Moving With God

Today's guest blog is is from Artie Davis. You can follow Artie at www.artiedavis.com.

… a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. (John 5:3, 4 NKJV)

Be in the Right Place
Our towns are full of those who sick, blind and lost. And I really believe God wants to visit each with the power of the Gospel. But God moves through the obedience of those who  hear His voice and follow. We can be doing all the “right” things with the right people but in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then we become discouraged when we don’t see the moves of God.

Watch for the stirring
God greatly desires to move where we are and draw people to Himself. We have to train our ears and eyes to see when God moves and not shrink back in fear, or disapproval because His movement doesn’t line up with how believe He should move!

Be all in!
We gotta move! If we hesitate, we lose. When God moves, thats’s Him saying, “Get up, move…move now.” And we can’t just put our toe in, we have to jump all in, we make a commitment that now matter what it looks like or how much it may cost, we have to be all in.

No Escape Route

Here's another great thought from Steve May:

The story goes that after Julius Caesar and his Roman legions landed on the shores of Britain, he marched his men to the Cliffs of Dover to look at the shores below. From there they could see their ships engulfed in flames, thus ruling out any possibility of retreat. There was nothing left now for the soldiers to do but advance and conquer. And that is what they did.

The problem with escape routes is that they're too often and too easily taken. Their very existence can lull us into giving less than our all to any endeavor.

I used to work with a pastor who often told me, “If you give yourself a way out, you will end up taking it every time. Create no option but to get the job done.”

He wasn't talking about developing a Plan B for success, just in case Plan A doesn't pan out. He was talking about relying on Plan B for failure, just in case the going gets tough. (Because the going always gets tough.)

Almost every day I find myself repeating the words of Paul..."But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)

Can you imagine how a "no retreat" attitude can make a difference in your approach to living holy, to serving God in ministry, to leading your family, to loving others?

It's time to throw a match on any possibility of going back to the way things used to be. God is calling us forward, to a life of victory.  - Steve May, Monday Memo, June 25, 2013

The Second Best Time To Plant Trees

Most of you are aware, I am taking preaching sabbatical this month, so I will not be making the normal posts during July. However, I want to share some of my favorite blogs from other ministers or speakers occasionally during the month. Today's blog comes from Steve May from MondayMemo. Steve writes:


An ancient proverb says, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today."

Looking back on the past twenty years, it's easy to see all the trees that should have been planted: we should have spent less and invested more, we should have studied more, prayed more, taken the kids to more picnics, appreciated others more, watched TV less, worried less, laughed more, enjoyed life more, and on and on.

It's easy to see today all the trees we failed to plant twenty years ago. And it may be tempting to dwell on those good things left undone. God, however, has forgotten them; those sins of omission have been cast into the same sea of forgetfulness as our other sins.

Instead, we must be about the business of planting trees today.

Paul said, "Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Yesterday will never be any different than it was, but today's pages is still blank. Today is the day of salvation; today is the day to start planting trees.

The God Of Second Chances

When we left Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark in the previous post, Paul and Barnabas had separated their missionary efforts, Paul going one way with Silas, and Barnabas going another with John Mark. All because Paul had given up on John Mark because John Mark had quit on him on a previous journey.

From a casual glance, we might assume that God doesn't bless quitters. But let's dig into this story a bit deeper. Somehow Paul and John Mark were reconciled. When Paul writes one of his prison epistles, this one to the church at Colossee, he writes in Colossians 4:10: “Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, sends you his greetings, and so does Mark, Barnabas's cousin. And as you were instructed before, make Mark welcome if he comes your way.”

And then there is moving request by Paul in his final letter to his young protege, Timothy, where he says in 2 Timothy 4:11: “Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you when you
 come, for he will be helpful to me.”

Again, as Perry Noble writes in Unleash: "Paul, who had once given up on John Mark, wanted him to be with him in his last days. Why? I believe the apostle Paul understood that even though he'd given up
on John Mark, God hadn't."

I think there are two valuable lessons in this amazing story of falling down and getting back up:

1) Be careful who you quit on...you may need them in your life later.
2) God never quits on you..."Mark quit on God, but God never quit on him. He hasn't quit on you, either.
Do you think John Mark ever dreamed he'd be chosen by God to pen one of the accounts of Jesus' life in our Bible today? Do you think Peter ever imagined he'd be allowed to lead the church after adamantly denying Christ three times? Do you think David ever thought he'd be known as a man after God's heart after he committed adultery and murder?
 Of course not! All of them probably thought it was game over, but God didn't.
God will do what He needs to do to correct us and get us back on the right path, but He will never give up on us."

Don't Quit, Just Because You Stumble

John Mark is an interest character in the Bible. We are first introduced to him in Acts 12:12, where we
are told that the Apostle Peter visited his mother's home. He must have been a key player in the early development of the church, because later, he was invited by Paul and his cousin, Barnabas, to travel with them on a journey to the island of Cyprus to share the message of the gospel to the inhabitants.

At first it appeared to be an exciting and victorious trip, but along the way something happened that apparently discouraged John Mark, so much so that he wanted to quit and go home. Perhaps it was their encounter with a Jewish sorcery named Elymas. Perhaps it was the isolation of traveling from city to city and not really having a place to call your own. But for whatever reason, we are told in Acts 13:3: “ Now Paul and those with him left Paphos by ship for Pamphylia, landing at the port town of Perga. There John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem.”

John Mark quit and went back home. How do we know that? Later Paul and Barnabas were going to go on another missionary trip and we are told in Acts 15:37, 38: "Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work."

 A deserter. It just has a dirty feel to it doesn't it. The contention between Barnabas and Paul was so great, they separated and went on different journeys, Barnabas apparently with John Mark, and Paul with Silas. We don't hear much about Barnabas and John Mark's journeys, but the rest of the book of Acts is about Paul and his companions. So it would appear that Paul's efforts were more success, or at least made more headlines, than those of Barnabas and John Mark.

John Mark quit on Paul. Paul then quit on John Mark. But God didn't quit on John Mark. As Paul Harvey used to say, "My friends, is the rest of the story."

God Won't Quit On You

As we conclude our study on the life of David based on the book Unleash by Perry Noble, this week we are focusing on the conclusion of David's life. It is easy to view David as a great hero of the faith when we think about his confrontation with Goliath, his integrity while King Saul was pursuing him to kill him, or the way he lead Israel to become the world power of his generation.

But let's not forget, after all of that, during a very dark season of David's life, he committed adultery and then committed murder to hide his adultery. On top of that, like most of us, he showed no remorse until it appeared he had been caught in his confrontation by the prophet Nathan. He turned his back on the Lord and blatantly chose what he wanted over what God wanted.

However, the demonstration of God's love and grace that follows is nothing short of supernatural. Even though David quit on God during that season of his life, God never quit on David. As Noble writes: "He sent the prophet Nathan to confront him and call him on his sin. As a result, David repented of what he had done and got back on track in his journey with the Lord. That didn't mean there weren't consequences
for his sin; in fact, his sin ended up costing him the life of his own son. But when he showed true repentance. God forgave him completely and restored his relationship with Him."

That is an amazing illustration of grace. David committed adultery and murder, and still God didn't quit on him! 

The Bible is full of people who quit on God but whom God chose to use for His purposes anyway. The remainder of this week we are going to look at one person in particular. His name is John Mark. He is a classic example of someone who quit, but God never quit on him.

By the way, the same is true about you. God will never quit on you. 

Finishing Well

You may have a can of WD-40 around the house. It is a common household item for lubricating items and stopping squeaks. But do you know where the name comes from? The WD stands for Water Displacement. The 40 stands for the number of tries it took them to get an effective and successful formula. They failed 39 times but succeeded on the 40th try.

I have never met a person who has newly started their walk with Christ who intended to quit that walk someday down the road. Most people who begin their spiritual walk are filled with zeal and excitement. Unfortunately, for some, something happens along the way and they just...quit.

They stopped running the race and just gave up. It's not that they're a bad person. But something, somewhere, stole their joy and they just didn't have the strength to take another step. And sadly, many never get back in the race.

Somewhere in the Christian church, we began defining godliness as never falling. But the men and women of the Bible never illustrated it in that way. All the heroes of the faith had their moments of failure. In fact, we don't even need their illustrations to understand this truth. Listen to the words of the wise man in Proverbs 24:16: "The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again."

Do you see it? It's not that "the godly don't fall"; the godly and the ungodly both fall. The difference is the godly get up again. That verse continues: "But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked."

So the next time you are tempted to quit, (on your marriage, on your kids, on your church, on your God) remember WD-40. Success may come with the next attempt!