God has a plan

God has a plan.

For you.

For me.

"O Lord, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness." 

Isaiah 25:1

I am going to take a few minutes to interrupt the regularly scheduled programming for the following public service announcement: 

I was angry last night,
livid when I saw that something abnormal was going on with my blog.
Was it a glitch?
Was my account somehow compromised?
I do not know.

I changed some things and added some security measures.
Today everything looks normal again,
so I am going to continue to use this site unless something happens again.

Thank you for your prayers for the issue to be resolved.
My goal in writing, in teaching, in living is to point others to Christ.
Thank you for telling me that is happening for some of you.
Thank you for communicating that you care.
Your encouragement is a blessing.
Thank you for your part in making the following statement possible:
We will now return to normal programming.

I learned something important about myself last night. 
I can still get fighting mad. 
Well, that isn't really new news, I do that for others. 
Always have, probably always will. 
I get angry when people are bullied, mistreated, taken advantage of or intentionally hurt and I do what I can to "make it right.". 
Somewhere through the years I gave up that "fight" for myself.
Forgiveness and seeking peace is key, but anger has it's place too.
I lost the balance. It appears to be making a comeback.

“In your anger do not sin”. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold." 

Ephesians 4:26-27

This morning a friend shared part of his faith story with the group gathered in Oasis. I did not know Bill was a part of his story. How? By seeing a young man who needed someone to talk to, stopping, taking that young man's books and setting them down, going and getting a drink for him and then sitting and talking with him. That simple, intentional interaction had a huge impact. It doesn't take doing "grand things" for someone to make a difference in their life. I am sure Bill had other, pressing things to do. But he listened to the Spirit. He did not allow the urgent to usurp the important.

"Father, please keep my eyes open to see, my ears open to hear, 

my heart open to love, my feet ready to go or stop, 

my hands willing to serve. Use me where and when You will."

Tonight was the last night of revival 

and the first night I was able to go.

This was our guest singer's opening song.

I know that God has a plan.

I trust Him.

That is why I continue to walk by faith.

But faith and trust did not stop the tears from falling

as I sat in the second to last pew

and remembered why I did not go to revival at all last year.

Our elders were in a meeting with our revival speaker,

praying and preparing for the first night's meeting 

the evening Bill went home.

God knew from the beginning of our relationship

exactly what the end would be.

I am thankful He did not show me.

I don't think I would have been brave enough to start the journey 

if I had seen the end of the road. 

I would have missed a wonderful life.

God has a plan.

God is working that plan.

It does not look like I thought it would look like.

I do not have to be able to make sense of it to trust Him.

He knows, and that is enough.

Day by day I choose to walk with Him.

When He wants me to do something or go somewhere else, 

I know He will make it abundantly clear.

Until then,

I want to live and love where I am,

not squandering time or opportunities,

nor get distracted by busyness or frustrations.

I want to walk by faith, not by sight.

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

"for we walk by faith, not by sight" 2 Corinthians 5:7

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

For me.

For you.

God is working His plan.

"O Lord, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness." 

Isaiah 25:1