Andy at Israel - Meggido

One of the most interesting places we visited today was Meggido.  The small mound stands at the crossroads of the ancient roads that connected the lands of the North and the South (Babylon and Egypt).  Becuse of it's strategic location many wars have been fought here and the Bible says it will be the location of the final war - the Battle ofArmageddon.  

What blew me away was seeing gates that dated back to King David 

and walking through a water system underground that was constructed by King Ahab.  

Hard to imagine looking out over the valley thinking that King David looked out at this same view!  

Over my left shoulder is Nazareth where we visisted a well where Mary and Jesus would have gone to get water and then walked through the city streets to the church of the Annunciation.  it was a taste of the ancient and the modern as we made our way through the streets and markets of Nazareth and our guide even stopped and treated us to some "Old City Pizza".  It was still morning but it was delicious.  

The other ancient site we visisted today was the city of Caesarea along the Mediterranean  Sea.  Again it was amazing to see structures that are being completely rebuilt with ancient stones found during excavation.  The history was fascinating and the views of the Med. Sea absolutely gorgeous.  (The picture below is a panoramic view of the Sea - I hope it looks ok once posted. )  

Our day ended in Jerusalem where we will stay for the rest of the trip.  I'm sorry I won't have any more sunrise pictures, my room here overlooks a courtyard with the Olive Tree for which the Hotel is named.  Right now there is a LARGE Jewish banquet going on and the men can really sing!!  (At times it sounds more like a PSU basketball game)   Sundown marked the beginning of the Sabbath so we saw many people dressed for the synagogue and there is one elevator in the hotel dedicated to Jews who observe the Sabbath - you don't have to push any buttoms - it simply runs all the time and stops on every floor.  

This is a fascinating trip with so much ancient history, personal faith reflections and the experience of a very different culture.  It all adds shape and depth and texture to what it means for me to have a relationship with God.

Shalom!

Andy at Israel - Bokor Tov

Bokor Tov!  Good Morning!  Another beautiful morning on the Sea of Galilee.  We leave here today and make our way to Jerusalem.  We will stop in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Cana so it will be a full day.  

Shalom!

Andy at Israel - Around the Sea of Galilee

What a beautiful day and what a beautiful region.  The sun rose over the Golan Heights which is on the east side of the Sea of Gallilee and I had to ask myself, how many times did Jesus watch that same sunrise?  

I thought about Jesus going up into the hills before dark to pray and sitting there talking to his Father as the sun brought a new day and may a new vision for  The Son.  (See Mark 1:35-39)

Our first stop was just a short distance away where we boarded boats and headed out onto the Sea of Galilee.  The waters were calm, the sun warm and we listened to the stories of Jesus travelling and sailing on these very waters.  While there weren't any storms and none of us tried walking on water, I thought about that night when Jesus rescued his disciples.  Being on the Sea has added some depth to my thoughts of that story (and many others). 

After we landed we headed to the Mt. of Beatitudes and looked out over the fields where Jesus taught and refelcted on the words of Jesus sermon on the mount.  From there it was to Tahgba where Jesus fed the 5,000 with 5 loave and 2 fish and then on to Capernaum which was amazing.  To think that Jesus could have touched some of these very stones and to see the size and scope of the village brought many stories to life.  

After lunch we travelled through the Golan Heights along the eastern shore of the Sea and made our way to the Jordan River.  The waters were calm and still and I was able to walk out alone along a stretch of a path to a bend in the river and just think about how Jesus must have wandered that same route maybe going out to listen to John the Baptist preach.  As I looked up at the beauty of the hillsides and heard the birds in the air I thought how ordinary it was and yet how "holy".  The thought came to me, God in the flesh walked these woods and even entered into this very river.  

I'm now back at the hotel and find myself mesmerized by the view.  The rugged terrain of the Golan Heights, the stillness of the waters, the haze in the sky, the sound of "life" going on all around... just as it was 2,000 years ago.  And just like 2,000 years ago, God is in the midst of it all and I wonder if we really take notice.

Shalom!  

Andy at Israel - Andy IN Israel!

Good evening from Tiberias, Israel!  The trip from Bellefonte began about 2:00 Tuesday afternoon and after a 4 hour ride from Lewisubrg to JFK Airport in New York and a 10.5 hour flight from NY to Tel Aviv and a 2 hour bus ride to Tiberias, I finally arrived here about 8:00 Wednesday evening (1:00 Wed Afternoon in PA).   ALL the travel was smooth as could be and I was able to sleep quite a bit on the plane.  

The plane carried many Orthodox Jews and it was fascinating to watch them get ready for and then enter into their times of prayers.  It reminded me that this is truly a "holy" land full of religous rites and pracitces for Jews, Christians and Muslims.  While our society seems to want to take the practice of religion out of the public culture - here it is very much part of the culture.  

As you can see, the prayer shawl and red thread made the trip as well.  They remind me of your prayers and our connection in Chirst despite the distance.  I continue to be blessed by walking in faith with all of you.

Since we arrived after dark, I really haven't seen much yet, but I am excited for tomorrow morning because my room will have a spectacular view of the Sea of Galilee! Just beyond that row of lights and trees is the Sea!  

Since we have to be up early I am hoping to see the sunrise over the water and will look forward to sharing those pictures tomorrow.  

Tomorrow we will not only sail on the Sea but visit the site of Jesus' baptism.  Both of these events mark new beginnings: a new beginning for the disciples as they left their boats and followed Jesus and a new beginning for Jesus as he entred into public ministry and began to preach and teach about the Kingdom of God.  May tomorrow be a new beginning for all of as we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and the words of Jesus to lead us.   

Shalom from Israel!

Andy at Israel - Now just waiting...

Finally read the holy land study guide so I feel more ready than ever to start the trip.  

One thing that struck me as I read is how small an area this is - 75 miles from Tiberius to Jerusalem.  In some locations major events took place just a few miles apart. It will be interesting to see things from that perspective.  

It's also interesting that in such a small area there is so much diversity of land: snow capped mountains (Mt. Hermon at 9,230 ft above sea level) to the lowest spot on earth above water (the Dead Sea at 1,300 ft. below sea level).  There is an arid wilderness, lush river fed valleys, rolling hills and vast lakes.  The land itself tells a story and I look forward to seeing and hearing that story in the days to come.  

All packed and ready to go, now just waiting....  

Shalom!

Andy at Israel - Prayers for the Trip

What a send off!!  Thank you all so much for your presence in worship today and for your continued prayers.   I hope you know that as you see your "red threads" these next 2 weeks and will be thinking and praying for me, I will see mine and be thinking and praying for you.  I want to thank Tina, David, Dan and Darla for organizing the prayer time and giving us all a physical reminder of God's powerful presence with us and the bond that unites us in Christ no matter where we 

I also want to thank you all for your words of love and support as I begin my journey.  It is humbling for me to know that this journey is bringing you as much joy as it is bringing me.  I hope I will be able to add to that joy by sharing the experience when I return.  

As I reflect on your joy for my journey it dawned on me that this is how we should feel toward one another in our journey of faith.  Each one of us should be filled with joy when we see others come to know the love of God and begin a journey of faith that will forever change them.  Every time someone takes another step that helps them discovery God's will and experience God's grace we should celebrate together and give thanks to God.  Maybe this is what Jesus was talking about when he said that there is joy in heaven when one lost sheep is found.  Angels shouldn't be the only ones rejoicing as others walk and grow in faith - we should be rejoicing with them and with one another.  My hope is that we would be able to keep this kind of joy alive for years to come as we watch one another experience the fullness of God's love and grace and as we journey together with Christ.  

You will be glad to know that I am writing this blog post with all the technology I will have on the trip, so I should be able to share the experience, keep you up to date and share some pictures each day.  Please know that with each post my thoughts and prayers will be with you and I will be thanking God for each of you and how your faith and love have made this all possible.  

Shalom!  

Discovering God's Will ~ Checking the Compass

To finish up our series on Discovering God’s Will I asked the Boy Scouts for some help on how to use a compass.  While I have done a lot of hiking in my life, I have always hiked on marked trails so I never knew exactly how to work a compass so Don Reed was kind enough to give me a quick lesson.  The key to using a compass is that you need to know where you are starting and where you want to end up.  Once the compass points north and you orient the map you can set your bearings on your destination and then just move in that direction.  It is important to keep coming back to the compass to make sure you are walking in the right direction – if not you get off course and end up  lost or in the wrong place.

So the key to using a compass is knowing exactly where you want to end up, you have to know the destination in order for the compass to show you the direction to go and the same is true with discovering God’s will – when we know our destination the path God sets before us is much clearer to see.  So to really understand God’s will for our lives we need to have a general idea about our destination and we are going to call that VISION.  A vision is a picture or image of where were we want to be or what we want in our lives.  We might have a vision of what kind of marriage we want, or what kind of parent we want to be.  We can have a vision about the kind of career we want and how we want our finances to look in 5 years or 10 years or when we retire.  We might have a vision of the kind of disciple or follower of Jesus we want to be by the end of this year or how we want to share our faith with our children.  Having a vision of where we want to be or WHO we want to be is important because that vision not only helps us discover the direction we need to go today but it helps us know God’s will and make the right decisions every day.  Andy Stanley says, as our vision get’s clearer, the options we have get fewer so the decisions we have to make get easier.

Let’s examine how this works using the example of a marriage. If you are single, think about the kind of marriage you want.  If you want a marriage where you can share your faith and have a partner that will work with you in mission and take seriously living out your faith then that vision will narrow down the choices you have in dating.  I have to say that in my time as a pastor I have seen a lot of people fall in love with someone who doesn’t share their same passion or priority for faith and yet they go ahead and get married anyway thinking that things will change and then a year or so later wonder why they don’t have the kind of marriage they want.  They are upset that their spouse doesn’t want to go to church or join a bible study or go on a mission trip with them, but they didn’t hold on to their vision of marriage while they were dating so they got off course and ended up in the wrong place or with the wrong person.  If we have clear vision of what we want and stick to that vision it will show us God’s direction for our lives today.

If you are currently married, let me ask you this, do you have a vision for where you want your marriage to be 5 years or 10 years down the road?  Do you have a vision of the kind of relationship you want with your spouse?  If you want to be able to communicate more or be stronger in our faith together or be better able to work through your problems then it will mean you will need to do some things today and tomorrow to get there.  Again the clearer the vision is for your marriage the more that vision can give direction to the choices you make today.

Think about how this works with our finances.  If our vision is to get completely out of debt in 5 years, then there are some decisions and choices we need to make today to make that happen.  If we have a vision for what we need for our children’s education or for our retirement, then again, that destination will give direction to our financial choices today.  It will help us decide what kind of car to buy or how often we go out to eat or how much of a mortgage we are willing to enter into.  You begin to understand how having a clearer vision of where we want to be and what God wants for our lives helps narrow down the options that are truly viable for us which makes the decisions we face today easier.  The clearer the vision of what God wants for us the easier it will be for God to direct us.

Now my guess is that most of us have some kind of vision for our lives.  If I were to ask you what kind of family you wanted to have in 5 years – you would have some idea of what you want.  Maybe it is having children or another child or maybe it’s seeing all your children out of the house and off on their own.  It may not be detailed and specific – but you would have a general idea of where you want to be.  You might have a general idea of where you want to be financially or in your career or in a new career but most of us would be able to say something about the vision we have for the future.  The clearer that vision is, the more we will discover God’s will and if the vision we have for the future needs to come into focus there is something we can do about it and the first thing we can do is write the vision down.

Take some time this week to write down where you want to be in the key areas of your life like your marriage or as a parent.  Where do we want to be in our finances or in our faith?  As we being to identify this vision and bring it into focus, the second thing we do is to ask God to give it shape and God can do this through his word.  Last week we looked at how God’s word can help us discover God’s will by showing us principles to follow.   For example in trying to clarify what kind of parent we want to be, we might say that we want to be the kind of parent who helps our children grow up to have a strong faith because a principle of God’s word that we want to hold to is to train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6).

So there is a Godly principle that can shape what kind of parent we want to be which in turn gives direction to the choices we make today.  To train a child in the faith means bringing them to worship on a regular basis and maybe coming to Sunday School and Vacation Bible School.  Maybe it means we start praying together as family when we sit down to dinner – or maybe just making time to sit down to dinner.  It might mean finding ways to serve God together as a family or even think about going on a mission trip together.

So you begin to see the importance of God’s vision for our lives and how it helps us understand the will of God for today.  But it is also important to have a clear vision because that vision keeps us moving in the right direction so we don’t wander away from the will of God.  A compass helps keep us moving in the right direction so we actually get to our destination but the compass will only work if we are willing to keep it in front of us and check it often and the same is true with God’s vision.  We need to keep God’s vision for our lives in front of us and check it often so we don’t get distracted and pulled away into other directions.  There are so many things out there that we could be doing and many different paths we could be taking and a lot of those things are good, some of them very good, but they may not be the best thing for us and so we need to stay true to the vision God has given us.  Let’s look at a story from the Old Testament that teaches us this principles of staying focused on the vision, it is the story of Nehemiah.

To understand the story of Nehemiah we first need to remember some of the history of Israel.  In 586 BC the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians and all of Israel was forced into exile.  The Jewish people were taken away into Babylon where they lived among foreign people for close to 50 years.  Eventually Babylon was overtaken by Persia and the Persian King, Cyrus, allowed some of the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem.  In 538 BC people returned to rebuild the Temple, and in 516 BC the Temple was completed.  People settled into the area around the city of Jerusalem, but there were no city walls so the people were not safe from their enemies.  In 445 BC news of the city walls in ruins comes to Nehemiah and he gets a vision of rebuilding the walls.  That vision leads him to Jerusalem with all the supplies he needs to rebuild the walls and he begins the project.

Now as Nehemiah is rebuilding the walls there are people all around who are threatened by this.  When the people of Israel were in exile the region was inhabited by many foreign nations who were not happy to see Israel returning and fortifying itself as a nation so they began to taunt and harass Nehemiah and his project with hopes of keeping the walls from being built and that is where we pick up the story.  Nehemiah 6:1-4.

So 4 times Sanballat (an enemy) tried to pull Nehemiah away from his work with the hope that if he could pull him away and cause some disruption to the process the entire project might fall apart.  Look at Nehemiah 6:9.  So Sanballat was trying to do anything he could get Nehemiah to focus on something other than the vision God had given him but Nehemiah remained steadfast.  He checked his compass – he went back to his vision which was rebuilding the walls so again and again and again he said to Sanballat, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”

The principle we find here is that if we want to discover God’s will and walk in it then we need to stay focused on the vision God has for our lives and not allow ourselves to be pulled away from it at all.  Nehemiah knew clearly that God’s purpose was for him to rebuild the walls and he remained faithful to the vision.  Whenever someone or something tried to pull him away he reminded himself of the great work he was doing.  This is why clarity of vision is so important, so we don’t get pulled away to other things – no matter how good those things might be – and not arrive at our destination.

Jesus shows us this principle as well.  At the very beginning of His ministry Jesus had great success as a healer, in fact, in Mark 1 it says that the entire town of Capernaum was camped outside Jesus door waiting for him to heal the sick and drive out those possessed by demons, but then look at Mark 1:35-38.  Jesus went off to pray and when he came back he was clear that the vision for his life was not just to heal the sick and drive out demons but to proclaim the message of God’s kingdom.  Jesus checked his compass, he returned to the vision God had given for his life and he used that vision to keep him moving in the will of God.  This is why we need to have clarity about the vision for our own lives.  If we don’t have a clear vision it is too easy to get pulled away to other things.

There are many good things that try to pull us away from what God wants for us.  Many opportunities that come our way are good but if they pull us away from God’s best or God’s desire for our lives – then we need to learn to say no to them.  Think about our children, there are dozens of opportunities for them to be involved in good things: sports, music, hobbies, clubs, dance, drama… the list goes on and on and they are all good – but if we say yes to them all then there will be no time for the things that are important like time together as a family, or time together in worship.  Sometimes we have to say no to some very good things in order to stay focused on the things of God.  We have to keep checking the compass, or looking to the vision, to make sure we are staying on the right path.

Keeping this kind of focus can be difficult because it can call for sacrifice.  The vision we have for our family might mean giving up a job or turning down a promotion because it will pull us away from our children.  At a point in time when my niece and nephew were younger my brother in law quit his job and took a job at his church not only because he heard a call to ministry but because he wanted to get off the corporate fast track and spend more time with his children.

Sometimes the vision we have for our families and finances means we need to downsize our homes and cars so that everything can be re-prioritized in ways that helps us reach our goals and experience the fullness of God’s vision.  There is often sacrifice involved in staying true to the vision God has for us but if we believe the vision of where we want to be and where God wants us to be, then those sacrifices are worth it.

So I would encourage us all this week to identify the vision God has given us for five key areas of our lives: Marriage, Family, Faith, Finances, Job.  We need to begin to write down what that vision is and where we want to be in the future so we can keep that vision before us.  If our vision needs clarity then we need to ask God to give it to us and then spend time thinking about the principles we learn from God that might give some shape to our future.  Then we need to act according our vision.  We might need to say yes to some things and no to some other things to make sure we are going in the right direction and then once we are sure abut the direction we are going and the work we are doing we need to remember and recite the words of Nehemiah.

I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.

Knowing God’s providential will, walking in God’s moral will, asking for directions from those who are where we want to be in life and faith, applying the principles of God’s word and having a clear vision of who God wants us to be are all resources God gives us to discover His personal will for our lives and if nothing else, I hope we will remember this.  God gives us these resources because He wants us to know His will for our lives even more than we do.

Next Steps
Discovery God’s Will ~ Checking the Compass

1.  In a sentence or two, write out what you believe to be God’s vision for these key areas of your life:
• Spiritual Life
• Marriage/Significant Relationships
• Family
• Job/Career
• Finances

If you don’t feel you have a God given vision for each of these areas, then ask God to give you one.  Pray:
Heavenly Father, I want to know Your will.
Please begin to give me a vision of Your will for my life.
I ask this in Jesus name.  AMEN

2.  In what ways are you being distracted from God’s vision?
• What good things are pulling you away?
• What bad things are pulling you away?

3.  In what areas do you need to use the words of Nehemiah (found in Nehemiah 6:3):  “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”

4. What one thing can you do right now to help move you towards God’s vision?

Andy at Israel - Jerusalem

5 days and counting…  

It was 5 months ago that the church surprised me with this trip to Israel and now it is just 5 days away.   There are a lot of emotions I am feeling about this whole experience.  I am excited to be able to see the land where so much history took place and to be able to literally walk in the footsteps of Jesus.   I’m a little nervous about the actual travel and the logistics of things like security, customs, money exchanges and yes, wondering where I will find the closest bathroom.  But most of all as I get ready to leave I am incredibly humble and thankful.   As I talk to many of you, I sense that you are as excited as I am and that outpouring of love and support is simply overwhelming.  For someone who never seems to be at a loss for words… I find myself unable to express the deep love and appreciation I have for all of you who are “with me” on this trip.  I can’t say this enough… THANK YOU.

I’ve been reading the books my sister told me to read about Galilee and Jerusalem and I have been thinking a lot about a single moment in Jesus life.  It is the day Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph riding on a donkey (what we celebrate as Palm Sunday).  I can’t wait to stand in that same place and look over the city of Jerusalem and just reflect on what that city is all about.

As Jesus saw the splendor of the beloved city and heard the crowd cheering him enthusiastically, he became aware of the approaching agony (of the cross), and suddenly tears welled up in his eyes.  “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.”  (from Luke 19:41-42)

What would bring the people of Jerusalem peace was Jesus – and they didn’t see it.  Even though they celebrated Him that day - they didn’t really see Him and the blessing of God’s love and grace He had to offer.  It makes me wonder how many times we see things that could bring us peace and yet we fail to really see it.  Maybe it’s our family or friends; maybe it’s the opportunities God has given us in life or the beauty of the world around us.  Maybe like the crowds in Jerusalem that day, it is still Jesus.   How much of God’s amazing love and grace and peace offered to us in Jesus do we just not see?  How much do we simply take for granted?

As I sail on the sea of Galilee, walk to the top of the Mt. of Beatitudes and stand on a hill overlooking the city of Jerusalem, I hope I don’t miss seeing the things that will bring peace.  I hope that I don't spend so much time looking at all the splendor and the beauty of this "holy" land that I miss seeing Jesus.

Discovering God's Will ~ Unfolding the Map

This month we have been exploring how to discover God’s will for our lives and one of the most comforting things I hope you have heard is that God wants us to know His will even more than we want to know it.  God doesn’t want us walking in darkness struggling to find our way and he doesn’t want us wandering aimlessly through life always asking if we are going in the right direction.  God wants to show us His way and He wants to guide us into His personal will for our lives which is why he has given us different tools and resources so that we can discover it.

The first week we saw how knowing God’s providential will and walking in God’s moral will, can help us know God’s personal will.  Again, the providential will of God are all those things we know God will do because God has said he will do them.  For example, God said he would send the Holy Spirit to help us and guide us and God did.  We don’t have to ask God for his spirit to lead us because he already sent it and God said the spirit would be here when we need it, we just need to open ourselves up and allow the Spirit to speak to us and lead us.

The moral will of God are all the laws and directions God has already given us like the 10 Commandments and the teaching and example of Jesus.  When we follow these directions we put ourselves in a place where God can more easily guide us in personal ways.  So the more we know of God’s will already revealed to us, the more we will be able to see God’s will for our own personal lives.

Last week we learned that another amazing resources God has given us are the people in our lives.  We can turn to those who are where we want to be in life and in faith and simply ask them for help and direction when we are facing a difficult decision.  So many times God speaks through others so we need to be willing to stop and ask for help when we need it.  Honestly, even when we don’t need help and when we are not in a crisis it’s helpful to ask people for guidance and direction so that when the crisis comes and the quick decision needs to be made – we can make them.

Today I want us to turn to another resource God has given us that is vital to knowing His will, in fact for me, it is the primary way I have discovered God’s personal will for my life and that is God’s word.  We have already seen that the Bible is our main source for knowing the providential and moral will of God, but there’s more to the Bible than that because in Hebrews 4:12 it says that God’s word is living and active which means that it has the ability to speak directly to our lives and the decisions we have to make.  God’s word can give clear direction to our lives, but how?

Let’s be clear and understand that while the word of God is powerful and holy, it is not the magic 8 ball.  Remember the magic 8 ball?  You ask it a question and then shake it up, turn it over and it gives you an answer.  This can be fun – but this is not the way to read the Bible.  We don’t lay our question before God and then open the Bible, point and look at where our finger lands and say – this is the answer to my question.  This will be my life verse forever.  (I tried this at our Men’s Bible Study and I pointed to a blank page – what does that mean?)

If this isn’t how to use God’s word, then how do we use it?  Are we supposed to look at our own personal situation and then find the exact parallel in the Bible and then follow what we find?  While this might sound good, that process clearly has its limitations.  First of all, we live in a radically different cultural context than the people of the Bible so the circumstances we face are going to be very different than the circumstances the people in the Bible faced.  And just because God laid out a specific direction for a man or woman generations ago doesn’t mean God wants the very same thing for us.  We are all different and God has different paths for us so to find our exact story in the Bible and use it as a model might not work.  Now if God is asking you to build a gigantic boat and gather 2 of every animal to put in the boat before it rains, then you might find a story that could be helpful, but most of the time, that won’t happen.

So if we don’t look for exact parallels and clear specific answers and directions, then how do we use the Bible as a guide for our lives?  How does this help us understand God’s personal will for our lives?  The answer is to look for the principles we find here and then use those principles to give us direction.   A principle is an unchanging truth.  It’s a truth that can guide our decisions and point us in the right direction because it’s unchanging nature helps us understand how God ordered the world and wants us to live.  If you were with us last week, we looked at the story of Rehoboam found in 1 Kings 12.  In that story we found a principle that can help us learn God’s will when we have to make a decision in a hurry.  Rehoboam had to make a quick decision about what kind of King he was going to be so he did something that we should all do, he… (asked for directions).   The principle we learned is that God can speak to us and give us wisdom and direction if we will ask the right people.

Now this principle isn’t just found in that story, it is a principle we see throughout the Bible.  Look at Proverbs 13:20 – he who walks with the wise grows wise but a companion of fools suffers harm.  Or look at Psalm 1:1-3.  If we want to grow in wisdom then we need to surround ourselves with people who are wise because we will learn from them but if we spend our time with fools, then we end up making foolish decisions and suffer for it.  That is a principle, an unchanging truth that can guide us not only into the right path but God’s specific path for our lives.

There are many principles like this in the Bible and if we can identify them and apply them, then we will begin to see God’s will for our lives.  It’s like a map slowly unfolding before us.  Now many of these principles are clearly stated like what we heard from the book of Proverbs, and they teach us how God has set up this world to work best and how we should live our lives in order to experience God’s best.  Another good example of a clear principle God gives us is again found in Proverbs, Proverbs 22:6.  Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Last week we confirmed 7 youth and one of the reasons we did this and one of the reasons we provide ministry for children and youth is because this principle guides us.  We teach and model and order our lives according to the principles God gives so that our children can see Jesus and come to know God’s truth and His will for their lives.  We have a lot of children here at Faith Church and so this needs to be an ongoing principle that we follow and this principle helps guide our decisions and vision for the future.  

Principles aren’t just clearly stated like the ones in proverbs, however, sometimes they are truths that are implied in teachings we find from cover to cover.  For example, a principle we see throughout the Bible is that God forgives our sin.  Another one is that God loves us unconditionally.  Another is that through giving we receive.  We might not find that clearly stated, but we find many teachings that lead us to these timeless, unchanging truths.

Godly principles can also be found in the stories we read in the Bible.  For example, the story of Noah teaches us that God is faithful to his promises and we are reminded of that every time we see a rainbow.  The story of the little boy who gave Jesus 5 loaves and 2 fish teaches us the principle that when we give all we have to God, God will use it beyond our wildest imagination and do more than we ever thought possible.  That little boy had no idea his lunch would feed the crowds and I can only imagine the thrill he must have felt to see that happen.  You have to wonder what other amazing things that little boy experienced during his life and the transformations that took place because he continued to follow that principle and every day gave his all to Jesus.

So principles are everywhere in the Bible.  They can be found in every story, every teaching, every prayer and psalm and prophetic word and we can use them all to help us make decisions and discover God’s will so it is important for us to know them.  It’s also important to know them because God is clear that His principles don’t always line up with the principles we see in the world, look at Isaiah 55:9.
While we look at life one way, God often sees things very differently so we can’t always use our conventional wisdom to guide our decisions – we need to use God’s wisdom and principles to guide us.  A great example of this has to do with our money.  Many people today are trying to get out of debt.  Maybe we overextended at Christmas and are trying to pay down our credit card bill or maybe we are already thinking about April 15th and wondering where the money will come from to pay our taxes.  Whatever financial situation we are facing today, God has given us a very clear principle in the Bible that does not follow the conventional wisdom of the world.  God says give away what you have and then He will provide all that we need.  Malachi 3:10

So God’s ways are not always our ways.  We might think the wise thing would be to send that 10% to MasterCard or Visa, or pay down our car or house payment, but God says no – give it to him and then trust Him to provide for all we need.  This is why understanding God’s principles is so important.  His ways aren’t always our ways and many times His ways don’t make sense in the world around us, but if we will walk in His ways and trust Him, he will shows us that it works and then he will open up more of his will to us.  

So the more we study the Bible and learn God’s principles, the more we will find that every decision we face and every question we have will find a connection point in Scripture.  We aren’t going to find an exact parallel to our lives or the magic 8 ball type of answer to our question, but we will find the direction we need so that we can discover God’s personal will and the reason I say this with confidence and assurance is because it has been true for me.

Last week I shared that I was given 48 hours to make a major life decision – would I remain the pastor of St. Paul’s in Lewisburg or move here to Faith Church in Bellefonte.  I wasn’t able to talk to the members of my church or even any colleagues of mine, but I did talk to my family and they have always been people who have helped me evaluate situations and they were helpful, but I really wanted God to speak to me to in an objective way and for me that meant God speaking to me through his word.  You will be glad to know I didn’t open the bible and point, but I did ask God to speak through His word and then I just remained open to what I was already reading.  And that’s a key here, if we want God to speak to us through his word then we better be reading his word on a regular basis.  We can’t wait until we need direction on a major life decision until we open God’s word, we need to open it and be reading it on a regular basis because when we are, God will have an easier time leading us to what we need to hear.

As I was struggling to make my decision I was preaching through the beatitudes for Lent and I was on the 2nd beatitude which said, Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.  That was the text I had to preach that Sunday so I was reading it and trying to make some sense out of it but in the back of my mind I was wrestling with my decision.  I wasn’t getting far with my sermon so decided to read this verse in other translation so I picked up the Message and this is what I read: You’re blessed when you feel like you’ve lost what is most dear to you.  Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

I knew immediately that what was most dear to me was my position as pastor in Lewisburg and that God was telling me to let that go so I could be embraced by Him.  The direction of God was so clear that in the moment I read those words I cried because I wasn’t sure I wanted to give up what was most dear to me.  Obviously I did because I am here today and I have felt the embrace of God in many ways since then and I have been blessed.

God gave direction through His word and he can do that for all of us if we are reading and reflecting on it on a regular basis.  In fact, God has promised to guide us through his word in Psalm 119:105.  Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.  God’s word will guide us and direct us and God’s word can reveal His personal will for us if we will read it and then live out and walk in the principles we find.  


Next Steps
Discovering God’s Will – Unfolding the Map

1.  God will have an easier time directing us through His word when we are reading it on a regular basis.  Set aside 5 minutes each day this week to read the Bible.  Consider reading a Psalm or a few verses from Proverbs each day.

2.  Practice identifying God’s principles in the Bible.  Read the following verses and write down the principles found there.  Consider how these truths might direct your life and guide your decisions this week.

• Psalm 1
• Proverbs 3:1-10
• Matthew 5:1-16
• Romans 8:31-39
• Galatians 6:7-10
• John 1:1-5
• John 6:1-13

3.  Identify a time when God gave you clear direction through His word?  Share this experience with one person this week.

Discovering God's Will ~ Asking for Directions

While in seminary I served a church in NC and one day I needed to make a visit to the Greensboro hospital.  This was before GPS and google maps so I got directions, looked at a paper map and headed off.  I was a few blocks from the hospital and could actually see the building when I realized I wasn’t in a lane where I could turn left to get to the hospital, so I missed the turn.  No problem, I thought, I’ll go up a block, turn left and come back down the road that paralleled the road I was on.  So a block later I turned left only to discover that the road parallel to mine was a one way road – in the same direction.  I had no choice, I turned onto that road and kept heading out of town looking for some way to turn around.

The problem now was that I was on a limited access road so there was no place to turn around so I had to keep going, and keep going.  When I finally could pull off I realized there was no easy way to get back to the hospital and I had no idea where I was, so I did what most good men do, I just kept going.  After all, if I keep going I’ll find a sign for the hospital and then just follow the signs - right.  After about 30 minutes I finally recognize where I was, on the complete opposite side of Greensboro where I got on the highway and came back into the city from the other direction.  I finally made it to the hospital - about an hour later than I had planned.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to stop and ask for directions.  I’ll drive around lost for an hour instead of asking for help and yet today we are going to learn that asking for directions is a practice we have to learn if we want to discover God’s will.  Last week we learned that discovering God’s will is a journey that begins by understanding the Providential Will of God and following the Moral Will of God.  The providential will of God is all the things God will do because God said he would do it and the moral will of God are all the commands and directions God has already given us.  So the more we know of God and the more we follow God’s law and direction, the easier it will be for us to find and walk in God’s personal will for us.

Now all of this is a process.  It takes time to understand who God is and learn his ways and it takes time to trust and then follow God’s instructions, so discovering God’s will is a journey and takes time, but if we don’t have a lot of time.  How do we discover God’s will when we are facing a deadline and time is of the essence?

I was given 48 hours to make a major life decision.  I was very happy as the pastor of St. Paul’s UMC in Lewisburg and I had no plans on leaving when I got a phone call on a Sunday night telling me I was to be in State College Monday for a meeting to discuss moving to a new church.  After the meeting I was told it was my decision and I had until noon on Wednesday to decide.  48 hours.  What do we do when we need to know God’s will quickly?  Is there some way we can jumpstart or bypass this process so we can get some clarity on God’s will when we need to know it NOW?

The good news is that there is, but let me be clear, what we are going to talk about today is not to replace growing in our faith and working to understanding and follow the providential and moral will of God.  That process is important and in so many ways it provides the foundation on which we build the rest of our lives, but there are times when we are faced with decisions that need to be made quickly and when that happens, God does not abandon us but provides for us a way for us to discover his will.

To help us understand how to do this, we are going to turn to a story from the history of Israel found in 1 Kings 12.  The context of the story we need to understand is that King Solomon was near the end of his life and while he had started out as a good king, his heart turned away from God and toward the foreign gods of his many wives.  Because of this unfaithfulness, God said that when Solomon died, his son, Rehoboam, would not rule over all of Israel but only over a small portion of it and that a man named Jeroboam would be king over Israel.  Through a prophet, God also made his will known to Jeroboam.  Now this news did not make King Solomon happy so he set out to kill Jeroboam so Jeroboam fled to Egypt until Solomon died.  This is where we pick up the story.  1 Kings 12:1-5

So Rehoboam and all of Israel just assumes that he is going to be king so they go to Shecham to crown him but then Jeroboam shows up.  Now remember, Jeroboam has been told that he is going to rule over Israel when Solomon dies so he and his followers begin to challenge Rehoboam saying, we will make you king and serve you if you will lighten the load your father placed on us.  While Solomon had been a good leader, he was also a hard leader.  He taxed the people heavily and worked them hard in order to build huge building in Jerusalem like the Temple and the people wanted a break.  So Rehoboam had a choice to make.  Will he listen to the people and lighten their load or will he continue to carry out the practices of his father?  Like many of us, Rehoboam had a choice to make and he needed to make it quickly and as we keep reading we will see the principle we need to follow when we need to make a decision quickly.  1 Kings 12:5-7

What Rehoboam did was ask for help.  He asked for directions.  Rehoboam went to the leaders of Israel who had not only given direction to his father Solomon but had also learned from him and remember Solomon was one of the wisest men to ever live.  They had seen Solomon lead well and they had seen his failures so they were in a good position to give sound advice.  They had experience leading a nation and motivating people and they knew firsthand the concerns that the people of Israel had just raised.  So Rehoboam sought wise counsel which is what we need to do when we have a decision to make quickly and we will come back and explore that in moment, but let’s go back to Rehoboam’s story.  1 Kings 12:8-15

Rehoboam had gotten some good advice from the elders in Israel but he didn’t like what he heard about serving the people so he turned to the young men who followed him and served him and asked them what they thought he should do.  Now these men didn’t want to see their leader become a servant because that would mean they would also have to serve, so they told Rehoboam to be harsher than his father, which is what he did.  Rehoboam went back to the people and said, I am not going lighten your load, I am going to make it even harsher, at which point the people revolted and turn away from him to follow Jeroboam which was exactly what God said was going to happen.

Now let’s just step aside here for a second and talk about the providential will of God in this situation.  God had said that Jeroboam was going to lead Israel and that is exactly what happened, but it happened because Rehoboam made a choice to reject the wisdom of the elders.  Maybe you are asking yourself, what if Rehoboam had taken the advice of the elders and become a servant to the people?  Would God’s providential will not have taken place?  I don’t think so because we can’t change the will of God.  God said that Solomon’s son was not going to be king so even if Rehoboam had chosen wisely and been a servant to the people, God’s providential will would still have been accomplished and the kingdom would have been taken away from Rehoboam in some way, but maybe things would have gone better for everyone if he had followed the good advice.  Look at 1 Kings 12:19.

The end result of Rehoboam’s bad decision was internal strife and conflict in Israel.  What would have happened if he had followed the wisdom of the elders and been a servant leader in Israel?  He still may not have been king over all of Israel but maybe things would have been better for everyone.

Now let’s go back to what we see as the key to discovering God’s will quickly which is asking for directions.  There are 5 simple guidelines we need to follow in choosing people to ask.

#1)  Choose people who are where we want to be in life and faith.  
Rehoboam actually got this right.  He first went to the elders in Israel and asked for their counsel.  He went to seasoned leaders who had walked with his father and learned with him and from him.  To get wise counsel about the decisions we have to make it only makes sense to ask people who have had to make those same decisions.  If you want to know how to stay married and work through differences with your spouse ask a couple who has been married for 40 years and not 40 days.  If you want to know the secret to raising solid children, talk to parents whose children you admire.  If you want to know how to walk with God through difficult times, ask someone who has been a follower of Jesus for decades and learn from them.

This really is one of the blessings of the church.  There are people sitting here who have had to make the same decision you are facing today.  Whether it is learning how to survive in your marriage, keeping your family together, overcoming financial setbacks or job loss or fighting through the fear of health concerns or the pain of loss - there are people right here who have faced those same situations and we can learn from one another if we are willing to ask for help.  We need to ask people who are where we want to be in life and in faith.

In Lewisburg we were faced with an opportunity to buy an old school which was a block and a half from our church.  It seemed like the perfect solution to our space problem and while it would have pushed us financially – we trusted God to provide and it was one of the best solutions we could find.  The problem was that the town needed a sealed bid on the building with 10% down in 2 weeks.  We looked at a calendar and realized we could actually do this but only if we held a meeting every night in order to work out all the details.  That time line, however gave us no opportunity to talk or pray as a church about this major decision.  I didn’t know what to do and I needed help so I looked to my brother in law who was working at a larger church that had just gone through a major building expansion.  As a leader, he was where I wanted to be and had all the experience of just going through what we were going to have to go through.  So I called him and got some wise counsel.

I really wanted to move forward and buy the school.  It would have be exciting and a real step of faith but my brother in law said two things that I will never forget.  He said going through the process that quickly did not honor the process and life of the church.  We needed time to really talk and pray about it together.  He was right.  He also said that if you have to work that hard to get it and violate principles that are important to the health of the congregation – then maybe it’s not worth it in the long run.  And then this is what has stuck with me since that day.  He said, besides, if God wants you to have that building there is nothing in the world that will stop you from having it.  In other words – if it was God’s providential will for us to have that building, one way or another we would have the building.  What we needed to do is keep in line with God’s will and respect the health and life of the church.  It was wise counsel and we didn’t buy the building.

So it’s important to choose people who are where we want to be in life and faith because we can learn from them, but we also need to
#2. Choose people who have nothing to lose.  
This was what Rehoboam got wrong.  When Rehoboam asked the young men who followed him what they thought he should do the truth was that they didn’t want him to become a servant leader because they didn’t want to lose their status.  These men were already in positions of power and authority and if Rehoboam gave up some of his power and authority then these young men stood to lose theirs.  People have a hard time giving objective advice if they have a lot to lose.

After I made the decision to come to Faith Church I was talking to some of my leaders in Lewisburg and I told them how God had spoken to me through his word and as I shared this one of the leaders said, well you heard that wrong, that’s not what God was saying.  I appreciated what she said and could see her point, but I also understood that she had something to lose with my decision and wasn’t being objective.  It’s important that we ask people who can be objective and don’t have something to lose or gain.  It’s just human nature for us to give advice to people according to what is going to be good for us so finding faithful objective people is important.

A couple of other things to consider when we are asking for direction and counsel:
#3.) Choose more than one person.  It is always a good idea to get several different sides of an issue, but we have to understand what people’s perspective is when we ask.

#4.) Choose people who know us well and people who don’t know us well.  Again, both sets of eyes can give us perspective.

The most important thing to keep in mind is this:
#5.) Ask with a genuine desire for God to speak through them.  We need to ask God to use the people we choose to share His will with us.  It doesn’t mean we take their words as the word of God, but we need to be open to hearing God through them.

So there are 5 principles we can follow in asking people to give us direction and once we find these people, here are 3 questions we can ask them:

#1.) Are any of my options outside the teaching of scripture?
#2.) What do you think is the wisest thing to do?
#3.) What would you do?  

And very quickly, let’s at least name the reason why we don’t ask people for help, it’s why I didn’t stop and ask for directions on the way to the Greensboro hospital – pride.  We don’t want to look weak.  We don’t want people to think that we don’t have it all together or know what we are doing.  Pride keeps us from asking for direction and if you are saying to yourself, yeah, that true for me, then I hope you will listen to this.  This is a teaching that Rehoboam should have learned from his father because he was the one who said it, Proverbs 16:18,  pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

So God has given us a method for finding his will when we need to know it quickly, he has given us one another.  We need to set aside our pride and learn how to use this resource wisely so we can make decisions that are in line with God’s will.

Next Steps
Discovering God’s Will – Asking for Directions

What decision do you need to make in the next few months?

Who have you already ask for advice and what direction have they given?

Read 1 Kings 12:1-19 and review what we learn here about asking others for advice:
• Choose people who are where we want to be in life and faith
• Choose people who have nothing to lose
• Chose more than one person
• Choose people who know us well and people who don’t

After some thought and reflection, who do you need to turn to now for wise counsel and direction?

Ask them these three questions:
1. Do any of my options conflict with scripture?
2. What do you think is the wisest thing to do?
3. What would you do?

And don’t forget:  Ask God to show you His will through those you are asking for directions!

For Further Study: Proverbs 1:5, 11:14, 12:15, 13:10, 15:22

Andy at Israel - Tiberias

While in Israel we are scheduled to visit 33 sites in 7 days and as I look at the list I find myself drawn to the first 2 days when we will be in Tiberias.  

Tiberias

These days we will be sailing on the Sea of Galilee...

Sea of Galilee

and walking up to the place where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.   

Location of Jesus Sermon on the Mount

This is all in northern Galilee miles away from the city of Jerusalem.   While there is so much rich history in Jerusalem, it is this part of northern Galilee that I am most excited about and I have been wondering why.  

As I shared this observation with my sister she said, “That makes perfect sense to me.   You are not a city person.”  And she’s right, I’m not, but I think it goes deeper than that.  Most of the times and places where I felt the presence of God  most personally and powerfully have been in remote areas.  I grew up along the shoreline of Connecticut so water and beaches have always been special places for me.  

My summer working in Yellowstone National Park and the times I have spent in the mountains of Tennessee have been times and places where God has spoken to me and refreshed my spirit.  

Maybe I am most excited about Tiberius and Capernaum because I am hoping (and longing) for God to speak to me along the shores and in the mountains once more.

along the shores of Galilee

Where has God spoken to you?  What locations and settings seem to be the places where you sense God's presence, grace and power?  

I am also reminded that Jesus chose Capernaum as his home.  Of all the places Jesus could have lived on this planet – he chose Capernaum and while there were probably many strategic reasons for this (like being a religious community open to new ideas and a center of business activity that could help spread the message of a new preacher),  I also think Jesus just liked it.  I think Jesus liked seeing the water and the mountains.  I think he liked hearing the waves lapping along the shore and the birds in the air.  I think he liked being able to climb the mountains and hear the wind and feel close to His father.  

Jesus chose this area for many reasons and I’m excited to visit and see for myself what made this place, this home, His home, so special.  

Discovering God's Will ~ The Adventure Begins

The decisions we make shape our lives.  Our choice to get married or stay single, go to college or join the military, have a child or more than one child all gives shape to our lives.  The careers we choose, the jobs we take, the jobs we quit, how much money to save and give and spend, whether or not I will go to church or join a small group, start exercising and stop eating potato chips… all these decisions and countless more shape who we are.  In some sense, every decision we have made – good and bad – has brought us to where we are today and while we often want to blame someone else for how we got here, like it’s my parents fault or my teachers fault or my spouses fault, when it comes right down to it, we are the ones who made the decision that have shaped us.

I hope that each of us can look back on some good decisions we have made and be thankful.  For me, choosing to go to Michigan State University was a good decision and while part of my decision going there was to be part of the Spartan Marching Band (which just appeared in the Rose Bowl and cheered the Spartans on to victory – just had to work that in) what God wanted for me in East Lansing was to find him and that’s what happened and the reason it happened was because I didn’t make the marching band.  But that is a whole other story.

Another good decision I made was to move to South Bend Indiana after college and live close to my sister and brother-in-law.  Because of that decision I got to spend a lot of time with my niece and nephew and that time and those relationships have been a blessing to me.  Going to seminary was a good decision and most days becoming a local pastor seems like it was a good choice – so there have been many decisions that in positive ways have helped make me who I am today.  But there other choices I made and we all have made, that maybe were not so good.   I’m sure we can all look back and say, if I were doing it all over again – I would do things differently.  In my own life, there have been a few of those moments and while I might regret those choices I probably learned something from them and I know God used them to shape my life.

So we can all look back on the good and bad choices we have made and can see how God has used them in our lives, but my desire is to make more good choices in the future.  I want to learn how to make decisions that are in line with God’s will and I hope that is part of the reason you are here today as well, to learn how to discover the process of finding God’s will.  That is what this series is about – the process we go through to find God’s will.  If came today hoping to get an answer to God’s will for your life by the time you leave here this morning, I’m afraid you might be disappointed.  It’s not that God can’t speak that clearly to you today, but what I hope happens today is that we begin the adventure of discovering God’s will and that happens by first understanding that God wants to give us his will.  God wants to guide and direct us in life.

God is our creator and God loves us unconditionally so as a loving parent God wants nothing more than to direct our path and lead us into the future He has for us.  This is what God wants to do and this is what God does.  In fact God promises to do this in Proverbs 3:6b  God will make your paths straight.  Another way of saying this is that God will make our future clear.  He will make obvious to us the direction we should go in life – he will make his will known but first we have to understand what we mean by the God’s will.  In the Bible there are three different types of God’s will presented:
• The Providential Will of God,  
• The Moral Will of God 
• The Personal Will of God 
and if we want to know the person will of God we have to first understand and follow the other two.  So let’s start there

The providential will of God are those thing God will do just because God is God and God has promised to do it.  An example can be found in Galatians 4:5-6.  So it was always God’s will to send a Messiah to redeem the world.  For generations, God’s people  may have prayed for God to hurry and send him, but they didn’t have to ask God if he would send one because God said he would do it.  It was always part of God’s will

Likewise, today we don’t have to pray and ask God if Christ will come again because God it is part of God’s will that he Christ will return.  All through the book of Revelation God makes clear that Christ will return and when he does all people will give an account of their lives.  That final judgment is another part of God’s providential will and while we may not like that it is coming, there is no avoiding it.  It is part of God’s will.

It’s helpful for us to understand the providential will of God because the more we understand who God is and what God has done in the world and what God’s plans are for the future – the more we can live our lives in line with that will.  For example, think about Mary and Joseph.  They knew that God was going to send a Messiah so when God came to them and said, I’m going to bring the Messiah into the world through you, they at least knew what he was talking about and could line themselves up with God’s will.  So it is important for us know God’s providential will so that we can be part of what God is doing and not stand against it.  So we need to ask ourselves, what is God’s will for the world?  How has God moved in the past and what has God promised for the future?  What are the foundational truths about God that will never change and how do these things become the foundation of our faith?  The more we know these things of God the more we will be able to listen and follow God when He speaks.

We not only need to know the providential will of God but we need to know the Moral Will of God and this is all the commands and directions God has already given us and because God has already made these things clear to us we really don’t need to ask him about it.  For example, I don’t have to ask God if it is ok to murder my neighbor or commit adultery or steal because God already made his will known about those things a long time ago in the 10 commandments.  And we don’t have to ask God if it is ok to lie to the government or disregard the new laws of 2014 that we might not like because according to 1 Peter 2:13-14 we are to follow the laws of our government whether we like them or not.

There are many moral laws that God has given that can be used to help guide our lives.  For example, God has told us how to handle our money.  God is clear that we shouldn’t go into debt and live beyond our means.  God makes clear that we should not only pay our taxes but we should tithe and give to God want belongs to God.  God has also given us clear instructions on how to treat one another in our families saying wives submit to your husbands and husbands love your wives sacrificially.  In Colossians 3 God also says, children obey your parents and parents don’t provoke your children to anger or frustrate.  We really don’t have to ask God how we need to be faithful in our family relationships because he has already told us and the more we follow God’s moral the more we will be lead into God’s personal will for our lives.

So now let’s talk about the Personal Will of God.  God does have a unique and personal will for each of us.  The Bible is clear that God has created us and chosen us and given us unique gifts of his spirit to accomplish more than we ever thought possible.  Through the prophet Jeremiah God says, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and give you a future with hope.  So God does have a plan for our lives, he has a personal will for each of us but that will is only found when we are willing to understand God’s providential will and follow God’s moral will.

Think of it this way, the providential and moral will of God is the foundation on which God’s personal will for our lives is built or you could say it is the compass that helps us find true north which then helps us find every other direction in this world.  So if we want to know God’s will for our lives, if we want to know the direction our path should take then the adventure begins by learning and following God’s will that He has already made known.  This is probably the most important lesson we will learn through this series and should be something we remember all through life.

The more familiar we are with the providential will of God
 and the more obedient we are to the moral will of God,
the easier it will be for us to discover the personal will of God.

This is where our journey of discovery begins, by learning and following the part of God’s will that has already been revealed, but then we need to take the next step and understand that God doesn’t give us direction for our consideration.  God doesn’t reveal his will for us so we can think about it and add it to a list of possibilities we can choose from.  God reveals his personal will to us because he wants us, even expects us, to follow it.  Andy Stanley says, God does not give us direction for our consideration but for our participation.  So from the beginning we have to be willing to say to God that we will follow his will for our lives if he will give it to us.  And we can’t fool God in this because God knows our heart.  God knows how serious we are He won’t reveal His will until we are ready and willing to follow it.  This is made clear to us if we will go back and look at Proverbs 3:5-6.

Look carefully at what it says here, trust the lord with ALL your heart.  It doesn’t say trust God with part of our heart or half or it but with all of it and in ALL our ways acknowledge God.  The word acknowledge here doesn’t mean to just see or it consider it, it implies that we are focused on it with the intent of following it.  IN fact many translations say, in all your ways SUBMIT to God and he will make your path straight.  So the key for us is to surrender ourselves to the part of God’s will that we already know, his providential and moral will,  and follow it so God can lead us from there.  The more we trust and follow and submit to God – the more God can and will lead us into the future.

So discovering God’s personal will begins by understanding God’s providential will and following God’s moral will.  God’s promise is that if we will do this, he will lead us.  .    

In all our ways submit to Him and He will make our path straight

Let the Adventure Begin.


Next Steps
Discovering God’s Will ~ The Adventure Begins

The more familiar we are with the providential will of God and the more obedient we are to the moral will of God,
the easier it will be to discover the personal will of God.

1.  The providential will of God are all the things God will do because God has promised to do them.  For example, it is God’s will that Christ will come again and that all people will be judged.  It is also Gods will to love and forgive us when we turn to him.
• Write out what you know about the providential will of God.  What has God promised to do today and into the future?
• Make a list of the top qualities of God’s character that help you trust Him and make you want to seek His will.

2. The moral will of God are all the commands and directions God has already given us.
• Write out what you know to be God’s moral will for our lives.  A good place to start is the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20) & God’s will for families (Colossians 3).
• What part of God’s moral law are you violating today?
• Who can help you follow these laws so you can learn more of God’s personal will?

3. The personal will of God is God’s unique plan for your life.
• Do you want to know God’s will for consideration or for participation?
• Memorize Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart 

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge Him, 

and He will make your paths straight.  

Andy at Israel - Where we will stay vs. Where Jesus stayed.

While in Israel, we will be staying at two different hotels.  

Royal Plaza Hotel in Tiberias

Olive Tree Hotel in Jerusalem

Both of them look amazing and quite luxurious and I will be very happy to stay there, but I can't help think how vastly different they are from the kinds of places Jesus stayed while He was in these places.  It's not recorded that Jesus ever had his own home or ever stayed at an Inn (not even on the night he was born!).  Instead Jesus stayed at the homes of friends, spent nights in the wilderness and even slept in the back of a boat on the Sea of Galilee (not to mention a stable and manger).  

While we often talk about walking in the footsteps of Jesus, do we really want to walk and live among the poor like Jesus did?  Do I?  Would I still be taking this trip if I was going to be sleeping in stables and in the back of fishing boats?  

Jesus gave up the throne room of heaven to come to earth.  He gave up more splendor and glory than these two hotels combined to take on our flesh and walk among those who are poor and in need.  I hope I don't forget that as I enjoy the beauty and elegance of these places.  

~Andy