word

Picture this...

It's the 1st Saturday in May, 2003. Since January of that year, God has been making me restless, making me ready for some sort of BIG change in my life. I have had no clue what it will be - I just know change is coming.

The night before I had been at home, reading. Hannah was back in her room, Lynn was gone somewhere. And God just started speaking to me - He let me know that I was supposed to leave music ministry (something I'd been doing for 30 years) & the worship arts department at Christ Chapel (there was only 1 then ;-), & start working for my friend & brother (& associate pastor @ CC), Andy King, in the House of Grace.

And the rest is history ;-)

Anyway, for all those 4 months, God had been talking my hind legs off during my Bible reading each morning. Holy cow! He'd been talking. Talking, talking, talking!!!

I get up the next morning, after surrendering to Him in what I thought & felt like was a stupendous act of surrender (I'm so arrogant!) & start to read the next psalm in the sequence I've been reading during those months - it was on that day Psalm 73, which is about the author griping about how the arrogant & proud prosper.

I was not impressed...

Here I am, having endured 4 months of God talking to me night & day about change, getting & staying SO restless, inundated with scriptures about trusting Him, following Him, & gajillions of other things - for 4 months!!!

The morning after He FINALLY tells me what to do (& I agree to do it!!!), I figured I'd have something to read that would be a little more compelling than some dude complaining about how the fat cats around him were prospering (probably because he wasn't?).

Like I said, I wasn't impressed.

Then I got to verse 24...

Psalm 73:24 You will keep on guiding me with your counsel,
leading me to a glorious destiny.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
I desire you more than anything on earth.
26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
but God remains the strength of my heart;
he is mine forever.

28 But as for me, how good it is to be near God!
I have made the Sovereign LORD my shelter,
and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

Yeah... 'bout that...

Verse 24 was the one that REALLY jumped off the page.

I still can remember how stupid I felt, how embarrassed I was that I'd been so pouty, childish, impatient, & immature.

You need to know that especially verse 24 is a verse I've carried in my heart ever since, through good times, but particularly through dark, desperate, & lonely times.

Yeah, 'bout that complaining I did back on May 6, 2003...

I think God's more than capable of speaking just the right word at the right time, & isn't gonna leave me out on a limb.

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I'm also reading in 1 John today. I just had to include these verses because they're so glorious...

1 John 1: 5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.