Josh Turner

Judges 7:2

The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her

God has a way of revealing things to me in just the right time, I guess that’s one of the things that makes Him God.  Well, a couple of days ago I was driving to work thinking about how much I need another staff member and how I could do so much more in FUSE and Sub30 if I just had another staff member to help with stuff.  I then let my mind start wandering on all that I didn’t have instead of all that I did have and found myself getting in a bad mood.  So, I asked God why He had not given me another staff member yet, I was informing Him on all the other awesome stuff I could do with someone else’s help.  Then it happened, God reminded me of the scripture that is listed above…..He was telling me that if He were to give me another person right now that any growth, any additional health, or any improvements in the ministry would quickly be claimed by me and my ego…..It was God telling me that before He can trust me with more He needs to be able to trust that I depended on Him more than the talents He has given me.

Not for one second do I not think that God gets pleasure from seeing me or any of us operate in our strengths, but I think it does concern Him when we trust in those strengths instead of Him.  I felt that at this time He was just telling me to trust more in Him and not my strengths…..Most of the time I am educated beyond my own obedience.

At work this past week we found out that our medical insurance was going up in price and there was going to be a change in benefits, for the worse.  Now, you could say yeah that is just the state of our health care and you would be partly right, but the main reason that our churches health insurance is going up in price is because of Riley.  So, in this meeting I knew that when really no one else did and even if they did know it they weren’t thinking about her or blaming us for the situation.  However, through tears I apologized and thanked all of our amazing staff members and pastors for sacrificing for my family and my beautiful daughter…….

Later that day I was walking to my office when I heard a staff member turn a corner and make a comment about how much money he would have to pay now for doctor bills, I immediately thought that he was talking crap about me and my family.  I started getting really upset and formulating a response to this person if he were to ever say anything to me about the situations.  I mean I was going to reference so many different situations which would have showed this person how unfair his feelings were and how wrong he was for feeling this way…..Then it happend my phone wrong and it was the staff member.  I was sure that he was getting ready to tell me how unfair the situation was for him and his family, but what I heard was so much different then what I expected.  He told me how he felt like I should not have even apologized in the meeting and that it is out of my control and that he loves me and my family.  He then went on to tell me how he thought insurance in America is so jacked up and that he is glad that he is able to help my family…..I was speechless

See what I learned in this is that satan wanted to take my own insecurities and concerns and turn them on me.  He wanted me to condem myself because of our situation with Riley and also get angry at my friend who didn’t say anything at all.  He wanted me to let my mind run on all the things that I thought were said and get offended….Satan is a punk who is looking to do nothing more than destroy us….Watch for his schemes

I am not sure if there has ever been a greater leader in our nation then Abraham Lincoln, recently I have been learning about some of his leadership techniques and one of them really got my attention.  

Lincoln made it a practice in his life to reflect on himself and his weaknesses so that they would not over take him and bring his downfall.  In a book called Lincoln on Leadership author Philipps writes this about Lincoln….

All human beings have their weaknesses, but not all of us realize them, come to grips with them, or offset their negative impact.  As a group whose primary endeavor is interacting with other people, leaders must accomplish the paradoxical task of managing their darkside.  

Honest Abe was a man that knew he had a darkside in his leadership and because of that was able to focus on offsetting those dark qualities. One of the things that he did which really spoke to me was, he never allowed his anger to show in public.  Instead of allowing his anger to show he would write a leader to the person or persons that angered him and hold on to it reading it periodically over time until his anger subsided, then he would throw it away.  It just made me think of myself and how many times I have allowed my anger to show and make situations so much worse…….

Maybe I need to look into my darkside?…..maybe we all do 

Last night was one of those night where God completely moved and did what only He could do.  I love it when God comes in and changes our plans to do what He wants because what I have learned is that Gods plans are so much better than mine. 

The thing that I have learned is that as a pastor and a preacher I have got to be sensitive to the tuggings and direction of the Holy Spirit during the message.  There have been more times than I can count where my planned message has changed and morphed in to something else as it is being preached and that is all God and never me.  The cool thing about these changes is that almost everytime it has happened it has been for someone that is there in the room. 

Last night that happened and the results were salvations and freedom in Christ.  It was awesome