“I’m all in!” … a move in poker that either doubles you up or puts you out of the game.

Is it ever a wise move to “Bet the farm” … to go “All in”?

As another fall begins, I am ready to “Bet the Farm” … to go “All in” … to RISK it all!

I am convinced that God wants to do Something BIG in this little corner of His Kingdom called Creekside … and for the coming year beginning NOW I  want to be willing to really risk it all for Him and be a part of what He is going to do.

I’m not sure what the year ahead will look like … but I’m sure that it will be a terrifying – exciting – liberating – crazy – white-knuckle of a ride.

JOIN ME IN THE JOURNEY

If you are already a part of the Creekside family, my journey will be yours too.

If you live in the Contra Costa area and would like to live a life filled with purpose and influence with Jesus, I invite you to join us in the adventure … call me at 925-240-7144 and let’s get started.

If you live outside of the bay area of northern California, would you please pray for us … that we might discover the Something BIG that God wants to do through us.

“Bet the farm” … “I’m all in” … This is crazy!!! – But then, weren’t most of Jesus’ followers a little crazy?

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he cose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  Ephesians 1:3-4

OBSERVATION:

God deserves praise … worship/recognition/rememberance/celebration/given glory

He has blessed us … not because we earned it or deserved it … but just because that’s the kind of God He is.

Do I realize HOW MUCH God has blessed me?

He has blessed “US” … both Jews and Gentiles who were part of that church in Ephesus.  The Jews already knew they were blessed – but not the Gentiles.  God has blessed ALL of us.

He has chosen us to be HOLY and BLAMELESS … He hasn’t “just” chosen me to be saved, He has chosen me to be HOLY (without blame)

APPLICATION:

God deserves PRAISE: Today, I choose to give Him more PRAISE … recognize Him more in my life … realize that He is the One who is bringing all the great things that are comin into my life and across my path.

He has BLESSED us with every spiritual blessing: As I praise God today … I also choose to be more lavish/generous in telling others how great He is and giving Him the credit for the blessings in my life

Thank God His blessings aren’t “just” temporary.  They are in heavenly realms that keep these blessings from becoming old, worn out, used up, out of fashion, or unnecessary anymore.

My dog know blessings … but they are temporary (fed, let outside/inside, petted, groomed) – I want to live at a different level with my God!  He has blessed me with SPIRITUAL blessings!

Chosen to be HOLY and BLAMELESS: There’s obviously still some work to be done there.

PRAYER:

“Lord God … I PRAISE YOU!  I begin my morning by lifting You up, in my heart, to Your proper place as God above all.  Today I want to live my life as an effort to lift You up among those you bring across my path.  You have blessed me!  May I be a blessing!

Lord, I long to be the holy and blameless one you have called me to be.  Lord, today I yield my spirit to Your Spirit.  Refiner’s fire … purify my heart today.  I long to be Holy and Blameless … purify me.”

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.                          Galatians 6:14

OBSERVATION:

“Boast in the Cross” – What a cool oxymoron!  The cross had been designed to be a place of humiliation and shame.

It would make more sense to “boast in what I can do” … but the reality is that I can’t do anything on my own.  It’s not about MY performance.

When I am dead to the world, the world can’t have any influence over me.

APPLICATION:

I need to remember that even following Christ really isn’t about me and what I do.

I need to day-by-day (and minute-by-minute) remain dead to the world and focus on Christ rather than being hung up on things like … how close I am to God, what others think about me (good and/or bad), my dream for my next toy, and my desire for fun and comfort.

PRAYER:

“Lord, help me keep my eyes on You.  Remembering and keeping focused on what you did on the cross to “justify” me, may I keep my full attention on you and may my passion be about what you want to do in and through me and not on things in life that really don’t matter.”

Stand in the river?  … With the ark of the covenant? … Are you CRAZY?

The ark of the covenant was to be treated with great care.  It wasn’t something to be carried into the middle of a river that was at flood stage!  What if they dropped it?

God was asking the Israelites to do something CRAZY.  To move into the Promised Land, they would have to trust Him again and continue to follow His plan for them.  Some of the group had probably already engineered a bridge in their mind … but God was asking them to trust Him and move into the middle of the river; allowing Him to stop the flowing water.

How CRAZY!

What CRAZY thing is God asking you to do right now?  If nothing comes to mind, maybe you’re not listening well enough.  God always seems to be asking His people to trust Him and do CRAZY things.

If you have something CRAZY that you think God is asking you to do … would you be bold enough to post it here?  I would love to join you in praying about this!

God is so generous! He has told Joshua to trust Him and as Joshua takes a step of faith … God encourages him all the way. God helped the people of Israel to give him their full allegiance like they had with Moses. God provided Rahab in Jericho to hide the spies. And now, God shares with Joshua that He is about to show the whole nation that He is with Joshua in a very special way.

God always wants to encourage us and help us along in our faith, but sometimes we have closed our ears to His encouragement. God uses hundreds of different ways to encourage us. Sometimes His encouragement comes in the form of a memory He sends across our mind, other times it is through the words of one of our friends, it can be through the hug of our child, or a quiet assurance that He is with us even during a stormy season. God has been especially encouraging to me lately as I have been spending time with Him in a quiet place reading through Joshua’s adventure.

God’s en-couragement is His gift to us that is designed to fills us with courage and allow us to boldly step out in faith.

How has God been encouraging you lately? In what form is His encouragement coming?

Rahab YIELDED to God. She put herself (and her family) at risk when she chose to protect the spies, but she decided quickly that this was the right option for her. Rahab lived in a land that didn’t know or worship the living God and instead, like their neighbors in the land of Canaan, probably worshipped the fertility gods of Baal and Ashtoreth.

But, Rahab had heard about what the God of the Israelites was doing. She had heard about Him parting the Red Sea. She had heard about how He had gone before them into battle. As she got this information, she put her faith into God.

As we learn from Rahab, faith is definitely more than “just” believing. The whole town of Jericho believed that God was great … but it only filled them with fear. Rahab chose to act on her belief and put her trust in the living God. Whenever we encounter God we can either ignore Him, try to run away from Him, or YIELD to Him. Rahab chose to YIELD. She put her TRUST in the God who would save her and chose to hide the spies.

YIELDING to God wasn’t easy for Rahab, but it was the right choice.

YIELDING to God probably isn’t easy for you either.

For you, what is the most challenging thing about YIELDING to God?

Encouragement makes all the difference!

Joshua was about to take on the biggest leadership adventure of his life as he took over for Moses and led the people into the Promised Land.  There would be battles and struggles in front of him, but God had promised that He would be with him and that everywhere Joshua went, he would be walking in land that He had already given to him.  Still, Joshua was overwhelmed.

God knew that Joshua was stressed and in need of encouragement, so in His generosity, God encouraged Him.  In fact, He used the people of Israel to build him up.

When Joshua told the nation to get ready to move into the Promised Land in three days; the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh who planned to settle east of the Jordan River (where they were right now) promised to join the rest of the nation in the difficult job of possessing their portions of the land to settle in before they went back and settled themselves on the other side of the Jordan River.  They gave their allegiance to God and to His leader, Joshua.  Then they reminded Joshua to be strong and courageous!

God used His people to encourage Joshua.

Has God encouraged you lately as you continue to Explore Faith in this 40 Day Creekside Journey?

Share with us … How has God encouraged you this last week to keep you following Him?

Share your story here about how God has encouraged you this last week.  As you do this, you’ll be an encouragement to the rest of us!

God had promised the Israelites a real land with real boundaries. In a world with lots of ambiguity, it’s good to know that when God gives us a promise He delivers.

The sad thing about this story that we can’t see until we finish it is that even though God had promised them the land that extended all the way to the Euphrates, they never went far enough to possess the land He had promised them. They went part way and then they quit. They never got to the Euphrates River. They didn’t get all that God had to give them. They missed out because they either didn’t trust God’s promise or they just got too lazy or satisfied with where they were.

At Creekside, we want to help everyone get better connected to God. Our prayer is that everyone, those who are brand new to following Jesus as well as those who have been devoted to Him for years, will daily discover a greater hunger for reading God’s Word for all that it’s worth. This Sunday, as we begin our “Explore Faith” series, we will be learning that our depth in God’s Word determines the depth of our courage.

So, can you help me prepare for this weekend’s messages by responding back on this blog? Please answer one of two questions … or both if you’re up for it.
1. What makes reading the Bible difficult for you?
2. What has helped you develop a deeper enjoyment and appreciation for spending time daily in God’s Word?

Thanks for you help … and I’ll see you Sunday morning at Creekside.

God had given the whole land as a promise to the Israelites, but they could only posses what they claimed by walking forward with Him. As we’ll learn at Creekside in the coming weeks of our “Explore Faith” series, Joshua and the nation of Israel faced great opposition as they moved forward and they would need to stay determined as they followed God.

Surely God could have removed all opposition and eliminated their enemies making Joshua’s entry into the Promised Land free of all strife. But, God was looking to form a partnership with Israel. He wanted them to follow Him daily and step-by-step. God was going to allow them to watch Him accomplish great things in their midst.

Moving into the Promised Land would take EFFORT. Pressing on in spite of opposition would be a faith stretching exercise to say the least. The challenge ahead was definitely NOT for those were content with life in Egypt.

Am I willing to follow God? Will I trust Him enough to keep moving forward when life becomes difficult? Like Joshua, do I know Him well enough to trust His promises even when it seems like the opposition I’m facing is too great?

How do I develop a faith like this? Join us this weekend at Creekside as we “Explore Faith” and discover how to really get CONNECTED to God.

Moses, who exemplified the Law of God, had started the nation of Israel on their journey through the wilderness, but he would not be the one to lead them into the Promised Land. Instead Joshua, (whose Hebrew name interestingly enough is translated “Jesus” in the Greek) who had spent most of his life as Moses’ assistant, would be the one to lead God’s people into the land of promise and rest. But, before Joshua could lead the nation, God would have to prepare him for this overwhelming task.

Actually though, God had been preparing Joshua for years before this moment in history. As Moses’ aide, God had been getting Joshua ready for the new responsibility long before Joshua found out about his new commission. God is much more intentional and creative than we often give Him credit.

Could it be that right now God is preparing YOU for something incredible that He wants you to do in the next chapter of your life? Are you open to His season of training?

Maybe, this crazy, stretching time of life that He is allowing you to go through is getting you ready for something incredible that is just around the corner.

How is God at work in your life right now?