"Dry Spells"

By Gobel Brockman

Here's the scene: The children of Israel have been delivered from their Egyptian bondage by God. He is leading them to "The Promised Land". They arrive at the banks of the Red Sea, realizing they can go no further. They look behind them and see the Egyptian army coming for them. Simply put, there's no escape. And God is the One that brought them to this point.

Ever felt that way? Have you ever prayed, "God, I'm trying to do the right thing, and this is my reward?" I'm sure we all have at some point. But God taught them some valuable lessons that day that we can learn from and apply to our own lives:

*He did lead them to this point, and He didn't do it to destroy them, He did it to show His power.
*Their enemy (Egypt) didn't give up easily. Neither will ours.
*God seldom does things the 'easy' way.

I want to focus on that last one for a minute. He could have stopped the enemy in their tracks; He could have taken the children of Israel a different way, but instead, He does the miraculous and parts the Red Sea. We need to remind ourselves as Christians sometimes that what is impossible in our eyes is absolutely nothing to the God of all creation. But there's one more thing I want to look at. Not only did God part the sea, but the Bible says that Israel walked through the sea 'on dry ground'.

We sometimes as Christians refer to seasons of not feeling God's presence as 'a dry spell'. In those times, we're tempted to feel as though God has abandoned us. But just as Israel's 'dry ground' didn't mean God had forgotten about them, neither does He forget us in ours. In fact, look at it this way: their 'dry spell' led them to victory over their enemy. In the same way, our 'dry spell' can lead to greater anointing and revelation - if we don't give up.

If you're in a place right now where you're not feeling God's presence and your prayers seem to be hitting the ceiling and bouncing back, don't lose heart. Your 'dry spell' just means you're on your way to something greater. Just ask the children of Israel - once the get to the other side of the Red Sea.

Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?

By Gobel Brockman

I'm sure you've heard the story about three blind men who were asked to describe an elephant. One grabbed the tail and said an elephant is like a rope; one grabbed a leg and said an elephant is like a tree trunk; the third touched his belly and said an elephant is like a wall. The same animal got three different reactions based on their limited perceptions.

We see that in the church today. Ask people who Jesus is and you'll get a variety of answers. To some He's the one who'll cast you into Hell if you don't get saved. To another He is someone who doesn't really care how you live as long as you're feeding the poor and caring for the homeless while you're doing it. To another He died on the cross to make sure Republicans win elections, and to the next His love totally ignores all sin, so 'anything goes'. Which brings me to a sad conclusion:

We don't really know Him.

Yes, we know about Him. We can tell the story of His miraculous birth. We know how He died on the cross for our sin. We can quote a few Scriptures - especially the ones that seem to back up our preconceived ideas. But we don't know Him. The Apostle Paul, probably the best example of Christianity that ever lived, said in Philippians "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings..." This man had seen people healed, the dead raised, enemies blinded, and yet said 'I want to know Him...'

Yes, Jesus wants us to care for the poor. He does want us to pray for Godly leadership. He wants sinners to know there is hope, but He also wants them to know how vile sin is. And yes, even though we rarely hear it anymore, Hell is still real, and people are still going there. But Jesus is so much more than all of that. God gave a promise through the prophet Jeremiah: "You will seek for Me, and find Me, when you search with all of your heart..." I'm calling on all of us to begin to search for His heart, His ideas, His plans, and His will. May we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

Because we don't really know Him.

Cry Out to Jesus

By Gobel Brockman

I learned an interesting thing as a young parent - kids have different cries for different occasions - the whiny "I'm tired" cry, the angry "I want my way" cry, and the sad "Don't leave" cry. I also learned that different cries deserved different reactions. Sometimes it meant just picking them up and walking them around til they went to sleep, and sometimes it required a strong resolve to let them know that 'their way' wasn't happening and the crying needed to cease.

But I also noticed a completely different cry - the "I'm in pain" cry. Any parent will tell you that hearing that cry has a completely different sound - and gets a completely different reaction. That cry will stop the importance of anything else a parent is doing. At that moment, nothing else matters but fixing the pain. Why? Because a parent's heart is bonded to their child in a way that can't be explained in mere words.

In Psalm 61 David said to the Lord, "I will cry unto thee..." I've noticed in my Christian life that my cries to God have been different as well. Sometimes it's been out of frustration and confusion, sometimes it's simply been "I don't know what else to do." But there have been times when the grief and despair have been overwhelming, and crying out to God has been an act of sheer desperation. There's a Bible verse that says God will not despise a broken and contrite spirit, and I have found that to be true. I think it's a shame that we sometimes treat God - our Heavenly Father - like He doesn't care about our brokenness. We would never desert or ignore the honest, painful cries of our children, but we seem to think God does it to us all the time. How tragic. We will never understand just how deep the Father's love for us is. If we mere human parents can be immediately moved into action by the cries of our children, how much more will a Father Who dwells in perfection come to us in our hour of need?

I believe one of the reasons America's in the mess it's in is because we're not crying out to God. We've either convinced ourselves that He doesn't care, or became so comfortable with the way things are that it doesn't hurt us anymore. May we cry out to God. Because we ARE in pain, and we need our Father to help.