New Testament Priests

“Since you have never traveled this way before, they will guide you. Stay about a half mile behind them, keeping a clear distance between you and the Ark. Make sure you don’t come any closer” (Joshua 3.4 NLT).

The Nation of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, but now they are about to take their first steps into their Promise Land. They have never been this way before, so God chose His priest to carry the Ark of the Covenant a small distance away from the people. The people then followed in the wake of God’s chosen leadership into this new area and chapter of their lives. Sometimes we are called to be the “people.” God appoints leaders in our lives who guide us into further intimacy with Christ. We learn by their example and find strength in their confidence to live a life pleasing to God. However, God also calls us to be the “priests.” As Christians, we are chosen by God to be New Testament Priests; and many times God will choose us to be the first in our families, churches or spheres of influence to walk a unique path with God. Others will follow in our wake, so we need to make sure that we cling tightly to the “Ark of the Covenant,” which symbolizes the presence of God. If God has given us authority and influence, we are now responsible for the people who follow our leadership. So if you feel unsure and nervous about the new direction God is leading you away from the crowd, find strength in God and hold firmly to His Word, Promises and Presence. You’ll never know how many people find guidance and confidence by your watching your walk with Christ and who step out on faith because of your example.

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2.9 NKJV).

“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5.4-5 NLT).

You asked me to declare English when I wanted athletics.
You asked me to read when I lacked discipline.
You asked me to teach when I feared responsibility.
You asked me to remain, so they could break me.

You told me to write a book when I wanted a Ph.D.
You told me to lead when I lacked conviction.
You told me to stay home when I feared insignificance.
You told me to linger, so time would break me.

You ordered me to move in grace when I wanted perfection.
You ordered me to blog when I lacked wisdom.
You ordered me to combat when I feared brutality.
You ordered me to stand, so You did break me.

In my breaking, I have found freedom.
In my pain, I have claimed certain joy.

My eyes see eternity;
My ears the final trumpet.

Purpose quickens my pace,
And love levels my path.

In You
I win.

Deuteronomy: Before the Chosen People fight for their Promise Land, Moses summarizes God’s commandments and encourages the nation with speeches, songs, and blessings.

Deuteronomy 1.27

Deuteronomy 2.7

Deuteronomy 10.16

Deuteronomy 12.14

Deuteronomy 18.20

Deuteronomy 28.2

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“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5.11 ESV).

The Encouragement

My husband ran Beach to Bay, which is a relay marathon in our hometown of Corpus Christi, TX. He ran the fourth leg of the race out of six; but toward the end of his almost 5 mile run, he began to lose steam. Though he knew it had to be close, he began to walk the last half mile of the race. He was exhausted.

A woman jogging a medium cadence came up behind him. She wasn’t about to let my 6’5” athletic build husband ease his way to the finish line. She started yelling “encouragement” at him.

“Pick up the pace!” she called. “Don’t you dare walk. Get moving! You’re going to run to the end.”

My husband shrugged his shoulders and began to jog once more. A few seconds later he saw the finish line, and he began to run faster. Once he saw his relay partner, he was in an all-out sprint before he passed the baton.

 The Jealousy

My three year daughter fell into a pool near the steps where my five year old son was standing. As my husband ran to retrieve her, our son grabbed her out of the water and held her. We were all so excited because our son saved his little sister. However, our seven year old son who was next to his father at the time became angry.

When I asked him what was wrong, he said, “I wanted to save her!”

I explained to him that he should be happy for his brother’s victory. I said that I was proud of both my boys, and I reminded my eldest of all of his many victories. I could tell he understood, but it was still hard for him to encourage his brother.

I realized that there are situations in our lives where it is easy to encourage others, but there are other situations where it is more difficult. And I wondered what made the difference.

The Difference

The woman who encouraged my husband was not in the race to win. She probably ran for enjoyment or for a feeling of accomplishment, but she was not one of the professionals who fly from distant lands to our little city to compete for a prize. Some of the teams running in our marathon invest great amounts of money, sweat and time to win. And I can almost guarantee that they are not encouraging their competitors to pick up the pace! Although her encouragement is greatly value and shows her care for others, it comes from someone who has nothing to lose or prove–she wasn’t interested in first prize. She was having a good time and enjoyed gathering others in her bubble of joy.

On the other hand, my eldest son invests a great deal into his relationship with his sister. He holds her in the pool when they swim together, he compliments her wardrobe, he prays with her and—like his younger brother—he loves her. So when his brother won “first prize”–which is probably how he viewed it—he became jealous. He wanted to win, so it was hard for him to encourage his brother. He had to make the choice to do it anyway.

The Reasons

I believe there are two reasons that prevent us from encouraging one another. The First reason is that we have not asked God what He has planned for our lives. If we knew the victories God has already won for us, we would not covet the victories of others. I can be happy for missionaries in foreign countries because I know that I’m not called to it. I can be happy for worship leaders because I know that I’m not called to it. I am a writer. It may not be glamorous. I may type in my pajamas. I may not be around a lot of people. But I’m called to it!

However, it used to be hard for me to encourage other writers—especially writers similar to me—who are publishing, who are making a difference for Christ, who are so extremely gifted that they seem to create syntactical symphonies everywhere they go. I had to choose to encourage them. I used to examine all of the effort, time and resources I invested into sharpening my craft, and I’d wonder, “Why can’t I win first place?” But after watching my son’s difficulty with encouraging his brother, I understood the second reason it is difficult to encourage others: We forget that God’s favor, His blessings, and His victories are not finite–they are infinite, boundless and limitless!

The Prize

God has all the natural and supernatural resources at His disposal, and He can choose to make more whenever He pleases. He wants to bless His children, and He has an infinite amount of victories available for each of us. We don’t have to be jealous of the people winning to our right and to our left because He has a path of wins right in front of us. When we choose to encourage those around us, we show God that we believe in His unlimited favor, we believe that He has great things planned for us, we believe that His glory has an endless supply, and we believe that He desires all of us to win!

So instead of being jealous, let us believe that we will all be standing across the finish line of heaven—each wearing our individually tailored victor’s crown and gold medal. We can joyfully encourage others in this race of life because our Father has a first prize for each of us that only we can claim. God has already won it for us; we just need to reach out and grab it!

“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing” (1 Corinthians 9.24-26 NLT).

Overtaken

“And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 28.2 NKJV).

God is the creator, maker and giver of everything good. He is an unending tap of love, hope, peace and joy in a world corrupted by sin. He bestowed us with free-will knowing we would sabotage His perfect creation with our godless choices, so He prepared a redemption plan by sending Himself to take the punishment for our sin through Jesus Christ–God clothed in flesh. Although God did not create sin, He allows it to exist in this world as a tool to cut away the sin in our own lives and hearts. Christians can grin and bear the painful process of transforming into the image of Christ or we can be so enraptured by the favor of God that we find joy in the center of our breaking and healing. The Bible says that if we follow the voice of the Lord, His blessings will “come upon and overtake” us. Can our enjoyment and enthusiasm of living for Christ be so great–so overwhelming–that we barely notice the bumps and bruises along the way? Can we recognize just how fleeting and short our time is on earth that our view of the finish line–heaven–prevents us from dwelling on our stumbles in this life? We have a promise: If we obey the voice of the Lord we will be overtaken by His blessings. Though heartache and pain will continue until our deaths, we can diminish their weight by receiving the unlimited favor and blessings God has for each of us. All we have to do is obey His voice and tap into the source of all that good.

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1.8-9 NIV).

 The Blameless Talk

“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die” (Deuteronomy 18.20 NKJV).

It is very important that we sit with God every day and consciously submit our spirits to His, so that our spirits and the Holy Spirit may blend and become one. When we try to compartmentalize God in our lives, we divide our intentions from His. If this happens, we may speak His Words in certain capacities, but in others–where our spirits dominate–our words will speak the will of our flesh. We may feel safe in our words because in most areas we know we are submitted to His will, but the Enemy won’t attack the submitted areas of our lives. He’ll attack the areas that we grope at for control. If the Holy Spirit does not claim complete authority, we walk a tight line of being true and false prophets. At any moment our fleshly intentions can rear up and profess the will of God falsely. As Christians and leaders in God’s Kingdom, we stand accountable when we speak words that are absent of the heart of God. God tells us in His Word that a prophet “shall die” if he/she speaks in the spirit of the flesh. Although we are saved by grace and have assured forgiveness, we do strangle the amazing purpose God has planned for us with each false self-spoken word. It is no small matter to claim insight and wisdom of God if we are not daily sitting with Him. False prophets are not the loudest voices making the biggest commotions against Christ; they are the whispers and nuances of average Christians claiming faith but not aiming to achieve complete surrenderance to the Holy Spirit.

“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful” (1 Thessalonians 5.23-24 NLT).

Moral Decay

“You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things” (Deuteronomy 12.14 NKJV).

The Old Testament Chosen People lost their Promise Land because they completely erased God and His Word from their lives and nation. Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom (Israel) starting in 740 BC and Babylon conquered the Southern Kingdom (Judah) starting in 587 BC. The sad truth is that the Children of God were still worshiping God, but they were worshipping God like the pagan people worshipped their Gods. When God’s people stopped sitting with Him every day and seeking His Word and Will, the fiber of their purity, beauty and righteousness slowly deteriorated. God warned them not to worship Him with the things of this world, but they allowed the weeds of sin to flourish in their lives. As the New Testament Chosen People, the nation of the United States of America is the New Testament Promise Land. It is extremely obvious to the rest of the world that we are a blessed and favored people. But we must take care not to allow the world to dictate to us how we worship God in our churches, lives, families, relationships, government, etc. If we don’t continually sit with God and obey His Word and Will, our nation will begin to morally decay. When we compartmentalize God in His own creation to justify our disobedience, it’s only at matter of time until we completely forsake Him. And once we lose His blessing and His favor, we will realize just how much we sinned and how good we truly had it.

“Then when I have brought you home to the land I promised with a solemn oath to give to your ancestors, you will know that I am the Lord. You will look back on all the ways you defiled yourselves and will hate yourselves because of the evil you have done” (Ezekiel 20.42.43 NLT).

It is spring, so I enrolled my kids in swim lessons. Since I have three kids, I played with two of them in the pool while the third was in a lesson. Each lesson was half an hour long, and I enjoyed the dynamics of having just two kids to interact with. While my middle child who is five was having his lesson, I had my three-year-old little girl clinging to me and my seven-year-old son splashing around me.

My seven-year-old loves to analyze, think, relate and communicate. He’s like his mommy, except he would rather talk and I’d rather write. Apparently he was enjoying my full attention because he spontaneously gave me a hug and said, “I love you, Mommy.” He then wrapped his arms around me, and I held him gently with my free arm.

As I stood in the pool with my little girl in one arm and my oldest boy in the other, my analytical son said, “Wow, Mommy! The water helps you to carry both of us!”

I instantly thought of the parallel of Jesus being our Living Water (John 4.10). Water has many amazing uses for the body, but I never thought of it as a way to lighten our load. Jesus tells us that if we connect ourselves to Him, our burdens would be easy to bear.

I used to struggle with this promise because my load always seemed so heavy. I would get frustrated because I knew I was missing out on a promise that was rightfully mine as a coheir with Christ and part of God’s family. However, through years of doing life the wrong way, I’ve learned that when I keep my eyes centered on Christ, my load truly is easier.

Although there are short, difficult seasons in my life that strengthen my faith and resolve, I’ve found that for the most part each day feels like I’m being carried by the flow and ebb of Living Water. I’ve noticed that I have just enough time to do everything that God has called me to each day, especially spending time with Him.

I know that each person and journey is different; but as a woman, the main thing that burdened me was the opinions of others. I didn’t realize how wide and deep my decisions, actions and emotions were affected by what I perceived other people thought. My load greatly lightened when I started to shed the clinging hands that I allowed to share my yoke with Christ.

I discovered the best way to lighten my load is to examine each of my thoughts, decisions and actions and see if it is yoked to Jesus or someone else. If I have unknowingly lassoed someone else’s opinion into my actions, I quickly ask for forgiveness and release the burden. I have to be aggressive about not allowing others to replace God’s authority and prominence in my life, because only He offers me buoyancy to carry on with ease.

Questions: Have you unknowingly allowed other people to compete with God’s opinion of you? How does carrying the weight of other people’s feelings add unhealthy worry and busyness to your life? How will focusing on God’s will for your life ease your burdens?

“For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11.30 NLT).

*You can also read this article at the Internet Cafe!

MORE: A Four Letter Word

“For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing” (Deuteronomy 2.7 NKJV).

Too many Christians think the word, MORE, is a “four letter word.” They believe that as Christians, we should be satisfied with what we have, where we are at and who we have become. There is no need to have crazy, big dreams because that would be greedy and a little risky. However, our God is a big God, and His favor, grace and goodness are limitless. We stop the fruition of His work in our lives when we believe that wanting more is wrong. All throughout the Bible, people have desired more while learning to stay content in God’s timing. We can appreciate where we are at, yet keep our eyes focused on where we wan to go. God led the people of Israel through the wilderness where they lacked nothing. Even though God made sure that they had everything they needed, He was not planning on leaving them there. God wanted to give them MORE! God had a Promise Land waiting for them! The wilderness looks different for all of us, and God will make sure that our needs are met. But He doesn’t intend for us to stay there–He wants our God-given passions to drive us to our Promise Land! When we become open to MORE, we will begin to have a hunger and a thirst for God that can’t be quenched. We will crave, seek and claim MORE of His goodness, and we will willingly sacrifice all that hinders us from greedily taking MORE of Him!

“The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night.” – John Piper, Hunger for God 

Immovable yet Movable

“Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer” (Deuteronomy 10.16 NKJV).

Spiritual growth is a choice. A person can be surrounded by the best Christian resources, people and experiences; but unless that person’s heart is circumcised and his neck pliable, he will not mature. In order to be circumcised, a man must stay absolutely still for the procedure to be performed properly. God wants to trim our hearts of sin, selfishness and pride; but when we are not disciplined to stand firm, we indirectly shake His hand away. God has given us many commandments in the Bible, and if we remain immovable in them, He is able to shape us into the awesome image of Christ. Also, we must ensure that our necks are not stiff. When farmers plowed their fields, they couldn’t used stiff-necked oxen. These obstinate oxen could not be led; therefore, they could not be trained and used. God wants to lead us into His best. He wants to train us up as Christian leaders. However, if we are not humble, we will be stubbornly stuck in our sin, selfishness and pride. If we allow God to guide and move us, we will walk in victory in His favor and grace. Christians have the choice to stay immovable in God’s Word but movable in God’s Will, so they will experience amazing spiritual growth and be used as a powerful tool for God’s kingdom.