Week 3 of The Story - Trading in Your Dreams for Another’s

We are three weeks into our incredible journey through The Story.  Max Lucado and Randy Frazee have provided some additional insights for us for each week. Here is what they had to say about Joseph.People nearing mid-life often crash into some startling and unexpected observations. For instance, we all dreamed big dreams when we were younger. But as we move at a break-neck pace through our twenties, thirties, and forties, we eventually slam head on into the realization that some of our dreams will never be realized.

That observation throws some people into a mid-life crisis. Some don’t make it that far with their aspirations, having already given them up somewhere along the way. Some run into conflict that makes them weary and they settle for less. Still others make bold decisions to trade one dream in for another.

That’s what Joseph did. Talk about dreams! He had some big ones. At seventeen he dreamed his ten

older brothers would bow down to him. It’s enough he dreamed that dream. What makes it worse is that he told his brothers about it.

The older brothers already had issues with the younger son. Their father favored Joseph. He had even given him a valuable, multi-colored coat. That’s the modern-day equivalent of a parent of four teenagers giving one an iPhone and the other three a stack of quarters each for a pay phone (assuming they could find one on their travels). The brothers banded together and tossed the dreamer in a ditch, eventually selling him into slavery at the first opportunity. The next thing Joseph knew he was waking up in Egypt.

From there his life was a rollercoaster thrill ride. One minute a slave. The next in charge of an Egyptian official’s house. The next in prison. The next in charge of the prison. Then he found himself in front of Pharaoh, called upon to interpret the leader’s dreams. With God’s help he was able to warn Pharaoh he would have seven years of abundant crops that he should be put in storehouses in anticipation of seven years of famine. Recognizing his wisdom, Pharaoh put Joseph second in command of all of Egypt.

And because of God’s personal involvement in his life, he was was able to save his family. The same family that God was building into a nation. Joseph was in position to bring his family to Egypt and give them the most fertile land to work. And it was definitely fertile. In the time they were there they were “fruitful and increased greatly” (Exodus 1:7).

Joseph could have lost his life getting caught up in the details of his life, chasing his dreams and desires.

Instead, he chose a better story. God’s story.

You can do the same. If your life’s dream has stalled, look to God. If your dream now realized is not all you thought it would be, look to God. He can give you another dream. A better one, not according to the world’s standard but God’s criterion. Just like Joseph’s. Then you’ll have a story to tell.

 

Things don't always go as we think they should and sometimes we have very little if any fault in those circumstances.  Things just don't seem to be working out.  But could it be that God is working things out, even when things don't seem to be working out.  - Romans 8:28

 

Read Chapter Four about Moses.  You actually have a couple of weeks.  We will talk about it on July 14th.

 

Keep on Reaching,

Dave

TWO MORE DAYS

If the Mayans were right, which why would they be when all the other doomsday/end times estimates have been wrong, then we are less that two days from eternity!  I'm not sure exactly when it is supposed to happen on 12/21/12.  Maybe they predicted that too, and I just missed it.  It would seem appropriate that the end should occur around 12:21:12 on 12/21/12, but then I don't know if it is a.m. or p.m.   Oh the madness of the end!

But what if it really were the end.  What if you knew that you had 48 hours left to live on this planet before facing your eternity.  What would you do?  Some make a list and call it their bucket list, things to do before kicking the bucket.  Some would walk into that knowledge with fear and others would face it with excited anticipation.  What would you do?

I'm guessing I wouldn't be getting my stitches out, working on my Christmas eve message, typing a blog, having strategy meetings on future plans for church and private business ventures, or finishing Christmas shopping.  All of which I intend to do before the end of the day. So what would I be doing?

Would I be more motivated to talk to every person I see today about the incredible gift of grace and eternity that Christ died to offer us?  I'm sitting in a room full of people at a well known coffee cafe in between strategy meetings in Louisville.  I wonder how many of them even know Jesus.  The computer screen across the way has a power point presentation about an evangelism strategy, so I'm guessing he knows.  What about that mom and her little girl?  What about these two guys in the business suits?  There are at least a dozen college age young people, I know they are being challenged to not believe.  I keep raising my head to be ready to speak to people but when they get to me they lower their heads.  What's up with that?  Oh yea, it's what I do when I am too busy, or too uncomfortable to initiate a conversation.

Oh my, what about my family?  What am I doing?  Why would I be anywhere but with them if I only had 48 more hours to be with them in this world?  

The bottom line is we don't know when this wonderful life will end.  The reality is for some it will end ... today!  Before they would even have the opportunity to read these or any other words.  Before they have the opportunity for a chance encounter with a pastor or any other Christ follower in a coffee place.  Before they get to hug their kids or their parents. Before they could ... ?

Life is precious.  Time is short.  Live well.

Different Doesn't Have to Be Weird

Don't be conformed to the ways of this world. - Romans 12:2   Don't be just like everyone else in the world.  Be different from the rest, walk to the beat of a different drummer, go to the deep end when everyone else wants to stay in the shallow end with their spiritual floaties on.  Over and over again Paul pushed people to spiritual transformation, but that real trsnformation didn't happen by just doing the same old thing in the safe places of our life.  It is a challenge to go deeper, to get out of your comfort zone, it's a call to be different.

But being different doesn't mean being weird.  Christians need to be different than world, but still be able to relate to the world.  In the world, just not of this world.  In a effort to show their commitment to Christ, I see far too many people being weirdly different from the world.  So much so that they aren't drawing people to Christ, but repelling them.  I will never be able to give up the thought of Ghandi saying after his time in America, that he would have no doubt been drawn to Christinaity if it weren't for Christians.

Spiritual transformation happens when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our life with no pride for who we are and nothing but respect for who Jesus is.  It is the process of sanctification that allows us to continually become more and more like Christ.  Jesus was so different from the world, but in a way that drew people toward Him.  The only ones that left were the Pharisees who felt threatened and some disciples in John 6 who thought that the teaching was too hard.  Everyone else was drawn to Him.

Why in the world would a man light a candle and then hide it under a basket?   What are you doing with your candle?  Different doesn't have to weird, just the result of a changed life. How has God been changing you one choice at a time? 

Pleasing God

This Sunday I will sharing the fourth sermon in our "How Should We Live" series from 1 Thessalonians.  This week's theme is "Live to Please God".  We sing a song that says, "For the praises of man I will never ever stand."  In theory we know that we live to praise God with our life, but something interesting occured to me as I reread this passage in 1 Thessalonians again and again.  How we treat our fellow man affects how pleased God is with our lives.  This is especially true when that fellow man is a fellow follower of Christ.  Sometimes Christians say the meanest things and it usually happens when they don't get their way.  It is so easy to criticize the other person for not doing something that you yourself should be doing as well and not even realize it.

Somebody ought to clean up that mess in the lobby of the church!  Somebody ought to start a ministry for single moms!  Somebody ought to go and visit the senior citizens in our church!  I sure wish I could meet "somebody".  Are they a real person?  Did their mother really name them "somebody"?  If so they sure are going to be busy all of their life, because there sure is a whole lot of stuff for "somebody" to do.

In verse 9 of this chapter Paul talks about "brotherly love".  He uses the word "phileo".  In its original use outside of the New Testament it meant the mutual love that children of the same father had for each other.  Maybe they didn't always agree but they were family and because of that they always had "bortherly love" for each other.  In the New Testament it became the term used for the love between fellow believers in Christ.  I wonder if "somebody" is receiving "phileo" from those who so easily use his name in a negative way.

The realilty is everytime we use the word "somebody" we have a face in mind.  At home we want "somebody" to clean up this room, at work we want "somebody" to finish this project, at church we want "somebody" to care start a new ministry or care for the hurting.   I would love to suggest that, you go ahead and get that picture of "somebody" find a really nice frame for it and have it around the house so that you will always know who that "somebody" is.  But if you really want to please God with your lives, right before you hang that picture on the wall ... you replace it with a mirror.

It's Great to Be Alive

Isn't this an incredible view!   Not the big bald guy (although he is cute) but the view from the top of Clinch Mountain is breath taking. Standing there with my lovely wife is one of those times when you think it just doesn't get any better than this.  I got to cross this mountain many times in the 1980's as I traveled back and forth between Lexington and Milligan.

While I was at Milligan I met a friend for life.  When we were freshman his favorite words were "It's Great to Be Alive".  Tim Brokaw must have said that a million times that year.  Here's the deal, I never heard him say that while we were standing on top of some beautiful vista like this one.  In fact many times it was just before, during, or after he had put smelly sweaty basketball gear in to wash as the manager of the basketball team.  Tim was a great manager because he just wanted to do everything he could to help make the team better, even when it included sweaty, smelly laundry.  But those kind of jobs rarely get recognition, yet everytime you asked him how he was doing, his response was "It's Great to Be Alive". 

It was thirty-one years ago that I first that I first heard Tim say that and I am just now starting to really understand what it could mean and learning to believe iteven when I am dealing with smelly stuff.  It is easy to stand on the moutain top and breathe in the fresh air and say "It's Great to Be Alive".  It's much harder to believe that when your child is running around out of control making questionable life decisions.  It's hard to say that when your marriage is really struggling, or your finances are out of whack, or you hate your job, you fill in your own blanks

I want to spend my life on the mountain tops breathing in fresh air and looking over a beautiful view.  However, it's only by living through some dismal valleys that we can really recognize the beauty of the mountain top.  Jesus reminds us in the Sermon on the Mount that "your Father in heaven, causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

It has been critical for me to realize over the last few years of struggling that God loves me in the valley just as much as he does on the mountain top. He loves me when the sun is shining as well as when it is raining.  He loves me when I am following Him as closely as I can as well as when I am going my own way.

What I have learned is it's great to be alive when I choose to believe it is great to be alive!  It's my choice!  I'd like to live on the mountain top, but I'm trying to choose to be happy even when it's raining!  

The Basement or The Penthouse Vol.2

Joshua said, "Make a choice today who you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." So we are back to choices. Imagine you are in the "elevator of life" and you have 100 buttons in front of you each representing a level of life from the basement to the penthouse. Which button are you going to push?

You might think the choice seems obvious, but not for everyone. It seems that although there are more rewards the higher you go, there are also more expectations. So what will you choose? You can have the best that this has to offer, but there will be expectations. Many choose to settle at this point. So what will you choose?

Have you ever been on a real elevator and thought you were going up only to have the doors open and realize that you had gone in the wrong direction? Or maybe you have just not been paying attention and when the doors opened you hop off only to find out you are on the wrong floor. I have done all those things on real elevators and on that imaginary spiritual elevator as well. Sometimes I mean to make the right choice, but I make the wrong one.

Then the hardest thing is when you make the right choices and still things don't go as you plan. Thieves tend to want to break into penthouse homes more than they do basement apartments. Jesus said that we face a thief that wants to steal from us, kill us and ultimately destroy us. The reality is that there will never be ultimate peace until we are in the ultimate penthouse of heaven at the feet of the Father.

I want to make the best choices I can until I get there. I never met Sharon, but I know her grandparents and I sat in their kitchen this morning listening to great stories of the choices she made to live in the penthouse with Jesus. This morning at the age of twenty-four leukemia took her life here, but allowed her to move into the penthouse permanently. Some will say it is a tragedy. The real tragedy is for those who come to the end of life at whatever age without choosing to live with Jesus. I am so sad for Bill and Wanda and their family, but Sharon chose the penthouse and she only had to wait twenty-four years to get there. What are you going to choose?