Holy Spirit

Cartoon of man being blown back by wind

Blown Away

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Love is a fruit in season at all times and in reach of every hand.

Mother Teresa

I love metaphors, but more often, I use interjections. Wow, great job, and yikes, are interjections. One interjection that we used in our recent past was “blown away.” We would say things like, “Have you tried those new Dorito® taco shells at Taco Bell®? They blew me away!” Or, “I was blown away by Alan Jackson’s ”Gospel Songs“ album!”

Blown Away

These thoughts about interjections and metaphors came into my mind when I read King Hezekiah’s poem1. He used a highly descriptive metaphor that will remain in my thoughts forever. Here’s the verse, as translated in the New Living Translation of the Bible:

“My life has been blown away
like a shepherd’s tent in a storm.”.

Isaiah 38:12

I can relate to King Hezekiah. There have been times when I felt like my life was being “blown away,” not like an interjection but as a metaphor. I could see pieces of my life being stripped off like the shingles on my roof during a derecho (high-velocity straight-line winds).

Perhaps, you have had a derecho experience in your life. Maybe you worked for the same company for several years, and then, suddenly, the company downsizes or goes out of business, and you’re stripped of your career.

Maybe you and your spouse raised your kids for 18+ years, and then suddenly, you are empty-nesters. Perhaps you find yourself fighting a serious, life-threatening illness; your life is what might be stripped away. It might be that you have invested many years of your life in a church ministry, and suddenly, the Holy Spirit is calling you to a new people, a new place, and a new purpose. Your tent is being blown away.

God miraculously healed King Hezekiah from certain death. God is not constrained by time or circumstances; He still does miracles. As King Hezekiah wrote in his poem, “Each generation tells of your faithfulness to the next.2”

Good News

You can trust God the Father, Jesus, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. The Triune God lives in you if you are a believer. God is ready to be your Amen.

Amen: The basic meaning of the Semitic root from which it is derived is “firm,” “fixed,” or “sure,” and the related Hebrew verb also means “to be reliable” and “to be trusted.”

(2023, July 10). amen. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/amen-prayer

When the storms of life try to blow away your tent, lean into the Amen of your life. He will allow you to keep what is in His will and He blow away the things that are not His will. In both the keeping and the losing, our God will always keep you, care for you, love you. You are in Good Hands. Be at peace.

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[1]: Isaiah 38 NLT – Bible Gateway.
[2]: Isaiah 38:19b NLT – Bible Gateway.

Helping Hands Climbing Rescue Rescuing Man Men

Pass It On

By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,

Back in 2000, there was a film titled “Pay It Forward.” The gist is that when we receive a good deed (are blessed) from someone, we do that same good deed (blessing) to someone else. The movie so impacted our culture that this phrase and intent is still active twenty-three years later. I’m sure the filmmakers did not consider Paul’s instruction to Timothy.

“You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.” 2 Timothy 2:2

Confirmation

Notice that Paul is not writing about abstract ideas. He writes that the things he taught have been “confirmed by many.” Chief among them is what Paul taught about Christ’s death for our sins, His burial, and His resurrection1. This was confirmed because at least 500 people saw Jesus after His resurrection2.

Paul wrote about things that are beyond natural actions yet established as true. He wrote about the disciplines and gifts the Holy Spirit gives to us. He wrote about miracles and healings. He wrote about the righteousness of Jesus being our righteousness when we are in Christ Jesus. He wrote about Christ’s second coming. People heard Paul preach and saw the Holy Spirit confirm his teaching.

Now, Paul is writing to his “spiritual” son and telling him to have confidence in what he taught because reliable witnesses have confirmed each truth. Therefore, because Timothy should not doubt these truths, he should teach the same to others and be confident that God will prove the truth of Timothy’s teaching. And through the confirmations, these truths should be passed on and on and on.

So, two thousand years later, we have that same confidence in what was written by Paul in the Bible. And when we receive this instruction, we can be sure that the Holy Spirit will confirm these truths, and the supernatural actions of God will accomplish this confirmation – anything God does is done by the maker of nature and, therefore, greater (superior) than nature. If we don’t believe this, then what can we hope for when we pray?

Good News

As believers in Jesus, we have been commissioned to be in the world but not of the world. While in this world, we are to teach Jesus Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection. We are to demonstrate Christianity’s uniqueness through our incomprehensible love for each other and by the supernatural works that God does through us. These confirmations are, first, a testimony to the divine nature of Jesus, our Savior, and second, God’s confirmation of our commission to be representatives of Jesus in this world.

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[1]: 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 
[2]: 1 Corinthians 15:6

A wood planer.

The Planer of God

By / 2 minutes of reading / , ,

I have always been intrigued by wood planers. You can take a plank of wood that is ugly as sin. That plank can have parasite infection bulges, knots, and even its bark, but those defects begin to be cut off as the plank repeatedly passes through the planer. The wood’s beauty becomes revealed. And, when finished, the wooden board is perfect, ready to be included in the construction materials of the carpenter.

In the hands of the Carpenter1, the Wood Planer carefully cuts away our defects, for the Holy Spirit is the Planer of God. He works in us so that we will eventually be perfect. Though we are already forgiven, our blemishes and weaknesses that lead us to sin, commit transgressions, and even iniquities are being removed through the progressive sanctification God performs in the lives of those in Christ Jesus.

God Changes You

Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross was a one-time event, yet His sacrifice continues to make the dead alive and the alive progressively perfect.

“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

Hebrews 10:14

We are told, “And this word continues to work in you who believe.2” That word is “God’s Good News.3” And just as God chooses gnarly planks, He sees the beauty hidden in them that is from the world. Then the height of the planer blade is adjusted, and the process begins.

This process is happening in everyone that has been made alive in Jesus. Some of His are still ugly with sins, some are beginning to show their purpose for God, and some are nearing what God has always seen in them.

Good News

Don’t fret. God chooses the wooden planks, Jesus is the Carpenter, and the Holy Spirit is the Planer. We may see nothing of value in us. That’s okay. If we are alive in Jesus, then God’s process of sanctification is at work in our lives.

Be of good cheer. God never starts a job that He doesn’t finish.

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Photo by Anna Shvets

[1]: John 16:13
[2]: 1 Thessalonians 2:13
[3]: 1 Thessalonians 2:9

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Us, Not They

By / 2 minutes of reading / , , , ,

As I was praying this morning, I noticed I was praying as if I was somehow separate from the people I was praying for. I had built a mental fence between them and me. I was praying “they” when the Holy Spirit wanted me to pray “us.”

My thinking was wrong because I recognized them as generic believers in Christ Jesus. I understood a small part of their struggle, so I carried their need to our Father. And I was confident that the Holy Spirit had led me to pray for them in the name of Jesus. That was proper and good, but I saw their problem incorrectly; my thinking was wrong. Now I understand that “us” is an object pronoun while “they” is a generic third-person pronoun, so why was I praying for generic Christians?

God stopped me and corrected me. He does that for those He loves (Hebrews 12:5–7). Within the Body of Christ, we are all brothers and sisters. We are blood relatives by Jesus’ shed blood. Like our bodies, there are many members in Christ’s Body, and they aren’t all the same. We have many parts: eyes, ears, heart, liver, and so forth.

“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 12:12

Shaquille O’Neal is 7’ 1″, so his nose is a long way from his toes, yet both are members of the same body. All believers in Christ Jesus are blood relatives; only distance separates us. When we consider Christ’s Body, it’s a long way from Indiana to Hunan Province in China, yet Christ’s Body is in that province and Indiana.

If I talk with someone about a family member, I say “we” or us,“ not ”them“ or ”they.“ If asked if there are other Christians on my dad’s side of the family, my answer would be, ”In my family, we have many believers in Christ. God has blessed us with many who are pastors or missionaries.“ Our hearts and minds need to say ”us,“ not ”they.”

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Who Did You Say Jesus Is?

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Years ago, I worked with a software architect that made a trip to the headquarters of Microsoft® in Redmond, Washington. While there, he emailed our development team, giving us a first-hand account of a fictitious encounter with Bill Gates at a local Wendy’s® restaurant. His story was entertaining but insightful and pointedly honed to speak to some bad thinking in our group. His email was masterfully written.

A Different Jesus

When we look at the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, we find a similar but far more adept message to those Christians and us. At one place in his letter, he wrote:

“You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.”

2 Corinthians 11:4 NLT

The apostle Paul was writing to Christians. There are now, and always have been, people trying to lead believers away from the solid truth of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Let’s not become weary or confused or abandon God’s work in us for the “next amazing thing.” Let’s cling to these words:

3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all,
who is over all, in all, and living through all.

Ephesians 4:3-6

We shouldn’t search to find what God has already given us: our place, purpose, and life in the true Jesus. If someone is preaching a new “Jesus,” they have been tricked by the enemy. As firm believers in Jesus, our Savior, we must remain like military guards, keeping out enticements that misrepresent Jesus. You know Jesus; rest in Him. You can search the world and never find more than the Christ who found you where you were. Who did you say Jesus is? For those that are His, He is our Savior, Shepherd, Redeemer, Ransom, Resurrection, Brother, and Friend.

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1: “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues.” – Matthew 10:15-17 NLT

Creche

Let Us Celebrate Cristes Maesse

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The word for Christmas in Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ. This phrase was first found in a manuscript written in 1038 AD. A word closer to our word, Christmas, is Cristes-messe, found in an 1131 AD manuscript. In Dutch, the word Christmas is Kerstmis; in Latin, it is Dies Natalis, and from Latin comes the French Noël. In Italian, Christmas is Il natale, and in German, Christmas is Weihnachtsfest which means sacred vigil. 

Controversies 🙁

The celebration of the birth of Jesus has a long and messy past. The first evidence of the feast came from Egypt in 200 AD. Egypt played a vital role during the early Church. Still, there has never been any agreement on the year or day of the birth of Jesus. Christmas has also long been a controversial celebration. In England, Christmas was banned by an Act of Parliament in 1644. People were forced to fast, and shops were ordered to be open1.

Nevertheless, regardless of edicts and theological proclamations, Christians have felt in our souls that we should join together around the birth of Jesus, independent of denominational differences. All of us should thank God for begetting His One and Only Son. So, let us do so. Let us set aside all malice or contempt and corporately humble ourselves, worshiping God and celebrating Jesus for being the pilgrim that made the only way of salvation, for we are all sinners saved by grace.

Rejoice!

This coming Sunday is the day we jointly celebrate the birth of God’s Beloved Son, born in a manger. Let us rejoice in God’s prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah 9:6 (ESV): “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Merry Christmas!

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[1] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm

Clouds In My Coffee

Clouds In My Coffee

By / 4 minutes of reading / , , ,
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Flash!

Today is National Cappuccino Day, so I can use coffee in my post!

I’ll bet you can’t remember who sang a song with the phrase “clouds in my coffee.” There are no fair Googling lyrics! I was listening to that song today, and the “clouds in my coffee” phrase caught my attention. I mean, it says “coffee”; how could the song not be a hit?

I got to thinking about clouds in my coffee. I nearly always drink my coffee black. However, when I pour cream into my coffee, it does look like billowing clouds. That is, until I stir it. Then the coffee and the cream are indistinguishable from each other. 

The Holy Spirit Does Disrupt Us

Just like cream clouds are disruptive to black coffee, so is the Holy Spirit when He comes into our lives. I think “clouds in my coffee” is a good analogy for receiving the Holy Spirit. When He first comes in, He does disrupt us. 

We all receive the Holy Spirit at the time we are saved. Suddenly, God is inside us, and we are energized new Christians. We run around to all of our friends and tell them our good news and encourage them to accept Jesus. This usually severs those old friendships because we no longer have the same worldview or interests. 

People are often afraid to teach about the Holy Spirit, which is disappointing. There are some basics that we need to know. For example, when we talk about the Holy Spirit, we often use the Old English word “indwelt.” The definition of indwelt means to be permanently present. A Christian indwelt by the Spirit is indwelt by God. (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; Ephesians 2:22)

Hyper-Awareness

We become Christians because we become hyper-aware of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus and our wretched condition. That hyper-awareness is called “conviction,” and the Holy Spirit is the Person of God who does this for us so that we see the truth of the Gospel. (John 16:8–11)

The Holy Spirit unites believers with Jesus and places believers into the body of Christ; the body of Christ is the Church. The Holy Spirit also unites believers with Jesus in His death, enabling believers to live victoriously over sin. (1 Corinthians 12:13, Romans 6:1–10)

We receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of our rebirth. And the Holy Spirit sovereignly endows spiritual gifts or abilities for service to every believer. ( Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4) However, there is more that God makes available to believers. If we become hungry for God, God will give more of Himself to us. The Bible says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you (James 4:8).

Recognize the Holy Spirit of God lives “in” every believer. However, it’s like that cream you pour into your coffee. You have a cloud of God in you, but God may not be in all of you. You may be holding on to things of the world or shutting God out because you want to be in control of your career, your lifestyle, and your money.

God Will Give Us More

However, when we ask for more of God, God will give us more of Himself through the Holy Spirit and stir us up. One of the things Jesus does is baptize with the Holy Spirit. We know this because John the Baptist testified,” ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'” (John 1:33)

With a greater fullness of God within a believer, the Holy Spirit guides and empowers the believer who yields to God and submits to God’s Word. (Romans 12: 1, 2; Ephesians 5:18; Colossians 3:16) When we meet these conditions, the believer lives in the power of the Holy Spirit and produces the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16, 22, 23)

Aspects of Salvation

See, that wasn’t so difficult. Of course, many aspects of salvation, sanctification, the works of the Holy Spirit, and so forth often cause separation between believers. This separation is unfortunate.

It’s good to embrace the understanding that God has given us, but we should not shut out fellow believers who emphasize other aspects of salvation. We should fellowship with all Christian believers. We are to be known by our love. But, we must not bring into the Church people that embrace heresies, doctrines not found as truth in the Bible.

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woman's hands on a Bible

Ask For the Order

By / 4 minutes of reading / , ,

Throughout my life, I’ve owned several small companies and worked for large corporations – sadly, I’ve never owned a large corporation. 😉 One thing that was consistent within all these businesses was this: Always ask for the order. When you are doing a sales call, this idiom means enjoying your conversation with your existing client or a prospective client, but before the conversation wraps us, always ask for an order for whatever you are selling. Make the sale.

Vague prayers

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of Christians that pray ambiguous prayers. By ambiguous, I mean prayers that are “unclear or inexact.” Yes, God indeed knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), and His will is unchanging, but He has made it abundantly clear that we are not to just toss a prayer to Him with little or no expectation as to His response. Consider for a moment the parable Jesus taught us about prayer.

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

Luke 18:1-8 NLT

Clear, Consistent, and Correct

Jesus told us to persist in prayer. We must make our request clear, consistent, and correct! How can we know when God answers our prayers if we never made an explicit request to Him?

We see in Christ’s parable of the unjust judge that Jesus expects us to pray with consistency. The widow didn’t change her request every time she came to the judge (waffle). No, it was the same request. Our prayer requests should be consistent. We are warned in James 1:6, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”

We are to pray correctly. Jesus warned us directly not to prattle on in our prayers. Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7) And, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:3)

Jesus mediates, and the Holy Spirit intercedes

We are to come before the Father, through Jesus, our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5-6), with clear, consistent prayers that align with the will of God. You may ask, “How can I pray within God’s will?” Well, we need to understand that, as Christians, the Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. – Romans 8:26-27

So, when we pray, we typically should “ask for the order,” for Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) However, there are times when we just need to pour our hearts out to God. That’s a good thing. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us. We can continually pray, even when we run out of words or don’t know what to pray (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

That’s the 411 on prayer. Let’s pause for a moment and consider how loving God is to us. He is so interested in us that He wants us to continually stay connected to Him through prayer!

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German Cockroach Insect Pest Blattella Germanica

The Roach Mobile Home

By / 6 minutes of reading / , , ,

Our Praise

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:16

God is good to His children. Good beyond what we can understand or fully grasp. His love is active love. He is constantly at work in everything. By faith, the Spirit of Truth leads us into the unknown. We enter by the name of a Man we’ve not seen, whose greatness we cannot comprehend, to do a work that is not ours, by abilities we don’t possess, so our Father may glorify His One and Only Son.

I want to share an experience my family and I had when we were preparing to minister through foreign missions. I hope that you find encouragement from our amazing God, the God that did the impossible for us.

The Roach Mobile Home

Because of a delay in our departure to Romania, my family and I were thrown into a difficult time when we were homeless and without an income. Living in Florida, we rented a cockroach-infested mobile home by the week. While amid this filth, the Holy Spirit “fell upon me” and gave me a promise. Here is what I understood from God:

“There are some situations that are delaying your departure. I am fixing those. While I do, I am picking you and your family up and putting you in a new place, a safe place. It will feel like a vacation. It will be a good place for you. You will have an income. You will know when to leave and go to Romania.”

Our Deliverance

That day I called a man I’d worked for. He immediately offered me a software development contract. We drove to Tampa and found an apartment in a large complex near where I’d be working.

Our life there was a vacation. We had a swimming pool close to where we lived, lots of open, green spaces for the kids to play, an income, and more. It was a joyful time. Only later did we learn that the previous occupant of our apartment had been a dope dealer. However, during the whole time we lived there, a spirit of peace covered the apartment complex. God changed the nature of an entire apartment complex just for us!

Our time there was safe, but the complex became rough again at the end of our stay. Police cars were coming at all hours of the day and night. But it was time for us to go. God had opened the door for our foreign missions adventure!

Our Praise

Indeed, God had picked us up from a terrible situation and sat us in a place of rest while He cleared the way for us. This was the beginning of a phrase our family continues to use today: “Every delay is a good delay.”

God is amazingly good to us. He sees us and knows when we are genuinely in need. He makes a way where there is no way. How can we not trust Him and find our joy in Him? Praise be to the God that saves completely!

Amen!

Click if you want to know the gory details and God’s great blessing. ⤵️

Why We Were Homeless

When my family and I prepared to move to Romania to be missionaries, we were given a date when we would move. We sold nearly everything we had, and I quit my job. Then our departure schedule got pushed back. Suddenly, we found ourselves with no income, no departure date, and no place to live.

Our wandering

At first, we found a small motel we called home, but the cost wasn’t sustainable. Then, a local missionary family (and friends) opened their home to us, but our delay continued. Finally, we found a mobile home to rent. We paid by the week, and the mobile home park was filled with the dregs of society.

Our mobile home was full of cockroaches! We had to keep our eating utensils in plastic bags as well as plates and cups. We were greatly concerned for our kids. We never left them alone or allowed them to play outside our trailer. Instead, we took our kids to a public park. We had rented a house already occupied by an army of critters. To this day, we still refer to it as the “roach motel.”

God’s Love

At this point, we were beginning to worry. We had budgeted and saved for life in Romania. Most Romanians lived on the equivalent of $50 a month at that time. We budgeted for $500/month but were stuck in America, where $500 didn’t go very far. Our savings were rapidly shrinking.

One night, as we sat on a filthy couch and watched the cockroaches climbing the walls in the kitchen, the Holy Spirit suddenly fell on me. I don’t want to mess with your theology, but I have no other way to explain it. I stood up, looked around at the disgusting conditions, and spoke what the Holy Spirit communicated to me. Here is what I understood from the Holy Spirit:

“There are some situations that are delaying your departure. I am fixing those. While I do, I am picking you and your family up and putting you in a new place, a safe place. It will feel like a vacation. It will be a good place for you. You will have an income. You will know when to leave and go to Romania.”

Deliverance

My wife and I thanked God and rejoiced. I thought I should call a guy I’d worked for in the past. I called him, and he immediately offered me a software development contract. Within days, we moved to Tampa, Florida.

We found an apartment in a complex in the city, close to where I would be working. We were confident that it was the right place for us. It was summertime, and a swimming pool was within 50’ of our apartment. There were plenty of green spaces for our kids to play in, and we felt safe. I met some other people I’d worked with when I started work. It was great.

We lived there for probably six months. The whole time it felt like we were on vacation. Then the door opened for us to move to Romania. At the same time, domestic problems in the complex began happening. The police were constantly coming to the complex. We learned that the previous occupant of our apartment had been a dope dealer.

Our Departure

We packed our suitcases and moved to Romania. God was so good to us. He made a way for us where there was no way. He pulled us out of a terrible place and put us in place with a long history of not being safe, but He made it safe. It was safe the whole time we lived there. He gave us safety, an income, and a place to regroup. Then, at precisely the right time, He opened the door and moved us.

The Two Lessons We Learned

My family and I learned two critical lessons from this experience. Sometimes, God tests us for our good. We learned that we were “all in” for Jesus. And we learned that God would do astonishing things, like change the conditions of a large apartment complex, for us when we remain in His will.

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Pizza Restaurant Meal Italian Yummy Food

The Same is The Same Until It Isn’t

By / 3 minutes of reading / , , , ,

The Same Thing May Not Have the Same Results

I know Einstien defined insanity as repeatedly doing the same thing but expecting different results. Still, the same is the same until it’s different. This is a lesson that young people rarely learn, but adults know as true.

Just recently, a local Pizza Hut® closed. For as long as I can remember, it was our area’s preeminent Pizza Hut® restaurant. Its core business was seated customers. We’d go there, and the jukebox would be playing and people talking and everyone spying on the type of pizza the many waitstaff drew from the kitchen. It was a fun place, a destination for Friday night family outings and Saturday night high school dates.

That Pizza Hut® buzzed with customers for 50+ years, and then it didn’t. That thing called COVID–19 killed the owner’s business model. Now it’s being converted into a seafood and chicken restaurant. That Pizza Hut® restaurant was the same until it was different.

God Changes Things

This life lesson is found in the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit told Paul to warn the captain that they should stop their voyage and spend the winter in the closest port. But the captain and the owner of the ship disregarded Paul’s warning. And why not?

The captain and the owner of the ship had made this journey to Italy many times. Each of their voyages had been successful. So, they reasoned that concern from a Roman prisoner was an insufficient reason for them to change their journey. Every trip had been fine, but this time it wouldn’t be.

10 “Men,” he said, “I believe there is trouble ahead if we go on—shipwreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well.” 11 But the officer in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship’s captain and the owner than to Paul. – Acts 27:10–11

Whether discussing pizzas, nautical journeys, or conversations with loved ones, we need to keep an eye on the Holy Spirit’s newsfeed. We need to ask ourselves, has God changed times or circumstances? Might this be the last time we talk with our child before Jesus returns? Is this the last time we may have the privilege of talking with our dads before God calls them home?

God Desires Us To Live in His Will

We are not to live in fear or worry, or sadness. None of those is God’s will. We find in Psalms how God would have us live.

“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.”

Psalm 143:10 (New Living Translation)

Our prayer must be, “Oh my God, lead me forward on a firm footing.” God is patient, but when He acts, He typically does so suddenly. Let’s remember the characteristic that Jesus said we, as Christians, have.

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

The Creek Don’t Rise

We are not our own; we have given our lives to God. So, let’s walk on God’s firm footing. Let’s make all of our plans be subject to His will. Let’s apply that Appalachian saying, “The good Lord willing, and the creek don’t rise.” This places our plans under God’s will.

Image by Thomas Grau from Pixabay

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