Amos 7:14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah: ‘I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore-trees; and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said unto me: Go, prophesy unto My people Israel. {JPS}

Amos was a man who was comfortable and successful at being who and what he was, an owner of sycamore groves and a sheep farmer. His daily life was settled and predictable; he was good at doing what he had chosen to do with his life and was content with going about the daily routine of being Amos. Then the Lord invaded his life with opportunities and a ministry that was light years outside his comfort zone.

A resident of Judah, Amos was told to go the Israel and prophesy there. Not only was he to prophesy, but he was to deliver a message which would be unpopular, harsh, and judgmental. The King of Israel would regard Amos as an interloper and an enemy.

I have often pondered how these men and women of G-d felt about being given these “opportunities.” Were they always seen as opportunities, I wonder? Were they perceived as gifts from G-d, or were there mixed feelings about being called to something so far outside their normal realms of experiences?

Stretching our personal borders is often a difficult process for us humans. I wonder how Amos felt as he trod the road to Bethel from Tekoa. Was he nervous? Excited? Scared? Was he filled with questions and doubt? Did he question whether he had really heard from G-d or whether his own imagination had tricked him? What awaited him in Israel? How would he deliver his message? What would he say? How would he say it? To whom would he say it, and what would be their responses? Would he be killed, laughed out of town, ridiculed, or worse – ignored?

Yet Amos did exactly what the Lord had set before him to do. We are not told of his emotions, his outlook, his fears or confidences. We are only told that he went. He was obedient to the still, small voice within him. The result was that the message was delivered – not just to Bethel and Amaziah, but to us as well. Truth for all time was spoken, and the people of G-d received the Word of the Lord. Success! Regardless of how things might have turned out – success! Even if he had been killed, ridiculed, laughed out of town or ignored – there would still have been success! Why? Because the success would have been the obedience and the task accomplished. If he were obedient, success was impossible to avoid. Other people’s responses, even his own safety or humiliation were irrelevant to the outcome. He had already succeeded!

When we evaluate success, we entertain the notion that seeing the results we anticipated or realizing the goals we had intended to achieve is the measuring standard. In truth, it is not. Success is determined by submission to our Master and obedience to His word. When Yeshua went to the cross, everything attested to the illusion that his ministry had not succeeded. Yet, in his obedience, he did succeed, and G-d made the intended result happen. Disciples, when we are submissive to our G-d and obedient to his direction, we are already achievers.

Lev 20:24 “But I said to you, “you will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Have you ever found yourself short of getting G-d’s inheritance for lack of faith in Him? Have you ever found yourself, for lack of faith in G-d, decrying Him, denigrating Him, disparaging Him, discrediting Him, misrepresenting Him and impugning Him by distorting the situation?

If you are, you will find yourself in the sandals of 10 out of the 12 spies who scouted the land of Canaan with a mission to bring a report back to Moses. G-d gave four simple commands to the Israelites to “Go up and take possession of it (the Land of Canaan)…” and he said “do not be afraid: do not be discouraged.” (Deut 19:2)

So why would one “scout the land” to know whether or not the inheritance is good or bad? G-d does not give poison gift to his children.

In Mat 25:34 “Come you who are blessed by my father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” In Colossians 1:14 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

It is in the Lord’s presence that we experience redemption and forgiveness of sins. But somehow, we can make the way difficult for ourselves to be in His presence even when what we experienced has been good. The spies after scouting the Land had wonderful things to say at first but because of the Anakites living there, 10 spies got so scared that they started to blow the story of out proportion. They lost faith in the One who brought them there.

Who is the Anakite in our life that keeps us from fully entering the promise land, who makes us discredit G-d and by doing so bring other people down with us? Why is this defeatist attitude controlling us? G-d already performed miracles in our life with mighty powers. We know His strength, and yet we do not want to listen to him. We know His Heart, and yet we decry Him. Whatever is our Anakite in our life: envy, rage, lies, rebellion, meanness, addictions…, we can overcome the enemy with the power and presence of G-d. Let’s not attempt to do it on our own without God’s presence because like the Israelites, we will be overcome. So, let’s go up and take possession of our inheritance with G-d’s presence. Sometimes, the very presence of G-d is plenty sufficient to drive out the Anakites in our life without raising a single finger. So next time G-d give us an assignment, let’s not scout out the land to weigh the good or bad of G-d’s gift to us, let’s simply obey His commands and let’s go up with Him and take possession in “always giving thanks to G-d the father for everything.” Eph 5:19.

Amos 7:14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah: ‘I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore-trees; and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said unto me: Go, prophesy unto My people Israel. {JPS}

Amos was a man who was comfortable and successful at being who and what he was, an owner of sycamore groves and a sheep farmer. His daily life was settled and predictable; he was good at doing what he had chosen to do with his life and was content with going about the daily routine of being Amos. Then the Lord invaded his life with opportunities and a ministry that was light years outside his comfort zone.

A resident of Judah, Amos was told to go the Israel and prophesy there. Not only was he to prophesy, but he was to deliver a message which would be unpopular, harsh, and judgmental. The King of Israel would regard Amos as an interloper and an enemy.

I have often pondered how these men and women of G-d felt about being given these “opportunities.” Were they always seen as opportunities, I wonder? Were they perceived as gifts from G-d, or were there mixed feelings about being called to something so far outside their normal realms of experiences?

Stretching our personal borders is often a difficult process for us humans. I wonder how Amos felt as he trod the road to Bethel from Tekoa. Was he nervous? Excited? Scared? Was he filled with questions and doubt? Did he question whether he had really heard from G-d or whether his own imagination had tricked him? What awaited him in Israel? How would he deliver his message? What would he say? How would he say it? To whom would he say it, and what would be their responses? Would he be killed, laughed out of town, ridiculed, or worse – ignored?

Yet Amos did exactly what the Lord had set before him to do. We are not told of his emotions, his outlook, his fears or confidences. We are only told that he went. He was obedient to the still, small voice within him. The result was that the message was delivered – not just to Bethel and Amaziah, but to us as well. Truth for all time was spoken, and the people of G-d received the Word of the Lord. Success! Regardless of how things might have turned out – success! Even if he had been killed, ridiculed, laughed out of town or ignored – there would still have been success! Why? Because the success would have been the obedience and the task accomplished. If he were obedient, success was impossible to avoid. Other people’s responses, even his own safety or humiliation were irrelevant to the outcome. He had already succeeded!

When we evaluate success, we entertain the notion that seeing the results we anticipated or realizing the goals we had intended to achieve is the measuring standard. In truth, it is not. Success is determined by submission to our Master and obedience to His word. When Yeshua went to the cross, everything attested to the illusion that his ministry had not succeeded. Yet, in his obedience, he did succeed, and G-d made the intended result happen. Disciples, when we are submissive to our G-d and obedient to his direction, we are already achievers.

Over the past 50 years there have been many things that happened that have caused me to seek and pursue the Lord to a deeper level of understanding in this Christian walk. As he showed me, each time, how He had been turning what seemed to be so bad, even almost unbearable, to good … how He would “other it”… for His purpose each time I would trust Him, I began to personalize the truth He had been speaking to me since my youth.

What He has been doing over the years has given me more of a hunger to pursue Him even further. There are times I have seen my life in David, stunned that some would come against the Army of the Living God, defying the Lord God of Israel with such arrogance. To realize that this warrior is a child while marching forward in the name of our Lord, to face what seems to others to be an undefeatable enemy. To have a “friend who sticketh closer than a brother,” as Jonathan and David. To have a heart to serve God, and, at times, be attacked even to the point of death by the very one who is soothed by the melodies of God. At times… the donkey who was a faithful servant to his master, Balam. In raising our children, I felt like Moses, feeling totally incapable of the task to which I was called. After delivering our son, who weighed in at 9 lb. 14oz, while rocking him at home in the living room, my eyes fell on the picture of Sallman’s “Head of Christ” that was on our wall. In an instant, it registered that Love was willing to pay the price to give birth to one who doesn’t know he is in darkness.. To breather new life in a kingdom that they had never seen or experienced .. To come to serve, that others can be ministered to.. To show them, to enable them to learn. As with Christ for His Bride, to lay down my life for the one I chose to love, not having received love in turn nor knowing if I ever will, but to serve my Father, and be an obedient daughter ..if I die, I die..to give back the life I owe with thanksgiving. I saw that mountain, and, like Caleb and Joshua, wanted to follow God all the way. How in Collegeville, He taught me personally the meaning of Aaron’s Rod and the need to remain quiet in the darkness for whatever the time may be, in order for the Work and Hand of God to show in my life, blooming in His Freshness..to be reminded while in the darkness that my God is at work, and His timing is always right. Trust Him.

Agonizing and crying tears in the Garden with death at my door, having decided to set my face toward Jerusalem in obedience to my Father. Feeling like Joseph in prison choosing to do right because it is right to do. Seeking God’s grace to forgive and come out not holding a grudge … seeing with kingdom eyes … knowing that they meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Learning from my Father to love those who hate me and do evil to me, being enabled by his grace to separate the sinner from the sin. Submitting to the Branch, that He might grow his fruit in me.

Realizing, like the thief on the cross, were it not for the shed blood of Jesus the Christ dying in my stead, paying the price for my sin there would be no redemption for me, no hope of glory, no presence of God in my life, no peace within, no joy, no faithfulness, no righteousness, no hope, no love, for nothing good can come of what I do unless God does it in and through me. But, praise be to God, He has raised me from the dead into an everlasting life. He calls me His child and He delights in me and I in Him. This is Life.

When I was growing up, I thought a person was rich if they had a paved driveway and clothes from the GAP. Or if they had been on an airplane. When I visited an Olive Garden with a friend in sixth grade, it was the fanciest place I had eaten at in my life. When someone gave me a $35 ring for my eighteenth birthday, I cherished it with my life, as it was the most expensive thing I owned.

Now I have a paved driveway and a fairly new car parked in it. I shop at any store I want and have dinned at five-star restaurants. I’ve traveled to 12 countries on three continents and own several diamonds.

But more often than not, I still feel poor.

A few weeks ago, I watched as a man power-washed his driveway, using gallons of water to clean the ground where he parks his car. It struck me in that moment that I am living a million-dollar life-a life of wealth and privilege, comfort and pleasure. And most of the time I don’t even know it.

We live in a country with such abundance that we can use drinking water to wash the GROUND where we park our cars. I can imagine so many of the world’s children staring at that scene in amazement, thinking how rich this man was to throw this valuable water away.

The thought of true poverty is uncomfortable and overwhelming. Sometimes it paralyzes me. But most of the time, I’m too self-absorbed to even care.

May we be reminded today that in comparison to the rest of the world, we fabulously wealthy. And while we cannot save everyone, we can all do something.

“If you can’t feed 100 people, then just feed one.” – Mother Teresa

For more of Leah’s thoughts visit her blog at http://newzchasr.wordpress.com

Every 3 seconds a child dies from hunger.

Americans spend an estimated $20 billion annually on ice cream; that amount could feed 83 million hungry children for an entire year.

Every 21 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease. This amounts to nearly 6,000 deaths-the equivalent of 20 jumbo jets crashing every day.

Lev 20:24 “But I said to you, “you will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Have you ever found yourself short of getting G-d’s inheritance for lack of faith in Him? Have you ever found yourself, for lack of faith in G-d, decrying Him, denigrating Him, disparaging Him, discrediting Him, misrepresenting Him and impugning Him by distorting the situation?

If you are, you will find yourself in the sandals of 10 out of the 12 spies who scouted the land of Canaan with a mission to bring a report back to Moses. G-d gave four simple commands to the Israelites to “Go up and take possession of it (the Land of Canaan)…” and he said “do not be afraid: do not be discouraged.” (Deut 19:2)

So why would one “scout the land” to know whether or not the inheritance is good or bad? G-d does not give poison gift to his children.

In Mat 25:34 “Come you who are blessed by my father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” In Colossians 1:14 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

It is in the Lord’s presence that we experience redemption and forgiveness of sins. But somehow, we can make the way difficult for ourselves to be in His presence even when what we experienced has been good. The spies after scouting the Land had wonderful things to say at first but because of the Anakites living there, 10 spies got so scared that they started to blow the story of out proportion. They lost faith in the One who brought them there.

Who is the Anakite in our life that keeps us from fully entering the promise land, who makes us discredit G-d and by doing so bring other people down with us? Why is this defeatist attitude controlling us? G-d already performed miracles in our life with mighty powers. We know His strength, and yet we do not want to listen to him. We know His Heart, and yet we decry Him. Whatever is our Anakite in our life: envy, rage, lies, rebellion, meanness, addictions…, we can overcome the enemy with the power and presence of G-d. Let’s not attempt to do it on our own without God’s presence because like the Israelites, we will be overcome. So, let’s go up and take possession of our inheritance with G-d’s presence. Sometimes, the very presence of G-d is plenty sufficient to drive out the Anakites in our life without raising a single finger. So next time G-d give us an assignment, let’s not scout out the land to weigh the good or bad of G-d’s gift to us, let’s simply obey His commands and let’s go up with Him and take possession in “always giving thanks to G-d the father for everything.” Eph 5:19.

“No, you will never wash my feet!” said Peter when Jesus knelt at his feet to wash the dirt from his feet. The thought that the Messiah would serve Peter as a slave would serve his master was repugnant to him. It was inappropriate; it was outrageous; it was unthinkable. Yet, Yeshua said, “If I do not wash you, you have no inheritance in me.” (see John 13:6-10)
    If you read this chapter closely, you will see that Yeshua was not talking about physical dirt nor ritualistic washing. He tells them that they are already clean, but not all of them are so – indicating that there was a spiritual uncleanness being identified here which was only being illustrated by the obvious lesson. Peter didn’t understand. Most people don’t. If Yeshua was referring only to the ritual cleaning traditionally done by non-Jewish servants, then Judas would not have been identified as being different from the eleven. Remember, Judas also had bathed for Pesach Seder (and/or the day of preparation for Shabbat, depending how you read this account.)
   What Peter would come to understand later … much later … was that even though he had been cleansed by his Master, he would need washing again and again. For in walking through this world, he would continually find the need to be washed by his Lord. Perhaps he came to understand that in the courtyard of public trials when Yeshua looked at him with compassion and love following Peter’s denial and cursings.
    Sometimes, after we have fallen short, failed, turned away, sinned, denied Yeshua – whatever you choose to call it – we, like Peter, cannot abide the thought of the Lamb kneeling at our feet to wash us. He is too high.  He is too glorified to be kneeling as a servant at the feet of one so unworthy as we. We can acknowledge his glorification and Lordship, but we cannot fathom His serving us  in so lowly a way – especially us. But when the light comes, we remember that this is why He came. To wash us again and again and again even though we have been washed before. Sometimes, we must learn to see the Son of God, not on the cross, but at our feet – making us clean again.
Father, Do not let pride nor shame take this inheritance from us.

“The man’s a sissy,” I thought. His words and demeanor seemed too sweet, artificial, affected. I didn’t like him from the first moment he opened his mouth to talk to me. You know how some people seem to be putting on piety and it shows? Well, that’s how Ken Maurer affected me. I just didn’t like him.

Yet, the Lord was going to use this man to help shape my life from that first encounter onward.

Over the course of the next year, I would come to learn that his piety was not artificial, his demeanor was not saccharine, and this man was no sissy – not by any stretch of the imagination. He was a man of God, a man of faith and had an unyielding devotion to his Saviour. He was as genuine as salt. I would come to learn that it was my own impoverished, cynical soul that made me see him the way I did on our first encounter. I grew to have an enormous respect for this intelligent and caring human being. I would take every course he offered, and some I would take twice (without credit) just to glean as much as I could from him.

Dr. Kenneth Maurer was the Dean of Evangelical Theological Seminary. He founded the school, single-handedly kept it afloat for years, served as its President and Chair of its History Department. There were times he even served as its janitor. He was President of the American Association of Church Historians for over twenty years. He was a man of vision, and nothing stood in the way of his fulfilling the task the Lord laid on his shoulders – not sickness, not finances, not work, not the most demeaning of tasks. Nothing.

His fingerprints are on my life, in my mind, on my soul, and all over my faith. He taught me the value of knowing my roots and my fathers’ history. He brought his beloved Scripture to life and instilled an appreciation of the scripture’s vitality in his students. The longer I live and study my Sovereign and His word, the more I realize that Yeshua used this man to help mold me, my faith, my ministry, my life.

It occurs to me that there have been others, too – some I recognize and some I don’t.  But I have come to appreciate the gift that the Lord gave me in Ken Maurer. And, as I considered that notion, my mind followed the rabbit trail to others who were used to help shape this old George. Some did it with kindness, some with meanness; some with wisdom and some with ignorance; some with grace and some with abuse.

But, they all made a deposit in me which God has used and is using to help mold my life. Many of the experiences have been very pleasant and many have been very painful. But in it all, God has been the potter. Now, in my autumn years, I am just beginning to learn how to be thankful for both.

Thank you, Lord, for your fingerprints left on us through other people’s fingers and the way you used them in our lives.