PERSISTING IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

How did Noah get those animals in the boat?  That’s what I want to know.

They came into the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded.

Genesis 7:9

Two by two they came into the boat, male and female, just as God had commanded.

Then the Lord shut them in.  Genesis 7:15

When I read these verses the other day my first thought was — Why is this stated twice?  My second thought was — How?  My next thought – How long did it take?  I think of my animal loading experiences and can just imagine what Noah and his boys went through to load the boat.  Moses made it sound like the animals just sauntered up the ramp, smiling all the way:  “…they came into the boat…”  It’s not only quite possible, it’s probable that they did.  None of my loading experiences have ever been like that.  Yours?

In running around to horse shows when Livi was younger, we had our share of animal loading.  Some easy, most not.  In the horse world, one of the most dangerous things to do is to load and unload a horse from a trailer.  If an animal does not want to load, you cannot make it load.  You can lead a horse to water but can’t make them drink kind of thing.  We had this horse named Logan.  There were times she walked right up the trailer ramp right into place.  There were other times when two grown men pushing on her butt could not make her walk up that ramp and into the trailer.  When she planted her feet you knew that that 900 pound animal wasn’t going to budge unless she wanted to.  Frustrating.

Then there was the time we were headed home from the Youth Fair and our horse Reese would not get on our trailer.  He would walk to the ramp, look at Livi like I told you I’m not getting on that thing, and then duck right off the edge – dangerous.  Three hours later, no lie, we finally got him to load, on another trailer.  Kind folks dropped our horse at our house and we dropped their horse at their house.  Frustrating.

Then there was the time that we had to load our rooster Edward into a carrier to return him to the breeder.  Remember, no boys allowed.  Trying to wrangle him into that crate without hurting him or hurting us was, well, like herding – a rooster.  Frustrating.

There was also the time years ago I remember trying to get my cat Noel in the car to go to the vet.  That one drew blood – on me, not her.  Frustrating.

Have you ever seen kids at the Youth Fair trying to load a pig?  I think that’s where the term pig-headed came from.  Frustrating.

Think of your animal loading experiences and then think about Noah and the boys.  There were only eight of them in total – four men, four women.  I picture the men handling the animals and the women setting up housekeeping in the ark.   It is estimated that there were 45,000 animals on that boat.  Ponder that.  I started thinking about the how.  How did they round up all those animals?  Did they gather as they went and put them in corrals until the boat was complete?  Did they make a list of animals and then check them off as they entered?  Maybe an Excel spreadsheet?  Yes!  How about a layout so that every animal got into the right stall?  Were the insects put in a jar – with holes of course?  What about the birds – cages perhaps?  Maybe each was tagged and scanned as they entered?  Did you see that rabbit hole coming?

Anywho.  It sounds so simple doesn’t it?  Round up 45,000 animals, get your kids and get on the boat.  This was an incredibly huge feat.  But God, don’t you love those words, was in control.  Noah was a righteous man.  He was an obedient man.  God told Noah to build an ark, and he did.  I feel fairly confident that Noah did not stress over the details like I did with the “How’s”, and it wasn’t even my project.

Do we get bogged down in the details and forget about the Big Picture?  What was the big picture here?

The big picture.  Many years after Adam, God found the world to be so wicked that He was going to destroy it.  There was only one righteous man – Noah.  So, God gave the Earth a do-over.  Wipe it out, start all over.

God told Noah to build a boat – a really big boat.  Picture this, one and a half football fields by one football field and four stories high.  A really big boat.  So, Noah built a really big boat.

Can you just imagine the enormity of this task?  Can you imagine the details that needed to be attended to?  Right down to who loads first. 

But God – love those words – was in the details.  How do we know that?  He gave Noah the boat dimensions, because He knew how big it needed to be.  Noah didn’t know how big it needed to be.  He didn’t know how much it needed to hold.  If Noah had been worried about the “how’s,” he wouldn’t have been able to focus on his God given task of building the boat.  If he’d been hand wringing about how will they load, what order will they go in, how will I feed them, etc., he wouldn’t have been able to boat build.  He would simply have been worrying about things he couldn’t do anything about, he couldn’t control.

God’s words are written to encourage and teach us.  Noah teaches us that if we focus on what God tells us to do – build a boat – He will handle the rest – He will take care of the details – He will control what we can’t.  We have to trust that.

So, what do we focus on?  Do we focus on details, the how’s?  Sometimes, He tells us to.  Do we focus on things we can’t control?  Sometimes, even though we’re not supposed to.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.  “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”  Jeremiah 29:11

Noah was a righteous man.  God’s plan was to save the earth through Noah.  How?  Build a boat, get the family and animals on it, and get out of there.  God took care of the details.  Noah just had to obey.

So, what’s God’s plan for us?  Build a boat (a relationship with God), get the family and animals (get our houses in order) on it, and get out of there (lead others to Christ – go and tell everyone you meet!).  God will take care of the details.  We just need to do what He tells us.  Be obedient.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this:  I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:19-20

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  Whoever believes and will be baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Mark 16:15

It’s so easy to get bogged down in the details.  The details of life, the details of church.  The only detail we truly need to be concerned with is God.  We don’t need to worry about how we’re to get others on the boat, we are to take them to the boat and let God do the loading.

For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns.  May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation – those good things that are produced in your life by Jesus Christ – for this will bring much glory and praise to God.  Philippians 1:10-11

I was going to bow out of my blog today. I’ve been a little under the weather. I’m fine. It’s just that the thing we have all been trying to avoid for the past two and a half years finally caught up with me. Part of it was being in the wrong place at the wrong time — where ever and whenever that might have been, but upon reflection, I think part of it may have been lack of self care on my part.

Has that ever happened to you? Something happened as a result of what you did or did not do? I think this probably happens to us a million times a day but most times the consequences are inconsequential.

I’ve had plenty of time to reflect while on my back, or at least plenty of time for me, a whole three days. Those who know me know that if I’m down for three minutes I’m a spaz case, so you can just imagine my reflections…

One conclusion I’ve come to is that some things in life you just can’t control — like this illness. There’s no rhyme nor reason to it. But another conclusion I have drawn is that sometimes we do have control over some things in our life, we simply choose not to take control. For instance, how we take care of ourselves. You know, our bodies, our minds and most importantly, our Spirits.

I’m grateful for laying on my back, which hurts from laying on my back — you get that don’t you? You’re weird, you say. Laying on my back has given me time to assess life, mine specifically. It’s given me perspective on what is really important. I think we probably all do that self assessment when things aren’t going well and we’re looking for hope on the other side. You know — when I get off this couch, i’m gonna…work less, be less stressed, get my head straightened out, eat heathier, exercise more, take better care of myself, my family, clean my house more (well, maybe not that one). The list goes on and on though, right?

And truth be told, those are exactly the things I should be doing and will be doing, at least for the foreseeable future, before the world speed creeps in again and i’m back on the merry-go-round gripping the mane with legs flying behind until I land on the couch once more.

So, the point to all my brain fog ramblings is this — control what you can control. God has made us sensible, rational people – body, mind and Spirit. True, we can’t always control our bodies. I’m told only the aliens have control of our DNA (wink, wink). But we can control how we treat them. What’s going into the temple? Is the temple being strengthened?

What about our minds — the thing He gave us to think with, to reason with, to make sound judgments with? True, we can’t always control our minds either, but we can control a lot more than we think. What goes into our minds forms our reasoning and our judgments. Garbage in — garbage out.

What about our Spirits — here’s the one thing we have absolute control over. Not to sound like a New Ager or anything, but we do have complete control of our destinies. We have two choices — we get to pick. Maybe not necessarily how we arrive, but we absolutely have control of where we end up.

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.
Philippians 3:20-21

Body, mind and Spirit. Control what you can control.

Can you see that tiny little speck in the middle of the sky, kinda right in the middle in the whiter part?  I know it’s super hard to see.  I wish I was a better photographer.  I’m constantly checking out the clouds and watching for Jesus while morning walking.  A couple of weeks ago the Worst/Best and I were doing our thing, and I look up and what do I see?  (You’re asking the same thing because you can’t tell from the picture).  It’s a balloon, floating up and up on the breeze. 

You’re probably saying big deal, balloons float in the sky all the time.  The big deal is that this balloon was floating upwards at 5:45 a.m.  It was moving pretty quickly and it came from the direction of the mountain.  From where I know not.  It just appeared.  Weird.  There was no crying child, no one saying quick catch it, it was just this one balloon silently floating upward being carried by the unfelt breeze.  To be honest, it was just a little bit creepy, like something you’d see in a creepy movie.  Not because there was a balloon floating around, but because it was doing this at 5:45 a.m.  Not your usual party time.

As I watched it swaying left and right, surging forward and fluttering aimlessly, it reminded me of what can happen to us when we’re untethered.

So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.

Hebrews 2:1

A very solemn warning.  You may be thinking, how could that ever happen ?  Peeshaw.  I will never drift away from the Lord.  But unless we are constantly on guard, that exact thing can and will happen to us.  It is more common for Christians to simply drift away from the Truth than to cut the string abruptly.  If we are not on our guard the tether, the string, our connection will slowly untie, become unknotted, and we will drift off.  Visualize that – we are the balloon, the Lord is holding the string, the string is the conduit, the connection, the relationship to Him.  That string is our communication, what keeps us tethered, that keeps us grounded.  If we are not constantly making sure that our connection is secure through prayer, the Word, our service to Him, the knot is going to loosen and eventually come untied.

Again, we say this will never happen to us, but I’d venture to guess those who have drifted away from the Lord also thought the same thing when tethered.  How easily we may fall into believing false teachers.  False teachers or false teaching is anything that is not Truth teaching.  We think that a false teacher is someone with horns on a grand stage espousing notions that are completely outrageously false, and that may be true but more often than not, false teachers deliver their false teachings in a much more subtle way.  Proclaiming a worldly moral truth as a Biblical truth is false teaching and if we aren’t super careful, and completely connected to the Spirit, we may even entertain that false position as Truth when in fact it is not.  One by one those false moral truths loose the knot.  Just think about the many high profile Christians who have been in the news who have deserted or departed from the Truth for a lie.  Lies that say that the Lord is vague, that the Lord doesn’t keep His promises, that the Bible is errant.  Believing the lies and abandoning or renunciating our faith in God, is called apostacy.  Yep, new word.

Our Truth comes only from The Word of the Lord.  We’re called to pay strict attention to the Truth we have heard. Not only are we to know the Truth, we are to obey the Truth, that’s what secures the knot, that’s what keeps us tightly tethered to the Lord.  We are to learn and apply, that’s the obedience part.  Indifference is deadly.

What makes us think that we can escape if we are indifferent to this great salvation that was announced by the Lord Jesus himself?

Hebrews 2:3

I watched the balloon until I could not see it any longer.  It bounced around randomly, never again connected, eventually floating into the atmosphere never to be seen again.  We must not let this happen to us.  This world is working on our knots, subtly disconnecting our string from the balloon.  It is constantly tugging at our knot.  Do not underestimate or completely dismiss the pull.  The Lord will never let go of his end of the string.  We must do our part in the relationship.  Pay attention. Be on guard.  Do everything possible to tighten, double or triple the knot.  Do anything to stay tethered to Him.

And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

Romans 9:5

When morning gilds the skies, My heart awaking cries: May Jesus Christ be praised! Alike at work and prayer To Jesus I repair: May Jesus Christ be praised!   To Thee, my God above, I cry with glowing love, May Jesus Christ be praised! The fairest graces spring In hearts that ever sing, May Jesus Christ be praised!

Does sadness fill my mind? A solace here I find, May Jesus Christ be praised! Or fades my earthly bliss? My comfort still is this, May Jesus Christ be praised!

When evil thoughts molest, With this I shield my breast, May Jesus Christ be praised! The powers of darkness fear, When this sweet chant they hear, May Jesus Christ be praised!

When sleep her balm denies, My silent spirit sighs, May Jesus Christ be praised! The night becomes as day, When from the heart we say, May Jesus Christ be praised!

Be this, while life is mine, My canticle divine, May Jesus Christ be praised! Be this th’ eternal song Through all the ages long, May Jesus Christ be praised! 1828

May Jesus Christ be praised!  Isn’t that a beautiful thought to carry with us today and always?

May Jesus Christ be Praised! When we awaken in the morning – May Jesus Christ be Praised!  When we start our day’s work – May Jesus Christ be Praised!  When we need solace – May Jesus Christ be Praised!  When we are afraid – May Jesus Christ be Praised!  When joy strike our hearts – May Jesus Christ be Praised!  When sleepless nights we have – May Jesus Christ be Praised!  In absolutely every situation – May Jesus Christ be Praised!  Our eternal song – May Jesus Christ be Praised!  Five words that say it all – May Jesus Christ be Praised!

We have this cat named Grayce, I may have mentioned her before.  She’s a stray that showed up about a year ago.  We were looking for a barn cat so it turned out to be a good fit.  She’s super sweet and affectionate, which is a little unusual for an outdoor cat, or any cat for that matter – cats are just cats.  She hangs around the house and wants to be where we are.  She walks with the Worst/Best and I each morning often jumping out of the weeds to announce herself.  She rubs on the Worst/Best, she rubs on my legs, she rubs on the leash, a stump, a piece of grass, all with equal affection.  She likes to be carried except when she doesn’t.  Again, she’s a cat.  She’s a beautiful multi-gray colored cat, hence the name.  Her hair is longer and her eyes are green.  She’s wonderful, we really enjoy having her around.  We have recently discovered though that the name doesn’t quite fit.  Oh sure, the color is right, but…She is a he.  Yep.  Who knew?  Anyway, Grayce is now Grayhe.

Grayhe is a little different than any cat we’ve had before.  Barn cats have a job – scare away mice by any means.  Just as a note, I think mice are super cute and I never want to intentionally hurt any animal except maybe snakes.  But, mice are super destructive in a barn or anywhere inside for that matter.  Grayhe actually excels at his job, he’s quite the hunter.  He’s constantly on the prowl and proudly delivers quite an assortment at our feet.  Again, he’s a cat.

One particular day Grayhe bounded out of the tall grass, meowing loudly, running straight at me excitedly.  I turn as he’s running toward me, thinking it was hug time.  Not!  He had his latest acquisition in his mouth.  Ewww, gross.  It’s nature, it’s what he does.  The predator had caught the prey.  As I stood there trying not to completely yuck out, I started thinking, isn’t that so like life.  I mean I don’t run around showing off my conquests or calling attention to them proudly.  Or do I?  Ouch.

Anyway, my thoughts were actually on Satan.  I hate to compare my cat to all that is evil, but the action is so the same.  Satan is a predator and God’s Children are his prey.  When we succumb to his allure, we are just like that poor mouse in Grayhe’s mouth, dangling in the jaws of evil.  Grayhe was super proud of that conquest.  Satan is also super proud when he snatches one of us up – we can almost envision his side-eyed smirk.

Be careful!  Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy.  He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for victims to devour.  Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith.  Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.

1 Peter 5:8-9

How do we avoid being the snatchee?  We have to be on guard at all times.  We have to be prepared.  We have to educate ourselves.  First of all, we need to know the enemy.  We need not sell the enemy short.  He is wily, he is cunning, he is deceptive, he is super powerful (not all powerful mind you), he is evil.  Second of all, we need to be prepared for that enemy.  As children of God, we are Satan’s target.  If we are not Children of God, Satan has no time for us because we are already his.  If we do not feel like we constantly need to check our backs we may need to check our hearts.  He is not going to spend time on securing what he has already secured. 

But, most importantly, we need to know the Lord deeply.   We need to know who He is, His attributes, His characteristics and we can only know these things if we have a relationship with Him through His Word, prayer and His Spirit.  We need to know and understand that the battle belongs to the Lord.  Although we are to be on guard as the Apostle Paul tells us very often, we must know the One that can help us avoid being snatched up into Satan’s jaws.  If we do not have a vibrant, active, close relationship with the One, our daily lives are in peril.  That sounds dramatic, but if anything, it is way understated.  One wrong decision, one miscue, one selfish moment, one little half-truth, one little glance, one little sneak can be catastrophic to us and to those around us.  Peril is being lured away from the Lord because our relationship is not strong enough to withstand the destructive forces of evil.

Be strong with the Lord’s mighty power.

Ephesians 6:10

There is a ton of evil in this world today.  Satan has set traps at every twist and turn.  Satan is hungry for Children of God.  He waits until we are weak, until we are vulnerable, until we let our guard down, until we feel comfortable, until we are complacent, until we take our eyes off Jesus and then he pounces brutally and savagely and parades around with us in his mouth.

So, what do we do? Cling to the Lord.  We need to be so close to Him that if we were any closer we’d be on the other side of Him.  He promises to uphold us with His right hand if we seek Him and He will lift us up, higher and higher, giving us strength to fight in the battle that is His to win.

Am I more determined to navigate my own course than leaving it to Him?

I read something similar to this the other day, and it gave me pause.  After careful consideration, I’d have to say a lot of times…yes, or maybe even most times.  I know, that shouldn’t be the case.  I should be relying on God to steer me through life’s happenings instead of trying to pilot my own course and trying to control the outcomes for myself and others.  When I’m piloting the course and trying to control the outcomes, which by-the-way I can’t do anyhow, that means I have a trust problem.

If I’m navigating my own course, or some might say trying anxiously to control, it means I do not trust Him.  Plain and simple.  Wait! No, I do trust Him, but…  We either trust Him or we don’t.  Granted, there is a disconnect sometimes between our minds and our hearts, sometimes we don’t always line up, remember the hind’s feet?  It is perilous when our back feet (heart and mind) don’t land in the front feet (soul and strength) steps?  We risk falling on the treacherous terrain.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke 10:27

Trust.  Reliance.  Confidence.  Hope.  Faith.  Whatever you want to call it, we cannot stumble through life with half-trust, picking and choosing the situations that God is capable of handling and those that we must handle for Him.  This creates so many bad decisions on our part.

Trust is a tricky thing though.  We may feel it with our minds but don’t know it with our hearts.  Or, we may feel it with our hearts, but don’t know it in our minds.  Trust is getting it all to line up and that’s a process.

If I am more determined to navigate my own course, my life will be a constant battle, kind of like a Pushmi-Pullyu.  My head and my heart are connected to one body but constantly battling for control.  Visualize that.  Only when we give up control are we given freedom from the tug of war.  Freedom to trust.  Freedom to allow Him to navigate our lives.    If we are constantly trying to control the outcomes of life, we will never have freedom.

When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.  Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves; but Jesus was sleeping.  The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

“You of little faith,” Jesus replied, “why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it was perfectly calm.

The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey Him!”

Matthew 8:23:27

Do we not think that the One that controls the waters of the earth cannot control the seas of our lives?  We are so like the Disciples charting our own course and then being engulfed by the waves.  Here’s the thing I love about this passage.  He rebuked the winds and the waves, but He did not rebuke the Disciples for their little faith!  I can’t imagine that the Disciples were not trying to control their boat during this storm.  I can’t imagine that they were not trying to navigate the waters, control the sails and bailing the water out of the boat.  I can’t imagine that they didn’t wake Jesus until they had tried everything they knew to do and nothing was working. I can’t imagine that they didn’t wake Him as a last resort. Only when they saw they were not able to manage the crisis did they cry out to Him.  I can relate!

And He answered. 

Freedom comes when we cry out to Him.  Our freedom comes when we trust Him enough to take control.  It is a process.  But just like the Disciples, we can breathe a sigh of relief when we see He is true to His promises and we can trust Him more.

Our eyes are peeled.  It’s that beautiful time of year when new life emerges.  We are so privileged to be able to witness, sometimes on a daily basis, new life.   You see it’s drop time.  That time when the does start dropping their fawns.  We spend time watching the fields to see if the pregnant doe yesterday is nursing a fawn today.  Nature teaches us some amazing things about our God. 

After a doe has delivered, it is her job to protect that baby.  I’m sure mother deer love their babies, but it’s not like we love our babies.  They love their babies out of instinct, out of a need to survive, or maybe it is the same. 

We know that in the animal kingdom it is definitely survival of the fittest, we all remember Marlin Perkins and Mutual of Omaha’s…W-i-l-d K-i-n-g-d-o-m.  Frankly, W-i-l-d K-i-n-g-d-o-m was pretty ferocious and predictable.  We knew the ending every week, beautiful innocent animals just wandering around out for a meal, minding their own business, when suddenly something swoops in and the fittest prevails, yet we watched.  Brutal.  Back to the does.

So after a mother deer delivers, she’s right back to what we usually see her doing, eating.  She must stay strong in order to provide for her baby.  Oft times we don’t immediately see the fawn until it’s a few days old.  So, where is it?  Right where the mother leaves it.  You see a mother deer will bed down her fawn during the day.  She places it in a safe place, tells it to stay there and then heads off for sustenance.  It’s interesting to watch a mother deer bed down her baby.  She finds a protected, safe spot, pushes her baby down, and if it moves before she tells it to, she takes her nose and baps the baby on the head.  It only takes a bap or two for that baby to stay put.  It will stay put until the mother deer comes and retrieves it many hours later.  Some does put their babies down in the morning, head out for a day of foraging returning at the end of the day.  We once watched a retrieval.  It was amazing.  A mother deer returned to her bedded down baby under one of our fences (the one in the pic).  She paced back and forth the opposite fence line to make sure the coast was clear.  She then bleated from about 20 feet out and that baby jumped up and ran to her.  It recognized her voice. But, that baby would not move until called, under no circumstance.

That mother’s instinct is to protect her baby.  That mother enforced obedience with a bap on the head because she knew that her baby’s life depended on it.   That baby wandering from a safe place could end up the next episode of  W-i-l-d K-i-n-g-d-o-m. 

I don’t know about you all, but I’ve certainly had my share of baps on the head and there’ve been times when I should have had a bap on the head and the Lord was merciful.  Just like in the animal kingdom, obedience to Him is a matter of survival.  It is a matter of life or death.  And it is the exact same for us. 

At the end of the day, the doe calls to her young, they move off into the evening, the baby nurses and gains strength from the mother’s milk, and they bed down together.  It is absolutely no different for us.  We do not have to live out W-i-l-d K-i-n-g-d-o-m, but if we are not obedient to the Lord, we will.  This world is full of predators just waiting to attack the weak and defenseless.  Predators swoop in and the fittest will prevail.  When we are not obedient to Him we are the weak and defenseless.

The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died. For they had disobeyed the LORD, and the LORD vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk and honey.

Joshua 5:6

The Israelites are a great example.  Yet we probably don’t have to look that far.  Obedience to Him, for our own protection, keeps us from being devoured by this world.

The New Testament in Modern English, under the heading “Your knowledge of the truth should be your safeguard” states:

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the faith and correcting error, for re-setting the direction of a man’s life and training him in good living.  The scriptures are the comprehensive equipment of the man of God, and fit him fully for all branches of his work.

2 Timothy 3:16

All we need to know to be obedient is in the Word.  All we need for life everlasting is in the Word of God.  Obedience is a choice. Every choice comes with consequences.  If we are not obedient to God, through His Word, we subject ourselves to the consequences and it won’t be a bap on the head.

Another walking revelation.  I don’t know why God’s promises are such a surprise to us sometimes.  Worst/Best and I were strolling along.  She can’t do much more than that these days and that’s just fine.  If we were out beating the pavement, we may have missed God’s teaching moment.

It was the wildest thing.  Looking at the mountain yesterday morning, I noticed the clouds rolling in north to south.  At first I thought it was smoke because the clouds were billowing,  they were in front of the mountain and not on top, and they were moving at a visible clip.  As I looked, it was as if a cloud machine had exploded.  It was surreal to watch the clouds rolling along in real time.  Within a matter of a minute the visible mountain was invisible.  The clouds had rolled in and completely masked the mountain.  If you didn’t know there was a mountain there, you wouldn’t know there was a mountain there.

But, in another minute, the clouds had moved on, and the mountain was visible again and as I looked north to south I could see that what was once visible and then invisible was now visible again.  For literally 90 seconds I stood and watched the cloud crossing – mountain, no mountain, mountain.  It dawned on me then that this is exactly what life is like, maybe for you too.

One minute we can see the mountain clearly.  The next minute it is completely hidden.  The next the view is open.  Clouds constantly rolling through our lives.   Sometimes we can see clearly, sometimes not so much.  We may lose our focus and it may be a little hard for us to see Jesus.  Not because He has moved, but because we have allowed the clouds of our lives to move in front of Him.   Our focus has shifted.

The LORD is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.  Psalm 149:18

Even though the clouds roll in, Jesus is always there, ever present.  The answer to call on Him seems too simple to us.  It’s not dramatic enough.  It’s as easy as whispering His name.  Even though we may not see Him working in the cloud moment, He has promised that He will never stop working the miracle of healing, the miracle of salvation, the miracle of life for His children, even when the clouds obstruct our view.

My father never stops working, so why should I?

John 5:16

He’s true to His promises.

Does Kingdom work sometimes seem daunting to you? How to talk to others about Christ, how to tell of His glory to people who don’t want to listen? What do I say? What do I do? How do I do it? Who do I talk to? How do I talk to them? It’s sometimes tough to think that our soul mission on this earth is to reach other people for Christ and just not knowing what to do, how to do it, when to do it.

We all roughly know the story of David and Goliath. David a boy of 16-19 years old, hit a man nine feet tall with a stone and dropped him.  In a nutshell, that’s how the story goes, right?

Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel.  He was a giant of a man, measuring over nine feet tall!  He wore a bronze helmet and a coat of mail that weighed 125 pounds.  He also wore bronze leggings, and he slung a bronze javelin over his back.  The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s bean, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed fifteen pounds.  An armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a huge shield.  1 Samuel 17:4-7

Goliath was one huge dude.  It’s hard to even imagine what he looked like.  He was intimidating.  He was also confident, full of himself.  Twice a day for 40 days (sounds like the wilderness again, doesn’t it?) Goliath would come out and taunt the Israelites.  They were scared to death.   But it took something very small in the hands of someone very faithful to remedy the situation.  One stone.  Not a rock, or a boulder, but a small stone.

The Lord involves ordinary people when he does extraordinary things.  David, powered by God felled Goliath with just one stone.  The stone, without the power of God would never have sufficed.  You see, it wasn’t the stone.  It was the power of God through David.  Just like when Moses led the people to the sea, it wasn’t the staff that parted the waters.  It was the power of God through Moses.  Over and over in the scriptures – I feel like I say that a lot, but it’s true – The Lord gives us examples of His mighty power at work through us.  He worked through David.  He worked through Moses.

One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth.  She was a worshiper of God.  As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart and she accepted what Paul was saying.  Acts 16:14

He worked through Paul.  Paul was the messenger, but the Lord did the work.

“When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true.”  Then he opened their minds to understand these many Scriptures.  “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again for the dead on the third day.  With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.  There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.”

Luke 24:44-45

It happened again.  The scriptures of old gave the message, but Jesus did the work.  He opened the minds of the disciples to understand the scriptures.  Had he not done so, the scriptures would have just been words on a scroll, nice stories, history. 

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!  Isaiah 52:7

It happened again.  The feet on the mountain brought the news,  but Jesus did the work.  Isaiah foretold of the deliverance to come.  He became sin who was sinless in our place so that we may be saved.  Hallelujah!  That’s good news those feet were taking everywhere.  We are to be tellers of the peace, salvation and deliverance that has come!

The smallest tract may be the stone in David’s sling.

In the hands of Christ, it may bring down a giant soul.

Robert Murray McCheyne

That’s how it will work with us as well.  The smallest word.  The smallest gift.  The smallest gesture.  The smallest act.  All may bring down a giant soul.  Not a comparable sized giant, not an expert sling shot operator, but a faithful shepherd stepping up and allowing Jesus to d the work in and through him.  Not because of what we do, but because of who He is.  We speak only to the ear but God speaks to the heart.

This is our field that was just planted.  Just a week ago the fields were dead, they looked just terrible.  The farmer had come in and sprayed the fields to get rid of all the weeds before planting.  The weeds had taken over the field leaving it brown and scraggly looking.  You would think nothing would be able to grow in them. Then they came in and right on top of that dead looking field they planted soybean seeds.  The amazing thing about it is that the seeds are growing, even with all the dead weeds around them.  The water from the rains and the heat from the sun have caused the seeds in the soil to burst open.  The soybeans are growing among the weeds.  Soon the green, bushy soybean plants will completely choke out the dead weeds.

This reminds me of our walk with Jesus.  With the right amount of water and Son, we can grow where He plants us.  Maybe to the soybean plants that have just popped through it looks a little daunting, all those overpowering weeds around.  But, we’ve felt that way a time or two, haven’t we?

As I walk and look out at that field, so many lessons for me come to mind.  The seeds are planted deep in the soil.  He sends the rains to nourish, refresh and cleanse the soil of impurities, and He sends the Son to draw us upward to Him.  God doesn’t wait until our lives are completely cleaned up to move in.  God’s grace and mercy can grow in our hearts even when we still have weeds that need plucked.  In fact, God will help us with the weeds because the more the freshly planted seed grows, the less weeds there will be in our lives.  Growth is an amazing process.  Just like the soybean seeds, if they are not growing we are dying.  We must consciously absorb the water and reach for the Son so that we’re not choked out by the weeds.

Just like God can change a field that is completely overrun with weeds and scraggly brush, He can change our hearts, one row at a time.