In New Zealand we remember our brave soldiers who went to war in WW one and two. We remember those that fell in battle and those that come home. Every soldier paid a huge price to preserve our freedom from totalitarian and godless regimes. What a great time to remember the certain future for mankind unless Jesus our Saviour, also went to war against Satan and evil. Hell was created for the devil and those who refuse to escape it, and it is not pretty. "The whole extent of hell, the present suffering, the bitter recollection of the past, the hopeless prospect of the future, will never be thoroughly known except by those who go there."- J. C. Ryle.

Because we have never visited hell we don’t know how great a death we have been saved from.  But Paul said “Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us” ( 2 Corinthians 1:10) To deliver us from such great death, God provided a great, chain snapping, bondage breaking, and sin cleansing salvation.  The Bible calls it a great salvation.

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him” (Hebrews 2:3). In this great salvation, Jesus has saved us, delivered us from death and hell but that’s not all. We are saved from the devil, from shame, hopelessness, and fear.

 Yes!  We are saved from sins power, from the flesh, from bitterness and hatred but greater than the things He saved us from, are the things He saved us for. He saved us for a new life - He saved us for peace and for purpose. He saved us for heaven for His family and for the kingdom of God. He saved us for divine power and for works of ministry but mostly He saved us for Himself.   Jesus purchased us at a great price and He paid the same price for you as he paid for Billy Graham and the Queen. He died to save Englishman and Indians.  He saved tinkers, tailors, soldiers, and sailors; rich men, poor men, beggar men, and thieves.  It is a great salvation!

When Jewish Peter was on a roof wondering if God could love gentiles like us, he saw a sheet came down from heaven holding unclean animals. It was not a handkerchief and it was not a size that could fit inside his lounge. No, it spread out over the earth.  “He saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. (Act 10:11)  Every unclean thing was inside this great sheet. God said, "What God has cleansed you must not call common." Act 10:11).

 Friend, He has cleansed you. You are not common or unclean. God gave Peter a great picture to say that no person is too unclean nor is their sin so great, that God cannot save them by His great Grace. 

A new day dawned and the sun rose a lot higher than Elijah’s hopes.  In his cave, he still felt useless and slightly betrayed.  “Then God said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” (1Ki 19:11-13)

God was telling Elijah to come out of his cave and stand with his back to it. In the Bible, caves were never happy experiences. Abraham and others buried their loved in ones in caves. David hid in caves as he was rejected and pursued by those who should have loved him. We will all have a “cave times” but if we spend too much time there, the cave can start to feel like home. Often the worst thing about a cave, is that you have no vision from your standpoint.

Caves are not good places to hear from God but Gods word is always to turn your back on the pain, the lack of fruitfulness and failed expectations.   Purposely turn toward the Lord and position yourself to hear again.     Before Elijah could move outside, the Lord passed by.  Winds and earthquakes split the rock with its power but God was not in any of these things for Elijah.  Manifestations without a meeting with God are meaningless.  Father’s gentle voice was needed to heal the heart of the prophet and it came.

Friend, don’t make a cave, your home.  Don let yesterday’s pain determine your expectations for today.  Don’t get stuck. Tomorrow is not going to be the same as yesterday. Turn your back on your cave. Don’t listen for a mighty manifestation but for His voice. He has something to say that will restore your heart and answer your pain. If He asks you “What are you doing here? It is only because God never wants you to be in a place where you doubt His care or become stuck in your circumstance.

Jesus sat in the upper room with the disciples as he faced the cross and give them this assurance.  “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  And where I go you know, and the way you know.”  John 14.1-56

But Thomas protested.  Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  To the question of where and how, Jesus gives the answer of who! Jesus said, “I am the way.” Jesus answer to Thomas’s question about how to find the location of the Father and how to get there, was to find the person of Jesus Christ. It’s not where or how but Who. God did the same with Abraham saying “Go out of your country to the place that I will show you”  So Abram went out not knowing where he was going. He didn’t know where he was headed or how to get there. God said just walk before me. The point of reference for Abraham to arrive at God’s chosen place was God himself. What was important was the way he walked before the Lord and when he got there, God told him.

Our walk with the Lord is like that. Maturity, perfection, full stature is a destination that we can’t pinpoint and it’s impossible to know the steps of how to get there.  Really our journey with God is always toward a place that we have never been before. We don’t know where it is or how to get there.  It is a walk of faith and abiding in Christ. Jesus was saying “You don’t know what the end will look like and you don’t know to get there but if you pursue the Way, respond to the Truth and the draw from the Life I provide, you will arrive at your destination.  Our walk with Jesus is a journey, not a destination. No body learns anything on the exam day but on the weeks of practice leading up to it.  It is always on the journey that we learn. Abraham didn’t come to know God by arriving in the promised land after only a few months, but from his journey of 100 years with God.

Friends, arrival is only guaranteed by abiding. Trying to find how we can get to our spiritual destination, is like asking how a lily grows into its full glory. The way it grows is never by trying or striving or even thinking but by abiding in the conditions for life. Growth is then possible, inevitable and beautiful.

David was hiding in the hills from Saul and needed food for his men so he asked a man for help. “The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings.  1Sa 25:3  Nabal didn’t help David but Abigail did.   Eventually, after Nabal died, David chose Abigail to be his wife.  Nabal (meaning fool) saw David as a threat and a thief and dismissed his value completely.  On the other hand, Abigal (meaning source of joy) saw destiny and worth in David.  She decided to do for him what he couldn’t do for himself.  Her honourable heart saw honour, therefore she showed honour and her future was changed forever.   The foolish-hearted died and the joy giver became queen! Her future was the result of how she saw David. Our heart has eyes; therefore our heart determines how we see others.   Your heart, not your circumstances determine the future of all your relationships and your true success in life.

What came into Abigails “tomorrow” was determined by what was in her heart “today.”  “Out of the heart come the issues of life” Prov. 4:20-23  The condition of our heart is the source of our life. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.”  Prov 23.7   If we wish to change our life, we only have to change our heart.  Our two choices in relationships are, to be a “Fool or a source of Joy”  We decide what is going to be in our heart; mistrust, faultfinding and negativity or love, faith and honour.

Friend, don’t let your life circumstances determine what goes into your heart,  rather let your heart determine how you go through your circumstances.  Who has God sent into your life for you to help?  How do you see them?  There is only one thing affecting your marriage relationship – and it’s not your wife’s habits. There is only one thing affecting your happiness at work and your ministry in the house of God – it’s what is in your heart. How are you seeing people?

Often time’s, angry people come from angry families because we learn from them. I never actually thought I got angry but my wife says I do and I'm a ‘stuffer’.  I stuffed my anger because my father stuffed his anger.
In an angry family, nobody listens. They think anger is the only way to get anyone to do want they want, so they use anger to make the kids behave; to stop the wife from spending money, to stop the husband from watching too much TV and they might even try to potty train a baby with a bit of anger!
Mostly we get angry because we don’t get what we want. Naaman was angry because the prophet didn’t do what he expected or what he wanted. 2 Samuel 5. 11. Ahab got angry because the guy next to his palace wouldn’t sell his little vineyard to him. Esau didn’t get his blessing and got mad enough to kill. Gen 27. It was a tantrum! That’s the bottom line. Our flesh “can’t get what it wants” Roman 6.2. We get angry if we can’t control people and make them do what we want for us. It's ugly and nearly all the works of the flesh are about controlling others. Now the actions of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions, Gal 5:19
Balaam couldn’t even get his donkey to do that he wanted so he was going to kill it. Num22. When we throw a tantrum its usually a  blowing up type of anger (GK.Thumos), where we might yell at people or tear a strip off them.  But there is also stored anger (GK"orge") which is frozen anger. Disappointment in a person is frozen anger. We tend to become depressed or angry when our expectations are not met. We go on strike and don’t offer to help. We might withdraw our affection or refuse to have sex. We let somebody do the work by themselves or give them a cold shoulder.

Friend, both are anger and both are destructive of your health, marriage and family. Is it time to yield your heart to God again and not try to control everyone around you?
 

David watched the deer graze on the rocky hills above him.  It was amazing how they lived their whole life upon the rocks that soared above him.  They found food around the rocky outcrops and in the cool ravines they would rest and play. They seemed so confident on the rocks and it was a marvel to him how they never fell or stumbled, never lost their footing or their balance.  He thought to himself “He also makes my feet like the feet of deer.” (2Sam 22:34)  A deer’s foot has been incredibly made for its purpose.  It has sharp hooves which enable the deer to go up very steep cliffs and large pointed dew claws at the back of his feet, to help him come down without slipping and they do it with confidence.

God can make our feet like deer’s feet. As we live our life on the Rock we negotiate times and paths that are sometimes hard and very steep, but joy is our confidence. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy”.  (Jude 1:24) or you could say that it is our rejoicing in God that enables to keep us from falling. The prophet declared, “Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labour of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; …Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills”.  (Hab 3:17 -19) He rejoiced in the face of seeming lack. Deer never think that because they never found grass today they won’t try looking tomorrow. They never think present lack will determine future supply. They get up every day expecting to find food. Habakkuk believed his future was not determined by his past but by his faith. He knew that his future would be changed more by singing prophecy than sympathy. He understood that rejoicing in God would attract the spirit of fruitfulness, more than complaining about the present.

Friend, sometimes our way is “steep and slippery” but He has equipped our feet for every rocky path he leads us. The Lord has made your feet like hinds feet so go ahead and rejoice anyway because steepness never kept a deer from coming into Gods provision and goodness. He is able to keep you from falling and to present you perfect before Him with joy and it is the rejoicing in faith that keeps us from falling off the Rock!

They looked everywhere but Mary and Joseph couldn’t find the young Lord Jesus.  They thought He was with them.   How different the day would have been if they had decided to stay with Jesus.

One time Jesus got into a boat and said: “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.”  (Luke 8:22).  While they sailed, a storm arose and the waves that hit the boat began to fill the little ship with water.  Jesus had fallen asleep so they woke him up.  He stood up, rebuked the wind and there was a great calm.   His question to the disciples was “Where is your faith.”  A bit harsh? I’m with the disciples. Safety gear wasn’t invented and buoyancy was limited.   Finally, they reach the safety of Gerasenes on the other side, and Jesus delivers a man with a legion of demons.

When we read this story, we usually see the disciples on a journey but accompanied by the Master, but of course, the main character in the Gospels is Jesus.  It is Jesus that is crossing over to work on the other side of the lake.  It is not the disciple’s idea; it is His. It was not their purpose, it was His.  It is not their mission, it was His.  He had invited the disciples to go along with Him.  Today still, He seeks to set captives free and invites us to join Him in His mission.  Comfort comes from knowing that Jesus is with us but the believer’s effectiveness and safety come from us being with Him. The church is not on a mission to love the world, inviting Jesus to come with us but He is on a mission to restore the earth and he invites us to partner with Him, as His body. Through us, as we are led by him, He is touching people and we are witnesses of Him and His work. Of course “As they went, the Lord worked with them,” because it was His work.

When He asked, “Where is your faith?” He thought they would understand that if the boat trip didn’t originate with them, the safety and effectiveness of the trip, didn’t depend on them either.  Our confidence is because He asked us into His boat, not that we invited Him into ours.

Each day let’s accept the Lords invitation to His Mission, then when storms from the enemy come into our lives we can say “Lord, I’m on the mission with you. This is a journey You started, so this is a storm that either You or both of us can fix!” And friend, if we have got into His boat, it is never going to sink.

As the disciples crossed the lake a violent wind whipped the water into waves and foam. The King rose to speak and the wind withdrew. Soon Jesus and His friends arrived on the beach to meet the man from the tombs. (Luke 8:22)  

When the devil knew Jesus was coming to set the man free, he stirred up a great storm to prevent Jesus coming to the region.  It was not the disciples he was trying to stop as they were merely men at this point. Christ did not live within them.  They were not anointed by the Spirit and Jesus’ authority was not resident within. The only person that worried the devil about that boatload of invaders, was Jesus!

But things are different now. Today Christ dwells within us and the devil will cause storms to come against us, to create fear, distract us or cause enough trouble to turn us back. Each day we say to Father “Today I want to live like a Christian. As someone who Christ can live through!’  But how many times have we made that commitment to be available to God, only to find that we soon face various storms arising on the lake of life? They come in the guise of conflicts, distractions, arguments or busyness but they drive us back or stop us dead in the water. The devil is not interested in stopping you particularly but he is seeking to stop the Lord Jesus from touching people’s lives.

Friend, Jesus is in your life just as He was in the boat. The enemy can’t stop Him and if the enemy seeks to rock your boat, rock his world. As a son or daughter in whom The Son resides, You have His authority to rise up, speak against the storm and carry on. Get to the other side for there is someone living among the dead who needs Him today.  Push through for there is Another One inside you that can bring life to the Legion.

When I was 16, my father asked me to take our almost new car, to the garage for a warrant of fitness. Like many young men, I was an idiot and thought I’d show my friend how good I was at driving. Cutting a corner we met a Land Rover head on so to avoid hitting it, I swerved back to the right side of the road. Doing so, I lost control, took out a fence narrowly missed the end of a bridge and dived the car into the river.  I had never stopped to consider the high price of my foolish driving before I started out that day.

Before we buy things, most of us evaluate or compare the cost of the item, lest we pay too high a price. We know an ice cream selling for $2000, is over priced.  Before we do something we decide whether the cost is worth the fun of doing it. If the fine for speeding is $20 we can live with it, but if its $2000 and we lose our license, we would think it’s just not worth it.   The price for homosexuality is cheap -the cost could be AIDS. The price of flirting on facebook could cost a divorce.  The price of dishonour and disobedience to my father was a car wreck and it could have been death!

Most people understand price but some are not good at evaluating the actual cost of something.  Right from the start In the garden, the devil was tried to convince Adam that the consequences wouldn’t cost that much.

Friend, Samson and all of history tell us that sin will always take us further than we ever thought it would and the consequences are always a higher price than we ever intended to pay.  Don’t look at Delilah’s’ curves, look at the cost!