We've been so gloriously busy with the DOING of the Lords work, I've hardly had time to think about writing about what we're doing! It's been a wonderful time these last several weeks, lets see if I can catch everyone up.
Clay & I were examining our hearts, praying mightily for Gods direction and trying to continue moving ahead without doubt or fear. We were wonderfully reminded by the Holy Spirit, that God gave us very clear directions before we ever left Colorado - that we were to "do the insignificant". I've become very aware of how easily we get caught up in doing the things we think are important, the things we decide are worth doing and it usually has something to do with US - our feelings, our needs our desires our standing our abilities our our our- I think you get my point.
At the same time, we've been experiencing this "sense" that God is always on top of everything AND YET we cannot simply take that for granted - our need of Him and His intervention in our lives is too critical! So, we should be assured that God is in control and have FAITH of that fact, but not be arrogant, smug or overconfident - this keeps us pressing in to the Lord, growing in Him, on our knees in prayer - this overwhelming knowledge of how greatly we are in need of Him. Jesus said, you are the branches, I am the vine. How true!! We "sprout leaves" so to speak and bear fruit BUT we cannot do these things without the sustenance we get from the SOURCE! We know this, yet it bears remembering with humility!
So, I said all that to say this ( I have such a talent for making a short story LONG)
all the lofty, spiritual, deep, theological, meaningful and awesome principles from the Bible work in our everyday, hum drum, ordinary lives in such a critical fashion when we are obedient to the Lord and stay aware of His moving in our lives. Take the Amp incident. (no spelling mistake, I said "amp")
A lot of what Clay I do involves the music we bring to people. Our original worship music is a blessing and opens many doors for us, allowing us to then share the gospel with many souls. We had been invited to participate with a public event taking place at the Ft. Pierce Marina. It wasn't a "Christian" event, but one of the sponsors liked our music and it opened the door for us to be invited. As the event got underway, Clay & I began to practice and unknown to us, clouds were rolling in. Long story shortened, an electrical surge blew out our amp. Uh-oh! Memorial Day weekend, nothing open - what were we going to do? We found a music store - but they wouldn't even get to look at the amp til Wednesday! We'd tried putting in a new fuse, hoping that was the extent of the problem - but no luck there! Every time we turned the amp on, it blew the fuse immediately! So we left it at the music store and began to pray.
God worked some very interesting things in our hearts over the next week. We began to see some areas in our hearts that needed attention, some important pieces of our relationship with the Father that we'd been a bit neglectful of. We began to pray in a more concentrated, more submitted sort of way. I'm not sure I can find the words to exactly describe. God was calling us to come in deeper with Him. Clay had a realization - YOU DON'T ENTER THE HOLY OF HOLIES UNLESS YOUR RIGHT WITH GOD BECAUSE YOU CAN DIE IN THERE! WOW!! There's a thought we can all chew on for a good long while! The thing was, we became aware that we are being called into a more intense place. Those who have made a committment to pray specifically for us often receive requests from us to KEEP PRAYING. Prayer is so important and changes things drastically here on this earth and yet we can often get neglectful about prayer. We are VERY AWARE of how much we need constant prayer!
Back to the AMP-
so we call the music shop on Wednesday - they haven't had time to look at it, never mind tell us whats wrong and can they fix it. We are getting a little panicky since we have limited funds and need that amp. At the Tuesday Worship service we do in Palm City, we went with acoustic guitar and me speaking LOUDLY, which thankfully I'm pretty good at. Thursday, they still hadn't looked at the amp. Friday, they still hadn't looked at the amp, and we went around to several other places, just checking, and NO ONE ELSE in the area repairs amps. Saturday, they still hadn't gotten around to even opening the back panel to check if the whole thing was completely fried or not! Now here's the cool thing - sometimes we think we're going to do one thing and God has other plans. There was a business down in Ft. Pierce that Clay was interested in applying for work. When I asked him if he wanted to go on Saturday, his answer was unusual, but I believe led by the Spirit. He said, yea, lets go and do some ministry down there. Ministry? At a job interview? Ok, I was up for it. But then we got there and the job wasn't ANYTHING Clay would be interested in doing and we started to head back to Jensen Beach, but guess what? We were just down the street from the music store! So we decided to stop in and we weren't sure what we were going to do, but we were getting just a little frustrated with the situation.
The same young man who originally waited on us was there, and just as polite, but still, they hadn't even LOOKED at the amp!! The owner of the shop came in just then, and we VERY politely inquired as to the possibility that he might LOOK at the amp, and tell us if it was hopeless or hopeful at the very least. This led to a dialog, which led to a conversation, which led to all of us sharing our hearts about the state of things in general and discovering that we all had some very definite thoughts in common. At that point, the owner indicated that his hesitancy had a lot to do with his belief that the surge would have burned out the circuits, and getting parts would be more expensive than the amp was worth - BUT - he did have this other amp, similar but different, that he would let us have for a truly reasonable amount of money (and then Clay asked for a deeper discount AND HE GAVE IT TO US!). After some more happy conversation and sharing and having made ourselves some new friends, we took our new but gently used amp home. Plugged it in, and guess what? The sound is cleaner and crisper than our original amp!!
Romans 8:28 ...and we know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose...
God is GOD in the ordinary everyday things. We needed a new or at least a better amp, and He provided it. From what seemed like a bad situation, He brought about GOOD. In our routine lives, He is AT WORK! We can be assured that God is EVER FAITHFUL, but we cannot take it for granted! We must continually acknowledge our need of Him and His love and grace and mercy in our lives. It may seem like we know these things, but if we are not careful, we will get complacent about them and we weill suddenly find ourselves in tough spots and wondering where God is in all of it - when all the time, He's right there and we've NEGLECTED this most important thing!
I know this has been a rather long post, but it is our sincere and earnest prayer that the truths shared here will encourage others and help others to recognize that however well things are going right now, we still need God on our side! You know that scripture that says "IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?" Don't forget that first, and very important word: if. IF God be for us... Are you absolutely certain that God is for you? The message today is as simple and straightforward as it was thousands of years ago: repent and be saved.
Gods great blessings to all, and may you all know His love today!
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