Time for Monday Armchair Pastor

This Sunday we continued our discussion of the attributes of our Mysterious God with His Power. Our text was primarily Isaiah 40:7-31.


Altho this is where I usually process the message, I am going to do something a little different. I am going to tell you a little of my story about His Power.


As an adult, I was not involved in church. I didn't want to be. Growing up in a Baptist church, I heard the Bible preached regularly. I knew the stories, and I knew it wasn't for me because this ancient book was just some myths made up by a people to make sense of life's tragedies. But along my path, a woman taught me to seek evidence in a Power greater than myself.


She said, "What if there are no coincidences? What if that is God speaking to you? Can you be open minded enough to investigate?"


I was pretty desperate at that moment, my marriage difficult, my emotions volatile. I was willing to see what this was all about.


Now, this was not a journey of 10 minutes or 10 months. Probably more like 10 years. It was a slow process. Obscure things were my evidence sometimes. Like once when I was speeding heavily on my way to work and this idiot pulled out in front of me. A very short stint up the highway he jerked into the other lane, and seeing why, I followed. There was a huge piece of tire on the road. I may not have seen that in the middle of the night at the speed I was going. Perhaps God had a hand in that?


Or like the time we were having some financial trouble, and my husband was frustrated because we needed a car. Having come to believe at some point, I told him, "If God wants us to get that car, it will be at our price. He could drop a car in our bedroom if He wanted, so don't worry." A short time after that, the car dealer called while my husband was in another room. I took the phone to him. In our bedroom, he found out the car could be ours, at our price, if we wanted it.


Now sure, they might be lame to you, but I have many others. The difference between you scoffing and me believing is that I became willing to be open that there might be a God who was active in my life.


And when I began to look for God, I began to understand the Bible in a new way: this was the Israelites' book of their evidence of God...of how He responded and interacted with them. It wasn't myths and magic tricks. Then I began to read it.


Have you ever spoke light into existence? Sure, there was the Clapper, but that isn't the same as something appearing from absolutely nothing. I have given birth, but I did not knit his form together. We are well acquainted with death, but who can wake the dead? We see death, but who have we seen return to life? Now that is some power!

This book, this Word of God, came alive! I met a God who had power...not just strength of might, but of love. This is not the impotent door knob higher power that I started with out of rebellion. When I opened my mind to the God of the Bible, everything changed. It wasn't progression, but revelation. Jesus didn't show up on the scene about 30 B.C.-He was there all along! He was written in the story before the story was written! The Old Testament isn't irrelevant; it is full of foreshadowing of the coming Messiah.

And God knew the whole time.

At a point, I had to make a choice. The god of my understanding was too understandable. God had brought me to a place of surrender. When I let Him lead me, I began to see Him moving thru my life. I am not perfect. Don't have to be. My life isn't always calm or the way I want it. But it doesn't have to be either.

I have a powerful God.

Comments

eaglegirl said…
It is amazing what God will do to bring us unto Himself. It is His desire that none should perish, but all come to the knowledge of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am in awe of our God.
Gigi said…
Thanks for this.....
Dan said…
We need to hear each others' stories. Thanks for telling some of yours. I loved your last paragraph about surrender. Really,that is about the only adequate response to grace.

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