“What happened here is a mystery, impossible for us to understand. But I want to tell you about something I have at home. It’s a bookmark that my mother embroidered and gave to me many years ago. On one side, the threads go this way and that, crisscrossed in wild and colorful confusion, and when you look at it, you would wonder if she had any idea what she was doing. But then, when you turn it over, on the other side you see the words ‘God is love,’ beautifully spelled out in silken threads. Now, today we are looking at this tragedy from one side, and it makes no sense. But some day we will be permitted to glimpse its meaning from the other side. Meanwhile, let us wait and trust.”

There’s a traffic jam on the freeway of the extra mile because the average exit after the first mile and only a few cars travel extra mile.

In Genesis chapter 24 we read the amazing story of Rebekah – whose spirit of excellence positioned her to be a part of the genealogy of Jesus.

When Abraham sent a servant to find a suitable wife for his son there was a standout quality that the servant looked for among all the women – excellence.

Rebekah was a young girl who had traveled to a well to collect water for her family, when asked by the servant for a drink, she offered to collect water for his camels also.

I was once heard someone describe this story with amazing detail – there were 10 camels, they’ve just come 500 miles, they each hold 40 gallons, that’s a total of 400 gallons of water and Rebekah’s probably not older than 16.

There is only a well, no hose or pump, so Rebekah has to draw water using a pitcher or bucket.  Going on the basis that her pitcher holds five gallons, water weighs seven pounds per gallon, which makes it 35 pounds she has to pick up each time.

At that rate of consumption that’s 80 draws from the well, which works out to be four hours, minimum, if she doesn’t take a break.

Essentially Rebekah said to this servant, “I’m going to inconvenience myself so I can make a difference in your life.”

Rebekah didn’t have to go that extra mile and feed his camels but she did.  It was her extra effort that changed her life.  People who live an average life only give what’s expected of them and nothing else.

When you die you should be able to look back and say, “thank God I gave more than I received.”  I heard it said that you’ll only be remembered for two things, the problems you solved and the problems you caused.

As far as Rebekah knew all she was going to get that night was a sore back and to be home late for dinner. She didn’t know that on those camels was gold, silver and linen that was a tribute to her from a wealthy father who was looking for a bride for his elect son.

Go the second mile.  That little extra effort could be the step that turns you to the fulfillment of your dream.

A small leak can sink a big ship.

The mentality of “it’s good enough” is settling for average. Don’t settle for average.

When Michael Angelo was painting a hidden part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome – a part that would not be seen from the ground – a friend visiting with him asked why he was giving such minute detail to an obscure part that nobody will see.  Angelo responded, “God will see it – I’m not painting this for the pope I’m painting it for God.”

If you take that kind of excellence into your work you’ll have better output and better testimonies, as people want to know why you are like you are.

What’s your attitude? Are you doing everything you put your hand to for the glory of God? Are you doing it with excellence?

Paying attention to detail is the key to being extraordinary in an ordinary world.

Daniel’s reputation had preceded him.  The following chapter reveals that the governors could not find fault with Daniel, as he had distinguished himself above all Babylon. Good news travels fast in the world of average.

In horse racing, a horse that can run one second faster than all of the other horses is worth millions of dollars.

Years ago the story was told how French down hill skier, Jean Claude Keeve who won the Olympic gold; he won by just three tenths of a second.  That tiny margin made a big difference – the following year his pay cheque was over $3 million while second place earned just $30, 000 as a ski instructor.

Just a little extra can distinguish you remarkably above average. Conformity is the shortest distance to acceptance in the crowd.

Proverbs 12:26 tells us, “The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduces them”.

Our God is an excellent God and we ought to be people of excellence.

First, value excellence. When you value something you put a worth on it.  Jesus said your heart is where your treasure is.  He was highlighting how we spend our resource on things we value.

If you value excellence, give your absolute best to everything you do.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 begins, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…”

When you fail to give your best, instead taking short cuts, you only cut yourself short.  You will pay eventually.  Value excellence in your life and it will outwork in all you put your hands to.

Psalm 8:1

The name of a person in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, denotes their personality or character.

Psalm 8:1 tells us that God is an excellent God and everything He does is excellent. He doesn’t do anything wrong, He does it right the first time.

God didn’t make the earth an average place – He made it excellent! He made man excellent.

God went beyond average. And that’s what excellence is about; it’s about going beyond the average.

If, as Ephesians 5:1 tells us, we are to be imitator of Him, then we too should be people of excellence.  Excellence should be the lifestyle of His people.

The word “EXCELLENCE” is derived from the word “excel” which means to go beyond average.

Leaders of excellence are those people who refuse to settle for the status quo. They are the people who see average as a place they want to keep in their rear-view mirror. They are the people who continually look for ways to stretch themselves, to get better and to do better! They are the people who set their sights on goals others haven’t even thought of. They are the people who shoot so high, even if they miss; they still go higher than everyone else. This is what sets them apart.

Where 100% is average you need to go beyond that if you are going to be a person of excellence.

Seize the day and go beyond average. 99.9% is not good enough. Some time ago I heard of some things that would happen if we settled for 99.9%

• 22, 000 cheques would be deducted from the wrong bank account in the next 60 minutes.
• 12 babies would be given to the wrong parents each day.
• 268, 500 defective tyres would be shipped this year.
• 2, 488, 200 books would be shipped with the wrong covers.
• 2 airliner landings each day would be unsafe.
• 18,322 pieces of mail would be mishandled in the next hour.
• 291 pacemaker operations would be performed incorrectly this year.

Excellence is what puts the extra in ordinary in an ordinary world.

So, how do we achieve the extraordinary in an ordinary world?

Find out next post.

Psalm 35:27 says, “Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favour my righteous cause; And let them says continuously, “Let the Lord be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”"

When we are doing well in life – in our relationships, health, mind, finances, family, business – it brings God pleasure.  If there is one thing I take joy in know, it’s knowing that God is happy with my life.

God’s not rejoicing when we’re not prospering.  We should examine our life and do what’s needed to make change in areas that are not prospering, so that we are doing well and making God happy.

Mistakes don’t equal failure, if you learn how to benefit from them and remain positive in the face of adversity.

Here are four things to remember in the midst of a mistake:

BE POSITIVE
Don’t except your mistake as your lot in life, or ’such is life’.  This kind of mentality is negative and breeds victim mentality. Learn to see the good in everything.  Be a positive person with a positive worldview. Don’t look at life as a continuous succession of problems and a process of unfairness and oppression. Remain positive in the face of adversity.

LOOK FOR GOOD
People who do look for the good and possess a positive worldview see the world around them as filled with opportunities and possibilities.  They approach their lives, their work, ministry, relationships etc with optimism, cheerfulness and a general attitude of positive expectations.  They expect a lot and are rarely disappointed.

RECOGNISE OPPORTUNITY
When you know how to use mistakes as stepping stones, you quickly find yourself becoming the kind of person who welcomes obstacles and setbacks as opportunities to grow and move forward in life.  You view problems and mistakes as another lesson learned that will better position you for future influence.

ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR MISTAKES & LEARN
Mistakes become costly and painful to you and others when you refuse to accept that you have made a bad choice or decision.  As a result the consequences tend to become prolonged and compounded.

Learning from your mistakes is an essential skill that enables you to climb higher and see every mistake as a stepping stone taking you closer to the fulfillment of your dream.  You will become a creator of circumstances, rather than a creature of circumstances.

Take a look at what God instructed the people to do, what will unfold are keys to overcoming obstacles that could prevent you from crossing over to your promised land.

1. THE PRESENCE OF GOD WILL MAKE A WAY

As long as you stay on the riverbank – on the side of the river – you will never receive that which you are believing for.

God had given specific instructions to Joshua – the waters would only part when the feet of those carrying the ark – the presence of God – stepped into the water.

He was telling them, It is my presence that must go ahead of the people, because it is my presence that will make a way.  Don’t send the people in their own strength, I am the one who will part the waters.

God says to you, put my presence in your problem and it will part.

Don’t try and do what God will accomplish for you.  You need to be a carrier of his presence and allow his presence to part the waters for you.

The presence of God tells us that God himself is in our midst.  That is why we must treasure and value God’s presence, that is why we should create an environment that is conducive to his presence.  Because when God shows up, problems disappear.

2. STEP OUT ON GOD’S WORD

God instructed them that as soon as they put their feet in the water the miracle would take place.  And God was true to His word.  But their dilemma is this:

The waters stopped flowing 10 kilometers away, out of their sight. They would not have known what was happening up stream.  It would have taken some time before the water had run dry.  When they first put their feet in the water – bam!  The waters stopped… 10 ks away.

They would have seen nothing, heard nothing and felt nothing, because there was still 10kms of an overflown river that had to run dry before they could pass.

There was only one thing that they could rely on to get them through – that was God’s word.

The Priests are carrying a word from God and the very presence of God; they’ve put their feet to the water with all of Israel watching, and as the sole of their sandal hit the water, they did not see anything, they did not feel anything, they did not hear anything.

But that didn’t stop them.  They kept moving forward step by step, they just trusted God’s word and despite not seeing anything they just kept on going, they kept moving forward until eventually they were in the middle of the riverbed standing on dry ground.

3. CHRIST HAS ALREADY OVERCOME

It is at this point that we begin to see the miraculous work of Jesus Christ emerge in their journey.

The water was stopped about 10 kilometres upstream, out of sight.

It happened that way because it was by Adam, the father of the human family that sin and death entered the world.  And God was painting a picture that was taking place: Christ stepping in and dying on the cross, putting an end to sin and death and rising from the dead, just as the Israelites rose from the river to the other side – the side of the promised land.

What he did at Calvary reaches all the way forward to us today in 2009 and it reaches all the way back to Adam the beginning of the human family.  The curse is broken.

Christ has stopped the raging waters of sin and death and made a way for you to enter into the promised land.

It was the Ark that opened the way and it was Christ that removed the curse of Adam.

You don’t have work for it, you don’t have to earn it, you just have to step out of your comfort zone and receive what he has already done for you.

Because what God did out of our sight 2000 years ago, still has power today.  But the key to activating this power is the presence of God.  Just as the ark made the way, God’s presence will do it today.  You need to open your life to the presence of God.  It’s his presence that makes the way and his cross that cuts the curse.

Then in chapter 4:1-10 God instructs Joshua to establish a memorial on the other side of the river, to testify of his goodness.

But then something extraordinary happens.  Joshua himself, does something peculiar.  With his own hands he makes another pile of 12 stones.  But he does so in the middle of the riverbed, so that when the waters came rushing through, they would never again be seen.  But they would always be there in the middle of the river, under the water.

God didn’t ask him to, the Bible doesn’t call it a memorial.  He just builds 12 stones in the middle of the river, right where the presence of God opened the waters and allowed the people of Israel to walk from death to life.  From a curse to a promise.  From a burial to a resurrection.

I believe that Joshua, a type of Christ, whose name means Jesus.  Was making a profound statement.  There was something significant about these waters.

Just as the Priests had stepped into the water – the place where the old was left behind and the new was before them – they stepped in with anticipation and great expectation of something miraculous to happen, about 1400 years later John the Baptist  spoke with anticipation and great expectation of something miraculous to happen, he prophesied that there is One coming who is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to carry.  He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with Fire.  He was speaking of Jesus Christ and it was Jesus who stepped in to those very same waters and was baptised.

Joshua put together those 12 stones that stayed underwater as a symbol of those who are dead in sin.

Romans 6:4 tells us that we died and were buried with Christ by baptism.

Joshua was making a statement that these are the waters of baptism – they are now and they will be then – and the people of Israel had been through a type of baptism, whereby they entered into the riverbank, where at its core the presence of God was found and it was there Joshua lay 12 stones, for all the people of Israel, in the middle of the river,  and then the water came rushing over it it buried the old life.

But Romans 6.4 goes on, it says

And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

And so it was that God instructed the people to build 12 stones on up on the river bank on the side of the promised land, where everyone could see.  But they weren’t any old stones, they were specifically taken from the middle of the Jordan river, the waters of baptism, symbolising that they had come up out of the waters of baptism, into their inheritance.

And as Romans 5 tells us that as judgment came through Adam, justification will come through Jesus, and it will be from Jesus’ gift of righteousness that we will reign in life and never be put to shame.

Friend let me encourage you, if you’ve been stopped at the raging river in front of your promise, it’s time to cross over.  You need to immerse yourself in the presence of God and put your feet forward.  It’s time to step out on God’s word.

Christ has put an end to death and destruction its time to cross over to the promised land.  He did it for us that we might receive all that he has done for us.

When you cannot see the waters stopping, don’t you stop.  Hold on to God’s word, remain in his presence and kept moving forward.  You’re not the same anymore, you’ve been buried with Christ and now you’re a new person.

You need to receive what Christ has done for you.

© Mark Sceriha 2009

Many people are afraid to dream big, fearing it will never come to pass. Yet that concept in itself if is one that far from emulates God, the creator of dreams.  When we fail to dream big and, instead keep small what God intended for increase, we actually display a selfish mentality that says my dream is about me, not about God or those whom He wants to bless through the dream He has given me.

When God puts something in our heart or in our hands inevitably it’s not about us.  It’s about His eternal plan and purpose to bring the life changing message of Jesus to our world.