He Will Direct Your Path

"In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." 
Proverbs 3:6 (NKJV)

    Last night at Grace Point we wrapped up our study on "What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do." We've been looking at Proverbs 3:5-6 for several weeks, and last night was v.6. I shared how the first part of the passage was a command for us to make sure we are knowing the Lord in every aspect of our lives: "in ALL our ways..." We are prone to compartmentalize our lives and fail to acknowledge God in every area. But as the missionary Hudson Taylor said, "Christ is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all."
    The last part of the verse is a promise that as we draw near to God through the circumstances of our lives, He will "direct our paths." Some will read that and think it means He will tell us ahead of time what His plan is and how He will work it out- He will show us "the map" so we know where He is taking us in life. But that isn't really what the passage means, and it isn't the model we see in Scripture. What He is telling us that as we draw near to Him, He will BE our guide, He will lead us as we follow Him. He is the way and He is our "directions." He is telling us we will have a deeper relationship with Him as we follow Him.
    In Matthew 4 when Jesus calls His disciples, He calls them to follow Him. He doesn’t go into detail about what that looks like. He says “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matt 3:19) He doesn't say, “Ok, here’s the plan - I’m going to disciple You, invest in your lives for three years. We’re going to this village and that village, and we’re going to feed the hungry, heal the sick, raise the dead. And then at the end of three years I’m going to be killed and you all are going to carry on the work until they kill you also.” Do you think they would have followed had they known all of that? Maybe, maybe not. But the thing is, when Jesus called them, the only thing they had was Him - they didn’t know the plan, they didn’t know the direction, they didn’t know the end result - all they had was Him... and He was enough. They left their nets and their tax tables and they followed Him. And He guided their lives and directed their paths, and they knew Him at a more intimate level with each new day.
     I closed with a portion of a poem I had read sometime back:

He does not lead me year by year, Nor even day by day;
But step-by-step my path unfolds, My Lord directs my way.
Tomorrow’s plans I do not know; I only know this minute.
But He will say, “This is the way, By faith now walk in it.”
And I am glad that it is so, Today’s enough to bear;
And when tomorrow comes, His grace shall far exceed its care.
What need to worry then, or fret? The God who gave His Son,
Holds all the moments in His hand And gives them one-by-one.

   A pastor friend was visiting last night. He is between ministries, having stepped down from his previous church in some difficult circumstances. He stepped down in faith, at the time not having another pastoral ministry to go to, and not certain where the Lord was leading them. It has been about 17 weeks, and God has used he and his family to help care for some other family members. On Sunday he will be preaching in view of a call to another church, but he had this Wednesday off and was in our area so he stopped by our Bible study last night.
   After I ended the Bible study with the above poem, my friend shared a testimony. Several years ago he was at a camp with kids from his church and he went for a walk in the woods just to pray and spend time with the Lord. While he was walking, he came across a crumpled piece of paper and he picked it up and looked at it, on the paper were the words of a poem. He began to read it and as he did the Lord gave him a melody to the poem, and he began to sing it. Over the years God had used the poem/song to encourage him and remind him that the Lord was guiding him. As he shared the story, he said that the words on that paper was the very poem I shared with our family last night. God again was encouraging him as he heard those words.
    And God was encouraging me also. I don't usually do poems in my Bible studies, but that one seemed to fit. And the Lord knew my friend, who needed encouragement, would be there last night. He also knew I needed encouragement, so He used that experience to remind me the He is Lord, and He is "guiding my path" and He will provide as needs arise.
   Writing about this experience doesn't seem as effective as telling it in person, but I hope you are encouraged to know that God is with You and as You seek to know Him through every experience of your life, He will guide your path and He will provide for all that you need.

Wednesday Words

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

For the past few Wednesday nights at Grace Point Talbott, we have been studying this one passage of Scripture under the title, "What to do when you don't know what to do." All of us experience seasons in life when it feels like the rug has been pulled out from under us, or as a friend recently described an experience in their family - an earthquake has happened. The "ground" moved and shook up our lives.

What do you do when those experiences happen? You wonder what God is doing in/through your circumstances, or if He is even involved in the circumstances; is He even paying attention to what is going on in your life. And if He is, why isn't He doing something about the situation? And what does He want me to do about the situation - do I try to fix it, do I ride it out, or do I bail out and go in a different direction myself? I realize these are pretty vague and broad statements, but I trust you get the picture, there are seasons in life when it is hard to 'feel" God's presence, or see how He is working, or know what He wants us to do. So what do you do when you don't know what to do?

The above passage gives us three important statements:
1. Trust in the Lord with all your heart - when you don't know what to do, trust that God is doing something both in you and in your circumstances. As the preacher C.H. Spurgeon said, "God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart." 

2. Lean not on your own understanding. Our human nature is such that if we don't see God doing something about our situation, He must want us to figure it out ourselves. More often than not, this is a mistake. Our "understanding" is limited and finite, and when we try to fix it ourselves we end up making things worse (think Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, Genesis 16-17). We are going to lean on something, but let us lean on the Lord and His promises rather than our own limited mental and physical abilities.

3. Tonight we are going to look at the last statement in that passage: "In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." We are going to unpack this verse and look at our "ways", what it means to "acknowledge Him" and what "direct your paths" really looks like.

Join us tonight at 7pm at Grace Point Talbott, or watch my Facebook page around 7:15 and we will be going live.

See you tonight.

In the wake of tragedy...

Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. Romans 12:21 (NLT)

“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you." Luke 6:27-28 (NLT)

Yesterday morning we woke to the news of another horrible tragedy in our nation. A gunman opened fire on a crowd at a musical festival, from his room on the 32nd floor of a hotel in Las Vegas. The last report I read said that 58 were confirmed dead and more than 500 were injured. Police investigations so far have not found any motive to the shooter's actions. This seems to be just a horrible, random act of violence.

My first thought is "What is wrong with people?" How can you just open fire and kill people that you don't know and have never done anything to you? This just doesn't make sense...

Evil doesn't make sense, but it is real. People do terrible things; they hurt others for no apparent reason. They kill without cause, steal for personal gain, and destroy without thought to the consequences on themselves or others.... that sounded familiar... "The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy..." (John 10:10). The "thief" is the enemy, Satan, the personification of evil. His goal is to kill, steal and destroy, and he does it through the evil acts of human beings. I'm not suggesting we alleviate personal responsibility, the Las Vegas shooter chose to do what he did, and he could have chosen not to do it. He could have resisted those impulses to plan and carry out this murderous act, but he didn't. And behind every horrible act such as this, there is an evil one that is encouraging it. The enemy is real, and he is active.

So how do we respond in the wake of such evil. Politicians and pundits will argue for stricter gun laws, and various political measures to try to prevent mass killings. While laws and regulations can sometimes make it more difficult to carry out such violent acts, the real problem is evil in the human heart, and until that is eliminated, we will continue to experience these violent acts in our world. How, then, do we eliminate evil in the human heart? It is only through the love of God expressed through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our response to horrific events such as what happened in Vegas is to boldly and consistently share the good news of Jesus, and live out the gospel in our homes, communities and the world. We overcome evil with good; we triumph over tragedy with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pray for those who lost loved ones in Las Vegas. Pray for the police, first responders and care givers that are working in the midst of this tragedy. But also pray for the Church to be the Church, to do what God has instructed us to do - overcome evil with good, pray for those who commit such horrible acts, and pray for ourselves to be salt and light in the world and boldly share the gospel through word and deed. In the wake of such tragedy and evil, BE the Church...

You Are His...

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

1 John 3:1 (NLT)

Imagine this scene; you have just been born and are taking your first breathe from outside of your mother's womb. The doctors and nurses are smiling, looking lovingly at your little body. But you notice your parents are strangely quiet. They are looking at you and conferring with one another in hushed voices. 

     Then your father says, "Doctor, could you hold him up in the light so we could get a better look at him? We just want to check everything out and make sure this child is right for us. We were looking at the other children in the nursery earlier, and another baby there seemed to have, well, a little more promise. This one is a little chubby and has dark colored eyes and brown hair. We wanted one with blue eyes, and, you know... a little less baby fat." 

    They whisper into each other's ears as the doctor holds you up in the light. Your mother says, "Doctor, I'm sure we would eventually learn to love this baby, but we really have our hearts set on that blond little baby in the nursery. We think he would fit our family much better. Do you think we could make arrangements to exchange our baby of the one in the nursery? We will be glad to pay for all the expenses." 

     This scenario is obviously absurd. When you were born, your parents didn't negotiate for a better child, they accepted you into their family without qualifications. Their love for you was not based on the color of your hair, the size of your body, or your performance as a baby. They loved you simply because you were their child. Their love may have been imperfect at times, because they are human like you and me, but they loved you because you were theirs. 

    God also loves you, but His love is a perfect love. He loves you not because of who you are, what you do or don't do, or what you accomplish in your life. He loves you because you are His. His love is unconditional and nothing you have done or will ever do can cause Him not to love you. As He said through the prophet Jeremiah,  “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself." Jeremiah 31:3 (NLT) 

    When you realize that you are loved with an "everlasting" love; loved not because of what you do, or who you are, but loved because of who God is and what He has done for you, it will change your life. God loves you because He created you, and He has proven His love for you through His Son Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross (Romans 5:8). He loves you and calls you into His family as His own child. See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! 1 John 3:1 (NLT)

    Live today in the reality of His everlasting love for you.