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Archive for the ‘Spiritual Growth’ Category

Turning the Corner

Posted in Bible Study, God, job, Orphans, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, Trials, worldview, tagged , , , , , , on January 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Job 29-31, Turning the Corner. Our time in Job thus far has been bookended by accounts of Job’s righteousness. In chapter 1 God speaks of Job’s righteousness so we know Job is truly a good and righteous person. In chapter 31 Job goes on to list all the things that he does that are good and right. Job’s righteousness is impressive and puts me in my place by comparison. Which, when I think about it, is possibly a good thing for both Job and me. It is good for Job because it uncovers an area of his life, pride and entitlement, that are NOT character traits that endear us to God. It is good for me because I still have a way to go to even measure up to Job’s righteousness AND I can receive the warning from Job’s pride. It is the slippery slope that comes when our reputation supersedes our relationship with the Father.

But everything is about to change. Job’s three friends have run out of steam. Their accusations and false help have not stuck. And Job’s heart is laid bare with all of his goodness peeled back to reveal an area of need. God loves Job just like He loves us. What seemingly started as a dare between God and Satan has become a tool God uses to reveal to Job his need that he would never have seen without his suffering AND the interactions with his friends. And God will use this to bless not just Job, but his friends too. I am excited to see where God takes us in the coming days.

Father, you love us too much to let us remain stuck. In Isaiah you call out righteousness laid over pride as filthy rags. You desire that we act right towards others, but you desire that to spring forth from our ever-growing relationship with you. So, we bend our knees and lay all our ambitions and motivations before you now. You know them already. We ask that you help us to see ourselves rightly and live surrendered. We offer ourselves to you that you might transform us. We are your children and our desire is to live as faithful men and women of God. Be glorified, our Lord and our God!

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Beginning of Wisdom

Posted in Bible Study, God, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Trials, Vision, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , on January 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Job 24-28, Beginning of Wisdom. Unlike most of scripture, the only way to properly read Job is in its entirety. The Bible is amazing in many respects. One of those is that it encompasses a variety of literary styles. In telling Job’s story and capturing the dialog of Job and his three friends, we see descriptions of God and His character that are opinions and not hard facts. The mixture of truth, half-truth, and misunderstanding about God is combined in a way that emphasizes foundational truth about God and His ways, but only when we read the entire story. If you are like me, it has taken multiple reads to get to the point that I can see this and not get tied up in the warped theology espoused by Job’s friends and, to a degree, but Job.

When we get to Job 28:28 I cannot help but release a big sigh. In my mind I have been trying to parse out the truth versus misunderstanding in each person’s dialog. Even Job speaks at times with more emotion and less faith than I am comfortable with. As an engaged reader it is a mental and emotional roller-coaster. But then I read a verse that I can hang my hat on. ‘And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”’ I find this truth throughout scripture. I find this truth in evaluating the world on a macro level. And I have found this to be true in my 65 years on earth.

LORD, you are the source of all wisdom. When things don’t make sense, when evil seems to triumph, we know we can trust you and trust your heart. You have made all things – seen and unseen. You exist outside of time – the past, present, and future are all now to you. We bow to you, acknowledging our great limitations and your limitless nature. That out of all this, that you love us and desire what is best for us, we humbly, reverently, give you thanks and offer you our lives. It is in the mighty Name of Jesus that we pray,

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My Redeemer Lives

Posted in Bible Study, God, job, Spiritual Growth, Trials, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , on January 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Job 17-20, My Redeemer Lives. Lately I have had this tremendous sense of gratitude that we live in a day and time when God’s progressive revelation of Himself has come so far. In the days of the Prophets, the understanding of God was limited to the Law and the mixed messages coming from true prophets and false prophets and priests. When the people were wandering in the wilderness, they had Moses and the stone tablets, but we saw how much weight that carried. That whole generation (except Joshua and Caleb) died because of their lack of faith. From Abraham to Moses, there was God’s promise to Abraham, but not a lot more to rest your faith on. So, for Job to proclaim this truth, years before God spoke to Abram (who became Abraham) in the midst of his great suffering, is a testament to his faith. And it is BIG faith statement.

I have this mental picture right now that won’t go away. I see a kitten hanging on the end of a rope. There is both terror and determination in the kitten’s eyes. The caption reads, “Hang in there, baby.” Job’s cry are the words the kitten is thinking as it dangles. And there is a reward as the rope is pulled up and rescue ensues. Our Redeemer does live and He is our Rescuer. Job may not be correct in saying his suffering is from God, but he is absolutely on target when he says My, and Our, Redeemer Lives.

Faithful Redeemer and Lord, we thank you that in all things and at all times we can trust you. Even when we are at the end of our rope, you are there. Psalm 139 comes to mind, you know me, you know us, and we are yours. Thank you for rescuing us, for sending Jesus to die that we might live. Thank you for redeeming us, purchasing us with a price far beyond our worth. We pause to let that sink in… You paid so much for us because you love us and you have good plans for us. Such knowledge is too wonderful, to amazing. But that is who you are… our wonderful, amazing, glorious Redeemer, Savior, and Lord! Amen!

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Patience in Pain

Posted in Bible Study, God, job, Spiritual Growth, Trials, worldview, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Job 14-16, Patience in Pain. As an engineer I see most things in a cause and effect paradigm. Having experienced God’s grace in many tangible ways, I fully count on His sovereignty to win the day and outcomes to be good, eventually. There are many Biblical promises such as Jeremiah 29:11 that point to this. God’s past actions and His present promises provide the framework for my belief that my current pain will be transformed into future blessing. Grief, suffering, and heartache are not to be denied, but they can be tempered and endured with the knowledge that the One who has been faithful will remain faithful.

I read the story in Acts 5 yesterday where the Apostles were beaten for preaching the Gospel. Their response to suffering the beating was rejoicing. How could they rejoice when their backs were bruised and bloodied? Because they were able to look beyond the pain to the wonderful work the Holy spirit was doing. They could see the kingdom of God growing. As I type, I get a glimpse of the millions of martyrs through the ages, and I realize that there has never been a tear shed or blood spilled by one of the Lord’s saints that hasn’t resulted in the kingdom expanding. What the enemy means for evil, God turns into good. That’s why we can have patience in the pain.

Father, we are so thankful that you walk with us through life, even carrying us when it gets overwhelming. Job’s friends could not see past their paradigm that had only an earthly cause and effect perspective. We know that you move in heaven and earth and sometimes we won’t see the great good you are doing until later… sometimes much later. We simply ask today that you will help us to grow in faith to exercise patience in the painful times. That includes not just our times of pain, but that of our friends, neighbors and people we meet. May your grace flow through us today. In Jesus’ Name.

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Arguing with God

Posted in God, Prayer, Spiritual Growth, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Job 21-23. It was freeing for me when I realized I didn’t need to act pious before God. As I grew in our relationship, recognizing that His love and forgiveness were way bigger than my sin and assorted stumbles in life, I became able to stop trying to be righteous. It made any perceived distance between us shrink and I began to understand what it meant to “walk with God”. And instead of striving and trying to act right against the current of the world, my fleshly desires, and the temptations of Satan, my heart and my mind became more desirous of pleasing my faithful Lord. Doing what brings joy to Him became my desire. Because I knew He loved me unconditionally AND knew all that I thought, it became totally fine to talk it out when I was unhappy, confused, angry or any other emotion that I had attempted to stuff when I was trying to act righteous.

I recognize this in Job today. He is ready to argue with God. We know He doesn’t have the whole picture and some of Job’s assumptions are not correct, but I am encouraged because He never loses faith in God. He may be ready to challenge God that He has made a mistake in punishing him, but He does not lose faith that God is there or that He will listen to Him. While very limited in the New Testament, lamentations are a common theme in the Old Testament. As many as 60 of the Psalms are considered lamentations and there is even one whole book that is a collection of distressed heart cries to God called Lamentations. Being honest with God, even if it is an argument we are going to lose, is the path to greater intimacy with the Lover of our soul.

Father, thank you, that we can be real with you. We do not need to hide how we feel. Beyond the fact that there is nothing we can hide, there is truly more mercy, grace, and love readily available to us, that we can only receive when we let down our guard and let you in. That you gently, lovingly, pursue us, encouraging us to open up, is truly a great gift. Even when we don’t fully understand what’s going on, we put our trust in you. You are faithful and true. Blessed be the Name of the LORD, our God! Amen!

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Why I Now Like Job – Understanding Suffering and God’s Sovereignty

Posted in Bible Study, Bible Study, God, Spiritual Growth, Trials, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Perhaps a better description of my attitude toward the book of Job is that I appreciate it now. It is still a pretty dark situation. I mean Job is a really good guy and he loses everything… except his wife who tells him he should curse God and die. At least he has that going for him. (Okay, sarcasm is a little harder to pull off in print, especially when you have as wonderful a wife as I do and I by no means am throwing off on wives, because mine is the BEST!)

Context is really important and I suspect that this idea of setting the context correctly will be something I repeatedly touch on this year. The setting for Job was some 400 years after the flood and still sometime before the LORD would call forth a specific person, Abram, and begin to reveal His plan of redemption through his family line. In this time there was an awareness of God or gods, but His progressive revelation of Himself was in an early stage.

As we saw in Noah’s interaction with God, i.e. following His instructions to build an Ark and then offering sacrifices upon leaving the Ark, there is a sense of a moral code that comes from God and some process of appeasing God in case we have broken that moral code. There was even a clear understanding that you could go far enough in breaking the moral code that God would wipe you out. Echoes of the flood remained these 400 years later. (Interesting side note, there are several global flood accounts from other ancient civilizations independent of the one captured in the Hebrew scriptures and our Bible.)

When we look at Noah, we see a man and his family rescued by God from a cataclysmic flood based upon Noah’s righteousness and faithfulness to God. And we also see punishment of wickedness to everyone else because they had devolved to a state of constant sin. With this memory of the flood and the reasons behind it still resident, it is not too much of a stretch to see how Job and his friends had a fairly black and white view of the world and God’s system of justice.

Through the story of Job, God reveals a more nuanced understanding of sin, loss, justice, God’s sovereignty, and His involvement in the lives of humanity. It is a major step in God’s self-revelation of who He is and sets the stage for His plan of redemption. I mentioned that I appreciate Job now, and I think the reason is because reading the stories in the Bible in chronological order as I am this year, it makes more sense how God was deliberate in rolling out His plan over the millennia.

Spoiler alert, we’re going to get to the end of Job and we are not going to be told why God allowed all these bad things to happen to Job. At least Job is not going to be told even though God speaks to him for several of the later chapters. However, the fact that his story is captured in the Sacred Scriptures is the reason. There are many lessons that can be gleaned from Job’s story which in itself is the reason Job had to suffer. A righteous man suffering for the benefit of others for the rest of time, that almost feels like a foreshadow of someone…

A few major takeaways from Job that I struggled to see when I just focused upon his grievous losses to begin the story. Today, they come through clearly.

God is sovereign. Satan, the Accuser, wanted to attack and hurt the righteous man, Job. God did not prevent it, but He could have. He did set limitations upon what Satan could do.

Satan, the Accuser, is malevolent and wants to hurt the righteous. He is a source of a lot of pain and loss in the world. He is restrained, but he still looks for ways to inflict suffering.

Suffering can come from multiple sources. We’ve already mentioned an active enemy, Satan. We also live in a fallen world where the brokenness of this world (think cancer) and the sin of others (think drunk driver taking the life of a loved one) can bring suffering upon us. And, as Job’s friends repeatedly accused Job of, we can bring pain upon ourselves with our bad choices and our sin.

God is relational. It is interesting that God provides quite the discourse at the end of the book. While God speaks to Job, the gathered friends benefit from God’s chastisement of Job as well.

God corrects those He loves. As I read the later chapters of Job, I can picture his head dropping further and further as he realizes how he has put the living God in a box based upon his own very limited understanding. My head droops a little too as I recognize that I am prone to do the same.

God can, and will, bring good out of bad. He does this for Job. He does this through Job to the generations of persons who have read and discerned God’s message through Job’s life. The apostle Paul may have even thought of Job when he penned the words in his letter to the Romans…‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ‘ Romans 8:28

My practical application of Job is pretty simple. When bad things happen in my life, I pause and take inventory, asking the LORD to reveal if there is any sin in me or any bad decision I have made that is bringing this about. This applies in many ways, not just big things. If my beloved and I have a disagreement, this self-reflection is key. And I often find that I do have some degree of ownership of the issue. I repent, i.e. change my mind. I own my part of the problem. And I engage from a place of humility.

After I have taken these steps, I then evaluate whether there is more I need to do. Prayer is key. In some cases, there is an aspect of spiritual warfare taking place and being aligned with the Holy Spirit is essential. In a few cases there is someone who is acting counter to God’s best. If I am to address, then I do so through much prayer and in humility. If I am not to be the person to address it, then I intercede for the person who is.

The bottom line in all of this is that I trust in God’s many promises and I stick as close to Him as I know how. In John 15 Jesus tells His disciples to “abide” in Him 11 times over those first 17 verses. Abiding is essential when loss hits us. There is comfort in abiding even when answers are not immediate. There is alignment in abiding when we are not sure of the direction we are to face. There is healing in abiding because we are with the great physician.

Job is still one of the less enjoyable books of the Bible, but it is so important in giving a balanced view of God and the world we live in. I appreciate Job’s life today and I am thankful for the lessons he can teach me about living in right relationship with my Heavenly Father.

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Dichotomy

Posted in Bible Study, God, Jesus Christ, Romans, Salvation, Spiritual Growth, The Father, worldview, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Psalm 79-81, Romans 1. Paul’s letter to the Romans is a beautiful treatise on the difference between life without God versus the transformed life in union with God. This first chapter provides a 30,000-foot view of this dichotomy where Paul is setting the table for what is to come.

Life can be parsed into three phases – transgression, transaction, and transformation. Transgression is the first phase and sadly, many people never leave this phase. Romans 1:18-32 describe life in the transgression phase – broken, sinful, and separated from God.

The transaction phase is when we hear and receive the Gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ. Romans 1:1-5 touches on the heart of this transaction which Paul will elaborate on over the coming pages. In this phase God exchanges our sins for Jesus’ righteousness in an act of ultimate mercy and grace. He changes our heart, our direction, and our ultimate destination.

Then there is the transformation phase where our lives become aligned with God’s will over time. I can’t help but jump ahead to Romans 12:1-2 as I think about this. It follows the transaction where we lay down our old lives and say yes to Jesus as Savior and Lord. This transformation is our lives becoming increasingly aligned with Jesus. In one place it is called putting on the “mind of Christ”. It is where our habits are changed from being dictated by self and the world’s ways to becoming directed by the Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is a time of partnership with the deep working of the Holy Spirit in us to bring about a total transformation of how we think, speak, and act.

The Gospels give us a clear picture of Jesus – who He is, what He did while in the flesh, and what the life He calls us to looks like. Acts describes this glorious giving of the Holy Spirit who indwells us as redeemed children of God. We see how the Holy Spirit works within the gathered body of Christ as a group as well as in individuals who are in the transformation process.  In this letter to the Romans Paul connects the dots between these three phases, reaching back to the beginning of the story in Genesis through the Gospels, into the time of the book of Acts, and, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, all the way to us as we read his words today.

I love the book of Romans because it articulates the path I have been walking on for 40+ years. When I read it it’s like looking at the map to check my location, my destination, and to correct where I may be a little off. It is a gift from the Lord to lead us home and to help us finish strong!

Lord, thank you for all the saints who have gone before us. Today as we launch into the letter you inspired Paul to write, we thank you for the wise words that help us on our journey in faith. Your plan for us is good and we desire to walk it out with constancy and purpose. Take what we read, the circumstances of our lives, and the needs within us and bring about your perfect will. We want to become more like Jesus today. We want to shed whatever vestige of our old self that might rise up so that the new creation in You might be revealed. We want to please you in word, in deed, and even in our thoughts. Lord God, you are our God, you are our hope, you are our All in All. Blessed be your Holy Name!

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Psalm 76-78, Acts 28:17-31. God’s Past Provision Contains the Promise of His Future Faithfulness.

Posted in God, Prayer, Spiritual Growth, tagged , , , , , , , on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

We are inheritors of God’s promises given repeatedly since the beginning of time. From Genesis 3:15 on, God has promised He would send a rescuer, a deliverer from the enemy who accuses us and the sin that binds us. In Abraham, God chose a family line to bring forth this redeemer. Throughout the Jewish Law and Prophets, God’s provision and these promises are repeated. Sadly, despite this the people repeatedly failed to live according to God’s direction and they forfeited their place in these promises.

I was the oldest of four children. Lisa and I raised four ourselves. One thing I have noticed is that the youngest children have a great advantage should they choose it. They can learn from the oldest children’s mistakes. My younger siblings benefited greatly from the discipline that I rightly earned. I won’t necessarily say they were perfect, but they at least knew where the lines were that they should not cross. But even better, they knew the things that created peace, happiness, and harmony in the home.

Psalm 72 gives this look back over Israel’s past, highlighting God’s faithful provision even in times of trial and difficulty. It was a call to the Jews in that day, but it is also appropriate for us today to see where God has been and what He has done on our behalf. We are not orphans abandoned to ourselves. We are His children.

There will be times when He draws us close and holds us tight. There will also be times when He calls us to stand firm in the face of adversity, knowing that He is with us. He is raising us up and training us to be people who faithfully follow even when we don’t feel it, when the view of His hand is obscured. We are learning to be people who trust His heart even when we can’t see His hand.

Having passed through more than one hard place and dark time, His presence on the other side seems a little more real. The delight in His eyes and the smile on His face seems a little richer. And for sure, the joy in my heart lifts me a little higher. And when the next challenge comes, I have His past provision to hold onto because I know it contains the promise of His forever faithfulness.

Lord, thank you that you are always there, even in those times when we don’t feel you. Help us to look at your past provision and faithfulness to the people of God in the Bible as well as in the lives of our believing friends to buoy our faith. When the going gets tough, bring to mind the times you have provided for us, the times you have nurtured us in sweetness. Lord, we surrender our need to have a specific solution, and we accept your presence and your provision as we put our whole trust in you. For you are our provider, our healer, our redeemer, and our Lord. To you be all glory, honor, and praise, now and forever!

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Out of the Comfort Zone

Posted in God, God Stories, Jesus Christ, Mission to Kenya, Orphans, Prayer, Service, Spiritual Growth, Travel, Trials, worldview, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

In 2019 I traveled to Kenya to support some friends who were serving in an orphanage and Christian school in Nairobi.  It was an awesome trip, and I was greatly encouraged by the Davis family’s faithfulness in serving the Lord and the dozens of young people under their charge.  I told a friend afterwards that the trip was amazing, but somehow that word really wasn’t sufficient.  My wife and I travel for leisure a fair amount and seeing new places, experiencing new cultures, and making new friends is not a new experience for me.  My common response is that a trip is “amazing”.  This was so much more than that.  It was inspiring.  It was hard work.  It was uplifting talking to LJ and Danee about the work.  It was wonderful to hear from the Lord frequently and be able to obey with the encouragement and activity that He directed.  It weighed on my heart to see the poverty, filth, and lack of opportunity that is so much more prevalent than in the USA (or any of the places we travel to for fun).  But as heavy as that was, the light of God’s goodness in the work being carried out stood out in stark, yet highly desirable contrast.  There are many lessons that I have taken from the trip.  Some were fully formed while I was there.  Some are still being processed.  The following are my keys take-aways.

Maturing in faith and becoming a seasoned Christian will always include steps out of our comfort zone. 

Growth as a believer is an on-going series of steps that progressively move us from a place of comfort and ease into new territory that will often be a little scary and uncomfortable.  But it is in stepping into the new that we learn to trust in Jesus’s presence and provision more than our own abilities and strength.  I used to think that the word comfort meant ease and leisure.  The actual root of the term comfort means “with strength”.  Com = with, fort comes from the same root as fortress or fortification – a place of strength.  When we are comforted, we are given strength to endure whatever difficulty, trial, or challenge we are encountering.  Being comforted is a good thing.  Being comfortable is in itself not a bad thing.  However, there are times when the good can become an enemy of the best.  And God wants the best for His children.

The path to intimacy with God isn’t always comfortable.

So, what is the problem with being comfortable and why does God want us to move out of our comfort zone?  The issue is not that God is a killjoy.  Joy, comfort, and peace are great gifts He provides.  But these are by-products not the end product.  The goal is a deepening relationship with Him and a greater intimacy with the lover of our soul.  It is God’s desire that each one of us grow to know Him so well that we live in constant communion with Him.  Prayer without ceasing is more than a pious platitude, it is an accurate description of the life God wants to lead us into.  Which is where our personal comfort zone can become a hindrance rather than a good thing.

The Creator of the universe is without limits.  His love is truly beyond our comprehension, but He wants us to experience it in ever greater amounts.  To do so often means we must let go of our current familiar and comfortable understanding to experience the next greater level of His love.  The same is true of His wisdom, His faithfulness, His mercy, His grace.  Each time we let go of our current state of satisfaction and lean into a holy hunger for more of Him, we will experience a stretching and growth that reveals more of God’s nature, and a lessening of the negatives of the world’s perspective.  For me personally, this stretching often includes a letting go of self-reliance in some area to gain a greater God-reliance.

One family’s pursuit of following God in Kenya.

I saw this in Kenya.  It was evident in my friends LJ and Danee.  It was also true in me.  God’s specific word to LJ was “to prepare the land”.  The orphanage had fallen into disrepair.  Mismanagement had resulted in the loss of the license as a children’s home and much of the 14-acre compound was overgrown with brush and vegetation.  The entire family responded to the call to prepare the land. 

Now for many of us, traveling overseas can be a daunting experience.  That increases when the travel is to a third world country.  Raise it another notch when we are placed next to the 2nd largest slum in the world.  Oh, for good measure, take the entire family with children ages 15, 14, 13, and 9 in tow.  I know very few people who would be able to be stretched that far.  But the path the Lord has led Danee and LJ on has been a path of consistent next steps of trusting God as they go a little further out of their comfort zone, only to see Him provide exactly what was needed after each step.

While I was there, I witnessed LJ assuming the new role of overall Operations Manager for the entire compound.  By his own admission, LJ is a country boy from rural South Carolina.  He did not aspire to running an orphanage and school, but as I witnessed while I was there, LJ and Danee are faithfully doing whatever is required in leading, guiding, and serving the community.  And the land itself is beginning to flourish.  A ¾ acre vegetable garden is up and growing.  Soon it will be a major supplement to the food provisions for the 84 children getting their meals at LifeSpring.  The livestock are multiplying.  The third fluffle of rabbits are being nurtured and rabbit hutches were built while I was there.  Chickens roam the grounds during the day with baby chicks sticking close to mama hen for protection.  Goats graze on grass where brambles once grew.  To support the growing campus, LJ has hired widows and young men in desperate need of employment.   The land is well on its way to being prepared.

LJ’s work as an instrument and controls technician prepared him for some of the work.  I chuckle though because Google has come to the rescue many times as they encounter new situations they have never dealt with before.  (Like letting me know that a group of baby bunnies is called a fluffle!)  In one instance they were talking to one of the widows who had been hired to tend the garden.  In Kenya all the schools are in English, so if you have had the benefit of attending school you are liable to speak decent English.  This widow, who cares for her grandchild in the Kibera slum, knows zero English therefore she has never been to school.  Trying to communicate to her that LJ had bought four tin sheets to replace the plastic she was living under in Kibera was both humorous and deeply touching.  Google translate had to translate into Swahili so the widow could understand that some men would be coming by to help her.  Kenyans don’t cry.  Stoic persistence to survive doesn’t leave room for expressing much emotion, but the emotion flickered on her face when she realized the act of kindness being done for her. 

LJ and Danee went to Kenya following the Lord’s clear leading.  But following the Lord’s leading and knowing all that we are getting into are often two different things.  In some cases, the Father will give us a degree of insight into what’s ahead. 

The Bible’s witness to life outside the comfort zone.

I think of Paul heading to Jerusalem where he would be arrested.  God clearly told him to go to Jerusalem.  And he was also clearly told that difficulty was ahead.  But God gave Paul an assurance that walking this difficult path was God’s will and that God would be with him.  Paul was called out of his comfort zone over and over again.  In stepping into God’s call out of the comfort zone and into the unknown, Paul grew into the apostle God created him to be.  Today the Church is blessed because of Paul’s faithfulness in living outside of his comfort zone since much of the New Testament was written by Paul.

As the Lord opened my eyes to the reality of our growth as believers being tied to stepping out of our comfort zone, I realized that all the saints mentioned in the Bible were taken out of their comfort zone.  Abraham left his family, his land, and ventured many long and difficult miles (and years) to a “promised” land.  There was comfort in the land of Haran, but God’s call was to step out and follow Him. 

Mary was a young teenager engaged to a kind carpenter, when an angel said you have been chosen but it will take you out of your comfort zone.  Mary said “let it be done to me as you have said” and she stepped out of her comfort zone and into God’s plan for the salvation of humanity. 

Jesus was a good Jewish lad, well versed in the law, but God had a plan and a call upon His life.  Jesus was unique.  He was fully God, but at the same time fully human.  Being fully human, He experienced a degree of comfort as a carpenter son, then apprentice, and finally working as a carpenter in His own right.  But when God said step out of your comfort zone and into my call upon your life He did. 

Jesus ministered for 3 years outside of His comfort zone – forty days fasting in the desert, speaking to crowds that wanted signs and wonders, but not necessarily the all-in life with God He was espousing, doing battle with the persons of power and influence who chaffed at His familiarity with God, and finally suffering a painful and humiliating torture and execution at the hands of both Roman authorities and Jewish leaders.  Jesus modeled a life of stretching our human boundaries of comfort in faithful response to God’s call to something better, something richer, to life in union with God and His unique plan for each person.

What next step outside your comfort zone is God calling you to?

Friends I am deeply stirred that God has a call upon every person into a life that is beyond amazing.  He has a call upon you.  But it is a journey that will frequently take us out of our comfort zone.  God will ask us to take steps in faith in Him and not in sight by using our own wisdom and strength.  We will have to rely upon Him.  We will be stretched.  At times it won’t be “fun”.  At times it will even be difficult.  But as we listen and lean upon Him, He will be with us to bring about His good will in us and through us.  And this is so much better than the “good” we might experience in the comfort zone.  Because it is the best.

What burden or desire has the Lord put on your heart that gets shelved because it is outside your comfort zone?

Where do you see injustice, need, or sin that really pushes your buttons, but thus far you have done little beyond complain about it?

Do you get a passion for something the Word says to do, yet thus far you have not truly considered the possibility of you doing something just because?

Take a few moments and ask the Father to bring your next step into clear focus.  Ask with a willingness to take the next step.  Realize these will not usually be huge leaps out of the blue, but a gradual revelation where God draws you to a faith place that makes each progressive step a stretch, but doable with a little courage and trust in the One Who has provided for you in the past.  For the Davis’ it was a few years walking out many progressive next steps into mission work.  For me going over to help them was similar, taking about a year of progressive faith steps.  Having been, my faith is stirred to help even more.  Will I be more comfortable?  Walking in God’s grace and lifted by His love, I reckon I have all the strength a person needs.  So, the answer has to be yes, but in a new way.  When we walk His path, taking new steps into the unknown that He directs, we will be comforted with His great comfort. 

And that is way better than just being comfortable.

Be blessed my friends and be a light of blessing in the places where the LORD has placed you today, and always!

BTW, Danee and LJ are still serving in the same place although it is now called Oasis of Hope, and the Lord has done amazing things. The vision has shifted to rescuing young girls from forced marriages. The school now holds over 110 students, and the ministry is expanding more and more into the slum and areas around the school. The oversight organization is Serving Orphans Worldwide. Check them out at https://soworldwide.org/oasis-of-hope/

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Waiting with a Purpose

Posted in God, God Stories, Holy Spirit, love, Marriage, Prayer, Priorities, Spiritual Growth, The Father, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I don’t know of anyone that likes waiting.  I have met people, typically persons I would characterize as mature or wise, who dutifully accept waiting, but to say I know people who get excited about waiting, that would be a NO.  But for the past several weeks as we have been on a journey from a cancer diagnosis now through a surgery and next, a deeper diagnosis, waiting has been one of the constant undercurrents.  Surprisingly it has not been the dread that, at an earlier time in my life, I am sure it would have been.

Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV) comes to mind as I sit in this time of not-yet-knowing.

But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.

I have a relationship with God, my Heavenly Father, because of what Jesus did for me.  In a small chapel in the piney woods of central Louisiana, Jesus made me an offer that I accepted.  He offered me a new life, one walking with Him from that moment forward.  It required my letting Him have dominion over everything, but He promised He would never leave me or forsake me.  For 40+ years He has been true to His promise.  He has been tangibly present for over forty years.  I have grown to know His leading through His Word, through the community of faith He has placed me in, and the witness of the Holy Spirit living in me. 

This is an offer that is available to every single human being.  It is His desire that we all become His children walking in a life-giving, love-saturated, joy-filled relationship with Him.  I share this as context to this strange phenomenon I am in.  I am at peace in this waiting.  I sense changes occurring in my soul as I wait in a place of trust.

As an engineer I do my research.  I’ve read some of the stats.  If the cancer has spread, the potential five-year survival rate goes down significantly.  In a detached way I acknowledge this potential knowing that Jesus has not left or forsaken me, therefore I wait in hope.  Those same percentages that are not in my favor do not compare to the One who is in my favor.  The odds of this working out for God’s glory and my good are 100% as I wait upon Him, as I put my trust in Him. 

I started to say “put my WHOLE trust in Him”, but I know that I bring all that I can and let Him supply what lacks.  I have learned that is often what the waiting is about.  Learning to release control.  Or more accurately, learning to release the illusion of control to the One who is able to meet all our needs.  Waiting on the Lord is the place where faith and patience are nurtured and grown. 

Waiting on the Lord fulfills His purpose in several ways.  As I look back, I can see the younger me and realize many changes wrought through the Lord’s work in times of waiting.

  1. The need to control situations to meet my perception of “good”.  While I would have said, I wanted the Lord’s will, there was often a flavoring of what I thought was best.  I often didn’t see God’s big picture point of view. 
  2. A bias towards action and doing something rather than beginning with prayer and waiting for direction.  Boy are there a lot of toes I’ve stepped on trying to “make things happen”.  (My apologies to you if you are one of those whose toes I’ve stepped on.)
  3. My understanding of Ephesians chapter 5 and what marriage looks like.  This one took years of waiting and being reminded by the Holy Spirit to “love Lisa like Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.”  (There will be more on this in the future!)
  4. Being male and an engineer, when presented with a problem, I naturally go into “figure it out and fix it” mode.  Not all problems require that formula.  In fact, that is the wrong approach at times.  The Lord’s work is often best achieved by pausing and allowing Him lead.  This is Spirit-led action after waiting on the Lord.
  5. Related to the one above, sometimes being present and inviting the Lord into the midst of the problem is all we are to do.  The Lord’s work is sometimes accomplished by my being there but stepping out of the way.  This is Spirit-led stillness after waiting on the Lord.

I find it no coincidence that this fresh season of waiting for us corresponds with our Bible reading plan in the letters of Paul.  Trials, afflictions, and times of waiting fill the chapters we have been reading.  Yet we read about joy and patience and hope not instead of, but in the midst of the challenges Paul and the early believers faced.  Things have not changed in this respect.  While we have many creature comforts unavailable to our ancestors, we still deal with sickness, hardship, loss, and death. 

Thanks be to God, the same Holy Spirit who gave comfort and guidance to the early Church is present with us in all our affliction.  He is not in any way constrained today from giving us what we need.   In fact, it is often through our affliction that we become keenly aware of our need for His help, guidance and comfort.  A key though is to realize the timing is the Lord’s.  Instant gratification is NOT God’s typical way.  No, He gives us this precious gift of time to allow the better work, the deeper work, the soul work to take place. 

Earlier in my walk with Christ, I remember asking the LORD to hurry up and give me patience… His response was a No and Yes.  He did not hurry up.  But in the waiting, I have seen much fruit grow including a patience that the younger me wanted, but struggled to attain. 

Friend, while I don’t know what your situation is, I have a pretty good sense that if not now, at some time in the near future you will be tasked with waiting.  It is my prayer as I finish today’s post that you will experience the Lord’s purpose in your waiting.  Let go of having to have answers right now and reach for having intimacy with Him.  The LORD loves you and He has the best in mind for you.  Sit with Him and rest knowing that the Lover of your soul is all in for you.  He will supply exactly what you need when you wait upon the Lord.

Be blessed my friends as you wait upon the LORD!

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