When it's too late...

Sometimes because of our decisions we miss out on God's best for us. It's not that He doesn't want to bless us... It's just that the window for that particular opportunity has closed.

What God calls us to do always requires faith (Hebrews 11:6).  And when we respond in disobedience instead of faith, we don't get to see the results that obedience would have produced.

Read Numbers 14:39-45

In this passage, the Israelites disobeyed.  Then they decide to make up for lost time, and obey God "after the fact", even though He told them it was too late to see the blessing for obedience. The results were disastrous!

I was supposed to go on a mission trip between my first and second years of Bible school. I didn't go (read: disobeyed), then asked God for forgiveness.

He forgave me, but every time I would talk with God about what I should have learned there or what connections I should have made there, He was silent. One time I felt Him speak in my heart that I would never get to know what I missed until I got to heaven. That blessing only comes with obedience.

Had I obeyed, maybe I would have discovered years earlier that I was called to be a missionary and a lead pastor. I could have been better prepared for what God had called me to.

Who knows what would be different today?  I just know that I don't want to make the same mistake again! Let's be like Caleb and obey the first time (Numbers 14:24)... And obey immediately!

Stop Spamming My Blog!

I just confronted another blogger that thought the way to increase traffic to his website was to keep commenting: "You are invited to visit my blog" on our Perrin Family Blog.  This is an excerpt from what I emailed him...

While I understand that you would like me and our other readers to visit your blog, this is a guaranteed way to keep people away from your blog.  In a sense, it is a way of hijacking our blog and our readers, and this is not acceptable.  And our readers are the type that would never visit the blog of someone that posted such things, so it's actually counter-productive.  

The best way to get someone to visit your blog is to make comments that add value to the discussion... this generates interest in the author of the comment and what else they might have to say.  One way we have attracted new readers is by posting interesting comments on other blogs that pertain to the subject matter.  This communicates respect to both the author of the blog and to their readers.

These "Visit my blog" comments are unrequested and unwanted (read: SPAM) that I end up deleting each time.  Please refrain from commenting on this blog again unless you have an actual comment that adds value to the discussion...

If you desire to create an audience, you have to give them a reason to visit your blog (great content), and generate traffic based on personal relationships and thought-provoking comments on other blogs.  Seth Godin has some great thoughts about this on his Blog.  In one post he writes, "Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk."  Absolutely true!