Author: Randy Elster

Punch Fear in the Face and Escape Average! [Reading Challenge 2016]

Do you have a dream? Do you want to do work that matters? Do you want to escape average and live in the world of awesome?

To do it, you need to do one thing: just START!

Last night my Reading Challenge group met to discuss the March book: Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, Do Work That Matters by Jon Acuff (Brentwood, Tennessee: Lampo Press, 2013).

This book fit perfectly into our group’s theme for the year: Courage.

It’s easy to think about a dream, to plan it, to talk it to death. But it takes great courage to just start.

And many times starting is not about doing something incredible, like performing on stage for the first time at a huge concert venue. But it’s something small and mundane, like scheduling 30 minutes a day to practice guitar.

Want to be paid for speaking in front of thousands? Maybe it starts with speaking in front of ten, or joining a speech club. Want to get ripped? Maybe it starts by joining a gym and getting up earlier. Want to be an expert on Guatemalan tree frogs? Maybe it starts by checking some books out of the library.

Do not despise the day of small beginnings (Zechariah 4:10).

Maybe your first step is to read Start. Practically everyone in the group said that this was not the type of book they would have picked up on their own. But they all got a lot out of this book and were encouraged to not let their dreams be dreams.

I highly recommend this book, whether you are looking to start something new, or just want to be better at what you do. You will be encouraged and challenged by it.

By the way, our group’s next book for the month of April is Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown. We will meet on April 27 at NorthStar Church to discuss the book. Let me know if you want to join us! Email me at randy dot elster at northstarchurch dot org.

5 things you need to know about God’s will

God’s will is always a hot topic of discussion. As Christians, we want to know God more and we want to know His will for specific areas of our lives. This includes the big decisions of our lives—who to marry, where to work—as well as the small.

As you seek to know more of God and His will for your life, here are five things you need to know from Deuteronomy 29:29-30:15.

ONE  God wants to reveal Himself and His will to you.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

—Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV

There are secret things that we will never know or understand here on earth. There are things I can’t understand, like cancer’s devastation of people I love, or the Alzheimer’s that consumed my mom. There are questions that cannot be answered. I also believe that, even when I get to heaven, although I will know and see much more clearly than I do now, there will still be some mysteries due to the fact that God is God and I am not.

But, having said that, there are some secret things that God wants to reveal to me here on earth. And I think there are things that He reveals only to believers. Paul says that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18 NIV). It’s as if scales fall from our eyes as God reveals Himself to us, but only when we turn to Him.

God wants to reveal Himself to you, if you will only turn to Him.

TWO  God reveals Himself to you for one reason: so you can obey.

. . . that we may follow all the words of this law.

—Deuteronomy 29:29b NIV

There is a danger as God reveals Himself to us. If we are not careful, we can just build up more and more knowledge of God and never do anything with it. This can lead to pride, like some of the religious leaders of Jesus’s day. As Paul said, “knowledge puffs up” (1 Corinthians 8:1 NIV).

Deuteronomy 29:29 makes it clear that the reason God reveals Himself and His will to us is so we can obey what He is revealing to us.

The purpose of Bible study is not to gain more knowledge, but to gain more obedience.

Be careful that you don’t just gain more factual knowledge, but ask God to show you His will and then be careful to obey.

As Charles Swindoll says, “What you know is one thing, but what you do with your knowledge defines your character and establishes your reputation.”

THREE  When God reveals His will to you, He also gives you the strength to do it.

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

—Deuteronomy 30:11-14 NIV

What God is calling you to do may at times seem difficult. But these verses explain that He really is not calling you to do something outside the realm of possibility.

God will not call you to do something you cannot do. Whatever He calls you to do, He will also give you the strength and courage to do.

Even if it seems impossible, with God all things are possible.

FOUR  Obedience comes easier when we keep His Word closer.

No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

—Deuteronomy 30:14

The key to obedience can be found in this verse: Keep His Word very near to you: “in your mouth and in your heart.” Meditate and speak His Word over your life.

When we keep His Word close—when we hear it, read it, study it, meditate upon it, memorize it, speak it, sing it—we begin to find that His Word speaks to us and guides us and makes it easier to obey.

Obedience comes easier when we keep His Word closer.

FIVE  We always have a choice—but one way leads to life abundant, and the other way leads to death and destruction.

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.

—Deuteronomy 30:15 NIV

We always have a choice. We have a choice whether or not to be in relationship with God. We have a choice each time God asks us to obey.

Our salvation is not dependent on our obedience. It’s only dependent on God’s grace. But our salvation is lived out in obedience.

And our obedience could mean the difference between life and death for someone else. Eternity depends on how obedient we are or are not.

In the end, it matters not how much you know, but how much you obey.

God wants you to know Him and to know His will. Draw close to Him, keep His Word close, and listen. And remember that what He commands you to do, He will also give you the strength to do it.