Ron does a great break down of how God orchestrated Christmas and he uses a few personal stories. I read this particuliar chapter as I am dealing with the mysteries of my own pageant. I love how God meets me in the very place I am searching. Sunday morning sermon gave me a little girl's pageant to tell here. How seeming misfortune for a little girl led a man right to the feet of the Almighty God. But before I retell the story, I want to use Ron's words to introduce how God's Plan is directed out in our lives:
Isaiah 9:7
Webster defines 'zeal' as ''intense enthusiasm, as in working for a cause; ardent endeavor or devotion; fervor or passion."
God's zeal is His relentless, tireless, uncompromising commitment to accomplish His will. Nothing in this universe will stand in the way of the Lord's zeal! ... Nothing high or low, big or little, living or dead, visible or invisible will hinder or impede His work. Nothing, nothing, nothing. He will accomplish what He sets out to do. He's passionate about it. ...
Sometimes I wish we could look behind the curtain of our lives and see God's zeal at work. How He moves and arranges people nd times and circumstances to accomplish His will. Nothing catches Him short. Nothing takes Him by surprise. He'a anticipated everything. ...
I'm so thankful God is a Father who has thought of everything. He's pre-planned and pre-arranged ever step of our journey. He's prepared to fund the whole project -- and even the incidentals. He'll get us from here to there and throw in a few nice surprises when the miles get long and the spirit grows weary.
His zeal will cheer us all the way Home.
fr: ''God Works the Night Shift'' ~ by Ron Mehl
The is a little girl around the age of 10 or 11 living in Old Isreal. She probably had a doll nestled on her bed. She probably had a garden place along side her mom. She probably had a favorite herb or veggie. She probably had a favorite olive tree where she would climb up and pick olives to make oil. She probably had a pet lamb she cooed over and cared for. She probably played with sibblings and neighborhood kids until dusk when she heard her momma call for her. She probably could get lost in a bed of wildflowers enjoying the fragrance. Maybe that is where she was when a raid happen.
A warring neighboring country came in and raided the town. This little girl was plucked from her loving home and given to Naaman's wife as a maid servent girl. I am sure there was saddness in her heart for her loving mother who shooed away all her aches and pains, and for her ever protecting father who had the best bear hugs around. Yes, sadness for her brothers and sisters. Oh how she missed her garden and her beloved pet lamb! But as you peek in her pageant, you don't see tears or tantrums! You sence a little girl serving her mistress with real peace and faith. She probably is reciting the 10 commandments and the God-Stories she was told by her father around the fire before bedtime as she did her service. Ahh, treasuring she was.
You see Naaman has this really bad skin condition and this little girl tells Mrs Naaman, her mistress, that she knows of someone who can heal him! Look at her faith! She is in a strange land with strange gods and she pipes up that she knows of a Healer. Realize that if there is no healing, she could pay for it with her own life. No matter. She knows what is hidden in her heart. What faith!
Naaman does go to see the healer. After a bit of misbelief, he does as he was told and is healed. Then Naaman makes a life commitment then and there to bow his knee to the Only One True God.
God took a small girl and plucked her out of her loving home and placed her in Naaman's home so that Naaman and his house could have God's Love transform them. Here we got to see the curtain pulled back. The Mystery Reveal!
So when our lives seemingly have run amuck and the Plan is invisable to our feeble eyes, there is a human element out there besides our own. We are connected and in those connections, God is zealously working His Pageant ....
another pageant piece revealed : at the end of the spear ... see thought #2
2 Kings 5 NIV
ReplyDeleteNaaman Healed of Leprosy
1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
2 Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. 3 She said to her mistress, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
4 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. 5 "By all means, go," the king of Aram replied. "I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents [b] of silver, six thousand shekels [c] of gold and ten sets of clothing. 6 The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: "With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy."
7 As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, "Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!"
8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: "Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel." 9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed."
11 But Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?" So he turned and went off in a rage.
13 Naaman's servants went to him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, 'Wash and be cleansed'!" 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. Please accept now a gift from your servant."
16 The prophet answered, "As surely as the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing." And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.
17 "If you will not," said Naaman, "please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the LORD. 18 But may the LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant for this."
19 "Go in peace," Elisha said.
Dear Author & Finisher of my life pageant,
ReplyDeleteYou met me here in my searching. I wonder why the absence of a good friend... I didn't have the peace and at times still struggle...
The peace that I can have is that I tried my best to encourage and empower him. The curtain may not be pulled back for me at this time... I hope it can be reveiled here on earth ... but I will tell and retell my heart what my spirit has gleaned here.
I will walk in Your Joy ... I do pray for peace for this agitated heart of mine =)
~always your little girl