CROSS OVER
"That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok."
Genesis 32:22

Over the past few days I have been thinking about a few important people in my life. Recently I felt encouraged to write them a letter. As I began writing, I began to see you, the reader, in my mind. I began to wonder how many of us may be going through the same frustrations and issues as those dear to me. With that in mind, I felt I was to share the body of my letter with you, in hopes that you would also be encouraged.

"I wanted to take a moment and give you a little encouragement. I am by no means trying to sound 'preaching', but I have noticed that you are struggling with where God is in your current situation. So I prayed and felt God was laying a few topics and verses on my heart as a reminder to you.
"First, do not let the fire die. We both at one time had a deep passion for God. We knew He was real and we knew we wanted to be used by Him. What I have learned over the past two years today as an officially divorced guy, is that all the desires and dreams God gave me back as a child I still have today. If I let my passion for God die, then I let my passion for who God has created me to be also die. Sure, life is hard. I will never know the exact problems and issues that you are currently facing. But I do know mine. I do know that when life seemed bleak and I wanted to die, God gave me the strength to keep going on. I also know that as I rested in His strength, He began to make me again.
"That feeds into the second point I have been hearing God say. He is making things new. You have the hope and promise of a new place, just as Israel had the hope and promise of the Promised Land. It is real, and it will really happen. This place will define you and who God is calling you to be. Please do not get discouraged that it has not happened yet, for God makes all things good in His time. But again, rest in Him. God will use the weeks that follow to prepare you for what He has for you once there. Allow Him to work on you. Do not doubt Him or what He is doing behind the scenes. We are not God; we see through a dirty lens. It looks terrible now, but God is making something new. The bitter tears and clouds of sorrow now, will become the steps God uses.
"I also feel that God is not done with you. You have lost some of who you are, but God has not lost or forgotten you. Again, He is working behind the scenes. But I also feel to mention that all the qualities you may look at as the negatives right now, such as age, location, present situations, they are not obstacles to God. I have been there myself. I contemplate at times, who will want a guy with a rap sheet like mine, years of bondage, fear of rejection, old-er, divorced, kids. Do girls even take a second look knowing all that I have/had. But God is showing me that He is not done. I am reminded of Moses. He left the 'fun' (Heb 11:25) and look what God did with him. We are not to sell ourselves short, for in so doing we are belittling our God. On the heels of this thought I feel encouraged to share with you Jude 3, contend for the faith, and verse 20, build yourselves up in the faith. Yes, we are getting smacked around, but it is no time to sit and take it. It is time to remember who we are in Christ and live it.
"The last point I feel to share with you comes from Genesis 32:22. 'That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.' The river Jabbok is only mentioned 7 times in the Bible. Why is this one so important for me to bring it up? Because all the other 6 times it is mentioned it states that the person only came up to it. Here, the person crossed it. It is time for us to cross over into what God is doing. We have come close many times, but have turned back in fear, pressure, or other obstacles. But this time let us not shrink back but cross over. The land we leave behind is only holding us down. The land the lies ahead is the Promised Land that God has for us. Do not lose the passion, do not listen to the enemy about how worthless he thinks you are, and do not consider yourself done. It is time to cross over."

Now I ask you. Are you swallowed up in your problems and think that surrendering to them is the answer? Then I say to you just as to my friends, God is not done. He is still making you, and shaping you. No, pain is not fun. But after the pain is gone, our eyes are opened to the benefit from the pain. I encourage you to stop coming up to the Jabbok and turn in fear. Stop thinking yourself worthless, that you have nothing to offer, that the world would benefit from your absence. It is high time we cross the Jabbok and live. Cross the Jabbok, and join me ON THE VANGUARD!

YOU USED TO...
"But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted."
Romans 6:17

I would not say that I have ever had a weight issue, but I will admit that my weight has fluctuated over the years. When I graduated high school I weighed 145. When I came home from college for winter break my freshman year, I had doubled the freshman 15, then weighing 175. When I married in 1998 I weighed 155 thanks to a more healthy diet and lifestyle. Over the past twelve years I have maxed out at 180 and gotten as low as 150. Currently I am 160. Now this may be more than you care to know about me, but the point I want to make is concerning who I used to be. I used to be considered obese for my height. Now I am considered slightly overweight and am working again toward a healthy lifestyle.
Paul is addressing the Romans here in chapter 6 on the topic of grace. He shared that sin was not meant to be our master. Our baptism into Christ and resurrection with Christ gives us power over sin. Because of this, we are encouraged to offer our bodies not as instruments of wickedness and slaves to sin, but instead as instruments of righteousness.
I love Paul's charge in Romans 6:15. "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" Paul later in verse 23 shares that the cost for sin is death. But in the middle of both these verses Paul writes the words...USED TO BE.
...You used to be a slave to sin...verse 17
...You used to offer your body to sin...verse 19
We are people, saved by God's grace, who have been forgiven of our past. However, forgiveness without change is just lip service. Going back to my weight, I can say I want to lose weight. Until I make the effort, however, I am only making noise.
Paul encourages us to look at who we were. Is it worth going back to? Is it worth the risk to my health to be obese? Is it worth the risk to another marriage to bring pornography back into my life? Is it worth the failure as a parent to leave a legacy for my children that shows them that sin is permissible? By no means! Then I must be one who keeps the past in check as a learning tool and testimony of who I used to be. I thank God I am not that Dan anymore, but rather a new creation in Christ; not a slave to sin, but rather an active joint heir with Christ.
Who did you used to be? Who are you now? Put away the old enslaved lifestyle and join me ON THE VANGUARD!