Get Up and Get Out!

I went down a road tonight that I travel numerous times daily from my home. With all the rain we've had the last few days the road has flooded and it was closed. This is by itself, given my lack of patience, a huge source of frustration for me. What was worse was they didn't mark it before you turned to go down the road, you turned ,went some distance --only to find out you have to turn around go back and find another way. I stopped my vehicle at the barricade thinking about what I should do. Cursing the situation was not helping. The thought of going around and trying to go through in my 4 wheel drive truck even crossed my mind because I was ddetermined to get to my destination. As I made my turn around I grumbled about how the closure should have been marked before you went down the road. This delay as well as the detour really agitates me. Then the Lord used that moment to speak to me.

He reminded me of the roads I have chosen at times in my life that have only brought me to have to stop--turn around and find another way. He reminded me of the delays and detours that have frustrated His purposes being fulfilled in my life. I know in the Sovereign Reign of God His ultimate purpose will be accomplished in my life. I know that even detours are just that--detours. It does not mean you are not going to get where you were going--your just going to get there some other way.

And then there are delays. No one likes delays. In American culture we are now the microwave generation. Think about it, a cross country journey used to takes weeks. Now it is only a matter of a few hours on a jumbo jet. Yet we grumble about a twenty minute flight delay. Think about communication. Not too long ago our best form of long distance communication was a "pony" on an "express". Then the telegraph and soon to follow a telephone. I remember when a phone call took minutes with a rotary dial phone and a long distance call that always required an operator. Today, with our cellular generation, my call travels from my phone to a satellite miles up in the atmosphere and back down to earth ANYWHERE practically in the world in a matter of seconds! If my call gets dropped, my how we complain that we have to take a few seconds and do it all over again.

In the kitchen, meals that used to take hours to prepare now literally take only minutes. We can go through a drive-thru and in a few minutes pick up a entire meal for the whole family. Modern times have made us the "instant generation". Instant results are mandatory for contemporary culture. For most of these things I am personally grateful, but for the present day mindset they have brought us to--I am not. To us delays are an inconvenience, to God they are simply a part of the process--even a part of His will.

I want to encourage you that delays--like detours--do not mean you are not going to get where your supposed to be. It just means it's going to take a little longer. Do not let our American mindset get us derailed at the onset of delay, Realize that God has a building program in delays--a character building program. But also realize satan has a program in delays.

Remember Terah--Abraham's father. We all know Abraham and his significance in the program of God, but Terah received the call to "go to another land" and receive a new identity as the covenant people of God alongside of Abraham. Except why don't we ever hear about him? If Abraham is the "father" of faith, why isn't Terah the "grandfather" of faith? When we come to know Abraham in Genesis 12 he is travelling alone with the exception of his nephew Lot. But when he got the call to leave Ur of the Chaldees, he left with his WHOLE family, including his father, brother, and all the children.

I read in Genesis 12:1 where God spoke to Abraham and it syas, "And the Lord had said..." In other words in was written in a past tense. God had previously spoken and He was now re-issuing his spoken word. When He originally spoke it, it came in the context of the ENTIRE family. In Genesis 11, the Bible identifies the family as Terah, Nahor and Haran--Abrham's brothers, and Lot--Haran's son-Abraham's nephew. Unfortunately we read how Haran died in his father's arms before they left Ur. So, Terah, Nahor, Lot, and Abraham, and all their families left for Canaan to find their destiny in God's eternal promise.

But hidden away in Genesis 11 is a very powerful truth that you need to get a hold of. It says in verse 31, "and THEY went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there....and Terah died in Haran."

Haran in Hebrew means "mountaineer". Amazingly this town bears the same name as Terah's son. We don't know anything about Haran from Scripture, but names say alot about the individuals that bear them. For example, Jacob means "deceiver" and we know what he was in his character before his encounter witrh God. Haran was a mountain climber, in fact, this journey they were on would have been his joy and delight. But circumstances being what they were he never got to make the trip. But his father brought him in his heart, in fac,t no one knows how deeply Terah's grief was over his son's loss but Terah himself. Painful experiences have a way of resonating deep in our hearts and lodging there for a long, long time.

We can carry the residue of those painful hurts in a hidden place masked by smiles and thoughts of denial. A divorce, a death, a betrayal, an abuse of some sort and we are indelibly marked for life unbeknownst even to ourselves. We pronounce I am over it, it doersn't bother me, I am o.k.. But unhealed wounds, unresolved issues will always eventually have to be faced. In fact, God in His infinite mercy has detours and delays DESIGNED for this very purpose.

I personally believe God brought Terah to Haran for this express purpose. He had some unresloved issues over the death of his son--who wouldn't. When they came to Haran the Scripture says they "dwelt" there. This was not their destination, but it was a part of the trip necesarry for Terah to get this dealt with in order to get on with the future. The truth is that it is impossible to reach for tommorrow while your holding onto the past. A past hurt, a past disappointment, a past loss can and will come, it may even "delay" you but listen beloved--God has brought you there to HEAL you and set you FREE from your past so you can embrace your future.

Do you know what Terah means in the Hebrew? It literally means DELAY! Delays are inevitable as we have to deal with issues in our lives. BUT! Delays are meant to bring healing and deliverance. But if you are not careful dealys CAN be deadly. If you do NOT receive the healing balm of GILEAD and by the grace and power of God get delivered from your hurt, you could quite possibly get "stuck". How many people, like Terah, have come to "Haran" the place where they should be climbing mountains, but they are stuck--and can't seem to get up the mountain to get to God's purpose for them. Scripture says of Terah that he never got past Haran. It says sadly, "he died there."

Beloved let me encourage you to "get up" and "get out!" God came to Abraham and said exactly that. His father was stuck, but he could not let his father's hurt be his own demise. He left his father in Haran, and after a delay went to God's promise for him. I have been "stuck" in so many ways in my own life. I have "dwelt" (to make a home), where I had no business dwelling, but I tell you it is imperative that we GET UP! And get on with our destiny. Detours and delays--they are a part of the journey, but they are not our DESTINATION! They are just places along the road we must cross to GET WHERE WE ARE GOING!

Are you stuck? Are you experiencing a delay? Have you found yourself being detoured? You are not in a BAD place--you are right where the Father wants you. Allow the Holy Spirit to heal your hurts, to give you closure to your wounds, to grant you strength to let go of your past--so you can EMBRACE your future. God bless you and GET UP AND GET OUT!

Evening THEN Morning

I was sharing in Westville Correction the other day in a weekend seminar. The seminar topic was on "Knowing God", and I was talking how we come to know God through experiences in life both good and bad. There is alot of people who preach a Gospel that proclaims God's ultimate aim is to make you more comfortable. But the truth of the matter is that God is MORE concerned about making your life more conformed to His Son and NOT more comfortable.

What this means is to get to the place of conformity takes PRESSURE! Face it, we NEED pressure! Pressure --the right amount is what gives a guitar string perfect pitch. To little and it is flat and out of tune, too much and it is sharp and can even "break" the string. The good news is God knows what you can handle and promises not to put too much on you. But He does not promise you freedom from pressure--because He knows that is not healthy either.

The fact is before things get better sometimes they get worse. Hidden in Genesis 1 is this principle. It is in verse 3, "Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day."

First evening THEN day. Note darkness is first, then light! Think about it, hidden here is a spirtual principle that we must grasp in order to find strength during the times of pressure--or 'darkness', lest we become weary and faint. Did you ever get a word from God that spoke of deliverance and divine help only to find things took a turn for a worse instead of getting better.

You are not the first to experience this. Remember when Moses went to Pharoah with God's word to "Let My PEOPLE GO!" Exodus 6:1Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” God had surely spoken to Moses and deliverance was on the way as God 'saw' the pressure they were under(bondage), and promised to send them deliverance. So Moses goes to Pharoah proclaiming the word of the Lord and what is the result?

In Exodus the 5th chapter it tells how that after Moses went in to Pharoah that things got WORSE! Now they have to go out and get their own straw to make bricks and they have to still meet the same quota as when the straw was brought to them. Do you see it? Evening then morning, worse then better. Evening is what makes the morning so beautiful and meaningful.

I shared with the men the darkest time in my life when I lost my son to leukemia. It was the toughest thing I've ever endured, but because of that I was brought to morning! God used that experience to bring me to Him and rather than cursing the darkness He taught me to praise Him for the LIGHT! Many go through such things and blame God, get mad at God, take it out on God by becoming bitter and hard. We make God the scapegoat for our failure and take out our disappointment by holding back from him.

Well in sharing this message I wrapped it up with an exhortation to NOT blame God for the evening, but if you want to get mad at somebody, get mad at the devil and SERVE God with all your heart in order to get even with the devil.

After prayer we took a break for lunch. As I sat there a man walked up to me named Jim(named changed to protect the innocent), he asked if he could talk to me for a second. I said sure and asked him to sit down and share what was on his mind. He started out by telling me he was mad at God and was not serving God out of anger and deep hurt. He began to cry softly and then to sob almost uncontrolably. He couldn't talk for the tears. I put my arm around him trying to console him and after quite awhile he got control of himself and told me this story.

One night while being at home with his 3 kids, his youngest ran out of diapers. He left the kids to go to a convenient store to get more diapers. On returning he turned the corner to his subdivision and saw a dark flume of smoke rising to the sky. He said his first thought was "I hope that is not my house". But sadly it was. Not only did he lose his home but all 3 of his children perished in the fire. He became bitter and blamed God for the tragedy. Consequently he tried to soothe his pain in drugs and alchohol and his whole life went out of control, Thus he ended up in prison and just added insult to injury.

He said he saw that day the futility of blaming God and wanted to stop the path he was walking and see "morning". I assured him God was the only one who could turn such hurt into healing and on the other side somehow there was beauty for these ashes.

Afterwards I thought how awful what this man experienced. I can no way liken my experience to his. My heart hurt for him and yet I was amazed how God in His love reached out to this dad and how morning always follow evening! Think about it--evening THEN morning.