Lions

Who is the lion in your life? Who's strength do you envy? There are those in my own life who represent strength and courage to me. Their reputation is one of faith, boldness, and steadfastness.
But then I think - what price did they pay to become that way? How much pain? How many sleepless nights? How many flies... infections... famines... did that lion endure to become king of the jungle? Cliche', yes, but worth being reminded. Another man's anointing is not to be coveted. With it comes all of the trials aforementioned. And as difficult as it is to be a lion, it's perhaps more confounding to be a lamb.

(Pro 28:1 MKJV) The wicked flee when no man pursues; but the righteous are bold as a lion.

Overcoming A World View

Imagine the world's view of Egypt during the time of the great pharaohs. Everything about that civilization was unparalleled in size and majesty.


The king placed himself upon the same level as the gods.

When America went to war with Iraq, the first campaign was referred to as Shock and Awe. Why? Because you must first win the battle of the mind, and if your enemy is shocked and awed by you, there is very little chance he can overcome you. Should we mention David and Goliath here? The Israelites were awed by Goliath. David was not.

When an enemy of Pharaoh floated down the Nile into Egypt, he was greeted with statues greater than perhaps any creation found in any other culture in the world at that time.

This also had to be overcome by Israel, a people in captivity, before they could escape the clutches of Egypt. This had to be overcome before they would even 'consider' escape. Pharaoh was great. So how great were the signs that God performed through Moses? How mighty would they have had to be to reassure a beaten-down people? Note this: it took God Himself to free the people. The world view is hopelessness and impossibility. God had to do it, and He did.

As we float down the 'Nile' of life and we encounter the statues built by world-powers, are we able to see them through God's eyes, or are we awed by them?

Unclean vs Common

Act 10:11-15 MKJV
(11) And he saw the heaven opened and a certain vessel like a sheet coming down to him, being bound at the four corners and let down to the earth;
(12) in which were all the four-footed animals of the earth, and the wild beasts, and the reptiles, and the birds of the heaven.
(13) And a voice came to him, saying, Rise, Peter! Kill and eat!
(14) But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
(15) And the voice spoke to him again the second time, What God has made clean, you do not call common.

This is a confusing passage. God is teaching Peter a lesson about love and avoiding prejudice. The Torah is very specific about clean versus unclean (Greek akathartos), but what exactly is 'common' (Greek koinos)?

That which was unclean in a Levitical sense was to be abstained from; avoided altogether. Lepers were unclean. Those things which were common were things 'unhallowed' or ordinary. To the Jewish mind of that period, anything 'heathen' or Gentile was common, but not necessarily unclean.

God is telling Peter not to call cleansed things common. He is not saying that He has cleansed unclean things. The disconnect was that the Jews had placed Gentiles in the common category, despite the fact that the Torah never classified Gentiles as either unclean or common. In fact, Paul wrote "there is nothing common of itself" (Rom 14:14). Torah specifically says:

Lev 19:34 MKJV
(34) The stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.

The Jews relied on an oral law - one passed along from generation to generation. This was not written down and many had their own 'takes' on this law. Peter said this:
Act 10:28 MKJV
(28) And he said to them, You know that it is an unlawful thing for a man, a Jew to keep company with or to come near to one of another nation. But God has shown me not to call any man common or unclean.

By 'unlawful', Peter referred to the oral law, as Torah said no such thing. The mingling of seeds was forbidden according to Torah, and so was the mixing of nations (intermarriage with heathen nations), as Israel was a Holy Nation. Oral law, however, took this further than God did.

Act 10:34-35 MKJV
(34) Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly I see that God is no respecter of persons;
(35) but in every nation he who fears Him and works righteousness is accepted with Him.

Prayer Goals

Have you ever had prayers that you've prayed so long that they've become more like 'prayer goals'? God obviously didn't answer overnight, or the next, so the prayer gets repeated. We know in our spirit that God wants to answer it, but.... still no. Eventually, we begin to think of the answer as always being sometime in the future.

"Lord, just help me to get completely out of debt." Are you still praying that one? Or how about "Lord, I ask you to reach my lost friend today."

What if it's not God's intent to answer at some future date? What if God is waiting on us?

What if the affirmative answer to every one of our prayer goals hinges upon us stepping into something that we have always been afraid to step into?

Could it be that the answer to our debt problem is giving more? Could it be that God has been trying to reach our lost friends - using our hands?

God Himself spoke through David and acknowledged that our days are like chaff in the wind - here one minute, gone the next. He is more of a "right now" God than we like to admit. If you find yourself often reminding God of things you already know He would like to do, reassess the situation. Is He waiting on us?