Home

Media

Worship

Pastor's

Kids

Map

Prayer 
Requests

I want to tell you about a place. It is a place that is heavily occupied. You can find people there all year long. It’s a hot spot for travelers at Christmas time. It’s shoulder to shoulder during Easter break. It draws more people during the vacationing months of June, July and August than any other place in the world. It continues to stay just as busy during the off season between holidays and summer. It never closes, and it never turns people away. The Bible refers to this place as the Valley of Baca. 

Ps 84:5-7 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools. 
They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. 
NKJV

The word "Baca" means a place of "weeping and misery." It’s a place of crisis and pain; an emotional desert where the dry winds of disappointment constantly blow. And whether it’s at Christmas time or vacation time, it’s a place all of us have been before. 
All of us, even faith-filled believers. Somebody may say, "Yes Brother Doug, God creates those painful places to teach us and help us grow." No! He doesn’t. The devil, not God, is the one that brings misery. He’s the one who comes to kill, steal, and destroy. And that’s exactly what he wants to do to you and your family right now. But know this, it is the devil, not God who creates suffering in our lives. God does not get pleasure in watching His children go through places of misery. It is time His people understand what it is that truly brings Him pleasure. 

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 
Isa 53:10

Did you notice that last line? "And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." Allow me to ask the question; do you know what the pleasure of the Lord is? I’ll tell you what it is not. It is not for you and I to be pitching our tent in Baca. You might say, "Oh yes Brother Doug, the pleasure of the Lord is our eternal salvation." That is absolutely true. But I’ll tell you what else it is; the pleasure of the Lord is simply, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him." Verse 5 of this same chapter says, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." It pleases Him when you and I walk in everything that Jesus sacrificed to give us. Remember scriptures like, He takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant? That word "prosperity" is the same word we get "peace." The word is "shalom" and it means, "nothing missing, and nothing broken." So, the pleasure of the Lord is for us to be whole, complete, having perfect soundness and not lacking. Friends, what Jesus bore for us on the cross, you and I need to be busy receiving. 

In verse eleven of Isaiah 53, we read: "He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied." The sacrifice of Jesus perfectly satisfied God. Adam dissatisfied Him and Jesus satisfied Him. The moment you were born again, God stopped dealing with you in sin. Your sin is none of the devil’s business. We’ve made it his business by exploiting it to everyone around us. And I’m not just talking about committing wrong. I’m talking about acting with our lives and talking with our mouths as though we were linked up with our old sin nature which is a death, sickness, limited, broke, busted and disgusted nature. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That means, your heavenly father was never aware of your sins. Jesus has never told on you yet! As far as God is concerned, you’ve never sinned a day in your life. That’s the way He sees you according to these scriptures. He doesn’t see you as some old dirty dog sinner. He doesn’t want you beat down like some limited nothing who 
has settled down in Baca. That’s not the way He created you. He created you to be whole, something wonderful, something marvelous. He created you to be just like Him. Why? It’s His pleasure!

God knew you before sin ever came into existence. He knew you in full righteousness and perfection the way He created you. Then sin came into the world and death by sin. And we became adept to a sin consciousness. Because of our environment, we were highly developed in a sin consciousness. Our idea of ourselves has been based on sin and death. "Oh, God, I was so fouled up and messed up." And you were, but that’s not how God saw you first. He saw you first the Bible says, "before the foundation of the world." Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. This is a picture of how God saw you. He saw the answer to your life, which is Jesus. I like how the Amplified reads: For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

Hey, that tells me that God’s plans for my life are far better than I have ever imagined. It took me a long time to step out of the mind set that God is mad at us and that He uses places of disappointment and misery to teach us lessons. Once I discovered that it actually pleases God when I flow in the blessings of His creation, then I had no problem becoming intimate with Him. He’s my daddy! I’m His kid! No matter what has happened to you or where you’ve pitched your tent; God is a specialist at making something useful and beautiful out of something broken and confused. He is ready to heal every hurt. He is the master and we are the piece. Do you know what that makes you? A Masterpiece! 

I like what the Word of God says about Baca; we are just "passing through." We are not there to stay. And if you find yourself in that place, do what the Word says, change it into a place of springs. You do that by taking your authority as a believer. Lastly, it says we should determine to come out on the other side stronger. So, pull up those stakes. Don’t pitch your tent. He has much better plans for you elsewhere.