Why Sit Here Until You Die?

By Kevin Baldwin

Why sit here until you Die?
is a journey. Its a journey from a place of despondency to a place of abundance. Join Kevin Baldwin in this compelling work of personal experience and scriptural teaching that will motivate you to not sit at your current place of just getting by any longer. Its time to take a calculated risk and accomplish Gods will for your life. This journey is about a decision to prepare for the day of your manifestation. Its a call to descend into greatness with a life of humility. One must realize that this adventure will be accomplished little by little until youre in possession of Gods promise to you. You will learn that you must become faithful to resist the inside and outside forces that will sabotage your journey. You will be encouraged to kindle the flame of Gods holy calling for your life because our pilgrimage has eternal implications. This journey will have difficulties along the way. That is why you are admonished to shout grace. If you are sick and tired of sitting where you are, then its time to move. This book is a guide and inspiration for you not to sit there until you die.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449778064

Kevin Baldwin

Kevin Baldwin is the founder of New Life Ministries. New Life Ministries is dedicated to equipping believers with the practical teaching of Holy Scripture that will empower them to live a new life through Christ. Kevin is a graduate of Agape Bible Institute and has a bachelor of arts in religious studies from Athens State University. With the experience of pastoring, associate pastor, Bible school instructor, and years of working in the real word as a bivocational minister, Kevin has a unique perspective that will bring encouragement to the Christian life.

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Copyright © 2012 Kevin Baldwin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-7805-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-7807-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-7806-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012922676

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version of the Bible.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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WestBow Press rev. date: 03/15/2013

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 –The Story of the Downcast

Chapter 2 –The Decision

Chapter 3 –Preparation before Manifestation

Chapter 4 –Descending into Greatness

Chapter 5 –Little by Little

Chapter 6 –Now That I Have It, What Do I Do With It?

Chapter 7 –Outside and Inside Forces that Keep Us from Moving Forward

Chapter 8 –Kindle the Fire

Chapter 9 –Whose Heart Is Set on Pilgrimage

Chapter 10 –Shout Grace

Special thanks to my wife Dallas and our three children Jake, Jud and Emee for their patience and putting up with me while working on this project. Thanks to Denita, Milli, Alisa, Lisa, Rachel and Sharon. May God bless you for your help.

INTRODUCTION

Maybe you have heard the song where Barney the Dinosaur says, This is the song that never ends. That is what I thought concerning this book; it was the book that never ended. I started it but would put it down for awhile, and then I would write a little more and set it aside again. In this process, the weeks turned into months, the months turned into years, and the book was not finished. I would get motivated; finish a chapter, and then stop.

Part of my hesitation was maybe because of the lack of success of the children’s book I had published, Beetle Dan and the Big Purple Slide. In my mind, I pictured the book doing well. I thought it would be the launching pad to a successful writing career. It wasn’t, and I am still walking by faith until it comes.

In the beginning of 2009, I began to be more serious in my devotions and prayer life. This brought considerable change in my life and growth. I was so excited, and with God’s help, I was able to finish another chapter. Then I heard the Lord say to stop for a season while He was working things out. I was moved back into children’s ministry, where God led me to resume writing a curriculum for children’s church, which I had stopped a year and half before. As children’s church ministry continued, once again the fire of His calling began to grow.

My pastor, Fred Rivers asked me to minister in his place while he was out of town, and I preached a sermon on Passover. What was different about this service? I fashioned the service in the format of a children’s church service, with games, dramas, puppets, and the works. Exodus 12:2 says that Passover shall be your beginning of months. For the children of Israel, it was the beginning of their journey to the Promised Land. It was as if God was saying to me, You are going into a new phase of your life. Through this growing process in my life, God gave me the inspiration and knowledge to finally finish Why Sit There Until You Die?

I made a plan. I decided that in one week, I would go to Panama City, Florida, stay at my brother’s house, and finish the book with no distractions. After discussing my plan with my wife, I decided to wait until our children were back in school since it was close to the end of summer break. I drove to Panama City on Sunday evening and began to write on Monday. I wrote a chapter each day until Thursday, when I finished the last chapter. Today is Friday, and now I am finishing the introduction.

I tell you all of this because my writing of this book parallels when the Lord instructed Moses to get a lamb on the tenth of the month and keep it until the fourteenth. Then the Israelites were to kill the lamb for the Passover. I started writing on August 10, 2009, and today, as I finish, it is August 14. To you this may only be a coincidence, but it reminds me of a powerful event that happened to me when I was a young pastor in my twenties.

My mentor in the beginning years of my ministry was Dr. Mike Harrison. We called him Pastor Mike. He is one of the most gifted Bible teachers I know. I thank God for the Bible school Pastor Mike founded, from which I graduated. It has formed the foundation of my spiritual journey.

After I graduated from Bible school and began to pastor a church of my own, Pastor Mike asked me to join a group of eleven other men from his church. We would meet on Sunday morning for twelve weeks for breakfast and fellowship, and then he would share a message with us. For me, it was a thirty-mile trip, one way. I would then travel the thirty-mile trip back to my church and preach, but the fellowship and experience were worth it. I counted it as an honor to have been asked to be part of this group.

At the end of the twelve weeks, Pastor Mike held a special service where he spoke to us about our lives and the destiny God had planned for each of us. He said that when we die, there is a date of birth and a date of death, but there is also a dash in between. The dash represents the life we have lived. At this point, he asked the question, What are you going to do with your dashes?

The next thing we did was a huge surprise. We actually went to the largest cemetery in Cullman, Alabama. Pastor Mike asked each of us to walk around, being respectful of where we were, and to look at the graves and think about our dashes. We were to be alone with God and hear what He had to say. Then we would meet back at the church, where we would sit around the fire and talk about what was on our hearts.

As I walked through the cemetery, I passed a tombstone I did not want to stay at, so I moved on, all the time knowing God was urging me to go back. It was not that I was afraid; this tombstone was just uncomfortable for me because it was exactly the same as my father’s in Curry, Alabama. Therefore, with reluctance, I returned to the grave and sat down to be still and listen to what God had to say.

As I sat there, I attempted to fight back my painful memories of growing up without a dad. I was the youngest of five. I have three brothers and a sister, who is the oldest. This is not a sob story, and sympathy is not what I am seeking. In spite of my father’s death, I still look at my life up to this point as blessed. I thank God for my mom. We always knew we were loved and that we had her support, even when we were in the wrong. There I sat, looking at the dates on this tombstone. This man lived into his eighties, unlike my dad, who died at the age of twenty-nine. I thought about this man’s long life, and I envisioned children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The word that came to me was legacy. I envisioned this man living a long time and leaving a legacy to his children that would make them proud.

That night I waited until last to share my experience. I have never been comfortable talking about my father and his death. When it was my turn, I shared with the group the reflections I just shared with you. I then shared how I wanted to live a long, fruitful life, like this man, and to leave a legacy for my children. The Lord spoke to me and said that my life was going to be like a book that is written in three sections: a place of wandering, a place of knowing, and a place of conquering. This was long before I ever dreamed of being a writer.

The first section of the book—a place of wandering—fits a large portion of my life. The list of things I have done is endless: pastor, flooring installer, insulation technician, school teacher, coach, ironworker, carpenter, Bible school instructor, and associate pastor, just to name a few. I have never made a lot of money, but with each move I made, I was trying my best to do the will of God. I remember being scared to death as a senior in high school. I was not serving the Lord, and I did not know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. The place of wandering was a bull’s eye description of my life.

The place of knowing was a place in my life where I knew what God had in my heart to do. I moved past my doubts and fears to what God had in store for me, regardless of what others thought. For the past few years, I had been somewhere in between those two sections. I wanted desperately to embrace the calling, would start to step out to do it, but then I would retreat again. I can truly identify with the character Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. Like Frodo, I was afraid, timid, and insecure in the task that was given to me. But Frodo’s journey changed him, just as I believe my journey will change me.

That is why I believe the Passover message is so important to me. It is a Passover from wandering to knowing. A person who truly knows who he or she is and what he or she is about is a person who cannot be stopped from fulfilling his or her destiny. Paul says in Galatians 1:15–16 that God called him by His grace for the purpose of revealing His Son to him to prepare him to preach to the Gentiles. Paul knew his destiny, but he had to come to the revelation of Christ. He had to know Christ and who he was in Christ before God could use him to turn the world upside down. Just like Paul, those who do great things have a knowing, and thank God for His Passover.

In the sermon I preached about Passover while my pastor was out of town, the Lord gave me a powerful illustration. I know the Passover is about the death of the firstborn in Egypt and death passing over the children of Israel because of the blood of the lamb. However, in my illustration, I had two groups of kids. One group had two small first graders and one large fifth grader. The other group had two teenage boys and a first grader. I gave these two groups the task of having two people out of each group pass a football over the person in the middle.

In the first group, the two small first graders had to pass the football over the tall fifth grader in the middle. It was obvious they were going to have a hard time. The congregation was pulling for them to do it, but after repeated attempts, they failed. One of the kids from the audience cried out, That’s unfair. That is the best way to describe life in the place of wandering: unfair. For me, during this portion of my life, nothing seemed to work out. All of my attempts to pass over were blocked.

Next was the second group. The two teenage boys had to pass the football over the first grader in the middle. As you can imagine, this task was easy for the teenagers. That’s the place of knowing. Israel’s time in bondage in Egypt was like the first group; nothing seemed to work, and their bondage became increasingly cruel. God’s miraculous provision and deliverance became unfair for the Egyptians. It was a new beginning for them. The same phenomenon can happen today for the believer who passes over to that place of knowing.

I believe the last stage—a place of conquering—is for the latter years of my life, even though I will experience victories throughout my life. I am thirty-eight years old. To some, I am just getting started, yet to others, I may seem a little old. Those who are mature and older may ask, What does this young guy have to say? However, I am reminded of Job 32, when Elihu spoke about Job’s friends condemning him and Job justifying himself. Elihu waited and said he let his elders speak out of respect, but then goes on to say, There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. In context with the quote that I just gave you, Elihu goes on to say that just because you’re older does not mean you’re wiser. It just means you are older. Then in verse 10 Elihu goes on to say, Listen to me, I will declare my opinion. That is what I intend to do as well. I will declare my opinion.

I am not saying I know it all. This is the journey God has given me, and He