God's Mighty Men I have been doing allot of Pondering lately (just ask my wife) and one topic has been coming to the top of my head. How do I go forward? It has been 2 months since the GMM Conference and our Topic of “Activate Your Faith” has been in my thoughts…. How am I going to do this? Well three names came to mind – Jonathan from the Old Testament – Peter from the New Testament – and Jeremy Camp in the presence. Here are my thoughts on each one before I put them together…
Jonathan and His Armor Bearer: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+14&version=NIV\
Pastor Jeff did a talk on Jonathan at our first GMM Conference and it was a Powerful one. He had stated that we cannot sit under the Tree with Saul and do nothing. We have to go forward as Jonathan did – even if it means going forward with uncertainty – but going forward in knowing of God’s promises. There is one important item in this story – there were 2 men going forward together – Jonathan and the armor bearer (who was protecting Jonathans back). As men – we have different gifts – but no matter what your gift is – we must go forward together. As you know the rest of the story – God was with Jonathan and he succeeded in conquering the Philistines.
Peter Walking on Water: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+14%3A22-33&version=NIV
I did a study on a book about Peter: “If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat” – it was a great study in taking that first step of Faith and going to Jesus. But as the book stated – so many of us choose to stay in the Boat and do not take that first step of Faith. As we do take that first step – -like Peter we will probably lose our grip on what we are actually doing – but Jesus will pull us up again and again. But like Peter – we have to keep on going forward and learn from are failures to accomplish what Christ has in store for us.
Reckless – by Jeremy Camp: http://www.songlyrics.com/jeremy-camp/reckless-lyrics
I listened to a description of why Jeremy wrote this song on KLove one day. This is my brief version of what I got from it. So many times when God is asking us to go forward and accomplish what he would have us do – we stop and weigh out what the consequences might be. Most of the time when we weigh out what might happen – it keeps us from doing what God wants us to do. Please click on the link and read the Lyrics of Jeremy’s song. It takes practice to be Obedient and there are times that we will be persecuted and we will fail. That must not keep us from doing God’s will and we may have to be a little Reckless in going forward no matter what the consequence may be.
OK – are you starting to see the comparison of these three men… Since the beginning of time – we have all had to choose to go forward in Faith to accomplish what God has in store of us. If we set back and do nothing – then he cannot accomplish what he wants for us. My pondering lately has been about where God is taking my wife and me. We have made some major choices recently in which direction of where God would have us be. Through it all I am still not sure what that may be – but I have learned that I must go forward to see where it will take me. The most important thing that I have learned is: “God really wants to know if we are willing to give him all of us – before he can work through us”.
Bobbyg “Activate Your Faith”
