TABLE OF CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................................3RE-IMAGINING YOUR FUTURE.....................................................................................................4RE-IMAGINING YOUR TRUSTING & OBEYING.........................................................................7

RE-IMAGINING YOUR COXSWAIN...............................................................................................9

RE-IMAGINING YOUR BREATHING............................................................................................11

RE-IMAGINING YOUR FAITH.......................................................................................................12

RE-IMAGINING YOUR BOISTEROUS........................................................................................14RE-IMAGINING YOUR STRENGTH.............................................................................................16

RE-IMAGINING YOUR SALVATION............................................................................................19

RE-IMAGINING YOUR GRACE.....................................................................................................22WHAT NOW?...................................................................................................................................23LINKS.................................................................................................................................................23COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER............................................................................................................23

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is the fulfilment of a very important part of my God given purpose: to equip the saints. I am so thankful for the Lord’s patience and perseverance in bringing to fruition His plan and purpose.

I am indebted to my wife Jenny. Jenn has overwhelmed me with her unconditional love and has kept believing in me through our 34 years of marriage. Jenn you truly are my ezeer (helpmate).

A big thank you to the members of our Home Group who were the first ones to hear many of the thoughts contained in this book. I am so grateful for their enthusiastic and loving support.

I love the cover of this book which was designed by Sandra Bainton with technical input and support from Alex Bainton. If you love their work use the contact page on the website www.richardeagle.com and I will gladly put you in touch. The photo on the cover has been used with permission from Weebly.com. All other photos have been used with permission from dollarphotoclub.com

It would be remiss of me if I failed to acknowledge the contribution of Christian Experts and the wonderful equipping community I have discovered there.

Finally, thank you to Skip Moen and John Samuel for their teaching and mentoring which has reinvigorated and transformed the way I study and reflect on the Scriptures. Skip and John’s influence have been a very real catalyst for me writing this book.

Note: All Scripture references in this book are from the NKJV unless otherwise indicated.

RE-IMAGINING YOUR FUTUREJeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

I recall that I was quite young, maybe in kindergarten or Year 1 at school, when my best mate and I conspired to pull a prank on one of our class mates, a girl.

On our way home from school we walked over a bridge where a small creek ran beneath the road. Little did I realise that bridge would prove to be the bridge, indeed, the door into my future.

My mate and I decided that this bridge would be the perfect location for our prank. So on the fateful day we followed our class mate home and as she crossed the bridge one of us grabbed her while the other one grabbed her school bag and flung it over the bridge into the creek below.

For just anyone to have carried out this act was one thing, but for the son of the local Baptist Minister to bring such shame upon family and church, was unthinkable.

As it would turn out, the ramifications of that childish act were to be far reaching for me. The discipline that flowed from my parents and the school in the days that followed planted a seed in me that grew over time into a deeply rooted fear of failure.

This would become the driving force of my life through school, university, work, marriage and fatherhood. Indeed, it would play a bigger role than I would ever want to admit in my relationship with God.

Little did I know at the time, this was my first encounter with the spirit of religion!!!!

It would be decades later that Christians actually started to use this terminology and we would come to learn that this spirit’s stock in trade is to instil a level of fear that will ensure you keep to the script of your chosen religion.

Little did I realise that, years later, when I was pastoring a Baptist Church in a small country town I would find myself in a similar situation with my daughter when she acted in a way that I thought shamed me publicly.

We had travelled to a larger centre, about an hour away, to do some shopping. When it came time to get in the car to return home my daughter flatly refused. (She was about the same age I was when the bridge incident occurred). My reaction was to become indignant and angry with her and drive off leaving her at the kerb. I drove all the way around a very large block before returning to where she was. Not surprisingly she was absolutely distraught and did not hesitate to jump in the car as quick as she could.

I have lost count of the number of times I have asked for forgiveness from my daughter, from my wife and from the Lord for that act. It would be many more years before I could forgive myself for allowing my perceived fear of failure to develop into a weapon of trauma which I used to “punish” my precious daughter.

I eventually realised that I was raising my children under a spirit of fear, a spirit of religion, and not in a spirit of self-less love.

So, I guess you are now asking the question: ‘What in the world do these stories have to do with the future?’

The answer is: they actually have a great deal to do with the future and it has taken me most of my life to realise that. You see, when I use the expression “fear of failure” I am actually saying ‘fear of the future’. As a little boy with his whole future in front of him, I could see only my fear of failing my parents, my fear of failing my school, the fear of failing the church, the fear of failing at university, the fear of failing in my career, the fear of my marriage failing, the fear of failing as a father and ultimately the fear of failing God!!!

This scenario certainly redefines the question: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ If I was absolutely honest now my answer would be ‘anything other than a failure’.

Now that I am much, much, much older, I realise that I am not at all alone in my fear of failure, or in my fear of the future.

Fear of the future is actually what makes our society tick. Over recent years we have seen this demonstrated with the world economy being rocked by severe downturns in the stock markets of various countries. But have you ever stopped to consider what triggered these downturns? An analyst’s fear of the future!!!

Let me press this point a little further and ask you what is behind almost 100% of the advertising you are exposed to? If we are totally honest our answer would be: fear of the future. Advertisers consistently try to allay

our fear of the future by demonstrating for us what our future will look like if we buy that new house, car, boat, life insurance, TV, laptop, smart phone and so the list goes on and on and on and on and on until it reaches my absolute favourite: funeral insurance.

Even beyond death itself we are told that we can control our fear of the future and our loved ones fear of the future by investing in funeral insurance!!

So, this is the bottom line: Is fear of the future what actually makes your world go around?

For so much of my life the answer to this question has been a resounding YES!!!

The good news is that, in recent years, I have found another ‘bridge’, indeed another door that has enabled me to cross over from a life of fear of failure, a life of fearing the future, into a life full of divine purpose.

I would never have discovered this bridge if it had not been for Skip Moen’s teaching regarding the meaning of the word ‘future’ from a Hebrew perspective.

In Hebrew this word for future is ‘achariyth’ and it literally means “afterward, backwards or after part.”

The picture that best explains this unusual meaning is that of a person rowing a boat. They are rowing into their future but all they can see is where they have been. In fact, any attempt on their part to turn around and “see their future” will prove devastating to their progress into the future.

Whereas a western mindset may be driven by fear of failure/ fear of the future, the Hebrew mindset is focused on the past and, more specifically the faithfulness of God in the past.

Herein lay the key to some of the so called boring bits in Scripture. Those long genealogies we come across are actually an illustration of the word ‘achariyth ’. The writer of those genealogies is sitting in the row boat looking back through all the generations- the good, the bad and the ugly- and they are seeing there a common thread running through them all: the faithfulness of God!!

Consequently, they can be confident that their future is secured, not because they can see the future or control the future they are rowing into but because they have seen the faithfulness of God in the past. Regardless of what their future may look like, one thing remains constant in their thinking: the faithfulness of God.

The more I pondered the pictures connected with life in the row boat the more clearly I saw that it was, in fact, a row boat with a crew of 8. This has great significance because in Scripture the number 8 represents new beginnings!!!!

So, will you join me in the row boat; re-imagining the vision for your life, seeing a new beginning for yourself? Will you take your place in the row

boat, being assured that whether your future is good, bad or ugly, one thing will remain constant: the faithfulness of God? Will you join me in embracing the liberating truth that the little boy (or girl) in each of us can cross the next bridge or challenge in our lives knowing through Gods past faithfulness that

our future has been secured?

I pray that you will.

RE-IMAGINING YOUR TRUSTING & OBEYINGPro 3: 5 “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall

direct thy paths”.

As Skip Moen’s teaching began to redefine my understanding of my future from God’s perspective I discovered that there was a question nagging at

me that would not go away. The question was: what do the oars represent in the row boat analogy?

To my utter amazement the answer suddenly came to me: trust and obey!!!

However, once I got over the initial excitement of this mini revelation, the reality of this truth began to hit home hard.

I do not know about you but the concept of trust and obey has always been, to my way of thinking, two distinct processes. First, you assess thoroughly the person or thing you are considering putting your trust in. Once you have exhausted this exercise and only after you have thoroughly exhausted this exercise of establishing whether trust can exist, do you turn to

what comes second. What comes second is the action of obeying. Whilst it is dependent on all that you did in the trust phase, it is a separate act on your part.

I hope you will agree that this at least sounds logical. The only problem is that it does not work in the row boat!!!

The key to rowing is that you engage both oars at the same time.

If we are going to move into our future, then it is going to require a significant shift in our mindsets when it comes to the actions of ‘trust and obey’ in our relationship with God. No longer can we view them as separate actions. They must be synchronised to occur at exactly the same moment. If not, we will find our boat no longer moving into the future but rather going around and around in circles on the one spot.

Let me make this point crystal clear, if I trust without obeying or if I choose to obey without trust, the result is the same: round and round and around in circles.

Before Hebrew became a written language, it was a pictographic language, not unlike the Egyptian hieroglyphics we might be more familiar with. This means every letter has a picture associated with, hence every word is like a comic strip.

Hence, when we look at the word trust in Hebrew, as a series of pictures, what we see is someone or something inside a fence. It tells us that when we are in a relationship of trust, we feel protected.

Likewise, with the word obey in Hebrew, when we look at the pictures, we see an image of what it means to see the name. You will see the relevance of this picture in the next chapter when we look at the importance of the coxswain in our rowboat analogy.

But there is one more scenario that is even more dangerous and that is leaning on our own understanding.

In the context of the row boat, when we choose to lean on our own understanding we disengage both oars (trust & obey) and then try to stand up in the boat and turn around to face our future. The end result is most likely we will end up out of the boat and in the water!!!

The Hebrew word pictures behind the word “direct” in Proverbs 3:6 are: “The hand of the prince or warrior-it is skilled and hits the target”.

You see, your God given purpose is like the bullseye on a target. If we learn to synchronise our trusting and obeying while not leaning on our own understanding, then God will demonstrate His faithfulness in ensuring we hit the bullseye of His life purpose for us.

After reading the first draft of this chapter for me my great mate Shane Woolfe shared some insights from the many hours he spent in his youth pursuing competitive archery. This is what he shared with me:

“Do you know that, as an archer you can learn to fully concentrate on the bullseye to the point where the other colours on the target actually disappear and all you see is the yellow of the bullseye? You actually become one with the target!! In my thinking it fits into what you are saying about rowing: trusting and obeying. Many archers get anxious about where their next arrow is going to land, hence they lose all focus and flinch; meaning they “throw” their arm thus failing to fully release the arrow. A lot of archers tend to drop their arm and fail to hold their bow upright until the arrow hits the target. They yield to the temptation to look before their arrow reaches the target and in so doing their arrow drops missing the bullseye and sometimes it doesn't even hit the target at all. The idea is to zero in and focus; beholding/gazing upon the bullseye, forgetting what is around you and even what is about to happen.”

Our God is faithful, He will never lose focus or flinch and He will never “throw his arm” and fail to release you fully into your purpose.

So will you join me in the row boat, re-imagining ‘trust and obey’ in your life, and allowing God to aim you into the future with the assurance that His faithfulness will see you hit the bullseye of your life purpose?

I pray that you will.

RE-IMAGINING YOUR COXSWAINHebrew 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who

for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”.

As I mentioned before, when pondering the row boat being an image of life and vision, I kept on seeing this picture, not as just an individual rower in a boat, but rather as an 8 seater, the type you see racing at the Olympic Games.

In these larger boats they have what is referred to as the Cox or Coxswain. This person is seated at the end of the boat that all the rowers are looking at, hence the rowers initial focus must always be on the coxswain. The Coxswain, however, is actually facing the direction the boat is heading in. The Coxswain is the only one on the boat who can see the future, who can see exactly where the boat is headed.

Out of curiosity I thought I would look up the definition of the word coxswain in the dictionary and here is one of the meanings I found: “boat servant”.

This is what Yeshua said to His rowing crew (the disciples):

Mark 10: 44-45 “Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be servant of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The coxswain serves all the rowers on the boat, the coxswain releases them from worrying about the speed, direction and the immediate environment the boat is in or is about to enter.

Philippians 4: 6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”.

Consequently, the rowers need to focus only on rowing. All we as rowers have to focus on is trusting and obeying Yeshua our Coxswain!!!!!

This is how Yeshua describes Himself:

Revelation 22:13 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

If you consider this for a while, you will come to realise by virtue of Yeshua being the beginning and the end, He is therefore the future!!!!

In the context of the row boat, even though our backs are facing to our future, our focus is on the One who contains our future. Our future is literally in Christ.

As Keith Green put it so well, if we focus on the trust and obey “He will take care of the rest”.

So will you join me in the row boat; re-imagining the Coxswain/Boat Servant of your life, and allow Him to free you from anxiety and aim you at the bullseye of your life purpose?

I pray that you will.

RE-IMAGINING YOUR BREATHINGPreviously, we noted that the oars we utilise in the rowboat, that take us into our future, are trust and obey.

We also noted that when we look at the word obey in Hebrew, we see a picture of what it means to “see the name”, or if you like to see the essence of the person, we are placing trust in.

In ancient Hebrew culture, what did it mean “to see the name”?

There was one name for the Hebrews that was so significant that there is a strong tradition in their culture of this name not even being spoken out loud.

That name was the name we may know as Yahweh.

In Hebrew this name has four letters Yood, Hey, Vav, Hey.

So, what is the word picture behind the name Yahweh?

Here it is: ‘the right-hand power of revelation in the nail revealed’.

Who sits at the right hand of power and who would we associate with “the nail revealed”?

Yeshua our Coxswain!!!

So, will you join me in the rowboat; re-imagining your breathing as the very name of Yahweh, who is the right-hand power in the nail revealed?

I pray that you will.

RE-IMAGINING YOUR FAITHHebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the

evidence of things not seen”.

James 2:17-18 “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your

faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works”.

Try saying this word out loud; what you will discover is that you are breathing as you are saying it. Yood, (inward breath) Hey, (outward breath) Vav, (inward breath) Hey, (outward breath).

With every breath we take as we row (trust and obey), we are reminded of the name of God (Yahweh).

I don’t know about you, but for me faith has always been one of those tricky concepts to get ones head around. Of course, I would not say that out loud in most churches because faith is a prerequisite for entry, right?

But then I decided to apply the above verses to the analogy of life in the rowboat.

While seated in the rowboat there are definitely things that we hope for, one of which is to see God’s purpose fulfilled in our lives. But because our backs are facing to the future, we cannot actually see the reality or the substance of these things as they will be realised in our future.

However, as we saw in a previous section, what we see from our vantage point in the rowboat is Yeshua, our Boat Servant. He is described as the author and finisher of our faith because in Him lies the substance, the evidence of all we hope for in the future.

The meaning behind the word ‘evidence’ is vitally important to our understanding at this point. You see it literally means the tangible evidence left after an experiment.

When we are focussed on Yeshua, as our Boat Servant, not only are we looking at our future because He is both the beginning and the end, we are also seeing the Resurrected Christ and the resurrection is the tangible evidence of God’s faithfulness.

It is also here in the row boat that what James writes about faith vs works becomes much clearer.

We exercise faith by focussing on Yeshua, our Boat Servant, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith and the tangible evidence of the resurrection life that is available through Him. But our focus is expressed through our rowing!!!

Whilst ever we keep our oars (trust & obey) synchronised and fully engaged and we are breathing the very name of God, we are expressing the works that James is talking about.

Faith and works actually do make sense in the row boat.

So will you join me in the row boat; re-imagining faith in your life as you remain focussed on Yeshua, your Boat Servant, and demonstrating that focus in your daily work as you trust and obey and breathe.

I pray that you will.

RE-IMAGINING YOUR BOISTEROUSMatthew 14: 29-31 “So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he

cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

These verses are such an excellent illustration of life in the row boat.

What first captured my attention is Peter’s initial response to engage both oars and to trust and obey. He trusts Yeshua sufficiently to obey, responding to Yeshua’s invitation to come to Him and so Peter steps out of the boat, in the midst of a storm and into the supernatural experience of walking on water!!! Peter is living life in the row boat. He cannot see the future but he is trusting and obeying the strength of the One who holds his future.

Everything was going great until Peter “saw that the wind was boisterous”. Suddenly, it isn’t just Yeshua and Peter, another influence has stepped onto the stage of this drama.

The Greek word translated boisterous is ‘ischuros’ which means strong, mighty. So, what we have unfolding here is a power struggle between the strength and might of Yeshua versus the strength and might of the boisterous wind.

This Greek word is connected to the Hebrew word ‘atsuwm’ and if we look at the word pictures that make up this word, we find something extremely interesting. What we discover is that this single word actually contains the seed of the whole narrative in Matthew 14. Here is my interpretation of the story the pictures tell us: Peters’ natural eyes were hooked by and pulled towards the strength of the circumstances surrounding him and in so doing Peter turned aside from focussing on Yeshua as his Boat Servant, his future.

Having succumbed to the boisterous, Peter is again gripped with fear and out of the midst of his fear cries out “Lord save me!”

Lord is the most common English translation of the name Yahweh. Peter appeals to ‘the right-hand power of revelation in the nail revealed’

We all live in a world that is full of boisterous circumstances that are seeking to hook our natural eyes, pull us towards fear, and away from focussing on Yeshua. Fear always places us in a position where we become fixated on the future; and as you know well by now, that is a dangerous mindset to have when you are rowing. Fear will cause you to try and turn around and see where you are heading, but in that fear filled moment you will disengage your oars and cease to trust and obey.

So, let me join my prayer to that of the Apostle Paul:

“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength” (a paraphrase of Ephesians 1:17-19 Amplified)

So will you join me in the row boat; re-imagining the boisterous circumstances in your life by remaining focussed on your Boat Servant and demonstrating that focus in your daily life as you trust and obey and breathe.

I pray that you will.

RE-IMAGINING YOUR STRENGTHIsaiah 40:31 “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint”.

Have you ever watched an eagle doing what Isaiah describes here?

If you have then you realise that it is a truly awe inspiring event. We had the privilege of witnessing this when we were holidaying at Bright in Victoria and decided to take a day trip to Mount Buffalo. One of the lookouts we visited gave us this magnificent view over a large wide valley and just off the edge of the lookout an eagle was just hovering in mid-air, effortlessly riding the air currents.

After entertaining us for a long time, suddenly with no discernible change in what it was doing, the eagle began to move away from us, rapidly gaining altitude with every second until in just a matter of minutes it was a mere speck high up in the sky.

I knew at that moment we had witnessed something magnificent and yet mysterious. How did the eagle do something so powerful while seemingly being at rest, not exerting a great deal of energy?

This brings us back to our verse in Isaiah. The word “wait” in this verse is the critical element to being able to understand how and why the eagle is able to do what it does. But even more so, it is the vital clue as to how we can experience the same thing.

So what does this key word mean?

Its root meaning is found in the binding together of the strands that make up a rope. This binding together does not come about as we passively twiddle our thumbs waiting for God to act. No, this is an active waiting, an active entwining of our life into the life of Yeshua, our Boat Servant.

In the row boat we discover that the activity which facilitates this entwining is our rowing; our trusting, and, our obeying and our breathing!!!

Of course, this is a complete contradiction to our logical minds. How is it possible to actively wait, and at the same time, renew your strength?

Everyone knows the more active you are, the more energy you burn and the less strength you have. Not so, says Isaiah, just look at the eagle; it soars to incredible heights while expending almost no energy at all. How? It senses the air currents and positions itself to tap into their strength.

I believe this is what this verse in Isaiah is all about; the mystery of how an eagle becomes so easily entwined with the air currents and then rises into the heavens with such awesome power. This is what the Lord desires for each one of us, to become so entwined with Him, as our Boat Servant, that we seemingly defy the laws of physics; rowing (trusting & obeying), breathing and doing all things in life without growing weary and without fainting.

Romans 8: 11 “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

BIND US TOGETHER, Lord, Bind us together

With cords that cannot be broken.

Bind us together, Lord,

Bind us together,

Bind us together with love.

There is only one God,

There is only one King;

There is only one Body,

That is why we sing:

Refrain

Made for the glory of God,

Purchased by His precious Son;

Born with the right to be clean,

For Jesus the victory has won.

Refrain

You are the family of God,

You are the promise divine;

You are God’s chosen desire,

You are the glorious new wine.

I wonder if the person who penned the words to the above song realised they were unfolding before us what it means to “wait on the Lord”. Or better yet, that they were writing a rowing song for all who would live life in the row boat!!

So will you join me in the row boat, re-imagining the strength of your life, seeing that the Spirit that raised Yeshua from the dead is also dwelling in you as the breathe of life and empowering you to trust and obey?

I pray that you will.

RE-IMAGINING YOUR SALVATIONIsaiah 30:15 “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. But you would not,”

There is much to be attracted to in the analogy that is life in the row boat. In the previous pages I have tried to add some definition to this picture by describing the practical implications for our daily lives.

In the above verse you see a similar thing and the defining words are: “returning”, “rest”, “saved”, “quietness”, “confidence” and “strength”. These are attractive concepts but when it came to experiencing them the result was: “but you would not”.

The reality is that despite the attractiveness and colour that comes from living life in the row boat, future generations may well say of us: “but you would not”!!

In essence, we find in this verse from Isaiah that Israel had thumbed their nose at God, rejected His invitation to do life in the row boat, and vowed that they would control their own future.

Having dug their heels in and gritted their teeth, declaring they would not return and they would not rest, the result is that Israel could not be saved.

The Hebrew word translated saved here is the word ‘yasha’.

Skip Moen provides the following definition of this word:

“Yasha’ draws a picture of wide-open spaces. To be rescued is to be removed from the confined and narrow. Rescue is the liberating experience of knowing the way in front of me is safe. This is accomplished by “the God of our salvation,” a very common phrase in the Tanakh. God is the only empowering agent of this kind of rescue. This rescue is never theoretical. It is deliverance from real threats and real enemies, although they are not always perceptible threats and enemies.”

There is a great illustration of the meaning of this word which occurs during the reign of Jehoshaphat King of Judah.

Jehoshaphat had a small problem in that the Ammonites, the Moabites and the Edomites had joined forces to destroy Judah.

If you look at a map depicting this time in history, you will see just how literally Judah and Jehoshaphat found themselves in the “confined and narrow”. Three kingdoms attacking them from one side and the Philistines and the Mediterranean Sea behind them!!!!

Now this was far from a fair fight, as Judah was just one of the 12 tribes of Israel, certainly no world military power.

It is interesting in the account of this event that we find Jehoshaphat praying on behalf of his people and here is what he says: “Are you not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us–sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine–we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save”. (2Chronicles 20:7-9)

Did you notice? Here Jehoshaphat’s focus is on the past faithfulness of God!!

Yes, that last word “save” is the Hebrew word yasha’.

2Chronicles 20:14-17 “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel…. in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down against

them……. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves,

stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!”

What the Lord said happened. Judah did not have to fight. When they got to where the Lord told them to position themselves, they found nothing but dead bodies and so much loot, it took three full days to collect it all!!!!

In the first section, I shared with you regarding my own fear of failure and fear of the future and there is no doubt that the fear of failure and fears of the future were weighing heavily upon Jehoshaphat.

So could it be that fear is merely the litmus test of whether we have indeed positioned ourselves in the row boat, with our focus firmly upon Yeshua, our Boat Servant?

Clearly, Jehoshaphat passed this test. He did not yield to the temptation to stop rowing (trusting & obeying) and look over his shoulder to try and figure out what his future and the future of his people might look like. Rather he focusses his attention and the attention of the people on Gods faithfulness.

If we were to summarise Jehoshaphat’s prayer it would be: God you are faithful, always!!

Are there times when you feel like you are confined in narrow places, your enemies are ganging up on you and you can feel the fear rising within you? Well, get happy because you have just been given the best opportunity ever to see if living life in the row boat is a reality in your life or just head knowledge. If it is a reality then God has given His word that He will rescue you, He will save you and it may be in the most unexpected way you could ever imagine.

After the rescue of Jehoshaphat and his people was complete, we read:

2Chronicles 20:30 “So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about.”

So will you join me in in the row boat; re-imagining the salvation of your life, seeing that God has provided you with all you need to live life abundantly: free of the fear of failure, free of the fear of the future; as you daily position yourself in the centre of His will?

I pray that you will.

RE-IMAGINING YOUR GRACEGenesis 6:8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

This is the first place in Scripture we find the word grace, a word that we are all quite familiar with but a word I am certain I understand all too little.

In Hebrew the word for grace has two letters, the letter Chet which has a pictorial reference to a fence and the letter Noon which has a pictorial

reference to fish darting through water = life. When we put these two together we see that grace is a ‘fence that protects life’.

Isn’t that exactly what the ark was? It was a big wooden fence that protected all the life left on planet earth.

Genesis 6:14 “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.”

Yet there is something more to this picture of grace.

You will notice in the verse above that the fence (the gopher wood) was lined inside and out with pitch. I have read this so many times and thought nothing of it. However, the fact is that the Hebrew word for pitch comes from exactly the same root word as the Hebrew word for atonement.

Grace is God’s protection of our lives lined inside and out with the atoning blood of Yeshua.

Do you remember how Moses’ life was saved from Pharaoh’s slaughter? Here is a hint:

Exodus 2: 3 “But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.”

Yes, his mother put him in an ark, a fence made of bulrushes that would protect his life!!!

The row boat I have been describing to you is God’s ark for your life. If you choose to accept your Boat Servants’ invitation to take your seat in the row boat then you will discover what it is to enter and live in His grace.

But remember, the row boat, just like Noah’s ark, is lined inside and out with the atoning blood of the Boat Servant, hence it is a place of new beginnings, of forgiveness, of restoration and of cleansing.

So will you join me in in the row boat; re-imagining God’s grace for your life and experiencing the fullness of His forgiveness; His restoration; and, His cleansing?

I pray that you will.

WHAT NOW?

Firstly a big thanks to you for taking the time to read Life in the Row Boat. I trust its brevity was more than compensated for by its depth!!!

Secondly, if the message of this book has been helpful in equipping you for life please feel free to share it or the link to the website (www.richardeagle.com) with your friends and family.

Thirdly, there is no charge for this book or any other material we might make available @ Life in the Row Boat. However, we wanted you to understand why we are doing this and how we are hoping to cover our living expenses and the costs of this ministry. So, please take a moment to view the video below:

LINKS

Skip Moen http://skipmoen.com/

John Samuel http://www.talentresearch.org/benefits_expanded.html

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMERMay 2015

There is no copyright attached to any of my personal material in this book. Please use it and share it as you feel prompted by the Lord.

However, I would ask you to respect the copyright attached to material I have referenced or quoted in this book.