All In

We go all in for a business venture, all in for a romantic relationship, and all in for sports. While some have made following Jesus a half-hearted pursuit or a part-time commitment, being a disciple of Jesus has always been a call to go all in.

Jesus said the only way to follow Him was to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. In short, Jesus said you have to go all in. This is the great commandment. We are to love God with everything that we are and all that we have. It isn't a command to love God with part of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. It is a command to love God with everything.

The work of God in our world for the transformation of our generation demands that we go all in as followers of Jesus. We must trust in Him with all our heart. We must rely totally on His wisdom and understanding. In everything we plan and do, we must go all in to submit to Him and His ways. Only then will He make our paths straight and advance and accomplish His mission in and through us.

Are you all in?

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise the God who went all in for us so that we can be all in with Him.
2.  Celebrate the price Jesus paid at the cross to go all in to the Father's will to purchase our ransom.
3.  Ask God to reveal any area of your life that doesn't have a white flag staked in it.
4.  Choose to go all in today in whatever way God asks you to do so.

God Can Use What You Have

God can use what you have! I confess my own guilt of looking at how God has gifted or resourced others and thinking that if I had what they had then God could use me or do a great or greater work.

The major issue with this that God has brought me to is that I have become the focus every time this occurs. What I have to give is viewed greater than what God possesses in Himself. My power to make things happen and do His work supersede in my heart and mind the power of God that is unlimited.

But even more that all this, when I compare myself against another with the silent hope and dream of having what God has given to them, I despise the unique way God crafted me and the ways He has chosen to gift and resource me. I do not trust that God, in His great wisdom and according to His perfect will, has placed me in His mission to accomplish what He has planned for me rather than someone else.

He can use what I have. He can use what you have.

A young shepherd on the hills of Bethlehem learned that God could use what he possessed rather than what others had or tried to give him. David came into Israel's base camp and was immediately offended by a giant named Goliath who mocked God and the people of God. So he offered to go and fight.

He didn't have a sword. He possessed no coat of arms or shield. No spear stocked his arsenal. David could have looked at the giant and said, "God cannot use me to do that work because I don't have what the soldiers possess." They had training, experience, and weaponry.

What's interesting to note is that David perceptively saw that God too had given him training, experience, and weapons, though very different from the soldiers.

David had been trained while watching sheep. His greatest training included how God shaped David's heart to follow Him and live for God's glory.

He had experience that came when a lion and bear both came to kill one of his sheep. He fought both not with a sword or spear, but with his own hands and won.

David had weaponry very different from the soldiers. He had a slingshot and 5 smooth stones. It is doubtful any of us, especially me, would even dare take on a giant and the army backing him with such a weapon. Even the soldiers and king Saul thought it was crazy so they tried to give David armor and a sword.

It just wouldn't work.

But isn't that why this story is so fascinating for us? Isn't this why the story impresses us so deeply? A young man allowed God to use what He had. In doing so, as ridiculous as it seemed, it meant David was completely unable to take credit for what God did by His power through David.

I don't have a slingshot and stones. I don't have a sword or spear. I don't have Moses' staff or Paul's intellectual acumen. But I do have what God has given me. I do have the place God has entrusted to me. And God can use what I have right where I am. What about you?

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Thank God for His power, wisdom, and perfect will.
2.  Ask God to show you what He has specifically given to you that He can and wants to use.
3.  Pray for Christ to make Himself known through you.
4.  Trust Christ to use you to fulfill His purpose where you are and with what you have.

Powerful Reminders

Pastor and author Voddie Bauchum once made the statement that if the godliest man in the Bible (David), the strongest man in the Bible (Samson), and the wisest man in the Bible (Solomon) all committed a moral failure in their lives, then who am I to think I am above it.

As I continue reading this year through The Story, I have come to passages about David, Israel's king, who succeeded Saul. I know this story perhaps well. But as God's word is so powerful to do in our lives, the Scripture penetrated in a new and deep fashion.

Here are some of the powerful things I took away from this passage:

Sin is always crouching at the door. While the men were off at war, David remained at home. Arising from his bed, he walked out onto his balcony to find a beautiful woman bathing on a nearby rooftop. He didn't plan for this moment. He did not seek out this temptation. But he was not guarded against it either. Sin is always crouching at the door of the man or woman who does not arm him or herself for battle. Our battle with our sinful flesh is real and sin is always at the door waiting to pounce upon us.

Internal foes can do what external ones never could.  David took down the giant Goliath. He eluded King Saul who sought to take his life. David killed thousands upon thousands of the Philistines who mocked God and His people. He was victorious in battle and Israel flourished as a result. But the internal foe did what the external foe never could.  Lust did what warriors could not. David was conquered from within and not from without.

One step of rebellion can turn into a country mile. David looked upon her in lust and sent for her to be brought to him. He enjoyed the pleasure of sexual intimacy with another man's wife. But that one time act, heinous enough as is, wouldn't be the end of it. Bathsheeba became pregnant and David plotted to make Uriah, her husband, believe it was his baby. That didn't work, so he tried again by making Uriah drunk. That didn't work either. So David sent Uriah back to battle carrying his own death decree. Uriah was placed in the heat of the battle and then the commander pulled back leaving Uriah to be struck down and killed. Adultery is not better than murder. Both nailed Christ to the cross. Yet we see a progression from lust to adultery to manipulation to murder. It all began with one step of disobedience beyond the boundaries of God's perfect will for our lives.

Relationships suffer because of disobedience. Whenever we sin, as David did, relationships are destroyed. I don't know how the relationship with David and Bathsheeba was but I can imagine there was a great deal of trust issues, hurt, and healing that was needed. But what I do know is that this moment destroyed David's relationship with Uriah. Uriah had been one of David's mighty men who had fought for, protected, and placed his life on the line for David. Whereas Nathan and David had what appears to be a great relationship beforehand is now strained as Nathan has to confront David about his sin. David would encounter difficulty with his own son as a result of this. Some relationships are destroyed because of disobedience and never get repaired. However, all relationships suffer as a result of disobedience.

Hope exists through repentance. David's predecessor had always made excuses for his sin and wayward ways. When Nathan confronted, David repented. Hope came through repentance. In fact, that is still our hope today. When we repent of sin and surrender to Jesus Christ, we have the eternal hope of salvation in a relationship with God forever. God will work to restore in us what has been broken when we repent. David's prayer in Psalm 51 expresses both his repentance, his hope, and the request for God to restore the joy of salvation.

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Celebrate that God's armor (Ephesians 6) can protect us against our enemy and the sin that ensnares us.
2.  Pray for God to make us aware and alert to the sin and danger crouching at the door.
3.  Ask God to reveal error in your life today because of a step of disobedience in the past.
4.  Pray for the relationships that have suffered because of your sin or the sin of another. Do all you can to see those restored.
5.  Repent of any sin in your life. Celebrate the hope of Christ as a result. 

Why Not You

There are scores of people throughout history God has used who couldn't fathom that He would use them.

Moses didn't think God could use him to lead Israel out of Egypt. After all, he did have a speech impediment.

Jeremiah didn't think God could use him to be a prophet to the nations since he was still too green.

Gideon didn't think God could use him to lead Israel in victorious battle over Midian.

Israel had rejected God and God had allowed them to be overtaken by their enemies. He faithfully raised up one deliverer after another to free the people when they repented and turned back to Him. Gideon, though, couldn't imagine that God would be able to use him.

Gideon informed God that his clan was the smallest (if God didn't know that already).  He also told God that he was the youngest in his family (again, as if God didn't place him in his family as the youngest).

Translation: Why me God? Mighty warrior? Yeah right. My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, not the strongest. And I'm the youngest in my family. There's no way you can do this with me.

Even when Gideon appears to have signed on to go, he looks for final confirmation that this indeed is God's doing. You've likely heard someone refer to putting out a fleece. That comes from Gideon. He tested God to insure God would indeed do what He said He would. Gideon laid a fleece out overnight and told God if only the fleece had dew upon it and not the ground then he would know. God did it!

It still wasn't enough for Gideon. Gideon reversed it and threw it back to God, telling him to keep the fleece dry and only allow the dew upon the grass around it.  God did it again!

Gideon looked at himself through the lens of his limitations rather than through the limitless power of God.

He kept asking "Why me?" He kept examining the situation from his human perspective. 

What would God do if you and I stopped asking, "Why me?" and started asking, "Why not me?" 

Why not surrender everything to God?

Why not allow Him to use us however He pleases?

Why not devote ourselves to worship and serve Him every day for all our days?

Why not be people who seek to display and declare the good news in bold ways?

Why not be the people who earnestly pray for God to move among us and accomplish the unthinkable?

Why not us? Why not you? Why not me?

 He simply wants us to come to the point of Isaiah who heard God ask "Whom will I send? Who will go for us?" Isaiah simply raised his hand and said, "Here am I, send me." Isaiah said, "You need someone? Why not me?" 

What God needs is not our intellect, skill, power, contacts, or money. What God needs is our full surrender.

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Praise God that who He is, is more important to who we are than who we are. Celebrate that our limitations do not limit or hinder God.
2. Surrender the areas you're holding onto tightly.
3. Ask God to make clear where He wants to use you. 
4. Pray for God to work in great ways and allow you to be a part. Pray, "Lord, why not me? Use me, send me, accomplish through me Your work."

Wisdom for Living

We live with limited sight. I cannot see the motivation with which another individual performs a certain action. I do not know all the circumstances in a given situation ( regardless of how much I do know). I am unable to see the past completely or know the future.

I need a wisdom that is far above me. I am desperate for One who sees all things outside of time limitations. Hearing from One who knows the hearts of all men, seeing their motivation and perceiving their thoughts rather than just knowing what they do, is of great value. 

God sits high above the heavens. He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart. He perceives our words before they cross our lips. God sees our rising and lying down before they even occur. And not just for us, but of all the world. He knows all things from before they began. He has determined the end of all things and the path that leads to that point.

God is not just a God of knowledge. He is the God of all wisdom. He knows the exact word to speak and deed to perform by knowing all things. 

James warned that living by the wisdom of this earth leads to strife, bitterness, lust, and murder (and that's just among believers - James 3:13-4:2). Joshua found that when he did not consult God regarding the men who claimed to come from afar that he entered into a peace treaty with men from a nation God intended the Israelites to remove from the land of Canaan.

Every decision of our lives should be governed by the wisdom that comes from above. God has expressed this wisdom and His will through His words in Scripture. He also gives to His followers the Spirit of God to convict us of sin (because we lived by our own wisdom and desires) and guide us into all truth (to know and live by the wisdom of God).

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God that He is the all-wise God.

2.  Ask for the wisdom from above--pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere.

3.  Pray for God to lead you to live your life in every way by the wisdom of God.

A Choice Will Be Made

Today a choice will be made. You and I, along with every one in the world, will make that choice. It is the choice of who or what we will worship and serve.

Our land is flooded with idols. Hindus may erect idols in their homes and shops with the heavy aroma of incense burned to these gods. Dare we judge and criticize them and others without scrutinizing our own lives and culture.

We may have fashioned our gods of other materials, but they are gods no less. Whether the god of money, sex, pleasure, power, position, relationships or some other, we live with countless gods we have created by our own hands. These we worship and serve as if they are suitable substitutes for the True God. That is by definition an idol—a God substitute.

 God is jealous for His own glory. He permits no substitutes or rivals. He expects complete surrender and whole-hearted devotion.

Joshua came to the end of his days and he implored the people to make the choice.  He said, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

There is a choice to follow Jesus that comes as a conscious act of the will decision in which we place our faith and trust in Him alone to be rescued from sin and restored in relationship to God. Yet every day there must be the decision to worship and serve Him alone. Every day idols must be identified and torn down. Every day my own desires must be put to death so they do not obstruct the path to follow Jesus.

Jesus told every would-be follower the cost was high. “You must deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.”  The choice will be made today and every day. You will make the choice whether purposefully or by default. You will worship and serve Him or you will worship and serve another.

What will you choose today?

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Praise God that He alone is worthy to be worshiped and served.
2. Celebrate that God is the all-wise and only true God.
3. Ask for God to identify the idols in your own heart.
4. Pray for yourself to be nailed to the cross with Christ that nothing in you would hinder your following Jesus or get in the way of God’s work and mission.
5. Surrender yourself to worship and serve Jesus today.
6. Repeat tomorrow.

This Sounds Crazy

Have you ever believed God wanted you to do something that didn't make sense or seemed like an odd approach? It's as if He says, "This is God and I know this sounds crazy, but I want you to do ____________ or I want you to do ______________ this way."

I think these times are for two reasons: One is to lead us to exercise faith in God and the other to leave us with no room to take the credit.

The people of Israel crossed the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land. The first battle to be waged was against the mighty city and well-fortified city of Jericho. From the beginning, God promised He would give them the land by delivering enemy after enemy into the Israelites' hands. God tells Joshua that He had already delivered Jericho into his hands with the king and fighting men.

Do we trust what God has already promised? Do we ask for things believing and giving thanks that it is already done?

It was true that God had already given the city into the hands of Joshua and Israel. What came next was merely the proof and demonstration of this. But it would require complete trust and faith. God said, "March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days….On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in."

Would you do this? This was not and is not the way battles take place. This is not the way we plan to conquer cities and defeat our enemies.

Without faith in God, this seems absurd. Who would do this? How can this work? I've never done it like this before! 

With faith in God, there's no debate. God's wisdom exceeds my own by far. God's is greater than my plans and power. When He gives a direction, there's no other way to go. To go another way is disobedience and will not accomplish His will.

Would you do it? Would you tell a million people thirsting for water to gather around for the water that is going to come as you speak to the rock? Would you lead a whole nation to walk around a city promising them its walls would fall after the seventh time on the seventh day? Would you walk to the sea and catch a fish because you would find the coin to pay taxes in its mouth?

Obedience to Jesus may look crazy. But have the faith to obey places us in the position to see His work of power. What would you do? What will you do?

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Give thanks that God doesn't work within the power and confines of humanity's limitations.
2. Ask God to enlarge your faith to do what He asks in the way He leads you.
3. Pray that God will allow you to see His mighty work of power and the beauty of His glory as you follow His leading (whenever, wherever, and however He leads).

So Close

Moses came close…real close. God told Moses to go upon the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo. From this lofty perch Moses was able to see the land of Canaan. 

Moses would see it but not touch it. He would come so close but he would not enter in and receive what God had promised. He lacked the faith to trust God and obey God's word in a difficult situation.

The people of Israel had been led out of Egypt by the mighty deeds of God. Yet they never seemed to be content and grateful. Instead, they grumbled about not have water to drink. They complained that they didn't have meat to eat. On more than one occasion they accused Moses of leading them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. And at least once they planned to select a leader to take them back to Egypt.

Leading people is a difficult task and Moses faced every difficulty in leading a people one could imagine. We can imagine how day after day and month by month how this just weighed upon him. So we can also imagine how, when the people once again griped about not having water and God said He would provide if Moses and Aaron would speak to the rock, Moses took his staff and hit the rock instead.

He was frustrated.

He was angry.

He was weary with the people's complaints.

But most of all, he was a man who in that moment acted on his own rather than by faith. Faith in God in every situation and circumstance of life will lead to obeying God. After Moses struck the rock, God said, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."

Moses did not believe God. He did not trust God. He had not faith to follow God's way. So he chose his own way. Yet God still brought water from the rock in spite of Moses and Aaron's lack of faith and direct disobedience.

As I read this passage (familiar to me) once again today, I sought to ask whether or not I am exercising faith and obedience to God in every situation and circumstance. What I do not want to be true in my life is that I forfeit the promises of God and getting to be part of God's mission and work because I fail to trust HIm wholly and obey Him fully. My heart was so overwhelmed and encouraged, though, that even when I fail to have faith and obey, God graciously gives what we need (as He gave the people the water they needed for drink).

Take a Daniel Moment:

1.  What areas in your life are you not exercising faith and obedience?

2.  In what ways are you missing out on God's work and promises as a result?

3.  Pray that God would expose these areas and help your unbelief?

4.  Ask God to allow you to exercise radical belief that leads to crazy obedience so you don't come close but never take part in what He is doing and desires for us.