Have You Checked Your Levee Lately?

This past week has been extremely different, weather wise, across our nation. I have read about volcanoes, tornados, blizzards, rains, winds, hail, sleet, sunshine and floods. It seems it has been a week filled with extremes and the unusual.
As I logged into Yahoo this morning and the headline for the top news stories caught my attention. Again, it had to do with the weather. This story was taken from Fargo, North Dakota and quoted the mayor of that city saying more levees will be breached by flood waters from the Red River. He went on to say that a briefly breeched dike was a “wake-up call for a city that needs to be vigilant for weakness in levees that could give way at any time.”
Instantly my mind went to a passage of scripture that gives us the same type of warning. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor 10:12
What a prudent warning for the last day church! In fact we find the scripture to be full of “take heeds,” “be careful,” “be vigilant” and other admonitions that remind us not to take our walk with God for granted. We are given warnings to be constantly on the alert of our time and situation.
The Church of Laodicea is warned, they think they are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and yet fail to realize they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. They were not aware of their true state of being. How prudent it would have been for them to check their levees.
As a child of God it is important that I have levees in my life. The scripture warns us there will be times when life and the enemy of our soul will come in against us like a flood. There will come times when we feel overwhelmed by what comes against us. The waters will rise and we will feel helpless to be able to stand against it. Yet we are also promised, in the same passage, that our Savior will help us to stand against it and to overcome it. In the times prior to these floods it is imperative that we build levees of faith and security around our lives. We might even call them “strongholds of faith.” These are levees that are purposed to stand as walls of protection against the onslaught of the enemy.
We must constantly be concerned about our protection. We must be vigilant to check and recheck the levees in our lives. There will be wake-up calls to warn us of areas where the levee might be weak. These are reminders of the importance of keeping the levee strong and in good repair.
It isn’t enough just to go through the motions of living for God. Going to church, reading our Bible, saying a prayer or saying we are a Christian. There has to be a relationship between us and God that is built on everyday. It is crucial that we get to know Him, as Paul said he wanted to do. This is strengthening that levee.
When we get to know Him, Jesus Christ, we begin to build confidence in Him. Then later, when the storms do come we will know Him. When the water begins to rise we will trust Him. When the pressure comes against us we will lean on Him. We will not cast away our confidence, allowing the levee to be breeched. We will stand firm in our faith against the flood tide.
When was the last time you walked along your levee? Have you checked it for weak spots? Have you taken action to continue to build your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ? Don’t wait until you are in the midst of an icy storm to realize how weak your levee is weak!
Just a thought! God Bless…

Forgiveness is NOT an Option!

Don’t you just love those evenings when for some odd reason you have nothing that you have to do? You can stop and ask yourself the question, “What am I going to do tonight? Will I read a book? Should I listen to some music? What am I going to do?” Aren’t those rare occasions great?

Several years ago I remember having one of those nights. At that time they were very rare. We had all three of our children at home. We were pastoring two churches and had a daughter work also. Between those responsibilities, along with teaching Home Bible Studies, being the principal of a Christian School and trying to be a husband, father and a son, there were not a lot of evenings when I didn’t have something that was demanding my attention. On this particular evening, not only was it free, but I was home by myself, which meant I could pretty much do what I wanted to do.

I remember deciding I wanted to have someone preach to me. I felt I needed to be spiritually fed, I needed some input. I went to our preaching tape library and just grabbed a tape and put it in. I wasn’t really caring who I was going to listen to or what subject they would preach on, I just was going to relax and say, “Pour it on!” Then let whatever happened happen. Needless to say, God obviously had something totally different in mind!

I don’t believe there are any accidents with God. You might have an accident while driving. You might even have an accident in that you drop a glass of water. However, I don’t believe it is an accident when you hear a message that is from God and it makes a difference in your heart. I believe these are actually “divine appointments.” Times when God desires to mold and shape us into the person He wants us to be.

The message that I listened to that night was about “Forgiveness.” As the title was given and the message started I kind of sat back in my chair and thought, “Well there is no problem here, I will get some good information for a message. However, I don’t have anyone that I need to forgive.” Yet as the message began to unfold I began to get uncomfortable. So much for a night of relaxation! I began to get a good old case of conviction, to the point I had to ask God who I needed to forgive. I went down the list in my mind and couldn’t really think of anybody and so I told God that.

Can you imagine my shock when I felt God speak to me and tell me, “You have forgiven everyone else but you haven’t forgiven me?” My response was first shock and then it was horror. I quickly moved just in case fire came from heaven just for the thought that I might have something against God! As I began to converse with God about this He led me to understand that I had feelings that I was afraid to admit, because of disappointments and failures from my past. In my heart I felt that God had let me down and I had failed to forgive God. This started me to begin to study forgiveness. Let me share a few thoughts with you.

In Matthew chapter 18 Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a king who takes inventory. In doing so he finds there is a servant who owes him a large sum of money. The king sends for the man and asks to be paid. The servant explains he doesn’t have the money, we have all been there, but will do his best to raise it. The king feels the man has had enough time and commands that he, his wife and children all be thrown into prison. The servant falls on his knees and begs for mercy and the king is merciful. The king doesn’t give him more time, he completely forgives the servant of the debt that is owed. One writer says he canceled what was owed.

The servant leaves the kings court. He walks down the street and it reads as if he is on the prowl, looking for someone who owes him money. He finds a fellow servant who owes him a few dollars. He grabs the man and demands payment. The fellow servant says he also doesn’t have the money to pay the debt. Now the servant pays no heed to the promise of payment or the plea for mercy. He has the fellow servant thrown into prison for the owed debt. The amazing thing is the servant was forgiven ten thousand talents and he was owed only one hundred pence. In today’s money and I mean as of 9:11 PM Central Time on September 23, 2008, this man was owed $11,594.99 and he owed the king $3,580,532.19. He had been forgiven an incredible debt yet couldn’t find it in his heart to forgive a fellow servant a debt that was owed him.

There are a couple of things I would like to bring to our attention. It is obvious the king is likened unto God. It is also obvious that Jesus is talking about forgiving our brother when He is speaking of the two servants. Peter has asked Jesus how often a person is required to forgive someone who sins against them. Jesus said we are to forgive seventy times seven and then Jesus goes on to say the Kingdom of heaven is like a king and then tells the story. He ends by saying so likewise shall my heavenly Father do unto you.

The first thing we need to understand is God has forgiven a great debt that we owe. Each and every one of us owed Him a debt that we could have never paid. The only hope that we had was damnation. Yet God was merciful to each of us and forgave us that debt. He did not just give us time to try and figure out a way to pay it, He forgave it. That means He pardoned us. We were absolved from the debt. We have been exonerated or completely set free from what we owed. It is gone and forgotten.

On the flip side, we have been done wrong. We will have people do us wrong again. We will even feel if we are honest with ourselves that God hasn’t completely done right by us. Yet, no matter how big the wrong which someone does to us it will never compare to the debt we owe! The debt I owe is far greater than any and all debts owed to me. So, with this in mind, the key to feeling forgiveness is forgiving. I didn’t think this up, someone shared this with me and I put it into practice and it works.

Watch this! The servant is forgiven by the king. He is feeling good, in fact it seems as if he has found a new power in life in that when he finds the fellow servant he grabs him and demands payment of the debt owed to him. Now when he refuses to forgive the debt owed to him he is brought before the king a second time. The king reminds him of the mercy that is showed to him regarding his great debt. Then the king reinstates the debt and the Bible says he has the servant turned over to the tormenters. What had been forgiven was no longer forgiven because of the forgiven would not forgive.

When I fail or refuse to forgive then I lose the privilege of being forgiven. I come to an altar of repentance and confess my sins and feel God cleanse me of those sins. I am free! I feel so good and refreshed! Yet a day or so later, it may even be a week or so, I begin to deal with the same feelings of guilt, shame and condemnation. It is inner torment! Why? Because I have not forgiven those who I feel owe me, who have done me wrong.

In His pattern of prayer, Jesus prayed, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” If we don’t forgive, can God forgive us? It is a small price to pay for freedom, for peace. You see forgiveness is not an option. We must have it to live free from torment. We also must give it to live free from torment.

Forgiveness is not an option. Neither is it something we will only have to do one time. I have had to go to my knees many times and ask forgiveness and also forgive. I have had to seek the face of God for help in forgiving. I have had to forgive God and make sure things were right between me and God. I have had to forgive others who have knowingly and unknowingly hurt me. I have to make sure things are right between us. Yes, I have also had to forgive myself. I have hurt myself so many times. I have let myself down and disappointed myself many, many times. Yet, if I want peace in my heart and a relationship with my Savior, forgiveness is not an option!

Just a Thought! God Bless!

Oops! I am Lost!

Have you ever realized that you are lost? Maybe you are driving down the road and it suddenly dawns on you that you have no idea where you are or how to get to where you want to be. By being lost I am talking about not knowing how to get where you want to go and not being able to get back to where you came from. I am talking about being totally lost. It is a strange feeling that I describe as feeling helpless.

I have been blessed with a great sense of direction. Somehow I am able to picture in my mind where I want to go and I am able to get there. If I have been somewhere one time, most of the time I am able to go there again, even if it is many years later. When I was six years old we moved to Fresno, California. We were only there a couple of weeks when Mom took us somewhere, just us kids and her, and on the way home she got lost. She has often laughed about it because I told her how to get home. I can honestly say I have only been lost one time in my life.

I lived for thirty five years on the north coast of California. Much of that time we lived in a city which was about two hundred and fifty miles north of San Francisco. Although it was the “big city” and a get away destination for many people I was only in the San Francisco about seven or eight times in my life. On most of those visits I was passing through on the highway and had only actually visited the city three times. It was in San Francisco that I had my “lost” experience.
My wife and I had been to Bakersfield for a meeting and were returning home. Any trip out of our area to the “Valley” was a long trip. Driving to Bakersfield was a hard nine hour drive. Through the years we had explored the quickest routes and had found a route that would take us through the East Bay area and junction I-5 that saved a lot of time. However, I had never taken that route back and was unfamiliar with it. On this particular trip we were going along when out of the corner of my eye I saw a sign and quickly took the exit. The moment I had committed to the exit and there was no turning back I knew I had made a mistake. It was the wrong exit and before we knew it we were dropped into the middle of San Francisco!

Now understand I am just a country boy. The biggest city that I have lived in during my adult life is the one that I live in now which has a population of fifty-three thousand. However, I was raised and lived in a city of three thousand people. It had no stop lights, no banks, and no car dealerships. It had a couple of grocery stores, bars, one gas station and was about a mile and a half from one end to the other. The tallest building in town was probably the two story house that I lived in, simply because it sat on the side of a steep hill and was actually three stories on that side.

So here I am in San Francisco and I have no idea where I am in comparison to where I have been before. I look up to get direction from the sun and all I can see is skyscrapers. Everything is totally foreign to me. I tell my wife not to worry we will find US 101 and that will get us out of there. I just needed to find out what direction to head in. I look to my left and sitting next to me is a man on a motorcycle so I ask him to tell me how to find US 101.
The nice gentleman says it is simple. Just make a turn and follow the road a bit, make another turn and another and follow the road. It would take us where we wanted to go. That sounded simple enough, so we set off to follow those easy directions. We followed them exactly as he said and came to a stop light. I looked around to see where we were and was astonished to find we were sitting at the stop light we had been at when the nice man gave us directions. We had spent the last twenty minutes going in a large circle; it is hard to know you are doing that in San Francisco with their winding streets. I imagine he is still laughing, I know I am.

After searching for another half hour or so we finally found a gas station and were able to purchase a map. With the map we soon found our way out of the “big city” and headed back to the sanctity of the small town.

I remember another time, when I was very young. We were again returning from a trip to the “Valley” this time through Sacramento. Mom was driving and was not real familiar with the road. I was a sleep in the back and remember waking up to hear Mom and Dad talking about the route to take. Dad settled back to sleep and Mom kept the pedal to the metal.
An hour or more latter Mom asked Dad a question and suddenly he was wide awake. In fact, we were all wide awake. The question she asked had to do with Grass Valley, California. Grass Valley is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which were in the exact opposite direction from where we were should have been headed. We were headed up I-80 toward Reno, Nevada!

Somewhere along the way Mom had taken the wrong highway and headed in the wrong direction. Dad got out the map and we began to work our way back to where we needed to go. Until his dying day, over thirty years later, Dad would laugh about the night Mom tried to take him to Reno to get a divorce.
You know, it doesn’t take much to get started in the wrong direction. It doesn’t take a lot of effort or planning to get lost. It can happen to the best of us and it can happen quickly. Just a wrong turn is all it takes. Just a moment when we are not paying attention or maybe it was just a bad decision.
We pastored in the Ozarks for seven years. Not long after moving there we had a “Singin‘” one Sunday afternoon. One of the men in the Church invited a Christian Blue Grass band to come and sing. After the “Singin’” was over I was talking with them, just making friends. They told me there was a Christian Blue Grass pickin’’ and grinning that took place once a month and invited me to come and be a part of it. I told them I wasn’t a bluegrass player but would enjoy coming out and asked where it was. They said it was in the Friendship Community building. Well, being new to the area I had to ask where that was.

I will never forget this as long as I live. One of the men slowly leaned back in the pew. He stroked his chin with his right hand, his left arm crossed under the right elbow. He tilted his head back and got a far away look in his eyes as he looked toward the ceiling. The silence lingered as his companions sat and watch in reverend silence. Finally after two or three moments of pondering he looked at me and said, “Huh, I guess you just can’t get there from here!” He never did tell me how to get there and it was just a little ways from where we were.

In life it is so easy to get turned around and lost. It is so easy to find yourself headed in the wrong direction. It happens so quickly as you suddenly find you have made a mistake somewhere back down the road and are now in a situation where you have no idea where you are. Suddenly you are a washed with a feeling of helplessness, even hopelessness. Despair sets as you realize you haven’t any idea where you are or where you are going.

What do we do in this situation? Is there a remedy? Is there any hope? Can we get there from here? Oops, we are lost!

I have to wonder if David was feeling this way when he wrote:

“Show me the path where I should walk, O LORD; point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.” Ps 25:4-5

When we don’t know where we are or how to get to where we need to go, it is past time to pull out the map and get direction. Our map in life is the Word of God. We can depend on God to show us, teach us and to guide us in the road that will take us safely through life. We can trust in Him for direction in the course our live should take and how to stay on that course. We need to let him show us, teach us and guide us. This will keep us from being lost.

Just a thought! God Bless!

TEAM Ministry Starts 2009 on the Road!

What a great way to bring in the New Year! Melinda and I were blessed to have the opportunity to bring in the New Year with a wonderful group of people in Fredericktown, Missouri. We were blessed with a great service and a great move of God during the service.

Brother Tim and Sister Deb Stafford and the saints of Fresh Anointing Tabernacle treated us so kindly. We enjoyed the worship service and the opportunity to minister the Word of the Lord. Then after the service we also enjoyed a time of food and fellowship.

Fresh Anointing shared some times of ministering. Brother Steve, who is deaf, preached to us through an interpreter asking, “Why are you afraid?” This was an incredible experience for us as this was the first time we had been preached to by a deaf preacher.

Brother Trent Stafford, the Youth Pastor, talked about getting ignited and intoxicated on Jesus. This is grape juice, by the way!

On Sunday we traveled back to Missouri, this time to Kennett. Jared was able to accompany us on this trip. What a great time we had visiting with some dear old friends (old as in years we have known them, not age since we are all still "youngin's") Brother David and Sister Royce Ann Henderson and also Brother Todd Henderson, their son. We first became acquainted with Brother David Henderson in 1969 and have a lot of great memories. Actually, we have decided not to share many of those memories unless we are well paid!

Sunday morning Jared ministered in the service. He preached on “Refreshing” and God really blessed his ministry. Sunday night I ministered so it was something new for us to team together like that. Again, Sunday night God was so kind to bless us.

One of the outstanding highlights of this weekend was being in services with Sister Shirley McCoy. Sister Shirley is Brother David Henderson’s sister and was a part of one of the churches we pastored in California. She is a dear friend and to be able to visit with her and worship in service once again was very precious to the Doran family. She was actually Jared’s school teacher for a number of years so he was really excited that they could be together, also.

What a wonderful way to start the year 2009! God blessed us with the chance to make new friends and meet up again with old friends. I don’t know if anyone else was blessed, but I sure was.

Back from the Road! God Bless