Directives from God Changed Our Lives

It's now 2016, and I buried this post deep in the blog as most people will never read it, but I hope that you, my children, will find it. Perhaps even long after I'm gone.

Some of you are still following Jesus, and I'm so thankful for that! Sometimes you may have doubted how personal the Creator of the universe is, whether or not He really interacts with the people He created. I write this for you. Just one example for you, although you could read my Bible, and look for dates marked next to verses that reveal God was making His word very personal. Or you could look in my personal files, and see I've kept written words people have given me. But here's a powerful memory not written down until now.

It was 1998, and your mother and I were overseeing the Week of Prayer at the church we were very involved with at the time. We were working with the children and happy to do so, but I did long to go into the last service for the remaining minutes of worship music. I snuck away.

Going into the sanctuary, I stood off to the side, letting the worship music have its impact. Minutes later, I found the worship leader- a man I had never met- had walked over to me. He put his hand on my shoulder saying these words: "God will make you a bridge between cultures". Your mother and I had no idea what this meant.

It wasn't until 2009 when I started to see this come to pass. If you remember, that year I went off on a foreign mission trip I did not want to go on. But I went out of obedience. The impact was so huge. My life changed forever. Two of you in the family experienced this trip with me and know its impact first hand. 

As of this writing- 10 trips later and 4 more in the planning stages- we've made many changes to our lives in order to be obedient to the Lord because of what He has done- starting with words spoken over me almost two decades ago. Even though its been hard, we have no regrets. Obedience to the Lord is its own reward. If your mother and I have pleased Him, that's all that matters. 

Live your lives the same way. In obedience to a very personal God who loves you. Jesus said He was the only way to the Father and an eternity in Heaven. He meant it. Don't settle for the things of this world when you can have the things of God. Now is so temporary compared to eternity.