YOU can do something great!

There is something that our pastor (Brad) has been mentioning a lot at church lately and that is many of our biblical heroes were just regular people.  This is a tough concept to grasp for me.  All of my life, I have looked at men like David, Gideon, Nehemiah, Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednigo as extraordinary men of God.  In reality, these men were just as normal as I am before they did something extraordinary. 

David killed Goliath but before that he was tending sheep.  Then he was just taking his brothers lunch when he heard how Goliath was slandering God and Israel.  We know what happened next.  Then he became a great king but he fell into an adulterous affair and committed murder.  God restored him.

Gideon was a normal guy sitting under a tree when the angel of God called him a warrior.  Gideon basically told the angel "you've got the wrong guy, I'm no warrior".  He obeyed God and led Israel to great victories...with 300 men.

Nehemiah was the cup bearer to the king.  The cup bearer is the guy who tastes the kings wine to see if it is poisoned.  If it isn't, great.  If it is, well the king will have to find another cup bearer.  Nehemiah was expendable.  He heard that Jerusalem was in disarray and the walls were tore down and he simply stepped up.  He wasn't a leader or a builder but with God's help, he led a great building project.

Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego were just young men.  They had never done anything.  All they did was the right thing.  They didn't bow to an idle.  Most importantly, they trusted God.  They told Nebuchadnezzar "Our God will deliver us, but if he doesn't, we still will not bow".  We know how that ended.

And then there is us.  We're just normal people.  We are sitting back waiting on someone else to do something great.  I generally try to put things in the context of sports when I'm trying to explain something.  Think basketball.  Every team has got their leading scorer and then there is the supporting cast.  What happens when the leading scorer is hurt or just isn't performing?  Someone has to step up.  If everyone else just goes through the motions waiting for someone to score, that team will get beat.  They need someone to step up as the go-to player.  Someone has to come out of their shell and shoot the ball even if they are more comfortable passing. 

Are you ready to step up and be God's go-to player?  God is ready to use you for something great, you just have to step up.  When God's angel calls you a warrior, you can't ignore it even though you've never fought a battle.  We must be like Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednigo and just believe God.  God gave them an open door but it was up to them to walk through.  Will you?  God will open a door for you if he hasn't already.  Some of you may be looking through that door right now but you're scared to death to walk through.  Maybe you want to walk through but you are waiting for someone else to walk through first.  Be like Nehemiah.  He didn't wait on someone else to build the walls, he did it.  Remember, he wasn't a builder or a leader.  He stepped WAY out of his comfort zone.  Are you ready?

Tell God you are ready to be his go-to player and see what happens.

God loves you and I do too!

Today is a new day

I've taken quite a break from my blog and I certainly owe some of you an apology. I use my blog as a way to keep myself accountable but if I'm not careful I can use it as a sounding board. Kim and I discussed it and we believe that it was best to take a couple of weeks off. But now I can say that today is a new day.

Have you ever needed one of those, a new day? I know for us, it was feeling like we were living the same day over again. Took us back to Bill Murray and Ground Hog Day, we tried different things but each day seemed like the same old stuff. For the record, everything is fine with Kim and me. We are just as happy together as we ever were. The "stuff" I'm talking about are things outside of our family that have a direct impact on us but are completely out of our control. But our situation did remind me that there are people out there that need a new day.

There are hurting people in this world, maybe even reading this blog, that need to know they can have a new day. I met some men at a prison in KY on Friday that found this out. They knew they needed a new day, they didn't think it was possible. They wake up every day with the same outlook, the same situation, the same people giving them trouble, and the same people telling them what to do. Every day is planned out and the longer they are in their situation, the more bleak it seems and the less help they get from the outside world.

Sound familiar? Had I left out the fact that they were in prison, some of you may have thought that I was talking about you. Some of these men got a new day on Saturday because they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They know that things aren't going to be perfect. But they also know that now they have hope. In the end, isn't that what we all need to start a new day, HOPE? Where there is no hope, there is no way out. Where there is no hope, there is defeat. Jesus Christ gives us hope, hope for a new day.

God loves you and I do too!