8 August 2013 Noticing the Overlooked

Noticing the Overlooked

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“Is it odd, or is it God?”

My husband coined that phrase in the early stages of learning to hear God’s voice. For instance, he frequently came across the number 333 in his everyday world. Eventually he considered searching it out in Scripture and landed on Jeremiah 33:3

“Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” 

It wasn’t odd. It was God!

A question follows—was this just a message for Jeremiah, for his situation, in his time? Or is the Bible a living book? Does the Holy Spirit use the ancient text to bring the same invitation to us? I believe it was for then and for now. Here’s another example.

Many years ago, I felt unloved as a wife. Our marriage hit rock bottom in the mid- 80’s, and I turned to God in my desperation. One day, while reading Song of Solomon, I came across these words:

“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” Song of Solomon 7:10

I can still recall the ache inside my chest as I read that sentence. My marriage remained broken for a number of years. Yet, in that moment, I also felt a stirring in my spirit. Continue reading

Filed Under: 2013, Experiencing God, God, Hearing God's Voice, Relationships Tagged With: , , ,
3 August 2013 A Word on Presumption

A Word on Presumption

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Vernon was a 22-year-old, born-again Christian when he fell in love with a pastor’s daughter. While praying for divine guidance, he supposedly found his Bible open at Isaiah 34 and noted that verse 16 promised, “none shall be without (their) mate, for the mouth of the Lord has commanded…” Convinced it was a direct message from God, he approached the pastor about his daughter. The pastor expelled him from the church. His daughter was only 15, and some say Vernon got her pregnant.

Vernon’s own mother was 15 and unmarried when he was born. He never knew his father. He lived under his mother’s violent alcoholic boyfriend. Later she dumped Vernon on his grandmother. At age 8, he was allegedly gang-raped by older boys. In school, kids nicknamed him “Mister Retardo,” because he had dyslexia. He dropped out of high school to avoid persecution. It’s not hard to understand how Vernon’s start in life left him vulnerable as a man.

Eventually he changed his name. His new name meant “Cyrus the Great,” in Persian. He came to believe he was God’s own prophet and usurped a Christian religious community with his message. Surprisingly, he taught a lot from the Bible. He also took many wives…Continue reading

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26 July 2013 Building Vocabulary With God

Building Vocabulary With God

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Some might explain these kinds of things away. Not me.

With shining eyes, He looked down the teeter-totter at me and said, “Let’s play!”

If you’ve read my book, Closer Than Your Skin, or my recent blog post, “Closing The Case On God’s Heart,” you might remember those two words. It was the first thing Jesus said to me in a familiar scene from my childhood: I envisioned Jesus sitting on the other end of a teeter-totter with me. I was a young girl holding a heavy globe on my lap, and He was teaching me to roll the earth back to Him.

The conversation on that teeter-totter completely altered my worldview.

That simple playground vision happened during a prayer time at Elijah House in the late 1990s. I’d gone there to do some intentional forgiveness work. While I forgave many people in my life, the big surprise was the tight-fisted unforgiveness I held against God…Continue reading

Filed Under: 2013, Experiencing God, Hearing God's Voice Tagged With: , ,
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