God’s greatest work is done in secret during the darkest moments of  your life. Despite the hardship in trials; there is an unexpected beauty that can shine through in times of helplessness. Uniquely, God desires to use those difficult moments of your life to bring forth something extraordinarily beautiful.

If you are in sickness, may your sickness glorify Him; in perplexity, let Him guide you, If you are in sorrow, let Him comfort and cherish you. May you see the treasure you truly are to God and to others. God has created you for a definite service. He has committed a work to you which He has not committed to another. You have a mission; it may be unknown to you in this life but you shall be told it in the next. You were created for a unique purpose in the plan of God. Whoever you are and whatever you are facing…you are of great value. You are a brilliant gem in God’s quarry of jewels.

“And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord,     the God of Israel, Who calls you by your name.” Isaiah 45:3

Dec 3^rd 2007 I dreamed I was standing in an overly crowded line of people that were so indulged in pre-occupation with themselves and loud boisterous bragging conversation with each other that they were either unaware or didn’t seem to care where the line led to. I recognized people that I knew, but they like all the others were to busy talking to even see me. I then noticed another line to my right where only an occasional person would pass by.

There were two lines, one to the left which reminded me of a crowded New York street and one to the right with only an occasional person passing by. I wanted to find out where the lines led to and then saw in the distance two boats which reminded me of ferry boats that were in a type of harbor waiting for passengers to be loaded on. These two rather large boats looked identical to each other with each one docked in a similar harbor but  leading down two separate rivers one to the left and one to the right. At that moment somehow I knew that the crowded line that I had been in which led to the left was leading down to a river of death. I knew that I must switch lines and go to the right. I moved over to the right and began walking swiftly up stairs that led to a door. I was not able to get to the door before I woke up. 

After waking I considered what this dream meant and what would be God’s message in it. Jesus states in Mt 7:13 that we should enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it.  Jesus is the gate, He is the only way to receive eternal life, Satan on the other hand is a master at deception; he can give a person that is desperate the illusion that what he offers is the exact same thing as Jesus. Our ticket to heaven’s ferry ride has already been purchased by Jesus when He paid for our sins with His shed blood on the Cross. We only have to receive it to get on that boat. Satan will make you pay for his boat ride with your human deeds and good works. He creates as much noise and confusion as possible so that you will not take the time to look closely at the differences between what he offers and  what Christ offers. Will you take the time to see whose line you are really in?

2 John 1:7 says “for many imposters (seducers, deceivers, and false leaders) have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge (confess, admit) the coming of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) in bodily form. Such a one is the imposter (the seducer, the deceiver, the false leader, the antagonist of Christ) and the antichrist.” There were two similar lines leading to similar ferry boats. One line was full and wide and the other line was narrow, with only a few travelers. The line to the left led to a boat, the impression was as striking as Michelangelo’s painting of the  Boat of Charone. This boat ferried the dead to the land of the damned down the river Styx. The boat to the right was ferrying people down the river of life to Paradise, to be with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forever. We have the opportunity now in the land of the living to choose which line to be in. Will you be in the line that allows Jesus Christ to be the captain of your ship letting Him guide your live down rivers of living waters? Or will you be so occupied by this worlds pleasures that by the time you realize what line you are in, it will be to late and the “Boat of Charone” will be there waiting to ferry you to the land of the damned?

Dec 4^th 2007  Last night I dreamed I was in a house full of people busy interacting and socializing with each other. I found myself wanting to step outside, there I saw a great flood of water rushing in the direction of the house. I decided to judge the severity of the flood by walking from one end of the house to the other in ankle deep water. A sense of urgency filled my mind as I ran back to the end of the house where I had first stepped out. The water had become so deep that I had to swim back. Then I find myself swimming in a vast ocean, I was tired and struggling to swim. In front of me I see a great wall, a cliff. On top of this immense sea cliff were all the people from the house. I could not get out of the water and I cried out for help. Out of nowhere, a friend of mine somehow was able to reach down to grab my hand and pull me up to safety. I was now with all the people from the house they were continuing to talk to one another and were self absorbed and completely oblivious to the danger of the turbulent water below. Some people actually were jumping into the water and then disappearing. I saw one young man that had jumped in and he appeared to be drowning. A lady who was closest to the drowning young man could only yell for help. I then, dove into the water and positioned myself under him so that I could push his head out of the water but there was no one who would pull him out to safety. This seemed strange and perplexing to me that these people did not even seem to have any care – that is, any agonizing care – about the poor perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes.

Jesus is saying to us, “Do you care?” Are we those people on the top of the cliff to whom He is calling? Who heard His voice and felt they ought to obey it? At least they said they did, those who confessed to love Him much and were sympathetic with Him in the task of reaching the lost. Who worshipped Him or who professed to do so but were so taken up with their trades and professions, their money saving plans and pleasures of life, their families and circles of friends, their religions and arguments about it, and their preparation for rescuing but never jumping in. Those who would not listen to the cry that came to them from those that were drowning. Anyway, if they heard it, they did not heed it. They did not care. So the multitudes were perishing before them struggling and shrieking and drowning in the darkness of the sea. My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters standing atop the sea cliff. You are on the rock. Many are in the dark sea calling on you to come to them and rescue them from perishing. Will you jump in? Look for yourselves, the surging sea of life is crowded with perishing multitudes that are crying out to those who are standing on the rock.

 Is 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

All of life, both physical and spiritual aspects, depends upon God’s provision. An emphasis held in the world, and in our own human nature, is the focus we have almost totally upon the physical aspects of life. God provides for us “wilderness experiences” to let us know that there are spiritual aspects of life that require nourishment and care, just as surely as the care of our physical bodies. We are given a witness for our instruction in the account of the children of Israel. Deut 8:2 says “And you shall [earnestly] remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to prove you, to know what was in your [mind and] heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” The Israelites endured many hardships during their forty years in the wilderness, and they sinned a great deal too. God, however, reminds them that He was with them during both good and bad times. He also makes it very known that He Himself allowed and inflicted a great deal of sorrow. The purpose for why He did this includes three specific reasons: to humble them, to reveal their hearts and to teach them that man does not live by bread alone. We see that God humbles us to drive the pride of self-sufficiency far from us. When things go well, it is easy for us to disregard the purposes of God and ascribe success to natural abilities, learned skills, or even good luck.

In 1997, when I was first diagnosed with the terminal disease of A.L.S (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) I was in my mid 30’s and was told that I would be dead in 2-5 years. Unimaginable! I was in the prime of life and still very physically capable; apart from a loss of strength in my right hand. I believed I could beat this illness through my own determination and effort; with Gods help. Despite countless alternative and plausible treatments the following 8 years, I eventually acknowledged, that no one beats A.L.S and everyone dies. I conceded that I was totally at God’s mercy for deliverance. My body was His responsibility, my life is hid with Him, for His purpose, I would trust Him for my very breath (which becomes the demise of persons with this illness). I am continually brought back to this reference point; God desires to bring me through this wilderness experience where the only option I have is to completely trust Him. Human effort and resources will not rescue me; I relinquished my control to work it out. Only the very Life and Spirit of God Himself can deliver me from this body of sin and death. This was (and is) a difficult and exasperating realization to my understanding but Oh! What a joyful release in my spirit; to be totally dependent on the mercy of my Living Savior Jesus Christ. God wants me to be free from a spiritual A.L.S that is far more destructive to my eternal soul than physical A.L.S could ever be to this temporal body.

When malnourished, our bodies begin to weaken noticeably, muscles start to atrophy and we soon begin to experience fatigue and frailty. If not addressed through intervention, we would eventually die. Our human spirit, when malnourished weakens and seems to “die” so slowly that it is almost unperceivable. Unknowingly, as we spiritually deteriorate, we may even feel blessed and prospered by God! We think that we are okay and doing well because we are physically capable and find intellectual solutions of handling life’s trials. God, in loving chastisement, disciplines us with symptoms to warn us that we are not as spiritually healthy as we thought. In fact, our dependence to understand the ways and purposes of God are shaken, hopefully leading us to draw closer to Him for strength, comfort and wisdom.

God seeks to help us see our need and our reliance on Him. We absolutely must learn that life—both physical and spiritual—depends on the supply of God. Jesus says in John 15:5, “Without Me you can do nothing.” Somehow in our own vanity we think that when adversity comes our way with God’s “help” somehow we will get through the trial by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. Although, we give Him praise for every good gift and victory; many times we don’t recognize our utter dependence on His grace. The truth is that; if we can handle and fix our problems then we would have no need for God to deliver us. Many things are done in self effort, in the strength of the flesh; we can exhaust every option only to realize that when we finally give up and get out of the way, it is at that time God has the freedom and invitation to move in our situations. In Mark 8:32, Jesus rebuked Peter when he told Jesus that He should not go to the Cross to die, exposing that Peter minded the things of man and not the things of God, Jesus said in verse 8:34b  “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me”.

I find that our long standing responses to the trials we face reveal the stability in our heart. We have the potential to be purified and refined by adversity when we allow God to exchange His strength of character for our frailty. The security we place in Him is foundational to the freedom we can have to be content whatsoever state we are in. He becomes the stability of our times. Our abandon unto God, places us at the end of ourselves; we are dependent on His mercy and love.

God asks us in His Word to live by faith, confident in Him to supply our needs even when we have no indications or evidence to believe; this is the substance of faith. We trust in His love, believe Him at His Word; this being the work of God that pleases Him. We are found “In Him” having no righteousness of our own but having His righteousness, His integrity, as our breastplate protecting our heart and decisions.

God deliberately orchestrated difficulties for the Israelites to face but He did not ask them to go through these trials alone. He was with them in the cloud and in the fire; He dwelt among them in the Tabernacle. We don’t invite trouble and find no good time for it; in fact, our prayer would be “lead us not into temptation but deliver from us from evil”! God chastens us for our profit to produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness within us (Heb 12:11). We can lift up the hands that hang down (quite literal for A.L.S. condition) and strengthen the feeble knees. We place our human understanding on the altar and avail ourselves to the plan of God which can save and sanctify us.