Was speaking to someone yesterday and talking about life, ministry…all that stuff.

They made a comment that man can not stop what God wants to do in a church.

I thought about that a lot…and I don’t agree.

The murmurers among the Children of Israel stopped the whole nation from moving into blessing.

They wasted 40 years of everyone’s time.
They cause a whole group to die in the wilderness, not the promised land.

It was never Moses’ fault.
And yet Moses, Joshua, Caleb and their families paid the price for it.
The children of the murmurers paid the price for it.

It was the lazy and fearful who delayed the building of the walls of Jerusalem, not the leadership.
It was the selfish, jealous brothers who sold Joseph into slavery.

We are all called to add something to a body.
We are all called like members to work in concert with one another, not against one another.

The murmurers against Moses could have wandered back to Egypt themselves. They could have wandered off into the desert and died themselves.

But they wouldn’t.
They were cowards.

They needed, like Jim Jones, a wolf, to slather as many sheep as he could to validate his point of view.

The people of influence who murmured against Moses were not after the good of the nation of Israel…no…time and time again we see that it was the Shepherd Moses who cared for others.

What they wanted was to take from Moses everything that he had spent his life building and use it for themselves. And what did their selfish ambitions bring to those around them?

Death, destruction and unfulfilled potential.

What did their repeated rebellion cost Moses?

His immediate dream.

They pushed him beyond endurance by there murmuring, unfair accusations, refusal to listen, refusal to make a stand, continual maintenance of detrimental relationships with people who spoke out against him, and by refusing to believe the best in him.

And how did Moses respond?

He sinned..he disobeyed God.

BUT..and here is the big BUT (I love God and how He does this):

Regardless of the hard-hearted attitude of the people who pushed Moses, God was able to turn things around with the promise that Moses will be one of the prophets that will used in the second coming of our Lord.

Gen 50:20
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

And for anyone in Christian leadership…that is a GREAT promise.

It is a promise that if you faithfully serve God and passionately pursue all you are believing for…it doesn’t matter how the road bends, it always gets you to where you are supposed to in God.

when historians list the character traits of the last third of twentieth century America, commitment, constancy, tenacity, endurance, patience, resolve and perseverance will not be on the list.

Our list will contain a totally different set of qualities.

It will begin with an all-consuming interest in self-esteem.

It will be followed by the subheadings of self-assertiveness, and self-enhancement, and self-realization.

And if you think that you are not at all a child of your times just test yourself to see how you respond in church life when people reject your ideas or say no to your suggestion or suggest a way that you could improve upon how you are and what you.

Church is no longer about constantly saving and discipling souls, it has become about filling the programs, to statistically get the growth to cover the budget.

You can’t breed world champions in a puppy mill.You can make live long disciples of Jesus Christ asking nothing from them.

I remember climbing on my bike one day in shorts and a singlet, in the rain, without a helmet and hitting 100mph on 114

Of flying at stall speed 150 feet over a lake to see if I could make it

Of sparring with a guy I couldn’t beat.

You just need to do stuff like that every now and again to see if your alive

Life’s to short
God is to good
This is our year

A rabbi and a baptist minister decided to buy a new car together. The day after they bought it, the rabbi found the minister driving it. The minister explained that he had just gone to the carwash because, in his religion, it is customary to welcome a new member with the rite of baptism. The next day, the minister discovered the rabbi cutting the end off the tailpipe.

In a document recently discovered, it was unearthed that the ancient hebrew title for the bible was “Chuck Norris and Friends”

A preacher was making his rounds on a bicycle, when he came upon a little
boy trying to sell a lawn mower.

“How much do you want for the mower?” asked the preacher.
“I just want enough money to go out and buy me a bicycle,” said the little boy.

After a moment of consideration, the preacher asked,
” Will you take my bike in trade for it?”

The little boy asked if he could try it out first, and, after riding the bike around a little while, said,
“Mister, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

The preacher took the mower and began to crank it. He pulled on the rope a
few times with no response from the mower. The preacher called the little
boy over and said,
“I can’t get this mower to start.”

The little boy said,
“That’s because you have to cuss at it to get it
started.”

The preacher said,” I can’t cuss. It’s been so long since I became a Christian that I don’t even remember how to cuss.”

The little boy looked at him happily and said,

“You just keep pulling on that rope. It’ll come back to ya.”

Conviction is a knowing not a feeling.
Repentance can only come after revelation.
Conviction and repentance are not necessarily feelings of remorse, but a dawning of an understanding of what is right.

It is a conclusion that God knows best.

The Pharisees wailed their prayers, Mary Madeline lived her life, the only tears she cried were tears of thanksgiving and joy for salvation and forgiveness at the feet of her Saviour.

Of every 100 men, 10 shouldn’t even be here.
80 are nothing more than targets.
9 are real fighters, we are lucky to have them; they the battle make.
But one, one of them is a real Warrior, and he will bring the others home.

Hereticus, 500 BC

The true value of a lighthouse on a dark sea does not lie in its magnificent grandeur. Just emitting light clearly and brightly is all it is required to do. Such is the value of the church.

Remember, presence is the best proclamation.
Even if Jerusalem was just a small city and Israel a meager nation in the history of ancient Palestine, God made Jerusalem his footstool and Israel his priestly nation and the light for all other nations.

Without Israel, people could not have seen clearly through the history of the world nor rightly known God. The world came to know who God is through his economy that made covenant with his people and governed them.

Therefore, the value of the church is not in becoming bigger and higher but in remaining true and right. For it is impossible for the church to become more church-like without its saints
becoming true Christians.

I find to this day seven abominations in my heart:

(1) Inclining to unbelief.

(2) Suddenly forgetting the love and mercy that Christ manifested.

(3) A leaning to the works of the law.

(4) Wanderings and coldness in prayer.

(5) To forget to watch for that I pray for.

(6) Appoint to murmur because I have no more, and yet ready to abuse what I have.

(7) I can do none of those things which God commands me, but my corruptions will thrust in themselves, ‘When I would do good, evil is present with me.’