MY blessing today

[Mike Vande]

...is hard to describe in one sentence. It about how God is both immutable and flexible at the same time. For the average person, that would be quite a trick. I heard someone say that a genius is someone who can hold two mutually contradictive statements as true at the same time. Or is that insanity? I always get those confused…

When I was a brand new baby Christian, I had a very serious choice thrust upon me. I had to decide if I wanted to apply for an early discharge from the Navy or not. This choice would affect my entire life path and I knew that, although at the time I didn’t really know how extensively. I had prayed about it, and to a great degree, believed I was following the path God was leading me on, but I favored one of the choices over the other for my own reasons. I wanted out of the Navy to I could pursue a music ministry. So, I couldn’t really say I was only doing what I felt was God’s will for my life, there was a BIG element of me getting what I wanted in the decision.

That left a nagging little doubt in the back of my mind, and it wasn’t long until it was being exploited by the enemy. I found myself looking for reasons to give that I had made the right decision, building defenses in my mind for possible objections from those who might oppose my decision. Instead of the peace I had known in Christ and should have had in following God’s direction, I was nervous and worried that I might be doing the wrong thing. I feared that I might be a fraud, even to myself.

It all came to a head one night as I lay in my rack onboard ship, trying to figure out if what I was doing was gonna mess up my relationship with God, louse up everything He was trying to build in my life, and lead me into ruin. I sat up and swung my legs over the side of my rack and asked flat out “God am I doing what you want?” And He answered me.

I didn’t hear an audible voice, thunderously blowing back my hair and pinning me against the bulkhead with the sheer power of His Presence. I felt peace descend over me I hadn’t felt in the weeks since I had begun this whole thing, and in my mind, the words “I’ll love you either way” formed gently. I felt calm assurance that everything was gonna be okay.

A few months later, I received my discharge, and left the Navy.

The first job I took after the Navy was in the hardware department of a national chain department store. One of my jobs was to mix pigments into the paint we sold so it would be the requested color. There was a book of formulas that we had to follow to mix the colors correctly. The first thing I was told about doing this by my boss was “never memorize the formulas. If you do, one day you’ll forget one of the ingredients, and the paint will be ruined”.

When he said that, I flashed back to my job in the Navy. I had to pull coded signals out of a big book of coded signals for ship maneuvering in formation. The first thing they said to me when I was introduced to the book was “Do not memorize the signals. If you do, one day you’ll mess one up and two ships in formation will make the wrong turn at the wrong time and collide”.

Right then, that same calming presence I felt that night came down on me, and I heard the Lord say one more “I’ll love you either way.”

I realized then that despite the difference in both my location and vocation, the Lord was still working out in me what He had intended to all along. He didn’t throw up His hands and say “How am I gonna straighten this out? “ He put me in a different job that had the same sort of expectations and challenges as the one I had before.

Every now and again, I’ll see written materials that are meant to motivate people to greater service. There’s nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but there can be a problem with the method. The ones I’m talking about use guilt as a spur.

I saw Keith Green minister in St Louis a few months before his death. He had caught fire for missions and was trying, in his unmistakably unique way, to spread the fire. He said things like “What are you gonna do if you were supposed to go to the missions field, and you spent all the money on Christian tapes?” Now, I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, and certainly Keith Green touched a lot more lives for God in a positive way than I will ever hope to, but that’s guilting people into action, not encouraging them to seek God for direction for their lives.

My God got an unwilling prophet to Nineveh, told another one to cool it through a donkey, and parted The Red Sea for third. He can find a million ways to get a willing missionary to the mission field He’s called them to. God can do whatever He wants to, including changing my entire situation while making it the same.

God didn’t make us responsible for the world and what goes on in it. He made us responsible for staying in contact with Him so we could know what he wants from us. God Himself is the only being who can be responsible for the world and what goes on in it. I heard an old hymn once that said “Brighten the corner where you are.” I tend to think that is God’s standing order for most folks. Bloom where you’re planted, do the best you are capable of with what you have, and leave the rest to God. If He wants more, He’ll not only tell you, He’ll equip you to do it.

Sayings like “A hundred million people dropped into Hell today. What did you do to stop them?” may seem like an effective way to catch people’s attention, but in the long run, it’s going to have a bad effect on the people it snags. It’s just another shortcut past maintianing contact with God to find out what He wants for you.

Maybe He’ll tell you what He told me; maybe He’ll say something different. But He has a plan that will not be thwarted as long as you take the time to ask Him about it, and wait for His answer. That’s why I say God is both immutable and flexible. His will for you doesn’t change, even if your circumstances do. I thank God for that.

[Jennifer Smith]

Wow. I cannot tell you how poignant this was for me. I have recently been faced with a job decision, between what I believed God wanted me to do (a new job), and what I began to feel I preferred to do(old job).

Last night a dear friend went before the Lord on my behalf as I was upset over this, and my friend gave me almost the same message that you heard from the LORD--that He would love me either way. That gave me a freedom and trust to go on and I enjoyed my new job so much more.

If that were not enough, in the past two days God has opened up several opportunities for me to teach music and piano again (which will also make up the difference between what I made at my old job and what I am making now.) God has been very good to me. I know that, long term, I will be happier if I stay in the center of His will.
Praise God.

Thank-you for sharing that.