Look at those kids. [note: I can't get my scanner to work so these photos are photos of photos snapped with my camera so not the best quality] We’d been dating for about 2 years, though only 1.5 officially. You can read our story here.
She agreed to be my wife on January 8, 1994. It was now December 29, 1994. We’d spent with week with friends and family preparing and hanging out. Now it was the day before.
I woke up for the last time in my “bachelor pad.” The next day it would be home for a newly wed couple. My best guy friend, Peter, helped me pack for my honeymoon and we ran various errands, I’m sure all wedding or honeymoon related.
After a pretty smooth rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, complete with a touching and only slightly too-naked-baby-picture-revealing video by my mother and a song by my father, Sonya and I exchanged wedding gifts and I was off to the family hotel for the night. I shared a room with some of my best friends from high school as I anticipated the glorious events of the next day.
Don’t make fun of my hair and I won’t make fun of your old pics. Well, maybe I will. Note: Sonya’s hair was down to her backside when we met. Anyway…
I remember the excitement. I wasn’t nervous. I even slept pretty well. We knew that God was in it. Again, you can read our story here. Besides, who wouldn’t want to spend the rest of their life with their best friend?
I haven’t seen this “New Post” page much lately. It’s been busy. I know I don’t need to tell you that. Chances are you’ve been very busy as well. December flies by packed with parties, musicals, shopping, family, travel, cooking, and potato guns. O.K. not many of you were lucky enough to have the potato gun experience but there were certainly many things going on.
Oh, I could go off on how we’ve messed up the season and ask if we’ve really paused to consider the “true meaning of Christmas.” But that’s not what consumes my mind on this Monday morning. I been feeling dry. Drier than I’ve felt in awhile. Been dry for several weeks. That’s what this season has led to me this year. It gets so busy and loud that even “quiet times” aren’t quiet. No one’s up at the hour I go to meet with God but they don’t have to be. The noise is in my head. In my heart.
But today. Today has already been different. The noise has settled a bit. I can hear a little better. As I pray for needs – physical, spiritual, emotional, familial – I sense my need. My need to know Him more. I ask for things and realize that I just want – no – need more of God. I need to be filled with His Spirit. I need His wisdom. I need His power. I need to hear His voice.
So what New Years resolutions are you considering? No resolutions here. Just commitment. Surrender. Getting back to the basics: learning His Word and making my knees sore from prayer. It’s called seeking God. I want to be His completely. That’s my 2010 goal, complete surrender.
Been in Psalm 119. God has really used it to help me focus. Read it and ask God to open your heart and mind to His voice.
Sorry if I seem scattered. I’m actually having a great morning with my Savior. Now for some coffee…
Remember “88 Reasons Why Jesus Will Return in ‘88?” I do. I didn’t buy it then and I don’t buy it now. And with good reason. Look at what Jesus had to say about knowing when He would return:
32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
No one knows. And at that point, not even Jesus knew. He’d restricted certain parts of His omniscience when He took on our flesh, including the knowledge of the date of His second coming. The angels enjoy constant fellowship around the throne of God. But they don’t have a clue as to the time of Christ’s return. So why would we put our trust in Nostradamus, Mayan calendars, or some “sleeping prophet” from Selma, Alabama? Doesn’t make much sense does it?
The date is not what’s important. The importance is found in verses 33-36. Be on guard. Stay awake. The point of discussing the subject is to keep us on guard. We are to be doing the Lord’s work as though He could come back at any time. Like a servant given a task to complete in his master’s absence – not knowing when He will return – we are to labor for the Lord, with what ever task He’s given us, as though He will return any minute. Don’t get caught sleeping!
I don’t want to be caught sleeping. I want to be found faithful. You with me?
I think the hardest thing to teach someone is how to listen to God. How to hear His voice. To distinguish it from all the other thoughts running through our heads. And so it is with our kids.
They know bible stories. They know the gospel. They can explain things I didn’t understand until I was in college. I am so proud. But more than anything, I want them to learn to listen to God. I want them to seek Him, to listen to His voice, and obey. But how do you teach them to do that? I’m still not really sure, but I think we just encourage them to listen. To trust when they are in the Word and praying that God wants to speak and is speaking. What we have to do is learn how to hear.
We employ this when leading them to Christ. We encourage them to listen for God’s call. In August, Brotey heard that call and surrendered His life to Christ. Last week I posted the video of his baptism. On the night that he went forward (two weeks ago) Emma approached us with concern. Concern that when she was baptized she hadn’t really been sincere in her surrender to God. Victoria expressed the same concern. We knelt and prayed with them and encouraged them to listen to God. Soon both of them surrendered to Him again, asking Him to be their Lord.
So then there’s the question of baptism. Do they need to be baptized again? They asked themselves. Again, we urged them to listen to the Lord.
Yesterday, Victoria went forward to make it known that Jesus is her Lord and Savior, once and for all. Soon, she will be baptized again. I am so proud of her. Of both of them. They are learning to listen to God and some incredible things are happening.
I can’t wait to baptize her. Hopefully, I’ll get her name right.
This Sunday we will continue our walk through the Christmas story by looking at Zechariah’s song. It is so deep and rich. I can’t wait. We will celebrate singing:
God is with Us – choir
King of Glory, King of Love
Good Christian Men Rejoice
Offering (Christmas Version)
Hallelujah (Light has Come) – choir
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
What a great season. The celebration is on. Join us.
