A Walk With God - part 3 of a series of 3

I work in the building supply industry.  Our industry has been declining since 2007.  As many people have probably lost jobs in our industry as any other in America over the past 5 years.  In this time I have either “let go” personally or had a hand in letting go more people than I EVER expected to see lose their jobs in my entire career.  People I expected to retire with.  I saw people take 40 to 50 % pay cuts and had a hand in those difficult situations.  The amount my pay has decreased has ranged from 100% (when as partners, we willingly took no salary in our business for 18 months) to 50% to 75%.  The good news is I am recovering.  I had found a good job in Charleston in spite of the industry circumstances.

  As I prayed for God’s will in my life, doors started opening in Atlanta.  Some were situations where I had knocked and someone answered.  But, here is the amazing revelation:  the job I was offered and now accepted came to me!  In my mind, it was a bit of a miracle in itself.  In an industry where jobs are still being cut, salaries are still being reduced, I was sought after and hired here in Atlanta for a job opportunity potentially as good or better.  I moved home 2 days before my youngest daughter started her Senior year.  I believe the Lord is working actively in my life.  I specifically had come to believe that I would be able to return to Atlanta just before the start of our daughter’s Senior year.

  I recently read a story about a man who had an incredible encounter with the Lord and the Holy Spirit.  By the way, if you think people might look at you funny when you speak of the Lord answering your prayers, wait until you speak of the actual presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.  So many people look at you like a religious zealot of some kind.   Yet, one of the things Jesus told His disciples was that He was leaving so that they would have access to the Holy Spirit.  It amazes me that people don’t seem to want to see or mention the Holy Spirit in their lives.  I know I do.

  The man in the story was not really a believer and yet his father, his great uncle and many around Him loved the Lord.  They were all praying for Him to know the Lord.  He was not only skeptical, he did not want to be bothered with all of this "God talk."  He ultimately had an amazing encounter with God and the Holy Spirit.  This happened because of the prayers of others combined with the man reaching out for God in a moment of “weakness”.  Later in the story, the man makes this statement, “Since God has become active in my life, my life has gone into the toilet.”  You might wonder why I would share this if my hope, my prayer, my love for you as neighbor or stranger is that you would come to know, love and trust the Lord in your life?  I hope I can give you an adequate answer.  I pray that I can.  I am turning to the verse in Jeremiah:

  This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls… Jeremiah 6:16

  You might notice that at the end of the verse there are 3 dots…this is there because there is more to the verse:  But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'  I believe this is the hard truth.  Left to ourselves, we will not let go of our lives as we know them and walk in the ancient paths.  Ask where the good way is and walk in it.  Being good is sometimes oh so very hard.  It may mean walking away from easy money in a situation because it isn’t right.  It may mean that the habits that consume our lives and in essence own us, need to be broken.  Breaking those habits can be very hard.  And our lives may become much more difficult as we walk in the good way. 

  Here is the promise that makes it all worth it, “you will find rest for your souls.”  This life is short in comparison to eternity.  Eternity is so long, it is almost impossible for us to imagine.  But our souls were meant to live for eternity.  Any injustice in this life is offset by the incredible promise God has made to us that if we choose Him, we choose eternity.  And my prayer for all people today is that we will find peace for our souls in eternity.  The Lord promises us that if we will follow Him, we will have eternal life.  He always keeps His promises.  If we accept Jesus, then we can have this promise of peace.  It may not mean an easy life, but it will mean a heavenly eternity.  I pray this for you.  Amen

A Walk With God (Part 2 - continued)

I will start with the analogy of being hard of hearing.  I have hearing loss in both ears equal to 40-45% of normal hearing.  The doctors believe it was the result of being born premature.  As a child, I would sit in the front row of the class to hear my teachers.  I have learned to read lips.  I study body language.  I had speech therapy as a child.  I have worn hearing aids at times and currently mine are not working properly.  (Most health insurance policies do not address hearing loss and replacing my hearing aids is expensive.) 

  In order to hear others I have to work hard at it.  I don’t believe we have to work hard at hearing the Lord.  Hearing the Lord starts with asking Him to speak to you.  It starts with praying to Him on a regular basis and “listening” for His response.  So often, His answer comes through others.  You receive a telephone call from someone you need to ask for forgiveness and you have been estranged for years from that person.  You pray for God’s will in your life and doors start to open. As you seek God’s will in your life, you see the door you need to walk through, but you need His help to have the courage.

  What are the best hearing aids available for hearing God in my estimation?  The Bible and prayer!  If you know this passage (paraphrased), I ask you to remember it and think of it early, often and late:  Love God with all your heart, all of your mind and all your soul.  I know this instruction seems virtually impossible to many of us especially if we don’t feel like we know God or if we feel like He has hurt us in our lives.  Maybe you feel like he has been absent.  But, I know if you ask Him to help you love Him, help you know Him (personally), He will show up.  He always does.  And don’t forget the 2^nd part of this passage that Jesus gave us, “love your neighbors as you love yourselves.” 

  What I have come to understand is we do need to listen for Him.  When I started listening hard for the Lord, I began to hear Him more and more frequently.  Over time, it has become a lot easier because I have grown to recognize His words and presence in my life and in the lives of others around me.  I have actually seen miracles in my life and in the lives of others.  I am very thankful for that.

  The toughest news in this is that once I starting seeking the Lord in my life, my life has not been easier.  If anything I would say it has been harder, significantly harder.  Stuff that I thought was mine, started going away.  Some of the people I trusted most in my life I came to see in a very different light.  By the way, per God’s word I am still called to love them, to forgive them and I do.  It isn’t easy, but it is God’s word and God’s will for me in my life.  In fact, it is those people in my life that are most difficult to forgive and most difficult to love, that I HAVE to forgive and love.  As Jesus shared with us, it is easy to love our family and friends, it is a whole new way to love our enemies.

  I started praying months ago about being reunited with my family.  I had been working and essentially living in Charleston, SC for the past 17-1/2 months.  My family has been in Atlanta.  I was not going to bed next to my wife or waking up beside her.  I missed part of our youngest daughter’s sophomore year and all of her junior year in high school.  Our oldest daughter had been overseas doing mission work and adopting our precious Granddaughter.  When she came home to Atlanta, I was living in Charleston and so I have missed precious time with them too.  I asked God if I should remain in Charleston and if so I would.  I asked God to give me some signs.  I wanted to be sure I was doing what He wanted me to do and not just doing what I wanted.

(to be continued)

A Walk with the Lord - ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it

This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls… Jeremiah 6:16

  The most difficult part for me in writing my blog usually is getting started.  Once I feel like I am off to a good start the words flow and I can write for a long time.  Now part of that problem is at times I use too many words.  But, the main point I am attempting to make here is so often when we stand at a crossroads, we are not sure where to start.  Or, at least I am not sure where to start.  I shouldn’t assume that my struggles are the same as yours.

  The Lord shares with us many times in His written Word, the Bible is where to start.  In this verse all the way back in the Old Testament in the Book of Jeremiah, long before we knew Jesus, God shares with us where we should start when we stand at the crossroads.  Stand and look…ask for the ancient paths…ask where the good way is….walk in it…you will find rest for your souls…  How many of you find yourselves standing at crossroads on a regular basis?  It happens to me quite often.  God’s word tells me where to look, what to do and how to find rest for my soul.  I need more rest for my soul.

  If you follow my blog then you know I am not a Bible scholar.  I am just someone who loves the Bible, loves to read it, loves to know it is close by and loves to gain greater insight into the Bible as often as I can.  I get insight from a sermon delivered by Andy Stanley, a message from a country preacher, a book, a friend, or when I see God through the eyes of a child or my daily life.  I love to share God too.  He has done so much for me. 

  God has been very active in my life over the past 5 years in particular.  I have always “searched” for God.  I remember as a child wondering who God was.  I heard things like God is everywhere.  God is love.  I went to church on a regular basis and remember getting attendance pens in our church for coming to church 13 consecutive weeks.  What I barely can remember was if I knew God in a personal way.  I would pray to God.  I would be asked to love God.  I would try to stay awake in church long enough to understand more about Him, but He was not someone I could claim I had a relationship with.  I do remember things would happen that I might believe were evidence of God showing up in a real way, but I still was not quite sure what I believed.  Thanks to His grace and mercy and my continual journey to find God, that uncertainty has changed for me in a big way. God has become very real for me.  He has become “my Father in heaven, thy will be done…”  When I pray, I have come to know He hears me and answers my prayers.  One problem is that the answers I get are more often than not very different than the answers I am looking for.

  When I write or speak with others about God being very active in my life, I recognize a variety of responses from others.  I cannot hear very well and have not been able to since birth.  As a result I see a lot in people’s body language because that is one of the ways, I have learned to understand what people are saying when I can’t quite hear them.  I can see people’s reactions when we speak who think I must be crazy suggesting that the Lord communicates with me.  They rarely say it, but their body language speaks loud and clear.  I also have some really close friends who ask me about it in bewilderment at times, but we do talk about how I know God has spoken in my life.  This is hard to explain, but I believe it is worthy of our attention.

  First of all, I have only recognized once in my life that I actually heard the Lord’s voice. To my knowledge and understanding, I have never had a dramatic encounter with God like Moses.  I have not had a burning bush experience.  The time I actually heard His voice is worth sharing at some point, but that is not my focus today.  My focus in this series is how He speaks in my life on a daily basis. I have come to learn when He is speaking to me and how He is doing it.  As I have learned of His presence, I have also come to realize that there are likely many ways that I STILL miss hearing Him when He speaks to me.  (to be continued...)