My dad was a WWII veteran. He didn’t talk too much about the action he saw, but occasionally he’d let a little something out, and my brother and i were always fascinated. One little story i remember him telling about was concerning the constant feeling of vulnerability and danger, the ever-nagging feeling none of them were safe, even when in a port, they still felt beyond safety’s borders. He told us about, during one engagement, he watched other ships getting torpedoed and bombed, then sinking into the deep in a plume of smoke and fire, yet somehow the ship he was on slipped through the bullets, bombs, and torpedoes. He told us about picking up survivors from destroyed ships out of the ocean, alive and dead, and sometimes even watching men disappear into the jaws of unbelievably large sharks. He said a couple of times they even had to abandon the rescue efforts in order to survive being destroyed themselves. His next words have always stuck in my mind, he said, when pulling the rescued sailors from the water, they all wanted to go home, they just wanted to go home. Why home i wondered, and you’ve gotta remember that most young people can’t seem to wait to leave home, so that wasn’t an unusual question.

Later in life, having suffered many things myself, i have found that at life’s most terrible times, when things seemed at their worst, i too just wanted to go home. Lately, i believe the Lord has answered my question “What is it at home so much so that it’s the only thing on our minds when things are bad?” The Lord says it’s largely because it is the place in our minds and hearts that represents the safest place we know. Home was a safe place for many of us… yet others, well, not so safe at all. Either way, all people, in their heart of hearts, have a need for safe places, places of sanctuary, but sadly those places are getting harder and harder to find.

And i suppose i should add, there are those who are politically motivated who create safe places which exclusively cater to people with an overwhelming victim mentality in order to advance their personal agenda of gaining power and control. It seems they can’t control people who have their heads and hearts on straight, so they prey on those who seem to be trapped in their iniquity and transgression, who live in a vacuum void of God’s wisdom.

i’m Social Porter and thank you for joining me here at Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the river’s edge, and every evening is pleasant.

Is your home a safe place? Within our relationships with friends and family, our government, or our jobs, is there any safety in them, or are we always on guard, having to watch what we say, how much we tell, having thoughts of wanting to just run away to the desert or deep woods where no one knows us, our life, or our name? Safe places? Are they really safe, and is there really safety to be had anywhere in this world beyond the sanctuary of the covering of Jesus Christ?

In 1 Kings 1, we see King David in his last days, he’s old, and fading fast. There has been a contender for the throne, the fourth son of David, named Adonijah who was, before David had even died, arrogantly and presumptuously telling everyone he was the new king, lying and manipulating, putting words in the mouth of the king saying that David had ordained his ascension to the throne. Of course, David wasn’t about to allow that, so he had Solomon anointed and crowned king, blowing the horn so all would know a successor to David’s throne had been crowned. Adonijah, a rotten and treacherous fellow in his own right, realized he was in jeopardy of being slain by Solomon, so he ran quickly to the temple, grabbed the horns of the altar, and said to Solomon, “Swear to me you will not kill me!” Solomon let him live and sent him home.
The temple was considered a place of sanctuary, and the altar of the temple was considered a thing of sanctuary, it can be a consecrated place or thing. It was a safe place, Adonijah knew it, and made a straight line for the safest place he knew, grabbing the horns of the altar, and crying out for sanctuary.
Safe places are supposed to represent a point or region of refuge. In our society, we have safe places for battered women, children, and even for entire families out of necessity because their very basic refuge, their residence, is no longer safe for them. Sadly we also have safe places, if you can call them that, which are merely safe havens for those who are looking for a safe place to sin in peace, out of the reach of justice, out of the sight of honesty, out of the reach of accountability, out of the view of transparency, and wishfully, out of the sight of God.

For many, many years churches represented safe places, places of sanctuary. In history, the church and the altar of the church were considered holy, offering a form of protection beyond governmental authority, sometimes even for political dissidents or immigrants facing deportation. The safe place the church represented was where desperate people could get safety, food, clothing, and shelter. i need to also add, and this is important, sanctuary was never allowed for those of treacherous, and murderous actions. The Lord nor the law of the land ever allowed sin of any sort to be given sanctuary, under any circumstances.
In this day and age, in our nation, safe places are getting more and more difficult to find. Home isn’t a safe place for many anymore; it seems law enforcement has no problem invading even our most basic sanctuaries and homes. Now, don’t get me wrong, a lot of times it’s for very good reasons, but sometimes times not. Even criminals have taken to breaking into places our society once saw as a safe place. i believe, we as a nation don’t feel safe, we don’t trust our friends, the words of our neighbor, the actions of businesses and government, or even other believers.
Refuge is associated with trust, for without trust, refuge is not held as safety. When safety is violated, among other things set in motion, we end up feeling betrayed, and betrayal kills trust in its tracks. Are our friends safe with us, or are we backbiters, telling the secrets of others for personal gain? In Genesis 9, Noah was naked and drunk. Gen 9:22 says, “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.” It was bad that Noah was naked and drunk, but it was worse that Ham pointed it out. Ham betrayed Noah’s trust putting Noah forever on guard. The relationship Noah thought was safe, was exposed as not safe. Do you get what i’m saying?

If you think i’m being negative or harsh, do the footwork, go ask people on the street, and let us compare notes on that. We all seem to feel so vulnerable, and in danger on every corner, and i think it is shaking us to our knees.

My most basic safe place is my home, not just my house, but my home, and our home is our shalom place, edge to edge, under God’s exclusive care. To my wife and i, it is our place of sanctuary and we defend the sanctity of our home with all power; it is where we live in honor and peace. Our sanctuary is a sacred and protected place, a refuge and retreat from our everyday work-a-day world and obligations. Do you have a shalom place?

Safe places are where we regenerate, it’s our private space where familial bonds are based and strengthened. Our need for a safe place impacts everything we do.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow wrote a paper titled, “A Theory of Human Motivation”. Maslow stated that aside from air, food, water, clothing, and shelter, physical needs being first, safety was the second greatest need for human beings.
But i must add, it seems to me our need for safety is very high, but yet our ability to be safe and feel safe is increasingly elusive.

For those involved in any bombings or shootings, learning to feel safe again will take time. Many of the people directly impacted may never again go to a movie theater, to market, or even to church and feel totally safe. They’ll probably always harbor some fear and apprehension because their sense of safety has been seriously and forever compromised. Consider those who have been the victims of violent crime. Do you think they’ll probably be a long time coming before they feel safe again, even in the sanctity of their homes? Some people have been so violated, over and over, i wonder, how you even get past those memories unless God is directly involved.

How many shows on television are always about someone involved in some violence? It seems that any place there is the potential for drama, that is where Hollywood gets its storylines – the emergency room, police stations, courtrooms, war rooms, addiction and crisis centers, wild animal control, drug wars, and even governmental wars….and how many of those crime shows, every week portray some violent criminal with no conscience, sneaking into some random person’s house and robbing or killing them? And how many of those with violence launched against them on those shows seem to always be women and children? Over and over and over until it’s embedded in our heads that we are not safe, even in our homes. i believe, eventually, everyone who watches shows like that begins to be afraid of virtually everything, they feel vulnerable and in danger all the time, paranoia rises, trust fails, the truth is elusive, and as a whole, we begin to feel completely unsafe. Not safe in our homes, our jobs, our relationships, or even with exposing our feelings. Without any real safety in people’s lives, they end up running away from imaginary terror, hands in the air in fear, pursued by no one.

It almost sounds like Job in Job 3:25-26, “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. I was not in safety, neither had I a moment to recover, neither was I settled in my heart; yet trouble came.”

Is there any place in this world where anyone can be really and truly safe? What is God’s idea of safety, refuge, or sanctuary? There is only one safe place i know of and that is seen in Psalm 61:4, “I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.”
There is no place safe in this world without Jesus as an ultimate defender and Counselor, the ultimate and only true hope. Jesus IS our safety.
This needs to be said though ….. yes, Christ is hope and salvation to a dying world, a refuge for the wounded and weary, but sanctuary and refuge was and never will be given to sin.

In 1Kings2, we read about Joab who was a murderous, unrepentant, and treacherous fellow. When Solomon set his sights on justice concerning Joab, Joab tried to do what Adonijah did….he ran quickly grabbed the horns of the altar, and begged sanctuary. He figured if it worked for Adonijah, then it would work for him too! But Solomon had been taught by his father in the ways of the Lord and knew murder, treachery, and sin is never, ever given sanctuary. Joab declared he would die at the altar, so Solomon obliged him, had him slain at the altar, and buried him in his wilderness home with only the honor of a soldier.

The Lord is a safe refuge for anyone in need of safety. God’s idea of safety is seen in dissecting the word for the deeper meaning. Safety and refuge under the covering of the Lord means the weary will find, in the Mighty One, power, strength, and protection. God’s idea of safety means the Blood of the Holy One protects those who return.

Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” With Jesus as our refuge and safety, there comes the security that God has your back, and in Him, there is much-needed rest to restore strength, hope, and courage. In fact, in Job 5:4 the word used for safety is a Hebrew word that translates as liberty, and deliverance. With God’s safety COMES liberty and deliverance.
In a world of little to no safety, Jesus alone is our shelter, Jesus alone clothes us with His goodness, Christ alone is our path and safety. John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Friends, Jesus is our safety.

Psalm 62:7, “In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.” The word salvation in that scripture is the root word for Yeshua, the Christ of God. It is the same word used in Job 5:4 and the translators interpreted it as “safety”. The Lord is our only help and sanctuary, and no kings, princes, presidents, no bureaucrats, or politicians on this earth, not any flesh and blood can ever offer us any long-standing safety. Psalm 146:3, “Do not put your trust in princes, Nor a man, in whom there is no safety.”

How often have we, as a nation, put our trust in our government to deliver us from poverty, criminal activity, fear, and desolation, yet over and over, man’s ability to make himself safe in the long run just doesn’t work out very well?
Proverbs 14:26, “In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, And His children will have a place of refuge.”

Over time and through much trouble, i have consistently seen the Lord as my refuge and sanctuary, especially when the promises of sanctuary from men were a vacuum. When i have been cornered by hell, the Lord opened a way for me and gave me shelter and deliverance. i am a witness. i have seen it and lived it. The Lord is truly my shepherd and my best friend, I lack for nothing and always have more than enough. He offers me a resting place in grassy pastures to lounge in His luxurious love, he leads me by quiet water, an oasis of peace where he restores my soul and revives my life. He guides me in right paths for the sake of his own name. Even if I pass through death-dark ravines, I will fear no disaster; for you are with me; Your Authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear.

I’ll never be lonely, for Lord, you are near. You prepare a table for me, even as my enemies watch; you anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit; you give me all I can drink of you until my heart overflows. So why would I fear the future? For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!”
It is my heart’s desire that everyone and anyone who hears the gospel of Christ will find safety for themselves. We all need a safe place. The Lord offers the promise of refuge to all who would call on His name. The Lord alone is our safe place and leads us in the paths of righteousness. Think about it.

Isaiah 25:4, “For You have been a strength to the poor, A strength to the needy in his distress, A refuge from the storm, A shade from the heat;”
The Blood of the Holy One, Jesus, protects those who return, and they will find in Him power, strength, and protection.”

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, cool jazz, and contemplative conversation given with the hopes all who listen will look past the surface of their own presentation face. Be honest, accountable, and transparent. The Lord is with you if you’ll just surrender and allow Him to love you.

There is no safety except in Christ, and Christ alone. We all need a place where we feel safe, but increasingly in the world we live, safety has become elusive. i believe with all my heart, and i hope you also may confidently trust God with your safety….if the Lord is your guide, he will also be your guard.
Drive carefully this week, pray for your neighbor. Take your time and consider the ways of the Lord with all your heart, and i’ll talk to you next time.

Isaiah 61:1-3, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful garla nd of grace instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.”

In our season of grief, difficulty, possibly even working through catastrophic circumstances, i believe God has a word for you and you, yes you can be healed everywhere you hurt. If you’re sad and that sadness just invades your waking and sleeping, God can heal your sadness by the Blood of Jesus, and not only can He heal your sadness, but He’ll give you the courage and strength to get up off your sick bed and re-enter the land of the living.

i’ve wondered exactly why many folks think Jesus died for their sins,… it seems many times that’s as far as anyone thinks about it, He died for my sins and it stops there….was it only a salvation thing so we don’t have to go to hell like having fire insurance? …. just – saved from our sins?….. i believe, if we’ll take the Lord seriously, He wants so much more for us than that….He wants us to enjoy the road home and not just be Eeyore all the way home. One lady said, “God wants us to be whole, not full of holes.”

i believe so, so many folks are in pain, real pain. We may have learned to live with it, and some truly tolerate pain better than others and have learned to wear a good face, but it doesn’t mean the pain isn’t there. For years, i was in pain and i had no idea why, how it got to be there, or even what it was about….i gave it no identity and as a result i was always acting out with no thought of questioning any of my actions.

When i had cattle, i grew to know they are usually pretty good down to about -25….on particularly cold days i would chuckle to myself because their faces looked like they were saying, “Boy it sure is cold” and the other one would say, “Yea, it sure is but i don’t know what to do about it….” They’d munch more hay and just roll their big eyes around thinking about being cold but clueless on what to do about it. That was me when it came to pain…just clueless what to do about it. This evening….the topic is beauty for ashes like a garland of grace….and the gold the Lord brings out in us when it appears all is burned to the ground.

In my little life, i know something, maybe not much according to some, but this i know….i can’t play hide and seek with my difficulties and expect them to simply go away. Just because we don’t deal with stuff doesn’t mean it’ll just disappear.
The Lord wants us to be more than survivors. In the last program it was mentioned that one day while out for my afternoon walk, the Lord made me to know that i was only surviving when i was supposed to be prospering. He said, “How is it you have fallen to only surviving when you should be prospering?” It was a good question, and at the end of His question there came a feeling like the earth plates in my heart were moving, repositioning themselves to align better with God. You know what i mean?
Here’s a question….if you knew it could happen, would you be willing for your circumstances to be your message and ministry?
John 6:12-13, “And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.”
i don’t know about you, but there have been terrible times in my life when i felt like my entire life was just broken little pieces, just fragments….in John6:12-13 i hear the Lord calling me to bring even my broken fragmented life to Him….He has healed the broken hearted and opened wide the prison doors and has the power to deliver forever more. We’ve all heard that God does more with nothing than we can do with something, and even if we’re sure we are on the negative side of zero, God can do something with even that.

i’ve got a few ideas of who i am, but i’ve got tons of ideas about who i’m not and i reckon it’s good to give Him not only who i am, but also all that i’m not….take it all captive.
2Cor10:5 says to take our thoughts captive. That word “thoughts” there in the Greek means all your perception, purpose, all your academic thinking, and even your disposition, take it all prisoner by the word of God….and that’s not just the negative stuff either, that’s ALL of it, even the good things….take them ALL captive, like holding a prisoner of war at spear point.
We can’t be afraid to reveal to the Lord even the smallest details of our lives….you know, it’s not like He’s surprised….i believe God knew exactly what He was getting into when each one of us came in the door of the house by the Blood of the Lamb.
There is no time the Lord ever regrets forgiving your sins and transgressions. i believe the Lord has more hope for me than i have for me, and certainly more hope for me than any of my friends or relatives. i was the little boy who was never supposed to live past the age of seven, according to our neighbors. i was a dangerous kid, not because i was mean or tough, but i was so vastly ignorant of the repercussions of my actions, it’s the truth, my parents didn’t expect me to survive childhood.

i figure, if you are the meek, poor, wounded, depressed, if you’re the fearful, sad, conflicted, shamed and disqualified, if you’re the bankrupt and blind, one of the lost and unfortunate ones, you are exactly who Jesus came for…your the very one He came to get eye level with…He was crucified, died and rose from the dead for you. You are the very one God came to rescue.

You and I both know what happens to unprocessed emotions: they get stored. i can’t remember who said it but they said, “What’s buried alive never dies.” That’s the truth. We’ve gotta deal with stuff….we can’t just bury it, or compartmentalize it and stuff it somewhere. Some folks compartmentalize their griefs so well, they can, with all confidence say they are “fine…totally fine”…but below street level all the wounds which have been buried are still active, affecting all they do. Honestly, I don’t see the Lord as someone who just throws “lessons” at us in the form of casualty, catastrophe or suffering as if we are hamsters just running on a wheel. But I do think we are all able to choose to have the power to mine gold from even the darkest of situations.

We need to be honest with ourselves and the Lord. Yea, i know we have to be people of faith, and faith will get us through, and by faith i am healed, but so many in leadership have gotten so they are dealing with other people’s stuff, but they’re not dealing with their own….even to the point of denying they even have woundedness going on. Believe me, if you’re in church leadership long enough, you WILL get hurt…sheep bites are painful. Buti don’t think we should be wounded healers….telling ourselves if we had enough faith we shouldn’t even be going through those things. If we feel like we can’t be honest over things, if we feel like we can’t bring our problems into the light, it’s the truth….everything we hide has power over us. That’s why a couple programs ago i made a call to deal with the hidden things in our backyard where no one can see, which is a metaphor for saying everything we hide has power over us.

That, by no means, says we should just dump all our dirty laundry onto anyone who comes along, we need to be a little more discretionary than that…. but you’d be surprised how much help there is in having a safe person to simply verbalize things with. We need to talk about the things which hinder us so hell can’t continue to hold it over our heads anymore, making us a slave to what is hidden and compartmentalized.
We spend a lot of energy keeping things hidden. It reminds me of having a bicycle which only turns in one direction….oh, you’re peddling and balancing alright, but you aren’t going anywhere. Every time you hearken back to a former time about the time so-and-so did that, or such-and-such happened, or you remember the disappointment or anger of a past thing that happened, get off that bicycle and deal with what’s holding you back.

Many years ago, i was angry and so disappointed it seemed life was just going in circles. i distinctly remember waking up one day and making a clear decision that i was not going to allow the past to keep dragging me backwards into a dark corner, getting suckered into a fight in the dark…..and that from there on out, i was going to look up instead of down……afterall, when you’re always looking down, all you can see is the ground.

i was drawing a line in the sand that enough was enough, that’s it, i’m not looking back anymore, sitting in the middle of nowhere wishing i could just get a glimpse of destiny. i believe it’s a fact, we can’t do anything about what’s past, what’s done is done, but we can do a lot about cooperating with God about what’s ahead.
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, the new has come.” …. put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life …. be renewed in the spirit of your minds, put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Let’s get motivated about that!

Philippians 3:12-14, “….. but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Friends, I do not consider that I have made it my own. 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.”

“Press” is one of the key wordsi’m interested in. It means to push forward, pursue, take action, campaign and advance on…it’s not a timid, passive term….it is a verb that is present, active, indicative, meaning it is in the now, we are the ones doing the action, and it’s a statement of fact. Take note of these also….”make it my own” is a now verb, “Forgetting what lies behind” as in the now, and “straining forward” is present tense, meaning now. Now, now, now! In order to press onward, we’re going to have to learn to do it, even when we’re hurting, even when all odds say we should just quit, even when our closest friends tell us to just give up on our faith; we’re going to have to learn to do the right thing even when the wrong thing seems more just…you know…it’s always the right time to do the right thing, and we need to do it until doing the right thing just becomes second nature to us‘cause doing the right thing is just the natural inclination of our heart. That’s called enduring and it’s one way of resisting the devil so he’ll run away, screaming into the distance, driven backwards into his own gates.

Friends, we need to know who we are in Christ and stop getting our identity from how we look, who we know, the job we have, what we own, what others say about us, and what spectacular things we may have done or not done. It’s been said before on this program, i don’t believe most of us really know what to make of ourselves, nor do we seem to know how to talk about ourselves. God wants to define us, and if we wait until some religious body defines us, we maybe waiting all our lives. God is our constant defining moment, now, now, now.

i don’t know about you, but i’m not satisfied to merely go to Heaven when i die. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful thing, of course, but i just don’t believe Jesus Christ, the son of God Almighty, died for me so i can just barely get through, just surviving, (Eeyore voice) “i guess everything will be great when we get to Heaven, but we’re just doing the best we can with what little we’ve got in the mean time, barely scraping through. i’ll probably enter Heaven with the faint smell of brimstone on me, but at least i’ll be in Heaven.”

Jesus said He came that we would have life and have it more abundantly….that doesn’t mean we won’t have problems, it doesn’t mean we won’t struggle, it doesn’t mean we will never weep over situations, or — that everything is just going to be moonbeams and merry-go-rounds either….but it does mean, by the blood of Jesus, we have a right to not be wounded all our lives, to not bleed all over everything over past hurts, we have a blood bought right to not get mired in the clay of what someone did to us….

You wouldn’t believe how often hell has come to me and told me i would never have anything more than a second rate life, doing second rate things, for second rate reasons. It reminds me of the kids in high school who got D’s on their report card…they tended to do D things with D people going D places for D reasons yet were never able to lift up their heads enough to see that there was so much more life than what they had.

i am determined to not let the wounds of my past dictate the steps of my future, and to stop the bleeding of old hurts. The past belongs in the past, which is why it is past. Let……it…….go.

Let us be reminded of God’s promise in Isaiah 61:7-8, “Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. For I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.”
That’s joy…. which is rejoicing and gladness with a shout in the middle…and that’s an everlasting joy too. The Lord rewards those who diligently seek Him and i must add that i have sought the Lord at His request for lo, all these years and i believe i am living in the reward. He didn’t persecute me for my wrongs, He corrected me to a better heading. He didn’t prosecute me as in a court of law, He took me to a place to heal the wounds which drove me off the deep end. So much of my life i’ve had to do things afraid. What is it one preacher says, “If you’re afraid, go forward afraid…go with God anyway. Go forward with Jesus and tell the truth, even if your voice shakes!”

If He did it for me, He’ll do it for you too. We don’t have to be wounded all the days of our lives….there is a choice to be made there. What do you want? Do you just want to make it through the muddle in the middle, merely surviving life? Regardless of all my confidence, i can safely say, from hard won experience, no one, nowhere, is able to run their lives by themselves….we can’t, simply can’t do it alone. There is no way anyone can escape the gravity of earth, the pull of this world, on their own. i have been abandoned, rejected, made to be isolated and isolated myself, and felt overwhelmingly alone, but through it all, God has been there, He and i have pressed forward, in the now, every step of the way. Regardless of who doesn’t like me, disagrees with me, won’t return my calls, or feigns to be my friend yet doesn’t speak to me at church or on the street, i have determined i am going on with God no matter what or who.

Check out another of God’s promises….Isaiah 54:4, “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be confounded, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth…..” i love the part where He says, “neither be confounded”….meaning to not let yourself be insulted, offended, or wounded to the point of nearly bleeding to death. And then He says, “you will not be put to shame or disgraced,” basically meaning the Lord will lead us in a path which we don’t have to suffer the loss of honordue to humiliation, not that we will forget the stupid stuff we did when we were ignorant and young, but the shame of those days will be resolved unto strength, maturity, and faith. Friends, now there’s the word of the Lord to cling to.

i know of a fellow who was reminded by the enemy of all the dumb stuff he did as a young man, reminded so often it just seemed to be a probability that’s the way the rest of his life was going to go. He began to believe he was as terrible as hell would have him believe he was. He called me on the phone and asked me straight out if i thought he was a failure, and with all power i answered, Absolutely not, never, in the name of Jesus. The Lord said in Isaiah 54:17, “no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”

Hell will bring against us all of our don’ts, won’ts, can’ts, and should’ve’s as judgments lodged against us to wound us to death, but God says we have the power, by the blood of Jesus, to refute those accusations because we are the children of light, servants of the most high God who sets our feet on firm footing and leads us beside still waters. Even if your life is burned to the ground and there’s nothing but ashes and soot left, God knows how to build again so from the sludge of a burned out life, new life springs forth like gold sticking out of the ground.

Stand up church, it ain’t over till it’s over. You maybe down, but you’re not out. i’ve not heard the bell yet, so get up and fight. 1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Think about it.

Stand up church, get to your feet. Your catastrophic circumstances are not the end of things, it is the beginning of excellence in Christ, it ain’t over till it’s over, and it’s not over yet. i know a man who has struggled with addiction, crime, and incarceration almost all his life, but then when Jesus took hold of him, things begin to change. Yes, he relapsed because that was his best self-medicating coping skills….yes, at first he still played out his criminal habits because that was all he’d ever known…. but little by little, he became less and less of an addict, committed fewer and fewer crimes, and every time he got knocked down, he kept getting back up, and getting back up, determined to apprehend Christ, the prize who lay before him…. over time he got good at falling down and even better at getting back up, every time he got back up he was standing longer and more upright. The farther he got from addiction and crime, the less he was inclined to see himself as a failure with no hope. In him grew a hope that in Christ he really could be a son of the Most High, and he really was be an overcomer.

It’s great to be on the path, but we must actually move our feet…c’mon, let’s get on with it. There’s no time to sit and moan about old things that have passed away to the point we become inert…. if we’ve nearly fainted in the heat of battle, weary from the pounding of life, Jesus is our refreshment. We don’t have to keep bleeding, we don’t have to keep weeping….there’s a choice there. John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Jesus came to give life to us over-the-top, more than we could imagine, better than our idea of good….we are called to do more than merely survive….Jesus used the word “abundantly” and we should take that seriously. True the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but my Jesus stepped into the middle of all that and said, “I am here, and that ain’t happening to whomsoever will come to me.”

i’m Social Porter with Living in His Name Ministries.

The gifts of the Spirit are as important to the functioning of the Body of Christ as are the fruits of the Spirit. The gifts and fruit are like the primary feathers on a dove, if you remove any of those feathers from one side or the other it flies a little funny, if not just down right poorly. The gifts and the fruit are supposed to work together for the uplifting and blessing of those around us…twice in 1Cor14 Paul says to strive to excel in building up the church, and let all things be done for building up. Eph4:12 speaks of equipping the saints for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ.

In light of that, let us pursue the Lord to reveal the gifts of the Spirit within each of us that we would be able to accomplish the Lord’s directive of “building up”. i find that people in churches who don’t, or won’t, make room for the gifts of the Spirit, spend their time going back and forth, letting out and gathering back in again….like someone who’s face is on the wrong side of wet windows streaked with rain. Those folks who refuse to acknowledge the gifts seem to almost be in a prison made of not anything other than their own never seeing….sure….aren’t we all free to receive God’s endowments and manifestations, but still, those who refuse His gifts confine themselves to always trying to see in without actually stepping through the looking glass into God’s promises.

The topic is one of the gifts of the Spirit, more specifically, the gift of wisdom, as is mentioned in 1Cor12:7. Let’s spend more time talking about the amazing life God has given us, the incredible blessing and gifting, rather than slogging along, dragging ourselves through some constant deep analytical physiological profiling about the stresses of life and how we’re just getting by. We’re not supposed to be surviving, we’re supposed to be prospering. Yea, it’s true, we really, really need to rediscover God’s idea of prosperity because we’ve all but washed all the righteousness out of the word “prosperity” with our ideas. Similarly, i want to revisit God’s idea of gifts, and this broadcast, is about the gift of wisdom, what to do with it, and the value of applying it…all for the building up of ourselves and the Body of Christ around us, not to mention the world around us also gets some of what we’ve got when we live it out loud. You know what i mean?

Wisdom. We read all throughout the Bible about wisdom. It is mentioned over 250 times, so obviously it’s important. We are told by the Lord to get wisdom, get understanding, get knowledge, and then 1Cor12:8 reveals that if you’ve got wisdom it was a gift God gave to you…i want to take that a step further by saying had God not given you the gift of wisdom, you simply wouldn’t have it.

In Prov1:20, wisdom is personified as a woman who calls out to us in the busy streets from the middle of town. Prov9:1 says wisdom has built her house and has carved out seven pillars, like a woman who prepares a meal and invites people to attend, saying: “Leave your simple ways and you will live and walk in the way of insight”. Wisdom invites everyone to come share her satisfying feast.

Wisdom is a gift of the Spirit, not something that is just intrinsically part of us just because we got saved and said some words. It’s more, so much more….it’s a gift… like when Jesus gave His back to the soldiers to be beaten. You know, that part about being wounded for our transgressions in Is53…yea, that was a gift to us that He would take our punishment for us. i don’t know about you, but i’ve suffered an awful lot in life because i lacked wisdom, and sometimes, even though i had wisdom i didn’t put it to work. i hope we all really grasp the idea that having wisdom and doing wisdom are two different things. Knowing better than doing addictive drugs is wisdom common to anyone and everyone. Every addict on the street will tell you, straight up, doing drugs is a death wish, it’s death on the installment plan, dying slowly little by little every time you get loaded. BUT, actually employing that wisdom and NOT doing the drugs which are taking over your life is another story. Again, having wisdom and doing wisdom are two different things. Maybe we should ask God to not only please give us His gift of wisdom, but to also, give us the power to put it to work in ourselves and the world around us.

In Job28 the question is asked, “Where does wisdom dwell” and then the writer states that man doesn’t know the worth of it, implying men appraise wisdom as no more than a stone on the side of the road. In all of the works of men who refine jewels from the earth, who change the course of rivers and seas, and turn mountains upside down, wisdom is still not found among men. Wisdom isn’t found in the land of the living, not in the deep of the sea, it can’t be bought with silver and gold….. it’s hidden from the birds….even death has only heard rumors about wisdom. Only God understands the path to it, He alone knows it’s place. Wisdom is exclusive to God’s domain and He gives it to us as a gift that we might live. James1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Do you see that part where it says God gives generously to all? The generosity of God is amazing….He even gives wisdom to those without Christ if they’ll ask. What a mercy. We would all be dumb as a door nail unless the Lord in his kindness and mercy gave us wisdom. James1:5 uses the word “all”, and you know, all means all, and there’s no part of all that doesn’t mean all. The phrase “let him ask” is present active, meaning it is action that is now, now, now, and you are the one doing the action, not someone doing it for you, you ask now for wisdom, and at the appropriate time the Lord will open your heart to the gift of wisdom.

It’s one of the gifts of the Spirit….it should be our first stop of the day and the last stop at night. Job28:28 says the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and turning from evil is understanding.

Did you know that not only is wisdom a gift of God, but it comes with it’s own carved out pillars? ….the pillars are carved, meaning they are chisled out of a rough medium. What are the seven pillars of wisdom mentioned in Prov9:1? The seven pillars of wisdom are considered to hold up the roof of the temple, so they must be pretty important….it is no small thing, so i think we should really pay attention. From what i can discover as the Lord gave it to me is that the seven pillars are Ethics, Humility, Instruction, Discipline, Knowledge, Integrity, and Honesty. Ethics, the moral standards governing our conduct, and those standards begin with God. Humility, our being lowly, holding others up higher than ourselves, for even the most gifted people don’t please God if their gifts are unaccompanied by justice, kindness, and humility. Proverbs says humility comes before honor. Instruction, understood through the sense of education for the re-framing and re-forming of His people. Discipline, corrective action, like a father directs his son, comparatively seen in the hardships of the wilderness contrasted by God’s miraculous provision. Knowledge, receiving and understanding words of insight, learning to use interogative words like who, what, where, when, how, and why. Having our spiritual eyes opened through the idea of seeing. Integrity, a character development which purposely chooses righteousness, truth, and a devotion to the word of the Lord, Integrity – like a lamb without spot or blemish. And Honesty, being morally clear, knowing right and doing right where your conscience and your character agree, always opposing the lie, and being vulnerable for others to speak into your life.

So, from that, we can easily see the gift of wisdom is not small potatoes, and not only is it a gift, but it’s also intrinsic to the inspiration of the fruits of the Spirit….it is a fountain of essential life, and like water flowing from a hidden spring, the gift of wisdom inspires valor, and simple faith in the truth.  Psalm 111:10 says: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!”  It begins with knowing who God is and who we are in comparison to Him….which leads to understanding and then to practicing righteousness. Practicing is a key word: friends, we’ve gotta put it in gear, let the clutch out, get on down the road. It’s not enough to just sit in the drivers seat of the vehicle in the driveway, pretending we’re doing the stuff.  Having trouble with being motivated in your worship of the Lord, let me say that a life of wisdom ultimately results in the praise of God, it doesn’t end with knowledge, but is more obviously seen in transformed hearts and lives.

i don’t think i’ve ever considered wisdom as a gift until now, but now that i’m digging into it, it is obviously not something i can get just by reading a book. True, the book is highly likely to have at least some words of wisdom, but unless the Lord opens our eyes to see and own those words, they are just words on a page. This appears to be a realization David had, as expressed in the opening words of Psalm119:8 when the psalmist cries out, “Open my eyes Lord”. How often do we read and not comprehend what we read? How often do we hear and not understand what we’ve heard? Oh, we’ve got the words down alright, but do they really get any traction in our hearts?

God’s gift of wisdom enables us to have clear sightedness…. intelligence…. and buried within the very word is the idea of a holy mouth that speaks life to brighten and animate others….meaning God’s gift of wisdom is not just for ourselves, but also for those around us. His gifts, whatever they may be, were never intended for us to have and practice in secret, hidden away in a back room only being practiced for those elite Christians or those in leadership we deem worthy somehow. i don’t believe the Lord ever meant for us to keep wisdom only for ourselves, but to share, give it away. Buy the truth and sell it not, meaning we may give it to others, but not at a price to be exacted from those in need. Grace came by Jesus Christ, it was a free gift to whomsoever would have it, and so are the gifts, endowments, or manifestations for the whom-so-ever’s that would have them.

When someone who has the gift of wisdom, or any spiritual gift for that matter, when it is shown by evidence and actions in the right way, it will always point people to Jesus.

John15:26-27,  “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” As the Holy Spirit points to Jesus, we should also point to Jesus. If you point people to yourself, what have they gained?         If we put a picture of ourselves on every other page of a magazine, who is that promoting, who is that drawing attention to? If you write a book but your name is the largest letters on the cover, who is that drawing attention to? Many years ago, the Lord asked me to lose my name, just simply stop putting my name on everything He said to me which i told to others. Many times He had me go through the exercise of going a full day trying not to use the words, “i, me, and mine”. Friends, i’m here to testify, if most of us leave the words “i, me, and mine” out of our vocabulary, i’d wager we wouldn’t speak much. The true sharing and impartation of any spiritual gift will always point to Jesus.

At this juncture i think it’s important to point out that there is a difference between a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge. There is a difference in English, and Paul differentiates them in scripture in the Greek and Hebrew both.

i figure knowledge is the God annunciated accumulation of facts, information, practical understanding, probably even technical skill of how things work, and it’s gained by using six adverbs which are derived from the Hebrew word for knowledge. Who, what, where, when, how, and why. Wisdom is the proper use of that information, words of insight or clear sightedness which recognize that it is information and has value. Wisdom is recognizing and comprehending what the Lord is pointing out, knowledge is the accumulation of facts and information, and understanding is connecting the dots to know what to do with what wisdom and knowledge have brought us. That may be an oversimplification for some of us, but it’ll do within the context of this program.

Probably one of the best stories i’ve ever heard about the difference between knowledge and wisdom is about a young mother back in the 1920’s or so, who’s husband had died and left her with 4 children, aged 4, 5, 6, and the oldest being 8. The young mother went to work everyday, walking the very long walk to work in town, leaving all the children at home under the care of the 8 year old. Back in those days it wasn’t to terribly unusual to find children in the care of another older child during the day. One evening, after a long day at work, as the young mother was approaching the house about dusk, she saw the front door wide open on her little house at the far edge of town by the woods. She was immediately alarmed because the children had been instructed under threat of a sound spanking, to always keep the door shut, and don’t open it for anyone under any circumstances. Yet, there was the front door to the house gape-ing wide open, not a light on inside anywhere except in the living room. As she entered the house on high alert, there…. squeezed together facing the corner she saw all her children, huddled in a circle, being very focused on something between themselves and the walls. As she got closer and peeped over their shoulders to see what could have their attention so firmly grasped, there she saw 4 children and in front of them 4 baby skunks. She panicked and immediately screamed, “RUN children, RUN!!”, wherewith, each child grabbed a baby skunk and ran in four different directions. It is a great example of how things can easily go from bad to worse, and also of the difference in knowledge and wisdom.

She had the wisdom to know she was looking at baby skunks and the knowledge of the potential stink 4 baby skunks carried with them, and she well knew the facts and information about how bad her children and the whole house would smell if each of those skunks cut loose in fear, just spraying the house, children and everything. But she sincerely lacked the wisdom, or clear eyed insight, that if she panicked, the children would panic, and never in her life did it even occur to her to think they would each grab a skunk and run. Wisdom tells you that little black animal with a white stripe going down its back is a skunk. Knowledge tells you that that skunk can spray a terrible odor which will last for days. Wisdom will tell you to calmly get out of there before it hits you with the stink.

Some of the smartest people i’ve ever known, are also some of the most stupid. Stupid is ignorance that’s been told and refuses to listen. They are ever so smart, but really have no common sense….knowledge without wisdom can be an extremely dangerous thing. i often marvel at the stupid things brilliant people believe and do when they have straight out refused Jesus Christ. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and without Christ, we are prone to believe even the most absurd.

Proverbs 4:7, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.” How often do we just jump over that scripture, or worse, we often read it and think, “Oh that’s nice”. We’ve got plenty of hindsight, what we need is insight, clear eyed insight. If wisdom is God-given information, knowledge is knowing what to do with the God-given information. Honestly, i think wisdom and knowledge trade places all the time like tag team wrestlers.

The gift of wisdom, is an anointing of the Holy Spirit which is released into action when issues arise, or even when issues are merely on the horizon to occur at some later date. i find that God often gives me a word of wisdom that, in the moment, doesn’t seem to apply to anything specifically. But by and by, as the days turn, and the sun comes up and goes down again, the Lord alerts me to a rising need for important decisions to be made and, there, in the moment, He’ll bring back to my remembrance the word of wisdom He seasoned my heart with so many days ago. In John14:26, Jesus said …at the right time, the Holy Spirit will bring back to our remembrance the things He’s spoken to us when we need to know it. My memory is poor sometimes, so i am absolutely banking on the Lord reminding me of things.

James3:17-18, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

We really need to learn to feel the weight of God speaking. Learn to weigh the words to know what is of the Lord and what is not. Words without God’s presence are thin and weightless as a shadow. Glory is in His words, and glory has weight. Glory is heavy, the cursed are light. Something which is cursed (Hebrew kaw-lal) has no weight, it carries no momentum, it’s a light thing with no authority…. but the Lord’s words and presence have glory, the Hebrew word kabod, meaning He has weight, and in His words are ultimate authority, always ….the Lord has weight to move mountains and change the heart of even the most difficult person. Curses and the cursed have no weight for accomplishing anything, much less anything of righteousness. The only thing curses and the cursed can achieve is the propagation of more weightlessness. Again, His words have glory, weight, and we really need to learn to perceive the weight of His words over simply being impressed by someone’s opinion.

Now, let me add, many times i believe the gift of wisdom is set and exercised without us knowing it has been exercised as the word of wisdom. i’m a witness. Many times when issues arise, people express what’s on their heart and what rolls out is the word of the Lord, and we aren’t even particularly aware of the operation of the gift. There is no neon sign which suddenly appears saying to pay attention, we don’t typically get a buzz in our middle which alerts us, nor some distant bells chiming to tell us wisdom is amongst us. But we can know the word of wisdom if we pay attention to the Holy Spirit in our heart and learn to recognize the press of His presence.

From where i’m standing, i believe we often expect the supernatural to happen in some supernatural way….something dramatic which bowls our senses over, but in truth, i think it happens all around us and we simply don’t notice because the supernatural just naturally happened in such a natural way we didn’t recognize the miraculous right in front of us. In looking back across my life, from where i’m standing now, i see the Lord’s leading in such a simple fashion, in ways which, at the time, i had no idea that God was directing my steps…. from here i can see the hand of God on me there. And you? Can you look back and see the miraculous just naturally occurring in your life? Think about it!

Exodus28:3 is the scripture of first mention of the gift of wisdom….it says the Lord filled craftsmen with the Spirit of wisdom, not only did they understand, but they knew by the power of the Holy Spirit how things went together. In Exodus31:3, there was a craftsman named Bets-uh-lale’, his name means “shadow of God”. It says, “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.” The Lord gave it to them to not only conceive ideas, but they also knew what their ideas meant and how to put them into motion.

Exodus35:31 reveals that God gifted Moses in wisdom, knowledge, understanding…. According to Deut34:9, Joshua had the same gift, except it was imparted to him through Moses laying hands on him. Not only was Joshua filled with Holy Spirit wisdom, but suddenly he had the ear of all Israel.

In Acts15:19-22, after others tried to create division, leading men among the brethren, along with Paul and Silas, were sent with a message from the church that settled all issues. But, really, can you see the solution that James gave? ….it was the gift of wisdom…. and the result was that the potential division was cured and everyone was satisfied with the way that James proposed the solution concerning a very divisive issue.

How wonderful that within the church, even though it is inevitable that divisions will arise…when they do arise, there is someone with the word of wisdom, the gift of the Spirit, offering a fitting solution in the time of need. To me it is hard to understand why, when God has made available to us His wisdom, why do we often rely on our own and then we make decisions without seeking His guidance or His wisdom. Hmmm….Prov3:6 comes to mind. Wisdom is free from God for the asking…what keeps is from ardently pursuing Him for what He freely gives?

“Always expect the worst, then you’ll never be disappointed.” You ever heard that? It almost makes sense doesn’t it? Almost, but not quite, there’s something wrong with it, and most of us feel it in our bones. For me, there is no hope in the saying, “never invest and you’ll never lose anything.” Of course, but you’ll never gain anything either and that is conveniently left out of the proverb. Even so, many of us find ourselves thinking the “worst case scenario” without even trying.

It is a fact that bad things happen to good people, but it is a greater truth, always, that God is good all the time. It seems a more than reasonable question then, how many of us somehow think bad things happen to good people, but how good of a person do i have to be in order for bad things to not happen to me?

As people who keep company with God we should always live in a constant expectation of God, but because we live this life in the flesh, what we should do and what we really do are sometimes two different things.  While giving the sermon one Sunday, the minister said that all of sudden he heard words in his spirit which caused an instant impact, and then there followed a stream of undeniable miracles.  The words were; ‘In the Kingdom of God, anytime, anywhere, something good can happen to you.” “Something good can happen” is a phrase filled with positive expectation.

i believe expectation is a projective-type thought, picture or aspiration of what you are looking forward to, and i mean “looking forward to” in the sense of things to come, good, bad, real or imagined. Expectation – the anticipation of becoming and overcoming.

i’ve heard it said “expectation is disappointment waiting to happen”. Well, not always. If i expect a great profit from an investment that doesn’t happen, that’s very disappointing of course, but i, personally, maintain the expectation of the return of Jesus Christ, and i guarantee, i will not be disappointed. In that example, it’s easy to see the little proverb isn’t always true, and could easily have just been something Eeyore said.

We can’t throw out expectation because of fear or negative thinking, it is actually a valuable commodity as long as it’s turned in the right direction. What we envision for ourselves as the things which are up ahead in our future, they become a subtle target, whether they’re good or evil, bright or dismal.  It is what we believe might happen to us in the future, both near and far, and we often give it weight to change our choices.  i fully believe we are all moving in the direction of our expectations, even when we do not realize it, even when we don’t want to.  In light of that, i suggest that our direction is largely not dictated by the circumstances around us, but more by our expectations which we picture and imagine for ourselves in the present and future.

What we believe rules us, we don’t rule what we believe. Some feel they are always standing on the high cliff of expectation, just waiting on the long fall of disappointment. Friends, i’m here to declare that God has given a better platform for us to stand on.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation, hoping to speak to folks about 3” below the surface of their presentation face, where they really live. Come go with me, the clock is ticking, the sun comes up and the sun goes down, days go by and we must be present and in the room of life with Christ, our hope of glory. Tap your toe and dream a little, i’ll be right back.

           Expectation is parallel with hope in the bible; it is what you hope for, and we must remember that our faith actualizes our hope.  Having expounded a little on the idea of expectation, it isn’t surprising that many expect negative things to happen to them, often. That is called “dismal foreboding”, and it’s a type of expectation. Sort of like “Hope” is a positive expectation, “dismal forebodings” is a negative expectation.  Looking at the negative experiences that happened to someone or the crisis they faced, sort of conditions us to expect the same predicament for ourselves, especially when the circumstances are very similar.  i’m glad we all have things happening in our lives, but people’s experiences, even believers, that are not in line with God’s word, are not our standard, the word of God is our standard.  Our experiences typically differ, people’s responses vary, and each person is as unique as a fingerprint, but God’s word endures forever.

Now, right here, i’d like to address, in short, the power of words from our mouths, and words spoken even in secret. Firstly, secrets have a way of not staying secret. Ever noticed that? A great proverb is from Ecclesiastes 10:20, my paraphrase here, “Be careful what you say, even in your bedroom, for a little bird will go and tell it and everyone will know.” We need to know the power of our words, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t call things what they are. There’s this crazy doctrine out there that says i can’t even say i have a cold. i’m told it gives power to the illness. On the other hand i have seen people who tell themselves they are ill so often they eventually become ill, and that’s where the dismal foreboding comes in. What i’m talking about though is the same people who tell me i shouldn’t even admit i am running a fever, are also taking medication for high blood pressure, diabetes, a general anxiety disorder, or worse. Well, what happened to refusing to admit there’s a problem? How do we get rid of or treat maladies if we don’t call them what they are? There is a line of reasoning that gets crossed when we strain so hard to advise others on the power of the tongue and then cross over into “wish craft”, spelled, w-i-s-h craft, assigning our words more power than there is. If i say my feet hurt, the fellow next to me quickly says, with a rebuking tone, “Don’t say that, it’ll get worse! Stop cursing yourself!” That’s turning the power of our words into “wishcraft”, for, i’ll ask again, how do we get rid of stuff if we don’t call it what it is? You know, if my feet hurt, they hurt, and calling it what it is, that’s being honest, and to always fear and be on guard for what might be said lest we curse ourselves, well now, that’s an invitation for “dismal forebodings” from another angle. Always worrying that i’m cursing myself and the fear of repercussions is a dismal foreboding, it is still fear and trembling about what might happen. You do what you need to, but i’ll have no part of wishcraft, it should have no part in our lives. And to balance that, there’s enough scripture to substantiate the power of our words, because it is also true that if we tell ourselves loud enough and long enough we are sick, chances are good, we’ll eventually be sick. Either way, they are both a dismal foreboding which should be allowed no grip on us.

Psalms 27:13, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living”.

Have you ever heard of phobophobia? Bizarre sounding word, huh? It is being afraid of being afraid, having anxiety about possibly having anxiety, it’s being depressed because we might get depressed. It’s a compounding of something that was already going on, like feeling stupid about feeling stupid and now you feel real stupid, or being angry about being angry, and now you’re just raging angry. It reminds me of a ride at the fair when i was a boy called the “Octopus” where the riders were slammed to the outside as their seats spun to the outside, and then slammed to the inside as their seats when they were spun toward the center of the ride, all in a sling-shot motion, slammed to one side then slammed to the other, back and forth till your stomach just churns. And, yes, i have been one of those people who, when slung hard to the outside of that fast spinning fair ride, i have been one of those who’s stomach contents needed to exit my body, fast.

Interestingly, those in the throes of pending calamity suffer phobophobia, pounded by fear and then pounded by the fear of having fear. The symptoms of many other anxiety disorders, like panic attacks and generalized anxiety disorder often exist in the grip of phobophobia.

But listen to this, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”, that’s from Rom. 8:28. Do you believe that? i mean really, really believe that? We quote the verse when things are upside down in our lives, when there’s a contrary wind blowing, and our thinking just goes back and forth never settling in a decision. We tell people we believe it but our behavior often speaks a different story. Why don’t we question ourselves about our unbelief? It’s not a hard question, we just don’t do it. Are we afraid of the answer, afraid someone will find us out and we may not be like we hope others see us?

It is the spirit of faith that sees the good answer which may still be invisible in bad circumstances.  “… all things, all things, all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”. “All things” means all things and God is not simply using those words to make us feel good, He’s giving us something to grip to in times of trouble. The firm expectation of good is anchored in this scripture and encourages us to not be entrenched in the firm expectation of bad – that would be dismal forebodings.

How long will our bitterness over what did NOT happen in our lives prevent us from extending our hands of prayer and healing to others? When our expectations don’t happen and we’re so very disappointed, isn’t it really self-centered to refuse to give to others because we’re mad at God for what did NOT happen? And then we brood around, moody, burdened with anxiety, just straight out refusing to even listen to the stories of healing and redemption because that’s not what happened to us.

These calamities which seem to easily beset us, these preoccupying dismal forebodings that swirl around in our minds, worrying because we’re worrying, scared because we might be scared, they’re like pot holes in the road, and we have to learn to swerve around them on the way to where ever it is God is taking us to.

When i was a young man, the town i lived in was very rural, and once you got out of town most of the roads were dirt with a serious ditch on each side and very little shoulder for mistakes. We had pot holes and cracks in the roads you could get lost in … they could be anywhere and there was no notice of one around a corner. My brother wrecked his car because of a huge pot hole. He hit the hole so hard it blew a tire, bent the front end, and he ran into the ditch.

Calamity comes to everyone, regardless of how mature you are in Christ. How learned you are or how prepared you are, calamity, like pot holes and wash boarded roads, they are on everybody’s path to where God takes them. Rather than being swept aside by calamity and allowing downward spiraling expectations to control us, maybe we should get better at driving around them, learning to navigate them better. We can’t live in “wishcraft” saying “by faith the holes in the road aren’t there”, because the truth is, they are there. We must wake up and learn to drive better.

           When dismal forebodings (foreboding being a feminine noun) comes to visit at your house, maybe at first you let her in. She visits a while, you entertain a dreary dismal conversation, she complains about the tea, and you wonder why you ever let her in the door. Suddenly Ms. dismal forebodings picks up her cell phone and calls her very close friend, Mr. Calamity (a masculine noun), and asks if he wants to come over and join the party. You are whispering “no, no, no”, but she continues on in her invitation totally ignoring you. Shortly there’s a knock on the door, and there stands a disheveled looking fellow with unkempt hair like he’s been in a wind and dust storm both. Before you can close the door, he just barges in, hugs Ms. dismal forebodings, with great dust clouds rising and settling in your house. You’re thinking, what a terrible mess i’ve made for allowing either one to come in the door, and you think maybe you can just shuffle them off to their own rooms for the night. They each retire for the evening, and as you lay in your bed you can hear Ms. dismal forebodings whispering thru the walls to Mr. Calamity. They’re talking about how terrible things might be ‘if”, and “shouldn’t have”, “wouldn’t have”, and “might-have-been-if”. They’re speaking fearful things which grip your heart, and you weep to yourself saying, why, oh why did i ever let them in, much less allow them to spend the night?

When hunger overtakes us, it becomes the focal point, and if you’re hungry long enough it becomes an all-encompassing thought. If hunger overtakes us on a national basis, not only does it become the focal point, but it begins to be reflected in art, science, and education as a start. We see scientists searching for food sources, art reflects the starving living and images of the dead, schools teach classes on food economy, the calamity of hunger invades all we do.

When all we hear and see is calamity, we begin to focus on what did not happen to us, what God did not do for us, and it all becomes so intense it overtakes us, and there comes that sour bitter taste about what did NOT happen. When the wounds which won’t allow us to go on just envelope us, becoming the focal point, it colors everything and shades our thinking, influencing our very thoughts and words. Again there rises bitterness invading all we do, eventually becoming a huge drag on all our spiritual momentum. As the days go by, our internal and external calamity and dismal forebodings become our personal national anthem every waking and every sleeping moment.

i met an elderly woman named Gladys. When i first saw her she was laying on her bed, her eyes shut and the sheets pulled up. It was a beautiful spring day and everything was blooming. i thought maybe she was dead, so i spoke to her in hopes she had not left us yet. From the pale, frail person under the sheets, there rose a thin dry voice with sadness saying that she was still here. i asked her what she meant and she said she had seen everything of this world she wanted to see, and lived through everything she wanted to live through, it was all the worst she could imagine and she was just done with being here. She said she was just laying there waiting to die. i suggested it could be a while, after all, as best i could see, she seemed in pretty good health. She replied she didn’t mind, she didn’t have anything else to do and she was willing to wait right there. Within a couple months i received word Gladys had died. i asked how, and they said it was simply a failure to persist. The dismal forebodings and whispers of calamity ultimately robbed her of her peace and life.

Prov19:13, “A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.” The Hebrew word “calamity” is plural just like in Psalm57:1 where the translators called it “storms (plural) of destruction”. “Calamity” seriously paints the picture of multiplied and diversified sorrows, and then there’s the other part, “continual dropping”, that irritating, unceasing, sound of dripping, and dripping, drop after drop, of water through the chinks in the roof. The Hebrew word for “water” in this verse is about a “sweeping storm” and the water blows in through the roof. That is a picture of calamity and dismal forebodings. i think dismal forebodings and pending calamity, for many, seem to come in multiples and it just pounds and pounds until we cry out to God or we capitulate fully into anxiety and fear.

There is a defining moment in the midst of each of our dilimma’s to be had, if we’re interested. If we have calamities pounding on our hearts, and dismal foreboding is our constant companion, we are choosing. It doesn’t have to be, we absolutely do not have to dwell in all that downward spiraling thinking, which does no one any good.

Honestly, so many things on the internet and news enthusiastically play into us learning to live with calamity and dismal foreboding, ugh! What a thing to learn!          Watching someone fall down is funny, maybe, one time, but to watch video after video of some young guy falling and being crushed across a hand rail, or watching a young woman shame herself or fall down over and over and over, simply put, it is not funny. Watching the bombs of allies blow up an enemy is one thing, but when it’s video after video, over and over, until it is no longer about winning a war, but about the blood lust which rises in us, not to mention we are becoming desensitized to violence, it’s not funny anymore. Years ago to watch any of the violent videos available would be abhorrent and we would turn our eyes away. But now, we watch and laugh. It’s …. not….. funny. Is it the thrill at watching the demise of another human, making fools of themselves, shaming themselves, or wounding themselves?

Here’s the sticky statement: We can only watch and hear just so many violent calamities, and dismal forebodings before it begins to stick to us and we begin our own submersion into a downward spiral and negative expectations. It’s not funny.

Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

i take special note of the verb tense that is used here….Paul didn’t write “how has he not with him also freely given us all things,” but goes further than past tense saying: “How shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?” The last part of this verse speaks of something more than what has happened in the past, but also should give us reassurance and confidence for the present and for the future. The “shall” in that verse has no time-limits, no implication of limitation. i read it as meaning that both now, in the present and forever and ever in the future the Lord shall manifest Himself as the great Giver. i like that, “The Great Giver”. This scripture is a wall of defense against dismal forebodings, and it chases the shadows of calamity out of our houses and away from our doors.

Then what exactly would the Lord withhold from us? Here’s an idea, we often desire things which would come between ourselves and God if they were given to us, therefore the Lord in His faithfulness withholds them. i think that makes sense. Would you give your child gifts which would endlessly wound them and drive them away from you? No. Neither does the Lord.

I don’t want any one of us to walk around one more day sinking deeper into the mire of doom, gloom, and hopelessness. The Hebrew word for hope means to trust with expectation, and that is good expectation, not the downward spiral of dismal forebodings. Hope means we have an expectation that something is going to happen to change our circumstances, or an expectation of overcoming and becoming. Jesus died and rose from the dead so we would have the power and authority to rise above the downward spiral of the world. With Jesus comes an anticipation of overcoming and becoming.

Psalm 18:18, “They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the LORD was my stay.” The back story is that God frustrated all the designs of David’s adversaries, and prevented him from falling into their hands. And to look deeper into the construction of the Psalm, the Hebrew for “stay” in that verse primarily means to lean on something or someone, as on a staff, an arm or hand. The root of “stay” is a verb used metaphorically of an attitude of trust, hope, or to trust with expectation. In Proverbs 3:5 we are told not to rely on our own understanding, instead, we are to trust the Lord.

Calamities bring no hope. Dismal forebodings are anti-hope, anti-trust, anti-life, anti-righteous expectation. Let’s not play over there. Rom15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

When sweeping storms come, Jesus is our rock, our stanchion and stay. Friends, remember the clouds are only for a season. Beyond the clouds and storm is blue sky and sun shine, but if all we see are the clouds, wind and rain, we’ll easily get swallowed up. If you’re always looking down, all you’ll see is the ground. Set you eyes on Jesus, the hope of glory, and let God train you to lose sight of this world. In the world without Jesus, there is truly nothing good for you here. Think about it.

           Zechariah 9:12 says, “Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope.” i intend to be a prisoner of hope all the days of my life. I like the phrase “prisoners of hope.” Think about it, nobody wants to be a prisoner of anything, yet we are often held prisoner by the future tripping fear of calamity and dismal forebodings. So i figure if i’m going to be a prisoner and i’ve got a choice, which i do, then i’d prefer to be a prison of hope, and prisoner of love, and a slave to righteousness. i’m confident that anyone who’s ever been a prisoner will agree, if you are presently a prisoner, you feel as if you have no choice about it. But hope holds the keys to your fenced in area, hope doesn’t allow anyone to be negative about it. When the storm is thick and the rain is running in under the shingles, hope will cause you to rise up in faith and say, “Lord, you are all you said you were, and I praise You and believe You’re working in me and know exactly the longitude and latitude of my position. All my faith, trust and hope are in You!” Hope never surrenders, hope doesn’t allow us to get swallowed up in the swell of dark thoughts, and i believe, the Lord’s heart is that we all are prisoners of hope, and that all things are possible with God. i say, if we’ll be steadfast in our hope, we are always more than conquerors.

Hope, what an amazing thing. Hope is the anticipation that something will happen to advance our position or improve our life. It may be a positive hope as in, I hope someone drops off some food, or it could be a negative hope as the serial killer sits in his secret place in hopes his victims will be easier to get. Either way it is Hope. Everything born seems to be born with some version of Hope. Animals in cages despair, birds die in cages often from despair, people die in nursing homes due to despair, a loss of hope, and they enter into what is called a “failure to persist” .

So, it seems, hope is given, on some level, to most all living things in some capacity or another. For Christians primarily though, hope is the anticipation of becoming and overcoming. We all have hopes of overcoming our daily shortcomings. Everyone is going in the direction of their expectations, whether they know it or not, they are going in the direction of what they love and want.

Even though we make a face and posture around piously, what we really expect, love, and want is our true north. In light of that, what we think we pursue is often not what we really pursue. Think about it, no one persistently pursues what they do NOT want. So i ask you, what do you want? What do you expect?

The only thing I can think of is that hope must come exclusively from God, He’s the only one with the skill for it. Not only does God imprint everyone’s heart with the truth (murder is wrong, false witness is wrong, etc etc) but He also must give every person a big dipper full of Hope when they’re born because without hope people despair and fail to persist. We are born into a fallen world as fallen people, i was a dead man the day i was born, and everyone is looking for something. I don’t think anybody has hopes of being nobody. Even when it never looks like we’re going to get out of there alive, somewhere in our heart there is this little flame of hope that something will happen to change our situation. Even when it looks like we’ll never stop dreaming of the wrong things, failing, and falling down, somewhere in our heart is a little light of hope that something will happen to change the direction of the momentum on that thing that seems to eat us up so often. Hope.

I read somewhere that faith actualizes hope, and i think that’s true. Whenever I find faith I know hope was there first. And Hope and Faith go together like a tag team, like the two sisters Hope and Faith.

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts.

How would life look to you if you had no expectations? That would be horrible! Imagine how wonderful life would be if you owned right expectations, and weren’t co-habitants with calamity and dismal forebodings any longer. Ahhh, what a beautiful vision, huh?

Come go with me, it’s getting near time to go home. i want to be ready when Jesus cracks the eastern sky, don’t you? Be strong and courageous, pray for your neighbor this week and drive carefully. We’ll talk again next time, amen.

The counsel and exhortation of the world, even when it looks positive and encouraging, due to it’s unrelenting vacuum and void of God, eventually leads us down to the pit. With the counsel and exhortation of the Lord we gain a hand up, a grip and firm path to set our feet on, for all the promises of God in Him are yes and in Him, amen, all His counsel and exhortation work to the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.
In the O.T., under the law, the exhortation of the Lord was typically a warning, words filled with the idea of “watch out, be careful, and don’t”. In the N.T., under grace, exhortation is comforting, consoling, encouraging, and usually refers to the pursuit of Christian ethics in day–to-day living…..it is letting God’s counsel, the heavenly perception that is most precious, be connected to our heart….friends, let the Lord’s counsel and exhortation in the door of your house.
As believers we areto live godly lives here and now, and there is supposed to be anoticeable difference between our former behaviorand our present existence.
The Lord counsels us to recognize wewere sometimes darkness, but nowwe arelight in the Lord….meaning now that we are children of the Light, then walk like children of the Light.
So, Is the Lord, God or not? Say? Yea, i’m asking you. Say? Is the Lord, God or not? If He is, then act like it.
Friends, God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness, and if we disregard God’s counsel we will soon come to growing shadows in our lives. We are counseled and exhorted to love the Lord with all our breathing, all our thinking, all our feeling and all our forward momentum, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, which means we have to learn to forgive ourselves that we would also forgive our neighbor. For the glory of God, just like Jesus welcomes us, we should welcome one another, walking in wisdom toward those outside the House of God, and make good use of our time, practicing our prudence. Learn to be the kind of leaders who are always gracious, well acquainted with the values of the Lord so we’ll know how to answer those F from us.
The counsel and exhortation of the Lord is to treat your employees, friends and family well, be kind and generous to them. Open your hand in prosperity to those whom you serve and who you are served by. God’s counsel to us is – if we know anyone in missions or serving in the field in another country or even in your own town, watch the vision of the Spirit, be watchful in your prayers for them, be consistent and repeatable to speak to the Lord on their behalf that He would open doors for them to speak the gospel, declaring the mystery of Christ, that they would be clear, and speak as they ought to speak.
This is God’s counsel and exhortation: pay attention to your own salvation, and do it with dedication, reverence and sensitivity to God’s leading. And when you’re in your work-a-day world, do it all without whining, grumbling, and complaining, dreaming of being somewhere else, wishing God would do something other than what He’s doing. Friends, be morally whole with solid integrity, righteous and just in the eyes of God and the world, as children of God, spotless in the middle of a crooked and twisted people….if we’ll do that we’ll shine like the sun. Above all, the ultimate counsel and exhortation of the Lord is from John 13:34-35, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Today, the word “risk” is used in everyday speech to describe the probability of loss, or maybe the likelihood of accidents of some type. Risk has everything to do with actions, investments, or attitudes which could result in a negative outcome. Risk assessment has everything to do with measuring that negative outcome and deciding alternate courses of action with a lesser probability of loss. And one more, risk management is about making strategies to manage negative outcome, and to control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events. A good example of a risk management team is in Dan6:2, “And over these 120 princes were three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king might not suffer any loss.”

Risk has become a common word, and is used whether the risk in question is quantifiable or not. The word seems to have originated with the Arabic, (pronounced then spelled out) “rizq”; Italian seamen used the word (pronounced then spelled out) “risco”, in reference to the danger of uncharted areas of their maps. The French also used a variation of the word, (pronounced then spelled out )“risqué” in reference to a metaphor meaning, “difficult to avoid at sea”, or “sailing into uncharted waters.”

As we discuss risk reality, i’d like us to see further than what the world understands of risk to what God means of “risk”, how faith relates to risk, and how our skill at navigating risk gets better as we mature and gain experience….well, at least, it should get better. Also in the mix is the contrast of faith and risk, and no, they are not the same.

i don’t know about anyone else, but for me, i really don’t have a lot of sequential words in me, contrary to popular opinion. Sure i can ramble on like a marble rattling around in a box, but still, the words only qualify as rambling. So, one day the Lord told me something, He said if i would be diligent and apply myself, if i would do what i call the “dig and sift” of His Word, meaning dig it up and sift through it for treasure, He would be faithful and give me words and topics that would speak to people about three inches below the surface of where they live, and that’s exactly what He’s done.

How do we act in faith and risk together? What is risk to you and what parts of your life do you feel are your biggest risks? If you know the truth, is there any risk involved? And, what is your idea of a necessary risk, responsible risk, irresponsible risk, and how does your choice of risk affect you and the people around you?

A friend of mine won the West coast 500 Pro Class Motocross many years ago, so he seemed like a good first candidate for a deeper discussion of faith and risk. In our discussions, along with other racing strategies, one phrase which really caught my ear was his use of the term, “controlled crash”. He won by pushing everything to the absolute edge – once he was on the track, everything – every curve, every shift, every jump, every slide – from start to finish, it was all a controlled crash, always on the edge of winning it all or losing it all. It’s when everything is pushed to the edge of the envelope, and when things are pushed slightly beyond that edge is when the controlled crash occurs.  He was never damped by the possibility of failure, he said that an over focus on the “failure potential” skews our risk assessment. Even though quite a few years have gone by, he still lives life in sort of a controlled crash, the only difference is that his maturity and experience have highly influenced his risk assessment, therefore he has a greater degree of success in all he does. Here it is again: maturity and experience highly influence our risk assessment….or at least it should.

Now i suppose it would be easy to perceive the phrase, “controlled crash” as an oxymoron – or that it is a self-contradictory phrase, like saying something was a “cruel kindness”, but here’s what is meant by “controlled crash”: when something slips out of our initial plan, it speaks of the action taken to minimize the damage. Like when riding a horse at a full gallop and somehow your feet come out of the stirrups. You knew it was possible that this could happen, but in order to have a little control over the potential catastrophe which could easily follow, you already thought about what to do next. We see bull riders who do it all the time. They know the risk is high that they will get thrown off, but in the moment they are becoming dislodged, they are keeping their cool and thinking, not about the failure to make the ride to the buzzer, but about how to best dismount with as little damage as possible.

Acts 27:15 says, “And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.”

It was a controlled crash meaning they couldn’t get out of the storm, it was all out of control, they picked a course of action that might minimize any potential damage, so they went with the wind, and “let her drive.”

A “controlled crash” takes into account that it’s possible things will not go as planned and dedicates some planning over what to do next. Some would call it “Faith with a contingency plan”, which is something we’ll get to shortly.

Gambling addicts bet the house, but rarely have a back up plan in case they lose it all, whereas a good stock investor may risk a great deal on an investment, but almost always has an exit plan. Becoming part of a limited liability corporation is a risk, but the smart business man always has a larger, more detailed exit plan than the entry plan. Is your life just a crash waiting to happen with no strategy in the event things don’t go as initially planned, or is it a controlled crash where you’ve made a contingency plan built of “if this, then that”?

As with other topics, there is also the other side of risk which must be considered, and that would be “safety”. People who risk little have a high need for safety therein is a fear of failure which prevents many of us from many things. Frequently we tend to “overcorrect” when we’ve navigated life poorly, so i can also assume that “overcorrection is a fear of failure”. As example, possibly a person’s life style was too loose, so they overcorrected by becoming too severe and stringent. Pilot’s often over shoot or miss a runway because the airplanes attitude was incorrect, and rather than make a small correction, for fear of not correcting enough, they over correct, and then overcorrect the overcorrection, etc, etc. For fear of not correcting enough they corrected too much, thus, they must pull up, circle the runway, and try again.

Like the story Jesus told in Matt25 about the three investors. One received five talents, the next two talents, and the last one talent. The first investor risked big by investing all, he risked big and it paid off; the second investor also risked big and it paid off big; but the third was gripped by fear of loss, fear of the master, fear of … well …. just fear….he had a greater need to be safe than to take a chance, therefore he risked nothing. The servant who chose to be safe rather than risk, could, i imagine, have possibly declined to be the investor, it is possible he didn’t absolutely HAVE to take the challenge. But after he accepted the challenge, he blamed the master as to why he did not risk an investment saying, “’Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’”

The servant’s fears were unfounded and what’s worse, he blamed the master for his own faithlessness and fear.

What the servant thought was safety by not risking, did not prove very safe at all. Here is the next insight: The need to be safe tightly governs our ability to risk.

In the process of developing the idea of faith and risk, i woke up one morning and the Lord gave me the bright idea to do some interviews. He said go to business men, individuals, missionaries, street people, asking them what their idea of risk is and what is an area in their lives which they considered to really be on the edge and risky. Out of those who responded, there were a few who felt being a leader was a risk which they didn’t feel willing to take. Their need to be safe exceeded their ability to possibly take up a leadership role in a fellowship of believers, even though they were completely qualified.

Can we conclude then, for some people, their fear of failure, maybe even their fear of success, coupled with a need to be safe, can actually exceed their ability to be obedient? Obedience is a thing of faith, and i believe that sacrifice is a thing of risk.

Luke 19:26, “”He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.” This scripture has many meanings … like most parables it is multi-faceted, but one way to read it is Jesus is speaking about those who risk with God, and those who play it safe. Here is a different view of the same scripture from the Message Bible, “”Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.”

i believe most people who would rather “play it safe” are so worried they might get it wrong, might be seen as foolish or stupid, or judged harshly by others, so much so that they never move up and out into God’s destiny for them. Always playing it safe is such a fear filled lifestyle. Most believers really do have something to say, but very few of them actually get around to saying it. It is safe to just be quiet, and risky to voice what’s on your heart. Many in leadership seem to rarely encourage others to exercise their faith and take a chance. It’s almost as if they just want the congregation to attend, listen, do what they’re told, leave their money, and go home. Sounds more like a business plan than expanding the Kingdom of God, … i don’t know…maybe, maybe not. This is another insight: the need to be safe, not only tightly governs our ability to risk, but maybe even prevents our obedience to God.

Risk, in and of itself, includes fear perception – as in what we might lose, what might not happen, or what may not be fair according to someone… but …. faith is the opposite of fear. 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

In light of that, is risk even a part of our spiritual vocabulary? i believe, yes, but not as the world presents it. When we trust in God, take Him at His word, and let faith have it’s way, risk changes and becomes obedient to the rule of faith rather than the rule of possible loss.

Yet faith is about the probabilities of increase and is anchored in hope and the kindness of God, it is intrinsic to trusting God. Martin Luther King said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Faith is not having answers.

Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Faith is the eternal optimist, risk is the eternal pessimist. Faith is an enthusiast; risk is the critic of enthusiasm. Faith is a grace maker, risk is full of “yea but”. Faith thinks in probabilities, risk thinks in improbabilities. Risk says there is a 20% chance of failure, faith says there’s an 80% chance of success.

Being safe though is not acting in faith nor acting with risk. But isn’t living without faith in Christ a risk in itself? Some would say, “Well what if there is no God?” i say, “What if there is and all things are as Jesus said they are?” What if the Bible isn’t true? Ok, what if it is? Isn’t living without faith in the finished work of Christ the biggest risk of all? To play it safe and not believe or disbelieve is also a huge risk, not choosing IS choosing.

Playing it safe is about incurring no loss, and also incurring no gain; playing it safe seems like a freedom from danger, but really is danger masquerading under a facade of calm; playing it safe means not being rejected, but also means not being accepted. Playing it safe means never stepping beyond the possibilities of loss or gain, never falling in love and never falling out of love, maybe never being completely miserable but also never being completely happy either. Playing it safe seems to me to be, just nowhere with a big nothing in your pockets. Giving up fundamental things in life just to feel safe, to me is actually being a slave to fear, as fear steals a little more and a little more from you, all with the promise that “now you’re safer than you were before.” …. Until one day, there’s nothing left, and you are safe in a prison cell of your own making, with all scary things walled out, and you are walled in, alone in the dark.

Benjamin Franklin said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

We are not called to live a life of risk but a life of faith, but yet, there are times we must count the cost of possible losses. Being people of faith does not mean there is no such thing as risk you know. i believe Luke 14:31 addresses the idea of counting the cost of potential loss or gain. It says, “…. what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”

The scenario of Luke14:31 isn’t acting in fear, it’s having faith and also having a contingency plan, and there is nothing wrong with a contingency plan.

Faith is the correct governor for risk, and when risk comes into subjection to faith, suddenly risk is not so much about measuring the failure potential, but more about a contingency plan as faith outlines it. The just shall live by faith, not by risk. 2Cor5:7, “We live by faith, not by sight.” The phrase “by sight” there means we don’t live by what we can observe and measure. Faith is the officer and manager of risk. Learning to count the cost is a part of life and we all try to employ ideas and actions which curb the potential of unfortunate circumstances.

When we go on a trip, we check the air in the tires and the engine oil. Some would say that is not faith but fear, i say it is wisdom to make an effort to check the air and oil. It is wise to have a contingency plan, if possible. It isn’t born out of fear but wisdom. And yes, it is possible to go crazy making contingency plans, but easily we are back to a fear thing. Faith is the correct governor for risk, not fear.

Faith says that i’m going forward and going back is not an option, and….my contingency plan is that i also carry with me a can of Fix-A-Flat in-case of a flat tire, some extra engine and transmission oil in-case one of the two run low, or maybe a little extra gasoline in-case i’m nearly out of fuel and there’s not a gas station around. Maybe part of my contingency plan is to take a few tools in-case i need to work on something on the way. Faith says we’re going forward because going back is not an option, so position yourself and make the necessary contingency plans, because either way, we ARE going forward.

Faith is better than risk, thus obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is an operation of faith, but sacrifice requires a loss. Paul incurred personal loss, but his spirt was ever profiting. Obedience should outweigh our sacrifice. Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” Abrahams obedience out weighed the possible sacrifice of his son, thus there was no need to incur the loss of his son because he was obedient. Under the governering power of faith, risk comes into it’s right relationship with our lives.

Let’s talk about King David for a moment. In 1Sam17 we see David going forward in the name of the Lord, on behalf of Israel to face down an obnoxious, arrogant, loud mouthed giant. David was a man of faith, so when he’d set his mind to face Goliath, going back was not an option. *But*, just because he was going forward in faith, didn’t mean he didn’t have a contingency plan. i would guess David was a crack shot with his sling and an amazing warrior with just a staff in his hand, however, he had thrown enough stones and had enough experience that he knew better than to go meet a giant with no contingency plan. Verse 40 reads, “Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.” As it turned out, one stone did the trick, but he had a contingency plan of four other stones just in case. Actually, Goliath had four brothers, and the Jews hold to this day the five stones were to kill Goliath and his four brothers, if they showed up. So in that case the other stones weren’t a contingency plan but each had a destination in mind. It wasn’t fear, it wasn’t a lack of faith, it was wisdom. Faith says “going back is not an option”, wisdom says “if possible, make a contingency plan to make an assurance of success”.

Recently, a man said to me, “It’s foolish to go to a funeral until the day of the funeral,” to which i feel it’s important to add, “That’s true, but it’s equally foolish to wait until the enemy is attacking to circle the wagons.”

What did other people in my interview process think of faith and risk?

When i asked one fellow about his idea of risk, he replied, “I guess if I had to sum it up, I’d say that the greatest risk that i see is in that which we can’t see, or perceive.  People, even believers, go about life in this world and don’t believe, or don’t care, that there are unseen forces in a constant struggle around them.  These forces greatly impact the physical properties around us, and yet we can’t “see” them.”

i wonder, does that mean that because we can not see the “unseen forces” around us that we believe we will suffer a loss of some sort?

Many believers are willing to risk in what they can not see, and i consider it an unreasonable risk to NOT believe in the unseen, spiritual realm. i think it an irresponsible risk to NOT let Jesus be the Lord of my life. Believing in the unseen, having faith in what we hope even when we don’t have any answers, believing our words can speak to circumstances many continents away….is it risk or is it faith?

If we speak of risk, as believers we must also speak of faith. As believers, we are called to a life of faith. Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Daniel walked in faith and stepped out in huge risk by refusing to bow down to idols in Dan6, even though there was a decree which would call for the death of anyone who did not. He was sure of what he hoped for and was certain of what he could not see. He would not have normally gone down to spend the night with a bunch of hungry lions, but when the time came, he rose up as a man of faith choosing to believe that God would deliver him. Faith is the eternal optimist, risk is the eternal pessimist.

Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” Matthew Henry wrote that, “Noah knew his neighbors would ridicule him for his confidence, and he would be the song of drunkards; his ship-building would be called “Noah’s folly”. But Noah got over all that, and a thousand such objections. His obedience was ready and resolute: Thus Noah built in faith and obedience, willingly and cheerfully, without murmuring and disputing.”

Noah exercised his faith, preferring to be obedient to God, rather than to be paralyzed by the risk of losing the respect of men.

One person whom i know said her idea of risk was, “The risk of loosing your job because you’re too vocal in your workplace, or the risk of coming under ill-will in your church because you have an opinion and state it.”

i’ll bet you something though, that if the Lord told her to speak out in her work place or church, she would be obedient and speak up in faith. True, in her mind she would certainly weigh her options, but i’m fairly certain she would choose obedience to God over the possibility of loss of her job or the approval of her church.

One man said risk to him was “the uncertainty and probability that I’ll be found out as an ignorant nincompoop who doesn’t even have the smarts of fish caught in a net. Then to be tossed aside as unimportant and not worthwhile.” Yet everyday, that man steps out in faith, taking a chance on relationships or being considered as frivolous and unnecessary. Everyday. Why? Because in faith he knows that God validates him and to God he is never irrelevant and unimportant. His faith and obedience out weigh the risk which is set before him.

Another fellow said he felt a huge risk for him was “believing he hears God.” That may seem an irresponsible risk to the world, but for conscientious and arden believers in Christ who go forward in faith, often on nothing more than whispers, dreams, and visions, it is an an irresponsible risk to NOT believe they can hear God.

A pastor in Covina, California told me a story about how living like Jesus was a risk. He wrote, “In the 16^th century in Holland a group called the Mennonites were outlawed, and when found they were often executed.”

“One of them named Dirk Wellens was being chased across an ice field when his pursuer broke through the ice and fell in. In response to his cries for help, Wellens returned and saved him from the icy waters.  His pursuer was grateful and astonished that this man would do such a thing for him.  Nevertheless, thinking it was his duty, he arrested Wellens.  A few days later, he was executed by being burned at the stake in Asperen Holland. It was precisely because of his Christlikeness that he was executed.” Dirk Wellens acted in faith and considered being obedient to the call of God to be far more important than the risk of dying. His obedience and faith far outweighed his sacrifice.

And lastly, a short list of irresponsible risks, or hazardous liabilities which costs too much would be: coasting, or “listlessness” and “idle hands” are an irresponsible risk; not reading my Bible is an irresponsible risk; becoming apathetic is an irresponsible risk; not going to God for discernment but taking the word of someone who makes hours of Youtube videos which sound really good… is an irresponsible risk; beliving i don’t need God and can succeed on my own is an irresponsible risk; pretending i am more than i am is an irresponsible risk; to me, being disobedient is an irresponsible risk; kindling a small, cozy flirtation, while fueling an acceptable/manageable/secret lust is a very irresponsible risk. Those are just a few, so what would your idea be of an irresponsible risk?

Where are you on this weighty subject of faith and risk? Is the risk of being ridiculed for speaking up, rejected for being honest, persecuted for standing for the gospel of Christ, is the risk so large to you that you’re willing to be disobedient to the call of God? Are you willing to risk the betrayal of your conscience, is that a betrayal you’re willing to live with? Is the love of God and the apprehending of Jesus important enough to you that when the Lord calls you, you’ll catch that plane, move to another place, or speak up against injustice?

Hebrews 11:6, “…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” At that i say to us all, Selah, or “stop there and consider a little.”

Faith is better than risk, and obedience is better than sacrifice. As we focus on Christ, our skill at navigating life’s possibilities gets better as we mature and gain experience. As we grow in faith, we learn to see the faithfulness of God, not over focusing on the “failure potential”, which skews our assessment of what’s in front of us. As we allow Jesus to teach us about life, we become strong and courageous and our need to be safe, which tightly governs our ability to step out in faith. In light of allow Jesus to teach us about life takes on a new diminsion where we are more willing to try, metaphorically, walking on water believing Jesus will give us a hand up, rather than being safe while staying in the boat.

If you’re facing down the giants in your life, by faith in Christ, they will fall before the Lord, but don’t think it weakness to put a few extra stones in your pocket, in other words, there’s nothing wrong with having a contingency plan – it is wisdom.

Faith is the eternal optimist, risk is the eternal pessimist.