When God Says Go

Repeatedly in scripture we see God asking His people to go. He asked Abraham to leave his home for an unknown destination, He asked Moses to go and free the Israelites, and He asks us to go and make disciples. 

I believe that God has a plan, a mission to accomplish, and He wants us to join Him.

When I was about 12 years old a group from my church went on a short-term mission trip to Zambia Africa. They worked with some local missionaries supporting their efforts in the community, which included work at an orphanage. When the group returned they showed a video of their experience. While watching this video my little 12 year old heart began to break for these children. I didn’t understand why God would let this happen and I certainly didn’t understand why more people weren’t trying to fix this problem. 

That evening while driving home I expressed my frustration to my grandma, who used the opportunity to teach me about the Holy Spirit. She explained that He often uses experiences like I was having to compel us to go and do things for God. 

It was at that moment that I knew adoption would be part of my story. 

In some ways that call grew and strengthened as I got older, but at other times I questioned it completely. I started to doubt. I thought maybe I just made the whole thing up, or I was probably too young to know the voice of God calling me. There were even times I believed it was just too weird to choose adoption over having biological children. 

God’s call is usually pretty simple. We make it complicated by allowing our fears, worries and the opinions of this world to interfere. 

As I reflect on God calling me to go, I’m reminded of the story of Moses. When we think about Moses we often think of him as a hero who stood up to one of the most powerful men in the world and led his people out of slavery. But as we look back to the time when God told him to go, we see another picture entirely. 

In scripture we see five responses Moses gives God when God asks him to go. 

1. Moses asks, “But who am I?”

“But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:11

If you read the few verses before verse 11 you see that God had just finished telling Moses all that He was going to do. His words even emphasized that it wasn’t really about Moses at all, it was all about God. Yet Moses still made it about himself. This is typically our natural instinct, to view the situation in front of us through the lens of our own strength and talents. 

God reassures Him that all be well. He even gives Moses signs to affirm His presence. 

2. Moses says, “I don’t know you well enough.”

“Moses says to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
Exodus 3:13

This response shows that Moses does not have a personal relationship with God at this time, and may not know Him well enough to represent Him to the Israelites. 

God responds by telling Moses who He is, “ I AM who I AM”. He also gives Moses direct next steps to accomplishing the goal, and even the outcomes of these steps. He gives Moses every reason to be confident. 

And yet…

3. Moses replies, “I’m worried about my lack of credibility and authority.”

“Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Exodus 4:1

At this point God is still unbelievably patient with Moses, and He responds by giving Moses signs like turning a staff into a snake. 

Maybe you worry about this too. Maybe you’re worried that you’re too young and people won’t take you seriously. Or maybe you worry that your past is too messy and people will never trust you. Whatever you may feel, be comforted and confident that God chose you. He gives you every authority that you may need. Be careful to notice that God didn’t tell Moses not to worry because he (Moses) can do it. Instead He’s telling Moses to be comforted because GOD can do it.

4. Moses answers, “I am not a communicator.”

“Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” Exodus 4:10

Do you question God by reminding Him that you don’t have the skills necessary to do what He’s asking of you? God reminds us that He’s the one that gives us our talents. He knows exactly what you can do. He’s asking you anyway. 

5. Moses’ final response is, “I am not available.”

“But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” Exodus 4:13

At this point Moses has dropped all excuses and simply says, “I don’t want to do this.”, and God does get angry. He wants more for Moses than these tired excuses and He wants him to just get on with it. Yet, He is still a compassionate God. He gives Moses a partner. 

I find it extremely comforting that God still used Moses to accomplish His plan, that he was such a vital character in God’s story, despite his many excuses. 

As I am writing this, I’m looking at a picture of the first time I ever held our daughter.  My excuses to God’s call made the road to obedience a little more difficult, but God was so faithful. Every time I responded with an excuse, God was patient enough to remind me that He’s the one in control here. This is about Him, not me. 

I don’t think this story is unique to me. I believe He wants to use each one of us to do His work.

Here’s my question for you: what is God asking of you right now? Are you responding with obedience, or are you full of excuses?

Restoring Relationships

If you take some time to reflect on Genesis 3:1-13, you can see that satan was not just trying to tempt Eve to go against God. At this point, God had created Adam and Eve and given them everything they needed for a fruitful and joy-filled life together. But satan had other ideas.

The first thing satan went after is our relationship with God.

Then he went after our relationships with each other. He caused us to doubt God's goodness and His command. Adam and Eve didn’t pause to discuss the situation with each other. They didn’t consult with God. It seems that they made a decision in the moment, turned their back on God and did what they thought was best. Then the blame game started. Not only did Adam blame Eve, he also blamed God, and of course, Eve blamed the serpent.

The enemy knows that relationships are primary in life – not the degree of success we have, not our health and fitness, not the amount of beauty we create in the world. Nothing matters more than relationships and the most important relationship is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

So why is it that so few people actually pursue a personal relationship with God?

And even when they do, the perception is often that God is out there or up there or anywhere besides right here next to us. Yet the reality is, God is with us. God gave us His Word so we could know Him, learn from Him intimately and draw strength, wisdom, power and love from Him.

I know when things started for me. I grew up the oldest of five children. At the age of 11, my parents divorced. That experience left me feeling insecure and fearful. I made some decisions that I thought would help me protect myself. I decided I would have to take care of myself financially, that I would have to watch out in relationships, and that it would be very difficult to trust men. I’ve spent years working on getting myself back to a deep relationship with God so I can heal from all of the damage those decisions have brought about, including three divorces.

Here are some insights I’ve gained from my own experiences and process of healing on what is necessary for us to have healthy relationships with fewer regrets.

TRUST GOD.

We need to trust that God truly loves us. He is greater than our circumstances and He can work all circumstances out for good. When we trust God with all our hearts we are more likely to turn to Him when we’re struggling … and that’s just what we need to do.

PUT CHRIST FIRST!

We all fall short. None of us is perfect. We've all grown up in situations that have taught us dysfunctional behavior and lead us to develop self-limiting – even self-destructive – beliefs. The moment you make the decision to put God first on a daily basis and make a commitment to seek Him daily and constantly in every decision, I promise you things will begin to change. When you put Christ first, you open up the possibility of understanding the people in your life better.

• You will be able to love people more deeply even when they hurt you, just as Jesus did.

• You will be able to forgive.

• And God will give you wisdom regarding how to respond and strength not to react.

Having a relationship with Christ is necessary before you can know who you are in Christ, or even understand how valuable that is. When we know who we are in Christ, we are much less vulnerable to offense.

BE THANKFUL.

There is always something we can be thankful for. When we complain, we’re not honoring all that God has done for us and in our lives. Complaining cuts us off from God’s blessings. But giving thanks, even in the difficult times, opens the door for God to work. As Ann Voskamp put it in her book One Thousand Gifts, thanksgiving precedes the miracles.

DON’T JUDGE.

The more I judge, the more I separate myself from others, and I open the door for misunderstanding, defensiveness and strife. We need to replace judgment with acceptance and love. You cannot serve or truly love those who you judge. I keep myself from judging by remembering that it could have been me. And I remind myself that each person is a child of the one True King, that God loves you and me as much as he loves Jesus. We are sisters in Christ.

COMMUNICATE WITH LOVE.

My first marriage ended purely because we didn't communicate – yet we thought we did. We didn't have a clue what that needed to look like or how to do it because neither of us had good role models. If there is anger or misunderstanding, there is a breakdown in communication. Most people don’t want to hurt their loved ones, but we all do it – don’t we? When we communicate with love, patience and a desire to understand the other person, there is a much greater likelihood that we can reach understanding and work through difficulties. We certainly can’t if we’re not talking.

The fact is, God created the world and all that’s in it and He said it was good. The Fall happened and sin entered the world and messed everything up. But God had a plan and sent Jesus Christ to redeem us so that we can be in relationship with Him. AND God is going to renew all things – all things that glorify Him – that means your work, your relationships, all created things. And I believe that the more we trust God and work in cooperation with Him now, the more grateful we will be when we see what He does with it in the New Heaven and the New Earth!

You Are Very Special

Have you ever been told or thought…you were worthless, unwanted, unloved, useless, or a burden to your family and others?  Regardless of our past, none of us is really satisfied with ourselves:  we would like to be taller, more athletic, smarter, more educated, more beautiful, or have something we don’t.

I have gone through childhood, being fat, feeling ugly and taunted.   I felt totally unaccepted and rejected.  When I finally learned that God loved me and accepted me just as I was, I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and to come into my life and take charge.   I felt loved and accepted. In all of this, I didn’t realize God had allowed this and had made me with a glandular disorder and that He had a great plan for my life.   I didn’t realize He had equipped me to be a wife, a mother, a Bible study teacher, to travel all over the world for Him.

(A local artist from Northwest Arkansas, Erin B., created over 100 of these beautiful, one of a kind, watercolors to share with each resident in a local women's prison.  The message through art was this...You are unique and very special to God!)

You aren’t simply an egg hatched in the wild, or an electronic device with no conscience or sense of purpose. You are created in the image of God.  You are unique in that there will never be another person just like you.  You are created as body, soul, and spirit.  You are an amazing work of God…you are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Psalm 139: 13-14 says” for you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.   I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

No matter how dirty or rumpled a $100 bill becomes, it still has value.  Your life may seem really ugly and messed up, but you have intrinsic value, because God made you and loves you. Maybe the circumstances surrounding your birth were not ideal.  We know that life comes from God, and if human love was absent, God’s love was present.   God wants you to be  a part of this world and this time and He has a plan for your life.

We don’t all look alike, or have the same skills and abilities.  Look at different brushes.  A tooth brush, a hair brush, a paint brush.  We need them all and they are greatly valued, but have a different role to play.   So it is with your life.  You each have different skills, and abilities.  You have different personality combinations:   You may be outgoing, or quiet, you may be a leader or a follower, you may be a very sensitive, compassionate person or a very task oriented person.   The world needs them all.

Another factor in knowing the plan and purpose for your life is the life experiences that God has sovereignly allowed.   These help us know our giftedness for helping other in our world. God often allows hard times for a purpose to make our lives more purposeful. We need to see ourselves not as losers, but winners that God is preparing for a very significant role in life….be it big or small. We need to look at a beautiful piece of art to see how both light and dark, rich and muted colors make the picture beautiful.   So it is with our life.  God made us and uses all of our life abilities, and circumstances to be a beautiful creation for His use.

As you grow to appreciate how uniquely gifted you are it will add vitality, direction, and satisfaction  to your life .  It will allow you to be more fully the person God created you to be: “Fearfully and wonderfully made.”

You ARE very special!

Sunday Songs: Embracing Accusation

Rachel occasionally leads worship for us on the inside.  Enjoy this post from her about one of her favorite worship songs.

“I still remember sitting in my white 97 Civic in the dirt parking lot of the church I attended in college. The song was playing and I was crying so hard I couldn’t see my dash board. After years of doing the “right” things and being a “good” person in public, while carrying around secret sin and shame in private, I was at the end of myself. I was exhausted from lying to myself and to everyone around me. I was convinced that Jesus didn’t pay enough for MY shame. This was such arrogant thinking now looking back. I thought I was humble, but really I was prideful, unwilling to admit my incompetence, my incapability, my complete and utter failure to truly be like Jesus Christ. I was unwilling to accept the gift of His blood because I doubted its validity. I wanted to clean myself up and then accept whatever He was offering, but His gift doesn’t work that way.

Satan had planted a lie in my heart, a half-truth really. Every powerful lie contains some measure of truth. The key is twisting it and distorting it until it isn’t truth at all, and the lie is born. The lie I was sold was that I was too evil. I had too much grime and filth inside of me to be completely forgiven and fully made clean. In believing this I began to believe that maybe I misunderstood the gift He was offering. I started to think that I had to do something to earn the gift. I doubted whether He was willing to actually forgive someone like me. I questioned His reasoning for loving and forgiving a person so hypocritical and messed up. It was a vicious cycle. My doubt pushed me into striving and always failing, my failing brought on the guilt, the guilt pushed me into apathy and numbness, which pushed me into more sin, drowning me in shame. And then I heard this song.

“The devil is preaching

The song of the redeemed

That I am cursed and gone astray

I cannot gain salvation

Embracing accusation”

I cannot gain salvation. It hit me like a ton of bricks. As simple as it sounds to a person who has been set free by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, I had not yet understood. I believed the half-truth, and my pride was getting in the way of seeing the full picture. Jesus Christ is enough. He is powerful enough, He is pure enough, He is strong enough, and He is WILLING! The message practically screams out of the pages of the Bible I had been reading my whole life, but somehow I had missed it. It took coming to the end of myself in that car alone in a church parking lot to finally get it. It took brokenness and desperation to bring me to a place of humility.

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” Romans 5:6 (NLT)

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.” –Romans 5:8-10

“God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” –Romans 5:20 (NLT)

Everything changed for me that day. I was no longer living under condemnation. I was made right and pure THROUGH Christ. He did it. It is finished. My soul has rested in that truth ever since. All the striving has ceased, but now I am growing in obedience THROUGH his power, not my own! I will never be the same.”

Enjoy this video of Shane & Shane:

If you read this post today and want to put the lies behind you please email us and let us know how we can pray for you today.

How to Pray for Your Spouse While They Are in Jail

1. Above all else, pray for their salvation.  Psalm 86:11

2. No matter the reason they are there, pray they see God in all circumstances.  Psalm 119:36

3. Pray they find joy and strength in all circumstances.  Ephesians 3:16

4. God can use and will use this for His glory.  Pray they use it for His glory.  Colossians 1:10

5. Pray your spouse surrounds themselves with people that love the Lord and want the best for them.  Proverbs 17:17