"Show Yourself to the World!"

 "After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him." (John 7:1 KJV) 

  "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves together, the rulers take counsel together against the LORD, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision." (Psalms 2:1-4 KJV)

 Yesterday I went to a memorial to celebrate a life of someone that loved to take a risk and loved people. I sometimes think of myself as a risk-taker, although sometimes I think I should pray more about doing something, and not just set out on my own without the Lord's blessing. Everything we do, should be done by the leading of the Holy Spirit, especially those things that involve other people, like your families!

 This portion of Scripture gets a little revealing to the things that went on between Jesus and His brothers as they are pretty much mocking Him and wanting Him to reveal Himself more openly, as if that would expose the foolishness that they saw in His ministry. Little did they know, but Jesus would soon be exposing Himself to the world! 

 The message given by the Pastor at the service yesterday, was based upon the time the children of Israel were first meant to go into the promised land. In that instance, they sent twelve men in to spy out the land; two come back with encouraging remarks, and ten were able to convince everyone that it was not safe to go. The message was about taking the risk, verses trying to remain safe.

 As pretty much everyone knows by now, these last two years have been governed by the idea that safety is more important than freedom. The buzzword is, safe! Be safe, keep yourself safe, keep those around you safe; make sure you are safe by keeping your distance from others; don't hug or shake hands, because it is not safe!

 As you also probably know, or at least you should, there are more people who choose freedom over safety; but the problem is, those that do prefer freedom, are also less inclined to step out and make themselves known! I seriously doubt that all the children of Israel felt the same as those ten spies that said, "It's not safe to go into the land, because there are giants in the land!" 

 Last I checked, my God is bigger! Don't you think there were some that felt that way, but were not willing to take that chance and speak out? They were not willing to take the risk of being wrong! What if theses ten guys are right? If I stand with those other two, and something bad happens, then I will be part of the blame! We all know what happened next!

 When we are trusting in God, risk is not the challenge, it is the reason to see what God will do...

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Hebrews 11:1-3 KJV)