Water

My wife, kids and I used to attend a church years ago that, at the time we were members, was conducting a 40 day church growth initiative. At that time, many churches around the country were participating in this same "growth format." Because Christine and I were invited to be part of the leadership of this growth initiative, we were required to attend the planning meetings. On August 20th of that year, 7 years ago to the day of this writing, we attended our first planning session with about 20 people in attendance. The topic of discussion turned to goal setting, particularly in regards to how many people we believed God wanted to see "born-again" and brought into relationship with the Lord through our efforts over the next 40 days.  Now, as a matter of personal opinion, I am not much for goal setting anymore. Some of you may disagree with that. That's ok. It's just that in Christ my only goal is to finish my race with joy. That's it. I'm just trying to stay faithful in the works God has placed me in in every area of life and stay constant in his work, finish my race, and get into eternity in Christ. That is my goal. And to teach others to do the same. I guess I have two goals.

Now I am not saying that God doesn't have in mind what he will do through us or how many people will be born again through our faithful and diligent efforts in Him. I am not saying he can't add to our numbers, even thousands in a day (See Acts 2:41). He can and does. I'm not against being aware of what God will do in advance, in a given period of time. Sometimes he makes us aware of the facts ahead of time. But what was happening in this particular meeting seemed different to me. We were just following a curriculum laid out for us by a best selling author and it seemed a little logical, a little carnal.

My wife and I, just sitting in the back of the room quietly, not saying a word, just sat there listening to others throw out random numbers of how many people we wanted to see "born again" through our evangelistic efforts over the next 40 days. One person said "100". Another said "200." After a few people spoke up I think the group settled on "200" people coming into the kingdom of God. So now we have a number. Now the next thing on the meetings agenda was to decide how many people we were going to see receive the water baptism. Almost immediately a consensus came into the room that we were going to settle on the number of water baptisms at 100. That was half of the original number of confessions of faith as described in Romans 10:9,10. At this point, I was not able to sit still anymore. Something just blurted out of my mouth. Call me immature at the time. Call me quick on the draw, not thinking about what I was going to say or what would and should be appropriate in a setting like this. Personally, I wonder if God pushed me over the cliff. I looked at the group and said, "Wait a minute. If you are only expecting half of the people that confess faith in Christ to be water baptized then what you are saying is that you are expecting some very shallow conversions here."

GULP! You could have heard a pin drop in the room. About 5 seconds later, one of the pastors of the church who just happened to be sitting directly behind me in the meeting, broke the silence and said, "Jay, we are getting into issues of doctrine here." ........The way he said it indicated, at least to me, that the doctrine of water baptism was a disputable matter and that maybe I should just sit there and be quiet. I responded by saying the following: "Well, if we are going to set numbers maybe we should just go home and pray about it and come back together and set numbers if we are going to do so. Maybe we should ask God what he wants to do here. It has worked for countless others before us......" All of the sudden the room exploded with people voicing their opinions. One guy sitting behind me, someone who is now in full time evangelistic ministry all over the United States, proceeded to tell me that after he was born again he had been in church night and day for several years before he was water baptized. OK. But my question was, "Is that God's will?"

Finally someone in leadership looked at me and said, "Jay, this is a church. We make decisions as a group here. What we need to all do is go home and pray about this and come back next time with what we feel God wants us to do."............I looked at my wife, with a perplexed and confused look on my face and said, "Didn't I just say that?"...... 

After I left the meeting with my wife and got my wits about me, part of me started thinking about all the things I wished I would have said instead of just sitting there and not saying more. And I couldn't believe that so many in the meeting seemed so flippant about water baptism. It stunned me. It was like the attitude of some people was...."It's important, but not really that important." I left the meeting and went right into a deep-dive of sorts into a study on the issue. Let me share with you what I started to see. It's very, very important. Keep reading.

In the old testament, as it pertains to the prophetic writings from Isaiah through Malachi, historians have typically divided prophets into two groups: Major Prophets and Minor Prophets. Those that were considered to be major prophets were Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel. All the others from Hosea to Malachi were considered to be minor prophets. The reason for the divison was simple: the length of their writings. Isaiah has 66 chapters, Jeremiah (including Lamentations) has 57, Ezekial has 48, Daniel has 12. Why Hosea didn't get credit I don't know. He has 14 chapters. Maybe I misread something somewhere. Maybe he is considered a major prophet. All the others have 12 chapters of content or less. Obadiah only has one chapter.

Let me tell you who my major prophets are: Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Hosea. And I'll tell you why. It has nothing to do with the amount of content in their writings, nothing with the length of the books. It has to do with something else, something that can only be found in one verse, something that relates to water baptism in the New Covenant that we have in Christ. In Hosea 12:10 it says the following:

" I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets." (King James Version)

This verse implies that there are different ways in which the Lord might speak through a prophet: visions, words spoken into the ear, and some circumstance that is "lived out" in their physical lives. That physical circumstance is referred to here as a similitude. What this word similitude means is that in the life of the prophet, there was something happening to them physically and/or circumstantially that was meant to be interpreted as a prophetic message to the people. The circumstances of their lives becames similitudes... that is to say "similar" to the message God was attempting to convey. The more God uses a man prophetically, the more he finds himself not just hearing and speaking audible words, not just having dreams and visions, but actually experiencing physical circumstances that were intended to be a message to others around him. The Big Four as I call them were operating in God on a level and for a length of time that involved them in levels of prophecy beyond the minor prophets. They were big-time prophetic operators.

For Isaiah the similitude can be found in Isaiah chapter 20. Here we see that the prophet was commanded to strip down to his underwear and walk around for three years almost completely naked and barefoot as a sign and portent to Egypt and Cush that their people would be led away by the Assyrians stripped and barefoot. For Ezekiel,  in chapter 12 we see the prophet carry out a physical act that symbolized Judah's coming Exile. In Ezekiel 24 we see the coming destruction of the temple and the grief that would follow symbolized by the death of the prophets' wife. In Jeremiah 13 we see the prophet buy a Linen Belt, wear it, take it off and bury it in dirt and later unearth it, finding it completely useless...all symbolizing the fact that the Lord had once bound Judah and all of Israel to himself but that now, he would take them off like a belt and ruin their pride and make them completely useless to him. In Jeremiah 32 we see the prophet buy a field while Jerusalem is under seige. This symbolized that, in spite of Jerusalems impending destruction,  that houses, fields and vineyards would one day again be bought and sold in the land. In Jeremiah 38 we see the prophet thrown into a broken cistern. The faulty cistern physically symbolized Jerusalem's inability to contain and preserve the word of the Lord as symbolized by the prophet himself. In Hosea chapter 1 we see the prophet, by the Lord's instruction, marrying an unfaithful woman and giving their offspring names that symbolized the coming judgment on the house of Jehu and the removal of the Lord's love from the house of Israel. In Hosea 3 we see the coming reconciliation of the house of Israel in the last days symbolized through the prophets reconciliation with an unfaithful Gomer.

Does this make sense? The length and depth of their prophetic ministries naturally bred an occurence of events and circumstances that in and of themselves became prophetic.  So what does this have to do with the body of Christ? Glad you asked.

Ladies and Gentlemen....the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10). In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). We are living epistles, living testimonies of his righteousnes as we obey him. We are called to live prophetic lives, testifying of what he is saying, has said, and will do in days to come. We are spirit, soul and body (1 Thess 5:23) and in him, by the Spirit, led of the Spirit, we are prophetic in both word and deed (Col 3:17). Our very nature, our very existence in him, as we obey him, speaks prophetically both to non-believers and believers....whether we realize it at the moment or not. We are called to be a prophetic people....to foretell the mind of the Lord by what we say and do. This is our duty in Him. This is who we are. This is what we are called to be.

The water baptism is symbolic. It is a prophetic act. It is a foretelling of both things happening now and in days to come in our lives. The water symbolizes the word of the Lord. The word "law" in Hebrew is Torah. Torah comes from the Hebrew word Yarah. The word Yarah means to flow as water, to teach, to point in a certain direction with your finger. Ever heard of this scripture?....

"...your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" Isaiah 30:21

The Greek word for God's present tense voice in the new testament is Rhema. It comes from the Greek word Rheo which means river. Coincidence? Not hardly.

The water is a symbol of the word of the Lord as he speaks it to us now and in the future. It symbolizes the sweeping process of his word over every part of us and every part of our lives. When a man or woman is water baptized is signifies the "process" and ensuing circumstances by which they now find themselves obeying his voice which is ultimately symbolized by water (Torah~Yarah / Rhema~Rheo.)

"His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters." (Revelation 1:15)

We once walked in our own ways. But now we are drenched with the dew of heaven.......leading us to repentance.......

"My doctrine shall drop as the rain, and my speech shall distill as the dew." Deuteronomy 32:2

....repenting from a life of self, emerging into the newness of life by the Spirit. It is a symbolic act of what is happening spiritually to us....spirit, soul and body. We have now left our own ways. We now hear his voice. And we will hear more from him. We have buried our old selves in baptism and have emerged into a new life in the Spirit. Every man dies twice. Because we have experienced death in this life in Christ Jesus, the second death will have no power over us as/if we continue to abide in the Vine (Revelation 20:6).

Now for the rest of the story. I told you about the meeting at the church. As the story goes, my wife and I show up at the church the following Sunday. The service gets going....the preacher stands up to preach. He looks at the congregation and says, "Today I am going to teach on water baptism. I haven't taught on this in the 8 years I have been here so today I am going to teach on it." I looked at my wife. She looked at me.  Eight years and no preaching on water baptism.......and guess what happens????

Alot of people responded to the message. The lady who was in charge of setting up some of the logistics for the water baptisms at this church approached my wife sometime that week and asked her to be available the following Sunday to help with the baptisms as they had never had that many people want to be water baptized in one week. WOW! As a good friend of mine told me after all this happened, "Jay, you get what you preach. If water baptism is the next step, just preach on it. People will respond."

Matthew 3:6 "Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River."

Acts 2:37,38,41 "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.'....Those who accepted his message were baptized. And about three thousand were added to their number that day.'"

Did you notice that? Everyone who accepted Peter's message was baptized. Everyone. Everyone. Not half the people. Not 1,500 people out of 3,000. Not 100 out of 200. Everyone. Everyone.

Eventually we are going to have to disciple someone, be it our children, other adults, teeangers in the youth program.....someone......your next door neighbor. We need to understand how God feels about this baptism and give EMPHASIS to it. I will openly confess, there was a time when I did not emphasize it. I led my wife to the Lord and some time later the Lord convicted her to be water baptized. I freely admit I did not emphasize it like I should have when I started discipling her. She was not the only one I discipled that I made this mistake with. I grew into this doctrine as I am sure the brothers I mentioned previously did as well. I did  not intend to be critical of them in telling the story as it actually happened. I love those men and their families and I support Christ's gifting and calling on them. In my past immaturity I have missed things. I still do at times. I am striving not to. But God still used my wife and I as a lightening rod to spur change and spur Emphasis on the subject. I hope this spurs you as well.....if in fact you needed it. If not, go spur someone unto a prophetic act. We are a prophetic people. We are called to participate in the similitude of water baptizm. It is commanded of us. Be baptized, every one of you. Be baptized.

Joseph's baptism at age 6. I love my boys.

Blessings from Merida
Jay

The Methuselah Generation and his Constant Provision

(Note: For those of you that subscribe to this blog, you accidentally received the rough draft of this post under another title. My left thumb mistakingly grazed the touch pad and posted this entry while still in rough draft form. If you did, well, here is the finished version. Enjoy!!! )

The apostle Paul said the following in 1 Corinthians 15:46: "The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual." The natural comes first, then the spiritual. Our existence as humans is a process. We come into this world in a natural state, but in Christ we learn to become spiritual in our natural existence. That is why Paul also said the following in 1 Corinthians 2:15: "The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment....." In the verse Paul speaks of our coming into a spiritual existence. We are natural first. Yes. This is undeniable. But, in Christ, we become spiritual in the Holy Spirit. It is the nature of the Spirit to cause us to become spiritual so that we move beyond natural fears and worries and into the fulfillment of our callings. Our callings in Christ take us beyond the natural and into the supernatural.

With that said, people sometimes ask us what it costs to live in Merida. I guess there are two answers to that question. One is the literal, actual dollar amount in the natural realm. For a typical family of four, assuming that your car is paid off and you are renting a home, it should run you anywhere from $1,700 to $2,000 per month, depending on how much miscellaneous spending you do. See below for specific monthly expenses:

Rent: $560 USD/ $7,000 pesos
Electricity: $200 USD
Water: $20 USD
Drinking Water: $20 USD
Gas (used for Stove/Hot Water Heater/Clothes Dryer): $25 USD
Car Insurance: $30
Gas (Car): $120 monthly (varies depending on how much you walk/drive)
Miscellaneous: $300 (Eating out, Entertainment for the kids.........)
Groceries: $600 (We have two growing boys.......Wal Mart and Costco)
Cable/Internet: $45 monthly
Cell Phones (2): $100 monthly

That should come out to around $2,000.00 monthly, give or take. These numbers can fluctuate a little, depending on miscellaneous factors, the exchange rate of the dollar to the peso, ........There is also the cost of "Replacement." If you move to a foreign country you can only take so much with you at first on a tourist visa unless you acquire your residency visas in advance. Most people that get their yearly residency visas in advance already own a home down here. Those folks can bring in up to $10,000.00 worth of personal belongings. But because we didn't have those visas in place prior to coming down we have a higher cost of replacement for items that we sold before moving down.

We brought my truck down with the cab packed full of clothes and other miscellaneous items. A week after I did that we flew down as a family with via Mexicana Airlines with 16 suitcases and/or carry-on bags. We mostly brought clothes, a Wii, toys, books, .....real basic stuff. Once we got here we had to replace everything else we owned in the US. Washer/Dryer, Stove, Refrigerator, Microwave, Garden tools, Dining Room table and chairs, TV, Beds and bed frames, Living Room furniture, kitchen utensils, toiletries, towels, cleaning supplies, .....The replacement costs in the natural are going to run you around $4,000.00....give or take depending on your needs, taste, etc......It can fluctuate...in the natural.

It is our first response to look at these things in the "natural." We are natural beings. Their is a natural cost of living. Yes it does exist. The Lord knows this. He is aware of this. He understands the details of the necessities of life, always beyond what we even know. He is acutely aware of household budgets and the realities that come with them. He is aware of them.

But one of the things that Christine, the boys and I are in the process of "learning" is that eventually the spiritual begins to trump the natural. Yes, the natural exists first. But in Christ, as we live in him, he always holds the trump card. The trump card, the ace of spades, is always held by Christ. The ace of spades is his unending, supernatural provision. His provision is unending....and it comes from the supernatural, spiritual realm via the natural realm. Consider the following verses:

"He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. (Isaiah 40:28,29)

"He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber or sleep." Psalm 121:3,4

"Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" (Romans 11:33-35)

People, ........God does not get tired. He does not get weary. He has understanding that no man can fathom. He can give out strength like he is passing out candy at a carnival. He watches over us. He never slumbers or sleeps. He never goes to bed. His judgements, his thoughts and his paths are unsearchable. No one has ever counseled him. No one has ever given to him in anyway that God owes them a debt of gratitude or payment. He doesn't owe anyone anything. He has no debts.

The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 long years. He watched over them like a shepherd with his sheep. And in those 40 years he gave them everything they needed when they needed it. Clothes, housing, food, water, physical safety, .....all necessary provisions. Everything they needed when they needed it. In supernatural ways. Consider the following verse:

Deuteronomy 8:2,3 "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

They Israelites had what they needed when they needed it....for 40 long years. One day I was reading this passage of scripture and I realized something. If the Lord had needed to provide for them in the desert for 41 years he could have done it. He could have done it for 45, 50, 55, 60......whatever. He could have provided for them this way indefinitely. Romans 11 says, "Oh the depths of his riches...." I don't think this scripture refers to his desire to make us wealthy. No "name it-claim it" or "prosperity gospel" here!!! What this refers to is the depth of his riches in all things to continue to meet our daily "NEEDS" in all aspects. Relationally, physically, financially, ....whatever. When we are moving in God's direction for our lives he meets the budget that he sets for us and the needs that we have as individuals and families. He sets and meets the cost of living for us. And he does so out of "the depths of his riches."

My wife and I have owned a business for 6 years. It is called "Small Sprouts." The first 4 1/2 years of owning this business we made about $300 monthly after we paid out our operating expenses. Most of our household income was derived from my employment with other companies, not Small Sprouts. But in January of 2009 something supernatural happened. We went from taking in 10 orders a month to taking in 30 a month....in the span of one month. Our business increased three-fold in the span of thirty days....and it didn't slow down for all of 2009. Then, in January of 2010, something supernatural happened again. We went from 30 or 35 orders a month to 55 to 60 orders a month, all in a span of 30 days time. Our business almost doubled.....in the span of thirty days. And we have been running at that speed for this calendar year of 2010. This was "most" of the provision we needed in the natural realm to get out of the boat and make this transition to Mexico.

Yet the provision we make from this business, on paper, was not quite enough for us to live here. We were, on paper, about $300 short with what we needed for a monthly budget. And that was with no unexpected expenses like vehicle repairs, medical expenses, ......whatever. We came down here with net income that, on paper, was just barely short of what we see as our average monthly budget. With that in mind, there was something that the Lord was speaking to me as far back as 4 years ago in regards to all of this. He was saying something to me that caused me to believe he would somehow provide as we moved forward into Mexico.

For those of you that don't know our story, in November of 2006, the Lord gave me a dream and showed me that he would start preparing us as a family to move to Mexico. This seed had been dormant in my heart, up to that time, since I was 26 years old. Then, starting in November 2006, we went through 3 1/2 years of preparation to make this move, both physically and spiritually. And one of the things that the Lord started to talk to me about when I had this dream was the Monarch butterfly.

The Lord instructed me to study this insect. The Monarch principally takes up residence in the late spring through early fall in Canada and the northern part of the United States. Every generation of monarch butterfly that is born has a natural life span of around 6-8 weeks. All but one generation that is. The generation of monarch that is born every year around September/October is referred to by some as the Methuselah generation. (See Genesis 5:27)

Methuselah was Noah's grandfather. He lived 969 years, longer than any human in recorded scripture. It is this Methuselah that is referred to when talking about the generation of monarch butterflies born in September/October. This particular generation actually lives beyond the normal 6-8 week lifespan of the Monarch. They, in fact, actually live 6-8 months. WOW! You see, this is the generation of Monarch that actually migrates from Canada and the United States down into Mexico in the early fall, returning in the Spring around March/April. They go down and live in Mexico, sustained supernaturally by the Lord. They migrate down into Mexico, live and hibernate for a season, then migrate back into the United States and Canada, living supernaturally as God has ordained, way beyond the normal lifespan of their forefathers. Do you remember what the Lord said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8 above?

"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." Deut 8:3

The Lord causes us to live spiritually, not naturally, but spiritually..... in ways that many of our forefathers and the generations before us, have not known. He causes us to hunger, to have needs.... then he feeds us with manna, supernatural provision which many before us and even around us today have not known. He provides for his people out of the endless depths of his riches. He sets our budgets and he meets the needs of those budgets. He puts desires within us and places needs in our lives. Then he meets those needs and desires through various means. Small business, large companies, other people, something just showing up in the mailbox....whatever. He meets our needs. He sets up our needs and then he meets them.

"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna...." Deut 8:3.

He causes us to hunger and then he feeds us. He sets our budgets and then he meets them. He often resets our budgets and then he comes up with new ways to meet them. The Lord has chosen to provide for my family, at least for now, mostly through Small Sprouts. It won't always be this way. At least I don't think it will be. July was our first month down here. July was also the busiest month we have ever had in our business, the most profitable month. Yet this week we had two days without a sale which is very abnormal. Just when you think you have God's provision figured out it shifts on you. Just when you think you have your budget set, it shifts on you. Don't be consumed with the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth. Many believers start out well but can't finish because they become worried about how it might work out in God  (See the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13). The people Jesus referred to in this parable never ended up moving and operating in what God had called them to do because they were "consumed" with worry. Worry is fears cousin. You worry long enough then you get consumed with fear. Then, in fear, you get paralyzed, stagnant, not moving forward. The church is filled with people that have been subtly paralyzed with fear over an extended period of time. I know. I have been paralyzed with fear before and had to work my may out of it in the Lord. I have witnessed it in many others. Fear stagnates you. And stagnation leads to death. It is a common temptation that the enemy presents to us time and time again.

If God has called you to do something he will equip you for it and provide for you in the process...in basic ways and in supernatural ways. In natural ways and in spiritual ways. But one thing is constant: He provides!!!! His provision is constant. It is constant. Two, Ten, Twenty, Forty, Fifty years.....whatever. His provision is constant. He sustains the Methuselah generation of the Monarch. How much more does he sustain his people?

"And God is able to make all grace to abound to you so that in all things and at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." 2 Corinthians 9:8

God will provide. We just need to do what God has called us to do!!!! We need to be about the Father's work. Work. Trust. He will provide according to the budget he sets for you. He will provide. Trust Him. He is worthy of our Trust!

Be Blessed
The Blackshears

The First Shall be Last...The Last Shall be First

Last week, I, Jay, took a 5 day trip back to the states to tie up some loose ends from our move to Merida and to visit with friends and family along the way. On the first day of my trip on August 3rd the Lord spoke the same thing to me on three seperate occasions in the same day. Each time it was through a different set of circumstances but all of them tied in together and all of them together had one meaning. Here is the story.

My flight out of Merida left at 7 AM via Continental Airlines. I had to be at the airport at 5 AM. After getting my boarding passes and getting through security, while sitting at the gate watching the rest of the passengers arrive, an American couple came and sat down next to me. We were on the same flight to Houston Airport to catch different connecting flights. I struck up a conversation with them and found out that they were a Christian couple, that he was actually a pastor of a church in South Carolina and they had taken a trip here to check on a Christian Seminary in Merida that they were affiliated with. As the conversation continued I asked them how long their layover was in Houston before catching their next flight. They told me they had an hour and a half. I knew this could be a problem for them because it usually takes a minimum of one hour in the Houston airport to deboard your plane, get through customs, claim your bags, go through immigration, go through the baggage security check for domestic flights, catch a rail train to an adjoining terminal, recheck any bags at the gate and then board your plane. I know this first hand. I endured this back in May coming back from Merida on my first trip down, trying to catching my adjoining flight to San Antonio, RUNNING through parts of the airport. It was very stressful and I almost missed my adjoining fight.

Needless to say I was concerned about this couple making it so I offered to help them through the process. I had a 3 hour layover before my adjoining flight to Shreveport so I offered to take some of that time to help them with guidance, carrying bags.....whatever. As we got into Houston our first obstacle presented itself right away. This couple and I were both seated in the back three rows of the plane. There were over 150 people seated on this plane. It was packed. It took us at least 15 minutes to deboard. Then we got to immigration and there was a very long line. We processed through immigration and then got to the baggage terminal. The stewardesses had announced to us that our luggage would be on carousel #8. It wasn't. I got to the baggage carousel ahead of them and figured out that the luggage was on carousel #7. So when they got there behind me I redirected them to the right carousel. They grabbed their bags. We headed to the security checkpoint to get our scanned through for our next flight and found ourselves in a very, very long line. I looked at this couple and told them not to panic, that the line would move quickly for us. And boy did it ever. God saw to it. Right at that moment a security agent walked right up to me and this couple and said, "Right this way." They took us an opened up a new security screener and placed us in the front of that new line. A smile came over my face and a passage of scripture came to my heart.

Matthew 19:30 "But many who are first shall be last, and many who are last will be first."

I remember hearing that in my heart and feeling a sense of peace and joy for this couple. God was helping them in their time of need. You could see they were stressed. They were an older graying couple and they needed help. God took them out of last place in line and put them right through the screening process, helping them to make their adjoining flight on time. And as an added bonus I got to go with them....because I was helping them by being in the back of the line with them. The thing that I understand about this, even as I write this, is that if I had left the weak to themselves and gone on and only been concerned with myself, I would have ended up farther towards the front of that long line at the baggage screening. But it would have taken me longer to actually get through that checkpoint because I wouldn't have been standing in the very back of the line with that couple when we ALL got promoted to the front.

The Father blesses us when we hang out with the weak and serve them in humility. He promotes us in due season....to the front of the line. The world has pushed the weak and the less fortunate to the back of the line with no concern for their welfare. But God in his sovereignty raises us up at certain points in time with resources to help each other. The resources I had to give these two members of the Body of Christ was extra time, physical strength and a knowledge of the airport in Houston to help them while they were in a tight spot. The Father offered me an opportunity to give out of my abundance and in the process all of us were blessed.

And the story doesn't end there. I then ended up on my adjoining flight to Shreveport....and I can tell you I have never flown on such a small plane in my life. It only sat 33 people and it had the propellers on both sides, not the jet engines you see on most planes. I ended up sitting in the very back of the plane, seat 16A. I was in Last Place on this plane. After all the passengers boarded the lone stewardess walked to the very back of the plane, looked right at me and said, "We need two people to come sit in the very front row of the plane....right now!" She looked at me as if I didn't have a choice. So I got up along with another lady and we went and sat right in the very front row. The obvious reason for this was to balance the weight of the aircraft for take-off. But God was reaffirming something to me for the second time in as many hours. The stewardess looks at me and the other lady that was moved to the front with me and explained to both of us that being in the seats we were know sitting in came with a particular set of responsibilities. We would now be expected to help the other passengers off of the plane in the event of an emergency. We were now "Deputized." We both agreed and the plane took off.

So here I am again for the second time in the same day going from being in the back of the line to the very front of the line in a matter of seconds. And both instances are happening because I was either serving the Lord by helping the weak and needy or.... being positioned to help others in case of emergency. 

And it doesn't end there. Jesus likes to clinch the nail. Let everything be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (2 Cor 13:1).  So I finally get to Shreveport around 2PM. My former pastor who I was staying with had to leave town unexpectedly because of a death in the family. So I ended up staying with two of his grandsons in his home who were house-sitting for him. One was his grandson Josh (20 years old) and the other was Matthew (11). I had known Josh since he was seven years old but had never met Matthew prior to this trip. I ended up taking them out to dinner at Chile's as a thank you for picking me up at the airport. As we were at the restaurant, getting reaquainted and talking about all sorts of things, Matthew looks at me and says;

"The First Shall be Last.....and the Last Shall be First."

I'm not kidding. God was speaking to me through an eleven year old boy who was eating a grilled cheese sandwich and french fries. And at this point I was slowly starting to realize that the voice of the Lord was echoing through a multitude of circumstances. In Romans 1:28 it says the following:

"Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind...."

I italicized and underlined the word "retain." In the Greek that word means "echo." What Paul is saying in this verse is that people get in trouble when they don't allow the voice of the Lord to "echo" in their hearts. God speaks with an echo by saying the same things over and over to cause truth to settle into us. The Lord speaks through the mouth of babes and he speaks through the symbolism of our physical circumstances...among other things. He speaks in dreams, visions, through the mouths of prophets.....

For God does speak -  now one way, now another - though man may not perceive it." Job 33:14

The Lord speaks to us in a multitude of ways and with and echoing voice. His voice echoes. What was happeing to me that day was an echoing of his voice in circumstances, through people, and within my own heart. His voice was echoing.

And what was he saying to me? The conclusion of the matter is this: We live in a time where God is sitting in judgment on his people, our communities, our circles of fellowship and the world itself. This is an hour of judgment at all levels. And what we will see him doing as we go forward is promoting many members of the Body into more and more of the fullness of their callings. We are going to see people who are Last becoming First.....and we are more and more going to see people who are spending their lives in fleshly self-promotion going to the back of the line. God is humbling the wicked, publicly and privately. He is blessing the righteous who are willing to serve the Body in humility, but he is humbling members of the body of Christ who have been living in self-promotion, not living lives fully dedicated to him.

The counsel I am going to walk away with from the events of August 3rd are this: Be were God has placed you, endure hardship like a good soldier, be among the weak as God positions you in the Body and among non-believers. He will empower us. He will equip us. He will provide for us. He will provide for each one of us in differnet ways and at different times, often through each other. Be humble. Be meek. Be gentle. Serve one another in Humility. The Lord will see your willingness and your humility and he will promote you in due season. He will make the First Last and the Last......God will make First. He promoted Joseph. He promoted David. And he will promote us in small ways and in large IF, IF we are humble. Let God assign you to the back of the line, the back of the plane, so that he can promote you.

Be Blessed
The Blackshears