The Guarantee Trap

Why Your Plan B is Killing Your Peace

Are you currently paralyzed by a massive life decision?

Most of us like to blame our hesitation on a lack of clarity. We tell ourselves, "I’m just waiting on a sign from God," or "I need to pray about this a little longer." But if we are being completely honest, we aren't actually waiting on God to give us wisdom; we are waiting on a guarantee so we don't have to trust Him. We want the blueprint, the insurance policy, and the ten-year forecast before we take a step.

In James 1:5-6, we are hit with a reality check that exposes our hidden mixed motives:

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind."

Notice the absolute certainty of the promise: if you ask for wisdom, it will be given to you. God isn't hoarding insight, nor does He roll His eyes when you ask for directions. The bottleneck isn’t God’s willingness to speak; it is our willingness to surrender to whatever He says.

When James talks about "doubting," he isn’t talking about honest intellectual questions. The original language points to a divided mind—a heart that is trying to negotiate. If you are praying for God’s "Yes" while secretly holding a "Maybe" or a safety net in your back pocket, you are a double-minded believer. You become like a wave of the sea: completely at the mercy of shifting cultural winds, emotional whims, and conditional circumstances. Indecision isn't a personality trait; it is often a lack of total surrender.

Burn the Safety Net

Here is the challenge for faithful living today: Eliminate your fallback options.

We live in a culture that worships keeping our options open. We sign up for things tentatively, we enter relationships with exit strategies, and we approach God with a contract rather than a covenant. The challenge for you this week is to stop looking for a backdoor out of the path God has already illuminated for you.

True faith means asking God for direction with your hands wide open, having already decided that your answer to whatever He commands is an automatic, non-negotiable "Yes." If you want heavenly wisdom, you have to burn your earthly safety nets.

The "Plan B" Funeral

To put boots on this text before the sun goes down, you need to conduct a "Plan B" Funeral:

• Step 1: Isolate the Decision. Identify the specific area where you are currently hesitating or straddling the fence. (e.g., Is it a career transition, a difficult boundary you need to set, a financial investment, or a calling to serve?)

• Step 2: Expose the Backdoor. Take a piece of paper and write out what your self-protective "Plan B" looks like. What is the compromise option you keep around just in case fully obeying God gets too costly, too uncomfortable, or too quiet? Write it down plainly.

• Step 3: Confess and Cross it Out. Look at that safety net and acknowledge that keeping it alive is exactly what is keeping you "driven and tossed by the wind." Draw a massive, bold X through it. Literally or figuratively, bury it.

• Step 4: Execute the First 10%. Wisdom is validated by movement. Instead of waiting to see the whole staircase, take a step that commits you to the path. Send the email, make the phone call, have the hard conversation, or give the seed money. Do the first 10% of the action that forces you to rely entirely on God for the remaining 90%.

A Prayer for Undivided Faith:

Father, I confess that I have often asked for Your guidance while quietly plotting my own escape routes. Forgive me for my double-mindedness and for treating Your sovereign wisdom like an option to consider rather than a command to obey. Today, I burn my safety nets. I lay down my Plan B and place my absolute trust in Your character. Give me the clarity to see the next step and the radical courage to take it without looking back. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

 

Changing the Way You Pray in the Storm

 

Changing the Way You Pray in the Storm: A Deeper Look at James 1:2-4

We usually pray for the storm to stop, but James tells us to rethink the storm's purpose entirely. It is one of the most counter-intuitive, radical paradigm shifts in the entire New Testament.

In James 1:2-4, the Apostle writes:

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Joy is not a warm, fuzzy feeling here; it’s a strategic choice of the will. James isn't calling us to be masochists who enjoy pain. He is calling us to be macro-thinkers who understand that the testing of our faith is a greenhouse for spiritual endurance.

If you dodge every difficulty, build a life completely insulated by comfort, and run away from every tension, you are inadvertently dodging the exact tools God is using to make you “perfect and complete.” True spiritual maturity isn't formed in quiet sanctuaries on sunny days; it is forged in the grit of the unexpected storm. It's time to stop asking God to "take it away" and start asking Him to "build it up."

Refuse the Escape Hatch

Here is the challenge for faithful living this week: Stop looking for the easiest exit.

Our default prayer is almost always, "Lord, get me out of this." We look for the quickest bypass, the easiest escape hatch, or the fastest way to numb the tension. The challenge for us as mature believers is to pivot our posture from victims of our circumstances to active participants in our sanctification.

When a trial hits, you must refuse to ask, "Why is this happening to me?" and boldly ask, "What is God producing in me?" Choose to stay in the furnace until the dross is melted away.

The "Next 48 Hours" Audit

How do we put boots on this faith tomorrow morning? Try the Next 48 Hours Audit:

• Step 1: Identify the Tension. Think about the primary source of frustration in your life right now. Is it a micromanaging boss? A difficult, draining conversation you need to have with a spouse? An unexpected financial strain or an injury that has sidelined you?

• Step 2: Re frame the Narrative. Instead of venting to a coworker or scrolling social media to distract yourself from the stress, pause and open a journal. Write down the specific trial at the top of the page.

• Step 3: Write the Blueprint. Underneath the trial, write down three character traits that this specific situation forces you to practice. (e.g., If it’s a frustrating boss, the traits are patience, humility, and grace.)

• Step 4: Change Your Prayer. For the next 48 hours, every time that tension rises, do not pray for the situation to change. Pray exclusively for those three traits to be solidified in your heart.

 Lord, I confess that I prefer comfort over character. Today, I surrender my desire for an easy exit. When the trials come, give me the supernatural grace to count it joy, knowing that You are at work. Don't let me waste my seasons of suffering; instead, use this testing to make me steadfast, resilient, and complete in You. In Jesus Name, Amen.

First Sermon of 2018

First Sermon of 2018

Provisions for the New Year

Exodus 16,17 

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright once told of an incident that seemed insignificant at the time, but had profound influence on the rest of his life.  The winter he was nine, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no-nonsense uncle.  As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him.  He pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow’s flight, and then young Frank’s tracks meandering all over the field.  “Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again,” his uncle said.  “And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal.  There is an important lesson in that.”  Years later the world-famous architect liked to tell how this experience had greatly contributed to his philosophy in life.  “I determined right then,” he’d say with a twinkle in his eye, “not to miss most things in life, as my uncle had.”

We all have moments in our life (spoken or unspoken) when we try to determine if the Lord can meet our needs? – sure we know the Heaven part (or at least we think we do)

Today my assignment from the Lord is cover three vital places in our lives that He will in 2018 meet our needs – dramatically these are presented to us in quick fashion in Exodus 16-17.

These are so dramatic that prophets and leaders continues to point back to What God accomplished

Nehemiah 9:15

You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger,

And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst,

And told them to go in to possess the land

Which You had sworn to give them.

I’m Hungry!

Provisions to meet our hunger

(16:4) Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.

Ex: manna provided (and here’s a secret the plan was in place before the people began to complain)

Complaining people – 16:3 Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

(Hangry is now a noun…and you don’t just need a snicker bar.)

AP: Physical hunger is a symptom of a deeper hunger for spiritually in our lives.  

John 6:35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

The food for our spiritual lives is found in the Word of God –

Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is pure;

He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.

Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’

I’m Thirsty!

Exodus 17:3 …the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses

17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink

(Thirst picture of dehydration – need for water is real)

The hydration for our lives is found in the Fresh Spirit of God -

Really a matter of Willingness to SURRENDER and TRUST

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust God from the bottom of your heart;

don't try to figure out everything on your own.

Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;

he's the one who will keep you on track. (The Message)

NLT:  5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart;

do not depend on your own understanding.

6 Seek his will in all you do,

and he will show you which path to take.

I’m Scared!

Personal Protection – enemies are out there… (17:8 Now Amalek came and fought with Israel)

17:9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. 

Prepared to Stay in the Fight

(We need to learn to fight for one another).  

Prepared to Stay in the Fellowship

(We need to learn to pray for one another).

17:12-13 But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

Meet Jehovah Nissi – the Lord is My Banner in 2018

This is no normal religion –

Walnut Fork Baptist Church is not a normal church

– we are not trying to build a name for ourselves or our church

We are under the BANNER!

Matthew 11:28-30  The Message -

28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Whenever there is a separation between values and practice, things break down.  In ancient China, the people desired security from the barbaric, invading hordes to the north.  To get this protection, they built the Great Wall of China.  It’s 30 feet high, 18 feet thick, and more than 1500 miles long!  

The Chinese goal was to build an absolutely impenetrable defense-too high to climb over, too thick to break down, and too long to go around.  But during the first hundred years of the wall’s existence China was successfully invaded three times.

It wasn’t the wall’s fault.  During all three invasions, the barbaric hordes never climbed over the wall, broke it down, or went around it; they simply bribed a gatekeeper and then marched right in through an open door.  The purpose of the wall failed because of a breakdown in values.~ James Emory White

Last Word of 2017 First Word of 2018

Last sermon of the year 2017

Barney Fife – “I’m in favor of bud nipping! Nip it Andy! Nip it in the Bud.”

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Yesterday is a memory and tomorrow is but a moment in time. The question is what are we going to do today that prepares people for eternity?

Yesterdays are important for reflection and growth.

·         Reflect on the things that don’t quite succeed to grow from them (Romans 8:18 - For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.)

o   Be careful to not let to your struggles define who you are (Isaiah 40:31- ³¹ But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint)

o   Be careful to not let your hang ups be your hold back  (Lamentations 3:22-23 - Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.
²³ They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.)

o   Be careful to not judge your future on your past – Jesus is the Master of making things work out. (He is the way maker!) Proverbs 23:18 - For surely there is a hereafter, And your hope will not be cut off.

·         Pause and reflect on success but leave them there

Tomorrow is a moment in time of which to prepare – (more on that later).

Today is the day!

Today is the day to prepare for making a significance difference in the lives of people,

Service is a key – be a servant be significant, (Jesus placed the kid in front of them – to be the greatest in the kingdom be like him…

 Matthew 18:1-4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Mark 10:45 - For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Problem is we have to admit we can’t – but HE CAN!

We need a new wind – a new WORD!

Ezekiel 37:1-4 Dry Bones Live

Dry bones will respond to:

·         God’s Word

·         God’s Call

·         God’s Cause

So Tomorrow is a moment -

What word are you going to use to enter into 2018?

What word is going to be your power word?

I have a suspicion about speaking things into existence in our lives. There are times that your worries take over and you speak doubt, negative, and sometimes evil into your days. STOP IT - LIVE by FAITH my friends. Live in the faith of the mighty God we serve. SPEAK His name into your year. Speak greatness into your year through HIM. Believe, let doubt expire in your life, and speak Jesus into every circumstance. 

May I suggest the most powerful word ever spoken – the Name of our God! Jehovah Jesus!

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Sweat the Small Stuff

Sweat has a wonderful purpose in our lives. Mostly, when the body gets heated up it is produced to assist in cooling down the body as it evaporates on the skin. Today was a great day for a "cool down". The sweat was rolling, dripping, and pooling. It makes me feel like I am working hard at the track. Love the inaccurate quote, "Sweat is just my fat crying while it is leaving the body." So go get your

sweat on! Put in the work and keep moving. 

Our physical bodies benefit from the exercises we put them through. In the same way so does our spiritual body benefit from exercise. We must practice our spiritual disciplines in order to grow, develop, and remain effective in the kingdom of God.  1 Timothy 4:8 "Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come." (NLT)  

So practice your spiritual disciplines: Bible intake, prayer, journal spiritual growth, worship, evangelism, stewardship, and investing in others lives to make a difference. Attached you will find some suggestions for readings in spiritual disciplines. 

Workout: 2 mile warm up, ballistics, 3 sets (x15) stadium stairs, 17 100 meter repeats, core, stretch, and chat with some athletes I used to coach. 

Don Whitney - Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

Richard Foster - Celebration of Discipline

Major Ian Thomas - The Indwelling Life of Christ

Do That Again! Again!

Every once in a while I have to be reminded with my workout to go back and work out. There have been some great training routines that are wonderful and challenging. I am actually encouraged to go

back and try again.

Today was one of those days to try again. The distance was not great but pushing for faster and quicker feet was great. It will also pay off in the future.

While hitting the track I was reminded that our spiritual walk is also a place to try again. We are preparing ourselves for the long distance and some of us kick in to faith responses when things get difficult. But we need to remember the daily routines of the faith too and try again. Remember Jesus words to the Ephesus church in Revelation 2?

"But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don't repent, I well come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches." (2:4-5 NLT).

In fact, this may be the reason that we are in the condition we are in our nation. The church in America have left the first love. We need to go back and try again the practices, the disciplines, the daily routines of the faith or we may continue to lose our influence.

Workout: 1 mile warm up, ballistics, 400 repeats x 4 (30 second break), stadium stairs x 10, core, stretch - and great conversation with a friend I saw.

Here's a great article that helps explain how we may have gotten to where we are today:
How Benjamin Franklin , a deist, became the founding father of a unique kind of American faith

Oh the Adjustments

So today I took an old route with a new twist. Fun thing was that it was actually fresh for me. The route included some varied hills and I added some extra set of stadium steps. Really to be honest I did not wish to run the hills or the steps. But even though I wished and wished the hills just would not go away. I had to adjust myself to the hills cause they sure would not adjust for me.

There are times that we find our selves on a difficult hill. That hill we find could be the Word of God.  You may find that you do not necessarily agree in function or lifestyle with the Bible. Trouble is that the Bible is the truth and God's instruction indeed and last time I checked the TRUTH will not change. So when I am at odds with the Word of God I must do the changing. Yes, I must make the adjustments of my life to come in line with God.  By the way the word we are looking for is repent. 

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."  

Acts 3:19 Now repent of your sins and tune to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. 

Workout: 6 mile on the street, 4 sets of stadium stairs, 500 meter repeats between each, core, stretch, and hydration.