But God

2Chronicles 20:6 - “…O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?”

Whatever the situation, one can find a BUT GOD... He is In.Control.Of.All.Things. He is sovereign, having supreme power and authority. Despite what happens in the world and in our personal lives, our God reigns! Look:

The LORD shall reign forever and ever. (Exodus 15:18)

The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood, and the LORD sits as King forever. (Psalm 29:10)

BOTH riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. (1Chronicles 29:12)

The LORD has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. (Psalm 103:19)

I was with a friend from church for a couple days on a fun road trip. As with any time with a fellow believer, discussion turned to the things of God. In one instance she said she truly stood strongly on the words, BUT GOD. 

I just want to list a few of them. They are encouraging for whatever the situation. God is in control of all things. I know it's a lot of scripture, but take the time to read them. Maybe they will speak to an area in your life. 

His rightful authority:

But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. (Psalm 115:3)

God as Judge: 

But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another. (Psalm 75:7) 

His presence:

And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him... (Acts 7:9)

His strength: 

My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)

His love and mercy:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) 

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us… (Ephesians 2:4)

As Creator: 

…but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it… (1Corinthians 12:24)

Our warrior: 

But God will wound the head of His enemies, the hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses. (Psalm 68:21)

God's choice:

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty… (1Corinthians 1:27) 

But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. (1Corinthians 12:18)

His way of salvation: 

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. (1Corinthians 3:6-7)

His faithfulness:

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1Corinthians 10:13) 

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. (Genesis 50:20)

His power:

The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. (Isaiah 17:13) 

The righteous God wisely considers the house of the wicked, overthrowing the wicked for their wickedness. (Proverbs 21:12)

My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26) 

But God raised him from the dead… (Acts 13:30)

Scripture doesn’t lie because God can’t lie. All He has written for us through the power of the Holy Spirit in men, is true. Try Him out. Think you’re too guilty of your sins? But God… Think He wouldn’t love you? But God… Think you don’t need Him? But God… is able to transform us into the man or woman HE knows we can be in Him. His plans are for good, not evil. His plans are perfect. His ways not like ours, but a whole lot better.

Our God reigns…forever. We can too if we give Him a chance. 

Life's A Puzzle

Isaiah 45:6 - "That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other."

I look at life as a giant jigsaw puzzle.  I've written about this before. You are doing a puzzle. There's this one piece you can't seem to find no matter how many times you've looked and picked up pieces and tried to get them to fit in that one spot. It remains empty...for a time. You continue in other areas of the puzzle, filling in here and there sometimes easily, sometimes not. But slowly the puzzle takes shape. Then all of a sudden you uncover that one piece. You can't believe you didn't see it sooner. You pick it up and, voila, it fits and there's a feeling of contentment, completion.

That's what happened (and happens) in my life a couple years ago. I look back and see there was a part of my life that was missing something. Although I didn't know that, God knew what it was but not all the other pieces of the puzzle had been put in place. He was waiting for just the right time to add that one piece. From there other pieces were easier to be placed.

So, where am I going with this? I'm still amazed, and yet not, at the orchestration of my changing churches. It was nothing I wanted to do. This is how I know God was planning something. But...some two years ago one seemingly small incident (yet not when you consider how the timing had to be absolutely spot on) started the transformation. I know I have written something like this before. But when you see evidence in a life of God's hand at work, you can understand this analogy.

Everything...EVERYTHING...is controlled by God. He DOES know the rising of the sun and it's setting. He created all things, as opposed to what we are told about some cosmic explosion out of some ooey gooey mass. (Even if it was an ooey gooey mass someone had to have created that.) He creates the circumstances in our lives, good and bad. He sets things in motion at conception. He causes this or that to transpire that shapes who we are, strengthens us in areas, weakens us in others. We are most likely not aware of His handiwork until we are aware of Him. All things are geared to point us to Him. That's all He wants.

I was talking with a friend the other day and I said, again, everything...EVERYTHING...starts and ends with God. There's just no way around it. If you would take any circumstance or issue and trace it backwards you can see it was God's plan, it was started or controlled by Him...because without Him you wouldn't have been born to experience these things. But you have to know Him before you can see this. You have to take the time to consider His ways.

The sooner we understand there is a God, that He is in control and is always trying to get us to realize Him as the Supreme Authority, the better off we are. We are less likely to look at some circumstances as a pain in the neck or quite unfair. We might even take the time to consider what He might be up to and just go with the flow.

I can see how my meeting a young man one night two years ago, not to see him again until a few months ago and not being able to get this powerful man of God off my mind, changed my life.
I know he doesn't look at himself as the catalyst, but God used him. God had to have set the circumstances in order. This young man was in a place he normally would not have been.

He walked into the sanctuary of the church I attended then to pray, two years ago, not realizing there was a small group of people there for Thursday night prayer (my being there when I think back on that was orchestrated as well!).  He apologized for interrupting. He was using our gymnasium for basketball with some young men because he had no any other place. He wanted to pray about what message he would share with these men after. So we prayed for him and then he prayed. The intensity of his prayer stayed with me. I have to admit I wondered if there was any opening in our church for this man!

The Lord was beginning a change in me...one I could not have expected. This change was for me alone! I say this not in arrogance. He knew what I needed or perhaps what I desired...or what He desired for me and was going to accomplish if I was obedient. He does the same in different ways for others. Each experience is unique to each of us...so we cannot judge what others are going through.

I won't go into other details about the change because the point is God put that one piece of the puzzle into my life and all the other pieces, one by one, began to fit until I knew I heard the Lord's voice in my spirit telling me with such clarity I was to leave my church and go to where I am now. Wow.

There's a general consensus that something is happening, that God is up to something. God's people's spirits are being stirred. Perhaps others are too. We can't put a finger on what it all is, but I know those who know what God can do are waiting for His next move...or the other pieces in their little life's puzzle or in the giant puzzle of all life to fall into place...or the other shoe is about to drop. At the bottom of my emails I have a little phrase I coined some time ago: Something's brewing in God's atmosphere. That pretty much explains this stirring. He's in control and something is going to happen...individually, within the Church or in the world. There will come a time when those who do not know the workings of our God will. Plain and simple. There will be no excuse for not seeing Him at work. Eyes WILL begin to look up...or sadly, anger and rejection of Him will take place.

All things begin and end with our Creator, Father, Redeemer, Almighty God. I love how He operates! There is no way we could ever put such plans into motion ourselves. That's why I will continue to look to Him. I know I've not seen the end of this puzzle! I'm only able to see the last two years (and others past) but there's more to come.

I just have to add this note: This young man, Aaron Fischer, is now an evangelist, ordained by his father, pastor of my new church, The Church in Wisconsin, Terry Fischer. (I knew there was something special about him.) The call of God has been on him for several years. Just as God is working in me, He is working in him...and many, many others, each in different ways. We serve an amazing God!

Isaiah 55:8-9 - "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." 

Open Wide!

Matthew 7:11 - If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

I am praying over a situation. Scriptures abundantly remind us that all we need do is ask God and He will hear; He will give good things to those who do ask, to those whom He calls His children.

I decided to do a search on scriptures showing what happens when we ask God for something...this does not mean asking for things which would not be God's will. He hears when we seek Him for protection (Monday's blog), for the desires of our hearts, for His provision, for our purification, for anything in line with His Word. 

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday which sort of caused me some anxiety. As I waited for the orthopedic to come in I realized the anxiety mounting. I whispered: Lord, You are my strength and You know what I need. In less than a minute my anxiety was gone. And the news I received from the doctor was good! Yes, Jesus knew everything in advance and because I was basically asking for His strength, He gave me peace, knowing full well what the outcome would be. God gives us what we need. (See Matthew 6:8 and Psalm 34:4 below!)

Look at this list and notice what happens when we ask Him for "whatever":

Matthew 21:22 - And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

Matthew 7:7 - Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 6:8 - ... For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

Psalm 34:4  - I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 

Psalm 50:15 - Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me." 

Isaiah 58:9 - Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, "Here I am."

Isaiah 65:24 - It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. 

Matthew 18:19 - Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.

John 14:13 - And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

1John 5:14 - Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

There are so many more. God is there for all who seek Him. Seek Him for His gift of salvation, then seek Him for anything that is in His will. He is there to guide all into truth. He is there for our protection and strength If we, by faith, believe that He will respond to our cries or our petitions, and believe that He is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do, then...in His timing...He will answer our prayers.

Oswald Chambers, the day I determined to pray over this situation, talked on the very subject! What wonderful confirmation. Chambers said for July 16: He [Jesus regarding Matthew 7:11 above] urges us to keep our minds filled with the notion of God's control behind everything, which means that the disciple [any believer] must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek. When I read that my heart skipped a beat. Not only that but another devotion I read that morning said pretty much the same thing.

I think about the process of my determining to seek God and His Word over this thing and His very swift answer/confirmation. Some might think this coincidence. I consider it a promise...If you have read the scriptures above you will recall Matthew 6:8 which says that He knows before we even ask. He just waited for me to ask. But the clincher is, we must never stop asking.

Chambers added these phrases: ...my Father knows all about it! God is my Father, He loves me, why should I worry? ...rest in perfect confidence in Him.

His timing...always perfect, never too early or too late. He sets the stage behind the scenes and we cannot understand why we might have to wait. But He will respond. We will see His hand at work some day. Acts 1:7 - And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority."

God is glorified through the works He does. AND, we will glorify Him when our prayers are answered. If this world would recognize the power we have through Him. If we would, as scripture says, humble ourselves, pray and seek God, turn from our wickedness He would bring such change in this world, He would heal the land. Imagine if every Christian would truly ask this each day what could happen.

We are living in trying times. If we would be faithful to seek Him now even for the little things and He answers, imagine how when things in our lives get really difficult and we seek Him for solutions, strength or protection, we will already have been strengthened knowing He has answered in the past and will be our "whatever" for the more trying situations. 

Our God is not a God who only punishes, but He promises good things. It's all in how we look at Him. It's all in how much we believe and have faith in Him. Expect nothing from Him if He is not sought. Expect the world if He is. He longs to do great things for us. But we need to ask.

Psalm 81:10 - I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; 0pen your mouth wide, and I will fill it.