What a wonderful promise from God in our text Bible verse! The Bible teaches
that God has promised to guide the believer unto death. The word guide
in the Hebrew is, nahag, meaning, “to drive, lead, guide,
conduct.” God knows how to handle His children. He is not an absent parent!
God knew how to get Jonah's attention, sending a whale to save Jonah's life
by swallowing him, and yet teaching him a lesson on obeying God's will. I've
been there! I want to stay at the feet of Jesus for the rest of my time here
on earth. I need to be close friends with my precious Savior and God,
despite the fact that I feel like I let Him down regularly in so many
ways!!! I agree with Coystal Hyles, Pastor Jack Hyles' dear godly mother,
whose favorite Scripture was Psalms 103:14, “For he knoweth our frame; he
remembereth that we are dust.” Hebrews 11:6 teaches that it is our FAITH
that pleases God, nothing else!
Lord willing, I am planning on moving 9,000 miles back to the states from Guam, soon to Pensacola, Florida. My heart is heavy! I feel very lonely and sad. I have 85% of all my things packed and ready to go. I am having difficulty getting medical approval, which could be a monkey-wrench in my plans. The insurance company are dragging their feet, taking months to accomplish what should only take days. It could be as late as Christmas! As someone has said: Life is what happens to you while you're making big plans! I cannot go anywhere without prior medical approval, or I could end up without my necessary pain medications, which is scary. I have committed the matter to prayer, leaving it in God's hands. I sincerely ask that my friends, my faithful web visitors who love me, pray for me, as I do for you regularly. I am at a tough decision time, wanting to move back to the states, but neither physically or mentally up to it. I can do it, I believe, but it will be difficult, as everything I do is in spite of my bodily pain. I am so tired lately in my soul, and broken in my body from a longtime neck injury, and just want to go home to be with the Lord.
After 12 years of living alone after a divorce, and my life going sideways ever since, I really need to move on, but never have. I did attempt to relocate back to the states in 2013, which became a very expensive yo-yo misadventure. I came back to Guam broken, defeated and very tired. No on cared! People were cruel and mean to me, heartless and only wanting their money. It is difficult to do even normal daily things, because I am in constant neck pain. I am in constant chronic neck pain. I have never felt Guam is for me, since I wasn't raised here (thank God!), but if it is where God wants me, then He will give me a reason to stay. It is also possible that I will return again, as I did in 2013, when things just didn't work out. I cannot handle a lot of stress and aggravation. My neck swells with tension and dull, agonizing, sore, throbbing, toothache-like, debilitating, chronic pain.
I am not seeking sympathy (well
maybe a little so you'll pray for me), and I praise God for the remaining
good health that I still have. Other than my neck, I am healthy as far as I
know. My blood pressure was 110/70 last month. I thank God for every day
that I can take care of myself! Millions of people are stuck in wheelchairs
or a hospital bed. I have no complaints. I am fully functional, just in
constant bodily pain. My neck horribly burns with pain (in the bony area in
back) when I sit to type articles, which makes it tough to spend lots of
time at my laptop. It's all part of a normal abnormal day in my life since
2004.
A Little of My History and Complicated Situation
I have tried so hard, and prayerfully, to find workable solutions to my life's disarray over the past 12 years, but to no avail. I have honestly come to suspect that PERHAPS this is exactly where God wants me to be, stuck in between a rock and hard place, where no matter which decision I make it doesn't seem to work. That compels me to do the only thing left to do, CONTINUALLY LOOK UP IN FAITH TO GOD!!! I do not know that to be a fact in my life, but it makes perfect sense Biblically. Our trials and hardships in life teach us the meaning of the Scriptures, and to obey them (Psalms 119:67, 71). I am not sure if it is my own failures and indecision that has painted me into a corner, stuck in life, or if God has done this to me to humble and refine me. Perhaps it is both, and God is using my sins and failures and lack of wisdom for His glory, to refine me to become more Christlike.
I moved to Guam in 2004 and have lived here for 14 years. I attempted to relocate back to the states in 2013 and it turned into a disaster for me. So I reluctantly returned to Guam, tired and burned out. I praise the Lord for the gift of life, and for all that He has blessed me with! I have been watching war documentaries lately, and it brings tears to my eyes. In just one day in 1916, in the Battle Of The Somme of World War I, there were 58,000 British soldiers killed. I could spend days mentioning such horrific tragedies, accounting for HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of untimely war-related deaths just over the past two centuries. I watched a 12-hour documentary by Ken Burns on The Civil War. It was horrifying! When the canon's fired, entire regiments of several thousand men simply vanished, blown to smithereens, due to the incredible energy from the blasts of the canons! Such sordid history and contempt for human life, continually reminds me how blessed I have been by God to grow up in a free country in America, and live in a time of peace, and in a time of prosperity. Most Americans take such things for granted, evidenced by their lack of appreciation toward God, the author of liberty and freedom. Consequently, we are losing our liberties to a thug Police State, which God is allowing to happen because we refuse to obey Him. A nation cannot legalize homosexuality, murder by abortion, and thievery by the Federal Reserve Banksters, and think God will continue to bless such wickedness!!!
No doubt many of my web visitors
have noticed that I haven't been writing as many new articles lately. I am
simply overwhelmed. My chronic neck pain dominates my life! I am so tired
lately, both physically and in my soul. The Lord is my strength. Psalms
27:1, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall
I be afraid?” After 18 years of marriage, my first and only wife
unfortunately divorced me in 2006, and I have reluctantly lived alone since.
Due to my constant toothache-like neck pain, and discomfort from
radiculopathy (burning, sharp intermittent radiating pain, numbness and
tingling throughout my nervous system), I don't have much of a desire for a
social life. I am truly a loner in life, which is a constant heartbreak for
me, but the Lord Jesus Christ and the precious promises of God in His Word
sustain my soul. My neck feels burning in back, by the bone. If you look at
me outwardly, I look fine; but I cannot find the words to convey what I
suffer from inside daily. The best way I can describe my affliction is that
someone has placed a giant menthol strip over my entire body, from head to
toe. I have constant tension in my neck, from a compressed spinal cord
(which I still have even after two major surgeries in 2009 and 2010). It
feels like a giant toothache in the bony area of the back of my neck, 24
hours a day. The 80 milligrams of Oxycontin daily is a blessing from God. It
is the only treatment which has actually helped me over the past 14 years.
In Need of a Legitimate New Testament Church
Furthermore, I cannot find a church on Guam that will have me, or that I would bother to attend because they are corrupted by the Devil. Harvest Baptist Church is certainly corrupt, but that was my last ditch effort (I tried three times in 2017) to attempt to fit in with a local independent Baptist church, to have a social life, but they are holding a grudge. Despite my heartfelt apologies and willingness to work with them, they made me feel like Ben Fieldhouse (who disappeared and commit suicide in 2012, but then his remains were found in the Ritidian cliffline on Guam in 2012). That breaks my heart. It truly does. Poor Ben! Ben's suicide particularly touched my heart when I learned about it, because he was a member at Harvest Baptist Church, where I faithfully attended for 2013 to 2014. Ben had marriage problems, like me (before my wife divorced me in 2006). He ended up in court, like me. He was 140 pounds, I am 150. Ben was 5' 6" tall, I am 5' 7". He was Caucasian like me. Ben was 49, I am 51. Ben loved walking, as I do too. Ben seems like my twin brother, and certainly is my brother in the Lord. I don't plan on committing suicide, but I understand what Ben was going through, and my heart goes out to him, and I so much wish I could have been there for him, to help him through it.
Anyway, I am without a church family on Guam. Many of my web visitors are also without a church family, because of the apostasy in churches today. One of my faithful web visitors today, said that his wife was laughed at by people at the horrible church they attended last week, because she mentioned that she is King James Bible only. Folks, God only authored ONE BOOK. Anytime you have two or more books claiming to be God's Holy Bible, one or more of them is a fraud. How can God say two different things? I have already found a few Baptist churches in Pensacola, where I fully intend to get involved, as my health afflictions allow. I cannot attend every service. Truly I have been led into a ministry of suffering.
I was thinking today while walking
about how my problems and major decisions that I need to make, which are a
major burden to me, are a drop in a bucket for our great God. The Lord keeps
the universe working. God has a name for every star and calls them by their
names (Psalms 147:4), more stars than any human being has ever been able to
count! The latest guesstimate by scientists is
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars!!! I am a bit scared to move 9,000
miles away, but if I don't move, nothing will change in my life. The biggest
need I have right now is to find a good church to attend, where people
actually care about everyone, and not just a select few like Harvest Baptist
Church does.
Enduring With a Broken Heart
Anyway, Harvest Baptist Church on Guam has been an equal blessing and a curse in my life! As the apostle Paul said in 2nd Timothy 4:14b, “the Lord reward him [them] according to his [their] works.” I love them at Harvest, but they don't love me (which means they are not right with God). I honestly think a snobby group of rich people control the church, and the pastor is henpecked (a mere employee), and they simply don't want me. That is heathendom, not Christian love. I love everybody with God's unconditional love. No godly pastor would never deny anyone with a contrite spirit the opportunity to simple attend church services. It just evidences that Harvest Baptist Church is a social club, business-oriented rather than spiritually-minded, prioritizing ministry over people. Romans 14:10, “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” And so it is! As Pilate said to the Pharisees (i.e., Harvest Baptist Church) in John 19:22, “What I have written I have written.”
If
you've never had to live in constant pain, then you cannot even begin to
understand what I endure on a daily basis. A couple months ago, I had
stopped going walking every day for about a month, simply burned out
physically. But then this week I fasted for a few days and have been walking
again, fighting off depression (that I experience almost daily from my
chronic neck pain). I get depressed easily, and I have to fight it by
getting out of the house. After my Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion
(ACDF) surgeries failed in 2009 and 2010, and I was made significantly worse
with bodily discomfort (arm veins feeling inflated with air, right side of
my body feels half asleep all the time, et cetera), I stayed inside for
months at a time, drugged out on prescription drugs and obese for several
years. I fought it by God's grace in 2017 and defeated it!!!
Truthfully, I fell in love with a woman that I met at Harvest in 2013-2014, which was my motivation for losing all my weight in February of 2017. I hadn't seen her for a long time, but thought about her a lot. I (by chance or God's intervention) met her one day at the beach, in her culottes in her hammock on February 21st, 2017, and finally expressed my heart's feelings toward her. I was on cloud nine. I was embarrassed when I met her, because she was so skinny, and I was so overweight. Unfortunately she doesn't want me (which makes me sad), likely afraid of what other people think about her (and me) at Harvest, since my fallout with Harvest Baptist Church. I know as sure as I'm saved that she liked me in 2014. She used to wait for me in the parking lot at the church, and she won my heart. But I was scared at the time (still recovering from a divorce), which I explained to her later. It is what it is, beyond my efforts. I wish things were different.
I really love Michael P. Bowen's book, “I Never Knew You,” where he is transparent (like I am being), sharing his many heartbreaks with the prospective women in his life, relating it to salvation and Matthew 7:21-23. Rejection hurts! I think it is tragic how so many women merely want the guy that everyone else wants (i.e., she is more concerned about her public image than finding a godly man). People marry for all the wrong reasons. I have my faults, but God knows there is not a more pure of heart man than myself, and I love the Lord Jesus Christ, which is why I fight so valiantly for the inspiration and purity of the King James Bible.
Anyway, I owe it to her influence (I would never mention her name) on my heart that I lost 70 pounds. God used that brief reunion to kick-start my heart. I weighed 151.6 pounds today, in September of 2018. On February 21, 2017, I weighed 215 pounds! By June 25th, 2017, I reached 145.0 on an empty stomach. So I have kept my weight off for well over a year now, which is uncommon. Statistically, 67% of people gain all their weight back within the first 10 months, after having lost lots of weight. Likewise, 90% gain it all back within 3 years. By God's grace I fully intend to be in the 10% group. Whereas I was type II diabetic last year with a sugar level of 9.8 mmol/L, it is now 5.2 mmol/L. Praise the Lord! My diabetes is 100% gone!
Lord willing, I will one day remarry, if I can find a Christian lady who wants me, and I want her. It's better to wait long than marry wrong! I'm sincerely starting to think I'll never find her, and that's frustrating. That is one reason I want to leave Guam and move back to the states. Guam is 2% Caucasian and I have never felt at home here. I can't find a church to build a social life. Guam is truly another country, despite being a U.S. territory.
Guam has many benefits (warm
weather, simple island living, some great restaurants, mostly friendly
people, less regulations, et cetera). However, island living gets boring
fast (even for a homebody like me). I was ready to go back to the states
after 2 years of living here. Homes are very expensive here. I lost my home
after the divorce after 2006. I miss the four weather seasons. I miss
squirrels (no squirrels here). I miss market delis with fresh meat
(everything is packaged here, like Hormel or Oscar Meyer brands). Many
things won't ship to Guam. Of the things that do ship, it is not uncommon
for the shipping to cost more than the item purchased. It is much too hot
during the daytime to do anything outdoors, unless you're under an umbrella
on the beach. That does get old very quickly! Guam's okay! That is my humble
opinion. It's not great, it's okay. Having grown up in Chicago, Guam was a
welcomed change, and I would never want to live in a big metropolis like
Chicago again, where people don't matter; but my social life has been
non-existent here for numerous reasons, primarily that I cannot find a
church family. Sad but true, the ministry has become a mere occupation to
over 95% of pastors today!!! The truth means little or nothing to them. If I
perish, I perish!
One Day At a Time
Likely, I may leave Guam and return at some point, Lord willing, if things don't work out in Florida. At least I can obtain my opiate pain medications here, and that's a really big concern for me, obviously. Florida has had MAJOR opiate drug abuse problems. Consequently, a bunch of new laws have been enacted which punishes legitimate pain sufferers along with abusers. From my understanding, since I am a CHRONIC pain sufferer (meaning I have had the pain for 6 months or longer; it's now been 14 years for me), I should be okay, but I won't be positive until I get there! I've never been to Florida and cannot afford to visit. Due to my radiculopathy (i.e., sharp stabbing pain in my arms and legs), which is torture, I cannot fly in a coach seat. I have to fly Business Class, where the seats tilt back, which costs $4,000 round trip for a plane ticket. Then the hotel and rent car cost thousands of dollars for a couple weeks. So it's a blind move. I feel a bit overwhelmed with everything right now. I may need to turn off my e-mail for web visitors if it becomes too much for me. I'm just in a lot of chronic neck pain continually, and even little things can be irritable. Very few people understand or care. I mean, if the professed Christians down the street at Harvest Baptist Church couldn't care less, why would anyone else?
Why Florida? For one main reason, my daughter just moved there. She is already there. If I am going to choose a place to live, I want to live around some of my family. I love my family and I thank God for them! Unfortunately, there are other considerations as well, without going to details. I also have some family on Guam. I have already decided to go to Florida as soon as my medical is approved, if things work out, but it will be a trial basis for me. I don't have the patience for a bunch of problems in Florida. So if it all goes well, I will likely stay. However, if things start going wrong, I won't hesitate to return, where at least I know I can obtain my pain medications. I wish I could live for half of the year in one place, and half of the year in another place, but only very wealthy people (which I certainly am not) can afford to do that.
I've been getting some really weird e-mails lately from people. The world is filled with nuts! If you're wondering if it's you, it's likely not. Crazy people don't know that they're crazy! Some people sincerely have drug abuse problems and write incoherent e-mails to me, which I cannot even interpret. There is nothing I can do to help them. You wouldn't believe some of the stories I receive. And of course, I get lots of criticism. Since I don't have a secretary to filter it out, I have to bare the brunt of it all. It gets old. I thank God for the many encouraging letter that I have received. I sometimes copy them to my “Testimonies” webpage, not to showcase them or brag; but rather, to archive them for my own benefit when I get discouraged, to remind me why I do what I do. Thank you to those who have encouraged me over the years, and for your earnest prayers. I have been very lonely for the past 12 years since my wife left me. I hate being alone. It is a curse in my life (so it seems). Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise, considering my neck pain and irritability. As Pastor Danny Castle says, “The only thing worse than not being married, is being married and not wanting to be married!”
I grew up in Chicago, born in 1967. I still feels like a teenager in my heart. It seems like just yesterday. I still remember vividly playing in the snow as a 12 year old boy in the infamous “Blizzard of 79” in 1979, which dumped 26 inches of snow on the ground, stacking 10 feet up to the fork in the elm trees in front of my home where I grew up. I actually have photos of me and my son standing on top of the garage, sliding down a giant toboggan of snow that we made by stacking snow against the garage. The snow slide went all the way to the front of the house, about 75 feet! Cool stuff! No pun intended! Guam has been the exact opposite of growing up in the cold north. So far I haven't been in a major typhoon. The big one, Pongsona, hit Guam in 2002 and caused one billion dollars in damage (adjusted for 2018 prices). Wind speeds reached 240 mph. I moved here in 2004. The biggest typhoon I've been through is Dolphin in 2015, a banana typhoon with winds of 106 mph. I have glass doors on the place I am renting, with no typhoon shutters, so I am soooo thankful for no big storms!
In Proverbs 3:5-6 we read, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Dr. Jack Hyles taught me that God didn't promise to guide me in Proverbs 3:5-6; but rather, God promised to guide MY PATHS. The Bible says, “thy paths.” I trust God to guide me. It is so easy to slap a label of “God's will” over what we really desire to do. We have all done this, superimposing our will over God's will. I have spent the past 12 years soul-searching, praying, and trying to make sense of my life; but as I learned from Dr. Hyles in his Wednesday night Bible study on “The Way The Apostle Paul Found The Will Of God,” MOST OF THE TIME Paul had to decide for himself, based upon Scriptural principles, what to do next.
So, that's it in a nutshell. I am just about packed up and ready to go. My right leg is hurting much as I type, and my neck. I am not complaining, but I kindly ask that my web visitors bear with me through all this. I have no intentions, Lord willing, of quitting my online ministry. That is the main thing that keeps me going, helping others to find THE TRUTH. I am not sure if I will maintain e-mail contact or not yet. I'll have to see. I am tired and frustrated, overwhelmed with all the things that I will need to do to move. It is a lot of hassle, being by myself. I can only take life the way God gives it, one day at a time. I plead for your prayers. I don't want to answer a bunch of questions, nor go into further details about moving. I am sorry if I seem down, that is my neck pain talking. I have been wanting to move for many years, and tried and failed in 2013, and by God's grace would like to try again. The insurance company for my medical is giving me a hard time, dragging their feet, and it isn't helping things. So I have to wait and see what happens.
I love all my web visitors,
whether atheist or saint, homosexual or straight, sinner or really big
sinner, this lowly preacher cares about you in Jesus Christ! I just wanted
you to know that, if you didn't already.
Have Faith in God
Mark 11:22, “And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.”
Genuine faith is dynamic, i.e., it makes things happen. Passive faith is no faith at all, but mere optimism. Obedience to the Word of God is faith.
John 10:11,27 state... “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep... My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Do you see, we are the sheep and Jesus Christ is the Divine Shepherd who guides us.
God has promised to guide the believer throughout life, if we will be led by the Spirit of Christ through the Word of God. What a Savior!
It's been said that a coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. What we call coincidence is often in fact God's timing. God continues to guide and direct our paths, even when it seems that we are being led out of the way sometimes. God knows exactly what's going on. Matthew 20:29-30 says that God even knows the number of hairs on our head. Nothing ever occurs to God. Psalms 136:1-6 is an amazing passage of Scriptures, comforting us that God knows every minute detail of our life, 24 hours a day, even the very thoughts of our mind before we think them...
Psalms 139:1-6, “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”
It's important that we do our part and then
just rest in the promises of God, trusting the Lord to do His part in His
own unique ways and time. Proverb 3:5-6 teaches to trust upon the Lord, lean
not unto our own understanding, and to acknowledge God in all our ways. The
Hebrew word for “acknowledge” is yawdah and means, “A primitive root;
to know (properly to ascertain by seeing).” It means that we ought to seek
God's opinion in every decision of life. Interestingly, the Bible never
tells us to SEEK God's will in our life; but rather, to KNOW
what the will of God is from the Bible. This is why Jesus commanded every
Christian in John 5:39... SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!!! What does
the Bible teach?
Search the Scriptures
The Holy
Spirit guides us with the Holy Scriptures. Jesus said in John 5:40...
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES! We cannot reasonably expect God to lead
us if we are unwilling to study the Bible. So many people spend their
lives pursuing “God's will” to no avail, because they remain ignorant of the
Scriptures. How can we know God's will if we refuse to know God's
Word? The Bible is God's instruction manual for humanity. John
16:13, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will
guide you into all truth... Sanctify them through thy truth:
thy word is truth" (John 17:17). The Holy Spirit NEVER guides
us contrary to the Word of God.
Trust and Obey
There are many things which I do not understand about God, such as why children are allowed to suffer. I realize that man is to blame, and sin is the culprit; but if I were God, I could never allow a child to suffer. However, I am not God, thankfully, for I would likely destroy half the population, and I would start with SIN CITY Las Vegas! God is so longsuffering and patient towards mankind; but God's patience will come to an end during the Tribulation Period (Matthew 24:3-28), and at the Great White Throne of Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). God is as vengeful (2nd Thessalonians 1:8) as He is merciful (Joel 2:13).
We must trust God, and not lean upon our own human reasoning (Proverb 3:5-7). What could we possibly know, having only been alive for a few years? I marvel at the willing ignorance and arrogance of college students, who follow the unbelief of their heathen professors, who seem to have all the answers concerning life; but they are as fools headed for utter destruction (Romans 1:22). It is rebellion against God! The world places God on trial, demanding PROOF of His existence; YET, nature itself is abundant proof of God's Divine Godhead and power (Psalm 19:1-3; Romans 1:20). Go to any isolated pagan people on earth, and you'll find faith in some sort of God. Only in modern civilization do we find men and women who deny the existence of a Divine Creator. It is out of wishful thinking, and not genuine conviction, that there are atheists in the modern world today.
Anybody can obey God if they are
willing to ACKNOWLEDGE Him. Romans 1:21 states... “Because that,
when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened.” The word “glorified” means “to acknowledge.” Every child KNOWS that there's a God at some point in their life. As
they grow older, they'll either acknowledge God's presence in their life or
turn aside after Satan. The sinful world does not acknowledge
God, and their glories and accomplishments are empty and meaningless. Their foolish heart is darkened, hardened by sin and unbelief. They
are the blind leading the blind.
Blessed Be the Name of the Lord
God has promised to guide the “meek,” that is, those who are willing to be taught and led, docile, cooperative. Psalms 25:9, “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.” Most people don't care what God thinks. If we eagerly study the Bible for God's opinion, and are willing to do as God commands, then He will guide us throughout life as He has PROMISED. Isn't that awesome!
So many people today (including many immature believers) sinfully place God on trial, basing their judgment upon their own human, finite, limited reasoning. Notice again in Proverbs 3:5 that we are NOT supposed to lean unto our own understanding. Proverbs 3:5,6... “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” The only opinion that matters is God's opinion. I love the Bible, because it is the thoughts of God's heart to each generation (Psalms 33:11). Hebrews 4:12 teaches that the Bible is able to discern even between our soul and spirit, revealing the true intentions of our heart. The Bible shows us THE TRUTH. I love the Bible because it is pure, honest and truthful about everything. There is no deceit.
I love the next Scripture. Psalms 10:4, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” The Christian who loves Jesus wants God's thoughts with him continually. How else can we acknowledge God in all our ways if we do not include God in all our thoughts? Romans 1:28 says that the wicked do not like to retain God in their mind, just as we also learned in Psalms 10:4. As God's children we ought to listen, study (research to comprehend), memorize and meditate (think about) God's Word continually. Psalms 40:8, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”
King David said he mediated in God's Word day and night (Psalm 1:2). That means thinking about the Bible deliberately and consciously, seeking God's wisdom. James 1:5 teaches to pray for wisdom and God will give it to us. Proverbs 4:7 says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” All of these precious teachings in the Bible go hand-in-hand. If we want God to guide us, then we must have a meek spirit that is willing to submit to God's Word. We must trust upon the Lord and not lean unto our OWN opinions. We must fear the Lord and depart from evil (Proverbs 3:7). God wants to guide us, but He cannot if we are stubborn as a mule and insist upon doing things the Frank Sinatra way, that is, “I DID IT MY WAY” (lyrics from Sinatra's famous song, “My Way”). Sinatra certainly did do it his way, and he's burning in the fires of Hell forever.
God's ways are above our ways, and His thoughts above our thoughts... “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8,9). We won't always make the right decisions, for we are flawed humans. Albeit, God knows our heart (Proverbs 24:12) and judges accordingly. Psalms 44:21, “Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.”
If we do our part, then God will do His. If we will trust the Lord Jesus, and base all of our decisions upon the Word of God, regardless of our feelings on the matter, then He has promised to GUIDE us!
My Lord knows the way through the Wilderness, all I have to do is follow,
My Lord knows the way through the Wilderness, all I have to do is follow;
Strength for today is mine all the way, and all that I need for tomorrow;
My Lord knows the way through the Wilderness, all I have to do is follow,
My Lord knows the way through the Wilderness, all I have to do is follow.
“Nothing
in my future can ever affect the salvation that I have... Once you trust
the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are eternally secure!”
—Pastor Hank Lindstrom (1940-2008), a quote from the classic MP3 sermon
titled, “
