Matthew 2:13-18
God forgive me but I get some pleasure when I see something happen and someone shouts out "it's God's will!". A pencil falls on the floor and a person says it God's will that they go back to school or some such. Their heart is in the right place but they eliminate the real hard listening and the discerning. To me it's more like voo doo spirituality.
I'd like to convey an experience from my own life that illustrates listening to the Spirit. Many years ago a distant relative called and asked if we knew a place that her housekeepers son could stay while in New York. This total stranger was a Baptist minister (although the beer drinking, Hawaiian pizza eating kind). He felt the Spirit was moving him to, uh, quite literally move. He had a job offer at a local hospital as a chaplain and he wanted to see if things worked out and he could find a parsonage of his own and a community, he'd send for his wife and kids.
First of all, what possessed me to welcome this total stranger into my house for several months? Was it stupidity or the movement of the Spirit? My response was an immediate yes. It could be argued that it was a little of both but honestly, but when you follow the Spirit, can you ever go wrong? The questions that follow become practical matters and loose ends.
Now on to my new Baptist minister friend. Actually we were at complete opposite ends of the spectrum on almost every issue but that didn't seem to be as important as doing God's will, for me and him. Here though was a man who had the feeling the Spirit was moving him to move. His intention was to do as he was told but all the while discerning whether it was in fact the Spirit moving him and also being practical about the whole thing. He believed the Lord would provide and he did. He spend about 3 months with us in a spare apartment we had. He pursued this plan with great fervency and he never let go of his commitment to his family.
In the end, he determined that for several reasons, this was not what he was supposed to do. I have lost contact with him and so I don't know what if anything he eventually discerned about the path for his ministry and family. I do know that he strove to listen to the Spirit and obey God. He did so with a pure heart, full of faith a with great practicality. Not a bad combination.
How often are we silent enough in our hearts and minds to discern the voice of God, let alone obey when we do hear it.
God forgive me but I get some pleasure when I see something happen and someone shouts out "it's God's will!". A pencil falls on the floor and a person says it God's will that they go back to school or some such. Their heart is in the right place but they eliminate the real hard listening and the discerning. To me it's more like voo doo spirituality.
I'd like to convey an experience from my own life that illustrates listening to the Spirit. Many years ago a distant relative called and asked if we knew a place that her housekeepers son could stay while in New York. This total stranger was a Baptist minister (although the beer drinking, Hawaiian pizza eating kind). He felt the Spirit was moving him to, uh, quite literally move. He had a job offer at a local hospital as a chaplain and he wanted to see if things worked out and he could find a parsonage of his own and a community, he'd send for his wife and kids.
First of all, what possessed me to welcome this total stranger into my house for several months? Was it stupidity or the movement of the Spirit? My response was an immediate yes. It could be argued that it was a little of both but honestly, but when you follow the Spirit, can you ever go wrong? The questions that follow become practical matters and loose ends.
Now on to my new Baptist minister friend. Actually we were at complete opposite ends of the spectrum on almost every issue but that didn't seem to be as important as doing God's will, for me and him. Here though was a man who had the feeling the Spirit was moving him to move. His intention was to do as he was told but all the while discerning whether it was in fact the Spirit moving him and also being practical about the whole thing. He believed the Lord would provide and he did. He spend about 3 months with us in a spare apartment we had. He pursued this plan with great fervency and he never let go of his commitment to his family.
In the end, he determined that for several reasons, this was not what he was supposed to do. I have lost contact with him and so I don't know what if anything he eventually discerned about the path for his ministry and family. I do know that he strove to listen to the Spirit and obey God. He did so with a pure heart, full of faith a with great practicality. Not a bad combination.
How often are we silent enough in our hearts and minds to discern the voice of God, let alone obey when we do hear it.
Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’
‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’
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