Great article I found on web...
To every Christian, who are you in the eyes of God? A grasshopper believer or faith-filled believer? Read on...
30Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it."31But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." 32And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
Numbers 13:30-33 NKJV
30But Caleb tried to encourage the people as they stood before Moses. "Let’s go at once to take the land," he said. "We can certainly conquer it!" 31But the other men who had explored the land with him answered, "We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!" 32So they spread discouraging reports about the land among the Israelites: "The land we explored will swallow up any who go to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt like grasshoppers next to them, and that’s what we looked like to them!"
Numbers 13:30-33 The Message
As a person who struggles with a chronic illness that seems to take me from walkers to wheelchairs and back again regularly, occasionally I deal with something I call, "The Grasshopper Syndrome." Many have suffered from this ailment along life’s road.
According to Scripture, the children of Israel had spies go out from among them to explore the Promised Land and after the spies reported back, they found themselves similarly afflicted with this "disease." The spies had ventured out to take a look at things and though the land was plenty with sustenance like they had never seen before, they were unable to truly see it. Why? Because they immediately focused on their enemy. The longer they looked at their opposition, the bigger they became. Soon their faith in the Jehovah Who had brought them out of the bondage of Egypt, was swallowed up. With it went their ability to believe that they could indeed conquer and possess the land.
They were definitely suffering from "The Grasshopper Syndrome." They no longer saw themselves as mighty men of war or God’s chosen people, but instead referred to themselves as "grasshoppers." Grasshoppers are fairly harmless little bugs that often get stepped on unless they quickly hop away. Israel’s confidence in God and in themselves as His children quickly evaporated. Strangely enough, they were quickly convinced that their opponents saw them just as they were seeing themselves and in that vein of thinking, they may have been right.
Let’s take my current situation for example. I have an injured left foot and an injured right hand. Bilateral injuries like mine are very devastating because all balance is lost, and it is very difficult to remain steady on one foot. I can choose to call myself "a cripple," or I can instead say that I am "temporarily inconvenienced." I can say that I am "unable to do anything because of the tremendous obstacles," or I can say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Grasshoppers see everything around them as being bigger than them. The child of God sees God as being around everything, which makes every thing around them grow incredibly small.
When we act like a grasshopper, others see us that way. When we act like a faith-filled believer ready to conquer in Jesus’ Name, we are seen just that way. No matter how big that obstacle is in your life, the Holy Spirit—which is resident in you—is more powerful. Your Father in Heaven is bigger than any devil you will ever face. The King of Kings and Lord of Lord—in whose image you were created—is the same Almighty One Who lives in you.
Should you run into enemies today as you travel on towards your "Promised Land," (Heaven) remember the promises of God regardless of the giants (various problems in life). You are not a grasshopper…so don’t behave like one! Reflect His image as He brings you through to that place of rich fulfillment. You are destined for great things in God — do not settle for anything less.
6 comments:
When we have no
God
hope
faith
love
guidance
challenges
Holly
Hi Holly,
Thanks for your comments.. Amen! Without God, without hope, without faith, without love, without allowing Him to guide us, without facing all challenges in life:
God will not be pleased!!
Hebrews 11:6
Mark,
Or can anyone tell me how to point out to a brother and-or sister in Christ of mine that there's no place for a Christian to teach God's Word if he or she has not put their faith into practice?
This Grasshopper blog hits home in our church and I'm struggling to help one of our teachers to put his faith into practice. Let me give you an example.
If a teacher tells us to overcome life's adversity, then he should do the same. But this teacher doesn't. If a teacher tells us to keep our life holy but goes out with a cigarette, what does that mean to the world? If a teacher teaches about living with unwavering faith but is depressed, shouldn't he step back and focus on his own life?
Didn't Jesus say that before we go out and be an influence, we are to check our own life? All I can think of is the story of Jesus with 'sawdust and log'.
Mark sent us a blog about Dr. Ben Lerner so you can forward this blog to one of your Christian friends. I believe it is applicalbe to everyone!
Frankly, all of us have weaknesses so we need God to fight against giants in our lives. We also need our Christian brothers or sisters to hold us accountable when we have bondages or obstacles that need to be broken through our prayers. We can't have our own will to break down the strongholds without God's help.
I learned last week that as followers of Christ, we need to confess to God our inability to do in our strength and need to reply on the power of the Holy Spirit everyday to resist our fleshy passions and to focus Jesus Christ as the number one love of our life. We are to become God's Living Epistles (2 Corinthians 3:2,3 (KJV)by seeking God's face.
Mark has written many good blogs regarding setting good examples of being God-loving Christians who obey the Word. I hope you can explore all of his blogs and maybe you can forward them to your friends.
Holly
Hey everyone on Earth,
Listen, everyone -- every person on Earth is not Perfect. The word Perfect is 100.00 percent. No one !!!!! Even famous Christian leaders, even including Mark, Rev. Falwell, Rev. Robertson, all other famous people who lead for Jesus Christ. NO ONE IS PERFECT.
That's means that everyone on Earth is ALWAYS 99.99 percent OR LESS. Not Perfect.
As you mentioned about The Teacher who secretly go outside for cigarette smoke, or The Teacher who actually is depressed, or all others who may have something not perfectly "impaired" anything !!! Okay, think about that way ... they are not perfect regardless. The worshippers (in theory) sometimes are LOOKING for "closest-to-perfect" leadership to follow things for our Dear Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. THE TRUTH is their "aim" will always, in fact, become into failure -- worse than any "regular" worshippers who just want to follow STRAIGHTFORWARDLY to the Lord !!! Therefore, you see in Media news, all kinds of news coming all over, the "too-trying-too-hard" worshippers will "shock off" because of the REALITY.
You see.... I don't follow that SYSTEM.... because it will fall out LOT WORSE. I rather come to church and THINK OF LORD straightforwardly. The leadership people SHOULD ONLY REPRESENT to make the church keep-going efforts ONLY. Like BE FRIENDLY, say HI-HI-Hi etc, even suppose, for example, I wear ugly clothes, etc etc. The church should show "representative" for the Lord.
That's very simple !!!! No need of "Christian Drama" like in Soap Opera on TV. Not Necessary !!!!!
Just pray 24 hours anytime, whatever you wanna think as you move along in every minute. Your hearts still beats, beats, beats, like being alive. The Lord give you all "alive" as you go.
CHEERS AND BE HAPPY. It doesn't matter if The Teacher should "score" 99.99 or 85.89 or 75.04 or 69.99 percent. Its only as we all feel comfortable as the Lord GIVE YOU.
Praise Lord Always,
Anonymous (I can be "any person on Earth" as I can be friendly NO MATTER WHAT).
Anonymous,
Thanks for your post. And thanks to others who have made comments that might help you work with the "Teacher".
First of all, our attitude must be the same as that of Christ Jesus. It is found in Philippians 2:5. In addition to this, the very same book, chapter but in verse 3, "Consider others better than yourselves." When you look at your teacher, you are to look at his/her heart, not what he/she has done. You are to feed that heart with the very Word of God and allow the Word (and God) to transform it. Transformation is God's business, not ours.
Secondly, in relation to attaining the "attitude of Christ", do you picture Christ smoking outside of the temple after preaching a good message about how to "care for the temple of God (which is in us)? :) No. I don't think so. Of course, smoking is a nasty habit, and I mentioned that in my previous blog, "Healthy Temple". It all depends on how long he's been smoking or if he just started smoking, what's the real reason? Surely, it's not the best example plus the "second hand smoking" we get when we pass by the "smoking area".
Third, in the Old Testament, alot of leaders have weaknesses and strengths. Often, God passes the Kingdom keys on to the next new King. Like one anonymous comment that no one is perfect. Yes, and thank God! But that doesn't give us a "license to sin" or "license to fall, fall, fall". We are conquerors of God (NIKAO). That's why I call this blog, The Nike Formula!! We're soldiers! We're to be mighty warriors of God. Instead, we're sulking in our homes drowning in a sea of wine and doing other bad habits like smoking. As for signs of depressions, I agree that the teacher ought to take time away from the pulpit and get his/her life back on track because everyone is looking up to the leader who leads.
I would prefer to be with a strong and mighty warrior when I go to battle instead of a worrisome and timid one. But, there may be a leader whom have the attitude of humility, quietness, and tact. Just look for some great characters out of a person whom may eventually be great leaders for God.
I can write you a book about that but I believe you will need to talk to the teacher if you haven't done so. Express your love and concern for him/her. Encourage him/her. Give him/her your advice. And we'll see how that goes.. :)
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