Another word from Sunday's message...

I wanted to post an email I received from one of our men, Tom Riordan, regarding Sunday's message. It is a word for the body, and worth posting separately...

First, the “Heroes” series was outstanding! It nourished, encouraged, and challenged my spirit.

“Dreams” was a special blessing, and it stirred in me certain reflections I'd like to share.

When I was in my early twenties I spent most of my summers backpacking in the Rockies. One summer my brother, a friend, and I traveled into Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. Midst our explorations we came upon a site called “Parker Ridge.” It was a 9000 foot high mountain which was popular with tourists and hikers because of the spectacular views it gave from its summit. It overlooked the Athabasca Valley, at the head of which was the massive, Athabasca Glacier, a giant, streaked, tongue of ancient ice that curled and wrapped and ground around and over the jagged-Canadian mountain peaks.

The trail leading up the mountain side was a long arduous switch back that gradually made its way up above the tree line to the barren summit. Along the trail there were numerous wooden benches where hikers could pause to rest and catch their breath.

It was interesting to watch other hikers as they climbed towards the top. We all started off full of energy and enthusiasm with our common goal firmly set before us... the summit of Parker Ridge and that glorious vista!

But the hike was difficult. It was hot, and the grade of the pathway was often steep. Soon ones' energy level was drained and enthusiasm was sapped. So often when one of those frequent rest stops showed up, and a party of hikers paused to rest, some of them would decide that they'd had enough. The journey was too long, too hard, too much work. They'd wait at the rest area while their party continued up the trail. They'd rejoin them on the way down. As a result they never made it all the way to the top. They were content to stay where they were and let their companions continue on. Instead of stopping to rest, they stopped and camped. Instead of being renewed they became complacent.

Because of Who God is; because He is in His very essence: LOVE, all that He does and all that He allows in our lives is for His glory and our good... our “perfect good.” His Kingdom, His DREAM for us is His “perfect good” established in our daily lives. But we have a tendency to settle for second best. He has a vision, a DREAM that we should have “life and have it in super-abundance,” but too often we settle for something “else.” We settle for some counterfeit or perversion of what He has promised. His DREAM, His purpose for us is that we should be filled with His JOY and that His JOY in us would “overflow.” He also purposes that we should have “Peace that surpasses understanding.” But the fulfillment of His DREAM for our lives doesn't come without some effort on our part. We need to “pick up our pallet and walk” at His command. To have Life in superabundance we must “listen to His voice” and follow Him. His Joy comes when we obey His commandments and we love one another as He has loved us. And His Peace comes when we are willing to surrender and trust Him entirely.

It's not always easy. Sometimes, like the hikers on the path up Parkers Ridge, we get tired. We get discouraged. We are disappointed by someone or something, or the heat of the journey drains us of our strength and energy and enthusiasm. We find some “comfortable” place to park ourselves and we lose sight of the goal, the purpose for which God created us and defeated Satan to ensure that we could possess it. Instead of God's DREAM, we settle for Satan's nightmare.

Sometimes we slap on a plastic smile and play the part of being a “joy-filled, victorious, Christian,” but inside there's still a misery because there's unforgiveness in our hearts, unconfessed sin on our lives, or our “love” is self-satisfying rather than sacrificial.

Sometimes we are deceived into thinking that we don't deserve God's BEST. We've committed some sin or our past is something we are so ashamed of that Satan has us believing that God's blessing, His favor, His abundance, His Joy and Peace are for the “other guy.”

Whatever the reason, whatever the deception, whatever the excuse, we allow it to cloud our vision and be dissuaded from the DREAM, the goal, the purpose, pursuing the summit of God's PERFECT Will for us and experiencing the BLESSING which “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

For myself, my family, my Pastors, everyone in the Journey and everyone I meet, I want to encourage to put away the excuses, rebuke the deceptions and lies, and get off our benches, catch a fresh VISION, a renewed DREAM, and get back on the path to the summit of God's BEST.”Focusing on one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. (Let's) press on to reach the end...for which God in Christ Jesus is calling us.”

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THANK YOU, Tom, for a great addendum to the word from Sunday - a fantastic word-picture... May all the members of The Journey receive this...