Boldness: The quality of standing out strongly and distinctly. If you are a true follower of the King of kings, you have a reason to be bold. You are commanded to be different, set apart from the world and to stand out strongly and distinctly.

At one point, my life was dominated by fear. The only concern I had was, “What will others think of me?” I did not take the time of day to question, “What does God think of me and my life?” If being accepted by others meant breaking off fellowship with the God of the Whole Universe, I chose people over God. This got me nowhere. Not only did I let down the people I longed to please, but I also was never able to attain a personal relationship with God, leaving me completely unsatisfied and unfulfilled. Now, if this sounds like you, I have a few words to encourage you with and hopefully guide you toward the right path, the bold path.

Every one of us has a story. A story of how God has worked in your life, how he changed you from what you were, to where you are now, and how he is continually conforming you to the image of His Son. If you have such a story, God has commanded you to speak in the light, and preach on the housetops, to proclaim his truth to all.

In one of Tom Harmon’s recent messages he told the audience of a time in his life where he was ashamed of the word of God. At the time he denied it of course, but when the rubber hit the road, he knew he was guilty of just that. Until one day someone asked him, “You don’t take the word of God literally do you?” That was the last straw for him, he turned around and said proudly and honestly, “I take it literally, laterally, horizontally, vertically, and any way God says it I take it!” This is the kind of boldness I am talking about.

Now, let’s think about this in human perspectives. Say, someone does something for you that you did not expect, something so kind it changed your life forever. Now, would you be ashamed to be friends with this person, to give credit to this person for doing what they did for you? I sure hope not. And in the same way Jesus gave His life for us, changed us, and brought us into His family. We did not deserve it, and we didn’t even ask for it, but He did. How could we ever be ashamed of Him, how could we ever be afraid to say He is our friend and our Savior?

There will always be people in your life that will question you, your faith, and your standards. They will not understand why you must be different. Next time you are questioned, be bold in your answers, do not apologize for what you believe in, and they will wonder what can cause you to speak without fear of consequences or what others may think. If you are not ashamed of Him, He will not be ashamed of you.

Live like you have a purpose. Walk with a spring in your step, and a smile on your face, and always, always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. People want something to live for and to die for. It is better for a man to die standing than to live on his knees. Remember, your life is not an apology it is a statement!

In In relation to all that I’ve said, I have one word of caution. If you are going to be bold and be strong, make sure you know the one you are defending, personally. If you are secretly in the throes of sin and addiction and someone asks, do you believe in the word of God, are you a follower of Christ? What authority do you have to speak against their ways, or say you know God? Make sure you are right with God, a clear conscience makes for a bold person.

I leave with you this exhortation from our Lord Jesus Christ, Mathew 10:26-33 says to you, “Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”

"On August 28th of this year we were watching a DVD by Bill Gothard (The Anger Resolution Seminar) for our morning worship and part of our homeschool program. On this day, he gave an example of a man who lost his business, put these principles to practice, and within a day or two got not only his business back, but more. Mr. Gothard gave an acronym to use to remember the principles. In short, here it is:

When you are faced with a trial (great or small) remember to be GREAT.

Give thanks immediately! You don’t have to know why or really feel thankful, just give thanks knowing that God has a purpose for everything.

Rejoice in all things. This is where you begin looking for possible benefits like teaching a lesson, drawing you closer to God, putting someone specific in your path, etc.

Engraft Scripture. Romans 8:28 is good for this one, but you can also apply one that fits your situation.

Ask God to give you added grace to get through. Realize that He wants you to succeed and be happy and healthy. It takes a good character, and this is sometimes what it takes to develop our character.

Triumph in the victory! When you follow the prior steps, you will triumph and know it was God’s victory in you!

So, we learned this, and I gave it to the children in the children’s story the following day at church. I used the story that Mr. Gothard gave in the DVD seminar. As we were there in the church service, we saw a fire engine race past the church with its siren on. After church, we could see smoke coming from the hills behind the hospital. By the end of lunch, the fire had gotten bigger. On our way home that evening, we stopped by one of our apiary sites that was within 3 miles of the fire to see if it might be in danger. We had 33 of our oldest and strongest hives there. That was about half of our production hives. We drove in, and it was apparent that the fire was moving in the other direction. We asked one of the neighboring residents to call us if anything changed, and then we went home.

At 5:00 the next morning on Sunday, August 30, we got a call from the neighbor saying the wind had changed, and our bees may be in danger. We woke the children, got everyone dressed and in our bee suits and jumped in the truck to race to the apiary which was about 30 minutes away. On the way there, we discussed how we had given hose bees as well as our other assets to God. We reminded each other that He is the one who has blessed our business, and He can remove the bees if it seems best to Him.

When we arrived, it was obvious that the bees would soon be in the path of the fire. There was no time to move them all. Each of the 33 colonies weighed an average of 300 pounds! We had to make a quick decision. We could save a few. Maybe we had enough time to load 4 or 5 onto the truck and get out, but the problem would be with the rest of the bees. There were approximately 1.5 million bees in that apiary. As soon as the fire would approach the hives, the bees would fly out. The only clear air path for them was right into the line of residential homes where the occupants and firemen were already working to put out the fire. One neighbor in particular is deathly allergic to bee stings. This could possibly create a bigger disaster than the fire. The only thing to do was to take the minutes we had to close the entrance of each hive to make sure the bees did not fly out. We broke into teams. Father and Mother got busy using duct tape to close up the entrances on one side of the apiary, Elijah and Tabitha teamed up to tape up the entrances of the hives on the other side of the apiary, and Elisabeth and Esther stood in the back of the truck watching the fire closely and letting us know how close it was getting. Pretty soon, both Elisabeth and Esther were all excited telling us we needed to leave now! We could feel the heat, and the flames were big, loud and close. We had to get out while we could.

We drove around to the street and helped one of the homeowners keep the fire from his house. We used hoses, wet towels and sheets, and shovels. Every once in awhile we would see a cloud of black smoke go up. It was another hive going up in flames. The water carrying helicopters came over us with their buckets and dumped as much water as fast as they could on the residences. We were so thankful that none of the houses got burned, and no one got stung, even though the fire burned over 8000 acres with 17 fingers to monitor at the same time. When it was over, all that was left of our bee hives were little piles of nails and metal queen excluders where each hive had been. As we walked through, we remembered the people whose homes each of those hives came from when we removed them as wild bees. We thought of all the honey we had harvested at this site, and how blessed we had been.

On the way home, hungry, tired, and a bit sooty, we talked about the day and Elijah said, "I’m kind of excited to see what God has in store for us. He wouldn’t just take half of our business away without having something in mind." Tabitha said, "Well, we don’t have to move those bees any more or harvest their honey."

Sure enough, a few days later on September 3, we were invited to speak at a retreat in Canada. We had been asked earlier during the summer, but we declined because we knew at this time we would be busy harvesting honey and moving bees. Now we had only a few weeks to get our talks ready and get passports and tickets, but God blessed, and we had a wonderful time! Those people in Canada told us the things we presented were just what they needed to hear. We just arrived back home two days ago, and God is still blessing. Now we’re just arranging for a new account with a large order. Nieman Marcus wants our honey! Praise God, He is so good!

When the children have a disagreement between them or we’re tempted to feel like we’ve been wronged, we can look back and remember, ‘Oh, G-R-E-A-T!!’"

Pictures:
Top-"Our family at this apiary site a few years ago before the hives were so large."
Middle-"This is what we could see from the neighbor’s place where we were helping keep the fire away from the homes."
Bottom-"Still smoldering, there was nothing left."

Each week, we highlight resources that are being used by the HQ Staff.  This week, members of the Journey to the Heart department will be sharing some of their favorite resources.

Books:

• “Morning and Evening” by Charles Spurgeon
• “Who I Am In Christ” by Neil T. Anderson

Audio:

• “Hear My Prayer” by Matthew Burtner and Mac Lynch
• “The Hiding Place” by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre

Video/DVD:

• “Is He Trustworthy?” by Ann Conway
• “Shocking” by Paul Washer