I have been thinking about the themes for 'Trey's Trek' in September of this year!
This is to help me focus on the task ahead, so I have chosen some passages of Scripture that are helping me keep focused on the event and the task that is upcoming! There are two months and two days left, from today, when we will be heading out from our office building on Michigan Avenue, to begin walking up Hines Drive to initiate Trey's Trek.
Every day I walk and each mile that I cover in getting ready for this event... my body lets me know that there are a 100 reasons why this '56 year old man' should not be doing this 300 miles trek to anywhere!!! It's almost like sitting down to Thanksgiving Dinner at 'Gran' Ma's' and realizing that your 'your eyes are bigger than your stomach!' So staying focused is going to be vital to not only accomplishing the task but actually doing the event in September!
With that said, I have chosen some passages of Scripture that deal with "walking"... to think about..., to chew on mentally and to let settle down in my spirit so that my 'inner man' will be ready 'to tackle' this upcoming 300 mile trek! So here is what I have found so far...
Leviticus 26:12 says... "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with your heads high."
Now let me tell you how this encourages me...
First, I am excited when I read this... because the truth of what is here, is living and active! It's not just random words on a page! These are words from THE ALMIGHTY'S mouth and as such it gets my attention! I am so excited that I have been extended an invitation to be grafted into the vine of HIS people and as such, I have accpeted that invitation and received eternal life because of it. Thank you Jesus! OK...
HE says... "I will walk among you...." in response, I say...
LORD, this encourages me, in that... as an event, YOU walked with YOUR sons and daughters out of horrendous slavery, into a GOD enfused freedom that YOU YOURSELF orchestrated and walked with them and among them as they exited their positions and attitudes as slaves. If YOU did that then... and YOU are the same GOD now; I can be sure that YOU will walk with us as we head out from Dearborn to Mackinaw! My hope is that our attitudes and actions as 'freed folks' from slavery (sin) will fulfill YOUR expectations for who YOU set us free to be! And if YOU walked among them ... YOU will walk with us! We will keep the eyes of our hearts open for YOU along the way!
He also says..."I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt..." in response, I say... LORD, historically you stepped in and revealed YOURSELF to a whole family and YOUR actions on their behalf are stunning to me! If YOU are the same, yesterday, today and forever, then I choose to place my confidence in YOU... acknowledging YOU as my GOD, who is The LORD of the universe! From my personal experience, you brought me out of 'a slavery' that was as stark and as dark as what Israel experienced in Egypt. With a grateful heart, I live in that liberty that YOU provide and with a watchful eye, am careful to stay close to YOU! Remembering where I came from and the sin that I was in, I now... with a new resolve, walk away from that judgement that condemned me and I do it by YOUR grace! What an exodus! YOU are my deliverer!
He says again..."so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians..." in response, I say...
I read somewhere that HIS attitude about us is that "it is for freedom that I set you free..." Woooooooo! I also remember that we are to "Stand firm, then and do not let 'ourselves' (yourselves) be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Woow again! Man...I guess, like the Scripture says... "if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation..." if that is our reality, then we are set! But I know alot of folks who percieve their positioned in life, even as a new creation to be like a new toy that one would receive at Christmas... that that toy, even though it is new in the box, has no batteries in it! But that is not the case! God does not give and then frustrate us with the gift because it does not work! Our gift comes with power! It may not be in the box with the toy initially but 'The gift GIVER doesn't give to disappoint us! In reality, HE provides the batteries so that the toy will operate as it was designed! There is Power to operate our lives in HIS authority and that reality is a present situation that we actually find ourselves in. But the power to operate the toy must be sought, it must be asked for. We must look for it and in turn recieve the gift of His power (the batteries), open it and place the batteries in the appropriate place so that the toy will do it's thing! Then the power must be 'turned on'! In our position as HIS people who have been freed... we must live in HIS presence and operate as HIS community in the power that HE provides. This power, first of all, is to enable us, to not go back into slavery! It is to advance us toward HIS objectives as a part of HIS plan in conjunction with HIS people in this life HE has for us, where we now live. But slavery to whatever bound us before is not to be a part of that solution now! HE has set us free and going back to sin and becoming a slave again, is in no way a part of HIS purpose. Who wants to be a slave again to the same 'stuff ' we were freed from? YUCH! HIS reason for freeing us is that we would be free! "IT IS FOR FREEDOM...!" 'Alleluia!
He says one more thing..."I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with your heads high." It is amazing to me that HE would have to remind the ones HE 'delivered' out of Egypt about this again! Were they not living in the middle of what HE was doing for them, right then? Just thinking back in what I know; Egypt, as one of the most powerful nations on Earth at that time was laid to waste, their economy was destroyed, their religious system was desolated, their gods were attacked and mocked and specifically shown as utter fakes. At least 225,000 soldiers along with the best military hardward of the day was wipped out in less than probably 5 to 10 miniutes of time and all of this happened before their very eyes! From my perspective it would be hard to forget all of this... But none the less, HE reminds them again! HE does it with words that are forceful, "I broke the bars of your yoke..." and he says it with no regard for the feelings of the Egyptians! Some would accuse GOD of being full of pride or heartless! I mean they were on the short end of that stick, weren't they? Doesn't GOD love the whole world? Of course HE does, but we are not aware of the centuries of pleading and wooing that HE engaged in with the Egyptians before HE judged them for their blatant idolotry and refusal to listen to HIM. There is a lesson in this for Nations today...(whole families of people- 'Ethnos') that refuse to "...Hear HIS voice...!" GOD is definately impartial in regards to HIS love for Mankind and HE states this in Exodus 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in any form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD (YHVH) your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of there fathers to the third and forth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." John, one of Jesus' closest disciples wrote, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the work through Him." It is here where our freedom sits at the fulcrum of history and reality. Jesus is our turing point, our balance point, our freedom, our reality! He sets us free, He keeps us free, if we stay locked into Him. His very name actually means ..."YHVH is our Salvation!" "JESUS SAVES" is an awesome proclamation and in that FACT all of us can respond to GOD in obedience and "walk with your heads high." Not in pride but in amazement that GOD worked on our behalf!
So, here we go! Walking! Like former slaves out of bondage! With new attitudes, toward a new purpose! Walking with the ONE who says, "I will walk among you....". With this given state of reality and the promise that Jesus made us "I will never leave you or forsake you..." We can start our trek with confidence and joy, knowing that once we were without HIM in our sin as slaves but now we are "...no longer...slaves" but poeple who... HE says that HE "...will walk among ... and be your God, and you will be my people..."!
I am flabbergasted! Jesus you are awesome!
Simply Trey
