Moving Beyond the Wilderness

A church hired a new pastor. Over the protests of one vocal male member a woman was hired as the new pastor. After the new pastor had been there a few weeks, several of members of the congregation offered to take the new pastor on a fishing trip, treating her like a member of the ole boys club in the church. The vocal objector reluctantly agreed to allow them to use his boat and to go along. They got into the boat and motored out on the lake. When they got ready to fish, they realized that all their tackle had been left on the dock. One of the men commented that they would just have to go back and get it. The new pastor said that wouldn’t be necessary, and she got out of the boat and started walking across the water toward the dock. The vocal male who had objected to her coming said, “See I told you we never should have brought her fishing. She can’t even swim!”
Sometimes no matter what miracles we see, it does not get us beyond the wastelands in our lives. When we are able to move beyond the wastelands of life I call it moving beyond the wilderness. We move beyond the wilderness by overcoming our fears and deepening our faith.  As usual there is always a problem. I see that problem as claiming to be following Christ but not being able to get beyond the wilderness experiences in our life. Anything that takes us to the dark night of our soul is a wilderness experience. If we don’t learn how to move beyond the rough places in our life to where Jesus can save us we will sooner or later sink in despair and misery and lose our chance for everlasting life.
The Bible says, “Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.” This is a key point to be understood. Even the “Son of Man,” God’s Son, prepared for the miracles He did and received through prayer and meditation. The Scripture says, “When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land,” (At least a mile – one furlong = 220 yards) it says a great storm came up; the text says the boat was, “beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. (Here is the start of the wilderness experience, ‘the storm’).” The Scripture says, “And in the fourth watch (Dark hour of the soul) of the night (3 a.m.-6 a.m.) Jesus “came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.” But immediately He spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear. And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you,” (Peter had been with Jesus all this time and still did not believe wholeheartedly. He said, “Lord if it is you”) bid me come to you on the water.” All Jesus said was, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; But here is the essence of the wilderness experiences for Peter and for us, “but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink.” he cried out, “Lord, save me.“ Now our text, “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, (helped Peter overcome his fear) saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus allowed Peter to deepen his faith and helped peter and the disciples to move beyond the wilderness in their life in those terrible moments to the other side of their fear and despair. He does the same for us when we move from fear to faith.
Here is the point: There are two ways to move beyond the wilderness. One, by allowing Jesus to help us overcome our fears and two, daily by deepening our faith through prayer and meditation. We all have or will have wilderness experiences. We will seek to go across to the other side of our problems, situations, and circumstances that turn our life upside down. It could be money, loss of a job, family and children or grandchildren, relationships, marriages gone badly! It may be the loss of a dear love one. I dread this thought in my own life. My dear mother is approaching a frail age. Though she is not sick, I know her number and our own is coming up. It could be health, mental or physical, just depression and loneliness. Whatever it is, Jesus is the rescue. I know this because like the disciples and Peter, I have been tossed by the storms of life and feared for my life. I have been down in the valley of sadness, misery and trepidation. Thank God that Jesus came to me walking on the water of my problems! He reached out His hands and caught me when I was sinking. He admonished me to deepen my faith. Today I am a new man because He lived. Today He continues to live in me.

SELF-RIGHTEOUS GENERATION
One should live a self-evaluating lifestyle, because if you examine yourself frequently, you will not be eager to judge others. There – in your own heart and life – you will find far too much, than to look at another’s. Why do you make that statement?  Well, if you take a look you will find far too much redundant untrue messages going over the airwaves, filled with self-exaltation, arrogance, and great pomp, about oneself, and none is true.
When a group or person is pure in his own eyes, he finds fault in everything and everyone else, yet he does not have Jesus in his own life. Well, what is the answer, what is the answer, you asked?  Yes, what is the answer?  They all need to be delivered, and they all will be delivered, when each one asks for cleansing and forgiveness, and ask Jesus to come into their hearts. A continuous looking to the Cross of Jesus will keep you away from arrogance and self-righteousness, because you will see you are only righteous through Jesus, who paid the price for your sins on the Cross. Jesus made an exchange on the Cross; He made you righteous.
The Lord will deliver you from telling lies and working deceitfulness. [Psalm 101:5]  When you are born again, and seek the ways of the Lord daily, He will lead you through your daily reading and meditating on the Word of God. You will seek peace and pursue it with everyone.  In doing so, this will be pleasing to the Lord.
www.thealmightyeyes.com

In the day when I cried out, You answered me, And made me bold with strength in my soul. Psalm 138:3

Everywhere you look there is some indication of who people support and what they appreciate. If someone supports a particular sports team, you will see evidence on their car, clothes they wear and even at their homes. If someone has graduated from a university, you will find some sort of alumni evidence and if someone joins a particular sorority or fraternity, you will know by the signs they put up. There is no rule on the job, at the apartment complex or with the community organizations governing what is appropriate to place on your lawn that says you cannot display your team support. However, if you put up too much information about Christ, you will be labeled a Holy Roller or Jesus Freak. Your job may ask you to remove some or all of your Bible verses and not to talk so much about your religion. Another interesting thing is that you don’t see every supporter of Christ displaying something on their cars to say so, wearing t-shirts to say so, walking past people saying Jesus Loves You like they do for those other entities.

But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.  2 Corinthians 10:2

I wonder what would happen if everyone that confesses Christ on Sundays and while amongst their Christian friends would do so when they are at Wal-Mart, when they hear of a co-worker that is going through, when they receive a blessing from God or just in general conversation. I believe more people would believe and more would be saved. Don’t be afraid to tell the world who you represent and who represents you. Tell them you love Jesus and that you are a child of a King. Get a bumper sticker that says you are a Christian, buy a t-shirt that leads someone to Christ or put a praise or worship song on your phone as a ring tone. Identify yourself and display some Holy Boldness. It doesn’t make you a freak, it identifies you as a follower.

I’m bold about Christ, are you?
Minister Deidra Bibb

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Psalm 51:5

The fundamental pre-existing condition of mankind is SIN.  Romans 5:12 confirms the fact that there is indwelling sin that came through Adam, who when enticed by his wife Eve, willfully and deliberately disobeyed God. He sinned. “Wherefore as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
Paul is speaking not of individual sins, but of a universal sinful state – the moral state of fallen man, hence our pre-existing condition. Obviously, fallen man needed to be changed and that change could only come through the sacrificial death of Christ upon the Cross. This is reconciliation, a thorough change. When we have been reconciled to God through the shed blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus, we have full access to the promises of God.
In Luke 4:40, we see the Lord Jesus in His healing ministry. “Now when the sun was setting all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him: and He laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.” Again in Mark 1:32-34, Jesus healed the sick and infirmed. In Matthew 9:27-33, He touched the blinded eyes, those who could speak no words, and those who were possessed with devils. The touch of the Master’s Hands, the Voice of the Son of God spoke healing and comfort to those who were needy. He still speaks peace and healing today. He is still our health provider, Jehovah Rapha, In Exodus 15:26 He says, “I am the Lord that healeth thee. And in Genesis 22:14, He is our great provider, Jehovah Jireh. Not only does He provide health for our infirmed bodies, He speaks peace to our Spirit. He heals our pre-existing condition.
Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away. A wonderful time to celebrate the bounty of God’s creation. We love the food – turkey and dressing, candied yams, ham, collard greens and turnips, and don’t forget the pumpkin pie. Makes you drool just thinking about it. It’s great to celebrate that we live in a land of plenty and if we do our jobs (work!) we can put food of this nature on our tables as often as we go to either the supermarket or the garden. These are noted as generous blessings. Dressing is good! Especially cornbread dressing like we make it in the South! But God wants to dress us in a robe of righteousness which will take care of that pre-existing condition forever.
Our Lord never sleeps nor slumbers.
He never shuts down.
That cannot be said of any other – not the politicians; not the earthy nor the refined; not the health-care system; not the world wide web; not the physicians who weary of all the interference with their Hippocratic oath until they just – throw in the towel and quit.
But … Jesus never fails!
He promised He would  always be with us. Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them; for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” It is impossible for God to turn away from His children. Hebrews 13:5b says, “… for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
I have never once read where God cancelled an insurance policy. I have never seen His heavenly website down for any reason. I have never seen Him resort to a welfare state. He owns the cattle upon a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10b).
We are all about ourselves these days. Worried we’re not going to get our “hope and change.” We cannot seem to get enough of a Federal Government that is all up and into our business about every little detail of our lives, like we don’t have sense enough to come in out of the rain. We’re perfectly capable of making our own decisions with the help of Almighty God! Why on earth would we want a broken down system telling us how to run our business when God’s economy is up and running fine?
Jesus never fails, and He is immutable; that is, He never changes. He said “For I am the Lord, I change not …” (Malachi 3:6a). Did you need further proof?
He is our Blessed Hope! Job 8:13: “So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish.” Ouch! Dare we trust “the sweetest frame?” No! I don’t know about you, but Jesus is my “Blessed Hope.” He ensures that pre-existing condition (SIN) is gone “…as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
C. I. Schofield explains it like this: “Three Hebrew words are translated forgive, forgiven: kaphar, to cover; nasa, to lift away; salach, to send away. The fundamental Old Testament idea of forgiveness is not the remission of penalty, but the separation of the sinner from his sin. Praise God! I don’t want my sins just to be covered. I want them GONE! I want to be separated from them; I want them to be removed – as far as the east is from the west. Remember the scapegoat of Leviticus 16!
He will never turn you down because of the pre-existing condition – because of the sin that separates you from Him. He wants to forgive you and save you. Salvation is of the Lord and He waits patiently for you to trust Him as your Savior.
Time is wasting, dear friends. Do we want to go out worrying and fretting over healthcare or the lack thereof? Do we want to go out worrying over anything when He is able to do abundantly above all that we could ask or think? Criticize me if you will. I’m too near my heavenly home to worry about what people think or say about me. My HOPE is in Him. Some things can’t be changed because of the human factor. But God’s Amazing Grace never, never changes. It is all sufficient, all inclusive, and never ending. Thank God, we don’t need change when it comes to the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, immutable Holy God. Hallelujah!

Through Christ Alone,
Victor W. Baugh, Sr., Th.D., Ph.D.
Pastor, St. Luke AME Church
Havana, AL
http://www.thatgracemayabound.blogspot.com/