O’leno State Park, High Springs, Florida
Therefore my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. ~ I Corinthians 15:5
Church this morning was at First Baptist Church of High Springs. We were here last year and really enjoyed it. Today was no different, although the regular Pastor was absent and they had a guest instead. I didn’t catch his name, but I think it was Jonathan? Anyway, he’s from the Philippines, and had quite a life-miracle to share with us in addition to his message. He and his wife and son are in the US because when Hunter was born a little over a year ago, he had a major heart condition (again, he said it, but I didn’t catch the name) that would require a heart transplant. The procedures and heart he needed were not available in the Philippines, so they applied for a medical visa and came to the United States. On March 14, 2018, Hunter was put on The Berlin Heart. Then, he developed septic shock which caused extreme swelling of his body and brought him to death’s door. On September 12, 2018, he received a heart transplant at just 26 weeks old! Isn’t it incredible what modern medicine can do? As if that’s not miraculous enough, here’s the way God works. At a time in their lives when all hope was gone, the doctors and hospital staff believed Hunter could not survive the sepsis and the parents had almost lost hope as well, Hunter’s parents felt reassurance from God that Hunter would be fine. Following the transplant, a doctor informed them that Hunter’s sepsis and subsequent swelling increased the size of his chest cavity, thereby making room for his new heart! Is God’s way incredible or what?!?!?!
He presented pictures of all this and in the end, he showed a recent picture of Hunter – healthy and very happy! And another thing. They had set up a Facebook page for Hunter so their people in the Philippines could keep track of Hunter’s progress. He now has 27,000 followers. ‘Jonathan’ was quick to point out that they don’t know that many Christians, but they have received numerous inquiries from non-Christians because of the events in Hunter’s life! Again, mysterious ways, right? As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. ~ Isaiah 55:9
‘Jonathan’ and his family are here on a medical visa, which means he’s not permitted to work. Rather than sit around, he wants to do what God called him to do and preach, so he travels around to various churches and fills pulpits for free. He is currently waiting for a work visa to come through.
So for today, we were blessed to be under his teaching.
What do you think when you hear someone mention visions, especially Christians? Do you always go to extraordinary, supernatural encounters with God? Well, although those types of visions are possible (I know because I’ve had a couple myself. Eventually, my God Moments excerpts will get to that.), but that’s not what today’s message is about.
Today the Pastor was speaking of the type of visions God gives us to follow His will. He gave us three Biblical examples in the lives of Moses, Isaiah and Paul. He also talked about how God prepares us for those visions. These days, God speaks to us primarily through His Word, the Bible, but back then (especially in the case of Moses), God had to speak through different means. A little off topic, but as you know, the printing press wasn’t even invented until 1440 and the first thing printed? The Bible! What that means is that God’s Word wasn’t available to the masses until after that time.
He began by telling us a story of how a church in the Philippines had a vision for their church. He talked about how they wanted to grow their church from 1,000 people to 10,000 by a specific date, so they went ahead and built a huge building to accommodate these 10,000 people. Twenty years later, they’ve not grown beyond 1,000 people in their congregation. What happened?
He was quick to insist that he wasn’t passing judgement on this church because he doesn’t know why, but he believes it could be that they had the right vision, but weren’t in accord with God’s timing. In other words, they had the right idea, but stepped out in their own power. It may not have been God’s vision for them, or it may not be the right time.
In order to have a vision from God, we must first have a vision of God.
In Exodus 3:1-10, Moses met God in a burning bush, but previous to this, he’d tried to improve the Israelites’ enslavement by murdering a taskmaster. Sent into exile and living as a shepherd for many years, there was no reason to believe that he’d ever receive a vision from God. But God’s vision was broader than Moses. It was time to bring His people out of captivity and into the land He’d promised them. God renewed Moses’ mission while re- calibrating his motive. He’d had the right mission to free his people, but he wasn’t ready. He moved under his own power and committed murder and was exiled instead. God had to humble him and prepare him. If your mission is good, but it fails, check your motive. Where’s your heart? It could be that the mission is correct, but your motive is not.
In Isaiah 6:1-8, Isaiah had a vision of being called by God to be His prophet. Isaiah’s conscience first had to be cleansed, before God could clarify His mission for Isaiah. Are you one of those who are over-confident and self-righteous? Or are you so guilt ridden, you won’t even consider being used of God? These people can’t be used of God without first being cleansed of their sin. When we have an encounter with God, He allows us to see our sinfulness, but He never leaves us there. He cleanses us. He is a Holy God, but also a forgiving God.
In Acts 26:12-18, Paul has a vision of God as he’s walking down the road, but it took three days of blindness and several years of training/preparation before Paul was ready to fulfill God’s vision for his life. Paul was a well-scholared Jew, a very observant Jew. He thought he knew God, but he discovered that he didn’t know God. It was here that ‘Jonathan’ told the story of a seminary student in his final year who, although he’d been raised a Christian and knew everything there was to know about being a Christian, suddenly came to the realization that he didn’t actually know Jesus. He knew of Him, knew all about Him, knew all the right words and thoughts,etc. But he didn’t know Him personally. And so, in his final year of seminary, this man became a Christian, a true believer by faith, and he went on to be used of God. He didn’t say so, but I suspect this was ‘Jonathan’.
Do you desire to be used by God? Every Christian should. If you’re a true believer, you should. If you don’t feel that way, or if you do but you feel God’s not using you, check your heart. Check your motives. Spend time in His Word. God uses His Word to bring to light the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Spend time in prayer. Ask Him with sincere motives and He’ll reveal Himself to you.
How would you define love? Not an actual definition, but in practical terms? Toss that around in your brain as you read on.
After our early morning service, Blaine managed to sweet-talk me into a bike ride. I don’t know why I didn’t really want to go. Maybe I’m just getting restless here after eight days, plus having been here just last year, and my wanderlust is begging for freedom. Maybe I’m just tired of sand and saw palmettos. Maybe I’m just spoiled rotten.
Whatever the reason, I was very reluctant. But as Blaine nicely pointed out, I needed the exercise and since we’d walked all around this place on previous days, it was time to ride. So after three changes of clothing because I couldn’t decide what to wear (crazy isn’t it?), we were finely off and spent the next two hours attempting to ride through sand, partially dried mud, water hazards, roots and grass. Woo Hoo!
Hm . . . It still sound like I have an attitude, doesn’t?
Only a few minutes into the ride, I offered to go back home and let Blaine go it alone. It was obvious that I was holding him back, as I struggled through deeper sand than I cared for, while he appeared to sail right through it. He insisted that I wasn’t hindering him in anyway and he wanted to spend the day with me, so there was no bailing on my part. And so… I struggled on.
Not the kind of partly cloudy we grew up with in Ohio!
Can you spot the difference between these two pictures? 
And people say there’s no God!
He would flit around, and then land on the flimsy grass – – and stay on it!
Amazing!
Ok. So the sun was my friend.
At least at this point of the trip.
This little guy kept doing push-ups! haha!
You can’t see it, but if you caught him from the side when his head was elevated,
there was a bright blue patch at his throat.
That’s the way we biked in, and now have to bike back out.
And then there was the fall. Well. Not exactly a fall. More like a slow lean to the left and a plop. Into the soft, partially dried mud. When I got up, my entire left side (minus my head) and the left side of my bike were marred with muck. Of course, Blaine didn’t think to take a picture of me. He said he didn’t want me to be upset. I told him, if I didn’t want to use it in the blog, I wouldn’t. I’m sure I was quite a sight!
In the end, I burned a lot of calories powering through the hazards and sweating in the brilliant sunshine that was supposed to be clouds.
In the end, I was glad, because when I ate that chocolate covered orange cake Blaine baked, I didn’t feel a bit of remorse! 😊
and came across this monstrosity of a beetle.
Meanwhile, in addition to baking a cake, Blaine washed dishes.
Guess he collected his thoughts in the kitchen.
My how times have changed! : )
but it was so loaded with sand, he had to clean it off first.
He wouldn’t let me beat it. Instead, he stood on the table and kicked it. : )
My definition of love? A husband who’s willing to hold himself back just to share time and adventure with his wife, and a wife who’s willing to sacrifice time and adventure so her husband can reach his potential.
Guess he loves me more, since his love overpowered mine. 😊