Loving and Serving His Word - Daily Readings for Inspiration and Growth

Reading for June 17

Don't Lower Your Sails!

by Dave Quintana - Servants of the Word

Many years ago, I had the blessing of spending a couple weeks of holiday at a beach house in the Philippines. Among other fun toys and interesting diversions was a board (and sail) for windsurfing. I'd seen someone zipping effortlessly across the water once so I figured that that would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. So I dragged it to water's edge, paddled out to chest depth and then tried to stand up (which seemed to me a logical first step towards "zipping across the water"). This is when the challenge began. Standing on the silly board bobbing in the waves was no small feat. And this is just the beginning! Then of course you grab the rope lying in the water connected with the mast and sail (also lying in the water, in fact … lying FULL of water). So the theory is that you gently (yeah, sure, right) pull the rope so that the sail is emptied of its approximately 2 tons of water. If you are fortunate enough to get the sail emptied and upright, then you must negotiate getting the cross bar into your hands (did I mention that you are bobbing incessantly in the water?) and pulled towards you so that the sail catches the wind (at which point you begin to hurtle out of control in the last moments of your earthly existence!). This is where the whole process becomes seriously life-threatening, such that if you are an idiot novice like me the only reasonable conclusion (not that you have time to reason of course) is to let go of the sail. "No!!" Now I have to begin all over again! The point is this, in Hebrews we are told to "not shrink back". The nautical term used literally means, "don't lower your sails!" You and I, fellow Christian, must never commit the Hebrew's and the windsurfer's greatest mistake of lowering our sails when we begin to experience the raw power of the wind (spirit) taking us where it wills!

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. Heb 10:35-39 ESV

Daily Meds from the Q Source
by Dave Quintana, published byTabor House, 2012

Dave Quintana's daily meditations and Bible readings to stir our minds and kindle our hearts in 2013. He explores themes important to all who search to be wise men and women in the Lord, and provides a wealth of personal experience from living and ministering in Central America, Asia, Europe, and the United States. Expect to be challenged. Expect to be inspired. Expect to meet the living and loving God. 

Dave Quintana is the Presiding Elder of the Servants of the Word, a missionary brotherhood of men living single for the Lord. He currently lives in Detroit, Michigan.

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