Likely my all-time favorite author of the past century is Henry Cloud. Several others come close but Cloud’s numerous titles including:
Integrity, How People Grow, Never Go Back, Changes That Heal, Trust, Necessary Endings, Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, How to Get a Date Worth Keeping, Safe People, It’s Not My Fault, Secrets of Your Family Tree: healing for adult children of dysfunctional families, The Law of Happiness: How Spiritual Wisdom and Modern Science Can Change Your Life, etc.
Now, if you recall prior posts, Dr. Cloud overcame three rather major events. First was a leg bone malformation and he narrowly escaped its amputation at four years of age. Second, he had to give up the first love of his life, that being golf as a college sophomore because of extreme wrist pain. And thirdly, a three-way struggle later during college life for his spiritual identity, as well as choosing both a career and future wife, during which time he endured a mental breakdown prior to his being spiritually mentored / discipled while living with a young Christian couple for six months. Any one of these incidents may have easily derailed his unique gifting.
Truth be told though, it actually was these adversities that prepared him for his niche ministry today, by connecting the spiritual dots, first in his life, and thereafter, in the lives of his readers equipping their hearts and minds to live satisfying and fulfilling lives as well as encourage and teach similarly in their spheres of influence.
Never have I prior invested as much of my time and yours, in one book. I was literally compelled, and I’m not using “compelled” loosely here, for I knew if I presented this book to you in sufficient clarity, that you would, by adding it to your library, and by devouring and sharing its message, and by joining His ambassadors, that we too, can solve the same problem that compelled Dr. Cloud to write this book, Why I Believe, in the first place. As he stated in the preface (see June 24 post), “So my problem is this: I want my friends to know Him and know that He is real. I want them also to have a relationship with Him and know how incredible that is.”
I’ve done as I was compelled. These posts are bathed in prayer to accomplish His purposes. Personally, I prefer preparing 200-300 word reads. This Grand Finale is nearly 2900 words. I’m planning to post it over the next six-seven days in 500-word clips, with little or no fanfare.
Thinking outside the box..
FYI, I personally, have been buying hard copy books just in case the internet ever burps, fades, before ceasing completely … or the lights flicker … before they vanish. And, if they ever do, when absolutely everything gets quiet, the silence may indeed, be not so golden … and oh, just imagine that pervading darkness! And, with internet disrupted, all our verbal communication, will be, only face to face …
And any notes & documents, must need be handwritten … and, on paper too, unless a rare etch-a-sketch surfaces. Just my lack of humor. And there will be few, if any, functional screens found anywhere … unless it be by a sporadic yet fueled generator, or some solar derivative … A controlled fire for light, heat & cooking … will once again, after all these ages, be a valuable resource, even an asset. Just imagine.
Consider, if the grid goes down, and you possessed and could interject a not so simple e-bike with a solar generator and storage batteries into your life’s equation. Surely not likely ever to restore the internet, but it may enhance your Eat-Move-Sleep cycles as detailed by Tom Rath in his E-M-S book, if, you even had a hard copy. For in a not-too-distant time, I could envision MCC Connections or similar thrift stores doubling, tripling, or even beyond, the prices of their used “wisdom books,” depending on the fiat currency, and that being dependent of course, entirely on whether there is a functioning economy of exchange, a society with the operational integrity to insure and maintain Golden Rule order in specific geo-political pockets of humanity while retooling their survival skills in community while continually seeking His guidance and empowerment to proliferate His Fruits of the Spirit as detailed in Galatians 5:22-23. Rather tall dreaming, don’t you think?
Just imagine such a do-over… Or in today’s vernacular, a Start-Up!
It’s time for our thirty-two minute morning stroll with Riley and Angel. But do reflect today on the above. As Jamie Winship says in the preface of his landmark book “Living Fearless: Exchanging the Lies of the World for the Liberating Truth of God, “it’s a good idea to move past all the garbage the world is offering us and into the fully alive, fully human, fully free Holy Spirit offered to us in our relationship with Christ, who is the (everyone’s) way, the (everyone’s) truth, and the (everyone’s) life. Only in Him, can we (everyone) really find transformational faith in our freaked-out world gone amuck.
Remember Nehemiah? Perhaps, it’s time to pull the kid’s Bible Story book off the shelf and get reacquainted?
Nehemiah received the bad news from home (we get plenty of that),
Nehemiah wept, mourned and fasted for days even (not sure that has started yet, least not publicly, perhaps privately),
His sphere of influence detected his long face or depression, (I’m told sadness is not a good demeanor for the King’s cup-bearer to display publicly) and so the king asked Nehemiah why?),
Nehemiah replied honestly from his heart, “Why shouldn’t I be depressed when the city where all my family is buried, is in ruins… Whence the king then asked Nehemiah, “What do you want me to do?”
Notice Nehemiah 2:4 says Nehemiah “praying under his breath to the God-of-Heaven” said “If it please the king and if the king thinks well of me, send me to Judah to the city where my family is buried, so that I can rebuild it” to which in V 6 we read, “The king, with the queen sitting alongside him, said, “How long will your work take and when would expect to return?” I gave him a time, and the king gave his approval to send me.
(7) Then I said, “If it please the king, provide me with letters to the governors across the Euphrates that authorize my travel through to Judah, and also an order to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, to supply me with timber for the beams of the Temple fortress, the wall of the city, and the house where I’ll be living.” The generous hand of my God was with me in this and the king gave them to me. (Imagine such boldness occurring today!)
Reading from Nehemiah 4:4 upon encountering hate mail, threats, taunting, and ridicule from their jealous neighbors Nehemiah prayed, “Oh listen to us dear God, we’re so despised: Boomerang their ridicule on their heads; have their enemies cart them off as war trophies to a land of no return; (5) don’t forgive their iniquity, don’t wipe away their sin – they’ve insulted the builders!”
So, I encourage you read the book of Nehemiah. Read their words of repentance and contrition before Almighty God in chapter 8, given not before God intervened, or during their works of repair, but even after the repairs were completed. Read chapter 9 detailing the rise and fall of their kingdom’s communities admitting in verse 37-38 “We’re in deep trouble.” Because of all this we are drawing up a binding pledge, a sealed document written by their leadership team confirming their future loyalty signed by our princes, our Levites, and our Priests, continuing on into chapter 10: 29 “everyone old enough to understand, all joined … in a binding oath to follow the Revelation of God given through Moses …. To keep and carry out all the commandments of God our Master…
The parallels throughout the book of Nehemiah to our July 11, 2024 state of our union with God today and humanity are monumental. The major difference now though, is timing, or the lateness of the hour. Not helped by the fact either, we’re still unknowingly being the proverbial frog in the pot of warm water seeking trivial amusements and comforts as more of the planets are heating up and disintegrating all about us as the globalists agendas proliferate in their attempt to survive what God has predicted.
BOTTOM LINE:
First and foremost, do not despair. As I say and hear inferred more frequently than ever prior, “I may not know the future but each day I’m becoming better acquainted with Creator God who does know all future events and their timelines. All!
Second, I love the way Nehemiah didn’t merely sit back and disconnect from the doom & gloom news from back home; or throw up his hands spewing all over everyone everywhere “woe is me, it’s all over for us Jews.”
Rather, I encourage you to review the steps Nehemiah took as outlined above from the book of Nehemiah. He received the news (didn’t hide or ignore reality), he obeyed by living in the moment, he prayed quick, he gathered support, he methodically planned his mission being continually aware of the enemies tactics, he adjusted and reassiged resources as needed, and being a conduit of God’s wit & wisdom to the leadership team and beyond, he insured first of all, that everyone involved intimately knew the hope of their mission, followed closely by its stark realities and possible dangers. Nehemiah even had an understanding of how when the task was completed, to involve the people in marking it historically for them going forward while they were celebrating “their good for His Glory! Note the amazing leadership standards he exhibited back then, for such times that are upon us now.
So again, as you begin to think about your daily living in new ways, perhaps not at all of your choosing, or, at least beyond the usual and customary now, that dominates your weekly and monthly task planning, scheduling and implementing. Perhaps begin by renewing and broadening your Bible study and prayer times. Engage with others as God directs. Count your blessings, in fact write them down, name them one by one. Read repeatedly and listen in your unproductive moments to the two books mentioned above, or scripture, on audible. Share with others what God is revealing to you while on your unique life preparatory journey. And worship freely & abundantly, talk with God every opportunity you have, and then after those bursts of joyful, or even lamenting or mournful praise; just pull off, curl up, and tune in to His Spirit, just relishing in His Presence, hearing Him confirming your identity and value to His mission. And so, when it’s “too soon time” to retire each evening, end your prayers by adding the old classic “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” You never know what may transpire while you’re asleep! Which the ever-present (yet anyway) Wikipedia has updated a day ago, the last two lines were exchanged with “in the morn when I awake, please teach me the path of life to take.” Worthy mention indeed.
FOR FURTHER REFLECTION:
I am reminded of Romans 8:21. “The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
“Let’s not get too settled in, too satisfied with the good things down here on earth. They are only the tinkling sounds of the orchestra warming up. The real song is about to break into a heavenly symphony, and its prelude is only a few minutes away.” Joni Eareckson Tada