Tuesday, December 4, 2012

I'm Here!


Most people know the story in the bible about Moses leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt from slavery through the Red Sea where the waters were miraculously parted by the hand of God.   It was an event celebrated to this day by a nation and Christian culture.  What so many don’t know is the importance of the events that took place after.  Moses led the people out of bondage knowing that God had given them a promise to be free in a plush and fruitful land, the land flowing with milk and honey.  The question of entering the Promiseland wasn’t a matter of how, or what or where.  God had already informed their leader of the vital information they needed to obtain what God had already promised them.  It was a matter of when.  As a mass group of people who had experienced bondage, they began to witness some of history’s most memorable phenomenon’s.  There mistake was their disbelief as a community.

There was one man, who came out of Egypt with the millions, who heard the promise, who saw the fruit of the promise and who committed his entire being to obtain what was promised to him.  His name was Caleb.  Caleb was one of the 12 spies sent to the land of Canaan to spy out the land that God had promised them.  Caleb and Joshua were the only two people out of a mass of million who not only believed, but knew they would live in the land flowing with milk and honey.  When they spied out the land they saw that it was just as God said it was.  It was a plush and productive terrain.  They saw exactly what the other 10 spies saw; fruitfulness, riches, and giants.  The difference between these two and the other 10 was not just what THEY saw but, but in what they HEARD.  The 10 saw giants, the two saw giant fruit.  The 10 heard discouragement, the 2 heard the promise.  All 12 reported to Moses and the people and the people heard the 10.  They became discouraged and believed a bad report and cried out in fear and discontent.  They forgot the miracles of God when he parted the Red Sea, when He rained down manna from Heaven, when He led them under the cooling clouds by day and the warming fire by night. 

But there was something inside Caleb that made him great.  (I thank God for great men and women in history who have set the highest bar of example.) Caleb would NOT let go of what was promised to him.  NONE of the Hebrew people asked for the Promiseland and all of the wonderful blessings they received.  They had only asked to be free from bondage.  God gave them what they had asked for and so much more.  But only Caleb had the heart to receive it.  While Caleb was stuck with his people in the wilderness, he began to train for the day he would obtain his promise.  And 40 years later, after spying out the land that was promised to him, Caleb entered into the land flowing with milk and honey.  As promised by God, Joshua and Caleb were the only two from the original generation of slaves who entered into the promise.

I want to be like Caleb.  I was sitting outside this morning looking to the east and watching for the sunrise.  I began to think about the fruit that Joshua and Caleb brought back from Canaan.  The grapes were so massive, that they had to hang the bunch on a branch and carry it back by two.  Apparently, one grape alone could feed four. Can you imagine such a thing? Can you imagine how history would have been different if all 10 spies believed and hoped like Caleb? Life would have been different. 
So often we look back on our past and wonder what it would have been like if we would had made the OTHER choice.  Well duh!  Things would have been different.  I made so many choices that changed my life.  Some good.  Some bad.  Some good that turned out to be bad.  Some bad that turned out to be  good!  Haven’t we all?  But for as long as I could remember I had dreams and desires that I never gave up on.  I just placed them in my future where I knew I would be getting to one day.  I had made some decisions in my life that were worth altering my life for at the time and I am so glad that I did.

But as I come to this point in my life, a point where I have completed my training in the wilderness like Caleb, I see the Promiseland in my horizon.  I see a land flowing with milk and honey.  Sam Chand said, “To get to the milk and honey, you have to go through the “stuff and sting!”  Bees will sting and cows, besides making milk also make, well… “stuff.”  Sometimes you get stung and step in stuff! I have had my fill of stings and stuff, and I am ready for the milk and honey!  I’d also like to have some of those huge grapes too!  I’m well on my way to my personal Promiseland.  I am so excited of my future that is at hand!  If I ever faced “giants” or obstacles before, it’s ok.  I have defeated them before, I will defeat them some more!  I’m immune to the “sting” and I learned how to walk around the “stuff!” I hope you will join me in my adventures!

I would like to share with you my trials and errors, my joys and sunshine, my heart and my soul.  I find myself repeating so many of my stories to so many people and I realized; after being inspired by one of my favorite “swordsmen” who when he speaks, it’s as if honey drips from his lips; that I must buckle down and write! Just to give you an idea of what to expect in my future writings, you’ll often find that I am very candid, always transparent, and brave to speak the truth.  You will find that I often speak of faith, the bible and God.  Please know that this is no way intended to push my faith on anyone, but I do ask that you understand that my faith is the center of life.  I don’t have a need to constantly try and convince people about my faith, nor do I constantly try to deny it.  I simply live life day by day confident in who I am and what I believe.  Sometimes it looks spectacular and sometimes it looks like hell.  The bottom line is, we’re in this life together and I for one love it and I love you!
Thanks for reading!
xoxo

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