Answers Out Of The Storm

If you are presently in a life-storm, yes if you are barely surviving a confusing season of life where God seems to be silent, maybe even absent, take heart, for while the wind is blowing, the rain is pouring, the lightning is striking, and the thunder is booming, you just might be about to get an answer from the Lord.

Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.
-- Job 38:1b (NIV)

Note that while God answered Job out of the storm, the confusing season of life he was barely surviving, God also had some questions for Job as well. If you are bold, I invite you to read Job 38 in its entirety.

Click here: Praise You In This Storm Casting Crowns

Holiness Unto The LORD!
Grateful

Pray, "Our Father!"

Jesus said: “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name...'" -- Matthew 6:9 (KJV)

If we pray as a child to his/her Father, we should remember two comforting truths:
(1) As children it is our right to ask help of our Father, and...
(2) As a Father it is His responsibility to hear and answer His children.

By Faith! In Faith! (Hebrews 11)
Grateful

Blessing for a Day of Trouble

May the Lord answer you in a day of trouble... may He sustain you... may He fill your whole purpose...
-- A Blessing for You from Psalm 20

Lord, give us peace in knowing that whatever might be the matter, You are so much Bigger!
Grateful

Do You Really Expect God to Answer?

Two verses in the New Testament Book of James really challenged my faith recently:

(6) But when you ask Him, be sure that you really expect Him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (7) People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
--James 1:6-7 (NLT)

In the wake of these two verses, I can only cry out with the father who came to Jesus on behalf of his demon-possessed boy. Yes with him I echo...

"I do believe, but help me not to doubt!"
-- Mark 9:24 (NLT)

Perhaps this "Third Day" classic song will encourage:
Click > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeGNgBwPTMA

Lord, add to my feeble faith an abundance of anticipation, yes an enhanced expectation that believes when I cry out? You will answer! In Jesus' Name. Amen.

By Faith! In Faith! (Hebrews 11)
Grateful

You Encourage Me

This week I was blessed to hear Dr. Dennis Kinlaw speak at a conversation gathering for pastors and evangelists in Wilmore, Kentucky. Because he is advancing well into his eighties, he was wheeled in a chair to the front of the lecture hall where he greeted us in His encouraging Christlike manner and delivered one of the most wonderful messages I have ever heard from the book of Genesis on the topic of God wanting us to be His conversation partners for life and eternity. He spoke well over an hour but it seemed like a few fleeting moments to me.

After the sacred session, I walked to the front to thank Dr. Kinlaw and to ask him to personalize a copy of his newest book to me. He graciously did. Then I handed the book and pen to his precious granddaughter, "Cricket", who serves as his personal research assistant and who was his caretaker for the day and asked her to also personalize the book on the same page that her grandfather had just written. Humbly, underneath her grandfather's gracious words, she signed her name and referenced what is probably her life's verse -- Psalm 138:3.

The Lord sure encouraged me through Dr. Dennis Kinlaw and his precious granddaughter, "Cricket".

When I pray, you answer me; You encourage me by giving me the strength I need. -- Psalm 138:3 (NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Jeremiah 33:3

This morning I awoke with a Bible reference on my mind as strong as any impression I've ever had. A life-verse for one of my pastoral leadership mentors, Dr. Charles Thompson, God's Wonder-filled words of expectation are recorded in Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV):

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

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Best Advice Ever

I was recently surfing the website of a college baseball team. One of the freshman players is a new friend of mine. I eventually found his personal profile page. While the whole page glorifies God, one question in the interview section especially touched my heart. When the young ball player was asked to share the best advice he had ever been given, he simply but profoundly answered: Proverbs 3:5-6. WOW! What an awesome answer!

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT) (5) Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. (6) Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths.

Today, consider yourself a recipient of the best advice ever. (According to a 19-year-old baseball catcher named Billy, who also happens to have a great heart for God.)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Help's Coming!

In reading the Psalms this morning, these twelve words really encouraged my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I *must share these twelve words of Good News with you. (*It's a Romans-Ten-Fifteen thing :-).

Help’s coming,
an answer’s on the way,
everything’s going to work out.
-- Psalm 20:6 (The Message Paraphrase)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Why?

This morning in my quiet time, I sensed the Spirit of the Living God saying to me and now through me:

If your profound questions to God begin with why, the simple answer in each instance is HAVE FAITH IN GOD! Have faith that God knows and that God cares. You may think He has forgot? But the truth to that is... He has not!

Four words from Mark 11:22 provide my strong-faith-footing for today and day-by-day. Yes, especially when many of my profound questions to God begin with why, I have come to know that these four words contain the answers every time: Have faith in God!

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful