Life is full of adjustments…you just hafta deal with them.”
              –Lou Bradshaw  (Ace High)

    “And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.”
              –Matthew 10:38 (HCSB)
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Have you heard some of the complete nonsense coming from the mouths of pseudo-leaders?  Some of the things they are saying are completely absurd.  I guess absurdity knows no end.  People are listening and being duped.  There is a sense of delusion floating through the country.  People are losing hope and are grasping at outright lies and absurdities.  When I was a kid I used to wonder how in the world people would believe what the Antichrist would say.  But looking at what I’m seeing now it wouldn’t take much.
    Vision propels us.  People look forward and are motivated primarily by hope.  People now, instead of working hard, instead of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps are clamoring for more, more, more.  More of what?  They don’t know they just want more.  Achieving the dream is no longer necessary, they wanted it handed to them on a platter, and a silver one no less.  People tend to focus on the blessings of the moment.  Realize that those blessings soon fade.  And they want another one.
    What have you thought recently about heaven?  How far in the future is it in your mind?  Folks don’t think much of heaven.  It has been said that people don’t think of heaven because that requires one to think of death and if they think of death then their happiness will be destroyed.  But folks, look at the hope of heaven.  Death isn’t an obstacle, it is a gateway.  But then, we are too preoccupied with being happy here.
    We search for satisfaction, here, in the now, on this earth.  We don’t realize that this earth offers no real satisfaction.  That idea is another one of the devil’s deceptions.  True meaning and happiness in this life are subject to meaning and happiness in the next.  Ted Dekker wrote, “It is by fixing our eyes on the light of eternity that we see clearly the pleasures of this life.”
    To think of heaven should bring hope and expectation, not despair and glumness.  Think about heaven.  Life is about heaven.  As the Lord prepares a home for us, so we should also be preparing ourselves to see it and get ready to live in it.  Heaven is the great vision and pleasure.  God is there.  The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, eases the path between this life and the next.  In that process one of the greatest gifts He offers is that of hope.
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There is a moment of celebration to be taken.  On my website yesterday was posted my 1000th blog.  Can you imagine?
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This day in the Texas Revolution:  King, Ward and the Texas attempt to fall back to Victoria.

It [the wilderness] was no place for a fellow who didn’t have a lot of sand in his craw and a boundless store of hope in the heart.”
              –Ernest Haycox  (A Rider of the High Mesa)

    “Then they will heed your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, ‘The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.'”
              –Exodus 3:18 (NKJV)
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I’m in the process of slowly reading through Exodus and then in my devotions just before the campfire dies down at night I’m reading Exodus.  I have also been perusing stories and writings of some of the renown leaders of the church and in the Bible.  The more I study, the more I read, the more I seek the face of the Lord–the more I’m convinced that there is an acceptable way of worship.
    Is the place important?  Well, yes and no.  I would say a person would not/could not worship at a rock concert or any concert for that matter.  I doubt it could happen at a sporting event, a bar, or nightclub.  So there is a place to meet with God, or better for God to meet with you.  Is it a church building?  It could be, and it should be, but that is not always the case.  It could be in the great cathedral of His creation.
    Let’s take a further look at where Moses wanted to take the people of Israel to worship–the wilderness.  This was not just on the edge, a place where the wilderness was a backdrop.  Oh, no, it was a three-day journey, deep into the wilderness.  See, God does not dwell in temples made with hands (Acts 17:24) though He could (i.e., the Tabernacle and the Temple).
    The wilderness may suggest danger, it may also beckon you to come closer, to come nearer.  Moses requested of Pharaoh that the Israelites be allowed to enter so they could offer sacrifices to God.  There is more truth here than what is seemingly on the surface.  Cannot one worship God anywhere?  Isn’t it more comfortable in a nice building?  The issue is that the wilderness demands attentiveness and sacrifice, diligence and solitariness, endurance and fulfillment.  To enter the wasteland of the wilderness may be to die to self so that you may live unto God.  Maybe that is the allusion that Paul leaves in Romans 12:1-2, to become, now, a living sacrifice.
    I have pondered many times why the Israelites had to go to the wilderness to meet with God and offer sacrifices to Him there.  Could they not have done this in the safety of Egypt?  Maybe it was because they could not properly meet with God in that location.  Possibly the atmosphere “of the world” would be a great hindrance to them; that part of worship required them to come apart and be separate.  In Scripture, Egypt often represents “sin” or “the world”; it was a place of bondage and oppression.  Is there a part of the world involved when you try to worship?
    When the world and the things of the world get into the church it hinders true worship.  Oh, a golden calf might not be set up but people cannot worship God in the manner and methods of Baal.  Israel learned that the hard way.  Check, do that inventory, and see it there are any practices of “Egypt” that you are embracing when trying to offer a proper sacrifice to God.  Meditate deeply on Romans 12:2, “And do not be CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that GOOD and ACCEPTABLE and PERFECT WILL of God.” (NKJV, emphasis added)  That word “acceptable” alone indicates that there is an acceptable way to worship the Lord.
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Today in the Texas Revolution:  The Mexicans are repelled at Refugio as William Ward’s troops arrive to aid the Texas.  The battle continues.  More people flee in the Runaway Scrape.

You cannot submit to evil without allowing evil to grow.  Each time the good are defeated, or each time they yield, they only cause the forces of evil to grow stronger.  Greed feeds greed, and crime grows with success.  Our giving up what is ours merely to escape trouble would only create the greater trouble for someone else.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (A Man Called Noon)

    “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live—after that they go to the dead.”
              –Ecclesiastes 9:3 (HCSB)
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Let me ask a question before we look at today’s Psalm.  What does the Lord mean to you/me now compared to ten years ago?  Through his life David had come to know the Lord personally in many ways.  How well do you know Him?  We should know Him in our weakness and we should know Him in our strength.  We should see Him as Creator and the Almighty God, but also as the true Friend that sticks closer than a brother.  Robert Grant put it this way:

         “Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
          In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail;
          Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
          Our Make, Defender, Redeemer and Friend.”

Here is another thought.  Imagine, if you can, some of your ancestors.  How good was God to them?  Some of them you may know, but what about a generation earlier or further back?  Were they scoundrels or followers of the Lord?  Now, back to the present; would your children and grandchildren rejoice in how you know the Lord?  Can they see, do they know how good He has been to you?

    1  I love You, Lord, my strength.
    2  The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my mountain where I seek refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
    3  I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I was saved from my enemies.
    4  The ropes of death were wrapped around me; the torrents of destruction terrified me.
    5  The ropes of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
    6  I called to the Lord in my distress, and I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry to Him reached His ears.

    Back in the silent era of movies there was a move called “The Perils of Pauline.”  Poor Pauline, she is a beauty, but she is always being chased by a dastardly man who captures her and ties her up.  Maybe you would do better thinking of the cartoon, “Dudley Do-Right” who is there to untie the fair maiden before death comes to her.  This is the situation David writes about.
    He knows where he is safe, but he ventures a way and is “roped” and hog-tied.  Death, destruction, Sheol (Hell) were wrapped around him; there was no escape.  The RSV puts verse 4 this way, “the torrents of perdition.”  Perdition, here, means Belial.  The sons of Belial were local, violent, evil-minded gangster types who were willing to assault or murder for kicks or for cash.  David had a rope around his neck and was being pulled to the depths by these thugs.  But then…  He cried out to the Lord and his cry reached the Lord’s ears.  It wasn’t Dudley Do-Right to the rescue, but the Lord God Almighty.
    This is a dangerous world in which we live.  There is danger all around us, much of which we ignore or don’t think about (such as driving on a freeway).  Physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dangers are there.  However, we have security in the dangerous world.  Look at the following thoughts from George A.F. Knight.

         1)  The Lord is my strength–He enables me to live a live of love to others in my turn.
         2)  God is my Rock.
         3)  A fortress was a place where one regained one’s breath and initiative to continue on as a soldier should.  (Remember, David was a soldier, a warrior).
         4)  His Deliver had saved him from enemies in the past and that gave him peace.
         5)  Notice:  “My God”, this is no human savior.
         6)  Rock, another term, a cleft, a place to take refuge.
         7)  A shield that provided full bodily protection.
         8)  David knows what it is to grasp hold of the altar–there is safety there.
         9)  The stronghold was a giant fortress on top of a mountain or precipice.

David had a good grasp of who the Lord was.  He had seen Him in action before.  He took comfort and sought solace in the Rock of his salvation, and received deliverance and peace.
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This day in the Texas Revolution:  Houston arrives in Gonzales, takes command and begins his retreat.  This precipitates the Runaway Scrape.  Houston orders Fannin to fall back from Goliad.