Discovering True Intimacy with Our Savior

Bring It!

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Me and the girls packed up our tents recently and moved from the Old Testament into the New Testament! I am absolutely flabbergasted that we are 1) still reading and 2) still on schedule. All the glory goes to God for both!

Our trek through the Bible in a Year has certainly had it’s peaks (think Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Esther) and valleys (think Adam & Eve; Jonah; Ezekiel). But this past week, we got to stick our toes in the New Testament for the first time in nine months! I’ve never been so excited to read about Jesus in my entire life!

Interestingly enough, I’m having to adjust to our new location. I was comfortable in the OT despite the repetitive stories of disaster, destruction and disobedience that went along with it. While the NT it’s certainly a breath of fresh air, it has surprisingly taken some getting used to. It’s clearly a different message, different structure, different tempo, different…everything. But I’m learning to embrace change. Pour on the grace and mercy, and bring me some Jesus!

Unexplainable

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Hang out with God long enough and weird things start to happen.  Things that some might call “coincidences” come at the most unlikely of places and in the most fascinating ways.  I love to watch God work!

When you go on a mission trip with e3 Partners, they give you one of these bracelets and a really cool t-shirt.

The bracelets and the t-shirts are designed to be conversation starters, and to say they work is an understatement.  (Just ask Robyn about her many experiences trying to explain why she is second to complete strangers.)

My roommate in Peru was a bubbly little twenty-something named Jada.  Jada prays for God to give her unexplainable joy, and trust me when I say that He has not disappointed her.  She is so…very…happy.  And I love her to pieces.

I’ve only known Jada for a few months, but you get to know someone pretty well when you share a small room with them for ten days.

We’ve kept in touch.

We’ve had lunch.

We text message.

We chat on the phone.

We Skype.

We’re tight.

So, when I found out she was spending the night in Birmingham before heading to her second mission trip in almost as many months, I couldn’t resist the urge to take her to dinner and pray over her.

A mission trip send off requires some heavenly food, so I met her and her parents at Leonardo’s fully confident that she would leave carb-loaded and ready to spread some Jesus over India. Her mom needed some comfort food too, because she was nervous about her very precious daughter going to a very foreign place.

We were about 3/4 of the way into our meal, when Jada gasps and blurts out to our waiter:  “OH MY GOSH!  Are you second?  I am too!!!”  

I almost choked on my food.

Turns out, our waiter had on an I Am Second bracelet. What are the odds?

Excited conversation followed and we discovered that he had been to India with e3 Partners…not once…not twice …but three times.

Come ON!  That is all God all the way!

It makes me want to cry to realize that our God orchestrated that dinner…

…at that particular place

…at that particular table

…with that specific waiter

…on that specific day…

…and he did it, not just so I could ooh and ahh over his awesomeness, but to bring comfort to a nervous mom and encouragement for an obedient daughter.

That is one awesome God that I adore.  Praise Him!

My Prayer for You

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I’m not sure if you are digging Thursdays at the Throne, but I sure am. This morning, I read a Psalm that I thought was perfect for me to pray over you. I took the liberty of modifying Psalm 20 as a prayer for you, my friends.

May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble. May the God of Jacob keep you safe. May he send you help and give you aid from heaven. May he remember all of your sacrifices and accept your offerings.

May he give you what your heart longs for and make all of your plans succeed. Then, I will shout with joy when you win the battle. I will lift up the name of our God.

May the Lord give you everything you ask for.

Now I know that the Lord saves his people. He answers us from his holy heaven. The power of God’s right hand saves his people.

Some trust in the things of this world. Some trust in what they have made.  But we trust in the Lord our God. Those of this world will be brought to their knees and will fall down. But we, those who fear the Lord, get up and stand firm.

Lord, save us! Answer us when we call out to you!

Amen!

The Same

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George Müller lived in the 1800s and, in his own words, began an orphanage so “that God might be magnified by the fact, that the orphans under my care are provided with all they need, only by prayer and faith without anyone being asked by me or my fellow-laborers whereby it may be seen, that God is FAITHFUL STILL, and HEARS PRAYERS STILL.”

To put that into today’s language:  Mr. Müller started an orphanage without asking anyone for help – ever.  Why?  He simply wanted to show believers that God still answers prayer and can be taken at His word.  Prayer by prayer, God provided for and sustained not one; not two; but five orphanages and over 1,000 children through Mr. Müller.

Now, I have nowhere near the faith of George Müller, but fortunately, I do have the same God;  a faithful God; a God who still answers the smallest and the greatest requests from His children who believe that He answers prayer. Case in point.

I recently returned some equipment to a vendor through a locally operated shipping carrier franchise.  (And by recently, I mean February.)  The store was busy when I dropped the equipment off.  So, after being assured by the customer service representative that “they do these all the time,” I left without a tracking number for the shipment.  (Yeah, yeah.  I know.)

You can imagine the gasp that escaped my lips as I opened a bill the other day, and it was singing to the tune of $300 in unreturned equipment charges!  (Oopsie.  I guess I should have gotten that tracking number after all.)

So, yesterday, without one inkling of evidence and with a prayer of undeserved favor on my lips, I called one company and then another.  My conversation with the first company went well, but I cannot say the same for the second.  In my attempt to get a tracking number, I was greeted by overly-sensitive and defensive employees both on the phone and in person.  I tried to remain calm to the best of my ability while remaining firm (not a balance that I am good at), so I was not surprised when I left the store (sans tracking number) flustered and irritated.

As I closed the car door, I silently prayed, “God, that $300 was money I was putting toward my mission trip this summer.  It can go to this company or it can go to further Your kingdom, but I’m not going to fight for this $300 when I do not have a leg to stand on.”

I attempted to call the store this morning, but no one answered.  Then, later this afternoon, an odd thing happened.  The manager of the store called me with the tracking number!  Did you catch that?  THEY called ME.  My mouth hung open so wide an airplane could have sailed right in!

With the tracking number in hand, I was assured by the company that my account would be credited the $300 for returning the equipment.

Three cheers for The Almighty!  The same yesterday, today and forever!