My Thoughts

My Thoughts on Christianity and Other Things

Archive for the tag “Trusting God”

09 Apr 2019

God With Us

Orion Spitzerlrot photo by NASA

Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said,
“I will never fail you.
I will never abandon you.”
Hebrews 13:5

In my last post, I said I have become the care-giver for my wife. I must say, at first I was a bit over whelmed. I had no idea what was going on. Our lives changed quickly. I was bombarded with questions and forms to fill out. People would call me on the phone, and with the stress, my hearing went down. For those of you who are new to my blog, I have problems hearing. Have had problems hearing for most of my life. All of this that was happening was very stressful, and so of course talking on the phone added to the stress.

Fortunately, we have a fantastic support system. My wife’s brother and his wife are wonderful. Plus a whole lot of people were praying for us, and still are. But to be honest, I still have stress, but it’s not nearly as bad. One night as I laid in bed, worrying, I had a dream. I would like to tell you that dream.

I dreamed there a small house, all alone in the middle of an open field. The house was worn and battered from the weather and neglect. There were no longer any paint on the outer walls of this house. Suddenly I found myself in the living room of this old house. In the living room was a large pile of rocks. These rocks were like stones found in a river. They were smooth and clean with no sharp edges.

I picked up two stones. One in each hand. Both stones had the same writing on them. But I couldn’t read them, because they were written in Hebrew. And I don’t know Hebrew. Under the Hebrew, were English letters. But I still couldn’t read it because it was written so it would sound Hebrew phonetically. Then, one word lit up. Yahweh. At that moment, a single thought came to mind. “God With Us.” That was the end of the dream.

You can have a lot of different thoughts about that dream. Even though God will not leave us or forsake us, we will leave Him sometimes. The Bible is full of people who have done that. The first to do this was Eve. The second was Adam. Since then, everybody has done this. You, me, everybody.

I must remember, we all must remember, “God with us”. Also Psalm 118:8-9 says:
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in humans.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes. (Even the government)

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25 Oct 2015

I Don’t Know Why

Question_mark_(black_on_white)

Life is interesting sometimes. I thought I knew what was going on. I thought I knew what I was supposed to do. But God stopped that really fast.

After much prayer my wife and I decided to take a full course of American Sign Language at a local college. We were told that because of our age, we could audit the class for the fraction of the cost. However we could only register at the last minute and get in only if there is room and the teacher OKs it. The last minute came but the class was full. However the teacher signed papers anyway letting both my wife and myself in. Everything was going good. Then it happened.

I saw flashes in my eye. Lots of flashes. Sometimes many per hour. So I went to the eye doctor. She said that I needed to see the specialist and that I may need surgery right then and there. Really? How bad could it be? Well, very bad.

Well I saw the specialist, and sure enough he said I needed the operation right then. So I did. After the surgery, I found that I could no longer see out of my right eye and that it would take three weeks for it to heal. I was told that this was serious, and that I must take it easy. This would normally be very difficult for me to do if I haven’t been so sick from the medicine, headaches, being nauseated and I just slept a lot.

I had to drop out of school as my down time would have been through mid-term exams.

So why did this happened? I don’t know. I believed God wanted me to go to school. Why did we, my wife and I had to go through all this? I don’t know. I have thoughts of why, but I really don’t know. Did we do any good? Was there a purpose to this? Yes I believe so, but I don’t know what it was. But to be honest, I don’t have to know.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.

Years ago I had a badly infected ulcer on my foot, and for a while just had a hard time healing. One day a friend came to me and told me that he finally turned his life over to Jesus. One reason was because what I was telling him was the same as some guy in California. (That’s nice) Another reason was because of the way I kept trusting in God about my foot. This is good. But I must admit, I don’t understand how that works. But I am very glad it did.

But what about this time? I don’t know. Did my wife and I make an impression on someone that needed it? Maybe.

But here’s another thing that’s happened. Some time after the surgery, I had another appointment with the surgeon. While sitting in the waiting room, I heard a man and a woman talking about ancient technology. I had to speak up.

I told them that the Bible talks about ancient technology. In Job 28:1-5 the Bible talks about mining so far down into the earth that you could feel the heat of the earth. Also in Job 28:10-11, it even sounds like they were using small hydro-electric dams to light the tunnels.

The man then said something about how he thought, that the at the time of The Tower of Babylon, they were judged because the technology was dangerous. I said no, that they were judged because the people were evil, wicked.

Of course I said other things and now there were now least 7 people in the waiting room listening. So because of my eye surgery, I was able to talk about God’s word there. Is there more for me to do? I don’t know. I have no idea. All I can do is to trust God.

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27 Aug 2013

Following The Lord Is Hard To Do

But why? And why is it so hard to trust the lord?

We all know about the Ten Commandments as listed in Exodus 20:3-17. A lot of dos and don’ts. It true we don’t like rules, but what about the fourth commandment?

Exodus 20:8-11
“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

You would think we would have no problems with this one. Laying back and taking it easy for the day. But we do work. Or we think about work. Some of us think more about work on our day off than we do when we should be working.

When Adam and Eve first sinned, why did they do it? They knew they were created. They knew everything around them was created. They knew God personally. So why would they make the decision to stop following God. Why would they decide to trust a snake more than they trusted God?

Moses did trust God enough to follow Him, and because of it lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, across a sea bed after the waters had been parted, through the wilderness with God feeding with food from Heaven, and on to the promise land.

King David committed adultery, then murdered the man whose wife he had the adultery with. Yes David sinned. But David repented. David trusted God enough to follow Him. Even to the point of standing before a giant to kill him when he himself was only a boy.

What about Joshua at the town of Jericho? The Lord told him to walk around the town with his men for 7 days then shout on the 7th day, and the walls of the town will fall. How does that work? When I was in the military, if my commanding officer told me to do this; I would wonder if my commander had flipped his led. And everyone else would wonder the same thing. Yet Joshua trusted God enough to follow orders. No matter what.

Joshua 6:20 said what happened when Joshua trusted God.
When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it.

When a woman was net by Elijah, she trusted him because of God. God had told her to feed Elijah.
1 Kings 17:8-9
8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.”

The widow and her son were about to run out of food. But even though it made no sense to do so; she trusted God and fed Elijah anyway. Read what happened next.
1 Kings 17:8-16

I would like to say I am good at trusting the Lord. But I’m not. Instead I am like one of the very many Israelites that roamed around for 40 years after leaving Egypt. After everything God has done for His people, they were still whining about this and that, not trusting God and therefor not always following Him.

In the book of Haggai chapter 1, it talks about how things may not go well for you if you don’t take care of God’s temple. We all know the temple is in ruins, and it’s not yet time to rebuild it. But we still go to a church or a synagogue. Is there something you can do to help fix it up if it needs it? Paint, cut grass, maintain the church or synagogue van, upgrade something? Fix the lawn mower maybe?

I choose to do something. It doesn’t always make sense, but I choose to trust my Lord, my God, and follow Him.

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