He made known his ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. Psalm 103:7 (emphasis ours)
Hello Friends!
We’re back from Sabbatical. We have had yet another God-filled adventure. Our Sabbatical is the time every year that we begin in silence with prayer and study. We put together the year’s sermon topics and do a lot of listening. This year, as in many years, our Sabbatical time would begin on retreat in a monastery. After several days there, we would turn in our work to the Creative Team and head on our family vacation. Not this year. In fact, the day before we left I (Clare) was telling my friend (who is very prophetic) that I couldn’t wait to get into the silence and just listen to God. She responded with, “God speaks in activity, too.” Well I thought, “Yes, that is so true, but I need some silence!”
We left church that Sunday after I (Scott) preached the message, “Good News, Bad News,” to a flood in our home and an oil spill in our neighborhood. We were unable to leave for the monastery as we ripped out carpet, threw out documents, pictures etc and… God indeed was speaking in our activity!
Additionally, our son Josiah was hired by the Kansas City Royals organization for a short-term job in Arizona. He was hired and left during the vacation time of our Sabbatical. Our family is happy for him …and missing him all at the same time. I (Clare) told Josiah not to go to church in Arizona so as not to meet a woman and stay there! He can go to ccmonline.org “live streaming” church (a mother’s half-serious joke).
We really could go on and on and tell you the stories of this Sabbatical time. The ramification of what has happened to our home and our neighborhood has yet to be seen. So, some events were tragic and some were a blast. Very little of it was as we had planned. We felt God’s “ways” in each and every part.
Sometimes people look at circumstances and determine what they think about God and who they think He is. We have learned through times like these and much more challenging than these, that our God is to be found in all circumstances. The point of the “Good News Bad News” message (click here) is “whatever the enemy meant for evil, God meant it for good”. We trust whatever comes our way will be used to build the Kingdom of God and us. We have come home from Sabbatical with vision and faith for an amazing and powerful ministry and family season! We are pumped… so LOOK OUT devil!
Knowing God’s ways is so much more than just knowing God’s acts. His “acts” (or lack there of) have very limited ability to communicate who God is and what He is saying. God’s “ways” reveal His heart… His, beautiful, relentless, unconditional, crazy love.
Praying for you to know His ways,
