The past two weekends have revealed several mixed emotions in my life. The unexpected journey with our middle son is so completely different from the journey with our oldest son. This is good because as I have stated earlier I do not want a cookie cutter program. This isn’t good because the journey is far from easy—not that it was supposed to be easy; but easy would be nice right now. We continue along at a snail’s pace. I have been able to secure a second part-time job; which isn’t really good news—yet another mixed emotion. I will explain why in a moment. My wife and I went grocery shopping with $50 to spend—we were able to check out in “under 20 items” line. On top of these less than cheery feelings, I saw two very interesting elements about the Lord that I want to introduce, but first the part-time work. Here is a little more of the back-story. I have been selling insurance for the past year. When my mother’s condition took a turn for the worst, the decision was made to be closer to her and my dad until things got better. You may recall that my mom passed away about three months ago and that my dad isn’t taking it well. This helped me make the decision to transfer with my company to be closer to my dad instead of working remote—which wasn’t working very well anyway. What I did not count on was the local manager being unwilling to allow me to take local leads that would enable me to make the necessary sells in order to keep the finances going. Please understand that this isn’t an excuse to blame someone—it simply is what it is. This is what prompted me to look for other work during this transitional time. I have found the work but have also found that it isn’t enough to sustain the family. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I also give plasma to make enough to get the grocery money. I recently read that up to 45 percent of our population are in the same situation. I find this shocking, if indeed true. This has helped me put into perspective the deplorable condition that our once great nation is in. It causes me to deeply grieve for people who do not know how to call on God to make the difference. It helps me understand why they curse God. It is a hopeless situation apart from the Lord intervening in our lives as he has. This leads into the first thing the Lord has begun to show me. Does God lie? The Bible says he doesn’t; but what do you say? I am intrigued by this to the point of working on a survey to put out there to find out what people have to say about the matter.
The second thing the Lord showing me has to do with intimacy. My wife and I were talking the other evening and something she said to me opened up a river of understanding about our relationship with God. I am writing a book about how the church has missed the mark regarding church. The keynote of the New Testament Church is not gathering, or tithing or even evangelizing. The keynote of the New Testament Church is about building a deep abiding intimate relationship with God by Christ through the person of the Holy Spirit. It is out of this kind of relationship that gathering giving and going will be developed. It is this intimacy that enables you to give a resounding “NO” to the question, “Does God lie?” The model of the Church today is certainly a biblical one; it is found in the Old Testament. I believe that the gospel of Jesus offers a fresh and exciting way to be the church rather than the Old Testament model of doing church. It is intimacy with God in a one-on-one manner that I began to see this past weekend. Consider this. When you love someone everything about your life is subject to change. A phone call or text or glance from across the room has the ability to immediately change your attitude, launching you into an unplanned course of action. You find yourself doing things that you never thought you would do just to be that one you love so much. My wife and I recently watched You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The movie paints an excellent example of what I saying. Each found themself drawn to their computer hoping to have mail from this unknown person they were falling madly in love with. What a powerful picture this paints of the type of relationship God desires that we have with him. Anyway, more to come another day.