Harsh Reality - The Desert!

Nothing is glamorous about the desert. All those pictures we see of sand dunes looking so romantic and real. Palm trees. Oasis. Shifting sands. Camels. In reality, look to your right. This is the desert and this is what I see in part on the way to Dubai from Abu Dhabi....nothing........as far as the eye can see. There are cities on the way that are monotone in color and mosques in white all over the place. But everything just seems to blend in to a whole lot of nothing. Overall, the color of the desert is basically colorless where I live in the UAE. (But I shall only be here for a few more days. Yay!) The color is monotone and drab. The scenery never seems to change. In the summer where temps are easily daily at 45-50C or at least 120F, the heat rises up and there is a haze in the air most times. That is the desert..............

The desert is HARSH REALITY. You can't assume anything or presume anything in these harsh conditions. One can often die in the heat. Water is life here and not to be wasted. These are just facts. In the natural there is no shade. The desert lends itself to a condition whereby you can't hide. In fact, look at that picture again. There is nowhere to hide. That is WHY God puts us into the desert. Some of us go there physically but all of us, hungering for God, go there spiritually. It is the harsh reality of Christian existence. Harsh reality can harden one indeed or................you can look for the beauty in that which is around you. You may have to look hard but you will find it.

This is your picture. My picture. We exist by grace even through the harshest conditions, showing forth God's grace. And we shine through with the beauty of our salvation, both male and female, in the dryest conditions under submission to the One who loves us.

Isa 51:3 3 For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness will be found in it, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody. NKJV

Look to the picture to your right. This one is called “Alone in the Desert”. How appropriate to our condition. Exposed to the dryest and most trying conditions, we live. We don’t just survive folks. We live. Growing. Stretching. Living in the most extreme conditions. We live and not only do we live, we break out to be something that we were not when we entered this place.

Song 8:5 5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved? NKJV

Tonight as I sit here in our hotel, waiting to leave the desert in a few days I see that the desert has changed me for good and by His grace. It has been a time where I have learned so much that I will talk about in the days ahead to build you up with a strong love to believe that you are called by God for such a time as this. Do not believe the lies that say anything else.

What else can I say tonight to each of you who blesses me by reading this? My heart is full that I would be so honored by God to suffer so that I may share in His glory. To suffer loneliness, persecution, rejection, trials, afflictions - all during these past few years so that as I, and you, have been stripped down, we arise into the glory of His presence in His grace.

Selah.