MY FRIENDS, STAY FOCUSED GOD HAS BEEN THIS WAY BEFORE!!

Aug. 26, 2016

MY FRIENDS, STAY FOCUSED GOD HAS BEEN THIS WAY BEFORE!!

Most of us have lived long enough to have seen the world as it is, but not like we would want it to be. As a kid you wake up each day to a brand new world where the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the Hardy boys would come to life within one’s imagination. Where outdoors was a world of castles and moats, that comprised of an array of trees, dogs, tadpoles lightning bugs, creeks and the woods where every trail, hill and rock you figure would be your safety net for life.

And then somewhere in between our fantasy world and a world that is over saturated with television, Internet, Netflix, facebook and twitter, life became real, with real issues and real choices that we all make throughout our life. Choices that determines one’s unavoidably consequences in this great controversy between good and evil, life and death. So today let’s make it personal as we close our eyes and focus on where God is leading us in this world that at times is “unchartered territory” meaning “unmapped or unexplored.”

“When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it, then you will know which way to go, ….” Joshua 3:1-4 (KJV) This was the directions from Israel’s new leader Joshua, who replaced Moses in leading the Children of Israel to the promise land. He was Chosen because he knew the territory, because forty years earlier he had traveled it.

So today my friends as God’s Chosen, the journey we are now traveling to the promise land stands on the other side of our trials that we must encounter as this controversy continues between good and evil. And much of the terrain we travel will be “unchartered territory” to us. But our Savior has been this way before. He knows the rough terrain. He knows the temptations and hardships one must encounter daily from the forces of evil.

In addition, this controversy became real to Christ one that He experienced for Himself because He knew it would be very real to us and we would have to experience it also as we moved from the safety net of our homes as a child to a life of strong winds and boisterous waves. And at times because it is “unchartered” we become terrified and we began to sink. And like Peter we cry out “Save me, Lord!”

My friends, each day we must be prepared to face the unknown on this Journey Christ has placed us on that we never thought we were capable of going through. “But God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Tim 1:7 (NKJV)  And because of the Good Shepherds method of preparation, all we can say once we get to the next trial of our life is, I’ve been here before.

When your child decided the values he or she had been taught all of their life was not what they seeked anymore, as they went out into the world, but now they are  teaching bible study on Wednesday night. I can go on and on, but the scenario is the same Jesus saves physically mentally and spiritually and through our faith and endurance, He is preparing us now to go through the unknown and “unchartered territory’s” of our life. But remember my friends, “our God who goes with you and I, He will not fail or abandon us,” [but we must believe and endure Because He has traveled this road before.] Deu. 31:6 (KJV).