Are you a 'son of Issachar?'

1 Chronicles 12:32

from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command;

This verse is in the middle of an account of David's armies amassing.  It is a useful verse but to properly apply it we must make sure we don't think that Israel is 'the church.'  Israel are God's chosen people and so are believers.  However the Church has not replaced Israel as Paul underlines in Romans 9-11.  We must also beware of anyone who wants to categorize believers into the 12/13 tribes.  That would be error.  I see this question as being in the spirit of... With that understanding I want to ask, Are you (like) a son of Issachar who knows what God's chosen people should do? 

In the church it appears that God is separating a remnant for His purposes.  Many are finding that the historical church is not preaching the word of God.  That someone cares this component is present is a telling factor that you want to honor the Lord and His word.    The worship services that repeat choruses forever yet are void of God worship content are getting tiring.  The fellowship that focuses on 'your ministry' over the sacred bond of 'brother and sister' is wearing and exhausting to many.  In the middle of all this those who are sensitive to the above are fearful of being alone so they stick with the hive. 

Of course there are those who don't really care about all this.  Church is actually a measure of where they fit into a social dynamic.  The message from the church has to be more relevant and contemporary than accurate.  Outreach is the fulcrum of the event and winning the lost is what Jesus is solely focused on.  The worship has to mimic the music of their culture and the words describe the construct of 'our worship' instead of ascribing worth to the Creator.  The word of God is shaped and morphed by the safety of keeping the crowd happy.  People aspire to achieve and succeed towards the upper echelon of church society.  Many are identifying this sort of meeting as inauthentic, man-led and mimicking the world it is supposed to be separate from.   

The painful journey from church to church trying to find a 'word-based' gathering get you labelled as a 'spiritual nomad' and whispers of doom come to fuel the enemy's strategy of doubt.  I have some good news for you if this is you.  You can break free from the 'I still haven't found what I'm looking for' inner melody by doing what believers should do.  It is likely you are called out from the mainstream gatherings to meet under the Lord's directives for 'church.'  It's simple...

Get your family together, cook a meal and get some juice and a single loaf.  Open your bibles and discuss some scripture, break the bread, eat the meal with the juice and thank the Lord for his sacrifice and his anticipated return.  From their the Lord will lead you... lo and behold THIS IS CHURCH!   It is how the first Christians met and Paul stated to the Corinthians that they must do this until he comes.   Maybe the Lord will add to your number.  

In doing this you have departed from something that is off track and unrepentant.  You have calibrated your self and family to walking the way the lord always intended it.  I will warn you though that it is a tough road to walk as the other way to do church included crutches we didn't even know we used.   This transition must be Spirit led and prayerful.   It can be disorientating and you will reach out for flesh to somehow help you.  With this is view I am sharing my skype name so that we can chat to people who want to chat over a transition like this.  This is what God's chosen people must do as we reach the end times scenario.  

Skype:  garywardframe   Facetime: gary.ward.c1@gmail.com 

Let's chat over your walk.

Gary Ward

Worry and anxiety?

We all know Jesus said 'do not worry' about anything.  However we do.  Well done if you don't!  I wanted to explore some thoughts around why we worry and can have anxiety.  The ideal place to be as a Christian is entirely rooted sourced and anchored into Christ.  Jesus is in the process of making this possible and sometimes we have good and bad days at this. What are the barriers to Jesus making us free?

As living entities we exist in this world.  To different degrees we are attached to the things of this world.  We are anchored into and depend upon the stuff of earth.  We can have periods of time where we fail and this exposes our need to have a moment by moment walk with the Lord.  Jesus wants us free because He knows that we fail and this causes us pain.  Our dependency on the stuff of earth erodes our faith because when we follow through in that dependency it is always a dead end. Subsequently we can go into a low, a sort of spiritual depression.

As we negotiate these things we can fall into worry.  Worry is the 'now' experience that can lead to anxiety.  Anxiety is more like predicting how the subject of our worry will devastate our lives.  Every worry exists because we are not anchored into Christ.  We are simply not believing-on-purpose His word.  Some have said to me 'I know what the bible says.... I just worry.'  I always say that knowing the text is not the same as having applied it to your own life as a reality.  God has contained in the Bible some examples and stories and direct statements that amount to one thing:

God, your Father longs for you to trust Him for EVERYTHING.

We can afford to disengage from dependencies other that the Lord.  If you've ever had an experience where it seems the Lord was not there for you, you are not alone in FEELING this.  In the sanctifying work of the Lord failure is all part and parcel of the package.  there are things we can learn from Moses, Joseph and Elijah.  They were slapped around pretty good by the Lord.  In each case there was an opportunity to turn to God and question his practices.  I'm sure they all had their moments... for sure.  But the key is to know that the prison, failure, let down, tragedy were all used to break our  dependency on this world.  God has not invented the trouble but He does use it.

Try this:
1. write down your present worry
2. also write down how you feel the thing will impact your future
3. Identify what you are anchored into other than the Lord
4. State what you need to be thinking about the worry
5. Find scriptures that tell you God has it covered.

Generally Psalm 139 / Ephesians 1 and  Matthew 6 of course -

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Gary Ward