a calling in the wind...

Jennifer knew all about the Lord..she knew He had created so many things and that with the Lord, all things were possible! However, Jennifer had never understood why God was there or what might happen if he were not, or even why we truly worshipped God. In fact, in Nazarene churches everywhere as the pastor would say, "God is Good!", and the congregation would repeat, "All the time", Jennifer didn't really know why she was repeating that phrase! Simply put, she accepted on the testimony of others that God was good all the time! Jennifer yearned to dream that crazy wonderful things would happen in her life. After all, life was so exciting and full of wonderful things just waiting to be experienced.  For instance, moving from Southern California to Seattle could mean wonderful new experiences! Jennifer gazed up to the lamppost outside the bay window of her house just before bed. Not only was the wind playing with the evergreen trees that decorated the cul-de-sac in Bothell, Washington, but the weather had turned bitterly cold! "Oh Lord", thought Jennifer.."Will it snow?" Then Jennifer dared to pray a simple prayer to the Creator of all things,
"Lord? Jennifer asked with all the hope a 9 yr. old could put into words, "Would you make it snow right now?" Jennifer heard her mom calling her to come up the stairs to brush her teeth and jump into bed! Just as any 9 yr. old, Jennifer reluctantly began to crawl down off the couch when she saw a tiny little flurry of snow begin to swirl down under the lamppost. Jennifer's gaze held the little flurry tightly as she watched it slowly dance on the edges of the wind and hit the frozen cement! "Mom!" Jennifer screamed with sheer delight, "It's snowing!"  "Thank you, Lord", Jennifer whispered to the God she really didn't know. Quickly, she ran up-stairs at lightening speed to jump under the covers and dream of what the next day might bring! Under the covers that night, Jennifer snuggled to keep warm! Every time she thought about her little miracle, she could hardly keep in the giggles of joy that warmed her from the inside.  In fact, just the slightest wind reminded her of God's faithfulness; windy weather reminded her of the wind that night when God made it snow! Perhaps the wind reminded that little girl that God was near! Wind can be scary and wind can bring promises, but God is not in the wind...!! He comes to us all in a still small voice, promising not to fulfill our human desires, but to bring us life everlasting in Him, the only everlasting Light!  When I was a child, I thought like a child...Most of us are all too familiar with that Scripture in 1 Corinthians 13! Too few of us are not familiar with the fact that we may be adults, while still looking at life as children..darkened in many ways by the futility of our thoughts.  Isaiah reminds us all so clearly that our thoughts are not His thoughts and our ways are not His ways...In light of that truth, let's keep God's words front and center...without His word, we are lost in the darkness! Not unlike a little 9 yr. old child named Jennifer, who was about to learn more about the Savior and how he calls His children! In the spring of the same year, Jennifer's mom gave her a very special Bible and told her to start reading a devotional! Well, one of the first devotions was referencing the book of Romans! Finally, Jennifer was about to learn the answers to many questions that she had wanted answered! The bible grabbed her young mind right away and offered so much about God and why He came to save, why He needed to come, and how much we needed Him to come! The whole of the story seemed to be right in these pages! An insatiable desire to learn more about God filled Jennifer and a new favorite activity consumed her heart like fire: reading God's word! Friends, without God's word, we will never know which way is right..His word is the Light to our darkness and the answer to our confusion, the hope to our despair and the infinite to our finite!  The Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word was with God in the beginning!! 


A word from the book of Jude,

A Call to Persevere

 ¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

 ²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

 ²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.^[f]

Doxology

 ²⁴ To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.


Why stumble?? Why be deceived?? Why fall?? Why walk alone at all??? He's Love and He waits to hold you in that Love!! When was the last time you were caught waiting for something good to happen...When was the last time you sought a miracle...something special that God might do for you??? Don't do it!! It's never what God can do for you..it's about what He did do on that Cross on Calvary..It's who He is that's calling you tonight..It's not the snow..its the one who created it in the first place...His name is Jesus and He saves you from your sin and His Spirit guides you from within...More on His call and relationship with a Good God tomorrow...Happy New Year...and Good Night...it's not the miracle...it's the Miracle Maker...