With a lot of fist waving and shouting, the gang of Philistines arrested Samson and put out his eyes. The enemy wants us to be blind. If He can not blind us he will seek to get us focused on the wrong things. Being blind does not mean that we can’t see at all, but that we don't see what we should.

The night Peter denied the Lord three times, he was told to watch and pray. He was watching the Lord but he wasn't watching himself. In the parable of the five wise and foolish virgins (Matt 13 and 25), the girls were watching for the Bridegrooms coming but they were not watching their oil. These passages teach us that people will be aware of the conditions of the last days, but not aware of the condition of their own hearts. Knowing the signs of His coming of the Lord the same as knowing the Lord who is coming.

Samson entertained the one (Delilah) who was plotting his overthrow. Samson reasoned “I can let the enemy into my life for the Lords power will break me free again. He failed to see that there is some form of cost to maintain a growing “vision of God”. In Revelation 3.8, Jesus spoke to the Laodicea church who thought they had everything they needed when actually they had everything they wanted but nothing they needed. Jesus said “Buy from me eye salve for your eyes that you might see.” What it takes to “see”, has to be brought. There is a cost to “seeing” more of God.

Samson knew what he wanted but didn't know what he needed. He watched what he wanted not what he needed to watch. He thought he could still be Gods anointed and live with compromise. But there is a time when the anointing will lift and leave you and Samson didn't know the Lord had departed from him.

Friends, lets not be people that know more about of the signs of His coming than we do about the signs of “His leaving". Lets watch what we are watching for Samson stopped seeing long before he was blind.

The sun was setting as Gideon returned from spying out the Midianites.   He found enough trumpets among the people to put one in every soldier’s hand. The Shofar was the trumpet used for sounding the alarm for war. Every man needed a trumpet for the battle. “Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers” ( Jdg 7:16 ) Have you got a “Shofar” to make the sound of war? Have you a trumpet set to your mouth?  Can others hear it when you talk?   When Moses came down from the mountaintop, he thought he heard the sound of war but as he got closer, he realized it was the sound of partying.   What sound we are making?

If there is no Shofar in our mouth there be no victory in our life.  The sound of the Shofar means you’ve seen the enemy and you are ready for the battle.  You have seen the attack coming or noticed the inroads of the enemy into your thinking and your behavior and you’re not happy.  There needs to be a battle cry in our heart. David said “I come in the name of the Lord. Caleb said “Let’s go up and take the country, they are bread for us”.   Enemies are bread when our appetite is right.

I know you want victory. But my question is how badly do you want it?  Because if you don’t hate your habit or while you’re still enjoy your enemy – you’ll never beat your foe.  I personally have not been able to break free of things until I made up my mind and saw it as the enemy to my destiny. Right now think of your enemy and ask God to give you a hatred for it.   Decide you will not let a small enemy ruin a great future.  The stronghold of the strongman will be broken by the Stronger One. It is ours to decide -it is His to do.  Your enemy could be smoking, greed, insecurity, fear, or lust but if you decide to beat it – you can.  Repentance starts with a quality decision.

Friend, the minute you absolutely decide NO, the thing that has a hold you, has to let you go.  Grab your Shofar and let’s go to war. Both your Father and the enemy know you can win.

The Camino de Santiago, known in English as the Way of Saint James is a walk in the northwest of Spain, leading to where tradition has it, the shrine of the apostle Saint James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It’s a long walk of possibly 800 kms. Retirees and walking enthusiasts tackle it after much
planning. My friends John and Julie have walked much of it over a few weeks.  It makes me think of the Apostle Paul and Timothy.

As Paul leaned back on the walls of the prison, somehow smooth from the large number of prisoners that had rubbed their back along the wall, he thought about the people in the church at Philippi.  Were they still following Christ and strong enough to resist the social pressure exerted by Roman loyalists?  Paul wrote a concerned but encouraging letter from a Roman jail to his friends at Philippi telling them that he would try to send Timothy to see them in person.

Paul said that the proof of timothy’s character was that he gave himself to Paul as a son would to a father. In ancient times a son had no purpose or expectations independent of his father and indeed lived to fulfil the wishes and will of his father. Timothy had chosen to be as a son to his spiritual leader. He would do whatever was needed.  He was available to Paul. He was able to be sent to Philippi.

Now if the Pastor told me to visit a life group across town or the city it would be only a half hour or at most a two-hour return journey by car but Timothy was going to have to walk.  If I had to walk 20 kilometres it would 4 hours walking one way. If I left at 10:00pm I would be home by 2:00 am.  I’m not sure I’d be too excited; or likeminded or available. But we’re not talking 20 miles were talking 1000 km on foot.  Timothy had to cross the Italian countryside then the Ionian Sea between Italy and Croatia then traverse the mountains and walk the whole country down to Turkey. That’s a whole new level of availability!

And it was not to pick up a large million drachma missions offering or represent at a global conference of apostles but just to bring back news that would encourage the heart of his older father in the faith. For the simple reason that Paul his father, would be encouraged.

Sons have a deep availability and willingness towards the father in ways that church attendees or even servants could never understand. Sons have a passion in their hearts towards the house of God, the people of the house and particularly towards the father of the house.

Friend how is the proof of your character going? Are you a son or daughter to your local church leadership, or still just a member?

Horror movies seek to frighten with images of things long dead coming back to haunt peoples lives.  As believers, we have no fear of spirits or ghosts attending our house but there is a way that the past can still reach out to hurt us - Regret. Regret is a funny word with serious consequences.  Regret comes from an old French word “regreter” which means “bewailing the dead.”   Today regret is sorrow over something we can’t change.  Something that is long dead reaches out to ensnare our emotions or our will.  In a way, regret stretches out its deathly fingers from the grave of the past to grip our life in the present. Whether the past holds the memory of our failures or sins or just lost opportunities that we think will never come again, regret must be kept in the grave.

We have all failed, as its part of being human, but godly sorrow results in joy and gratitude for the wonderful grace of God. Being merely sad about your past without repentance puts us in grave danger of regret and spiritual death.  Don't let regret haunt you or hold you back with shame but let Gods forgiveness and grace fill you with wonder and gladness.  Our Father can bring something clean out of an unclean thing and can bring a great future out of a past failure.  After Aaron the High Priests spectacular “golden calf” failure, he was a more empathetic mediator. Peter’s failure gave him the humility to care for a fledgling church.  The restored Corinthian’s were filled with acceptance and grace for a city churning with sinners.  Repentance is the guillotine that severs the skinny arm of regret and frees you into God's effective future.

But maybe what lies in the grave of your past is not sin but many years of thankless and difficult ministry that are forgotten by everyone but you and Jesus. Don’t let the fingers of regret lubricated with self-pity, slip around your neck. The eyes of Jesus sparkle with delight at the thought of His planned future with you.  His strong hand rests on your shoulder and He assures you "Your labour in the Lord is not in vain".  Billy Borden was an heir to dairy empire in the 1900's.  He was a millionaire before he left high school. On his first trip around the world, he wrote to his parents “I’m going to serve God” He could not be persuaded out of it and wrote, “No reserve” in his Bible. At Yale he had many converts, ending up with 1000 people in Bible studies. When he graduated, he turned down big jobs and wrote in his Bible “No retreat”. He then went to Egypt to learn Arabic so he could reach the Muslims.  While he was there he contracted meningitis and was dead in a month just 25 years old.  While the news headline that swept around the world was “What a waste!” Billy Borden had written in his Bible before he died, “No regrets!”

Friend whether you have wasted part of your life in sin or spent your life in sacrifice for the gospel, don’t let the clammy hands of regret get anywhere near your throat. Were not bewailing things that are dead and long gone but praising Him who is alive and still coming. “And his reward is with him” (Revelation 22.12).

In the movie “Chocolat,” set in a traditional catholic French village in which everything and everybody is under the mayors control, a lady “Chocolatier” arrives in town.  She opens a chocolate shop but the Mayor sets up a crusade against the evils of chocolate.  He tells the priest she is the enemy and instructs him to preach against her.  He was fighting to control his repressed but “perfect” town, but many of the town’s people actually find the chocolatier a friendly confident.   Finally one day the Mayor in desperation to rid his town of the evil, decides he will break into the shop and destroy the chocolate. In his mad flurry of destruction he accidentally tastes a small piece of chocolate. As soon as he tastes it, he falls into eating as much chocolate as he could. In the morning he was caught, embarrassed, humbled and changed!   The mayor was over his denial and self-righteous efforts to control and now free to explore a new exciting life.

   The turning point was the Mayors fall into temptation, where it seems that his failure became his salvation.  How often has the failure of someone worked a work of grace in a person’s life to such a degree, that their usefulness to man and God is taken to levels which could never have been possible before the fall. 

God plans for the failure of our self efforts as much as He plans for our success in Christ. God put Adam into the Garden knowing he would fail. Sometimes more is accomplished by our failure than our victory. Pride and self-confidence can be dealt with by God and failure often opens a person up the possibility of help from others. Failure worked in Peter life after his three denials, to rid him of his self-confidence and thrust him upon the Lord.

Friend, we all hate to fail, but our failures can give us a better perspective of our weakness and our dependence upon Him and that’s the greatest lesson.

Jesus walked along the crowded street on the way out of Jericho. One man called Bartimaeus had been sitting on the side of the road near the town for years. He was blind and begged for a living. He wanted to be healed and he cried out loudly to be heard above the rabble. Jesus heard the cry of faith and stopped to give him his sight back. Immediately upon receiving his sight he followed Jesus along the road. A new life and a new direction! All Jesus had to do for Bartimaeus, to deliver him from being stationary, broke and hopeless on the side of life’s road, was to give him vision. The greatest need we have is to see. When Jesus gives us spiritual sight, He enables us to see who He is and who we are.

The people of Israel stood at the border of the Promised Land and listened to the report of the 10 spies.  Although the land was exceedingly good, there were also giants there. The fearful spies saw themselves as grasshoppers in the face of the giants, and refused to go in (Numbers 13.28-31). It is not what you see in the promised land but what you see in side of you that will determine whether you enter in to all God has planned for you. If we view ourselves as grasshoppers it is unlikely we will defeat giants.  If you see ourselves as a chicken we will never soar as an eagle. A postman goes to deliver mail each day because he knows he is  a postman not a policeman.  If you know you are a son you act like one too. Most often we act beneath our dignity because we have forgotten who we are. A prince or princess with amnesia!

Jesus said He came down from above. He knew where He came from. When the Seed was placed in Mary, a son was born. When we were regenerated, the seed of the Word comes down from Father and like Jesus, your spirit man is born from above. We know ourselves after the flesh and off course identify with our natural father but the real eternal you, came down from your Father in heaven. We are literally new creatures and Father wants us to see ourselves as His own children. Although he calls us sheep, disciples, servants or even friends in the Gospel of John, his final description of us is sons.  After the resurrection Jesus calls us his brothers and like Jesus, all of Gods sons and daughters, are born from above by incorruptible seed.

Friend, our self-identity is formed by how we see Jesus and ourselves. As the 10 spies proved, how we see ourselves is critical because what we believe to be true is more powerful in our lives that the actual facts. Fact: You are truly, actually and absolutely Gods son or daughter. Do you see that?

This week it was pointed out to me by a close friend that I had made a theological error in one of my books. It was a bit embarrassing because my passion for preaching and writing is to understand, to help others understand!

If we learn any theology in Genesis, it is that imperfection and failure run in the family.  Even “perfect” specimens, who never seem to blow up, may be filled with anger, pride or judgmental pettiness.  The fact is that we all fail and, if we don’t give ourselves and others room to fail, we can breed dishonesty.  People fearful of disapproval can’t admit their mistakes and choose to live in denial. Brothers or sisters may be struggling with an issue which could be common to all people, but are afraid to ask for help. They could sink into a sea of despair believing that weakness is unforgivable.  It’s great to have a triumphalist theology where every believer lives in glory and power without error or mistake, but that doesn’t help people in their genuine times of struggle and need.

When Adam and Eve failed in the garden, it was no surprise to God, and He covered their failure with skins by the shedding of blood. God obviously allowed them to sin for a reason. After they sinned, He could do the thing he wanted most: to reveal Himself more fully to them, not just as Creator but as Savior, as Redeemer and Deliverer. Up until his failure, Adam had no idea of the depth and the beauty of God’s love for him.  He felt perfect without need of forgiveness. He also felt no gratitude nor understood God’s mercy. In short, he had no sense of God’s love.

Friend, the next time you feel you have failed, admit your humanity and embrace the mercy of your un-condemning Father, who you can now love with even greater gratitude!

Susan Boyle sang her song and her life was changed. “I dreamed a dream” became the song that unlocked her dream. The song we are singing determines our future. Our song is our prophecy to our selves. As Moses’ ministry was drawing to a close he reflects upon the wonderful God that had led him. Before he gives his last address and blessing to the people of Israel, he first sung his last song. “Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended" (Deut 31:30 )

It is the song in your heart to God that determines the message that we have to speak to men. Our song is our qualification and validation that we are heaven sent. Moses song was about Gods power and that Gods’ people are being led on purpose for a purpose. Without a song, leading people can be hard work. Without a song there can be death in our pot of doctrine and our disciplined lifestyle can become drudgery. Without a song discipling men and women becomes just a difficult duty. Moses and David had a new song in their mouth, and because of their song many trusted or gained greater confidence in the Lord. “He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD” (Psalms 40.3).
Friend, how is your song? God wants to put a new song in your heart. Ask for His new song today. It will strengthen you and those who are watching you. Make sure your “song” is prophesying the future that you are dreaming about.

The people of Israel slowly packed up their tents one more time to follow the moving cloud. To some it was a hassle to be moving again, to others it was exciting. A desert is a good metaphor for life. It is difficult sometimes and hard to negotiate. Sometimes its hard to see where to go or to orientate ourselves. It can be hard to make progress but there is always the hope a better day beyond the desert.

As they shuffled forward, everyone kept their eye on the Rock. In was their source of life in the desert and had come to represent the Lord Himself. Moses even called God “the Rock” and while it may seem strange, to call God a Rock, it made perfect sense to people who lived their whole life in a desert. In a desert, rocks are your best friend. It’s a hiding place from the harsh desert storms, be they sand or rain. The rock is a refuge from the floods; it is a rock that is higher that you. ( Psalms 61:2) The rock is a defense against your enemies. It is the best vantage point for vision if you can’t see where to go next. The rock is a shade from the burning heat of the midday sun and it was a welcoming place to rest. Earlier Moses himself had learned that the only way a man can meet with God and not die is to stand in the cleft rock, that God provides.( Exodus 33:22)
Eventually the ancient story tells us that the Rock brought them home to their inheritance. The Apostle Paul tells us Christ was that Rock in the desert and when Jesus came out of His rock tomb in resurrection life, he became the Rock of our salvation.
Friend, He is all we need in this desert – live by, stand on, hide in and depend on our Rock. He will bring you home.