Category: Personal Interest

After arising earlier than this morning than I have since my 9-18-18 instant retirement fiasco, I can only say it has been a very interesting day. First, at 10 a.m., we toured a modest 2-bedroom home that was an answer to our prayers and going beyond all our desires. I do believe our sweet little 87-year-old widowed landlord lady, Pat, also president of the development’s homeowners association, only because no one else would do it, was divinely as smitten with us as we were with her, judging by the forming tears in her eyes when she and Loretta embraced when we parted.

Our realtor friend, Samantha, originally from South Africa, had informed us prior, that Pat had only purchased this home two years earlier to house her long-time good friend, Olga, who was then down on her luck, and on Tuesday was forced to move into a nursing home because of her declining health, all of which Samantha had just discovered (I think divinely) just hours prior to our last Thursdays appointment to discuss the extremely tight rental market in the neighborhood we had hoped to locate.

Yesterday’s relationship ordained scenario with Pat and the home’s features both indoors and out, including a fenced yard, double the usual counter space and storage with even an island, new appliances through-out including even a D/W, was nearly exactly the way I had detailed to Loretta how I envisioned us finding a rental would play out, after she had succinctly detailed the desires of her heart for our “wintering” home’s features, even before we arrived in Panama.

It is important you realize in our request, we were not in any way being insistent, just laying out our desires. In fact, you need to know, our back-up plan was to simply scale our desires back to renting, until something opened up, from our good friends, Darrell & Denise, their  cute little Airbnb container house where we have been staying. Of course, the location was added after a week of intense looking and contacting at least six rental persons. Ben had chided me upon arrival that most people coming here to rent, move 2-3 times before they ultimately find what they want.

Needless to say, our afternoon and evening was spent in awe of what had just occurred offering prayers of thanksgiving and a renewed desire for us to both discern and obey his bidding in this community.

I also spent an hour on the internet visiting sites I’ve subscribed to over the years that offer daily spiritual encouragement, but now seldom if ever, do I open them. I realize blogs are a different animal and that I don’t really fit, nor necessarily desire to fit, any particular mold or model, but just so that all you potential readers know, the posts on this blog, be they short or long, simple or complex, are truth and hopefully on occasion, worthy of your valuable time and reflection, at least to the best of my current abilities.

Personally, I’m torn between being “short, sweet & done,” such as in a daily text ministry of less than 50 words; versus the other end of the spectrum, as in what I’ve done in the past two posts, that virtually could be a good start for a chapter in a book; wherein we explore an idea, concept, concern, etc., from His “it’s so simple it’s profound” perspective, that it seems whatever “it” is, must simply rise up and slap us in the face sometimes to get our attention, when it’s in plain sight.

Otherwise, when as Loretta and I were praising God yesterday for His attention to detail, I am reminded of Jesus’s answer to the Pharisee’s after the crowd’s triumphant Palm Sunday entry, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples,” when He simply said, looking at the disciples and the crowds about Him, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

FYI, the strong proverbial language here in Luke 19 has always intrigued me, so I learned in my quick research from Barnes Notes on the Bible, “We are not to suppose therefore, that our Savior meant to say that the stones were ‘conscious’ of His coming, or that God would ‘make’ them speak, but only that there was ‘great joy’ among the people; that it was ‘proper’ that they should express it in this manner, and that it was not fit that he should attempt to repress it.” Now I tend to think our joy yesterday, was like that of a gnat in comparison to the joy Our Prince of Peace has planned for us when He returns. Again, we must consider everything in His perspective!  

Remember, my mission here is to be an encouraging facilitator of your faith here and now for your future. If anyone has comments, suggestions, or criticism of any portion of what I’m attempting here, please text or WhatsApp me@ (330) 465-2565 or email merlin.erb@gmail.com. And please, most of all, do pray for me in this undertaking that I’m either been given or claimed as ‘squatter’ or a ‘migrant’ in a new ‘wintering’ land, so that I will indeed continue to hear Him loud and clear.  

Now, let’s consider some wisdom from David Jeremiah’s Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God 2002 Aug 8

God’s Training Process Outlined

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. Luke 16:9

Joseph was cooperative with God’s process of training. Joseph had to go through thirteen years of schooling so that he could experience eighty years of ministry, certainly a better efficiency than my six decades of training for hopefully a decade or two of service. The bottom-line difference though is that throughout all that training, Joseph unwaveringly focused on the Lord. In slavery, in the pit, and in prison, he focused by working to become a strong, disciplined man of God, an impossibility if you’re a tool of Satan. Joseph portrayed no complaining, simply a desire to obey the Lord and do his best.

BOTTOM LINE:

Therefore, when we become God’s people, we will be obedient to Him no matter what our situation. Joseph was faithful in every circumstance, and the Lord blessed him. He proved himself faithful in a home, and God put in charge of a prison. He proved himself faithful in a prison, and God put him in charge of a nation. God used Joseph because he was cooperative with God’s training process, and the Lord is still looking for cooperative obedient men and women today.

Interested in joining His ranks? Have you access now to a supporting faith facilitating community that continually is refining His preliminary orders in you? If not, ought we not to be forming as of yesterday discipleship cells to get you placed, prepped, and credentialed for acceptance into His Advanced Training Process, (ATP) such as exemplified by Joseph above. Cooperative and obedient volunteer congregations and individuals are being sought for the oversight of the strategic discipleship modules.

I have no idea from whence or why that paragraph came forth! I’m just a leaky broken down faucet.

dailylightdevotional.com Evening Aug 8: This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. I John 5:14, 15

Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your blessing in stone… DJ Discovery 04/14  MM060424

Worry is an old man of bent stature, carrying a load of feathers which he thinks are lead….. Corrie Ten Boom DJ Discovery 0418 (this is me historically before redemption, though the scars do remain!)

God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not, is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else… Oswald Chambers The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L.

Yes, but I’ve been under such conviction to finish what I started yesterday. Actually,I’d written the last seven paragraphs last evening after proofreading yesterday’s post, but then I accidentally erased them and it was too late and I was too tired so I sent it out without my concluding remarks. This morning being a new day, I was compelled to reconstruct them, and get this, first I erased them last night, and then today, immediately after rewriting my seven paragraphs at the bottom, I closed the computer and picked up David Jeremiah’s 2012 devotional Discovery: Experiencing God’s Word Day By Day and read the July 17 reading titled “Know Thyself”, and immediately wanted to throw up! Give me a break Satan! I really do believe someone out there besides me, needs to read these words, and I will not be deterred, even though during most of my life I would have flushed it and sought shade like Jonah.

As much as it is humanly and spiritually possible, everything I write is always to myself first. Perhaps that is why I’m so attracted to Dr. Henry Cloud’s books in that he addresses frequently my being over-introspective on one hand, and too quick too critical, on the other, causing me to often withdraw and so, I say nothing. Too often, I possess a nonconfrontive compliant spirit. You know, it IS humanly safer living that way today, like an ostrich! But God expectantly designed us for engagement, and even empowers us with the needed strength and resources to accomplish our Kingdom responsibilities. And therein lies the risk to lose our very own Kingdom rewards! The David Jeremiah reading I encountered is verbatim below:

Know Thyself. Psalm 139: 3

The ancient philosopher said, “Know thyself,” but that’s hard to do. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” The apostle Paul cautioned us against being too quick to approve ourselves or condemn others, saying, “I care very little if I am judged by you … indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me” (I Corinthians 4: 3-4, NIV).

We must be careful about being overly self-introspective, and about being too quick to criticize others. As fallen creatures, we’re capable of wounding ourselves and others with our misguided judgements.

Yes, be discerning about right and wrong, and be willing to properly admonish someone when the Spirit leads; but remember there’s only One who can actually read the heart. How much better to say with the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me into the way everlasting.”

The best of (us) are too apt to judge rashly, and harshly, and unjustly; but (God’s) judgement is always according to truth. Matthew Henry (1662-1714)

Merlin now writing. Two other notable quotes of his are; “It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our last day,” and, “The three qualifications of a good surgeon (imagine this in his era as opposed to today?) are requisite in a re-prover: He should have an eagle’s eye, a lion’s heart, and a ladies hand; in short, he should be endued with wisdom courage and meekness.”

Now here are my seven paragraphs that I was retroactively spazzing out about without any edits. I am really trying to be transparent with you.

While I myself was reflecting throughout Thursday on the last post, I keep being reminded of the in-our-face example of the ever-engaging apostle for Christ, Paul, from the Mars Hill account in Acts 17: 22-31. My question is where TODAY are the either publicly engaging persons, such as Paul (perhaps someday even Tucker?), or even some undercover ambassadors such as John Rich for Christ warriors, who were dealt a hot potato download from God that he took all the way to the mat, as he defined it?

And also, I am continually reminded, so I’ll ask you as well, do you recall the impetus behind the explosion of the early church in its first century, besides such as the whole book of Acts including Peter’s explosive preaching and Paul’s three missionary journey’s? And then again, what so moved our forefathers during & following the Reformation? Wasn’t it indeed also the waves of persecutions that scattered the early Christians throughout the then known world during the first century and then again in the centuries since Martin Luther, such as transplanting our very forefathers about Europe and America? And so I ask, what perhaps is God preparing us for now during these latter day rains, except to be scattered anew in ways we can’t even begin to fathom, or for sure, perhaps are choosing not to comprehend, preferring our seclusion as being the quiet in the land, when God is actually desiring to both tell and lead us to “go & do now” as in Wendell Martin’s recent vibrant book, Go Now.

Again, to me it seems too often we are weak anemic Kingdom specimens floundering about like the ten foolish virgins waiting ill-prepared to piggy back or sponge off the virtuous ten wise prepared virgins, being so deceived that while we’re anticipating and awaiting the approaching celebration, when actually, we may well be the tares, being allowed to live until the harvest. See Matthew 13:30 if not familiar with their plight!

Again, it seems to me, we are experiencing such a waste of potential engagers in these possibly concluding moments of history that we’re all so privileged to witness first hand, and especially so, when we’ve got access to such engaging Kingdom building tools that again, it seems to me, that we are just so often ignoring; and  how can we view it otherwise? We, as His children, do have or will be empoweringly Spirit driven, with the necessary TIME, MONEY, MATERIALS and most importantly, the “HIS MOTIVE” as were the Christ- Follower’s during the first century and again during and after the Reformation.

Yes, indeed, our lives are all about and likely far beyond what we can even imagine, just I (we) are daily Connecting, Healing, & Growing as admonished in Colossians 2:6-7 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, CONTINUE to LIVE (not merely exist) your lives in Him, ROOTED and BUILT UP in Him, STRENGTHENED in the FAITH as you were TAUGHT (who am I (we) now teaching, or encouraging?), and OVERFLOWING with THANKFULNESS! (Ouch, not so sure I’m doing much of that while I’m deflecting with His shields’ all this consuming negative chaos?)

 A rather tall order given the Colossians and us! Perhaps we might just need to get out of our routine evening recliners while being nightly mesmerized by all our screens, AND INSTEAD, CHOOSING to RISE UP and Go & Do Now!

HOW EXCELLENT IS HIS NAME IN ALL THE EARTH!! Psalm 8:9

I really like the quote from Matthew Henry; about “it oughta be the business of every day to prepare for our last day.” And many of you, like me, know full well our last days are coming fast, and hasn’t God been so gracious in preparing us oldsters for these transitions; and the many opportunities He gives us YET to continue to LIVE & OVERFLOW WITH THANKFULNESS!!

Day 26

Jesus said, “Whosoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up my Cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whosoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

It is not always pleasant to talk about and share with others the things God’s Word says. When I meditate on it, sometimes Scripture makes me uncomfortable. But my comfort is irrelevant. Being a sold-out follower of Christ, standing up for him, and speaking the truth in love, with grace, is what matters.

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.”   Martin Luther

Thanks again Randy Alcorn for being so spot-on. Truth: For A Bigger View of God’s Word. Harvest House 2017 Day 26

For Further Reflection:

Having listened Eric Metaxas’s “Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World,” I can’t help but wonder the situation in Matin’s life that precipitated the above quote. I do not recall that quote being mentioned, though the book reveals “A resounding boon to Luther studies arrived in recent years via archaeological discoveries in the city of Mansfield where Luther lived from the age of six months until he went off to school in Magdeburg.

Most remarkable, in an excavation begun in 2003, the small and humble house in Mansfield … he was raised in a well-appointed home. The measure of how well can be taken from another (2008) archaeological discovery on the site of that home … bursting with such a dazzling variety of household waste as to constitute a veritable King Tut’s tomb of the late 15^th century quotidian … confirming the idea that this was not the home of a poor or humble people but on the contrary, the home of a very respectable and established leading family of the city.

For example, not less than 7000 animal bones were analyzed, and from these it was determined that 60 % of the Luther family diet was pork … but more revealing yet in this 2008 trove were the objects of kitchen life. A number of Grapen were found. These were the earthen tripod pots put directly into the fire. Some fragments of much rarer metal Grapen pots were discovered too. These were so valuable they are often mentioned in wills from that era.

All very interesting trivia from the books first paragraphs, but I chose to listen the book published by Penguin in 2019, because first, I trust the author’s perspectives, having read his Fish Out of Water, Bonhoeffer, Letter to the American Church; and second, I was seeking any references inferred to the followers of Menno Simons. I found none of consequence while listening to the 20-hour & 38 minute audible version.

Although it is possible, I could have been momentarily distracted while listening on audible (while working), as his quote above infers “every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, or exactly in this case, the very point I am seeking a viable connection ….” All, being irrelevant trivia from a personal bunny trail.

So, Randy, my comfort is irrelevant? That is sorta in the same vein as Dr Henry Cloud stating he has an issue with God’s marketing plan in his preface to “Why I Believe.” See the June 26 blog post. Definitely appears we’ll be traveling toward eternity more often than not, on the cold, windy, mountainous route vs the warm fluffy clouds, harps, and beds of ease… Just remember what really matters and that everything here on earth is so very temporary!

All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal. Psalm 119:160

Those who believe Scripture are routinely accused of arrogance. Jesus said God’s Word is truth (John 17:17). It’s not arrogance to believe what the Bible teaches. It’s the opposite. Arrogance is when we believe whatever makes us feel better about ourselves or justifies our actions. We pretend we are qualified to judge truth. Then we end up tailoring truth to fit our preferences.

Indeed, we know in our heads we are temporary, but it seems to me, we live in our hearts believing we have plenty of time to prepare for tomorrow. Our head-based opinions may come and go, for months, years, even decades. But God’s truth is eternal, never-changing: “Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:7-8 ESV).

May I suggest we never really know how much we believe anything in our hearts, until its truth or falsehood actually becomes a matter of life and death for us … for only a real risk tests the reality, or validity of our belief.

At the moment, it seems we have a shortage of current practical examples of our beliefs affecting any life and death decisions amongst us, except maybe in the dry dusty annals of the wisdom literature, such as in libraries, or the Bible. And not that the persecuted church hasn’t ample material today; it’s just not in demand and marketable in our church culture, as is say, clean water, which is safe, a necessity, even a right?

Sneaky arrogance? Tailoring truth to preferences? Have we ever been faced with a life or death choice? Not likely, or at least not yet! But I do sadly recall memories as a child and younger man defiantly choosing Sin and its subsequent destruction. And then, as did King David in Psalms 51, sweet forgiveness. Perhaps we need to start over with a simple children’s Bible Story book in the presence of our grandchildren, and read about Moses, Joseph, Daniel in the furnace and the lion’s den , shepherd boy David, etc., through Acts and into I & II Peter, to get a glimpse of His desired reality for us in times of persecution. For how will they know otherwise, unless we tell them?

Thanks to Randy Alcorn’s Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word. Day 24 Harvest House 2017 for “triggering” the above response…

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

Taken verbatim from Heny Clouds 2024 book “Why I Believe” Part II How I came to Believe in Miracles: Do Not Sign It, pages 117-122, 1589 words, plan accordingly.

Many of you readers will identify with the segment below because regardless of your chosen career field and years of service, even the challenging relationships and leadership skills you’ve accessed, (or even now are!)  we too have witnessed these entrepreneurial or managerial moments when we were divinely “carried, lifted, guided, empowered” expanding our efforts exponentially… merlin

Dr. Cloud:

It was at a point in my publishing career where things had taken off, and it was “free agent” time. Like in sports, when you are not tied down to a team anymore, you are free to sign with anyone. In publishing, after finishing a contract, it can be a fun and exciting time as well. All the publishers are coming around and wanting to do the next book or books, and it is a fun time to get together with them and think about next projects.

All of the season of meetings were over, and we had finally reached an agreement, and a good one for several reasons. It was for several books and would give me a clear path for about five years. I liked having the direction set so I could just get to work on writing. We had finalized the negotiation and would be signing in a few days.

I was at home after dinner talking with Tori, and my phone rang. It was a woman with whom I served on a board with and only saw a couple of times a year. I knew her, but not that well, and she certainly was not current on anything I was up to or working on. She knew nothing about my work with publishers.

“Hey, Shelly. How are you?” I asked.

“I’m good,” she said. “But I had a vision about you.”

“What?” I asked. “Really? Tell me.” This was not a normal occurrence for me. I was pretty new to the world of people having visions at that time.

“Well, it was very clear. I saw you in a yard, and you were talking to people in the yard, and there was a fence around all of you. Like a fenced in yard. And then the Lord said this: ‘You have been speaking to people in the yard, and he wants to remove the fence so you can speak to people outside the yard.’ And he says that you are about to sign some contract … I think it is about a book project or something … and he says if you sign it, it will keep you in that yard. So don’t sign it.”

Oh my … I was so certain things were going so well and my immediate future had so much clarity. And now this …

“So, Shelly … Are you sure? … This is from Him?” I always tend to ask that when I get people who have “messages from God.” There are a lot of kooks out there, and I rarely believe them. But this one … this had too much credibility in both the message and the messenger. It was so specific … and I knew exactly what it meant, too.

The deal was with a Christian publisher. And no matter what the title or subject of a book, if the publisher is Christian, retailers often will tend to bury it in the religious section of the bookstores (which actually existed at the time, before Amazon and online book buying). And the marketing would be mostly to the Christian world … and what that meant was clear in the vision: the people in the yard. God was telling me that He wanted me to talk to people outside the Christian world, outside the yard, and He was going to move the fence. How in the world would she ever know that I was (a) about to sign a book deal, and (b) one that would keep me talking to a certain closed group?

Another reason I also knew that this was real was that for about 18 months, when I would out on my patio to pray, I would hear a voice in my head say, I am taking you out the ministry. That is all it said, and it was clear. But I did not know what all that meant, other than for me, it did mean something very specific.” I was supposed to begin working outside the “Christian” world of audiences that I was speaking and writing too. To me, at that point, “ministry “meant Christian audiences, which back then, was most of what I did. And what I would discover soon was the message from that voice also meant much more about my publishing, leadership consulting work, business speaking, and media.

“Yes, I am sure,” she said. “It was from God. It was clear.”

I hung up bummed. Everything had looked so good, and now I knew I had to walk away from so much that was secure. But, as I learned way back in leaving Dallas, when God says “Go,” you do it, and you leave security behind. He will provide the next place to land. So, I walked away from the deal.

I won’t bore you with the details, but the publisher was dumbfounded and could not believe we were not going through with it. It made no sense … unless you were on that phone call. And then, it was confirmed.

Soon thereafter, Time Life called with an offer to do a book with a national secular media campaign they were doing with a music offering that would take the message way, way past the Christian audience I had been speaking to up to that point. So, John Townsend and I wrote a book for them called God Will Make a Way, and the beginning of talking to people outside the yard had begun. Now that “fence” was beginning to be removed.

But there was much more to come. And this was the real fulfillment of the next stage of the vision. Now that I was free to publish “outside-the-yard,” God (through some other God-directed clear steps, some “random” circumstances), put me with an outside-the-yard publishing agent who wanted to do my first secular business book and take it to a New York publisher, which would full-blown be outside the yard. And I would be writing to businesses without the Christian language in the book, which would mean that they could now use the principles in their public companies and secular businesses. I had always worked in the secular business world, doing leadership consulting, but all my books up to that point had Christian content in them, and most companies didn’t want to offend people with that and would not use my books. This step was fulfilling the voice I heard on my patio about God taking me outside the Christian world, as well as the vision about talking to people “outside the yard.” It was all coming true, exactly like both the voice and the vision had said.

We went to New York, signed a deal, and published a leadership book that showed the principles that I had been using with leaders that I had been using for a long time but had no Bible verses in it to scare people off. Cleanly outside the yard. (It is weird … if you say “It is good to be honest” in a book, people love it and think you’re smart. But if you say “The Bible says it good to be honest,” you get cancelled, and they think you are “one of those” religious kooks. So, I didn’t use any Bible verses in the book at all; I just shared the business leadership principles that I use in the companies I work with. And at various times, they would lead to some great conversations about why I believe.

Well, things happened, as the vision had said. The New York Times reviewed the book (it was called Integrity) and called it “the best book

of the bunch” in the leadership books they were reviewing. That turned it into the launch of a new direction for my writing and a new audience … the secular business world. Although I have done CEO coaching and leadership consulting for twenty years at that point with many secular and public companies and had built and run my businesses, my brand in publishing had always been pigeonholed in the Christian yard. God took me out of that for His reasons and supernaturally directed me to do it through the vision and the “voice” I heard. Had he not, I would still be “in the yard,” and I would have missed so many great opportunities to meet and work with so many people who don’t hang out in that yard, for purposes that were His.

He does guide us … even when we think we know what we want and need to do. He closes some doors that we desperately desire, for other reasons we might not understand. Just like I thought I wanted to follow my golf dreams or continue down my publishing track as it has been unfolding, God wanted something different and better. Again, the proverb rang true:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs3:5-6)

It was a horrible day, one that directed and limited my life for many years after, and was the source of a lot of pain.

            I was in the 7^th or 8^th grade, and it was the day for oral book reports. I usually like that day, as I enjoyed hearing everyone and also sharing in front of the group myself. I liked public speaking. So, nothing new.

            But for some reason, this time, about a third of the way into it, I got flustered. I began stammering and stuttering, and it only got worse. I could not recover for some reason, and found it hard to go on. I just got further and further kind of unable to get the words out. Kinda paralyzed in front of the room.

            Then the teacher stood up and said, “Just sit down. This is terrible,” or something pretty close to that. She then went on to kind of berate me with things like “You will never be able to be a success in anything if you can’t do public speaking. And you can just forget ever being a lawyer [one of my possible career dreams at that time], because lawyers have to talk in front of people.”

            Needless to say, I was devastated. Ashamed and rejected, I just slithered to my seat and tried to disappear.

            From there, it went downhill as far as public speaking was concerned. I had no trouble with a few friends, like at a table or a few friends.. But any time the group got to be any size at all, I just literally could not speak. Not “wouldn’t,” but “couldn’t.” So, I didn’t.

            I went all through high school and college avoiding any kind of public speaking at all. I would always refuse it. Even asking questions in class became a real difficult thing to do and to hide my problem, I rarely even did that. In high school, my parents sent me to a counselor to cure the problem, but it did not help. And to make sure you understand, it was not just a fear. It was “I literally can’t do it.” Period. I couldn’t talk. In fact, it was so bad that I almost flunked 12^th grade English, because there was an oral book report requirement and I was ready to tell the teacher “Well, flunk me.” And I had been recruited to play college golf … ready to lose it all because my inability to go through with it. In graduate school, I pretty much continued to avoid any public speaking, other than in class for a question or a small discussion.

So, roll the clock forward to my mid to later twenties, I had been in practice for a few years and was building a lot of models of psychological and leadership growth and working with companies and organizations. As a result of all that activity, I was continually being asked to speak for the organizations, businesses, churches, and the like. And … I always refused. One hundred percent.

            When asked, I would just say, “No, that’s just not something I do.” And let it go. No way was I ever going to stand up in front of a group again. I went about my private clinical and consulting practice, and that was enough for me. Small meetings around a table were okay, but nothing larger.

            Then one day, I was at the gym and headed to the showers when this big  guy walked up to me. He was huge. (Actually, he had played NFL football for the LA Rams.) I was wondering what he wanted when he looked at me and asked, “Are you a Christian?”

            That seemed weird …a big guy in the gym showers walking up to me asking if I am a Christian.

            “Uh … yeah.” I answered.

            “Well, God just told me to tell you something,“ he said.

            My first thought was “Well, I am also a psychologist, and I can make those voices go away.” But I didn’t say that.” I just replied, “What?”

            “Yes, that’s right. Don’t worry, I am not a weirdo. I am a pastor. And God just clearly spoke to me about you,” he explained. He told me then he was pastor at the Newport Vineyard Church, a good place that I was familiar with. So I agreed to talk to him.

            We went next door to a restaurant and sat down, and this is what he said: “God said when you were a kid, something bad happened to you that has made you afraid to speak in front of people ever since. But He wants you to begin speaking for Him, and He is going to open some doors. You are to walk through them.”

            I was stunned. How in the ….? What? That was all I could muster. We talked some more before I left there and returned to my office. I just sat there literally in shock, amazed at how real and present God is all the time. And once again, how long I had suffered with that problem … and yet He had been there all along. Aware, loving me, but doing nothing about it.

            Until now.

            In high school, when I was struggling with it, I prayed a lot for God to help me, and He never did. But now, it seemed like He was stepping up. There was no way I could deny what just happened. That guy did not know me from Adam, nor what I did, nor anything about my problem or where it had come from.

            The next week or so, I got two calls to speak to public groups. (“He is going to open some doors for you to speak and you are to walk through them.”) The first one was a Presbyterian pastor gathering with about fifty pastors. That would have been far more than I would have formerly agreed to and been able to do. But this time, I literally felt like I had no choice. Zero chance that I was not going to do it, no matter how scared I was. God had entered my space and told me to do it … and I could not run and hide. I was afraid I’d get swallowed by a whale if I did. I was way more afraid of how real and alive He was than whatever could happen if I melted down while speaking.

            So, I asked a good friend of mine who prays for me, and also is a speech therapist, to come with me for support. She sat on the front row, and I stumbled my way through it. Barely. I don’t remember if they even liked it or not, but at least I’d gotten through the first test without passing out.

            From there on, it was more and more practice as more “doors” began to mysteriously appear, out of nowhere. I was petrified each and every time, but gradually, I got more and more comfortable. It took about a year or so to feel more comfortable. Then, I was offered a radio show and was suddenly talking to a lot of people. Before then, there would have been no way.

            That was decades ago … since then I have spoken thousands of times. And now, I actually enjoy it, and though I sometimes get a little helpful dose of “butterflies” before going up, I do not have any fear of going up. God has healed that, this time through showing up through a pastor in a gym shower and telling me to do it, so then a natural process psychologists call “desensitization” and “exposure” prevails. It is the gradual facing into what you fear, that the brain slowly learns the 7^th grade teacher is no longer there.

            In fact, as I write this, I just came back from speaking at a global leadership event that had hundreds of thousands of live attendees in arenas and auditoriums all over the world. And it was actually fun. As a psychologist, I believe the slow healing came through natural processes.

BOTTOM LINE:

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the impetus to get me into that process was supernatural. How else can you explain it? Who can begin to know where and how He is going to speak in your life, or anyone’s life? Are we not to pray openly, candidly, continually, submitting…

NEXT UP:

Tomorrow after tonight’s potential debating debacle, Billie Graham’s grandson will reappear with his well chosen words inspired by Mark Chapter Seven. Time for a break from the intensity of the Cloud! Loretta and I are at page 144 of 257 in Dr. Henry Cloud’s audible book “Why I Believe,” a book packed with such relevant impactful life stories confirming the wisdom he shares to guide and inspire our daily faith journey’s. Change your life and the lives of those in your pond’s ripples (circle of influence) by ordering several “Why I Believe” and loan them out. Less than $20 each at Amazon. I guarantee you’ll have your “loan to” list well started before you’ve read even half of the book.

Nearly every day I come across ideas and scriptures that are added to my file of dozens of ideas waiting in the wings for His anointing and development, such as the above! Blessings on your journey home. Read the signs. Listen to the compelling sounds! Stay the course. No excuses!