When I was reading Numbers 20 recently, I was moved to re-read the following verses:

"Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle." Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them." These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy. "Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. – Numbers 20:8, 10-12, 24 ESV

As a young pastor, I have struggled with anger and frustration many times. Sometimes I get angry at myself for not being bold, not having the right words to say, or simply because I am totally in the flesh and blew it. I also get frustrated and angry when, in ministry I pour my heart and soul into what God’s Word says for both me and the people in the church, yet it seems like no one is growing, learing, or even listening. The passage in Numbers really hit me hard because I am no Moses, and I thank God for the grace He has poured out upon me and my family.

Moses did not need to consult the Bible, and read and pray for hours to ask God to answer the needs of the Israelites in the desert. Moses and Aaron walked to the the tent of meeting and got on their faces and God physically spoke to Moses and Aaron. I believe that the relatiosnhip God had with Moses and Aaron was so close that the grace for their disobedience was limited. They heard directly from the mouth of God!

Moses probably did what any pastor would be tempted to do after hearing from the Lord. Imagine for a moment a pastor who has heard every complaint from the church members, and that pastor has heard these types of complaints for years. Most of the complaints have to do with a lack of faith, and the pastor is wrestling with what to do next, and the Lord makes it clear what to do. Moses comes out and he comes with anger and strikes the rock, yet God told him only to speak it.

Moses at this moment perhaps was hoping for the most bang for his buck, hoping that this would be the last time the people murmurred and complained. The Israelites knew nothing of Moses’ disobedience at this point, they were just happy to have water again. Moses and Aaron knew exactly what they did wrong, and God made sure Aaron and Moses never entered the Promised Land. Was Moses and Aaron taking the full punishment for this disobedience?

I believe the people suffered more than Aaron and Moses did by simply dying… the people were going to be without the leaders they knew for forty years. God wants us to rely on Him wholeheartedly, and He will often use pastors, elders, teachers, and small group leaders to get His children to the "Promised Land". I see the message God was teaching me in Numbers chapter 20 being three-fold:

1. Obey the Lord your God
2. Rely on Him
3. God appoints the leadership not man

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. – Hebrews 13:17

Moses was hard-pressed and lost his temper like any human being could or would. Why was Moses angry? He was angry at a bitter and complaining people. The people were being punished together with Aaron and Moses. When certain members in the church being to quarrel and cause division, the destruction affects not only the pastor(s), but all the people in the church.

In our culture today, we somehow have lost the fear of God regarding church leadership. There are abuses throughout church history, and there always will be until Jesus comes back, but this does not somehow give the believer license to somehow cause a rebellion in the Body of Christ. As pastors we must also be fully aware of what God wants us to do and say, and avoid fleshly reactions. I just pray that church leaders never lose the boldness to bring biblical discipline when it is called for according to Matthew 18.

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In charasmitic Christian circles, it is often said that we should come to church, seminars, conferences, and other Christian events expecting God to do something miraculous. Are those expectations worthy of the God we claim to serve? Recently, I was reading a passage in Luke and was encouraged greatly by it.

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." And he cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me recover my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Recover your sight; your faith has made you well." And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. Luke 18:35-43 ESV

There are a great many lessons to be learned throughout this passage, too many cover in one short post. Jesus said that those who have not seen Him yet still believe in Him will be blessed (John 20:29). The stage was set for the blind beggar in Luke 18 to experience the power of Christ, and to "see" Him. Earlier, in chapter 18, Luke describes a rich young ruler who, because of his riches, could not see Jesus for who He was. This beggar was doing the same thing he always did, begging, yet we learn here that he was at the ready.

1. We must be ready

This point may seem cliche at first but what does it mean to be ready? The blind beggar was ready because his circumstances were lined up but it goes much deeper than that. He had not allowed his previous circumstances to harden his heart, dull his senses, or keep him from expecting more from God. Notice that the beggar called on Jesus as the "Son of David", which if heard by the Pharisees or Jewish leaders, would have been cause for the blind beggar to be stoned for reasons of blasphemy.

By using the term “Son of David,” the beggar was essentially declaring Jesus as “the Messiah” within the hearing of the crowd. At our church, we teach that upon repentance and starting your walk with Christ, you must tell someone, and quickly. This blind beggar was overcome with faith and shouted his belief into the crowd. He was not ashamed of his knowledge of Jesus and who he believed Jesus was. Interestingly, he could have been bitter about this crowd stomping through his begging path, or perhaps even been selfish and siezed the opportunity to pull in some major profits.

Here are a few points on how to be ready for God to do something.

• We must not allow our circumstances to dictate what we believe about God or keep us from expecting Him to move mightily.
• We must pray continually for God’s answer to come
• We should always speak to God with reverance and belief in who He really is; God who created all things!
• We should do nothing out of our own selfish ambition (see Philippians 2:2-4)

2. We must be praying

It is implied that this poor, blind beggar, upon hearing who the crowd was fussing over, was on a new mission. His mission was now to get Jesus’ attention, and to simply get the chance to talk with Him. How many of us, as believers, lack the simplicity of approaching God’s throne just to get His attention and talk with Him? This man could not have known that healing was inevitable. Perhaps he heard stories of this Jesus healing others. He certainly had nothing to lose by simply talking with Him!

Jesus asked the beggar what he wanted Him to do. Think about that question for just a moment… what would you have asked of Jesus? What if you were the one in the blind beggar’s position? What if you had all your senses intact, what would you have asked for? The story in this passage appears like a "genie in the bottle" sort of scenario. Or was it? If the blind beggar had asked for riches, I am confident the story would have turned out much different. Instead, the blind beggar asked for his sight to be given to him.

3. We must be aware of His will and follow it
   

The blind beggar asked for his sight and Jesus gladly gave it to him. He understood what it was like to not see anything at all, and then in a split second to see everything, including Jesus! I believe his desire to see Jesus and follow Him was more powerful than any selfish desire he ever had.

When we are confused and have nowhere to turn, Jesus gives us a choice, a choice to ask the right things, believe in His will, and to follow Him. I have prayed for many things in my life and struggled at times because I believed I was not getting the answer I needed. I have begged and pleaded with God to hear me out, yet in what I can estimate in my finite mind, I hear nothing. At times I am so busy about what I want, and what I feel I need, that I miss the move of God.

It is only when I am humbled, have nothing left to say, empty and broken, that I am "at the ready" to hear God’s voice. In fact, I distictly remember when I prayed and prayed about my mom and believed she would be healed from her cancer. I was watching television programs, listening to the radio, and reading articles from the word of faith community. I was hearing that healing was being withheld because my mom lacked the faith or had a great sin in her life. I started to believe these teachings and began to rely on them heavily.

I ended up spending the summer with my parents and drove my mom to her chemotherapy appointments. We had good talks about faith, forgiveness, and family on those drives. After that summer back in Southern California, I remember getting a call from my sister saying mom was on the edge of dying. I remember playing the song I wrote for her on the phone and hearing her breathing as she said so faintly, "I love you, son."

I can recall the day my mom passed away. I was broken. I was angry at God because He did not answer my prayers, and now I was at an impasse. I remember hearing all the things my mom said to me on those drives to chemotherapy and back. I could hear the voice of God softly giving me comfort, reminding me that His answer was actually total healing for my mom. I then thought of how awesome God was to give me an entire summer with her, and to line up my circumstances so that I could do such a thing. I was actually getting my answer during that whole summer but I was so busy believing outside of His will that I missed much of the joy He had in the midst of it.

I must say that I am heavily cautious of the "word of faith" movement and I cannot express enough how much each believer should be in the "Word of God"  and be under the teaching of the full gospel. The "name it and claim it" movement is dangerously close to heresy.

So, may we be like the poor, blind beggar and ask Jesus for our sight to be restored. May we see beyond what our minds can comprehend and trust in our God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-consuming!

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In my studies in the Word I have realized that the word volunteer is too often misused when it comes to ministry within the Body of Christ today. In fact our church has taken the word volunteer in our documentation and changed it to servant. In Luke, Jesus is clearly addressing an issue that He knows will hit the church as a whole.

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’?  Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and hdress properly,1 and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’?  Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?  So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”  Luke 17:7-10

In today’s day, the use of the word servant seems to be heavily avoided. What was Jesus implying in the preceding passage? I believe that Jesus was hitting not just a cultural issue of what was known as a bondservant, but also the spiritual paradigm of serving within the Kingdom of God. A bondservant was closer to a slave than say a paid servant of the family, and was treated as a second-class citizen for various reasons. The bondservant came into this relationship with their masters due to debts, agreements, crimes, etc. The bondservant usually deserved greater punishment than they were getting by serving a master, but the mercy of the master would allow for this relationship to exist versus death, jail, or exile.

Bringing this issue of the bondservant back to a spiritual perspective, Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God more than he ever spoke of just the current social issues He was living in. There are a couple points of truth I would like to invest into the minds of believers:

1. We are indebted to Jesus

It is true that we are free from living by Old Testament Law, but each and everyday we should be living out our salvation as with fear and trembling (Philipians 2:12). The very thought of us disobeying God should send shivers down our spine, and the apostle Paul reflects on this in Ephesians 6:5 when he compares obeying earthly masters to that of obeying Christ. We owe Christ our faith and attention, we are in essence bondservants of Christ.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Colossians 2:13-15

Apart from Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5) and thus we are in a bonded, covenant relationship with Christ. The New Covenant is referred to as lighter because Christ has done what was necessary to cancel sin where in the Old Covenant man could only try to perform sacrifices that would cover sin, not cancel sin.

2. Volunteering is a one-time action, serving is a lifestyle

In Numbers chapter 6, the instructions are given for the Nazarite vow, and often these vows could be for a certain amount of time. The strictness of the vow called for one to volunteer, but not always a permanent service. The priest on the other hand was considered a servant of God, and was called to live a lifestyle of service to God versus a vowed period of time. Priests were selected from mere birth.

The life that Jesus called believers to live does not imply "volunteering" but calls for believers to live it out daily, take up our crosses, follow Him, run and finish the race, and see this life of service through to the end. As believers we should be careful what words we use to describe our service to God and His church.

3. Serving is a heart issue, volunteering is usually a flesh issue

I joined the United States Air Force earlier in my life, not just because I wanted to see what I could do for my country, but for what my country could do for me. I had a bit of patriotic blood flowing through my veins, but at 19 years old I also saw education benefits, medical benefits, and a career. I was a "volunteer" for the USAF. I was able to leave the USAF and never come back if that is what I desired.

When I was blood-bought, and saved by Jesus Christ at 21 years old, I had the urge and passion to serve. I made a lifetime commitment to serve in the Kingdom of God, and the path in which to follow Christ is difficult and narrow to say the least. I still have this passion to serve, not because I am somehow more called than any other believer, but I truly believe that every Christian is called to serve with everything they have.

Some believers may disagree with my point of volunteering being a flesh issue, but here is a good benchmark. Walk into a room of churchy volunteers and make a broad announcement that they will no longer be called volunteers, but will be called servants instead.  Now walk out of the room that has hidden cameras and see what the reactions are, you will most likely have many who get upset.

Why is it when certain biblical words are used many believers get all upset? Why is this word change so important? Becuase we externally and internally react to words all the time. Words like submission, servant, repentance, hell, compromise, tithe, offering, giving, sin, holiness, sanctification, and righteousness are some of the words being thrown out from modern church literature in an effort to not offend anyone.

It really boils down to the attitude of the believer. If the believer is truly serving God, then the earthly accolades are not important. If a person is only volunteering to get attention, achieve an award, earn credits with the leadership, or some other selfish ambition, then Jesus clearly puts this person in there place. This is not to say we should lose our ability to encourage one another while serving in ministry, but if someone leaves their church because of the lack of recognition, they may be in sin!

So the next time you "volunteer" for something at your church ask yourself if you are a willing servant or a volunteer with an agenda.

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Romans 1:8-15

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, 10 making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established— 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. 13 Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. 14 I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. 15 So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. Romans 1:8-15 NKJV

I.    Prayer Life
a.    Prayer should be thankful
b.    Prayer should be personal
c.    Prayer should be continual
d.    Prayer should be sincere
e.    Prayer should be flexible
f.    Prayer should be submissive
g.    Prayer should be specific

II.    Strong Faith
a.    The Roman church was known for it’s faith
b.    Are you known for your faith?
c.    Faith without works is dead

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:14-17

III.    What is your motivation for coming to church? Paul’s motivations were:
a.    Imparting spiritual gifts
b.    Fellowship and encouragement
c.    Paul desired to see his labor bear fruit

IV.    YOU- are in debt to:
a.    Greek-Jew-Christian
b.    Barbarian-Gentile-Unsaved
c.    Wise-Unwise
d.    How do you see other people?

V.    YOU-are established when:
a.    You are ready to…
b.    You are a clean vessel-1 John 5:12

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