Month: November 2019

    Has anything BIG happened in your life recently? Anything HUGE in the works? Are “The Stars’ lining up for you?  Are you waiting for something GRAND to transpire so you can thank God? Multitudes are waiting for BIG DREAMS to be fulfilled so they can give God a small portion of thanks and credit.  Some, spend months and years gambling for that CHUNK of cash from a Lottery win to roll in.  They’ll buy the large house, a yacht, fishing gear, a small plane, and other goodies that’ll reflect their newfound status. Have you ever considered the regular things taking place in your life?  What of the small ones happening every day?  Have you considered the teeny-tiny ones?  God is manifested and glorified in the ‘insignificant’ occurrences befalling us.

   Ours is a world similar to that of Bluto and Popeye in one particular cartoon where each performs a particular achievement and sings to the other, “Whatever you can do, I can do better.”  It’s interesting that the natural man will always try to outdo his fellow man in just about everything except in giving financially to a good cause.  It all comes down to wanting to be the best, desiring to do more, etc.  God is unimpressed.

While living in New York, we experienced many ‘small, insignificant’ moments in our lives.  There were times when our old station wagon would turn off on its own as we drove.  How did we keep it going? We sang Christian songs! We sang together especially when we reached traffic lights and had to wait for them to change.  For those of us doubting, if we stopped singing, the wagon would turn off.  We learned to sing all the way home.  Some people would see that as something small-not worth mentioning.  But God was there and we knew it!

Another time here, in Puerto Rico, my wife was driving another station wagon (hmm..) down a narrow two-way road when she noticed her breaks were not working.  The line had broke and she was skidding on the brake fluid. She was passing a mound of dirt on one side of the car and a body of water on the other side.  She reasoned, “If I hit the mound I’ll get killed and if I go into the water, I’m going down.”  She prayed for God to help her.  She saw a huge tree up ahead so she went for it.  The passenger door was wrapped around it and one could see the tree-shape on it.  Whew, that was close! But it was only the first part of her experience.  She needed to get home up to the mountains…she got back in & drove about two miles to the end of the road to where our mechanic’s shop was located.  She prayed the entire way that she’d be able to stop when she’d reach the busy intersection.  Upon reaching it, with no cars approaching, she turned right and the car turned off right there as she parked.  She couldn’t believe it and could hardly speak.  God had performed another regular event in her life.  No, there were no TV cameras around.  No one was there to congratulate her or to present her with an achievement award or a huge multi-million-dollar check.  If she was jumping up and down like Yosemite Sam saying “Unga bonga bunga” it wasn’t from winning anything; she wasn’t asking God for another station wagon (third time’s a charm), rather, she couldn’t believe how God had watched over her.

This week, whether you’ve won the Lottery, experienced something EXTRAORDINARY or just want to recall one, or several minor life-changing events in your life, DON”T forget to thank the MAGNIFICENT God who makes all things work out for our good.

God Bless!

Sam

I can’t forget how on several occasions our high school shop teacher, Mr. Koffer, would look up from his work and say, “My glasses, my glasses, who took my glasses; anyone seen my glasses???  Most of us would stop working—or talking, and look around our work area for them.  Oftentimes, we’d look straight at him and say, “They’re on your head!”

Hasn’t it happened to you?  Looking for the horse and you’re sitting on it!  I recall our pastor talking to someone on his cell phone and at the same time rummaging through his briefcase desperately looking for something important.  He then told the other party, “I’ll have to call you back cause all of a sudden, I can’t find my cell phone!”  We’ve all been there.  It drives us nuts.

When our three kids were very small and played hide-and-go-seek, we’d laugh so hard at how they played.  Their version was unique.  While one closed his eyes to count, the other two would hide-in plain sight!  We’d wonder how it was they couldn’t be seen!  The one who was ‘it’ would walk around saying things like, “I wonder where she’s hidden.’ And of course, she would smile at us and put her finger to her lips signifying ‘shh,’ she can’t see me!  The kid would continue throughout the house trying to find the other two. At some point, they’d be found.  We thought it was unbelievable!   It was very unlike when I was growing up, not only did we play hide-go-seek around the block, but around the neighborhood.  We’d hide so well that we sometimes couldn’t be found at all & had to continue the next day.  But our kids liked to play it safe.

So many of us have played the game with God!  We think He can’t see us.  We hide at home, at our jobs, we ‘play’ by hiding around the neighborhood.  We hide behind our families and sometimes, even hide behind religion.  We may even hide within a church not knowing we can’t escape the All-knowing and All-seeing God!  King David wrote, “If I descend to the depths of the sea, you’re there; If I ascend in to the heavens, you are there…” The night is just like the day before God (Psalm 139:7-12).  The thing is, no matter how much hiding we do, we’re hiding in plain sight!

So why do we hide?  Mostly because we believe He’s out to get us.  Followed by our lack of desire to live according to His ways. Think of it this way: About eighteen years ago I read a story of a man who found something and spent some time trying to return it to its rightful owner.  After acquiring the owner’s address, he visited him only to find the owner didn’t speak English and he got himself kicked out of the premises.  Being persistent, he returned with a translator, but being the wrong dialect, he was kicked out again. On about the third or fourth attempt with yet another translator, he was able to correctly talk to the owner.  So, what was so important that he kept risking being chased out yet kept returning?  He had found the man’s winning lottery ticket, apparently lost but with his name on it.  The owner later said, “Here’s this man trying to return my $7 million dollar ticket and I kept kicking him out.”  He gave the good Samaritan some $2 mil. as a reward.  So, am I saying God has a winning ticket for you?  It’s better than that!  While the lottery is a gamble, living for God isn’t.  It’s a sure thing.  That’s why He’s seeking you.

So, remember, whether we put on disguises or dress up differently, we cannot escape Him.  The Bible tells us in Romans 3:11, “There’s none that seeks Him; no not one.”  The thing is, we usually know we should want to learn about Him and know what He’s all about, but usually just put it off.  The Good News is that He’s been looking for you all your life.  Not to punish you, not to get even with you, not to destroy you, but to welcome you into His family; to say, “Found you, you’re it.”