SET THEM FREE - June 29 Today's Perspective

PERSPECTIVES FROM DAVID’S 7 SECRETS

Chapter Seven, “Cry Out and Shout” p. 92

SET THEM FREE                                                 

That was the title of the album and our theme in 1991.  It was an era when freedom was on everyone’s lips and on everyone’s minds.  Eastern Europe was getting free from Communism and South Africa was gaining freedom from Apartheid.  The Continental groups were touring in all of these countries with the message that Jesus Christ would SET THEM FREE as well, and the message was received with great excitement.

We sang songs like “Now I am Free”, “I Will Speak Out”, Wayne Watson’s “Freedom” and Tim Hosman’s “Takin’ The Message to the World.”  Our message was Jesus’ words in John 8:32, “…If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples.  Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  In Galatians 5:1, the apostle Paul exclaimed, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”

David spent his life freeing Israel from enemies on all of its borders.  Finally, he succeeded and in 2 Sam. 22:1-2 it says, “David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.  He said, ‘The Lord is my Rock, my fortress and my deliverer…’" and in verse 47 of this song he sings, “The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior.”

It’s the same song we sing!  This is our calling, and yours as well.  It is the goal and destiny of every Christian.  Jesus said in Mark 16:15, “…Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation.”  David said it in a way that puts music to it, “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear (respect) and put their trust in the Lord… I do not seal my lips, as you know, O Lord.  I do not hide Your righteousness in my heart; I speak of Your faithfulness and salvation.  I do not conceal Your love and Your truth from the great assembly.”  Ps.40:3 and 9-10

And neither do we.  Let’s reach out to our world and…

SET THEM FREE

MIGHTY PURPOSES - June 28 Today's Perspective

PERSPECTIVES FROM DAVID’S 7 SECRETS

Chapter One “Bring on the Giants” pp. 7-8

MAKE SOMETHING FROM NOTHING

“God’s chief criteria for selecting special servants for MIGHTY PURPOSES is ‘Are you willing to do My will? This is the acid test.’”  (W. Philip Keller in his book, “The Time of Saul’s Tyranny”).

Are you willing to do God’s will wherever it leads you and whatever the cost?  Are you willing to stand alone for a while and bleed for something you believe in?  (That is, work tirelessly to achieve your calling?)

God gives us dreams and ideas.  He selected David for one and it took him 20 years of hard times to achieve it.  He slew a giant, led an army, and then spent seven years in hiding.  He built a guerilla band of mighty men, chased down bands of raiders, rescued ranchers, lost his home, went hungry and thirsty, but never wavered in his calling, his goals, or his belief in his destiny.  He bled for it!

God certainly won’t require those kinds of things from us, but He will expect belief, constant communication, and the kind of faith Jesus talked about.  “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.” Matt. 17:20.  I don’t believe He will expect you to move a mountain without giving you a bulldozer!

You were chosen for a reason, so fulfill it! Climb it! Pursue it! Reach it! Don’t be afraid of “all-nighters”! There are no hours for someone who is making something from nothing.  God told David and, He tells us, too.  “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.” Ps. 32:8.

It is helpful to inspire others to join your dream.  Thurlow Spurr told me in 1962, “alone we can reach 1,000, together we can reach 10,000”.  So, I inspired and recruited and did my all-nighters and then was accused of “using people”.  Well, what else?  Donkeys? I always wanted to be used myself and still pray for it every day.

David was so successful in the military responsibilities given him that the people and officers of the army were thrilled. The women came out with tambourines, singing and dancing saying, “Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands.” I Sam. 18:7

You don’t have to slay anyone!  Just be an inspirer, fulfill your calling, make something from nothing and

DON’T GO IT ALONE!

TRUST GOD - June 24 Today's Perspective

PERSPECTIVES FROM DAVID’S 7 SECRETS

Chapter two, “Sit at God’s Round Table” p. 31

IN GOD WE TRUST

Our founding fathers believed it!  Our money proclaims it!  Yet there are dissenting voices in our educational, government, and legal systems that are fighting to take God out of our daily lives.

I read a long article recently that said millennials (14 to 34 year olds) biggest issue is trust.  They mostly do not trust anything they read or hear, those writing or speaking.  And, given our financial, governmental and educational leadership, that lack of trust is well deserved.

So who can we trust?  Believe it or not, you can still depend on God just like David did.  He said, “The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped” Ps. 28:7.

Throughout David’s Psalms, he keeps trust as the issue, “The king trusts in the Lord” Ps. 21:7. Even when it came to armies and weapons, as the commander in chief he said, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the Lord our God” Ps. 20:7.

Today we would say, “Some trust in our superior military might and some trust in our strong economy, but…” oops, that is where America puts its trust. 

So, where can we tell the seventy-six million millennials to

go to gain the confidence they need to exist in the 21^st century?  

We could tell them to go back to Sunday School, (that phrase is probably politically incorrect or it simply doesn’t matter) and memorize Proverbs 3:5 & 6, like we did - “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

And if you and I are to find the path to success and fulfillment, and if America is to regain its place in the world, we must all agree with what our dollar bills declare:

                             

IN GOD WE TRUST

Click here to listen to "In God We Trust" from The Continentals 2002 program Live It Up! - and be encouraged! 
https://sites.google.com/site/continentalsmusicsource/home/audio-files/10-In%20God%20We%20Trust.mp3?attredirects=0&d=1

 

PERSEVERANCE - June 23 Today's Perspective

PERSPECTIVES FROM DAVID’S 7 SECRETS

Chapter Two, “Sit at God’s Round Table” pp. 25-28

PERSEVERANCE

You have heard the phrase, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. That’s true, but in other cases where perseverance is necessary, it could just be a matter of continuing to move forward until your goal is reached.

David had one of the tough ones; seven years of running, hiding, doing without, knowing he was called, but dodging disaster until God’s timing, and his, collided and his anointing to become King was achieved.

As he trudged forward through adversity, his attitude was always, “My hope is in You all day long” Ps. 25:5.  He was trusting in God’s timing and determined to never give up.

Because attitude is so important in perseverance, I love what the great baseball home run hitter Babe Ruth once said, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run”. We all want to “hit the home run” in life and reach our goals.

Jesus talked about your calling, and mine, in John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last”.  It’s pretty clear that to achieve our calling, we have to move forward and bear fruit for Him.  On the more difficult side, He mentioned that if we run into some opposition, He expects us to move forward anyway. “And anyone who does not carry his cross (endure the difficulty) and follow me cannot be my disciple”  Luke 14:27.

So, here are my words for each of us on how to persevere: 

stand strong, push through, take the hits, stay focused, take one step and then another, be determined and driven and never give in. 

And if you do all those things, not only will you achieve your calling and your intermediate goals, You can probably also…

                          

CLIMB MT. EVEREST

LOYALTY (being Loyal) - June 22 Today's Perspective

PERSPECTIVES FROM DAVID’S 7 SECRETS

Chapter two, “Sit at God’s Round Table” pp.18-19

FAITHFULNESS (being faithful)

When I think of the great virtues, especially those of the Knights of the Round Table, loyalty to king and country, being loyal to friends and companions, is high on the list, if not number one.

This great descriptive word does not exist in our Bible.  Instead, the verb faithful and the noun faithfulness are used in place of loyal and loyalty.

God is faithful to us and expects it from us in return.  David wrote, “To the faithful, you show yourself faithful” Ps 18:25. In his Psalm 145, he wrote line after line of many of the great virtues God looks for in our hearts.  Verse 13 works for our theme today, “The Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made.”

In the news, we are hearing more and more about Christians having to stand strong and faithful to the moment they are shot and killed.  Recently, students in Oregon and Nairobi paid the ultimate price for their belief in Christ.  And others around the world are facing death every day for being faithful to the Lord.  Jesus’ promise in Revelation 2:10 is worthy to remember right now.  He said, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Hopefully, you and I may never face such a situation.  “But, even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.  Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.  But in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” I Peter 3:14-15

We believe our friends and family will always be loyal and faithful, too, and it is our great pleasure and responsibility to be faithful to them in return.  And, may each of us hear Jesus’ words as we stand before Him someday, as He looks us in the eye and says,

     

“WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT” Matt.25:33

HOW ABOUT YOUR HEART? - June 21, Today's Perspective

PERSPECTIVES FROM DAIVD’S 7 SECRETS

“Prelude” p. XXI

HOW ABOUT YOUR HEART?

Hopefully this past weekend you were being encouraged by a stimulating, scriptural message from the pastor and worshiping the Lord as you let your voice fill the room with a worship chorus like this one by Paul Baloche:

OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART, LORD

OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART

I WANT TO SEE YOU,

I WANT TO SEE YOU

The concern is still about our hearts. Remember, that is where God looks every time.  He is concerned with our motives and our honesty.

Jesus, in Matthew 15:8, quotes from the prophet Isaiah, who was voicing God’s word when he wrote, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship in vain (whoa - God notices!), their teachings are but the rules taught by men.”

That’s the heart of the matter isn’t it?  Jesus is looking at our hearts.  He wants to see a pure heart and a true worshiper.

When I was in college and testing out different churches, one Sunday I found myself in a big charismatic church. They were singing a song that was new to me. The lyrics went like this:

HOW ABOUT YOUR HEART?

IS IT RIGHT WITH GOD?

THAT’S THE THING THAT COUNTS

TODAY

Well, all these years later it is still the big question.  The thing that counts today with God, who is looking past our outward appearance and what our voices are saying, is still what is going on…

ON THE INSIDE

ORDINARY PEOPLE - June 20 Today's Perspective

PERSPECTIVES FROM DAVID’S 7 SECRETS

 Chapter Five “ALL” P. 68

ORDINARY PEOPLE

David was just an ordinary shepherd boy until he experienced God’s call on his life.   Then, he gave his all to that call, and that destiny.  And God was able to say to him later in his life, “….I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my People, Israel.  I have been with you wherever you have gone and I have cut off all your enemies from before you, now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth”.

From the lambs to the Lord.  From the pasture to the palace. How did this amazing circumstance happen?  It happened because He believed God had chosen him, and he was faithful in the small and difficult things God laid out in front of him to do.  He never looked back. And, lots of bad stuff happened for a lot of years.

He wrote Psalm 23 when he was a young man.  It told of the journey he was embarking on for the rest of his life.  From the peaceful green pastures, past the turbulent dark valleys, and naysayers, to the jubilant culmination of his impossible dream. 

The last phrase, verse 6, of this great Psalm embodies his total commitment to God and his calling. “And I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever”.  Stretching out those words, he was saying much more. “…And I will always live to serve You, to accomplish Your plans for my life and to live out my destiny.  All that I am, and all that I will ever be, is Yours forever.”

You also are called and have a destiny.  However small or big your personal world is, that’s where God has placed you to begin.  God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

He can take the smallest, weakest most insignificant one of us, and yet, if we have the same heart commitment as David, He can use us to make an amazing, positive difference in our world.  “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong…”  I Cor. 1:27

In 1978 I recorded a Daniebelle Hall song called “Ordinary People”.  As the Continentals sang it all that summer, it changed their hearts and their commitment…

Just ordinary People

God uses ordinary people.

He chooses people, just like me and you

Who are willing to do as He commands.

God uses people that will give Him all

No matter how small your all may seem to you,

Because little becomes much

As you place it in the Master’s hand.

Let’s face it, you and I are really just ordinary people, but like the song and the scripture says, if we are willing to put our all in His hands…

Ordinary becomes extraordinary!

For a blast from the past, click here to listen to the song "Ordinary People"

https://sites.google.com/site/continentalsmusicsource/home/audio-files/Ordinary%20People-02.mp3?attredirects=0&d=1