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- Written by: Don Goulding
The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend. (Exodus 33:11)
“Blezesh zhrooom, POW.” Our grandson woke me with his jabbering.
At two years old, it’s difficult to make yourself understood, yet I knew he was recounting a game we’d played the day before. I could only grin hugely and feign comprehension.
Most of us have a need to talk through the details of our lives. We chase self-worth by telling others what we said and did. If they’ll show interest, we reason, then our life must be worthwhile.
Behind the social media revolution is a craving to converse over the minutiae of our days. But dialoguing my life with another human doesn’t bring the significance I need. Trying to meet needs apart from God always results in meaninglessness.
Man was created to live in fellowship with God. We don’t know how long Adam and Eve enjoyed intimate walks in the garden with their Creator. It ended too soon. God missed that friendship, and even more importantly, he knew how worthless our lives became without him. So his own genius found a way to solve the interruption to the divine dialogue.
There were back-to-back doors between my room and God’s. For our rooms to be joined, I had to open the door on my side, and God had to open his. With a yearning for my Maker, I opened my door with plans to knock on his, though I assumed it would be locked against my sin. I was shocked to discover that Jesus had removed God’s door from its hinges. Only my door had held us apart.
Now both doorways stand open, and each exchange in prayer, every hour of sweet communion, is holy and eternally significant. No spouse, friend, or pet can satisfy my need for acceptance. God alone fulfills my need to integrate my life with something larger.
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Prayer: Father, thank you for assigning dignity to my existence. |
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- Written by: Don Goulding
From one man he [God] made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live… (Acts 17:26)
Scientists wanted to know if Einstein’s theory of relativity was true, so they placed an atomic clock, accurate to a billionth of a second, on an airplane. They flew the clock around the globe, then compared its time to another atomic clock. The times were different—proof that motion changes time.
Measuring beams that traveled near our heavy sun from the space probe Cassini, physicists demonstrated that gravity also alters time. Minutes and hours pass more slowly on a massive star than on earth, relative to motion and gravity.
Because my life is confined to a singular timed existence, I have difficulty grasping the elasticity of time. God, on the other hand, transcends his creation. He stretches and shapes time, portions it out, or removes its limits altogether, as he chooses. He is the Master of time.
When God blessed me with his endowment of time, he chose where I live on history’s timeline, the number of my days, and the rate at which time advances for me. It’s a personalized gift not to be taken for granted. The grains will run out, and sooner than I imagine. Another fifty have slipped through the hourglass in the time it took to write this sentence. The unequivocal reckoning is near.
“What did you do with my gift of time?”
That’s the question God will ask, and my excuses will hide me about as well as transparent glass.
What did I do with the bit of time I held in my hands? Did I squander it on pleasures that melted into oblivion the moment they passed, or did I intentionally bring eternal honor to Jesus Christ?
It’s better that I answer these questions now, while I still have time to change.
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Prayer: Master Creator, may I honor you through my allotted time. |
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. (Hebrews 13:17)
“Hey, Paul,” my voice gave a mid puberty squeak, “my parents are gone. Come pick me up.”
Paul arrived with other boys, and we brewed schemes of teenage rascality. As the night unfolded there were primal yells, illegal entries, and stolen goods.
The revelry jerked to a halt when the police stopped us for spinning doughnuts on our high school lawn. We denied the charge, but a grass covered souped-up Chevy made for an unconvincing tale. We spent the rest of the night in the town jail. So much for a parent free adventure.
God maintains order through hierarchies of authority, in both the physical and spiritual realms. In the material world he works through parents, governments, even armies, on occasion. In the church, he uses elders and pastors (AKA bishops, shepherds, overseers, & presbyters).
I was a foolish teenager when I cast off submission to authority, and I paid a dear price. As an adult, how often do I ignore the authority of my church leaders and lose out on blessings for myself and others? Do I even consult them about life decisions?
The anointing over positions within the body of Christ is bigger than the persons holding the offices. That’s not to say we should follow blindly. Leaders need to be held accountable to the Bible, and woe to the ones who misuse their authority. But when I submit to their Spirit led direction, I’m under the umbrella of God’s protection. To step out from under that privilege is more foolish than spinning doughnuts on the lawn.
Prayer: Father, use my church leaders to keep watch over my soul.