Marching Forth!

While driving home after church this morning, I was thinking about how God is faithful to give us what we need.  He provides for all our needs, physical and spiritual.  He also gives us things we don't realise we need.  Sometimes we just need a hug!  How grateful I am for the love and acceptance from our loving Saviour.  Other times God even gives us things we don't want but we do need.  The Good Shepherd may lay His staff across our flanks to grab our attention.  He gives His beloved sleep, yet He also wakes us up when we have become drowsy and listless. How good God is to give us what we need, just at the right time!  My God supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ.

Upon arriving at the baseball field today after two weeks off due to rain, we were met by a member of the opposite side with bad news:  since the other team only had five players available, they had to forfeit the game.  We were all disappointed.  I suppose we would rather play and lose the game then prepare to play, drive out to the field only to be told there was no game.  A win's a win, but that kind of winning isn't much fun. I thought about the five people on the other side who could have played the game but couldn't because they didn't have the support from their teammates.  I felt for them.  I'm sure they all wanted to play, even the people who were unavailable.  Who knows?  Had they been able to field a team - even of seven or eight - they could have won!  To forfeit is to give up without trying.  It's a waste because no effort has been exerted to win. I started thinking about the spiritual implications of forfeiting (I have ...

My family and I have been very busy lately since moving to a new house - new to us, that is.  We've made some improvements already with better lighting in most rooms, installed new spout on the kitchen sink, and systematically moving the dehumidifier through the rooms.  The handyman has come through and fixed up some things as well, like screen doors, bathroom taps, exhaust fans, and re-attached an air conditioning unit to the wall.  Laura still isn't able to park in the garage yet, but I hope to have that remedied within the next week. As we are reading through the book of Numbers as a family, it has become clear it doesn't always sit well with God's people to go where He leads.  Perhaps you can relate!  During decades in the wilderness, God taught His people to rely upon Him for everything:  food, water, meat, protection, and direction.  He led them to places like Marah, a place where He made the bitter water sweet and made a covenant with them....

" My son, keep your father's command, and do not forsake the law of your mother. 21 Bind them continually upon your heart; tie them around your neck. 22 When you roam, they will lead you; when you sleep, they will keep you; and when you awake, they will speak with you ." Proverbs 6:20-22   We've been studying through Proverbs on Friday nights at Calvary Chapel Sydney.  It's been a terrific time of in depth exploration and discussion.  The preceding verses have been on my mind and heart of late.  Adherence to the Law was focused on external conformity under the Old Covenant.  People could fulfill the demands of the letter of the Law without inner transformation.  The Pharisees were outwardly holy men, but were filthy within.  They kept the Sabbath according to the Law and the oral traditions, but they nursed envy and murderous intentions in their hearts.  After Christ established the New Covenant of His blood, we are no longer govern...

Mephibosheth is a compelling figure in scripture.  He was the son of a prince, crippled from a young age when his nurse dropped him upon hearing the news of the deaths of his grandfather King Saul and his own father, Jonathan.  From the moment of the fall, his life and future was uncertain at best.  When David became king in Judah and later over all Israel, Mephibosheth's life seemed to be in jeopardy.  Whenever a new king reigned apart from the line of the prior king, all the descendants of the previous king were executed to eliminate divided loyalty.  Into adulthood, lame Mephibosheth dwelt in Lodebar on the other side of the Jordan river.  He lived far from the lands given as an inheritance to his fathers, isolated, alone - and still lame in his feet, a haunting reminder of his fall from grace. But if Mephibosheth feared for his life, it would prove unwarranted.  David had made a covenant with Jonathan, Mephibosheth's father, that they would show ...

For the past week my family and I have been in the throes of moving.  We are most thankful for the help we have received from church family as we packed, hired a truck, loaded and unloaded our belongings at the new residence.  We were also able to do most of the cleaning of the old house in a single day, thanks to many people pitching in.  Now that the internet is up and running along with changing our phone and electricity providers, and most of the change of address notifications done, things are almost beginning to seem normal.  But not really.  Despite all the work done, there is much more to do! After a trip to Bunnings today for the necessities - more roach spray and to cut new keys for a new deadbolt I installed - I went by the old house to better clean the oven, range hood, dishwasher, exhaust fans, and shower doors.  When Laura went on the final walkthrough with the agent, he was ridiculously thorough - as I expected.  The list of demands se...

During my time at the Calvary Chapel Bible Institute in Rotorua, New Zealand, a point often discussed was the need for our minds to be changed.  In our sinful, natural condition our minds are completely opposed and actually hostile to God.  The first part of Proverbs 23:7 says, " For as he thinks in his heart, so is he ."  Jesus taught that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  Consider a man who smashes his finger with a hammer and curses in pain.  Is the hammer to blame for the cursing?  One man will curse in his pain, and another will praise God despite suffering.  Pain was the mechanism to bring to the surface what already festered in the heart of the man.  As a man thinks, so he is.  Thoughts precede action, and even our automatic reactions are good indicators of what hides within. The sinful nature of a man works to corrupt his mind.  Even those who have been born again and filled with the Holy Spirit must contend...

" I have loved you," says the LORD. "Yet you say, 'In what way have You loved us?' Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" says the LORD. "Yet Jacob I have loved; 3 but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness ." Malachi 1:2-3 Over the weekend a visiting pastor referenced this statement from the book of Malachi.  He said some people fault God for hating Esau, but they would do better to question his love of Jacob - the conniving, supplanting, deceitful heel-catcher!  God is not unrighteous to hate sin and those who commit abomination.  Yet God has shown mercy and grace to all through the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus Christ.  His love for Jacob was all of grace.  Man cannot question God's sovereign choices, nor can man rightly blame God for any evil.  When we are faced with difficult questions or situations which seem impossible to reconcile, we should not abandon faith for what w...

I have entered the final day of my trip to New Zealand.  It has been an absolute delight visiting with friends, speaking with the students from the Calvary Chapel Bible Institute, and witnessing the power of God to transform minds and lives.  Most of the week has been filled with rain, but this morning is clear and sunny.  My time here has been inspiring and refreshing as I have received and held forth the timeless truths of God's Word.  I cannot be the same, for I have tasted and seen again the goodness of God. When I travel, one of the aspects I enjoy the most is being an eye-witness of God's work in every place.  There is not a place in the world outside the reach of God's miraculous power to redeem and save.  No one is beyond the love, mercy, and grace of God to transform.  I heard the testimony of someone yesterday who God delivered months ago out of addictions and a destructive lifestyle.  This person was trapped in a generational cycle of...