Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, "A Life, and Feeling Like a Grasshopper" God made Moses to be a leader and enabled him to guide the Israelites to the promised land of Canaan by bringing them out of Egypt. When they arrived in Kadesh Barnea and were about to advance toward the land of Canaan, Moses picked twelve people to explore the land of Canaan. After the twelve spies came back from exploring the land for forty days, they gave their reports to Moses and the people. Ten spies reported quite a different story to Joshua and Caleb. In contrast to these two peoples report, they reported that the land they explored devours those living in it, and the people living there are the descendants of Anak. They also reported that they themselves seemed like grasshoppers when compared with these people. So these ten people among the spies gave negative and defeatist reports. They didn't include God in their perspective, but only looked at it from their perspective, they scouted the land and so they ended up with a negative report. Numbers 13:31-33 says, "But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." How pathetic they were! How could they regard themselves as grasshoppers? However, the other two of them reported that the land flows with milk and honey and that they themselves would swallow them up. With God in their hearts, they gave absolutely positive reports. Numbers 14:6-9 says, "Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them." In contrast, in the ten spies reports, there was no mention of God at all. Nevertheless, Joshua and Caleb relied on God and explored the land with Him and reported accordingly. You know, in our lives, there is a great gap between what we see with God and what we see only through our wisdom and intelligence. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at even though both of them look at the same thing. Moses sent twelve spies, but ten of them saw through human perspective only; Joshua and Caleb, however, looked at the same circumstances through God's perspective so their report was quite different from that of the ten spies. One's perspective is so determining. Reformist Martin Luther said, "If we see the world through the glasses of fear, the whole world seems to be filled with worries and anxiety, but if we see the world through the glasses of faith, God's hand appears in the same whole world. Depending on one's perspective, even if two people look at the same thing, each one's interpretation and estimation of it differs from the other. Even though twelve spies explored the same territory, their reports were quite different from one another. Ten spies used only their own human perspectives so they criticized the land saying, "The land we explored devours those living in it. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." However, Joshua and Caleb relied on God so they were able to give positive reports because they looked at things with God's eyes. "If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us."(Numbers 14:8) All the Israelites were terrified at the negative reports and cried out to return to Egypt. They refused to listen to the positive reports of the two. Numbers 14:1-4 says, "That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt." What a disaster! They rebelled against God. God and Moses were enraged at the report of the ten spies. They were killed right there. The rest of the Israelites who cried out to go back to Egypt at the negative reports wandered around in the wilderness for forty years until all of them died. However, God allowed their descendants to enter the land of Canaan. Joshua and Caleb led their descendants to conquer the land of Canaan with success. You know, those who always see life negatively have to live in despair. If one looks at things positively, he can always confess, "It is good. I can make it. It will be done. I have power to do it." If we see things with God's perspective, it will be the best! If we regard ourselves as grasshoppers, it already ruins us. What can grasshoppers do? However, God said that it was very good after He created the first human being. God finished the whole creation in six days and lastly He made human beings in His image and likeness and said, "It is very good!" He commented on human beings, "It is so good!" Then how would God feel if we say to ourselves, "We are mere grasshoppers!"? However, there are so many people who live with the self-image of a grasshopper. God never created us like grasshoppers. When He created the whole world, it was with exclamation that He first commented on His creatures. He said, "Let there be light!" and God saw that the light was good. When He created heavens and the earth, He also said that it was good. Then on the sixth day God made human beings and saw all that He had made, and it was very good. God made the whole world so good. We human beings are so precious that God exclaimed, "It is so good!" as we were created in His image and likeness. We are priceless beings. Please repeat after me, "I am precious!" Please don't say that you are a grasshopper. It is at the creation of you that God praised that it was so good. Then after the fall through our sins, we have to live under the inferiority complex and under comparison. Then what shall we do? We have to choose whether we live in the wilderness or occupy the land of Canaan? If we keep wandering in the wilderness of our life, should we be buried in it or enter the land of flowing with milk and honey? We must decide and choose between them. What kind of thinking do you have in your heart now? We must think of the cross of Jesus and then answer to this question. Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." God says that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Do you have a clear cut goal in your life? When we see Joshua and Caleb, Caleb had a clear and definite goal and dream. Joshua 14:7-12 says, "I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, 'The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.' Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said." Joshua and Caleb explored the land of Canaan as they were chosen among twelve spies. All those who gave a negative reports were killed right there and their descendants wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Now after forty years, they were led by Joshua and Caleb into the land of Canaan and here Caleb said as follows, "At that time I was forty years old and now I am over eighty years old, but I am okay. I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Please let me be the spearhead to occupy the land of promise." When we estimate ourselves, we must do it positively. Now I am eighty one years old, but I am still the same today as the day I planted my first church after graduating from the seminary. Whenever God calls us for some work, we can do it with the power given to us by Him. Even at the age of eighty five, Caleb was never tired and exhausted at all. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." Desires of our hearts are dreams! When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will fulfill our dreams in our hearts. Psalm 145:18-19 says, "The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them." Desires are dreams in our hearts. In other words, dreams are our desires and then why do we use the word, "dream" instead of "desire"? The latter is a vague feeling of our hearts, but the former is a specific vessel. We must prepare a vessel to put something in it. Do you have a dream? Dreams are the vessels God will use to fill His answer in them. Therefore, God says, "Bring your dream to Me. I will fill it." If we keep on asking without preparing any vessel, God will say, "How can I fill it if you don't prepare a vessel?" Therefore, when we pray in our life and have some desires, don't stay there, but first dream about its fulfillment and confess to God, "Oh, God, I have this dream! Please fill it." Then He will answer to your dream and work miracles through our faith. Then we should confess creatively before God. When we have dreams and visions, our creative confession about them will bring great miracles. "I can sleep well. I fall into sleep. I will build a fancy house. I will make it happen. It will be done." Then these confessions will become a foundation for greater miracles. Some Christians live like a king. As God the Father, the Lord of all things, is with them, they do not fear no matter whatever situation they may be in and rather enjoy peace of mind. However, other Christians live like a beggar even though they are children of God. They always lack and live in a constant fear worrying about what to wear or what to eat tomorrow. What kind of life we are living now or will live depends on our choice. Whether we will live in the desert with constant complaints and murmuring or occupy the land of Canaan depends on us. When we rely on our own wisdom, intelligence, strategy or talent, nothing is possible. However, we wholly trust in God and pray and choose with God-given faith, miracles will happen to us. Jesus came to this land as a human being in order to redeem us who are living in this world like the desert. In addition, He granted us the Fivefold Gospel and the Threefold Blessing by dying on the cross. How will you respond to the last words Jesus shouted, "It is finished!" on the cross? When we look to the grace of Jesus that He accomplished through the death on the cross, we must accept it with thanksgiving and confess it with our mouths of faith. When you have positive and active thinking, your future will be according to your thinking. Therefore, I bless you in the name of the Lord that you should not look at yourselves as grasshoppers, but become the beautiful pride of God instead.