Major Adjustments

Amazing!

This morning, as I was preparing for my quiet time, the Lord really spoke to my heart telling me that He "wants to teach me how to follow Him in all the day by day areas of my life. He wants me to start out the day asking Him to lead me in all things: work, eating, drinking, activities - even asking Him when to sleep and what time to set the alarm to get up! Quite a scary thing for me, because I know it will change my life dramatically." If you know me at all, you can guess what an overwhelming thought this is. I can give up a lot of things to God without a second thought, but giving Him lordship of my eating and drinking choices (did you know I am a Pepsi addict?) and my sleeping choices is a really scary thing to do. I love my food, I love my Pepsi, and I love to be just curled up in my bed watching TV or sleeping. But I really felt God impress this on my heart. And He drove this home as I opened my study in Experiencing God and found that it was all about this subject!! Hard to believe that Henry Blackaby would know what God was saying to my heart this morning. (LOL!)

Until you are ready to make any change necessary to follow and obey what God has said, you will be of little use to God.

And that is the agony of it. God is really showing me that I can continue on "obeying and following" Him in the "big things," and He will let me continue playing church. Knowing the right things to say, understanding what the truth is, enjoying glimpses of His face, I will still continue to live a crippled walk, never knowing the full power of a truly surrendered life that is filled with Holy Spirit! How sad a life that is. You can see it (from a distance), you know what a life filled by His Spirit really is, yet you miss it totally because something is of more value to you. Something so worthless and so deadly and so ugly, is something you have convinced yourself that you cannot live without. And so you surrender the most beautiful, most valuable, most wonderful life imaginable in order to hold on to it.

If you think of me, please pray that God will give me the will and the ability to do what He is calling me to. Right now I am shaking and my knees are knocking.

Love,
Ev

Knowing God

Oh, Wow!! I am currently in the process of copying my "Mini-Me Journal" (I know. It is weird.) over to a new book. So, things that had meant so much to me at the time but were forgotten are hitting me afresh. And, now the dilemma, what to share with you? Hmmmm.

I guess one of the first things to come my way after I wrote my previous Thought, was a quote by Albert Einstein:

"The only source of knowledge is experience."

Amazingly, after reading that quote, I opened Experiencing God to do my study for the evening, and the quote was a perfect introduction for the study. Here are some quotes from the study for that night:

"When people see something happen that only God can do, they come to know God."

"Our world is not seeing God because we are not attempting anything that only God can do."

"Let the world watch God at work, and He will attract people to Himself."

I guess it reinforces for me the thought that the only way to come to know God personally is to see and experience Him at work, to experience Him personally, to hear His voice for one's self. Any other way leads only to a superficial "knowing ABOUT" Him. .

Then, this morning I read an inspirational article that talked about the coming year being an "adventure." An adventure is definitely something that includes surprises and unanticipated twists and turns. There may be unexpected obstacles and forks in the road. If we are going to navigate the year ahead (and those that follow), we MUST recognize the voice of our Shepherd. We MUST KNOW Him!! Reading about Him in the Bible, hearing about Him in a sermon, watching a movie on His life won't be enough. We must KNOW Him personally! We must KNOW Him well enough to trust Him when the way before us is clouded in the mist of suffering and confusion. We must KNOW Him well enough that we will step off the shore when He calls us to walk on the water. We must recognize HIS voice from the midst of the babble of the world and our own confusing thoughts and fears and desires.

Are you ready for the adventure that lies ahead? Can you hear Him calling to you? And, when you reach out to others with the reality of Christ Jesus, are you telling them ABOUT Him, giving them descriptions and quoting Scriptures about Him? Or, are you allowing them to see God doing something in your life that only He can do? Are you letting the world watch God at work in and through you so that they can come to know Him by experience? I'm asking myself the same questions.

Love,
Ev

Experiencing God!

Last night was our study group. We have been studying the book "Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby. I love this study and, by the way, I highly recommend it as a wonderful study on the Christian walk.

The study and discussion we had last night were such a blessing to me. It reminded me of the awe-some gift we have in Christ Jesus. In particular, I was reminded again of the wonder that God, creator and sustainer of the universe, desires a very personal and real relationship with me, with every one of us.

God has not just handed down a basic instruction manual for us to follow in this life; He has not given us a list of commandments, principles, and procedures to follow; nor has He kept His distance by choosing this or that "special" person to be His spokesperson for the rest of us. No, God, in Christ Jesus, has thrown wide the gates of heaven, beckoning us into the throne room, right up to His side. And, you could also say that in Holy Spirit, He has come down to us. He has chosen to enter right into our hearts and our lives, where He is ever-present.

It is amazing and wonderful to understand that God has chosen to have an on-going relationship with each one of us that is as exciting and as personal as we will allow it to be. In particular, it is amazing how God speaks to us and leads us, often in very specific ways. Can you imagine God directing someone to drive off the highway and leading him very specifically to a stranger in a phone booth in order for that stranger and his family to come to Christ? That was a testimony we heard last night!

Such testimonies just make you want to shout "Hallelujah!" But at the same time, they make you want to push in nearer; they give you a restless hunger for more of Him in your life!

So, I ask you, how much of God are you experiencing in your life on a daily basis? How often do you hear His voice or recognize that He has just touched your heart? Are you satisfied with just "living a good life," or just knowing that heaven will someday be your home? Heaven sounds so wonderful, but you can have the most awesome part of heaven right here and now in the very Person and presence of God Himself with you and in you in very tangible and practical ways. The question is, do you want it? Are you hungry for it? Or, are you willing to settle for the outward, shadowy form of the Christian life.

Love,
Ev

It is amazing, sometimes, the way God works in a life. With all that has been happening, I tend to be so distracted from what really is going on. Sometimes, though, it is not so much that I am distracted as it is that I don't want to see what is happening.

I met with a dear friend last night to chat and catch up with one another; we haven't gotten together since before the holidays. What a nice time we had chatting with one another and catching up. Both of us had burdens to share and help to offer one another.

As we talked, somehow we dredged up an ongoing situation in my life, and my friend offered some godly insight and wisdom that I wasn't expecting and wasn't really wanting to hear. I had all my excuses, arguments, and reasons to dismiss what she had to say, and I left feeling thoughtful and worried that she may be right.

This morning as I did my study, God just seemed to zero in on the subject and gave me a peace about the whole thing, with perhaps even a little sense of anticipation. I am in a Bible Study right now, and we are studying Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby (a really awesome study that I highly recommend). So as I was going over my study this morning, the first things to catch my eye were:

You cannot know the truth of your circumstances until you have heard from God. He is Truth! Truth is present and active in your life!

Do not evaluate your situation until you have heard from Jesus. He is Truth.

Two words in a Christian's language cannot go together: 'No, Lord!' . . . Do not proceed until you can honestly say, 'Whatever You want of me, Lord, I will do it.'

Firstly, I had not really asked God about the situation. I had reasoned in my heart the circumstances and what I should do. Secondly, I did not know whether I wanted to hear what He had to say or that I could answer 'yes'. Nevertheless, as I was meditating on this, God's grace was so good as to melt my heart and bring me to the point of being willing to hear what He had to say.

The study then went on to talk about the times of decision in the history of the Israelites and the altars that they erected to mark those times and to remember God's activity in their lives. Henry Blackaby calls these Spiritual Markers in our lives and says that they provide us with opportunities to share with others about God's activity on behalf of His people. This reminded me of my Thoughts, and how I can share what God is doing in my life with you.

Another thing he mentioned in the study is the way God tends to rehearse His previous activity in our lives so that we can see His perspective on what is happening in the present. That is why I love my journals, they connect me to all the spiritual markers along the path of my life.

When God is ready for you to take a new step or direction in His activity, it will always be in sequence with what He has already been doing in your life. He does not go off on tangents or take meaningless detours. He builds your character in an orderly fashion with a divine purpose in mind.

As I looked back over my life, I could see how this new situation is somewhat related to what God has been doing in my life. And this helped me so much to realize that this is not something new or something I should be afraid of. I have faced similar situations in the past and been blessed through them. I began to look at this situation as a new leg in the journey of my life.

Then, what do you know, when I logged in to my email, I came across an inspirational email that began by quoting my life's verse. It then went on to talk about the "Sacred Journey" God is calling us to. Wow!! Nearly knocked my socks off (except I was barefoot at the time). A second inspirational email finished with the quote: "The adventure is about to begin . . .".

So, I'm not sure what God is doing. I have some ideas and I am asking Him to guide me into His timing for the situation and His ways of walking through this. And I invite you to join me in the sacred journey ahead, whatever that is in your life. The adventure is about to begin and continue for each one of us.

Blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord and the Author and Finisher of our faith,
Ev