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Friday, August 19, 2011

I Am The Hope, You Are The Hopeless

First off, I want to apologize.  At the beginning of this summer I had this great vision to blog each weekend about my week and some of the ways that I saw God move in the campers and in the staff and some of the awesome stories, but as it turns out, and as you can see...yeah, that didn't happen.  So my deepest regrets.  I do wish that I had had more time during the weekends to connect with each and every single one of you through my blogs and let you know how my summer was going, but alas, weekends are just about as busy as the weekdays are.  You wanna know about camp?  Talk to me.  End of story.


Moving on.

Today, I wasn't feeling very well.  I was feeling pretty achey, and I felt a fever coming on.  Not good.  After I ran my errands this morning, I took a little break after lunch and just sat and read all afternoon.  I had actually just finished up a conversation with one of my friends about wanting to read more, and so seeing the opportunity, I took it.  At first, I started out reading my summer reading assignment for college ("Freedom Writer's Diary") and after an hour or so of that, I switched over to a book that I've been going through again called, "Relationships", by Dr. Les and Leslie Parrott.  Such a good book about Godly, wholesome relationships.  If you're looking to pick one up, let it be that book.  I had been reading for about 2 and a half hours by now and my eyes were feeling pretty tired, but I still wanted to read the Bible and spend time with God.  So instead of reading the Bible, I whipped out my iPhone and quickly downloaded the latest podcast from Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley (Francis Chan's church, for those of you who know) and decided to listen to The Word instead of read it.  Not quite the same thing, but pretty close.

Today, Josh Walker was talking about Deuteronomy and the last things that Moses said to Israel before departing from them.  As he began retelling the story of Moses, much like a narrative, I began to think back over the stories that I had heard about Israel from going to a Christian elementary school.  The one that stuck out in my mind--and the speaker brought it to mind as well--was when the twelve men were sent out initially to scout out the Promised Land and they came back with huge, huge clusters of grapes (Nmb. 13:23; 26-31) as evidence that the land was what God had promised them.  God had promised them a land "flowing with milk and honey".  You would've thought that seeing the huge bounty of grapes brought back from Caanan would've sparked hope and excitement.  After finally reaching the Promised Land after such a long time of traveling you would've thought that the people would've completely ignored the grapes and just went barging in ahead, right?  I mean, let's translate this to a modern-day story.  I remember days of high school gym class when we had to run a mile.  Now personally, I hate running and I couldn't wait until that mile was over.  Nearing the end my spit and phlegm would be collecting in my throat and my mouth would be hanging wide open, panting and drawing in the air to replenish my burning lungs.  The best part was, though, after running I would always make a beeline for the water fountain, yearning to ease my cracked throat and dry mouth.  Coming back to the Israelites, you would've thought that after wandering around they would be so ready to settle down no matter where it was.  Much like I made a beeline to the fountain, they would be ready to make camp and start living, right?

Wrong.
Even after seeing that huge cluster of grapes and the bounty that the men of Israel came back with, they still didn't see the blessing of God hit them right in the face.  They had no hope.  They had no faith in Him.  Where was there trust?  Numbers goes on to say, "The men who had gone up with him said, 'We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are.'  And they spread among the Israelites a ad report about the land where they had explored." 
As I sat there thinking of these things, my mind wandered to an ever-familiar passage from John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches."  How does this relate to the story of the Israelites?
What do grapes grow on?
Vines, excatly.
The Israelites saw fear and opposition where God wanted them to see hope.  In John, Christ beautifully paints a picture of Himself as the vine and us, his Church, the body of Christ, as the branches.  The Israelites could've looked at that vine and see God's hand at work.  They could've seen the blessings that God was going to pour out on them and the plans he had for them.  Instead, they chose to see the bad.  They saw the giants and the opposition.  They saw things that would stand in their way and got afraid.  They forgot Who they had behind them and the Strength they had within them.
He was the vine of grapes that day to the Israelites beckoning them forward to take the Promised Land as He was giving it to them, yet they were too blind to see Him.
He is our hope.  He is our salvation.  He is our strength.  Yet so often, the circumstances around us, the temptations that try to bring us down, the whispered attacks and lies of the devil himself try to drown out that hope.  They try to grab our attention and take it off of Christ and to instead focus our attention on ourselves and our own weakness.  But that's the thing, when we're focusing on ourselves and the things happening around us we lose the strength we have in Christ.  As imperfect, sinful humans we are weak.  It's when we keep our eyes solely fixated on Him that we have strength to conquer the day's challenges and to rise above our environment, to resist temptation and put it to death once and for all.
So I write this as a challenge, but also encouragement.  The next time a giant comes into your view or something rises up that wants to steal your attention away from Christ, remember the Israelites.  When they lost focus on God, instead of receiving the promises and His blessings, they were sent back out to wander in the desert for 40 years.
Keep your focus on Him, because only then will you have the strength to rise above. 


--DyingAnOriginal

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