There’s a ton to this Psalm. I’m going to take a look at the first 3 verses today:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.” (Psalm 27:1-3, ESV)

CONFIDENCE IN GOD

Some say when you are born you only have two natural fears: the fear of falling and of loud noises. Others would argue that those aren’t fears – they’re actually reflexes. If that’s true…then we actually come into this world FEARLESS! I love that concept! We don’t stay that way for long though…

Are you afraid of the dark? One of my scariest memories as a young child is of the curtains in my bedroom. They had tie backs on them and when the night light hit them, it cast a shadow on my wall…of DARTH VADER!!! There are caves so deep they are considered to be the darkest place on earth…when the flashlights are turned off, the darkness that engulfs is so thick that people become disoriented and their equilibrium is affected.

David knows what the dark is like. David knows that light dispels darkness. He understands that God is the source of spiritual light in our darkness of humanity. But he ascribes more…God is not just the source of light…He IS the light! That is altogether different. I can get light from a flashlight…but the flashlight is not the light. David says that the Lord IS my light and my salvation!

How about dying? Even if you’re secure about where you’ll spend eternity, most people aren’t in a hurry to get there. As the masterful biblical expositor Joe Diffy says, “Lord I wanna go to Heaven…I don’t wanna go tonight”. But then again, while we will all die at some point, very few of us face the prospect of death in the manner David was speaking. Just so we are clear, when he wrote “when evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh”, he was talking about people hunting him down to destroy him like savage animals!

That’s not where we live…PRAISE GOD! But, we all have very real fears…and David’s words are a comfort:

The Lord IS our stronghold! My heart WILL NOT fear! I WILL BE confident!

Fear is rooted in an awareness of vulnerability and a sense of helplessness. David speaks of armies surrounding him and his corresponding confidence. Even valiant warriors’ heart race in the moments before battle – but not David’s – his response is confidence!!! That is not natural – it is SUPERnatural!

Charles Spurgeon wrote that “confidence is the child of experience”. David responded with confidence not because he was cocky or arrogant. On the contrary, David displayed confident humility because he had been there before. He made these statements in a real life situation from actual experiences with God. These were not theoretical statements – they were experiential!

I hope this is an encouragement to you. I hope your fears are neutralized in the face of God’s faithfulness and that your faith is stretched with each new experience.

• Clarity on location
• Relationships with other Christ followers
• Insight from some other church plants
• Gain a clearer understanding of God’s timing in this

I am probably going to do some video updates to the blog to capture more of the excitement of the environment.  Thanks for praying!

I, like many of you, have almost overdosed on the political minutia that has surrounded this election season that started so early this time around.  I have not and am not making any public comments about who you should vote for, only that you should participate in the process and you should seek God in that as you would anything else.

With that said, I am sharing this link to a convocation service held at Liberty University (the school I attend) last Monday.  Former US Congressman Bob McEwen spoke to the whole student body and it has been reported to be the best speech of the year.

I just watched it…it’s a 30 minute speech and it is worth your time and  awesome!!!  I can’t embed the video but here is the full link:

http://liberty.edgeboss.net/wmedia/liberty/cpo/2008/20081027_convo_bm.asx

That’s some tough stuff…several of the family witnessed the accident happen.  They could really use our prayers right now.

Tabitha and I knew God had called us to go.  We felt his leading concerning the planning for the trip.  We are bonded together at the heart strings with the ones going with us.  We knew God wanted us to be on this trip, at this time, with these people.  BUT…. then there’s this little matter of finances.  Knowing all we know about the trip, we had not the slightest idea how we would handle the money. You know what?  I was starting to get a little nervous.  I’m just being real – I was beginning to get a little “make the game winning catch in the end-zone” sweaty palmed and “I really shouldn’t have had that chili cheese and onion Coney Dog from Sonic” queasy!

Now if you had asked us, we would have given you the standard answer that spiritual people give – “We know God called us on this trip and he will provide a way”.  But honestly, I am a spiritual man – but I am just that – a man! And I was beginning to get a little worried.  I’m going to share something without sharing something (I don’t want it to sound like boasting so the details don’t matter).  I had been praying about the situation and I had committed to do something big if God didn’t step in.  I realized that God wanted me to be as committed to getting there as I am about being there.  So I set a deadline.  That was Sunday a week ago.  Yesterday, God used an individual to make a huge financial provision for us. 

What’s the point?  God taught me something through this.  His fulfillment didn’t come until I reached a place where I was willing to make great sacrifice to accomplish his purpose.  I wonder exactly where Abraham’s hand, and more importantly the knife, was when God stepped in?  The Bible doesn’t give us the answer to that, but what is clear – Abraham had committed to the sacrifice.  I had already started making plans for the drastic step I had committed to make.  What are you doubting God about right now?

God spoke to me recently through an old friend from high school. This guy, I’ll call him Mike, was one of my closest friends in school. We were tight.  We played football together, rode to school together, hung out all the time – he was always at my house or I was at his. When I met Jesus, my life totally changed! My interests and desires were different. Very different from a lot of the things Mike and I did together.  Mike was not pleased with this. He didn’t want to do the same kinds of things that I did – and I didn’t want to do the stuff that we used to do together. We maintained a relationship, but it was never quite the same. I used to plead with him to give his life to Jesus! This guy is one of the most passionate individuals I have ever met, and a well known individual in the community. I knew if he ever turned that passion over to Jesus, to be used by Him, Mike could have a tremendous impact for the Kingdom.I had lunch with my friend the other day.  I think it’s been 3 or 4 years since we’ve talked to each other. He had asked me to come and speak at his church and we were meeting about that. Almost as soon as we sat down, I asked Mike what was going on with him.  Something was different. He just broke down and began to share all the things God had been doing in his life. He had given his life to Jesus and was now on that track of making an impact for the Kingdom!! So then I began to break down. So there we were, two grown men sitting in the middle of Stax Grill talking about how awesome God is and celebrating what He’s done in both of our lives. It was positively spectacular!I don’t know how many times I prayed for Mike back in school. I do know this though, God answered that prayer. And when my friend shared that with me the other day, it was just what I needed to hear. That day. That moment. God’s cool like that! He wanted Mike to know Him worse than I did. I was so refreshed and energized to learn about my friend. God’s a big God and He’s got a big plan. Why do we get so impatient when we don’t see immediate results? Why is it so hard to wait? The Bible tells us when we wait on God we find strength. But our tendency is to run ahead or fall behind. My desire is to be right where God wants me and I seek daily the patience to wait on Him. How about you?

My pastor, Chuck Bridges, began a series on prayer yesterday.  He opened with this statement: “Prayer should be like breathing for the believer”.  While I have spent time with my Lord, and sought His guidance about the Worship Rally, I wish that I could say that I invested an amount of time in prayer commensurate with the time spent planning and preparing for this event – but I can’t. Sure, I have petitioned God for His guidance, confessed my unworthiness, prayed for those who will attend, sought God’s anointing in my preaching, asked for strength and inspiration for all of our volunteers – but if prayer really was my oxygen, my O² levels would freak my doctor out!Now I have a strong prayer life, but the point I want to make is this. God expects us to do our part. I am fully convinced that a lazy spirit is not something that pleases an almighty God.  He expects us to do our part. To kick it in neutral and then sit back and say, “No worries! God will handle the details” is deplorable. That’s testing God and Satan tried to get Jesus to do precisely that.

What I am saying is that no amount of planning or preparing on our part compares with time spent talking with God about the situation! Prayer is most relevant and effective when we align our priorities with His. Jesus gave us come pretty strong clues regarding what His priority is and how we can pray about it (2 Pet 3:9, Luke 10:2). God wants people to be saved. He wants people to repent. He is in control of the Soul Harvest. We are to ask (pray) for the workers (that’s me and you) to go out.  I’ll do another post another time on our responsibility for personal evangelism. Right now, I’m asking you to pray for this harvest. The gospel will be presented.  Jesus will be praised and worshipped. Pray for opportunities to invite people. Bring anyone you know who might need to hear about the love and forgiveness Jesus offers.  Invite strangers and people you meet this week to join you next Saturday. You can bring people to a “concert” who would never darken the doors of a “church”. 

God is up to something.  I can’t wait to see what He does! We have prayed. We have planned. We have prepared. By God’s grace and His strength, we are ready.  The tendency is to let up now.  Please don’t do that.  Pray.  Pray now.  Pray hard.  Pray often.  Pray together.  Pray by yourself.  Pray when you wake up.  Pray when you go to bed.  Pray in your car.  Pray in the shower.  Pray without ceasing.  Pray again.  Just pray.

We often have folks who share that they are praying for us and I appreciate that so much!  There is nothing more important for the vision and support of Damascus Road Ministries than earnest and passionate prayer.  Imagine the direction and protection provided from an army of prayer warriors lifting this ministry up daily! 

I want to single out a group (without mentioning the name – but you know who you are) that consistently prays for Damascus Road Ministries and me as a minister of the gospel.  Several months ago, this group was introduced to our ministry and a specific need we had at the time.  They committed then to praying for us…and they have.  God met that specific request, so you would expect them to stop after that, right?  Wrong!  These warriors continue to lift us up faithfully – day after day, week after week.  I know this because each week, I receive several cards from different individuals sharing the thoughts of their prayer for me and this ministry.  One card always starts out with the opening line, “I want you to know that you have been lifted up this morning”!  How awesome is that?  I have to tell you that this is one of the most encouraging things I experience.  I look forward to getting the mail every day to get my hands on one of these reminders of the prayer partnership that this ministry is so blessed to have.  Thank you for praying!