I will be off line for a while. I have been diagnosed with COVID. I have been vaccinated so this is considered a mild-to-moderate case. I have to admit that this has wiped me out. My biggest goal right now is to gather up enough energy to shower and wash my hair!
Hope to be back with you on line in the near future! God Bless You! Terry
I was reminded recently about the seasons of our life. We are each in differing seasons of life. Some of us are right where we want to be. Some of us are not. Some don’t particularly like where we are now, we want it to be different, something new or exciting; or we want it to be what it used to be.
A verse in Ecclesiastes 9:10 helped me through a particularly difficult season of life a while back: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
That verse carried me through what some have described as a “dark night of the soul.” It was a time when I could not sense God’s presence at all. I did not hear His voice. The heavens felt like brass when I prayed. I had no friend nor family near me. I had left a ministry I loved and had nothing to take its place. I wondered what I had done wrong to be where I was at that point in time.
But I did what the verse in Ecclesiastes 9:10 commanded. When I saw a need, I tried to fill it. When I saw someone struggling, I spoke about the love and beauty of the LORD.
I don’t think anyone knew what was going on in my own soul then—I felt that this was between the LORD and me. I somehow knew that if I remained faithful to “do what my hand found with all my might,” one day the dawn would break, and that dark night would be over. And, of course, it did.
We may not be where we want to be at this moment – maybe yearning for something new and exciting or desperately wanting to go back to when things were different – but we can be assured that wherever we are, God is with us. We just need to do whatever our hand finds to do – with all our might!
September 9, 1966, I remember this date well. I was living in California working for the State of California Nursing Board. It was a holiday for us – California Admission Day, the celebration of the date California was admitted to the Union. It ended up being more than that.
I had met a young man, a former Marine, handsome, funny (he was 26, I was 19). We had our first date on August 11. On September 9 we went out to dinner and then up to Folsom Dam overlook to watch the sunset. As the night fell, we decided to get married. It wasn’t a formal proposal, no ring yet. In fact, Bob claims I asked him. I thought he asked me. After a few years of marriage, we figured out no one had really asked anyone, it was all a misunderstanding.
(I did ask him to marry me 25 years later when we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary – so I guess after 52 ½ (now 54 ½) years we can no longer claim it was a misunderstanding!)
In Christianity, there are different views about how we become part of the family of God. The two main views (and there are dozens of sub-views) are Calvinism and Arminianism. Simply (very simply) defined, God chooses completely whom He wants—man has no part in it (Calvinism); or God invites “whosoever will” – and man makes a choice (Arminianism). I have had people come unglued if I mention something that they do not consider part of their viewpoint. One man became so angry he threw his Bible on the floor and stomped out of a Bible Study.
So, if you meet me on the street one day and ask me what view I hold, I’m going to tell you that I don’t know, and honestly, I don’t care who started it, I am just so thankful someone did! God may have asked me, or I may have “found God” and asked Him. Maybe it all happened at once. But, it’s a bit like my “engagement,” it doesn’t really matter after all this time; I am just so thankful that I am a child of God.
1 John 3:1: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
Eph 3:20-21: 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. [NIV]
Eph 3:20: Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…. [NKJV]
How wondrous those phrases, immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine … exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think …
Why don’t we ask more? Why don’t we think higher and greater? Why don’t we imagine so much more than we do? Too often we sell God short. We think little all the while He is urging us to think bigger and greater.
Jesus sent a handful of men out into the world and told them to change it, and they did. They turned it upside down in one generation. When the last of those men laid down his head in death the world was far different than when he first set out.
Jesus said, “Greater works will you do” and they did them. He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations” and they did of all the nations in the civilized world of their day. He said, “Pick up your cross” and they carried it until their time was done.
Can we be like they were? Can we think immeasurably more, exceedingly abundantly above? I wonder what it will take.
Perhaps the now church needs a new vision of the Resurrected Christ.
(I am having problems with cervical vertebrae pressing on nerve bundles. Had the MRI, waiting on the neurosurgeon. Unfortunately, using a keyboard is extremely difficult and painful. So while I am getting this settled, I am going to rerun some old devotionals. Thank you for your prayers and patience while I get this settled.)
The Louder Our Song
The greater the storm, the louder our song. We lift our voice up, we make your praise glorious. That is a line from the song “Louder,” by Mark Redman. That line, especially the first part, has been running through my mind over and over again … the greater the storm, the louder our song!
Our world is ablaze with storms, both literal and figurative. Weather patterns have been wild this year. There have been earthquakes and volcanos, floods and droughts. Much of California is on fire because of a drought. As bad as those are, they have affected relatively few compared to the other kinds of storms. Wars, conflicts, radicalism, pandemic, mass murders, shooting sprees, persecutions, fears, anxiety. It seems like the news opens every day with reports of the tempests that plague our world.
The church has felt herself assaulted in our country in ways we never thought possible. Maybe that’s the problem, we never thought it possible! We let our guard down. We grew comfortable in our plush chairs and expected that would go on until Jesus came. Whatever the reasons, in many areas of our society, Christian is no longer a welcome title.
So what should we do? I truly believe God’s Spirit is energizing some of our new song writers and they are putting forth praise, urging us to catch the wind of the Spirit … The greater the storm, the louder our song! The Spirit is telling the church to rise up out of their plush chairs and begin to praise, praise louder and more fervently than ever before.
It’s time to sing praise, shout praise, dance praise, clap praise and live praise. It’s time to open our doors and let the world see us and hear us praising our God!
Louder: (1) Louder - Matt Redman (2015 New Worship Song with Lyrics) - Bing video
(I am having problems with cervical vertebrae pressing on nerve bundles. Had the MRI, waiting on the neurosurgeon. Unfortunately, using a keyboard is extremely difficult and painful. So while I am getting this settled, I am going to rerun some old devotionals. Thank you for your prayers and patience while I get this settled.)
“This is what the LORD says — your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.’” [Isaiah 48:17]
Jesus told His disciples and those who would believe on the LORD after them that “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” [John 14:26-27]
We are to be disciples of Christ. We are also to disciple others. That means we are to learn and then teach others the ways of the LORD, or as the LORD told Isaiah teach “what is best for [us].”
I want the very best God has for me. I want to walk in the way that will have the least obstacles, the least hindrances for my fellowship with the Living God. But I also want that for others … that is where I must take what I have learned through God’s Counselor, the Holy Spirit, and share it with those coming after me. And then they must take what they have learned and share it with even more.
Jesus taught His followers, and His followers taught others through the power and enlightenment of God’s Holy Spirit. That is the cycle of godly discipleship. Unfortunately, we seem to have abandoned that God-given model. Now we have what I call the “pulpit-pew” model. The preacher preaches and the attendees attend. It doesn’t get much more involved than that.
If you want “what is best for you” and you want what is best for others … practice discipleship. There is nothing more exciting than to see others catch the fire of God’s Spirit, His love and mercy in their own lives as you teach them.
I have been basking in the wonders of Exodus, chapters 32-34. In Chapter 32, God called upon Moses to intercede for his people. Moses accepted the invitation and God did not wipe out the nation as He threatened.
In chapter 33, Moses made three requests to God, the first for God to teach Moses His ways, the second for God’s presence to go with Him wherever he went, and the third for Moses to be shown the glory of God.
Exodus 34 is the culmination of the three. God invites Moses onto the mountain once more, only him. There he fulfills His promise and hides Moses in the cleft of the rock and passes before him proclaiming. “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin….” [vs 6-7 HCSB]
Moses bows and worships God and as he does, God makes a covenant with him. “Before all your people I will do wonders never done before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.” [vs 10 HCSB]
God made a covenant with us … a New Covenant, sealed with the blood of God’s Pure and Spotless Lamb, our LORD and Savior Christ Jesus. He has made us ministers of that New Covenant. [Luke 22:20, 2 Corinthians 3:6-7]
As people of the New Covenant, we are to accept God’s invitation to intercede for our nation, we are to ask, seek and knock for God’s ways, God’s presence, and God’s glory. And like Moses, we are to bow and worship our God in everything we say and do.
I believe if we do those things, then what God promised Moses will be ours also … “The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.”
Bless His Mighty Name. Amen
“For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches (seeks) finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” [Matthew 7:8 HCSB]
Every now and again I go back to the book of Exodus and read my favorite chapters (32-34). I love God’s invitation given to Moses to intercede for the mutinous Israelites in Chapter 32.
Then in Chapter 33, Moses gives us a perfect illustration of Jesus’ invitation to ask, seek and knock. (You can read the passage in Exodus 33:12-23.)
Moses asks: “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.”
Moses seeks: “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?”
Moses knocks: “Now show me your glory.”
Moses asks to be taught the ways of the LORD so that he might always please Him. Moses seeks to have the LORD’s presence with him no matter where he goes. And finally, Moses knocks to have all the glory of the LORD shown to Him.
Moses gives us a perfect example of Jesus’ promise that if we ask, we shall receive (God’s leading and favor); if we seek, we shall find (His presence); and, if we knock, the door to the glory of God will be opened to us.
Never stop asking. Never stop seeking. Never stop knocking.
One of my favorite passages is Exodus Chapters 32-34. Moses was up on the mountain with God and did not come down when the people expected him to, so they persuaded Aaron to make a gold calf like the gods of the Egyptians. They then threw a party and sat down to eat and drink and “play.”
I am not sure what that “play” (or “indulge in revelry” as some translations render the word) consisted of, but I do know that it got the LORD’s attention, and He was not pleased.
“The Lord also said to Moses: ‘I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. Now leave Me alone, so that My anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.’” [Exodus 32:9-10 HCSB]
There are four word in that Scripture that we should definitely take note of, “Now leave me alone….” Those four words were both an invitation and a choice for Moses. How he responded would determine not just his own fate, but the fate of a nation.
God invited Moses to intercede for the nation of Israel in her mutiny. Whether or not God destroyed them and started over again with Moses was going to be based on whether or not Moses accepted God’s invitation to intercede.
Moses did not hesitate in his response to God’s offer. “But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God…. Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.” [32:11-14 HCSB]
God, of course, knew that Moses would respond as he did, but maybe that was news to Moses! After all, he would have to put up with a lot while leading this nation of mutineers to the Promised Land!
We live in a nation of mutineers. God is inviting us to be a “Moses” for our people. How will we respond?
I am about to step out of my dream, goal, and passion of the last decade, that of having a Pentecostal Church in the little town of Middleton, Idaho. I can sense in my spirit, the beginning of the exit. I know God’s will in this is sure. What may have prompted me initially to think about turning this church over to another was my diagnosis of PMR and GCA. The fatigue and pain made me unable to pastor as I should.
That, however, led to the realization of the Spirit’s determination for that little church. It is time for the one waiting in the wings to take that church into the future. God has His person picked out. Now even though I seem to have remission from the autoimmune diseases and my energy level is picking up, I know it is time for me to step out and allow another to step in.
So now what? Does God’s calling just disappear?
In my heart I know that it does not. It may reshape into a different dream, a different goal, but it never ceases to drive the heart to be relevant and honorable to the One who called.
In Romans 11, Paul wrote of Israel and that God’s current “rejection” of them is neither total nor final. They will be restored. Paul makes the statement toward the end of his argument for Israel that “God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable.” [vs 29 HCSB]
“God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable.” While true for Israel, I think it is also true for all who have received His gracious gifts and surrendered to His wondrous calling.
I know that I know that I know that God is not done with me yet. So, I pursue His dream …. Wondering where it will take me now.