Good Morning and welcome to another beautiful day in which
to serve the Lord. Recently I went to
Tennessee to visit my sister and to see my niece who was here from
Germany. I had a really great time with
my family and was amazed (though I shouldn’t have been) how God REALLY DOES
cause all things to work together for the good.
It seems that as we go through life, if we pay attention, we can see how
God puts us at particular places at particular times to encourage us, teach us,
and/or direct us. I firmly believe my
trip to Tennessee was in the center of God’s plan as things happened there
that, though seemingly unimportant to those around me, inspired me and encouraged
me to continue to seek God’s perfect will and plan for my life. The first thing that happened was my sister
volunteered me to go to the Tennessee church campgrounds to attend a Summons to
Sacrifice seminar. Though there may not
have been an outwardly show of how much this meant to me, it really stirred my
thinking about intercessory prayer and God’s call to the church to prayer. I also went to a Home Bible study with my
brother-in-law so that my sister could stay home and visit with her girls. Though it was just an ordinary Bible Study, I
walked away from there inspired and determined to share God’s Word more
perfectly with my harvest field. I don’t
know about any of you but though I have a pretty good understanding of the
Bible, I have been a bit intimidated about doing a home Bible study in case
they asked questions that I could not immediately answer. But after going on that Bible Study with Paul
and seeing the excitement of Flora at hearing the Bible explained to her, I
realize that I can’t allow my inadequacies keep me from being 100% willing to
share the Gospel to the hurting. If those inspirations weren’t enough to make
my whole trip to Tennessee worth it, God spoke directly to me through Pastor
Phillips. He preached two sermons that were
so fantastic that words fail me. The
first one was, “Finding Your Miracle at the Bottom of the Barrel.” The second sermon was a Bible study entitled,
“Purpose of the Wilderness.” I am not
certain how much the church charges for CDs but I strongly recommend that you
get those two CDs. If anyone is
interested, please email me and I will put you in contact with the church.
Bro. Phillips in the “Finding Your Miracle at the Bottom of
the Barrel” said something that reinforced to me that God is in control (if we
let him). He was speaking about the
prophet Elijah and how God had sent him to the Brook Cherith to save him from
certain death by the hand of Jezebel.
There Elijah was able to drink from the brook and God sent the ravens to
bring him food but then the brook dried up and the ravens quit coming. It may seem like a tragedy but it really isn’t
because it was merely time to move on. I
Kings 17:8-9 “And the Word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee
to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have
commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”
As you can see in the scriptures God did not view the lack of food and
water to sustain Elijah as a problem. He
didn’t see that it was tragedy or a situation in which Elijah should become
discouraged or find God unfaithful. The
lack of food and water in that place was just a sign that it was time for Elijah
to ARISE and move to the next step in the plan.
When we are seeking to find and stay in the will of God, when it seems
that tragedy or hardship comes, we must start viewing things through the eyes of
God. God isn’t dismayed at apparent
hardship because he knows that it is merely another step to the place that he
is taking us. We must quit bemoaning the
closed doors and arise and move forward to the next thing. Closed doors aren’t signs of God’s
unfaithfulness but rather traffic signals to keep us on the path that God has
for us.
I know that I did not do that portion of the sermon justice
but I do pray that it encourages you to start viewing your situation through
the eyes of our Savior. When we do that
we will see things completely differently.
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