Which road will you take today?

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13, 14
NKJV)

I had a vision some time ago. It was like a day dream, I was just in the moment with God and I thought about this verse.

Have you ever gone hiking on a mountain trail where you can see a highway? In Seattle there is a place called Mount Si and you can hike this switchback trail for four miles. As you are nearing the top you can look back and see Interstate 90. You are so far up that you can sometimes even see planes flying below you.

Anyway, my vision was similar. I saw a trail much like Mt. Si's and in the distance a highway. And it impressed upon me that relatively very few people get off the highway to go and endure the HARD climb up Mt Si. I did it several times and it was easier each time, nevertheless, it is much harder than staying in the comfort of your car and continue driving by...

Likewise, is the context of this verse. The broad way leads to destruction yet most people find it deceivingly comfortable to stay on it. What most people perceive to be a narrow and tough road mostly goes untraveled and the benefits at the top are not experienced by most.

The travesty of it all is that most of us really know this to be the truth yet we continue to choose the easy wide road. To add to our nonsense, as we travel on this wide road we continually ask for God's favor. Never mind that we are actually traveling in a direction away from him.

So think about it, which road will you take today?

How valuable are you?

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32 NKJV)

Think about it... This is the essence of the Christian faith. If you actually believe that God indeed sacrificed his son to pay for our sins then this verse is a wonderful promise.

The verse speaks to how valuable we are to him. It goes right along with Matthew 7:11 which says "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

How true! We love to give our children good gifts. Sometimes we provide for them even when we don't think they deserve it.

So how much more will he provide for us? How much do we negate His provision by our lack of faith and disbelief of our own worth to him? Many of us don't even think we are worth anything in our own minds let alone worth anything to God!

So the key question to ask yourself is, how valuable are you? The answer should be: valuable enough for God to sacrifice his most priced possession. Now frame that thought as you go about your day and you will get a new attitude and a new perspective as you walk in the light of his provision.

Promises and Servanthood.

“And now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are true, and You have promised this goodness to Your servant. http://bible.us/2Sam7.28.NKJV

Two questions come to mind when I read this verse. Do you believe that God has promises for you? Do you consider yourself a "servant" of God?

If you allow me, let me reflect on my own experience as a father to provide commentary on this.

I remember that whenever I "promised" any of my kids anything they would NEVER forget! However, I hardly ever made any promises without conditions. Maybe not outright conditions but almost always implied. For example, if I made a promise and one of the kids was not being a good "servant" I was not motivated to fulfill that promise. Not that I wasn't going to, just not at that moment.

Not to equate myself to our father in heaven but I can't help but think that He does the same. After all, He created us in His own image right?

Food for thought... Does he wait for us to be good servants before delivering promises? Do we even take time to review His promises so we can find motivation to be a good servant?

Enduring the Race

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. http://bible.us/Gal6.9.NLT

Have you ever thought the exact opposite of this? You get tired of doing good and you are inpatient because you are not seeming to "reap the harvest"? Then you see someone doing bad and they seem to be reaping harvest left and right. That's about the time you think to yourself, "what the hell?????"

I've been there many times, I'm sure you have too. Unfortunately, endurance is not something we automatically have. Endurance is the result of hard training, constant work and faith.

I think that endurance is what this verse is all about. Enduring the race of life, doing the right things and helping others to do the same.

It makes me think of NASCAR racing. Sometimes it seems stupid for drivers to go around an oval 200 times turning the same direction over and over. You might think, "that's stupid, how hard can it be".

But think about it, it's not just going around in circles. To finish the race, let alone win it, you have to do the right thing time after time. Every turn has to be perfect, your concentration has to be right on every minute. One wrong decision, one little mistake and the race could be over! Likewise, in our race of life, if we want to finish good and strong, we have to do good.

We might get by with bumping a car here or there. We could get ahead by cutting a corner here or there. Playing a dirty trick on another, but ultimately it catches up to us. Like a NASCAR driver, their car finally gives up, or a mistake puts them in a place where they cant recover. As a result, the consequence plays out in front of millions of spectators. Been there done that!

So part of my motivation to do these messages again is to train and build up my endurance. To do the right thing and help others in my team so we can finish strong in the race of life.

Hope & Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. http://bible.us/Heb11.1.NKJV

Even if you are an atheist, this verse has to make some sense. Sometimes I think that not believing in a God takes more faith than believing in one. Whatever your "faith" is, hope is universal.

Hope is a human emotion, it's built in, it's included, it's part of the package. When a human being is stripped of hope that's when serious poverty sets in. If you have ever walked the streets of a big city and sat down to talk to homeless people you begin to realize that hope is the main currency they are dire need of. Money helps, but hope changes their lives.

Without hope, there is no faith, there is no drive, there is no life. Without hope, we are doomed, depressed and down trodden.

So how do we gain hope in the face of adversity? How do you gain it when you seem to have lost all hope?

Faith. Wether it is faith in yourself, a god or whatever is the fuel that brings about hope. And at the core of faith is believe. If you have faith in someone, you believe they can help you and that gives you hope.

I am a very technical and scientifically minded person. I'm usually driven by facts and concrete concepts not abstracts. But in the case of faith, I choose to believe in the hope that comes from an unseen God.

I believe he does not plot against me and that even in the worst times, this God who created me has the best interest in me. And when I choose the wrong path, he somehow re-arranges the world around me to bring people and circumstances together to get me back on track.

I have no idea if you know what gives you hope. If the only thing that gives you hope is you or other people, I suggest you examine this closely because something greater than you, me or a friend is in charge. I put my faith not on man but my God. How about you?

Droughts...

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts. http://bible.us/Jer14.1.NKJV

Yesterday morning I was going to work and I caught myself appreciating how green everything was. Suddenly, the the word "drought" came I to my mind, as if the Lord was speaking it to me.

For a couple of years here in Texas we have had a serious drought. We had a solid week of rain recently which sprung everything back to life as if no drought ever occurred. However, one quick trip out to Lake Travis in Austin will certainly let you know that a drought is still definitely in effect.

But back to my drive to work... As I appreciated the green trees, as I said, I felt a strong presence of the Lord and him speaking the word "drought". It prompted me to look in the Bible where I found the verse above.

In this verse Jeremiah is incessantly pleading to God for mercy because of the droughts. How often do we find ourselves in the same boat? No matter what Jeremiah said God's strict hand swiped at every plead.

I look back at the past few years in my own droughts and those of friends and family. I haven't written to this blog since March of 2011, that's certainly a drought. Everyone goes through droughts, yet we are often inpatient about it and find very little purpose for them.

But time after time we see the after-effects of the rains after the droughts and we have greater appreciation for what we have. Take for example some dear friends of mine that were trying to have a baby for years. They were so faithful, so believing in God to help them, yet they endured an incredible drought. But last week, they celebrated the birth of their little boy. The drought brought humbleness and faith to them, something they will surely need in their now time of harvest!

So that brings me to my point, droughts prepare us. We don't always know what for or why, but we know that out of the drought we experience a greater level of appreciation for things we normally take for granted.

So if you are in a drought, and you seem to see nothing but God's wrath around you, remember that he is preparing the way for you to have a much greater level of appreciation. And soon, the full bloom of Gods work will energize and revive you.

When a pothole appears on the road of our lives...

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Romans 8:28

This verse is often quoted as well as misquoted. The wrong way to quote it is to just say "God works everything for good." I call that a missed quote because it is void the last half of the verse. In other words, God works everything for good for those who are his children. Its just like a father, he might provide everything to his kids but that doesn't mean he will provide for the other kids in the neighborhood.

But the essence of this verse for me is a message that God is trying to tell us how we should look at the problems and circumstances in our lives. They exist for our benefit even if we don't feel that. And sometimes, in the face of these problems and circumstances we desire change. We want to get away from these issues of life and potentially miss the blessing that is often cloaked in circumstance.

I remember a long time ago, my mother was on a business trip back in the Dominican Republic. She called my father and I to tell us that she had missed her plane but come to find out, that flight had trouble right after take off and plunged into the Caribbean Ocean where all passengers and crew perished.

So here is the deal. We live in a world that thrives on dramatic change. Our attitudes are "if it ain't broke, break it." Today we focus on what we don't have rather than what we have. We are primarily driven by unsatisfaction rather than contentment.

When a pothole appears on the road of our lives, we often swerve at all cost to avoid the pothole. We do this because at the end of the day, we really don't trust the integrity of the vehicle God gave us to enjoy life. We fail to understand the blessings we have in the potholes and often run into bigger problems.

So grab the steering wheel firmly and go straight through for God intends to make the best of it so you can enjoy life.