Missing! (Galatians 6)

Missing! (Galatians 6)

Galatians 6.9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. [nkjv]

On 1st March 1989, Debbie and Mark Baskin faced every parent's worst nightmare. Their two children disappeared. Christie & Bobbie, then seven and eight years old respectively were abducted. Over the years various sightings were reported to the police however the children were never located. Computer generated images of how the children may have aged were released to the media but to no avail.

Debbie & Mark, who were training to be Baptist ministers at the time of the abduction said, "We've prayed for them each and every day like they were alive and asked God to watch over them and bless them and to give them a normal life in the midst of insanity, in the midst of what they have lived through."

20 years later, God has answered their prayers! In February this year police contacted the Baskins say that they had located the children, now in their late 20's and charged Marvin Maple, the children's grandfather with their abduction. You can check out the news report here

There are many times we pray in earnest and don't see immediate answers to those prayers. No matter how difficult it is or how urgent the prayer, the simple truth is all we can do is all we can do. And we leave the rest to Almighty God.

The key is not to give up. It's easy, but dangerous to lose heart. In the ancient world, this phrase 'lose heart' was used to describe the kind of exhaustion a woman experiences during labour but before delivery. It was used to describe a time when the work is hard and painful, but also unfinished and unrewarded. But the encouragement from the Lord is when you walk through times like that don't grow weary in doing what you know to do, because in due season you will reap a reward.

And if you don't believe me, just ask the Debbie and Mark Baskin.

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The Bravest Loser! (Galatians 5)

The Bravest Loser! (Galatians 5)

Galatians 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. [nkjv]

Eric Choppin was 36 years old and 407 pounds when he got the call from NBC to say he was a contestant on Season 3 of the Biggest Loser. He had struggled most of his life to overcome his battle with obesity and this was the chance of a lifetime to finally walk free. It was literally now a matter of life or death as he had been recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and a variety of weight related medical conditions.

He worked hard and with the help of his trainers, Eric managed to lose 214 pounds in 12 weeks, making him that season's Biggest Loser. However once the show was over and the cameras were switched off, Eric struggled to maintain his new weight. Over the months which followed, he gained 122 pounds! Feeling ashamed, he did his best to avoid the media by using older photograph's of himself on Facebook and myspace, and even turned down an offer to appear on Oprah with the other Biggest Loser contestants.

In January, Eric could no longer live a lie. He accepted a second invitation by Oprah to share his story and struggle. Many were shocked by how far he had fallen. During the interview he candidly admitted his failure, he apologised to those he had let down and made a fresh commitment to continue his battle to overcome obesity.

I've come to greatly admire people like Eric. People who refuse to give up despite failure.

I wish more Christians had this same tenacity. So many of us keep getting caught out by the same temptations over and over again. After years of falling down, we see ourselves as weak and powerless.

But the truth remains, Jesus has paid the price so we can be free. This doesn't give us a green light to sin but it does mean that if we fall, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we have a choice to make, do we admit defeat and stay down or are we brave enough to get back up, dust ourselves off, place both feet firmly on the ground and continue the fight.

Someone once said, "the secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage."

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Be All You Can Be! (Mark 14)

Be All You Can Be! (Mark 14)

Mark 14. 8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. [nkjv]

Randy Kraus was paralyzed. His left side was useless. But his right hand was good enough to lift the barrel of a .38 to his temple. Once, he'd been a police officer in Fresno, California, and owned a private-eye agency. Once, he'd been strong and able. Now, he felt he was nothing.

His trouble started with Parkinson's disease, but it didn't end there. In July 2002, the 60-year-old Kraus went into the hospital for an operation that implanted electrodes in his brain to control the shaking. But during the operation, he had a stroke. He was paralyzed. The cop, the tough guy, the man who loved golf, "could think, but couldn't move." Transferred to a rehab hospital, Kraus wanted the therapists to give it to him straight. "You may never walk again," they told him. "Maybe you won't even be able to talk."

Once home, he found he couldn't lift a fork or take a drink by himself. Physical therapy was so painful and slow. What did he have to live for? So now Kraus held the gun against his head. Feeling the cold metal on his skin, he began to consider not his pain, but the pain he would cause his wife, daughters and grandchildren. He didn't pull the trigger.

And his exercise physiologist, Andrew Garud, didn't pull any punches with him. "You are where you are", he told him. "The pace would be slow; the pain would be real. But as long as you are alive, you have the ability to get better." After three months of working with Garud, Kraus wanted to see if he could stand. He could. Then he took three steps, sat down and cried like a baby.

One step, as they say, led to another. Next he managed a short walk along the edge of a boxing ring in the health club where they worked out. It was the hardest fight of Kraus's life. People at the gym cheered him on. Garud kept saying he could do more.

Today, Kraus can walk up to 50 feet with no assistance, brush his teeth, shave himself, and uses an eletric wheelchair to enjoy an active lifestyle. He finds great pride in helping local patients find their path to recovery, just like he found his. He has become an inspiration to many.

Sometimes we can mistakenly think that success is receiving world wide recognition for your talents and achievements. We can think that success equals money in the bank, a degree on the wall, a top 10 hit. But Jesus' definition of success is found in this story of the lady with the anointing oil. He praised her because she did all she could!

God expects no more from us than doing ALL we can do.

For each of us that will be different because we all have different capacities. The question we need to ask ourselves is, "Have I done what God has asked of me to the best of my ability?"

Sometimes we set the bar too low. Left on our own we often take the easy road. We all need at least one person in our life like Andrew Garud. Someone who will speak the truth and urge us on. Someone who believes in us and someone who won't settle for any less than our best.

John Wesley once said, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can as long as ever you can."

Simply by doing the most insignificant task to the best of your ability, you could inspire a whole generation.

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Finger Licking Faith (Judges 1)

Finger Licking Faith (Judges 1)

Judges 1.19 So the LORD was with Judah. And they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland, because they had chariots of iron. [nkjv]

History is full of stories of people who never gave up. Colonel Sanders had the construction of a new road put him out of business in 1967. He went to over 1,000 places trying to sell his chicken recipe before he found a buyer interested in his 11 herbs and spices. Seven years later, at the age of 75, Colonel Sanders sold his fried chicken company for a finger-lickin' $15 million! Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded. Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a composer. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. A man saw his drawings and gave him a nickel and told him not to give up. Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn’t read until he was seven. His teacher described him as “mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.” He was expelled and refused admittance to Zurich Polytechnic School. The University of Bern turned down his Ph.D. dissertation as being irrelevant and fanciful. When General Douglas MacArthur applied for admission to West Point, he was turned down, not once but twice. But he tried a third time, was accepted and marched into the history books. After Fred Astaire’s first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, said, “Can’t act! Slightly bald! Can dance a little!” Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Michael Jordan quote, "I've failed over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed." Thomas Edison is known as one of the most prolific inventors in history holding 1,093 U.S. patents as well as a lot of patents in the UK, France and Germany. When Thomas was 4 he was sent home from school with a note. The note told his mother that she was to remove her son from school because he was "too stupid to learn". Thomas' mother decided to teach him herself. With only 3 months of formal schooling he went on to create numerous inventions like the phonograph despite being partially deaf in one ear.

I could go on and on.

We all love stories about those who rise above formidable odds to achieve greatness and success. But what about those who try and fail. Charles Babbage invented the computer in 1837. He was unable to get funding for his device so it never caught on during his lifetime. It wasn't until 1943, long after Baggage's death, that computers really started to take off. How different would the world be today if Babbage had succeeded in popularizing the computer in his day?

Judah had no trouble facing the people on the hilltops. God was with them. But they failed to win the victory in the low lands. In fact they didn't even try! Had God changed His mind? Of course not, He was still with them. In fact He had commissioned Judah to the task of driving out the enemy. So what happened? Scripture records, the people of the lowlands had iron chariots. So in the face of such a formidable obstacle, Judah compromised. They didn't turn their back on God, they simply settled for less. Instead of seeing God's mighty hand of deliverance at work, what they felt they were powerless to conquer, they chose to coexist with.

There have been so many instance in my life where I've taken the easy road. Instead of taking that step of faith like I should, I pull back. The situation seems too big for me. The end result is that instead of walking in victory, I make peace with something God was asking me to remove. We coexist together. I forget that the same power which raised Christ Jesus from the dead now lives in me! That I am more than a conquerer through Him who loved me. I am distracted from the awesome truth that greater is He who lives in me than he who lives in the world. That with God nothing is impossible.

And I compromise. I settle for less.

I was reminded about this just today. We are in the process of buying a new home. This isn't our first time down this road. We bought a house a few years ago and recently sold it. But it is our first time building. We have a great finance guy arranging everything for us (let me give him a shameless plug). This is a step of faith for us as a family and we really believe God's hand is on it. We are relatively wise with our money. We tithe, we give, we pay all our bills on time and we save where we can. We have done our sums and even though this will stretch us, it is do-able.

Cathy's car was due for a service today and has been leaking some fluid (I am no mechanic, it's green, that's all I can tell you about it). I trust our mechanic and was blown away when he told us that to fix the problem would cost $1300! This is my iron chariot, literally! I'd like to say that I stood as a great man of faith, with unswerving confidence that God will supply all our needs. But I can't. My mind began racing with concerns, my demeanor shifted to one of defeat. My first response was to ring my finance guy immediately and put a stop to the whole 'building house process' as it now won't be as easy as we had originally planned.

I was prepared to settle for less.

As I began reading Judges, God began to speak to me through His Word! I could feel a renewed sense of victory filling my life again. It's amazing just how powerful God's Word is. It reminds us of the faithfulness of our God. Nothing is too difficult for our God.

Iron chariots are no problem for God. He is either the God of the hilltops AND the low lands or He is not God at all! I need to place my trust in Him and not allow what I see to cause me to settle for less than His best for my life.

Lord help me to be a person who continues in Your Word. Keep me focused on who You are. Your promises. Don't let me settle for anything less than Your best for my life. Help me to walk obediently to Your Word. Help me be a person who never gives up and who finishes well.

What verse stood out to you in this chapter?

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