Water, Water, Everywhere!!!

It is amazing just how much God uses water to illustrate things in the Bible.  In the book of John, Jesus is baptized, and later on He turns water into wine.  He meets a Samaritan woman coming to a well to get water and gives her the chance for spiritual water.  Jesus then heals a lame man who was by the pool of Bethesda, and then in John 7:38 says this, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water."  Which corresponds with Proverbs 20:27 where it says, "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of his being."  

One thing leads to another and the continued use of water by our Savior is something from which we draw great truth. Here are some facts about our bodies and water.  The body needs about 3 quarts of water a day to operate efficiently. It helps break up and soften food. The blood, which is 90 percent H2O carries nutrients to the cells. As a cooling agent, water regulates our temperature through perspiration. And without its lubricating properties, our joints and muscles would grind and creak like unused parts of some old rusty machinery.   When you go on a diet, they always say, "drink more water."  There is something about the flushing of our body and when that works efficiently, everything works better....and we DO lose weight.

In John 13 Jesus washes the disciples feet with....guess what?  WATER.  In Matthew 14 it tells of Jesus walking on the water and we marvel at that feat.  Why?  Because it is AMAZING!  We go a few weeks without water in our area of the country and we are calling it a drought.  When it does rain, we are so thankful God supplied the water to end the drought.  We cannot do without water, and it has been pivotal since the beginning of man.  Uh.....Noah!!  God has been moving and manipulating water to do great and mighty things from the beginning and we just miss it.  Miss what?  Miss the symbolism of this great and mighty thing called WATER!!

Water is another wonderful reminder of all God does to keep us alive and functioning and I believe we should never drink a glass or bottle of water without thanking God for his supply.  In some ways water is an ongoing miracle from God that we tend to appreciate way too lightly.  

Back to the Samaritan Woman.  When Jesus saw her coming to draw water He shared with her the water that would make her never thirst again.  The "spiritual water" he told her about was also an ongoing miracle from God.  We call it salvation and it is eternal.  Believe it or not, some have even taken for granted this great spiritual water that God paid so much  to give us.  I see people drinking water from bottles all the time.  What a great reminder of the water that Jesus gives of which we will never thirst again.  SALVATION-HOW SWEET IT IS!!  From this spiritual drink we receive from Jesus we have an amazing change that takes place that causes that water to flow from us for others to drink.  Open up the spigot and let the water flow.  Water, water, everywhere flow out of believers to a lost and dying world.

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

Shipwrecked!!

1Timothy 1:19 - 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.  In this passage the Apostle Paul is charging his "son in the faith" Timothy to keep sharing the gospel and keep offering the grace of God to those who are lost.  He charges him to "hold on to the faith" and also to hold on to a good conscience.   Conscience (def) - an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior.  Paul, in charging Timothy to keep the faith, is in fact holding him to the commitment he made in his life to follow Christ and proclaim the gospel.  "Holding him to it" means that the commitment Timothy made must be followed through and completed.  In writing these words to Timothy, Paul also brings up that some have rejected "following through" with their commitments and have been shipwrecked.  Important facts about being shipwrecked.  First, you need to have a ship.  Second, you need to sail on the water.  Third, you need to lose your way and tip the ship over and wreck it.

What is our ship?  It is our faith in Jesus Christ.  It is "who we are."  I hear Christian people and others sometimes speak about our faith as though it were some religious belief that is just like any other religious belief.  WRONG!!  Our faith is built around a relationship with the Son of God.  That faith is strengthened when we develop that relationship through ongoing instructions and admonitions from the Lord.  So we have a great ship and it is ready to go.

What is our water?  Life itself is the sea on which our ship travels.  Once again, that life is based on the incredible relationship we have with Jesus Christ.  Our inner voice changes at the time of salvation and our life is bouyed on the sea of life.  Not just to be floating around aimlessly moving from port to port but with direction.  Our sea has purpose and it is formed from living water, not a dead sea.

How do we lose our way and wreck?  We just float around and have no care about where we go and before long we hit the shore and wreck.  The ship becomes useless at that point and the water no longer keeps us afloat, but actually drowns us.  The ship was so sea worthy and the water was so crystal clear, but lo, the ship wrecks because it lost it's way or it's compass.  Compass (def) - an instrument containing a magnetized pointer that shows the direction of magnetic north and bearings from it.

Paul goes on charging Timothy, telling him that all of this is in regard to the faith.  An amazing  thing about shipwrecks.  Many of them are carrying cargo that is worth a lot, but that cargo goes down with it.  In verse 20 Paul tells of two who were shipwrecked and what happened to them.  verse 20 - 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander,whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.  Paul's patience had worn out and he let those two go because they had abandoned the faith and shipwrecked.  All of our lives are important to God and when we don't use them for His glory all the gifts he gives us go down with the ship.  Which brings to mind the very advice that Paul was giving to Timothy, and what it means for us today.

There are many who have shipwrecked in their faith and God's direction is no longer in their compass readings.  They have turned their lives over to the world and their faith is on the rocks of the shore.  Paul's advice to us would be keep on keeping on with our faith and live for Jesus in good conscience.  To do this will cause us to draw closer and closer to Jesus and become more and more focused on compass settings that give us direction toward Godliness.  No shipwrecks in our future.  Just clear sailing to glory.  For those who have fallen away....they are handed over to the one that led them to the rocks and the eventual shipwreck.  So be it.  Their lives  became a living blasphemy to the faith and those lives were not productive anymore.

The question is "where are you?"  Are you holding on to the faith and living in good conscience?  Or are you approaching the rocks and a terrible shipwreck?  Time to evaluate your life and commitment and get in line with the direction Paul was giving Timothy.  In today's world we hate absolutes don't we?  We always want to have an "out."  Paul's example was to get on with it our get out of the way.  One way or the other, "we are moving forward."  That lines up with Paul's words in Ephesians 5:16 where Paul says, "making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil."  Life is short....Live for God!  NOW!

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

The Keeper of the Spring

2 Timothy 4:3 - "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. " Are your ears easily tickled?  I hope not!!

Ears tickled means being tantalized.  Tantalized (def) - Torment or tease with the sight or promise of something that is unobtainable.  The promises of a lost and dying world are weak at best, but very appealing to those whose eyes have lost their true focus.  The writer of Hebrews wrote these words that have to be heeded and followed, Hebrews 1:2 "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  

I believe we are in the Laodecian church age and the condition of apathy is gaining more and more ground in the Lord's church and among His people.  The warning for Timothy, and us, by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:3 is very real today as we see people who have been saved and regenerated turning a deaf ear to the call of Jesus Christ.  We are in such a poor position right now and the time has come when those who call the name of Jesus are falling away from their faith.  The process looks a lot like this:

1.  A generation quits teaching the truth of God's call and what it means and the book of assumptions is taught instead of the Word of God.  That ole dead rhetoric is causing a drifting as we take our eyes off the horizon and quit looking for Jesus to return.

2. The following generations inherit the teachings of watered down theology and the drifting continues to the point that those believers are now serving the enemy, satan.

3. The uproar of weak theology and me-centered teaching has taken it's toil and all the excuses in the world cannot right the ship to the Lord's course.

4. The lazy condition completes it's process and once vibrant Christian Faith is replaced with a new  "me first" faith that makes the person their own god in their mind and the teachings of scriptural truths are substituted with scriptural half truths.

5.  The eyes that should be focused on Jesus are now focused on ourselves and we look to  the world for answers to our unhappiness, when deep down inside the Holy Spirit is telling us we need to change or repent.

6.  The cold, dark shadow of apathy has covered the land and all it's inhabitants and the vibrant, enlightened church is now dark and barely breathing.

7.  Change is needed, but the darkness is now so great even those who are faithful are falling away and defeat has become the norm.

I am not painting a very good picture here am I?   No, I am not.  But, it may be a reality picture if we just look deep enough to see it.  This is no "chicken little" false alarm.  It is the reality of the changing of hearts from serving God to avoiding God.  Where did it all start and where did it all go wrong?  Ears were tickled.  Mistakes were made.  God's Word was put on the shelf.  The late Peter Marshall tells a story of the Keeper of the Spring. Please read.

The old gentleman had been hired many years earlier by a young town councilman to clear away the debris from the pools of water up in the mountain crevices that fed the lovely spring flowing through their town. With faithful, silent regularity, he patrolled the hills, removed the leaves and branches, and wiped away the silt that would otherwise have choked and contaminated the fresh flow of water. The village soon became a popular attraction for vacationers. Graceful swans floated along the crystal clear spring, the mill wheels of various businesses located near the water turned day and night, farmlands were naturally irrigated, and the view from restaurants was picturesque beyond description. Years passed. One evening the town council met for its semiannual meeting. As they reviewed the budget, one man's eye caught the salary figure being paid the obscure keeper of the spring. Said the keeper of the purse, "Who is the old man? Why do we keep him on year after year? No one ever sees him. For all we know, the strange ranger of the hills is doing us no good. He isn't necessary any longer." By a unanimous vote, they dispensed with the old man's services. For several weeks, nothing changed. By early autumn, the trees began to shed their leaves. Small branches snapped off and fell into the pools, hindering the rushing flow of sparkling water. One afternoon someone noticed a slight yellowish-brown tint in the spring. A few days later, the water was much darker. Within another week, a slimy film covered sections of the water along the banks, and a foul odor was soon detected. The mill wheels moved more slowly, some finally ground to a halt. Swans left, as did the tourists. Clammy fingers of disease and sickness reached deeply into the village. Quickly, the embarrassed council called a special meeting. Realizing their gross error in judgment, they rehired the old keeper of the spring, and within a few weeks, the veritable river of life began to clear up. The wheels started to turn, and new life returned to the hamlet in the Alps. 

Who is our keeper of the spring?  You are!  I am!!  The trick of this whole thing is to make us believe we have no worth in the cause of Christ.  But we do.  If we don't guard our hearts against the teaching that has become the norm in the modern day Christian church, then we are feeding and worsening the problem.  It is time for all believers to take a stand for the Word of God and for the gospel of Jesus Christ as never before.  It is time to fight the darkening skies of apathy with sold out commitment to Christ and His Message.  It is time to come back to our first love, Jesus Christ, and once again stand with Him in a lost and dying world.  You may think you are not needed or necessary, but you are the "keeper of the spring" and it is vital for each of us to recapture our first love and once again fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith!!!  Our relationship with Jesus is the spring.

You may ask, "what can I do?"  The first thing we must do is "repent."  If you hate hearing the word it means you are further into this apathetic condition than you might have realized.  It means you have become a part of the problem, but now it is time to become part of the solution.  Be real to yourself and before your God as never before and He will heal your disobedient heart.  This new heart will be a threat to what is happening and you will face opposition, but it won't be from God.  In Proverbs 4:23 the Word of God says, "above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."  When you take this stand and  repent you need to put a guard on  your heart to keep you from drifting again and then go forward shining like a light to all who see you.  In Revelation 2:4 it says, "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love."  God is not happy with what is going on and we need to found serving Him and Him alone during these troublesome times.  Time to rise up O church of God!!

Isaiah wrote in chapter 60 verse 1 and 2 "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  For behold the darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon  you."  It's time for a glorified Zion to arise and be seen once again in the middle of this perverse generation.  It may only be a remnant, but a remnant with God's power is enough.  We are the "keeper of the spring" and God wants to use us for His glory, but we must change and line up with His will and His way.

Paul wrote in the book of Romans 13:12 "The night is far gone; the day is at hand.  So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light."  

Time for the army of God to fight the good fight once again and stand in the gap with Jesus Christ, our sustainer, our Lord.  Today is the day to fight!!!

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

No Fainting Allowed on the Path of Life.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Failure is a reality in life because we are a fallen people.  But,  failure is not an end, but an opportunity to do better the next time.   Too many times  we stop our progress when we don't have a very successful result from what we are attempting.  The  apostle Paul, of all people , knew about failure, but  his heart was  always looking at the eternal.  Since his perspective was that way, he continued to be energized inwardly.  Through beatings, persecution, lies, deceit by enemies, and misunderstandings by those who listened to him at times Paul kept his shoulder to the wheel.  He knew that the  present affliction at the time was only temporal and that the message still needed to be shared and Christ be glorified in his life.  Even though his body had taken a toil with all of his travels for Jesus, he knew that inwardly his faith was growing more and more each day.

Paul gives us a great example of Godly intensity that cannot be slowed or stopped by temporal setbacks.  May our lives be lined up with the same attitude Paul had keep us moving forward in our faith.  When Paul writes to the church at Corinth about the inner man He speaks from experience and his continued growth as a disciple of Jesus Christ supersedes all human reasoning in the are of commitment.  To continue to believe and strive in the midst of struggles and failures is a point of growth for any believer and turning the negative into a positive is a sign of ongoing growth and strength.  

A football coach gave this advice on how to deal with failures. "When you're about to be run out of town, get out in front and make it look like you're heading a parade."

Perspective is an amazing thing.  The continued sold out life to Jesus is the life that is inwardly growing closer to Christ in all things.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:10 "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of  heaven."  

The question is "How do we develop that kind of attitude and faith in the midst of failure?

1. Remove yourself from the picture.  Too many times I take things way to personal when God is the one who is in control and working out His plan, even through my failures.  My pride causes me to think poorly of myself because of the result of my efforts when God is directing the circumstances for His will and way.  I must remove myself from the "result part" of the whole things and leave it in God's hands.  The same thing applies when people insult us for sharing the message of Christ.  It is HIS message, not ours.   God will have His way if we will just be faithful to share the way to eternal life.  To look at it in that way is a sure sign of spiritual growth in serving.

2.  Realize what plans God has for you in the circumstances you are going through.  It would probably be good to consult with God about what He is trying to show through the things that are going wrong at this point of your life.  There is always a lesson and God is the great, loving, instructing teacher we desperately need to learn from in all things.  We begin a process where we see less of us and more of God in handling these life challenges.  In John 3:30 we see John the Baptist make a move all of us need to consider making as a matter of personal growth.  The verse says, "He must increase, but I must decrease."t  II always thought "Wow, good job John.  Let Jesus take his earthly ministry to the next level by getting out of the way."  That was not the end of truth.  That must be seen in me as well.   I must realize that God has a plan for my life and that plan is for Jesus to be seen more and more in my life, and less of me to be seen so His ministry can be realized through me.  In the 2 Corinthians scripture Paul's words of admonition to the church ring true for each us today.  As we approach the return of Jesus Christ, we are promised more affliction if we stand for Him and our inner life will need to be much stronger if we are to handle the persecution that will surely come.  HE must increase in my inner life and I must decrease in my inner life, so that my outward life, even though it is fading away will not be in vain.  So, all of the struggles should not cause us to drift further away from Christ, but draw us closer to Him as we get to know Him better in our inner self.  Hebrews 12:5 says, "and you have forgotten the exhortation which is to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him."   God directing our steps should be received as an honor and not a curse when He calls us sons and daughters and fulfills His promise to direct our steps in all ways.  We truly must rely on God to take all of the events of our lives and continue to direct our ways toward thinking and living as He wants us to.  Proverbs 16:9 says, "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.  That is the path I want to be on and stay on.  

Oh Lord direct my steps and teach me to walk with You in every area of my life.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

Maximizing Minimal Things - The Art of Purity

Maximize - Make as large or great as possible  Minimize - Reduce something unpleasant to the smallest possible amount or degree.  One of the best ways to water down something or make it less pure is to over do it.  Purity is an amazing thing and the essence of something is best seen in it's purest form, unblemished, with no additives...pure.  One of satan's most subtle assaults on God's people is to take the purity of God's Word and make it....less, or with options other than what it says.  If he can water down the pure truth then the whole thing is subject to the change that he wants to put in place.  Take for example Eve in the garden of Eden.  She had a one on one encounter with ole satan himself and things did not work out so well.....for eternity.  Paul spoke to this deception in 2 Corinthians 11:3  "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ."  The church at Corinth had it's own set of problems as the members, through their ignorance, were distorting God's simple plan and making it a monster with more rules, regulations, and spiritual traps.  Paul addressed it in both letters and tried to rein them back in to the basic ministry at hand, which was "share the gospel and follow the elementary teachings of God's Word.  The people in the Corinthian church were trying to contaminate God's Word with their own impressions of what was being said and it had gotten out of hand.  Purity (def)-   freedom from adulteration and contamination.  When we get into our impressions of what God is saying and then base our belief system on it, we have succumbed to maximizing what we think and minimizing the purity of the message itself.

Our world has gotten to the point in knowledge that we feel we can do anything and our maximizing of our own abilities has led us down a path of self glorification and self gratification.  We think our brains, that God gave us, will help us solve any problem if given time to figure it out.  The maximizing of what we can do minimizes our dependency on God.  It puts us in a position that satan tried to put Jesus in after Jesus had been in the wilderness for forty days.  In Matthew 4:1-11 we see that Jesus, after fasting for forty days was hungry.  How did satan tempt him?  In verse 3 scripture says, "The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell the stones to become bread."  To someone in our world today the tempter might say, "if you think  you are so smart, then figure this out on your own."  Like Jesus, our best bet is to use the purity of the Word of God to fight this tendency to maximize our abilities and minimize God.  Jesus answers in verse 4 "

It is written, Man shall not  live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."   Pure truth to fight a battle of the senses...hunger.  satan wanted to take the need for food and make it the BIG thing, but in reality is was a minimal thing for the Son of God because He knew where His real food was coming from.  You  may say, "Well, being hungry is a huge thing  when you are the one who is lacking in food."  It's all about perspective.  Take fasting itself.  The denial of physical food puts into perspective the desire for spiritual food that is only found in the Word of God.  Our focus changes during fasting and that focus is tuned in to God and His ways.  The purity of the Word begins to make so much more sense to us and we totally rely on it for satisfying our desire in life.

Another way the devil tempted Jesus was to take him up to the highest point of the temple and tell Him to throw himself off.  Now here the devil tries to use scripture, or seemingly scripture, to make his point.  Jesus has been set forth by the Lord God to His mission and now the devil attempts to stop him even getting started by offering up half truths in scripture to the one who IS the word.  Bad move.  Of course, the devil in this temptation left out part of the verse he was quoting because it did not benefit his cause.  The scripture he stated was Matthew 4:6 as he quoted from Psalm 91 ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands,so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."  The devil left out a very important part of this verse where it goes on to say "For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways."  The affirmation from God the Father to the Son is this "I will guard all the ways you go and all the ways you are tempted."  The devil at times tempts us in the same ways and with great effect if we follow our "humanistic" vantage point about life. Then we will see ourselves going down a broad path of destruction.  I have seen learned men take the purity of God's word and pollute it to the point that the devil polluted it when trying to tempt Jesus at the very beginning of His ministry.  Those men have decided to follow the commentary on the Word of God and not follow the Word itself.  It is very dangerous to water down the word of God with our human impressions taking precedent when trying to study it.  The words "I think" and "in my opinion" can maximize our opinions and minimize what the Word actually says.  Those words can sometimes lead us to adulter the Word of God.  Joining our thoughts and opinions with the Word of God and thus maximizing us and minimizing the Word itself.  The art of purity takes the Word of God as it is and as it is portrayed in Hebrews 4:12 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Those thoughts and intentions can change, thus making them minimal.  When we maximize our thoughts and intentions and try to make the Word of God fit them we get in major trouble and the purity of the Word is lost in the shuffle.

What can we do to preserve the Word of God in our lives?  Do what Jesus did.  When tempted to "explain away a very direct Word from God in scripture" just do what it says and believe it without wavering.  Don't put your own "spin" on it because it will make it dead and lifeless.  Let the pure Word of God speak for itself and if you follow it you will find wisdom.  Don't believe me?  Well, that is from the Word of God too.  James 1:5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."  Nuff said...

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

The Breaking Point of Clay Pots

2 Corinthians 4:7-12 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you.

Earthen vessels are clay pots.  We are compared to clay pots in this scripture and the ongoing pressure of living a believers life can be overwhelming at times, but not able to crush us.  Clay pots are made by taking "clay" and heating it to the point of turning rock hard and very resistant to outside forces.  When clay is heated the water is evaporated from it and the atmospheric pressure continues to remove the weakening part of the clay making it rock hard.  So the makeup of a clay pot has a process that makes it able to withstand the elements around it.  I have always taken this scripture to show we are weak and the clay can easily break without some assistance from another source, or God.  In reality this verse speaks to our condition as God has put his Spirit in us.  With God being in the atmosphere of our life he expels those impurities that can weaken our lives as represented by the clay.  As we go through life, the tough times do not weaken our lives, but in reality make us much more resilient and rock hard.  God's presence in  our lives hardens our resolve and cause us to be rock hard in our commitment to the cause of Christ.  What might seem like it would break will actually become stronger the more pressure God allows in it.  Our life is like clay being molded into who God wants us to be and then he hardens that clay so that our life can take the pressure put on it by the toils and troubles we encounter.  The more troubles, the stronger we get.

I will be the first to say, "I don't like the troubles"  but it is developing my faith and making me stronger, so it is the best for me for now and later.  There are certain areas of my faith that have been tested, and even though I didn't like the testing, it has made me stronger and more able to handle the pressures of live.   Here is what we need to keep in focus.  All of this strength when God's atmosphere is present and removing impurities from our life.  In the clay making process, when the atmospheric water is gone and impurities are expelled there is still about 14% of chemicals in the clay that needs to be removed.  In relation to our Christian life the removal of those strongholds that are from our past must be removed also to make our lives more like Jesus.  It causes us to totally surrender our lives in every area to the Lord.  The struggles of life become victories as we look at them through  a new lense that is God-focused.  Those who have gone before us realized a great strength in the struggles of life and God induced trials made them stronger in their faith.  It is the same for us.  In clay pot making, when the last of the chemicals are drained from the clay, the clay not only becomes stronger, but much lighter in weight.  This all makes the scripture in Matthew 11:29-30 really come to light where it says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  

Our lives are a living, growing testimony of God doing something to us and through us.  The sooner we realize that His plan is bedrock and strong, the pressures of this life will have more meaning and purpose.  When that realization comes into focus, our vantage point of looking at life will change from the bottom up to the top down.  That makes the scripture  about soaring on eagles wings have a beautiful meaning and purpose.

To end today's blog I feel I must share this scripture from James 1:2-4  "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."  

You see it, don't you?  Clay pots (our lives) are much stronger than we realize, because the presence of the Holy Spirit makes them that way.  There is no breaking point for believers who experience the atmosphere of the Lord.  NO BREAKING POINT!!  Clay -much stronger than we first thought!!

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

Repairing Fences: Mountain to Mountain Part 6 (finale) Prayer Closet Power

 So the rancher is home!! Yay!!  He has learned that God is faithful and an ever present help in times of trouble. Psalm 46:1 says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."  He goes into the barn and notices a light on in the back stall.  As he approaches the stall he can hear someone talking and then he realizes it is someone praying!!  He recognizes the voice of his loving wife and she is calling out to God for his safe return home.  He makes very sure he doesn't disturb her as she lifts up prayers for him to the heavenly Father.  She says, "God I don't know why you have led me to pray for David, but I know I must pray now.  Please bring him safely home to me and protect him as he repairs fences."  His wife looks up and sees him and comes and embraces him like she had not seen him in years.  The rancher says, "What compelled you to pray for me?  You couldn't have seen what was going on out on the trail."   She says, "I just had an overwhelming thought that I needed to pray you home.  It was God and He wouldn't let me go without praying for you."  "Well, you prayed me home.  So here I am and I am different than when I left."  How so, she asks? The rancher goes on to explain all of the pitfalls and troubles he incurred and how God walked with him all the way through it.  His wife begins to weep, knowing that God has intervened in an extraordinary way in their daily life and has drawn them near to Him through the adversity of the rancher's walk.  God has brought him home.

1.  The rancher got home and thought the lessons for the day were over, just to find that the icing was being put on the spiritual cake for not only him, but his wife.  In Jeremiah 33:3 scripture says, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things which you do not know."  We make comments like "God will show us how to live" and "God is my direction", not knowing just how much God wants to be involved in every aspect of our life.  God really is a present God who is very involved in the daily struggles and successes in our life.  He really is omnipresent and omniscient.  His involvement is also very intimate in nature as he cares for what we think are the big things and small things.  To Him they are just things.  But He responds to our needs and our cries as only a loving Father can, and in the midst of that response we sense His closeness.  One of my grandsons was playing in the  yard and I was watching him.  A very big dog came close by and it scared my grandson and He turned and looked at me and took off, running into my arms.  I held him tight and he settled right down as the dog continued on down the street away from us.  My grandson looked into my eyes and said, "I scared" as only a three year old can.  It brings to mind the many times life has put fear into me and I have turned to my heavenly Father and said, "I am scared."  And then to feel his embrace on my life and my relaxing into his strong, loving arms of protection.  Oh what a loving Father He is.  Out on the trail God could have shown up without a word and  given me strength and cleared my mind of fear and I would have gone on and finished the walk along the fence line, but what I would have missed would have been life changing.  I would have missed the conversation, the hug, the comfort of a loving, heavenly Father.  That would have been tragic.  We need to learn to call on God in all circumstances and learn to receive His strength and hear His voice.  God is responding to us and He is developing this relationship  and developing our faith to teach us to learn to trust Him in all things.  He is showing us how to grow up in our faith.  The rancher learned how to grow up on the trail and his life was never the same.

2.  Part of that lesson was the rancher realizing the importance, as never before, of prayer.  Not only him crying out to God on the trail, but God working in other people and other ways.  One way God grows us up is in our communication with Him.  He gives us the Holy Spirit to teach us to pray and the open lines of that communication are  very open!!  Yes, we many times we forget to pray to God first in all circumstances and try to live life on our own.  A point of growth for the rancher was "God is watching and listening."  A point of growth for us perhaps might be God is ready to hear and answer our prayers if we will just call out.  A scripture I shared in a past blog is 1 Thessalonians 5:17 "pray without ceasing."  I have stated, to my ignorance, in the past that we can't go around praying all the time and live our lives.  We would bump into things with our eyes closed and run off the road in a car, if we can find the car with our eyes closed.  I have very wrongly said that scripture means we are to have an attitude of prayer.  With my ignorance cleared up I will tell you I believe this verse revolutionizes our position in prayer and our purpose in prayer.  The position in prayer means we don't have to necessarily close our eyes when praying.  We can walk and move around with our eyes open and it doesn't inhibit our prayer time.  In fact, we can see more how to pray with our eyes open and it gives us a vantage point of seeing our world as we are talking to God and listening to His response.  In 1 Corinthians 13:12 "seeing" was a big part of this truth in the verse that says, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known."  A person who prays without ceasing is fully aware of God's presence with their eyes opened or closed and they can choose paths to take with their eyes open in prayer.  They can make decisions on the fly with their eyes open by seeing the world around them, and if their communication is that intense with the Heavenly Father, then they will know how to react to certain things.  My family was shopping at an outdoor mall and my daughter saw a  young lady who had passed out on a bench.  She immediately went over to the bench and prayed for the young lady until help arrived.  She saw with prayer eyes wide open and responded with action.  God really is listening 24:7 and He really wants us to live a life of prayer so He can give us instruction on how to live our lives.  We fail when we don't pray 24:7, cause He is always watching, and on call to help.  We only see partially, but in time we will see more fully the ways of God by spending time with him.  The rancher's time with God wasn't over when he got home.  It was just beginning and that time was moving into every area of his life.

3.  Last, but not least.  The praying wife in the stall at the back of the barn was a big part of this  whole process.  God had spoken to her, just like he had spoken to the rancher when his strength was gone and he was up against it.  Intercessory prayer is one of God's ways to teach us to look at others like God does.  It is God's way of letting us in on the process by burdening our hearts to pray for others.  The ranchers wife didn't know all that was going on out on the trail.  No details.  But she knew she needed to pray.  My wife is that wife.  God speaks to her many times to just stop and pray for certain people and certain things.  It is an incredible thing to be included in the processes of God and she doesn't take it lightly.  Some others may also have this option given to them, but they discount it as "just a thought."  A point of maturity will be found by a Christian when they learn that God is including them and their prayers in the processes of life by giving them burdens to pray for something with very little details.  The rancher's praying wife was a huge part of the process and God allowed her to get involved by getting on her knees in a stinky horse stall.  In the story I didn't mention that she had been on her knees praying for 8 hours.  She got off her knees when she knew he was home.  Her prayers answered.  She could rejoice just like the psalmist in Psalm 66:19  "But certainly God has heard; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer."  The book of Psalms is our guidebook for how God works through prayer and should be read every day.  We learn from others who called out to God in Psalms and echo their  cries ourselves and echo their rejoicing when God answers our prayers.  The prayer life of a believer walking with God is very active and current, much like our Lord.  Your prayer closet may be your car, your bathroom, your hallway at church, or even the altar in the worship center.  You never know when God is going to burden your heart about something or someone.  It is time to get on our knees or walk around or drive down the highway and pray without ceasing.

I hope this parable and the explanation has been helpful to bring into focus some areas of your life that you are encouraged to grow in.  The Christian life truly is a pilgrimage and if we are living and breathing we are part of that journey.  Let's walk it together.

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

Repairing Fences: Mountain to Mountain Part 5 - I Think I Can See It!!

The rancher is now even more strengthened in his walk and he actually feels a joy as he tackles it with a renewed pace.  As he approaches the top of the mountain he can already sense it is going to be a great sight to see and he visualizes it.  But when he gets to the top it is so much better than he could imagine.  Home!!  The finish line!!  I made it.  As he gazes from the top he takes one gaze back at the path he has conquered and he realizes that he is where he is because God came alongside him and gave him direction, strength, and support.  The rancher starts to walk down the mountain toward his home and spots the  four wheeler parked in front of the barn.  He thinks to himself "If I had taken the four wheeler I would not have the experience of depending on God like I did.  I'm glad I walked it."   No regrets.  No should have's or could have's.  Just life on the up high.  Me and God.

The rancher breaks into a run and gets to the bottom of the mountain and runs across a grassy knoll to the barn and pauses to say a prayer of thanksgiving for the strength to get home.  Home never looked so good!

1.  The rancher's desire to just make it home changed to a more "I can do this" stance along the way when he turned to God.  The realization of his self dependency changed to a 
God dependency along the way and that change of thinking revolutionized his faith.  His Mountain to Mountain experience led him to a whole new way of forward thinking and made his prayer life come alive.  When we focus on God and become totally dependent on Him our lives take on a whole new way of thinking.  Flexibility for change becomes a reality for us and we are extra responsive to following God's ways in faith.  Doubt becomes less and less a part of our lives and hope and faith replace it in almost every area.
2.  As we get older sometimes we start looking at the finish line as being the end of our travels and we begin to coast to the finish line, instead of running to it.  I want to be a person who sprints to the finish and then turn around and go again.  This time with a new realization of God's power working through me.  In the throes of life we can let things get us down and what should be lessons for growth become obstacles to new life and change.  When we don't keep our eyes on Jesus we can get off track and miss the fresh new challenges He has for us.  I don't want to miss any of them.  So I must keep my eyes on Him and be ready when He says....GO!  Go means pursue....new life......wonderful change.....new challenges....new horizons.....etc.  It doesn't mean "run away."  It means "run to."  1 Corinthians 9:24 says  "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may win."  Paul goes on to say in the following verse...(The Message) I don't know about you, but I'm running hard for the finish line.  I'm giving it everything I've got.  No sloppy living for me!  I'm staying alert and in top condition. I'm not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else about it and then missing out myself."  You can call it whatever you want, but I am not into living in the valleys. I want to conquer more and more mountains in my life and when you walk with God He will stretch you so you can conquer those mountains.  
3.  So the rancher gets back to the ranch in one piece and he is so happy to be home.  Everything is familiar and safe and he can rely on the water source and stop and rest .
Now home looks totally different to him.  In the safe area of his ranch, with his wife, he can walk with God in easier circumstances.  But...he knows it was the tough walk he just completed that made his faith more real and more alive.  So, whatever God sends his way, he is ready to go conquer that mountain and grow more in his faith.   Complacency and apathy will not be the gods of his life anymore because God has given him a new faith-energy that is compelling him to do more and more in the days ahead.  Paul wrote to the church at Philippi and in chapter 2 verse 17 he stated his attitude about life, But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all."  My basketball coach had one rule for playing a game. Leave your very best effort on the court.  Give everything you have in the game and you will have won in your heart, no matter the score.  That is the kind of winning I believe Paul was talking about.  So to all who are reading this blog I say, "EFFORT UP!"  Run hard to the end "I think I can see it!"


The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

Repairing Fences: Mountain to Mountain Part 4 - The Valley

In this part of the parable the rancher has made it over the first of two mountains on his way to repairing fences.  Early on he realized this was a much more taxing trip than he first thought, but God has given him new strength and, He not only wants the boost in energy, he wants to continue talking and learning from God along the way.  As he walks down from the mountain he enters the valley between the two peaks and continues talking and spending time with God.  Instead of becoming more tired he is actually refreshed the more he travels and when he gets to the valley he notices a fresh stream and takes a good, long drink from it. When he gets up from drinking his eyes are opened and everything looks different to him.  What seemed to be just a path before him now opens up to a wider path up the last mountain, bordered with beautiful flowers and fruit all along the way.  The rancher is revitalized as never before and picks up the pace as he comes out of the valley.  What he thought would be his last bit of energy has turned into a fresh, dynamic feeling of vitality that is energizing his body and his mind.  Even though the valley loomed ahead earlier as a place to quit, he nows sees that in the midst of that valley is the very strength he needed for a whole new outlook about traveling up the final mountain. Dread and despair are replaced with hope and energy.

1.  The rancher made a decision after God gave him more strength to keep talking and walking with God.  This is the way God continues to walk with us when we learn to depend on Him.  Many times we think we are on a short time schedule when spending time with God, but in reality God likes it when we spend time in prayer with him.  Spending time in prayer with God is for speaking and listening.  Prayer is our chance to get to know God in that personal way made possible by Jesus.  In Philippians 4:6 it says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by  prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."  There is a little hint in this verse about how much time we need to spend in prayer to God.  Everything is the hint and it is the hint because when when we start bringing everything to God in prayer, that is a lot of time spent in prayer. 1Thessalonians 5:17  says, "pray without ceasing."  In this verse the apostle Paul shows just how dependent he was on God  and how much prayer meant to him.  It would be such a waste to have the prayer lines open so wide and use them so little.  The rancher turned to God in that time of trouble, but kept on turning and learning from God through the entire trip.  Prayer is a constant for us and our constant contact with God through prayer helps us conquer mountaintops and valleys.

2.  The rancher had learned early on that God was there to supply his needs and he wasn't surprised to see a fresh water stream in the midst of the valley between the two mountains, so he took a drink.  God supplied the water to refresh him as it says in Jeremiah 31:25  "For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes."  Languish (def) - lose or lack vitality. grow weak or feeble.  God is our energy and His energy takes a tired person and gives them vitality for the journey. The 23rd psalm speaks well of God's sustenance and his supply for the journey in life.  The rancher went through the valley with no problem because God was walking with him and supplying him the energy and strength to not get discouraged while in the valley.  Verse 1 of Psalm 23 says "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  Verse 4 says "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for You are with me."  God doesn't just help us barely make it .  He gives us victorious hope and strength that energizes us, even when we are at the point of death.  

3.  Psalm 119:18 (The Message)  says "Open my eyes so I can see what you show me of your miracle-wonders."  The rancher takes a drink of the water God supplied and when he gets up he sees the path in a whole new way.  He sees the beauty of the flowers and fruit along the path.  His vision is not obstructed by worry or fatigue.  He sees life in a whole new way....positive....hopeful......heavenward.  The path begins to broaden and the narrow path that he chose to go on broadens as God opens his way before him.  His choice to take the narrow path actually made it possible to find another broad path that was adorned with beauty and easier walking.  In Matthew 7:13-14  Jesus says, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only few find it."  The rancher found this narrow path because he was walking with God. Traveling on that path with God opened up an even broader, more exciting path that was filled with good things.  The narrow path is not necessarily a path of obstruction, but a path of direction.  When we walk with God he shows us the way to His path and we get great encouragement from what he shows us when we choose His ways.  The world offers many different eye-appealing paths, but God's path is the only one to choose and it is a narrow path.  Proverbs 14:12-13 says, "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."  God's path may be narrow at the beginning, but when following his course we see that the path opens us up to God sized blessings that we would have missed by choosing the world's broad path.  We do not know God's ways until we learn to walk with Him and choose His path.  Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  
So who do we think we are?  Our reasoning is flawed at best, but God's ways are perfect. So why not get his thinking in our brain and take on His perspective.  It cannot happen unless we follow His Word and walk with Him in an ongoing prayerful way.

Choose this day who you will serve and then serve Him with all your heart. He will guide your through the valleys in your life and set you on a path that is laden with beauty and satisfaction.  God is life!!!  No substitutes!!!

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren