weakness & strength

Judges 6: 11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!"
13 "Sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say, 'The LORD brought us up out of Egypt'? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites."
14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!"
15 "But Lord," Gideon replied, "how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!"
16 The LORD said to him, "I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man."

Here we've got another conversation like the conversation God had with Moses & the burning bush...
God saying, "do this" & the person He's speaking with basically saying, "but God... how!"
And God says 5 words: "I will be with you."

God said some interesting things here.

When Gideon asked how he could do what God asked him to do, Gideon said his family was the weakest his tribe & he was the weakest in the clan. Iow, Gideon thought of himself as the lowest on the totem pole of life.

God was undaunted. He just said, "Go in the strength that you have." & "I'm sending you."

And when Gideon did his, "but, God...!" again, God made the earth shaking response: "I will be with you."

I feel like Gideon this morning. In about 7 hours we're gonna be having our 1st pre-kickoff get-together for the Sunday Morning Gathering at The Warehouse.

I have no illusions - I know what I'm getting myself into here.

Like Gideon, I feel like the weakest of the weak this morning.

But as I read Judges 6 this morning, I feel like God is saying to me what He said to Gideon:

"Go in the strength that you have..."
Iow, do what I say with who you are; with who I made you.

"I am sending you."
You're not doing this because you woke up one morning & decided it would be cool to have a Sunday Morning Gathering. That ain't your idea - it's Mine.

"I will be with you."
Iow, I got you covered.
I precede & follow you.
I'm out ahead of you, preparing the way, while mopping up behind you.
Me, the God of the universes, Who keeps the galaxies from bumping into each other, am gonna give you (less than a nano-speck in the cosmos) my personal attention by being with you every step of the way.

You may say it was a coincidence that I read that this morning.

I've been getting up to read the Bible & listen every morning since January of 2003.

Because of what I've experienced with God showing up to say the right thing in His Word at the right time in the right way at the right time...

I don't believe in "coincidence" anymore.

So, I guess I need to take a big breath, put on my big boy boxers, & go to it...