don't be as stupid as I was

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

I know y'all get tired of how I harp on having a time each day set aside to read the Bible, listen to what God may have to say, & how all that is just so wonderful. I know it seems that I'm obsessed with it & talk about it all the time.

As I try to connect with people around me & do life with them, these same people talk to me about their lives & what's going on in them. They have questions about a lot of things, long to know what to be & do, & generally are seeking some sort of guidance in their lives from somewhere &/or someone.

Ya know, it's hard for me to not sound like a broken record in situations like that. Take it from me, who's decades-long devotional life can best be described as "higgledy-piggledy," the things these same people are lookin' for can be found in the Bible, & the guidance they're looking for & longing for is attainable by just saying, "God, do You anything You want to say to me?"

Of course, as my wife, Lynn, would say, "don't ask the question unless you're prepared for the answer."

Perhaps that's why so many people don't read the Bible & listen to what God wants to say. Part of my reason was pure laziness. The other was that I trusted my ability to plan & make the plan happen & I figured that what plans I came up with were from God, then I was on the right track. And probably in the back of my mind I wasn't completely sure God would talk to me all that much, let alone guide me all that much.

Boy, was I wrong! ;-)

Lynn is right - don't ask God questions unless you're ready for what He might say. Don't open your heart & life up to him in that intimate a way unless you're prepared for how He's gonna mess with you. And He'll mess with you in the very areas you don't want Him to mess with you in.

So, why do I get up everyday & read & listen? What do I "get" out of all this?

I get God.

God talks to me.

I read the Bible & He talks to me through it. Things that I read just speak to stuff going on in my life. And He just reminds me of those things during the day, sometimes in not so comfortable ways. And sometimes in some pretty amazingly wonderful ways.

I remember one night last summer in HOG when LeAnn came with her band of thousands & Ken Land spoke. It was an amazing evening. And the end of the service, I'm over on the Poplar St side of the room, fixin' to walk up & close the service. I'm thinking, "How the crap am I (hardly the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to closers) gonna adequately close this stupendous service?!"

God quietly reminded me of a verse in 2 Thessalonians that I's memorized week or 2 before...

"God will make you worthy of the life He has called you to."

So, I said, "Well, God, I guess You're gonna have to make me adequate in this closer."

So I walked up & closed the service. I don't know how everyone felt about what I said, but I felt like it was one of the best closings I'd done in a long time. And the sad thing of it is that when I walked up to close, I wasn't real sure I was gonna get off sounding pretty good. (Am I tower of faith or what? ;-)

Anyway, the reason I keep harping on this Bible reading & listening out for God thing is that it works - in miraculous, incredible ways - all the time.

And there's just no way to say it any plainer - don't be as stupid as I was & wait till you 52 1/2 years old to do it! Do it now!!!