October 20, 2022Last week, Karen and I drove to Connecticut, where we enjoyed being with family and friends. This time of year is when it seems that the Lord sprinkles the trees with vibrant colours that dazzle our eyes. On the way home, I saw a deer near the edge of the highway, heading toward the passenger side of our car. I wonder if someone was praying for us on Sunday evening, because the deer was little more than a metre (a few feet) away when I saw it and turned the steering wheel sharply, avoiding contact with the approaching animal.
While thanking the Lord for protecting us, I reflected on the sermon that Pastor Scott Solberg preached Sunday morning: “God is Still God” in Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church, where our son-in-law, Jon, serves as associate pastor, student ministry. You can view this excellent message at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qjp81sQIto&t=2508s
A few weeks ago, I began sharing insights from “Mastering Life Before It’s Too Late” by Robert J. Morgan. He examines ten Biblical strategies for a lifetime of purpose. The first two are: “Listen to a Twelve-Year-Old” and “Redeem the Time.” The third pattern is “Clear the Decks.” Here is an excerpt that can help us better understand how organized God is: “When we ponder the attributes and nature of Almighty God, we often praise Him for His love, His grace, His majesty, His wisdom, and His power. We echo the songs of the angels who proclaim, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy!’ But no one has ever composed a hymn that says, ‘Organized, Organized, Organized!’ Yet organization is one of God’s essential traits. The Bible says, ‘God is not one who likes things to be disorderly and upset. He likes harmony.… Be sure that everything is done properly in a good and orderly way’ (1 Corinthians 14:33, 40 – The Living Bible).”
In a chapter entitled “Don’t Be Listless,” Morgan cites the Old Testament hero Nehemiah as an example of someone who was organized: “The first thing he did, after praying earnestly and arriving in Jerusalem, was to inspect the walls and to think through the project. Nehemiah conducted a nocturnal inspection of the broken walls and formulated a plan in his own mind. After thoroughly thinking it through, he was ready to lead others in the project. He laid out the project in sequential steps, explained them plainly, listed the tasks, and mobilized his people for the job. Nehemiah listed the difficulties, listed the steps to overcoming them, listed the people who were mobilized, listed his enemies, listed his coworkers, and listed each segment of the wall and who was building it. In the process his book became one of the best case studies of leadership in the history of literature.”
May we commit to being organized, by the grace of God, so that we can better serve our wonderful Lord and Saviour.
Scripture for the weekend: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:6-7 (NKJV)
Thought for the weekend: “Anyone who knows God, even slightly, would expect God to make an orderly world because God Himself is the essence of order. God was never the author of disorder – whether it be in society, in the home, or in the mind or body.” – A. W. Tozer