friendly has the intent of being used.  Apathy is a "core sin" that starts out small and then leads into a whole new lifestyle change.  The first thing that makes us punch in the apathy app, is trials.  We look at trials as being a "curse" more than just a testing of our faith.  A testing to check us and see if we have gotten addicted to doing nothing or taken the apathy pill.  This pill is one that many take every day and it distorts their perspective of serving when it comes to being a disciple.  When it comes to trials, Jesus has our back.  In Luke 17:1,2  he said, "Hard trials and temptations are bound to come, but too bad for whoever brings them on!  Better to wear a millstone necklace and take a swim in the deep blue sea than give even one of these dear little ones a hard time!  Be Alert!!"  Well, here's the alert!!  It's happening all around us and our response needs to be measured and productive when it comes to facing trials, or apathy will eat our lunch.  We need to learn to IMPROVISE.  Of course, anyone would want everything in life to be perfect and fall into place, but that's just not going to happen and the development of our life through sanctification is going to have some hard knocks on the pathway, so we need to be wise in how we handle them.  If you have great plans to do something one way and God puts in a trial or two, don't give up.  Improvise!!  Use whatever you can to make it happen in the midst of everything supposedly falling apart.  This is especially true for leaders in the church, specifically ministers.  Our greatest plans are made with the understanding that we are here to lead God's people to serve Him to reach the harvest.  Then we make all these plans and one monkey wrench after another is thrown in and what are we to do?  Improvise.  If we know God is in it, we must continue on and improvise to get to the end result.  God gives us great wisdom along with the vision, but we must be faithful to use that wisdom and access it through prayer and supplication.  Paul reaffirmed the church at Ephesus again and again and in Ephesians 6:18 hammered the message home, "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints."  and also in Philippians 4:6 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God"  In other words, get prayed up, keep praying, and keep working at it until it is  accomplished.  We just give up way to early, and then we don't get to see the end result God wants to show us.  We must use whatever we can to accomplish the vision and preservere until it is completed.  In other words, be a good finisher.  Do you know what a good finisher does to apathy.  He defeats it immediately because his eyes are down the road and apathy fades away like the black smoke in the mini series Lost.  But he has to face it first.  If you know there is apathy in your life right now, then face it for what it is, a poison pill from satan, and make a commitment to not swallow that tainted pill anymore.  Ask God for a fresh vision in your mind and heart, and then go get it, knowing there will be some tough times along the way, but be committed to finishing!  We have the greatest example of finishing through the death of Jesus on the cross.  When He finished Jesus won the battle.  If we will finish, we will win every battle we fight.  If things get rough, stop, pray, then IMPROVISE!!  Remember, Jesus is the one who orginated the Macgyver App, and made it possible for us to download it for free. God will help you do that, but you have to be willing to finish and take the hard knocks.  Remember, Jesus has your back and anyone who tries to thwart His plans in your life will have to answer to Him.  Oh yeah, that's what He's talking about.  Believe it and live it.......for Christ.

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

Horse in the Pond!!

When I was a kid, my dad would sometimes get me involved in some of his "projects" and most of those projects were ok, but sometimes he stretched me a bit on helping him.  My dad was a cattle auctioneer and cattle buyer, and on occasion he would find a good deal on some livestock and turn them for 

profit.  From time to time he would try to turn a profit on horses and that  profit involved him buying unbroken horses, bringing them home for me to break and then selling them as broken horses.  Of course, a trained horse is worth a lot more money than one that is wild and untamed, so with that thought in mind I proceed to the next part of this story.  One night dad got in real late.  He had taken a trip to Louisiana to look at some "brush mares" or horses that were raised in the swamps of the delta.  He had found 12 mares with colts and he and a group of wranglers got them penned up and he brought them home for me to break for riding.  When the truck pulled up I was excited to see dad had bought some horses and proceeded to help them get the horses out.  I could hear the little colts whinny a frightened whinny every now and then and thought, "Awe, they are scared from the long ride."  That wasn't the half of it though.  When the horses came down the shoot and ran out into the holding pen I could tell they were majorly wild and that these animals hadn't really seen humans before.  They were scared to death.  I also thought, "How am I going to break these crazy horses?"  I went to bed with plans in my head about what I was going to do the next day to get these horses tame.  

I awoke the next morning and quickly ate a fantastic breakfast prepared by my mom and went out to the holding pen.  To my surprise, my sister's husband Ralph had already gotten out there and was trying to catch one of the horses.  Ralph had ridden horses extensively, but had never attempted to break a wild horse, so he wasn't having too much luck.  The horse were running around him and ducking the rope as he attempted to lasso them and pretty soon he gave up and said, "These horses are crazy!"  To which I replied, "For now."  

I went to the barn adjacent to the holding pen and made a three stage catch pen and got my bullwhip and went to the back side of the holding pen and started herding the horses into the first stage pen.  When they all got inside, Ralph and I closed the gate and I went to the next staging area and opened the gate letting 4 mares go into that pen and closed the gate.  After that I went to the third stage pen and opened the gate and separated one mare by herself.  That was the mare I would start with.  Ralph helped me get a saddle on the mare and with her eyes bugging out I put a bozzle on her head for control while riding her and opened the gate from that stage pen and went outside.  When she saw daylight, she started bucking and rearing up and I wasn't even on her yet.  We got her settled down and while Ralph held her I got on and he let go and there we went.  She ran for a few steps and then bucked for a few.  Then she decided she was going to roll and when she hit the ground I jumped off and let her roll and then jumped back on and she got up and bucked some more.  We went through this time after time, but soon she got winded and gave up.  Mission accomplished!!  She was what we called "green broke." I didn't even attempt at that point to put a "big" in her mouth.  A bit is a  piece of tack that is put into a horses mouth to control the horse, whether it be turning left or right or stopping, the bit   helps the rider keep the animal under control. 

  There would be much more done in later days, inlcuding the use of a bit, but the hard part was over.  Ralph was impressed and decided he would break the next one and had already separated the mare into the stage 3 pen and had her saddled up.  I let my mare go out to the main pasture and ran back up to help him.  He looked a little nervous and I said,"Are you sure about this?  I can ride this one too if you want."  Ralph said, "No, I've got it."  We took this mare out and she was super wild and Ralph timidly got on and said, "let her go."  I did and he didn't last one minute, as she rolled him off immediately and ran away without a rider whinnying as she went.  It seemed like her whinny was more like a laugh, as I helped Ralph get to his feet.  He was hurting for sure and decided he had ridden all the wild horses he wanted.  I told him there was another way to break the mare and he said he was listening.  I told him we can catch her and put her in the pond up to her neck and then he can get on her and ride her around in the water.  He laughed and agreed to the experiment, so we caught the mare and led her as deep in the water as she could stand and then Ralph got on.  She tried to buck, but the water wouldn't let her without going under and Ralph rode her until she couldn't fight anymore.  My mom was watching from the house and when she saw Ralph on the horse in the pond, she ran out screaming "Horse in the pond, horse in the pond!"  She didn't know that we had put the horse in the pond for a reason and after explaining it to her, she settled down.  I will never forget that day or the ones following with my brother in law, Ralph, as we continued to tame one horse after another.

In the book of James 3:3 he writes, "A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse."  As I mentioned before,  I was going to use a bit on the horse we broke when they got under control a little more, because the bit was something foreign to their mouth that they would have to first accept before it could be used properly.   Which brings to mind the progression of a newly saved person to the next step in their life.  A person who is without Christ is what the Bible calls a sinner.  A sinner is like the wild horse.  They are running from God and His ways and the moment they surrender to God they are changed.  2 Cor. 5:17 says, "Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.  The old life is gone; a new life begins.  Look at it!"  The wild horse has been tamed through repentance and is in a position of learning and growing.  The next step is to put the bit in their mouth, so God can control and continue to teach them how to live under their new circumstances.  The next step of getting those horses more tame is to develop the relationship between horse and rider.   I really loved on those horses after that initial breaking.   I would bring them sugar cubes and apples and just pet all over them to familiarize them with me and the fact that I was their friend.  I was in control!  But, I was their friend.  I fed them, watered them, and talked to them.  I got so close to them that they would whinny at me when I walked up to the pen.  They liked me.  So when I rode them and asked them to stop, they stopped.  When I wanted them to go left, the responded.  I was their master.  They were still a horse, but a horse with a master.

When we accept Jesus, we are still human beings, but we now have a master.   One who supplies our needs,  speaks to us through His Word, and protects us.  And when He calls us to do something, we do it.   He is in control.  The newness in each of us is a newness that involvess knowing our Master, listening for our Master, and trusting our Master through the rigors of life.  As believers, our heart must be one that yields to the wants of our Master, and trusts Him for everything in our life, listening to His call and following that call, as He is in control.  If you aren't allowing God to control your life, how can He control your tongue, relating back to the James verse.  He must be in control of your core and then everything else falls into place.  How to live, where to serve, what to serve, and the total package are revealed through that "core" relationship with Jesus Christ.  When He is in your heart, he must have your heart and that means yielding to Him in every area our life.  Have you yielded?  Is God in control of every part of your life?  If not, it's time to let Him have it all and give up like the mare in the pond, because you are fighting a losing battle.  As Christians we sometime don't understand when we see God working a work in a person's life and almost want to intervene when God is doing the breaking, but we must not.  We might be like my mom and say, "horse in the pond, horse in the pond!"  When in reality God is just continuing to break away more of the wild nature in a person and we need to just step back and let it happen.  When others see your life is under the control of the Master, they start to understand more who that Master is. The following story illustrates that very thing:

Neil Marten, a member of the British Parliament, was once giving a group of his constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the course of the visit, the group happened to meet Lord Hailsham, then lord chancellor, wearing all the regalia of his office. Hailsham recognized Marten among the group and cried, "Neil!" Not daring to question or disobey the "command," the entire band of visitors promptly fell to their knees! 

Do you still fall to your knees at the command of our Lord and Savior,  Jesus Christ?  Don't you think it's time? God is in control.  Let Him control your life and you will find true joy.

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

The Hurdles in Life..

In High School I ran the 120 High Hurdles (yes, I could jump over them) and the 180 Low Hurdles.  In hurdling their are some things you must do to get the best running time.  One thing you must do is clear the hurdle as close as you can.  Our coach would say, "You need to be able to knock a dime off the hurdle without hitting the hurdle itself.  In my hurdle style all the dimes were safe, but I was pretty good at getting close to the hurdle.  Another important part of hurdling is to get your steps right in between the hurdles so that your running motion was fluid and uninterrupted.  If you don't have your steps right your time goes way up and you probably won't do well in the race.  I remember one particular race at our conference championship.  We were trying to win our overall conference championship and the hurdles was a big part of ensuring that victory.  My best friend, Roger Wray, was our best hurdler and I was somewhere behind him in team position and trying to move up.  We were getting ready for the qualifier to make it to the finals and I saw Roger warming up and I thought, "Why can't I be as fluid looking as Roger when I run?"  My race was full of choppy mistimed steps so that I looked very awkward at best.  That's when I really focused in on how he ran up to the hurdle, how he landed and then moved on to the next one.  When I started warming up I tried to imitate his hurdling motion and to my surprise, it felt great.  So great, that I made up my mind I was going to try my newfound hurdling style in the race.  I got down in the blocks and waited for the gun.  Bam!!  I took off and approached the first hurdle with great confidence and made my jump and then concentrated on my steps to approach my second hurdle, and then the third, fourth, and so on.  It seemed so effortless when running the race, and to my surprise, I finished second in my qualifier and made it to the finals.  My coach came up to me and said, "What's got into you?"  I told him about my new style and he told me if I  keep it up in the final, I will get a conference medal.  Of course, Roger was first in his heat and we both rejoiced that we would be racing in the final together.

The finals came and I got in my lane and thought to myself, "If I can keep it all together and really turn on the jets, I can medal today.  That truly excited me and I got down in my blocks ready for the gun to sound to start the race.  Then it happened....Bam!!!  Bam!!!  Someone had jumped the gun.  I turned around to see they had put a red flag in my lane.   Oh no!  One more jump and I am toast!!  I won't even get to race!!  So I decided, "I am not going to jump the gun, but play it safe."  I compensated too much, and my start was much slower and I felt like I was in another race behind the race in front of me.  I thought about just giving up, but decided to try to make up the distance even though they had a big jump on me.  In my mind I thought, "They are smoking me." I felt so powerless.  But, I remembered to keep my head and do the one thing that had helped me improve my time....my steps.  I turned on the speed and from out of nowhere, I started to close the gap.  I could even see Roger now and saw that there were only three hurdles left and I was flying.  I crossed the finish line right behind Roger and got second in conference.  Woo hoo!!  In  looking back I remember that Roger, who got first in conference, was only about two feet in front of me at the finish line.  Had I started better, I might have one first!  I was totally happy and our first and second in the hurdles helped our team win the conference championship.  Our coach was on cloud 9 and feeling fine.  It was so encouraging to me and all that running to start the track season was worth it.

Why the improvement?  First of all, I had good speed.  Secondly, I learned how to run the hurdles in the best possible way.  Thirdly, I concentrated and met each hurdle with confidence, believing I could do it.  End result?  Medals..

In Paul's letter to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:7 he wrote, "This is the only race worth running.  I've run hard right to the finish, believed all the way." Life is a huge race and when you decide to run it for Christ, you will have hurdles along the way...guaranteed!  Those hurdles are not meant to stop you, but develop you.  How?  Just like me learning to get my steps right, these hurdles in life make us develop our walk, or run, to be as efficient as possible.  With Christ as our example, all things are possible, and the hurdles of life are just that...things to jump over, not stop us.  I agree with Paul, that this is the only race worth running, so run it as good as possible, with Jesus as our example of how to run it.  Sit back and learn from the Master Hurdler and see how you can run the race and keep the hurdles from slowing you down.

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

Condemned! Walk Away!!!!

We live a in a world where we are constantly bombarded with temptation in almost every area of our lives.  You may say, "Is our world worse than it was years ago?"  To  which I would have to say, yes!  Scripture doesn't say we will get better and better, Jesus just told us how to live a more Godly life.  Now we have to do it.  We have all the power we need to live that life and satan would like nothing better than to thwart that happening in believer's lives.  Thus the extra "push" to elevate the things of the flesh and stop our growth in Christ.  Oh we can do all the self help groups possible, but we still have to live our life in the midst of a very "worldly" world.  The Flesh is something God's Word addresses in very strong terms, because we need it in very strong terms.  We know that flesh is our skin in regular terms, but in spiritual terms it is more The Human Condition.  It's our physical bodies and our physical minds, and all that is made of our whole package.   At the very first Adam said about Eve, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh."  God spoke about our days here on the earth in Genesis 6:3, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."  So the flesh problem has been since the beginning of man and that flesh is a constant reminder of our sinful past.   It is a part of our life that is put away when we accept Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes to live in our lives, but it doesn' want to stay away.  It is constantly knocking on the door of our lives trying to take back it's territory.  Our flesh is the detroyer of our faith and the constant enemy we deal with on a daily basis.  God wants less of the flesh and more of His Spirit in our lives.  Paul wrote in Romans 3:20 -  "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."  Paul goes on in verse 23 to say that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.  So, the Human Condition is something all who breathe have to deal with and the law is the ultimate accusing argument that lets us know that the condition is real and in all of  us.  God reached down to all humans to give us a way to deal with this condition once and for all. He sent Jesus to take on all of the sin, and in sacrifice, pay the ultimate penalty for that sin to give the Human Condition a way out of the punishment.   This alternative is offered at great expense to our Awesome God, in that his perfect Son was the one that  gave His life. In the midst of the struggle of our Human Condition, Christ dies for all sins and then is resurrected to defeat the penalty of that sin for eternity.  Which brings us to now....and living our life on a daily basis.  What role does the flesh have in my life?  It shouldn't have any position at all, but it is a constant problem for all who know Christ.  Even Paul spoke to this in Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me(that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find."  One of the greatest Disciples of all time has struggles with the flesh?  Where does that put me?  It puts me right where God wants me....totally depending on Him and the Holy Spirit.  It doesn't mean we don't have the temptation anymore, it just means that God has given us a better way to live, that distances us from falling to the temptation.  But here is the kicker.  Since He has equipped us through His power to live a free life in the Spirit, we are responsible to live that life with the strength and power He has given us.  Romans 8:3 "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.  In other words, that old building is CONDEMNED!!  Do you know what you do when you start to walk in a building and see that it is condemned?  You walk the other way.  That is exactly what we should do to the flesh, that is condemned.  Romans 8:5,  "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spriit, the things of the Spirit."   What this is saying is "walk away."  Boy, the church at Rome got a full dose of truth about this very thing from Paul, because he hammered it thoughout the whole letter to the Romans.  Romans 8:8, "So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God."  If you are in the flesh you have not only walked in the condemned house, but you are living in it.  GET OUT!  We need to stop living like we are condemned, when we are free and free indeed.  We need to immerse ourselves in the teaching of the Word of God and get to know what kind of life is a Spirit-filled life and then live it.  We need to escape the self pity of wanting what we want and dial in what God wants and see how that works for a change.  Romans 8:13,  "For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."  If you aren't living in the Spirit, then you are living in a condemned house and you are better than that through Christ.  So, go to the door, open it, and step out, and don't look back, much less  go back.  Keep walking toward God and His ways and live the free life He has given through the Spirit and stay away from the condemned life that is part of the Human Condition.  Romans 13:14,  "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill it's lusts."  Spirit Filled Living is the new trend, don't be left behind!!

The Pilgrimage continues......

David Warren

I've got the Anxious Blues!!

Anxiety is a terrible thing to have to deal with, but very controllable for people of faith.  George Muller once said, "The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."  I like that, especially because it is true.  When I accepted Christ and put my life in His hands I forfeited the need to worry about anything at all.  My ability to worry should have been replaced with true faith, but I try to digress and take it back and it just doesn't work well.  If we truly trust God for our heavenly home, then trusting Him here on earth for daily things should be a breeze, but many times it isn't.   And all of the famous quotes about worry don't work if your heart isn't in it, because it is part of who we are.  It is our old nature trying to control, just as much as any other sin trying to take back control of our lives.  Anxiety minimizes God in our lives and if we do it enough, we will even feel lost at times.  But we aren't....so don't worry!!  haha  An anxious heart will eat at our faith and spread throughout every part of our life, and satan uses it to draw us away from the strong faith that can defeat him on every side.  If he can get us doubting, then the other half of the battle is easy.  God doesn't want us to be anxious.  He wants us to experience the peace that was made possible through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  That reliance on God is what propels us to greater heights in our walk with the Lord.  That progressive walk should have me way beyond worry at this junture in my life, but I still worry.  When there's no need.  And God is waiting to kill the worry wart in your life and strives to do that  through His  Word and through other ways.  In Psalm 34:4 the psalmist said, "God met me more than halfway, he freed me from my anxious fears."  What does that tell me? Worry has been around for a long time, but so has God.  He continues to meet us with the peace that puts out the fires of an anxious heart, if we will learn to turn to Him.  Sometimes all it takes is an encouraging word to get us out of the state of worry, or sometimes God will give a sign that makes our heart soar.  Whatever we need to get through it, God supplies and His supply is enough to give us His peace.  The peace is so pure and complete, that we cannot even understand it.  Don't think great men of God never worry.  In 2 Corinthians 7 Paul was concerned (worried) about some things going on with some of the recent converts in Corinth.  He had heard the church was having some fights about doctrine and it really concerned him.  He said in verse 5, "The fights in the church and the fears in our hearts kept us on pins and needles.  We couldn't relax because we didn't know how it would turn out.  Verse 6 has a great word from Paul.  It is the word THEN!  I love that word.  That is the word used when God shows up.  It is so powerful.  There is a new movie about to be in theaters called Noah.  One of the trailers has the king of the land coming out to challenge Noah for building the ark and not bowing to him.  He told Noah, "I have all these people with me and you have the audacity to stand here alone.  Noah replies, "I'm not alone!"  Whooo, now there's a cold chiller to firm your faith.  Look at how Paul says it in verse 7 of 2 Corinthians, "We were glad to just to see him,(Titus) but the true reassurance came in what he told us about : how much you cared, how much you grieved , how concerned you were for me.  I went from worry to  tranquility in no time!"  Do you want to defeat anxiety?  Do you want to go from worry to tranquility in no time?  Then let me give you a word from the Lord.  God is with you.  God is still in control.  God is all powerful. God is the great I Am!  If satan comes at you and says, "You stand in your faith all alone?  "You can say back to him, "I'm not alone."  Maybe if that word is not enough you can try this one on for size.  Psalm 23The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

We are not alone and we are not to be anxious.  Stand strong in the Lord and rest in the shelter of His wings.  He never disappoints, so don't be anxious about anything.  Just lift your prayers to God and trust!!

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

Where are You Going?

Where are You going??

If you have ever had a carload of people going to a location where the way to get there is a little
fuzzy and everyone is relying on you to know the way, then this will make perfect sense to you.  My wife and I and some of our friends were going to a concert in Birmingham, Alabama and getting to Birmingham was the easy part.  Getting to the concert venue was a little different deal!!  There are two exits to get off the interstate that lead you toward downtown and then you can take a left to get to the arena, or so I remembered.  We were pressed for time, as usual,  and didn't have time to take a field trip around Birmingham, so I was really wanting to go the right way.  I remember thinking, "Ok, we get off here and then go around and come to the next street and turn left to go under the interstate to the arena....WRONG!  The street wouldn't turn left and go back toward the arena.  It would only go right and go to who knows where?  I surely didn't.  So I turned right and thought I could work my way back across, but the addition of one way streets stopped that plan in it's tracks and then I heard it.  "Where are you going!!  Exclamation mark, not question mark.  The person who said it did not want to have an answer to the question, but wanted instead to make a point.  That point was, "You are an idiot and don't know what you are doing."  The rest of the people in the car suddenly became very concerned, and I assured them we would get there.  I was hoping we would get there!  Suddenly I got a break from the one way streets and hit a green light and was able to get back across the interstate to guess where?  Right in front of the arena.  To which I smiled and said, "See, front door service.  I'll go park the car."  That person looked rather disgusted that I had arrived at the arena as quickly as I did, and everyone exiting the car saying "great job" only compounded their disgust.  All of them went and got in line and the doubter just mumbled something under their breath and shut the door.  What caused that little swarray?  Number one, the person asking the question was trying to drive home a point about me because they didn't like me for some reason.  I'm not paranoid, they didn 't like me and they were executing their judgment on me in what they thought was a time of weakness.  I was just trying to get to the arena, but they had more in store than just that.  They realized it was their chance to "make a point" and embarrass me in front of the others.  Praise God that other road opened up and we "happened" to make it to the arena on time.  No telling what other "points" would have been made should I fail the group.  Where does something like that come from?  A resentful heart!!  You may ask, "How do you know that?"

I know because I too have done the same thing and it is not enjoyable, especially when your heart is revealed.  Resentment is defined as bitter indination at having been treated unfairly.  It is a cancer that compromises every friendship and undermines every relationship that gives it a home.  It actually eats away at the person who feels it and hurts them more than the ones who are on the firing line of their resentment.  It is something that holds on for years and years and never lets go and the end result is pain and suffering for all involved.  There is a humorous cartoon of a wife to a marriage counselor, regarding her husband:  "And then, do you know what he did on our honeymoon, just 21 years ago?"  That is a funny, yet tragic illustration of resentment held onto for years.  If you harbor resentment, it's time to get it out and get rid of it once and for all.  Because holding on to it is killing you and the  relationship you have with another person.  I resented things about what my dad did or didn't do for years and in holding on to it saw it control my thinking in a very adverse way.  In reality, I had blown it all way out of proportion by letting it fester in my heart and it was controlling who I was and how I perceived life itself.  Boy, I was wrong and finally got it right in my own heart.  I felt such a freedom when that happened and found my perspective on life itself change for the better.   If you are harboring resentment, then pull up anchor and set your ship adrift on the sea of forgiveness and understanding, and quit letting it control your future direction.  It seems appropriate at this time to ask you, "If you are traveling down a road of resentment, where are going?"  I can tell you where you are going.  Far from the destination God has for you.  How do you get rid of it?  For me I just admitted I had a resentful heart and asked God to forgive me and heal my heart and He did.  How?  Because I meant it from deep inside myself, my core.  And I was free!!  FREE!!

If you are harboring bitterness and resentment toward someone, it's time to let go and get free of it and it will probably start with you admitting you are the one at fault.  Job said in chapter 10 verse 1 "I can't stand my life- I hate it!  I'm putting it all out on the table, all the bitterness of my life- I'm holidng back nothing!"  Maybe that's where it starts for you.  Hold nothing back.  Put it all out on the table and be healed!!  Many a life living for Christ has been compromised because of resentment and many other lives have been victimized because of a person holding that resentment toward them.  I guess Jesus really does want us to love each other with an unconditional love, or he wouldn't  make love the theme of it all.  Paul warned us to not take Communion if we have something against another person, so it might be more meaningful when we take it.  The Bible is very clear  about what needs to happen.  You need to change!!  So once again I have to ask,"Where are you going?"  Are you moving toward Christ or drifting away because of unresolved resentment.  God is offering a green light to get to where you need to be.  So take it and don't let any more time be wasted in the pit of resentment.  Here is a story about Marghanita Laski, one of our best know secular humanists and novelists where she said,  "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."

Take heart.  We do have someone who has already forgiven us and continues to do so.  That's how we can distance ourselves from a heart of unforgiveness and resentment. We have been forgiven.   Now forgive!!  Enough said!!

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

To all my friends....

When we think about friends, we think about people we have come to know over time and have united our hearts and minds with about many different things.  To call a person a friend in our superficial world is a huge thing and true friends are few and far between, but when we get one we value them tremendously.  A true friend is one who loves us for our good and bad traits and has a blind eye to temporary failings.  They will look at us with much realiism and still call us friend.  Realism that is weighted with honesty and well wishing, and always believing for the best in us.  Friendship is not always salted with long term relationship, but many times can be established through brief interaction that is of great quality and understanding.  Some of my best friends are the ones I see very infrequently but treasure each time of meeting and find great pleasure for the time we get to spend together in person.  Through the years God has blessed me with a few close friends that I rely on for strength and encouragement, and yes, criticism.  Honesty in friendship is truly one of the great things that makes them so great and that honesty is well  received when you know it

comes from a person who really cares about your well being.  Why?  Because putting your wants on hold to flood your mind with consideration for another person is a show of friendship that brings in the element of time, and time is priceless.  The old adage, "I wouldn't give them the time of day"  is a very powerful statement and true for me when I try to qualify what gets my time of every day.  A friend gets my time, whether in thoughts or

prayers, or advice, or whatever the need, they get it.  A person who is not my friend doesn't get that time, that valued time that means so much to all of us.  As a Disciple of Christ, it is inherent in my life to give value to all people and I try to do that, but a friend gets that plus much more.  Why?  Because friendship is investment.  Investing time and thoughts into what another person is going through or needing is an investment into the now and the future.  We begin to walk through things with that person, as though we were going through it also.  We begin to empathize with their needs and wants and pray for their lives like it is our own.  And we do this without ever expecting anything in return, because they are our friend.  In Provers 18:24 the writer says, "A man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."  How can you have too many friends?  The investment into too many people is so deep and so time consuming it can ruin your

life, because you start to feel all their pain and needs and it's just too heavy.  Remember, there's only one God and we aren't Him.  A true life changing friendship is one that is spent building up a person and taking that time to develop and share your heart with theirs and the investment is tremendous, but even closer than what a person would be with their brother.  I loved my brother, when he was alive, but my true friend relationships are all closer than my relationship with my brother.  Of course, I could have developed my brother relationship into a close friend relationship and that would have been awesome.  Never happened though.  Who is my closest friend?  Jesus.  Who is next?  My wife Andra.  Who is next?  My children.  Who is next?  Their spouses.  Who is next? An assortment on the same level.  You know who you are.  There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother......  I have many who do.  Do you?  If not, then try it, you'll like it.  In John 15:13  Jesus said, "This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends."  Jesus knew the strength in true friends and we do too.  Immerse  yourself into the most beautiful expression of love by putting your life on the line for your friends.  You will never regret it.  Of course, Jesus went on to say, "You are my friends when you do the things I command you.  It was Jesus way of changing our vantage point from being servants to being friends.  If you have some friendships that are superficial at best and want to see them grow into deeper friendships, then invest, invest, invest....  The return will be worth the investment.  Michael W. Smith's lyrics in his song Friends really do apply here.  

They go like this:  "And friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the lord of them.  And a friend will not say never, cause the welcome will not end."  Though it's hard to let you go, in the Father's hands we know, that a lifetime's not too long to live as friends."    I love my friends and if you are one of them, I'm there for you and hope you are there for me too.  In the days ahead we are going to need all the friends we can get as believers and I'm relying on you like you will rely on me.  To all my friends, I say thanks for the time and prayers.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

Mole Hills, Not Mountains!!

Pastor Don Baker relates a story of Rev. Tom Erickson: The public Library has a system called "Dial-A-Tale." Anytime a young child wants to hear a fairy tale, he can call the number and a voice comes on reading a short fairy tale to the listening young ear. However, the number is only one digit different from Rev. Tom Erickson. Because the small fingers often make a mistake, Tom gets frequent calls from a child listening for a fairy tale. After several unsuccessful attempts to explain a wrong number to the small child, Tom felt he had only one alternative. He obtained a copy of Three Little Pigs, and set it by the phone. Now, whenever a child calls, he simply reads them the tale. A beautiful illustration of yielding personal rights. he didn't, as you might have thought, change his telephone number to avoid the "invasion of his privacy."
Sometimes life is annoying and it steps into our path with one thing or another.  In those times our reaction is more important than the annoyance.  Just like the mistaken number

calling Pastor Erickson in the story about reading fairy tales, things happen and we have to decide how we will best handle those situations that are sometimes unavoidable.  We like to call it chance or luck and just deal with it in the best way possible.  Our reaction to these barbed wire situations make for a great witness or a poor one.  I have had so many shruggable moments in my life, I should be an expert in how to deal with them, but I am not.  A shruggable moment is when all you can do is either blow up or shrug your shoulders and go on.  Of course, blowing up is just that....blowing up.  Being able to shrug your shoulders and go on in life's storms is a sign that you are "getting it" in the area of discernment.  Jesus had to constantly deal with bumps in the road from people who "just didn't get it" either.  In John 7 Jesus was dealing with some of his brothers wanting to get him to show off some miracles for His followers to make Him look more and more famous, but Jesus warned them that the time for Him being widely known was not at that time.  Jesus, of course, saw the big picture and that picture was the redemption of mankind through His crucifixion.  His perfect discernment gives us a clear understanding of how to deal with things that are just a little off of our plan in life.  God has a great plan for each of us and the bumps in the road will be something God uses to develop our lives to live that plan.  Our appeal to God for discernment in situations that sometimes catch us off guard will enable us to best deal with those things that cross our paths.  So what am I saying?  We need to be immersed in God's wisdom about how to deal with those things we don't plan on and that wisdom needs to be coupled with a big picture mindset.
I have had interruptions happen all along my walk as a believer.  I have handled some of them with a big picture mentality, but many I have handled in a petty way and the end result was making the annoyance a bigger problem.  In John 7 the crowds were nitpicking what Jesus was saying and doing and even though he was the Son of God, they were missing the point of who He was and His purpose.  He discerned the situation and dealt with it with truth and that truth allowed Him to keep moving to accomplish the big picture.  Annoyance dealt with!!!  As believers we will have one annoyance after another and they will either distract us, slow us down, or propel us further along in our walk.  If we are living with a big picture attitude, the annoyances will only  cause us to dig deeper into God's Word for perfect answers to handle these imperfect situations.  Then when someone says to us "That was a rough time!"  We will be able to say, "in the big picture of life, it was just an annoyance, but it's not slowing me down from what I need to do in my life."  So, don't make mountains out of mole hills and deal with things in a God discerned way and you won't "freak out" when the big things come your way.  My wife has a saying she heard one time and even painted it on a canvas and it is displayed in our home. It says, "Where are you looking?  Fear looks at the storm, Faith looks at the Savior."  If you will look at the Savior on this one and see how He handled those bumps in the road, He will give you a good perspective on how to deal with these mole hills.  Jesus is once again the very best example of "living in the flow" of life and handling it with true discernment and Godly wisdom.  Oh, what we can learn from the example of the "Son of God!"

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

Don't Fence Me In!!!

I was raised around farm life.  Not farm life, like crops.  But farm life, like cows, pigs, and horses.  My Dad was a livestock auctioneer, so much of my life was formed around sale barns where you are in close proximity to all of the above.  In the summer I would travel to sales where my dad was the chief operator of getting the most money out of the livestock he was selling.  While he was doing that, i would work in the back of the barn, sorting cows and pigs into owners pens, so they would know which animals they had bought and could load them easily to take them to their farm.  It was hectic for all who worked in the back and extremely scarey for the animals, but such is life for farm animals.  From time to time my dad would buy some cows or pigs and we would take them home to our farm to "fatten up" for resale.  On one such occasion I remember we had bought a huge bull and riding with him in the back of the truck was shakey at best.  He was so powerful and every move he made in the back of the truck made me feel like he could turn us over at any time.  I was so relieved when I saw the mailbox in front of our farm, because I knew we had made it.  We backed up to an unloading platform known as a shoot and proceeded to coax the bull out of the truck into a holding pen.  I had a prodding stick that was supposed to make him jump out of the truck and go down the shoot that led to the pen.  When I climbed up the side of the pickup rack I noticed him glance at me with his eye and that eye got bigger when he saw me with a stick.  I gathered myself atop the truck and lifted that stick and proceeded to hit him on the hind quarters, while at the same time yelling, Hah...Bull!  To my surprise the bull moved and jumped in the shoot and went on down into the holding pen.  I thought, "Wow, I've got him fooled."  I was so enamered with my newfound power that I ran after him hitting him again and again, making him move.  Just about the time I got him to the gate leading into the pasture, he decided enough was enough and stopped.  Of course you get the picture, I continued....  I actually continued right up to the point that I bumped into him from the back.   It was about that time that I realized who had the real power....HIM!  He proceeded to turn around and start coming at me, and being very scared and very nimble, I started running back up the shoot to preserve my life.  I also noticed the stick was no longer in my hand, in that I had tossed it when I saw the bull turn.  Mr. Bull ran all the way back up the shoot and jumped back into the truck and just stopped and stood at me.  Where was I?  I was on top of the truck trembling and hoping that he wouldn't cave the cab of the truck in with me under it.  As I turned around I was face to face with Mr. Bull and he just kind of looked at me as if to say, "not so tough now are you?"  No stick, no bull unloaded, back to square one.  As I gathered myself I could hear my dad laughing.  Oh what a sight that must have been.  Of course, all of this was before digital cameras and youtube, but this would have been a winner for sure.  As I looked into Mr. Bull's eyes I felt like I saw something else too.  I saw raw power and determination, and it scared me to the point of respect.  I proceeded to worked gently and wisely with Mr. Bull and we got him into the holding pen without having to fight him.  When he stopped suddenly when I was pushing him down the shoot you could almost imagine him thinking, "Wait.  I don't have to move if I don't want to and this 140 lb kid isn't stronger than me."  He realized if he wanted to move he could, but if he didn't he wouldn't.  I feel at times like I am like that bull.  I go through life letting those with sticks guide me where they want to and trying to put me in a holding pen, or holding back pen.  All the while never truly remembering the power God has put in my life.  I just let them mold me into whatever they feel is good for them, but denying God's power being seen in my life.  I think this is the power of apathy in the world we live in.  Apathy not only to keep us complacent, but apathy keeping us from using the power God has given to each of us through the Holy Spirit.  Apathy that causes me to think my greatest power is denying that there is more power to be seen in my life and a false humility to ensure that I don't stick my head too far above the crowd.  I remember hearing a funny saying years ago in a comic where an eagle was eating corn in the middle of a barnyard with turkeys.  The caption read "It's hard to soar like an eagle when I'm down here on the ground with all these turkeys."  To make a difference in the world we now live  in there will have to be some changes in thinking and lifestyle made to stand above it all and make a difference.  In other words, we are going to have to stop being proded like Mr. Bull and realize the world cannot push me where it wants to because I'm the one with the power to control my life and that power comes from God.  Mediocrity will no longer be the norm that we will rely on to make the impact God wants us to make.  Weakness will be traded in for Greatness and that trade will change everything.  In Isaiah 8, God spoke through the prophet to a remnant of people and when God spoke He told the people not to listen to what those around them were saying and not to be afraid.  He told them to come back to the God of the Angel Armies and stop letting the world run them around and hold them back.  He also told them to wait on God and when He came they would stand strong in power and would not be held back by their oppressors.  There is a remnant today and that remnant wants to see God in power again through His church, but every time we start to move away from the weakness of the crowd, we let ourselves get beat back into submission.  Submission to what?  Submission to living a weak and apathetic life with no hope or drive.  It's time for us to realize that if we don't want to go to the holding pen where everyone else is, it's time to stop and turn around and face our accuser head on and let the power of God take us where He wants us to go, irregardless of what those around us say.  In other words, we tell the world "Don't fence me in!"  The only thing worse than strong pride is weak faith.  Weak faith will get us hemmed in so quickly to what the world wants and stop our progress from following the God of the Angel Armies.  Chris Tomlin cowrote a song about this very thing and here are some of the lyrics of Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies).  

You hear me when I call, You are my morning song, Though darkness fills the night, It cannot hide the light.  Whom shall I fear?  The chorus says,  I know who goes before me, I know Who stands behind, the God of angel armies, is always by my side.  The One who reigns forever  He is a Friend of mine. The God angel armies, Is always by my side.  

Time for Mr. Bull to be released, don't you think?  Time to stop letting the world prod us into denying the power God has given us.  Time to turn around and face the one with the stick and proclaim he has no power over me and start going the other way.  If we continue to believe the power of this world is more powerful than God and continue to let fear reign our lives, then we will continue to lose battle after battle, that should be won.  Let God's Word and power go before you and stand firm in His grace and you will start to see victory after victory and the remnant will grow in number and the lost will be saved.  Time to stand up and say, "Don't fence me in."  Don't let other Christians who are sell outs define your faith and keep you from standing strong for God.  It's time to believe in the power of God again.  His power is real and He goes before me, stands behind me, and is always by my side.  That way when people look in your eyes, just like Mr. Bull, they will see you mean what you live and say.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

In the Midst of.....

Lately a lot of the bad news we see for Christians is no longer in a far and distant land.  It is here and now!!  I have read different books about persecution for Christians in China, Russia, Iran, and many other countries, but now I am seeing first hand persecution on those who live in the land of the free.  Free to do what?  Free to pay taxes, free to follow the government's standards for our lives, but not so free to express freedom when it comes to the Christian Faith.  It seems to me like a page turned and here we are, feeling the persecution I guess I thought would never come for us, even though I knew we were drifting from the truth we preach every Sunday.  That truth transformed from living truth to talking truth only somewhere along the line.  It's like the man who was told by his doctor to change his lifestyle or he was going to have a heart attack.  The man heard the warning from the doctor, but he continued on thinking it would never happen to him and then he had a heart attack.  Guess what his first thoughts were?  The doctor warned me.  Why didn't I listen?  The answer is, we want our cake and eat it too!!  We want to be able to tell others what to do without having to live it ourselves.  That way we can blame it on those who didn't listen, when in reality we were the ones who didn't heed the warnings!  For too long we have relied on our American Heritage to keep us on track, when the only element of that American Heritage that has any creedence is the one where we turned to God for help at the outset of it all.  The rest is fading worldliness and cannot be trusted....No duh!!!

Don't be surprised at the persecution that is here now and coming in the days ahead.  In 1 John 3:13, the writer says, "Do not be surprised if the world hates you."  But Jesus said in  Matthew 5:10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdome of heaven."    What we have here is two promises.  We will be persecuted - Promise #1.  He will be with us - Promise #2. Peter shared in his first letter chapter 4 verse 12, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which cmoes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you."  All of these scriptures are prefaced with the need for us to love one another.  Why?  Because love strengthens our unity as believers and keeps us from feeling like we are all alone.  Because we are not alone!!! God is with us and other believers who call the name of Jesus are with us.  We are rooted in the one who has won the victory of victories by defeating death, hell, and the grave.  Peter even goes on in his first letter in verse "if you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."    We can believe that what Peter is saying is true because he was there and we are there now.  Do not lose heart, when we are persecuted for righteousness sake, but use that as a reminder that in the midst of these things believers should love each other even more and be united as one in our purpose and our calling.  We have gone through much training as believers in how to live this life of faith, but what will we do In the Midst of  the real battle?  Time to fight and be more bold than ever before and see God uplift us to greater heights of faith and love that will defeat, yes defeat, the powers of this world.  We cannot do it, but God can and He will.  Call upon His name and BELIEVE!!!  God does not disappoint.

14 to say,

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren