Over The Moon

​Love you all, praying for you.
 
I just love God’s Word.  It’s so un-pius.  Irreligious.  It’s the story of Jesus, who was the biggest counterculture revolutionary of all time.  He turned the world upside down.  He exposed religion, and invited relationship, the very heart of God.  He exposed the devil’s grip of sin, and offered freedom.   I love that God’s Word is not religion, it’s relationship, restoration, ridiculously simple, redeeming, and loving, and one hundred percent truth, for those who will receive it.   God recently brought to mind one of my fondest childhood memories.  Always been a NFL Football fan, as long as I can remember.  Growing up in Milwaukee the home of half the Green Bay Packers home games at the time, until all moved to Lambeau about a year or two after I had left for college.  I would love to watch my beloved Packers despite loss after loss, year after year, pretty much my entire childhood, until a guy named Reggie White showed up, and restored the entire franchise to respectability.  We hadn’t seen that since Vince Lombardi, and I was too young to remember that…  It’s amazing what can happen when just one man shows up – who puts their faith in God.  Granted he was quite a large man, but that’s beside the point.  The NFL for a season spanned the spectrum of end zone celebrations deemed too outlandish, so they made rules that restricted them, and then loosened them up a bit more recently.   I’ll never forget one of my favorite Packer moments, surprisingly, given the circumstance...  In Lambeau Field.  The Minesota Vikings had come to town – of whom we had no love for, especially now that the future Hall of Famer - Randy Moss was on their team.  I’ll never forget that game he scored a touchdown and in celebration – in response to the earful he’d been getting the whole game from the rather impolite Packers faithful in the endzone… turned his back to them, and with his hands simulated the motion of lowering his knickers to share with them – the full moon.  Didn’t really do it, mind you, just pretended.  And the entire end zone section went full-on apoplectic!  As did the rest of the stadium, when the replay hit the big screen.  It was bad enough that he scored on us, and they were winning, but do be that rude, disrespectful and impolite… it was almost more than they could bear!  I however, was perhaps the only one in Wisconsin at the time who thought - that was hilarious.  I gained a whole new level of respect, dare I say almost even love for this unfairly gifted wide receiver, despite the fact that my love for my Packers never waivered.  That was hilarious!  It still makes me smile thinking about it.  The greatest end zone celebration ever!  But it showed me something.  Sometimes a full moon is in order.  Your enemy the devil, has recruited a crowd of accomplices in your life who will constantly yell things at you from the stands.  They’re not in the game mind you, they are just accusing you, berating you, blaming you, reminding you of your past, your lack, your mistakes, trying to bring you down.  Mooning them is not the moral of the story.  But not letting them affect you is.  One of my favorite stories in the Bible was when God through the prophet of God  - told the widow to take her sons, take the jars, go inside her house and shut the door.  Sometimes, you just have to - shut the door.  Sometimes you just have to shut out all the outside voices, the screamers, the slanderers, the condemners, the devil in your ear…  Sometimes you have to just ignore the part truth that their accusations resonate with.  Sometimes you gotta believe what God says about Himself and His promise for you… not what others say about you, whether part true or not.  Sometimes you just gotta trust God, turn toward Him, take that first step of obedience from here, right now, and never look back.  It’s kinda like a full moon so to speak.  Your audience is One, not all the haters.  Jesus forgave you, He is leading you, you run with Him, don’t worry about opposing team fans.  Listen to God, not them.  Keep your eyes on Him, not anyone else, not your past, or your failures, or your limitations - just what God told you to do today – to obey.  Let Him lead you -  You will score touchdown after touchdown.  Not everyone will be happy.  But you don’t even need to spite them or show them.  God said he’ll prepare a table for you in the presence of your enemies.  Just Love Him, Hear His voice.  Do it immediately.  And when it comes to the devil that used to so easily trap you in those sins that once so easily beset you, let him see your backside, as you head the opposite direction on the path God’s got for you!  Follow Him, Keep your eyes on Him, and He’ll lead you to green pastures, quiet waters, through valleys and over mountains.  He’ll never leave you, not alone, not the same, not lacking… He’ll never leave you short, with anything missing.  He will lead you completely.  You can trust Him fully.  And if you don’t grow weary in well doing, if you don’t turn back from that obeying… He’ll set a table for you in front of everybody.  He gets the glory, you get the blessing.  Just keep your eyes on Him. 
 
Love you all,
dad