Faith that Walks

Having grown up in Florida near the Atlantic ocean - the beach is one of my favorite places. The sound of wind and waves, the sun reflecting on shimmering water, the hot crunch of sand under my feet - there is something about it that just makes me feel both small and totally alive. But, in all my visits and days spent splashing in the surf, never once did I step foot into the shallow tide water and it move out of my way. Not even a little...

On two occasions (one was apparently not enough) God caused the waters to cease for His children in order to give them a clear passage to where He was leading them. Don't miss the profound truth here. God will cause waters to dry and rivers to halt if it means getting you to your Promised Land.

Did you hear that? Just checking...

Well, we must not have gotten the point, because Jesus used the same message with a different obstacle. This time, instead of water - he points at earth, a mountain to be exact. We are told that if we have faith, we can say to a mountain "Move!" and it will.

Mountains and water hold equally daunting mysteries - they embody that which appears immovable, unchangeable and unfathomable. And yet it is HERE that our God says - "Trust Me, have faith in ME and I will show you that there is NOTHING I cannot do. I can bring you through the waters OR I can empower you to walk over them. There is no mountain I can not move or give you strength to climb" (and just an FYI - if God calls you to climb the mountain - He might just show up at the top).

Friends, if there are mountains in your way or rivers in your path - keep moving, keep believing and be amazed at the power of our God. And when you get to the other side, tell someone... It is God's story, but amazingly enough, He is using us to write it. Now get moving...

"If you have faith, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you" - Jesus

Which Comes First...

...the Question or the Answer?

In a roundtable of conversation last night regarding what it looks like to be a person having found the "life" that Jesus speaks of, my mind began to drift. Below are the buoys of truth I bumped into in the current:

God's faithfulness has NEVER been dependent on the faithfulness of His children.

We have a history that shows Him using us in spite of us.

There is a canyon of difference between escape and deliverance.

Escape is by my effort, deliverance is by someone else's.

God's greatest works of art are displayed through lives of redemption.
Need a reminder, read Hebrews 11 - these weren't perfect people, not even close - they were self-centered liars and adulterers. God listed them as having faith worth following - do we? Need another reminder, look at a rainbow. Need another reminder, look in the mirror

God is big enough to handle our questions.
He allowed Job 37 chapters of "why's" before reminding him of Who he was dealing with. Go ahead, He can take it...

Faith is tested and proven when YOU can't fix it... whatever "it" is.
When your back is against a wall or a Red Sea, to quote Moses (you can't go wrong in quoting Moses) stand still and watch the Lord save you.

Having a "life" cannot be seen in how we live, rather it is displayed by how we die...

"Whoever saves his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life, for My sake will find it" - Jesus