To follow is difficult.  We feel better when we have control.  Most of us prefer to drive rather than be a passenger, and the proof is in the “advice” we give the driver.  Following requires that we submit to the leadership of another, and trust them to see us to the destination.  Therefore, trust is the real issue.

This is what makes the life of Abraham so amazing.  The Hebrew writer tells us that, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go… And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Heb. 11:8  NKJV)  It is hard to follow… to trust, even when we know the destination.  But Abraham took his family and left for an unknown destination at the simple instruction of God.  How did he do it?  How did he keep from wringing his hands with worry every step of the journey?  He trusted God completely – therefore he could follow!

God has promised us that He will “lead us by the way that we should go.”  He assures us that He knows what is best in our lives, and that we can trust Him to carry us there.  The only question is whether on not we will let go of the wheel, trust Him, and allow Him to take us there?

“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.” (Isaiah 48:17)

Kerry

Every summer my family would travel back to western Kentucky to see our relatives.  My aunt and uncle lived on a large farm off the main highway which was only accessible from a long gravel drive shrouded by giant oaks and waving fields of corn.  The trees blotted out the sun and always gave me an eerie sensation.  I can still remember my anticipation as we would turn onto that dark, shadowed drive.  It made me nervous, but I knew that all the joys of fishing ponds, go-carts, and a summer of youthful bliss awaited me at the end of the short, winding road. 

This world can be foreboding, and filled with every sort of heartache and danger.  Just like that shadowy drive, the psalmist (Psalm 23) refers to life as traveling through the “valley of the shadow of death.”  But we have nothing to fear, because the Lord is right there with us every step of the way.  He has promised us that we have a great reward awaiting us, if we will simply finish the journey.

Anticipation is what causes us to brave the winding road of life with its turns and shadows.  As we look forward to the good things that await us at the end of the road, it causes us to take our eyes off of the dangers and focus on the goal.  This is why John can close his Revelation with these words, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20, NIV).

Won’t Heaven Be Grand???

Kerry

Nehemiah chapter one tells us of Nehemiah’s great call to go and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem that had been left desolate.  It was his great destiny – the life calling that defined him.  Although I had always assumed that God had TOLD Nehemiah about this purpose for his life, a close reading of the text never indicates that.  Nehemiah’s call was simply due to the burden on his heart.  He heard of a great need, and his godly conscience demanded that he take action.

Here in America we have seen similar stories in the wake of the terrible disasters.   Violence, natural disasters, and all manner of tragedies abound.  Christians are constantly “stepping up to the plate” by sacrificing time and resources to help their neighbors.  These actions are not the result of instructions from the “voice of God.”  Such instructions were not needed.  Like Nehemiah, we have been called by the burden of our hearts.

Whenever your conscience, trained by faith and the Word of God, demands that you take action, do it!  Such are the times when our world’s often ill-advised instruction is actually true… “Listen to your heart!”  In doing so, you might the very purpose that God intends for your life.

Our society has become obsessed with its ability to categorize and label every behavior.  We use words like, “abnormal,” “dysfunctional,” and “eccentric,” with much greater frequency that we did in the past, as we are so bent upon identifying every problem and grouping people into easily manageable divisions.  Now, if a person acts or thinks in any way that is different than their social group, the label they inherit defines them as less than normal- as being inferior to the rank and file all around them.

There can be no doubt that some people indeed suffer from severe emotional or mental struggles for which they need support and treatment.  What I question is the labeling of masses of people as abnormal because of slight personality differences.  In fact, how can we even identify what is normal, when a large population is labeled abnormal… doesn’t the abnormal then become the norm?

Perhaps we should simply use the word, “unique.”  In many ways, there is no such thing as a “norm” in human behavior.  We are all gloriously different.  Some of us are more emotional than others, some of us are more keenly analytical, and some are more relationship oriented.  Does this diversity make us weaker?  I don’t think so.  It seems that it would make us stronger!  Because you are different than others doesn’t make you imperfect, it simply makes you magnificently “one of a kind.”

Kerry

Are you struggling?  If you are, it isn’t abnormal.  To struggle is to be human.  All of us go through periods of joy as well as seasons of pain.  It simply cannot be avoided.  The only real question is how we will choose to respond to the suffering.

In this sermon from a few week back, I address the idea of suffering and give suggestions of how to face it with courage and faith.  Enjoy.

Kerry

“What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:4)

When we take an honest look at ourselves, it is not difficult to identify with the Psalmist’s question.  Weakness is a discouraging reality of our human nature.  We are all abundantly aware of our own shortcomings, but what is particularly frustrating, is that the stronger we become in faith, the MORE aware we become as well.  Therefore we find ourselves closer to Christ than ever before, but feeling farther away!  This is very likely the struggle Paul expressed when he wrote, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Romans 7:15).  Like many of us, Paul had grown in maturity to the point that he KNEW BETTER, and that made his weaknesses all the more inexcusable.

But there is another, brighter understanding that comes with maturity.  Yes, we do realize how very much God has saved us from, but it also causes us to realize how WONDERFUL that salvation is!  As we grow in our appreciation of the depth’s of His awesome love, we begin to understand, in a way like never before, what it means to sing, “Amazing Grace… how sweet the sound… that saved a WRETCH like me.”  Praise be to God that He loved sinners like you and me!

Kerry

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Phil 2:3)

            One of the greatest struggles for humanity is the discovery of our own value and self-worth.  People often feel so very empty and insignificant.  The cares of life tend to batter down our self-image and leave us with a sense of meaninglessness and even self-loathing.  This is part of the reason why so many people turn to so many vices- alcohol, drugs, sexuality- in an attempt to “fill the void.”

The world is quick to offer solutions.  The self-appointed therapists of afternoon talk shows and the mega-rich attitude coaches of late-night infomercials tell us that we need to practice “self love,” and engage in more positive “self-talk.”  They tell us that we have to love ourselves first before we can ever learn to love anyone else.  Yet, however quaint their advice may be, it is as far from truth as the east is from the west.

The Bible tells us that positive self image does not come through believing we are wonderful, but through the knowledge that God loves us.  We don’t need better “self-esteem,” but need a better understanding of God’s estimation of us!  In fact, the Bible tells us that the first step to wholeness is understanding and accepting our own wretchedness and turning in utter dependence to God’s awesome grace.  Perhaps the old children’s song has more practical advice on developing self-esteem than all of today’s pop-psychology: “Jesus first, yourself LAST, and others in-between.”

This morning, as I engaging in my personal Bible study,  it brought me to Deuteronomy 15. This section of Deuteronomy is filled with rules and regulations. Everything from what not to eat, to whom to loan money, to how to treat slaves is addressed.  It can seem dry and somewhat unapplicable.  I wonder how often we just skip these kinds of passages?

Resisting the urge to skip ahead, I trudged through the laws and regulations and found something very needed for my life.  In the midst of instructions about releasing debts every seventh year, verse four says, “But there shall be no poor among you..”  Later, in verse seven, Moses continues, “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor… You shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.”  

These words rebuked me.

I have always honored hard work and industry.  Passages that speak to a man who won’t work not eating or how it makes a man worse than an infidel to not provide for his family were well known to me.  Those principles are indeed biblical and true.  This message from Deuteronomy did not changed or amend God’s instruction regarding hard work.

The text spoke to my attitude!  It is not addressing the poor man or the reasons why he is poor.  The words instruct me as to how I am to treat him, which is the easy part, and how I am to feel about him, which is the hard part!   Listen once more to the commandment:

“You shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.”

I am going to work to soften my heart and open my hands!

“Through Christ’s death and resurrection the Father found a way to both satisfy His justice and show mercy toward those whom He loved.

What a terrible price!  In order to pay for man’s sin, God had to offer up His own perfect son as a substitute.  In essence, God traded His beloved son for us.

To those of us with children, this thought is almost unimaginable!  We might give our own life for a noble cause or to save the life of a friend, but there is nothing on earth that could motivate us to sacrifice the life of a child.  There is no cause great enough, no person good enough, and no reason worthy enough for the lives of our children!

The confusion is compounded further when we consider who God gave up His Son to save.  Mankind was certainly not worthy of such a sacrifice.  In fact, many people never even appreciate the enormity of God’s love that He would give His only Son.

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:6-8

The greatest of gifts was sent to a world which would reject it, to save a people who didn’t want or appreciate it, into the hands of a generation who would attempt to destroy it!  Isn’t it amazing?  Could love ever be so great as that of God for mankind?”

This excerpt was taken from my short book, “I Want to Draw Closer to God, But I Don’t Know Where to Begin.”  It can be downloaded and read on any Kindle app for $.99 cents at

I once had a small fishing boat powered by an old, and very unreliable, Mercury outboard.  In addition to standard fisherman’s equipment, my tackle box always contained a wrench and an aerosol bottle of starter fluid.  I had learned the hard way that drifting with the wind in the middle of a lake is a miserable way to spend a cold evening.

Besides the wasted time, drifting is a frustrating, directionless activity.  You have absolutely no control over where you are going.  One minute the wind might push you north, and the next it may change and send you southeast.  Having a destination in mind is pointless, because you are completely at the mercy of the wind.

Spiritually speaking, we are surrounded by “drifting” people.  They really have no idea where their life is going, and even if they do have some destination in mind, they have no idea of how to propel their lives toward it.  This doubt about their lives and the inability to commit to a specific course causes people to drift aimlessly from place to place, from pleasure to pleasure- hoping by chance they will find some meaning along the way.  James describes these spiritually directionless as “double-minded,” and says in James 1:6-8, “for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (NKJV)

Directionless living eventually brings despair.  After drifting from place to place on the lake of worldly living, experiencing every pleasure and accomplishment along the way, Solomon penned Ecclesiastes.  His assessment of drifting through life… meaninglessness!  Throughout the book he systematically examines every place the winds of the world will take man: wine, women, wealth, and fame- and every time he calls the experience “meaningless.”  “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity.” (Eccl. 1:2, NKLV).

In the end Solomon discovered the way whereby man can point his life in a meaningful direction.  As he concluded Ecclesiastes, he said, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (12:13).  After being blown in every direction imaginable, Solomon knew that God’s will was the only propulsion which could point his life toward purpose and real satisfaction.  In the New Testament Paul tells us the same thing as he writes, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

We indeed live in a world filled with drifting people- lost and directionless.  Praise be to God that He offers direction to the drifting.