OUR PILGRIM JOURNEY

OUR PILGRIM JOURNEY

            First of all I want to apologize for my article yesterday called “Tradition.” It got out the door with a whole bunch of typos in it. My problems with typing have increased in recent months so that every sentence requires multiple corrections and left out words that I think I wrote, but didn’t. So if I get the cart before the horse and fail to proof read an article as I should, you can end up with a jumble of words that require some compensation on your part. Please forgive this old man.

            As happens most mornings, I wake up with a thought process already going in my head. Sometimes I awaken from a dream where I am teaching a group of people and whatever the subject I was dreaming about becomes the subject I write about that day. Remember…Old men dream dreams… (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17)… right? That’s me.

            But in spite of my increasing difficulties with typing I keep on keeping on and I’m not going to quit until the Lord tells me to quit. The reason for this is because none of us knows what a difference our lives make in the lives of others. I may think it a small thing to sit here in the wee hours of morning typing whatever the Lord puts into my head, but what if one person out there is desperately hanging onto faith and something I say, somehow makes a difference, brings perspective, encouragement… understanding?

            So I awoke this morning stumbling out of bed somewhere between 2:30 and 3:00 with this idea of our pilgrim journey. I am working on a children’s project right now so that my next CD will be full of childen’s Bible stories set to music. I love writing children’s music because it offers a whole new means of creativity and fun and yet the songs are character building and full of insight for young minds.

            Do we really understand the importance of our lives? It’s easy to sit back and read the Bible stories after the fact, but God’s faith heroes did not most likely see their lives in perspective as we can see them in retrospect.

            How would our Bibles read today if Abraham had said, “Lord, I’m tired of living in tents and not knowing what’s coming next and Sarah is bored stiff with no shopping malls and she’s running out of makeup and I feel a bit embarrassed dragging this beautiful woman around in the wilderness when I can’t even tell here where we are headed. I’m sorry Lord, but we’re heading back to Ur.

            Like I said, how would our Bible read today? Or would we even have a Bible or a people group called “The Children of Israel.”…or Someone we worship today as the Son of God and Messiah and soon coming King?

            What if Daniel had said: “Wow, I don’t know what happened Lord, but here we are in Babylon as a defeated people. Where were You when we needed You? I’m lucky I guess. I ended up in the palace, but most of my people are slaves and Eunuchs and what have you; I guess I’ll just blend in and do whatever the king wants me to do.”

            What if Noah had said, “It just doesn’t make any sense building a huge boat out here in the middle of nowhere?" What if I just start a ranch for neglected animals? Will that do Lord?

            What if David had said, “What was the prophet Samuel thinking when he anointed me as king of Israel? I don’t get it Lord. Here I am with the anointing and nowhere to go. King Saul has just thrown his spear at me for the second time and yesterday’s victory over Goliath he has forgotten even though I saved his bacon. Look Lord, I’ve got better things to do than to serve this psycho king since I have to spend most of my time hiding from him anyway. I’m headed for home Lord.”

            What if Esther had said: “Look uncle Mordi, I finally made queen and you want me to do what? Do you see what the king did with Vashti? Apparently queens are a dime a dozen. If I do what you are suggesting I will end up in exile like her. Forget it.”

            Then of course there is good old Jonah. He tried to bow out of history, but God wouldn’t have it…so even as he was running from God he was making history after all, with a whale of a story to tell in the end.

            Like I asked at the beginning; do we know how important our lives really are? Here we are in the middle of it all and our lives don’t read like a story… just survival from day to day and sometimes we don’t even know if it’s worth it to go to church, but we drag ourselves there in hopes of having our spirits lifted.

            The question is, are we making history, or are we just blending in. Do we look around and see if there is someone else to encourage… to feed, to clothe, to help? Do we rise to the opportunities that God lays in our path, or do we just trudge along in a seemingly pointless game of survival?

            Can we see by faith that there is a point, a plot, a goal to this journey that can become our story if we can perceive it? Are we here for a reason, or did we just get born through no choice of our own as a mundane person in a mundane world? What difference does it make what I do in the grand scheme of things?

            One of the things I love about both Bible stories and Bible prophecy is that it adds perspective to our lives. We are headed towards a goal. We are fighting in a war. We are choosing sides. We stand for something infinitely important. We serve a King like no other and He has said in His letter that it does matter what choices we make and that He does know our struggles on the front lines, our fears, our doubts, our small victories… they are all adding up… they count… there is a victors crown at the end of the line for every single person that sees and believes and goes and does and faints not. God somehow knows and He is keeping score. YOU MATTER!

            Each of us matters only because the eye of faith causes us to rise to the occasion…to respond to our anointing…to live with a sense of purpose and destiny… to be soldiers in a spiritual warfare that the spiritually blind cannot see… to be hated and marginalized and ridiculed by the opposing team. How dare we see meaning and purpose in the events that are going on in the world? How dare we to even think that age old prophecies of the ancient prophets are alive and being fulfilled in our day?

            What part do we have to play in all of this and what difference can someone like little old me really make? What point is there in witnessing to one person, or helping one person when some guy on TV is preaching to hundreds of thousands? Should I not just sit back and enjoy the show and say a couple of amens here in my living room? What difference does it make… really?

            Well, here’s what God has to say about it:

            “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now and not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8:19-23

            So it does matter what choices we make and it does matter if we can have the faith to see beyond the mundane to the grand and royal purposes to which we are called. It does matter if we are faithful in the little things. God knows that little things add up to big things. He knows that we need perspective in our lives and that is why He outlined history in advance for us so that we would not get lost in the details… return to Ur… blend in with Babylon… ignoring our anointing as a future king…Doing our little part to save God’s people… building an Ark of safety for others… a shelter from the storm.

            Are you one of those… who see… who believe… who do what others think unnecessary…who stand your ground against seemingly overwhelming odds? If you are one of those who sees and believes then God knows it. He knew it before you were born… before the world was created, he saw you. He saw you standing on the Sea of Glass. He saw you glorified as a king and a priest. He saw you reigning with Him as one who overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony. He saw you at His right hand…. And He chose you. You didn’t come to the altar by accident. He drew you there.

            And He did all of this for one grand purpose above all others:

            “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Rom. 8:29.

            So if at times you can’t figure it all out we have this promise from God saying:

            “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26, 27.

            So when we are in the middle of it and we don’t understand what is going on or where we are headed, we can always pray in the Spirit and He will intercede for us with groaning deeper than words and He will pray for us according to God’s perspective… and we can walk by faith, knowing that our destiny is in His hands.

            So chin up my brothers and sisters… you do have a purpose in this world and the little things you do by faith really do matter. A crown is waiting you at the finish line. Your pilgrim journey is nearing the end. There is a bright light at the end of the tunnel… so keep on keeping on… You do matter… your life counts. The veil can be pulled back a little to see the infinite scope and purpose of the little things you do now.