Taking Hebron

I’ve been thinking a lot about a show I watched last fall on the Discovery Channel called Making the Cut . The one I watched was all about men trying to get into the Pararescueman program so that they could one day serve in this special force of the military. For twenty one hours they drenched, half drown, shouted at, and demanded absolute alertness and strength from these soldiers who were being deprived of all the necessary things that make human life possible. Admittedly I felt a little bad as I sat comfortably on the couch watching these men suffer. Then at the very end of the show, in the dark, the remaining soldiers had to crawl into the building and as they did so they passionately proclaimed their motto: I will be prepared at all times to perform my duties quickly and efficiently, placing these duties before personal desires and comforts. These things I do, that others may live. These men were already soldiers in the U.S. military, honored servicemen giving their lives to defe

A choice. The only power we've been given is the power to choose. We've been given the choice to follow Christ or the world. As much as we like to victimize ourselves and blame other people, the truth still remains that how we live, think, and believe is still our choice.  On the eve of April 13th I looked out the window to see a storm rolling in. Lightening flashed and thunder rumbled announcing it's very near presents.  Rain then began to come down and that rain very quickly turned into hail of ping pong ball size. (The largest hail I've ever seen in person.) I began to worry as I looked out at my yellow truck sitting helplessly across the street and thought of my vulnerable and exposed gardens out back. I felt a panic within as I listened to the hail beating the window like hundreds of little rocks. My 6 yr. old sister then suggested we pray and she preciously asked Jesus to make the hail stop. It was at that moment, I saw clearly and a choice was laid before me.

There’s a story that my pastor tells us all the time at church. It’s a picture of what life is like. (For those of you who go to my church here it is again! But can you really ever hear it too many times?) So in this story there are 3 characters walking a ridgepole. The first is Fact, who walks the ridgepole with perfect balance for its truth. The middle character is Faith, that’s us and as long as we keep our eyes forward and on Fact we walk the ridgepole perfectly balanced like him. (This story would be really great if it stopped right there!) Unfortunately there’s a third character in this picture that comes behind Faith his name is Experience. Now Experience is a loud mouth and shouts all the time about what has happened in the past and how things didn’t work out and as soon as you turn around to consult him the both of you fall off the roof! But if you keep your eyes on Fact, Faith walks the ridgepole, and slowly your Experience begins to line up and all three can walk. So today w