Category Archives: SPIRITUAL INTEREST

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That Secret Place, Part 1 of 3

This is Part 1 of an introduction to a soon-to-be book, Lord willing, THAT SECRET PLACE: Time Alone with God in Silent Sacred Space: Awaken Your Spiritual Life to Close Relationship with God.

Woe or Weal?

“He will rejoice over you with singing.” -Zephaniah 3:17

GOD IS IN CONTROL and we are not. Like clay being molded by the potter on the potter’s wheel, God is shaping us into the people we were always meant to be. That is a good thing. We do not anticipate where our spiritual journey will take us nor the ways in which God will teach or interrupt us.

God has a way of stripping away much of what we think is important, gets our attention, then gets down to the business of doing it. He is a good God. Thanks for the reminder. Problem is, we are not liking it much. But He has our attention. Then God goes about rebuilding our lives from the ground up.

Thus, God begins a new work in us.

I am a simple messenger with a bigger-than-me sized message. A beauty is present in the gifts God offers to those who desire to seek Him to know Him. Spiritual joys come in that secret place. For greater-than-me sized reasons, I am both focused and driven to share with others in the faith community what I have learned.

God wants to be known.

We, as God’s beloved, can know our Beloved in intimate relationship. This is a journey of many steps, of many emotions, of many long hours, of many tears and of many joys. Any who make this journey will enter as child and exit as a child, but the child will know wonder, know healing, know joy, know peace, know contentment, and by journey’s end, will know faith of the richest kind.

Each step is both beautiful and painful, like how joy and happiness are noticed and appreciated after angst and suffering. A diamond’s brilliance is released through precision cuts to the stone, exacted to reveal its spectacular beauty. So it is with us. God creates masterpieces. We get to be part of that.

Adversity and joys are intertwined in this process of becoming free and whole. We are diamonds in the rough. God’s refining, defining, and shining Life is at work in us at His table of grace.  We emerge a different, lovelier person that we were before we got to know Him on this journey of journeys that is transforming our life.

Getting there is a process one can’t quite define, but it is authentic.

My joy is in God and my satisfaction is in my relationship with Him. True joy and happiness originate in the Beloved as He imparts life-giving Substance to our lives. Those who go through what my former pastor termed, a “crucifixion experience,”–where they die to self and come alive to God–are no longer the same as they were before.

They have met with Jesus.

Take a moment and let that sink in. They have met with Jesus. They met Jesus. They were shaken, changed, and made fully alive. They emerge awakened, transformed, and humbled. Soon they come to realize their steps are being redirected by God. They are now on a new path.

Such was true for me. I knew the crushing and brokenness and discouragement. And I knew and experienced the flip side; the reviving, and healing, and renewing, and joining, and rejoicing. I can never be as I used to be. I am forever changed. God has been teaching, healing, and refining me ever since. The gain is worth the pain.

God met me where I was at, showed me He was in it, and changed my life.

You can meet with God.

Being alone with God in times set aside to seek Him with heart, mind, and soul, begins an insightful journey to greater spiritual awareness and tender closeness with God. I sought God. He responded. My journey opened a path into the divine mystery of “God with us.” This book came into being because of my times in the stillness alone with God

Welcome to that secret place.

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Life’s Unfortunate Events

The Lord—He is God!

We can add the election to the pile of 2020’s unfortunate events. This year hasn’t been pretty, but we’re getting through it. I hope and pray, and then wait expectantly. Yet, where’s the answer? Did God deliver? We can’t question God. (I bet you’re praying more than you were, and that’s a good thing.) I think we have to trust God, that He knows what He is doing. I don’t doubt this for a minute.

Is God still at work? I know He is. I personally know of four people that went from unbelief to belief in God in the last two years. Four atheists that now have personal faith in God and are born-again Christians. That’s a pretty wonderful thing. One was debating with a Christian when God spoke to His heart. He began reading the bible with a hunger for it. Then he believed.

Is Satan at work? I know He is. Satan desires to destroy what God loves. I see his deception and influence on the minds of people in my country and elsewhere. There is unrest and defiance around the world. A battle is being waged between good and evil. People mock God and blaspheme His ways. If we could see what God sees, we might see angels fighting on our behalf, on our country’s behalf, on the world’s behalf.

O how the world needs Jesus.

Christians are not alone in this battle. God is with us. “We have an anchor that keeps the soul; Steadfast and sure as the billows roll.” That is so true. God gives us what we need, when we need it. What a beautiful blessing. Right now He is with you. He goes with you everywhere you go. Now, that’s an awesome thought. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.” Jesus’ peace is the best kind. I experience godly peace like a supernatural resting, a calm that soothes, relaxes, and restores. I give God my struggle and then believe He is helping me with it. Soon peace comes and worry leaves.

A friend sent me a private message today. Rioters are in her relative’s town. They’ve destroyed a home, purposely targeted. Fear of what they will do caused her to reach out for prayer. The prayer request was shared with me. Scary days. Fearful times. Dark times. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

God is not asleep. He hears our pleas. He hears our hearts. He honors our prayers. He is with us. Think of the prophets, bold in the face of spiritual decline. They spoke truth to people resistant to their message. God spoke. God challenged. God delivered.

I leave you with one of the most astounding victories in the Old Testament.

The prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord … so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” 1 Kings 18 (NIV)

God is with us. Trust Him. Pray and believe.

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Photo by Richard Hondonicky, Unsplash