It’s been a while. Every Monday I wake up and say, “This is the week I’m going to start writing again.” But before I know it, Friday afternoon rolls around and I haven’t written a thing. “What have I done all week?” I wonder to myself. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not sitting around twiddling my thumbs or playing solitaire, (though I do have to admit, I do that a lot.) I am excited to say I have rejoined Community Bible Study. CBS played a huge role in my spiritual growth during my 30’s and 40’s, and I have discovered we have a class in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I feel like I have come home. I’ve found my roots again. God has definitly taken me through a season of return since the last time I have written.
I’ve also began doing Priscilla Shirer’s new study, “Descerning the voice of God.” Ever have those verses that just seem to leap off the page, or a moment when you just feel like saying, “Yes Lord I’m listening.”
“Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.'” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.””
1 Samuel 3:1-10 ESV
Page 143 from “Discerning the voice of God,” Points from 1 Samuel 9:1-17. “Saul went looking for some donkeys and ended up being anointed as royalty. His mundane, frustrating, time consuming task was actually a divinely orchestrated conduit to bigger purposes. He could not have know how God was working on the other side of this circumstance or how God was preparing and aligning events and people for his arrival. And neither can you. All you can do is fully engage in the task before you today, believing that “all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28.
“Never think your circumstance are disconnected from His leading and His will. He uses seemingly meaningless activities as tools to guide you into His purposes or to walk you into different circumstances. When you ask Him for direction, take into account the probability that your current activities and responsibilities are already part of the path that leads you toward His purposes.”
“Speak, for your servant hears.”
My pastor asked the question the other day, “How do you spend your time outside of work?” Now that’s a very pointed question and it pierces deep into my soul. I’ve been putting off writing for months now. That question plus Priscilla’s bible study have pointed me back to what I love to do, write. Writing grounds me. Writing makes me go deeper into scripture. Writing makes me research. All of those things I love doing. “All you can do is fully engage in the task before you today,” Priscilla Shirer. My writing may be just for me. In fact if you are reading this you are simply reading a conversation that is going on in my head leading me back to a very powerful aspect of my walk with God. I need to write. It brings me closer to Him.
It has been so long since I have posted on this website that I don’t even know how to navigate around all the new updates. I have no idea how to put pictures into posts. That just goes to show me, God wants to update my relationship with Him. Fan into flame His gift He has put inside of me, but if I lag to far behind I don’t get to fully utilize all His pictures of my present.
Hopefully next time I post I’ll be caught up on the updates.
Glad your back