Posts

Jonah: When the Prophet Runs from the Word He Already Has

Image
  "But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD." — Jonah 1:3 Not every crisis of guidance is a lack of information. Sometimes the Lord has already spoken, and we do not like the assignment. The most honest sentence some of us could write is not “I cannot find God’s will,” but “I have found it, and I am booking a fare the other way.” Jonah is the patron saint of the informed rebel. “Arise, go to Nineveh.” The word was plain. He went down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into sleep, down into the sea. Sin always has a downward grammar. He had theology enough to confess that he feared the Lord which hath made the sea and the dry land. He still ran. Knowledge without surrender is not guidance. It is indictment. God’s direction includes pursuit. He sent out a great wind. The lot fell upon Jonah. The fish was prepared. You cannot outrun the God who made the sea you are sailing. Psalm 139 asked the question Jonah tried to answer: whither shall I flee from...
Post a Comment
Read more

David: Directed While He Waited for the Throne

Image
  "I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry." — Psalm 40:1 David was anointed long before he was crowned. Between the horn of oil and the throne lay caves, betrayals, and opportunities to seize what God had promised by the wrong means. The most important education of his life was not how to be king. It was how not to take the kingdom. Twice he could have killed Saul. In the cave at Engedi his men whispered that the Lord had delivered the enemy into his hand. The circumstances looked like providence. David cut the skirt, and then his heart smote him. “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD'S anointed” (1 Samuel 24:6). Not every open door in a cave is from God. Some are tests to see whether you love the promise more than the Promiser. David inquired of the Lord again and again — at Keilah, after Ziklag burned. He did not treat yesterday’s instruction as today’s automatic answer. First Samuel 30:6–8 is worth han...
Post a Comment
Read more

Moses: Led Through Wilderness, Not Around It

Image
"And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light." — Exodus 13:21 Israel did not wander because God lost the map. He refused the near road through Philistia, “lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt” (Exodus 13:17–18). He led them about, through the wilderness of the Red sea. The long road was not a mistake. It was mercy they could not yet recognize. We want the shortest distance between conversion and ease. God wants a people who know His name in the desert. The pillar meant guidance can be unmistakable and still uncomfortable. Israel did not lack direction. They lacked contentment. Those are different problems. Moses himself had to be led. Forty years in Pharaoh’s house. Forty years on the backside of the desert. Then the bush that burned and was not consumed. If you are in a hidden season — a small church, a plain job, a long obedience with little...
Post a Comment
Location: Dublin, IN, USA
Read more

Abraham: Called Out When the Destination Was Not Named

Image
  "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." — Hebrews 11:8 Genesis 12 is the schoolhouse of guided faith. “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” The command was clear. The map was not. God named the leaving before He named the coordinates. He often gives enough light for obedience, not enough light for control. Abraham had a promise, an altar, and a tent. He did not have a completed itinerary. Faith does not require omniscience. Faith requires a trustworthy Speaker. If you must see the whole road before you will take the first step, you are not asking for guidance. You are asking to stop needing it. Guidance demanded separation — country, kindred, father’s house. Some paths cannot be walked while you remain entangled with the old life or the approval of people who do not fe...
Post a Comment
Location: Dublin, IN, USA
Read more

The Peace of God Is Confirmation, Not a Substitute for Truth

Image
  "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." — Colossians 3:15 Many have been taught to “let peace be the umpire.” There is a biblical place for that sentence. There is also a ditch on either side of the road. Colossians 3:15 does not float as a method for choosing a house or a spouse. It sits in a paragraph about putting off the old man, putting on mercy, letting the word of Christ dwell richly, and living as members of one body. The peace in view is not a private shiver of excitement. Even the phrase “in one body” warns us against treating peace as a purely individual sensation. God can restrain a believer through holy unrest. But Jonah slept in the storm, which proves a quiet conscience is not always a clean one. The flesh can feel peaceful while walking toward disaster. Conversely, obedience can feel costly and still be right. Jesus sweat as it were great drops of blood in Gethsemane and was in the exac...
Post a Comment
Location: Dublin, IN, USA
Read more