SHATTERED DREAMS

 

"Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband." (Ruth 1:3-5). Naomi's life was going well. A great husband. Two fine sons who had two wonderful wives. Then the unthinkable happened. Her husband died. A little time later both her sons die. She and her daughter-in-laws find themselves in the midst of shattered dreams. This isn't how life was supposed to be. How did Naomi react to her situation? "...for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!" (Ruth 1:13). Ah, we see her true feelings about the situation. "How could a loving God let this happen?!" "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?" (Ruth 1:20-21). Mara means bitter. She knew where she was. She was bitter toward this so called God of love. "How can I possibly reconcile this?!" No life insurance. No widow's fund. "What is going to happen to me and my daughters?" The Bible says the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous. Naomi and Ruth move to a community where some of her relatives lived. Ruth goes out to work in the fields to put food on the table. She just so happens to work in the field of a wealthy farmer named Boaz. When Ruth tells her this the first ray of hope penetrates her bitter heart. Even she can recognize the hand of God. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, "The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz. Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!?" (Ruth 2:19-20). Hebrew custom was for the next of kin to care for the widow in the family. Boaz was to be this man. He would eventually marry Ruth. She would bare a son, Obed. He would be the father of Jesse, the father of David. Jesus would come from the same lineage. Shattered dreams often lead to a world-impacting destiny. But getting there is often process where we must work through honest feelings before we can see the God who redeems even the most devastating shattered dream.

SHEDDING FORMER THINGS

 "But after the men were healed, God told Joshua, 'today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you'" (Josh 5:9).

God is calling thousands of people out of Egypt, out of their old lives of bondage. He's calling them to become new people, living out His plan for their lives in the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. God wants Christians to take their places in the financial marketplace, the corridors of commerce, the capitals of information and entertainment, and the halls of government.
When the people of Israel crossed over the Jordan River and set foot upon the land of promise, God told Joshua to make flint knives and revive a ritual that had fallen into disuse: circumcision.
The rite of circumcision, of course, is the surgical removal of the foreskin (prepuce) of the penis. This rite was established as a sign of God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17, but it had not been practiced during the 40 years that Israel wandered in the wilderness before reaching the Promised Land. Joshua obeyed God's command and had all the Israelite men circumcised at a place they called Gibeath Haaraloth (a rather graphic name that means "hill of foreskins").
The rite of circumcision is painful, bloody and personal, and the Israelite men were incapacitated until the wound had healed. With the removal of the foreskins, the men of Israel became a new and different people. They were no longer slaves of the past; they were free people with a future. It was time to put aside the old way of life and to put Egypt behind them and enter the Promised Land with confidence and power.
The people of Israel would go on to fight 39 major battles before the Promised Land came under their control. The Israelites couldn't compromise with the evil and idolatry that was in the land. God told them to destroy it. As believers, we will always be in a battle against evil until the war is won.
God has designed a bright future for us - and it's ours if we accept His calling and cling to Him as He reshapes us and remakes us.

JESUS WAS TEMPTED IN 3 AREAS - SO ARE YOU

 

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matt 4:1). Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan! After 40 days of fasting, when Jesus was at his weakest physically, Satan came to Him. He tempted Him in 3 areas where you and I are most tempted. Why would the Father require this? Jesus needed to affirm to Satan who He was and from whom He gained His authority and provision. 1) Our Identity "'If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: "He shall give His angels charge over you," and, "In their hands, they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone."' Jesus said to him, 'It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'" Jesus understood His identity and refused to allow Satan to redefine Him. Do not allow Satan to define your identity from anyone or anything other than God. 2) Our Authority "Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, 'All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.' Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" Jesus' authority was rooted in doing only what He saw the Father do. He did not use fleshly authority. 3) Our Source of Provision "And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, 'If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.' But He answered and said, 'It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."'" Today, realize your identity resides in being a son or daughter of your Heavenly Father. Your authority resides in being led by the Holy Spirit. Your provision comes from your Heavenly Father.

WHEN FEAR KEEPS OTHERS FROM THEIR DESTINY

 

"No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. "- Acts 5:13 Every work day in thousands of offices across the globe, Christians testify of God's grace in their lives in some way. Sometimes it comes through a subtle performance of their duties with a smile and peace that non-believers cannot understand. In other cases, there might be more visible, unexplainable examples of God's work. This was the defining difference in believers in the early Church. They lived a life that followed with signs and wonders that could not be humanly explained. The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number (Acts 5:12-14). How often we have heard non-believers acknowledge their respect for the Christian workplace believer, but they dare not join them in their persuasion. It is this fear of the unknown that keeps many a non-believer on the path to hell. Who has God placed in your path today to help detour from a path of eternal torment to a path of freedom and eternal life? The Lord desires that each should come to knowledge of the truth so that they might be saved. As you enter the workplace today, ask the Lord for a divine appointment that might be the turning point for a lost soul. There's no prayer the Lord will delight in more than this one.

MAKING DECISIONS BY HEARING FROM GOD

 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). God speaks to his children in many varied ways. God has said that his ways are not our ways. If left to our reasoning, we will fail to fully walk in the full counsel of God, which leads to poor decisions.   Thus, our goal is to avoid being deceived and to develop a listening ear that hears the voice of God with confidence. Our goal is to have such intimacy with God that we can walk in the full blessing of our decisions and to be assured they are not based on our own reasoning alone. This does not mean that we do not use the intellectual and logical skills that He has equipped us with. A.W. Tozer said that the man or woman who is wholly and joyously surrendered to Christ can’t make a wrong choice—any choice will be the right one. J. Oswald Sanders explains his method of receiving guidance from God for decisions; "I try to gather all the information and all the facts that are involved in a decision, and then weigh them up and pray over them in the Lord’s presence, and trust the Holy Spirit to sway my mind in the direction of God’s will. And God generally guides by presenting reasons to my mind for acting in a certain way." The apostle Paul said, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:13).  God has equipped us with everything we need to make good decisions. Hearing His voice is the first step toward making right choices in life. Do you have a decision to make? Submit that decision to the Lord, ask God for clarity. Ask Him to make the desires of your heart the same desires that He has for you in this matter. Await His perfect timing on the matter. Then you can be assured of making the right decisions.

LEARNING TO STAND

 

..."Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today...." - Exodus 14:13 The Israelites had just left 400 years of slavery in Egypt. They had fled to the desert, but they had come to a dead end at the Red Sea. Word reached them that Pharaoh had changed his mind. He was sending his troops to recapture the Israelites. They cried out to their leader Moses, complaining that he had brought them that far only to die in the desert. Learning when to move and when to stand is the greatest challenge for a workplace believer. We are trained for action. We are not trained to sit idly and wait. We are trained to solve problems, not wait for them to resolve themselves. However, God says there are times to wait. We are to wait until He says go. If we go before He says go, we likely will make our situation worse. If the Israelites had attempted to cross the Red Sea before it parted, they would have drowned. If they had fled north to try to avoid the Egyptians, God would not have moved in a miraculous way. God cannot work on our behalf if we continually try to solve our problem when He has instructed us to stand still. Standing still is sometimes the greatest action we can do, although it is the most difficult thing to do in the Christian walk. Stand still when He says stand and see the deliverance of the Lord.

GIDEON'S STAFF

 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread (Judg 6:21).

Gideon was a farmer who threshed wheat for a living using a staff. This was commonly used in his day to beat out fitches and cummin (Isa 28:27), but now it was being used for wheat.
He was busy doing his work when an angel of God appeared to him.  The angel told him that he was going to be used to deliver the people of Israel from the Midianites who had been ravaging their land and crops for seven years. God was calling Gideon to do a new type of threshing. Instead of threshing wheat, he was being called to thresh the Midianites.
God often calls men and women when they are in the middle of their workplace activities. Like Moses, Gideon received this word from God with reluctance and feelings of insecurity, citing that his family was of no stature to accomplish such a task. Nevertheless, God addressed Gideon as a "mighty warrior" (Judges 6:12).
God often sees us for what we will become, not what we think we are. Once Gideon determines through a series of fleeces that it truly is God speaking to him he does an interesting thing. He prepares an offering to the Lord of meat and bread. Once this offering is prepared, the angel uses the tip of his staff to consume the offering. Here God uses another symbol of his work to consummate a partnership to accomplish one of God’s purposes in the nation of Israel. This time the staff is used to receive the offering presented to the Lord by touching the offering with the tip of his staff. God used the symbol of his work to ignite the fire that consumed the offering. 
Be watchful for times when God orchestrates events during the commonplace activity of work. He may be orchestrating something through you for His purposes.

SUCH A TIME AS THIS

 

"On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king's hall." - Esther 5:1a Esther was a woman who lived for a cause greater than herself. God used this woman to save the entire Jewish people from extermination. However, before God could use her, she had to come to a place of death in herself. It was not an easy decision. Her uncle Mordecai was the instrument God used to challenge her to measure up to the task. Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this? (Esther 4:13b-14) Mordecai was telling it straight. For her to speak up meant great risks if the king did not receive her. It was automatic death if the king did not extend his scepter, which meant acceptance of her approach to the throne. It was also a time to realize that God may have brought her to this place and time for this specific purpose. However, if she did not respond in faith, God would use another instrument to deliver the people. What would she do? Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish (Esther 4:16). On the third day of the fast she came and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king's hall. She was like Jesus who stood in the inner court of Heaven on that third, resurrection day. She gave up her life, but God raised it up on that day and delivered an entire people from destruction because of one woman's willingness to give up her life for a greater cause. God has called each of us to a purpose greater than ourselves. Know that it will require death before life can be given to this purpose. It must be His life that lives, not ours.

THE SUCCESS TEST

 

But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today (Deut. 8:18). Muhammad Ali is considered the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He won 56 of his 61 professional fights and knocked out 37 opponents. His most famous catchphrase was, "I am the greatest!" One day, Ali was seated in an airplane when the flight attendant came up the aisle to make sure that all the passengers had their seatbelts fastened. Reaching Ali’s seat, she asked him to buckle up. "Hmph!" the champ sneered. "Superman don’t need no seatbelt!" The flight attendant smiled sweetly and replied, "Superman don’t need no airplane, either." Ali fastened his seatbelt. The greater our success, the greater the risk of us thinking too highly of ourselves. Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle observed, "Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man, but for one man who can stand prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity." And Oswald Chambers wrote, "Sudden elevation frequently leads to pride and a fall. The most exacting test of all to survive is prosperity."  Each of us must view success as a gift from God. We must learn to see all of our successes as a gift from God, not our own achievements. The Lord is the source of all success, all elevation, and all blessings. If you have a good mind and a healthy body, if you live in a land of opportunity, if you have a good education, if you’ve had a few breaks go your way, then you have much to be grateful for—and no cause for arrogance. You didn’t achieve success; you received it as a gift. Each of us must voluntarily humble ourselves before God—or God will have to humble us Himself. I have learned it is better to learn humility voluntarily, than involuntarily!  Paul tells us:  "For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you" (Rom. 12:3).

THE POWER OF ONE

 

Then the men of Judah said to the Simeonites their brothers, "Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours" (Judg 1:3). After the death of Joshua, there arose a wicked king named Adoni-bezek that was creating havoc in the land. He prided himself in defeating his enemies and cutting off the big toes and thumbs of his enemies. He had done this to seventy kings. Now, without Joshua to lead them, the people wondered how they were to defeat this wicked king. Until this time, every King had attempted to defeat Adoni-bezek themselves and had lost. The Lord told them they were to join forces with the other tribes in order to defeat this wicked king. "When Judah attacked, the LORD gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek. It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites. Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes" (Judg 1:4-6). God is calling the Body of Christ together in cities to operate in unity together in order to defeat the wickedness in our cities. However, the key to victory is a willingness of churches, workplace leaders, and intercessors to work together as a unified army. Jesus said, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" (John 17:23). God calls each of us individually and corporately to represent Christ to the world, but our independence, pride, and individualism often prevent us from becoming unified in the purposes of Christ. The marketplace and the Church must come together to bless the city with practical initiatives that benefit the city. When unity takes place among leadership in the Body of Christ, Jesus responds by allowing the city to respond to Jesus. You will see more fruitful evangelism, favor among city leaders, and an impact on the city you never thought possible.

AVOIDING THE GIBEONITES RUSE

 The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD (Joshua 9:14).

When Joshua and the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they fought many battles. In fact, they fought 39 battles in the Promised Land compared to only two in their exodus from Egypt. God instructed them to wipe out all their enemies completely. The more battles they won, the more their reputation preceded them as they entered new territories. Such was the case when Joshua and the people came into the land where the Gibeonites lived. The Gibeonites knew they were as good as dead if they didn’t do something. So, they dressed up in old, worn clothes and posed as foreigners passing through. They asked Joshua and the people to make a peace treaty with them. An interesting thing happened.
The scriptures tell us that Joshua and the people made a treaty with them because they did not inquire of God about these people. They assumed what they said was true. This turned out to be a very bad assumption. They were now forced to abide by this treaty after they discovered their true identity. They had been deceived. The Israelites were forced to make the Gibeonites slaves. This created a problem for Joshua and the people. The deception resulted because Joshua failed to keep a vertical focus on God. Joshua did not ask God about these people.
They now had to pay the consequences. Those consequences resulted in having to work to avoid cross-tribal marriages while they had to make an entire people their slaves. This was something God never intended them to have to do. The relationship was a source of compromise for the Israelites that made them susceptible to future compromises.
Many of us fall for the Gibeonite Ruse in our lives. It may be a great looking investment, a job that’s going to pay more, or a relationship that you deeply desire. Sooner or later we all get entangled in our own Gibeonite Ruse because we fail to inquire of God. 

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

 

"And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in Him and in Moses His servant." - Exodus 14:31 What makes an effective Christian leader today? Is it charisma? Is it ability? Is it communication and oratory skills? God's view of an effective leader has nothing to do with these qualities. They may be a part of an effective leader. However, the core attribute of a Christian leader is his integrity with God and his obedience to follow Him. When this happens, God manifests His power in and through that leader. Moses was effective because he was willing to obey the commands God gave him. When Moses did this, God manifested His presence in him. The result was that people followed. They followed because they saw God working in and through the man. They saw that this man was worthy of following because God's anointing was on him. When people see the Lord's power manifested in your life, they will have a healthy fear of the Lord. They will look at you and say, "This person has something I don't have that is worthy of more investigation." Your challenge is to seek the Lord with a whole heart, resulting in God's power being manifested in the daily activities of your life. When this happens, you can expect others to be drawn to what they see in you. The problem with many Christians today is that non-Christians see nothing different about the way they live to motivate the unsaved to desire their faith. What makes you different from your neighbor? Is your experience with God noticeably different from that of the man next door? If you're not experiencing regular encounters with God, it's time to ask why not. We don't live day-to-day for the next spiritual experience, but we should see by-products of a life centered on God that are reflected in fruit from His presence in our lives.

WHERE DO YOU PLACE YOUR CONFIDENCE?

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel (1 Chron 21:1-2).

God always requires total trust in Him alone for our victories in life. Throughout scripture we are cautioned not to place our trust in the strength of horses, other men or our own abilities. David’s decision to take a census was a failure to keep his trust totally upon the Lord.
David’s purpose in counting his population was to assess his military strength, much like the second census taken under Moses (Num. 1:2–3). David found 800,000 men eligible for military service in Israel and 500,000 men in Judah (2 Sam. 24:9), more than double the previous head count.
David’s commander evidently recognized the grave error that his king was about to make. "But Joab replied, ‘May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?’" (1 Chron 21:3).
This census displeased the Lord. David was falling into the temptation of trusting in the size of his army rather than in the Lord. God punished David and reduced his forces by bringing a plague that killed 70,000 men (1 Chron 24:14,15).
How do we do this in our lives today? We trust our bank accounts, our skills, and the security of our workplace. When we begin placing our faith in these things instead of the provider of these things we get into trouble with God.
What a lesson this is for each of us. Today, place your total trust in the Lord for all of your needs.