Who is this "God" anyway? ~ Devotion 7/25/12

[lightsoutcalls]

   I'd like to try something a bit different and ask for "audience participation" with this devotion.  The word of God alone is powerful, and I don't want to come across as giving something else more value (stick with me).  Sometimes, though, when folks can hear personal life application OF God's word or promises from people they are familiar with, the Word of God becomes more REAL to others.  After you read this devotion, I would ask that you take a few minutes to think and pray about a time or situation in your own life where the specific quality of God was made very real in your own life, and share it in a response to those who might read the devotion after you... Can I get a witness? 

   Today I'd like to begin a series that looks at the names of God, to reveal the character or qualities of God.

  Jehovah- Jireh -  The Lord who provides, or The Lord who will see to it
We find an early fullfillment of this name in Genesis 22, where God instructed Abraham to take his only son Isaac up the mountain to provide a sacrifice.  In this passage, God provided a sacrifice to take the place of Abraham's son Isaac.  Read it if you get a chance, but today, let's look at another example... one that any outdoorsman could appreciate. 

    Have you ever been fishing in a spot that normally produced for you, and on a given day... NOTHING!?  A group of men were having "one of those days".  These guys made their livelihood by fishing.  If they didn't catch fish, they didn't eat, they didn't get to provide for their family, they didn't get to have the extras of life that they might have their eye on.  On one particular day, these guys had fished, and fished... and fished some more without a catch to take to shore.  All in all, this day was pretty much a loss.  The guys were likely grumbling, making excuses for why they weren't catching, how they could have better spent their time... you know how it goes.  At this same time, Jesus had been teaching a crowd of folks along the side of the lake where the fishermen were cleaning their fishing gear.  He stepped into one of the boats and basically said "let's head out to deep water and catch some fish."  O.k. let's go through this again... We have a group of professional fishermen that have been out for hours without catching squat.  Along comes a man talking to a bunch of people crowding him along the banks of the lake.  The guy climbs into one of the boats and says let's go catch some fish?  Do you think the fishermen might have been questioning his credentials a bit?  Who does this guy think he is?  You can tell by the way he's dressed he is obviously not a fisherman.  These guys were tired.  They had a less-than-productive day on the water...but... (Luke 5:5 - NIV)
5 Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

BAM!

(Luke 5:6-7 - NIV)
6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

Jehovah- Jireh - The Lord who provides - The Lord who will see to it

   The Bible is full of accounts where God provided for individuals through some very creative ways.  Some completely defied reason, logic and even natural law.  God wants to provide for the needs of His people, and is not limited to our understanding or approval of a given method for His provision. 

   Think back through your own life experiences and recognize specific instances where God has provided for you...  financially? food for the table when you didn't know where the next meal would come from?  a vehicle when yours wouldn't go another mile?  a job when you had been looking for what seemed like forever? 
   Your personal experience of how God has provided may be just what the next person to read this thread needs to make it through today.  Don't hold back.  There's a reason God provides for His people.  If you think about what happened in the lives of those fishermen AFTER they pulled in the fish Jesus provided... lives that were changed as a result of their sharing with others...  Over 2,000 years later, lives are still being changed as a result.

Well... how has God provided for you?

[longbeard11]

Great devotion!! Definitely one to get you thinking. I have two examples that have happened to me just recently over the last year of God providing in mine and my families life.

The first one happened to my Dad. It all started about a year ago.  My dad had a mentor, Jim Steed. Jim was in the fair ministry, he went out to state fairs all over the county and set up a tent and shared the gospel of christ with people and led people to the lord. Jim had been on my dad for some time now to start going with him and get involved in the fair ministry because my dad is gifted and can talk to anyone, he can "sell ice to an eskimo" as Jim would say. Everytime Jim would ask my dad my dad would have an excuse and say "well Jim just pray for me", Jim said "Oh i do, but its time we put our prayers to action".

So one day Jim invited my dad to lunch and they had lunch and discussed some insurance (my dad is an insurance man), then Jim started in on the fair ministry. My dad of course had excuses again, then Jim said "boy let me show you how easy it is". So he pulled out a smiley face track right there in the dinner and began to talk to the waitress, then talked to a guy next to them, then another man. He said "see boy its that easy." Dad of course left there that day with excuses again and said "Jim just keep praying for me that if I am supposed to do this that God will open my blind eyes and give me a clear sign that I am supposed to" Jim said ok.

The next week I graduated from college and we were going to our church gym to have a graduation party for me with all of my family. Me and my dad pulled into the gym with the grill in the back of the truck and our pastors wife came running and screaming from around the side of the gym saying, "Tony come help quick!!"  We pulled around the side of the church and there laid Jim next to his RV collapsed. Jim kept his RV there at the church and he was there that morning washing it, it was very hot that day and Jim had collapsed right there next to it. They quickly called 911 and there was my dad on his hands and knees giving his mentor CPR and mouth to mouth trying all he could do with the paramedics to revive him. There under my dads knees and around Jim's body laid all his smiley tracks he carried in his pockets, and Jim died right there in front of my dad that day. My dad was an absolute mess for over a week, but if that wasnt a clear sign from God then i dont know what is.

After that my dad knew that he was supposed to be in the fair ministry and he wished he would have listened to Jim sooner because he absolutely loves it and is so overjoyed seeing people come to the lord. After he accepted the call to go and do the fair ministry my mom was on him all the time about "how are we going to afford to do this? We dont have an RV. you cant quit your job and do this, your not retired like Jim was." and on and on it went. My dad said "Lynette, God would not want us to do this if he wouldnt make a way for us to do it.

So heres where it gets really cool. My dad started going to different churches and sharing this story with everyone there and sharing how the fairs were going and churches started sponsoring him every month.  He went to one church and said "I dont have an RV and I cant afford one, but i know if God wants me to have one for this ministry he will provide." After the service a man came up and invited him to lunch and before he left he said "Oh yeah..and about that RV you said you cant afford, Im a man that can afford one and i want to buy you one" CRAZY!!! God will provide!!

So long story short, after looking for awhile my dad found this amazing practically new RV and the man bought it for him and the ministry. The previous owner of the RV kept it inside a heated storage building and only drove it to WVU football games and back every year, it was practially new. So we take the RV to Stonewall Jackson Lake here one weekend to practice hooking it up and getting to know it and everything and we pull in and go to bed that night late. I get up real early the next morning and go listen for turkeys before going to fish. I come back to the RV to meet my fishing partner and im getting my stuff together and out comes this guy from the bathhouse with a big smile on his face and he says hey to me. I start talking to him and he says, "you arent going to believe this, but that is my old RV" My mouth dropped, they were in the slot right next to us, what are the odds of that!!!! After talking a bit, he said "take my number and name and have your dad call me, i have cases of oil and filters for it and a brand new car hauler for the back that i want to give to him" AMEN!! Its truly amazing what the lord can do and supply you with when you turn your life over to him!! My dad is a changed man now and its amazing the continual blessings God has showered him with.

My other blessing is mine, not quite like my dads but it really means alot to me. I had been away from Gods will in my life for awhile and was looking for the wrong things and it was really turning my life upside down. I always chose the wrong girls in my life and it would make my life with my family miserable. I went through a really bad break up with a girl i had been with for a long time and thought i was going to marry, but she didnt go to church and wanted nothing to do with it and it was dragging me down and it was awful!

After the break up i didnt know what to do with myself, so i decided to turn everything over to the Lord and follow him with whatever he wanted me to do and if he put a woman in my life then it was totally up to him but i wasnt going out looking anymore. A few months later i start talking to this girl and we hit it off immediatly.  My family and I had been praying for a really long time that God would put a great christian girl in my life. Well, he did. This girl is absolutely amazing, and i have never met anyone like her in my life. She is closer to God than anyone ive ever met, and has made me closer to God in the process. We read our bible together and pray together every night, she is the praise and worship leader at our church we go to (she has the voice of an angel and im not just saying that), we follow God in everything he wants us to do and we put him first in our relationship and it only makes it that much better. I am crazy about this girl and it just goes to show that if you put all you faith in the Lord, when you are ready he will provide.

I was never ready up to that point in my life but he felt it was time and i was ready and when he felt i was ready he introduced me to my true soulmate and my future wife. She had been through some extremelly hard times as well and never thought anyone could love her, but she is the love of my life and my future wife and i thank God for her every single day!!!

Sorry i was so long winded but i could go on and on about how great My God is and how he continually showers me with blessings every single day. Hope you all will read this post and enjoy. God Bless!!

[lightsoutcalls]

WOW!  Thanks for your post!  I pray that God will continue to bless you and your family for sharing what He has done for you.

[longbeard11]

Thanks for reading. It is a pretty amazing story, i thought it was definitely worth sharing.

[gophert]

OK..here goes.  First let me give you some background.  I have been a bi-vocational youth pastor for right at 15 years.  I have seen so many student live's changed I get chills thinking about it.  However, this journey of ministry God has me on seems more for me than the students a lot of the time.  During those 15 years, I have been youth pastor at 2 churches with the last one ending this past Dec 2011. 

When I think about a name for God that shows an aspect of Him....REMINDER...comes to mind. 

Every time God has chose to end a ministry chapter in my life, I always question what he is doing.  "God do you really think this the way this should go down!" I have said many times.  Both ministries were difficult and painful to leave, with this last one being the worse of the two.  Every time I have walked away saying.."I AM DONE!".   I am reminded of Jeremiah how he preached forever for God's people to turn from their wicked ways and he NEVER got to witness the change.  I wonder how many of us would sign up for that ministry if God told us in advance that we will never see any changed lives.  WOW!  I have actually got to see God at work and still my faith in Him is so small. 

Well, two weeks ago, I got a call about helping with the students at the church we have been visiting. Just when I think I am DONE with students...God REMINDS me of my calling.  I am so thankful God is in the REMINDING business.  He reminds us that He still loves us when we are not lovable, He still forgives us when we are not forgivable, and most of all for me, He still REMINDS us that although he does not need us....HE STILL WANTS US in His ministry!

All I can say to that is.....GO GOD!
Tim

[redarrow]

I had been reading about the many names that God is called by folks throughout history. Jehovah jirah, Allmighty, Day Star. Etc. So when a friend talked about a name for his new boat I said Day Star. Well soon after I fell from a tree while deer hunting. I was busted up real bad and had to be flown to the hosp.in a chopper. It was late December,cold,lots of snow.As I lay on the stretcher being carried to the copter I looked up into a clear blue sky.Not a cloud in sight. Thats when I saw "MY" day star , Twinkling in the sky in the middle of the day. I smiled and gave two thumbs up to the Lord. The fellas carrying me had no idea why,but I knew it was God telling me it would be ok. On that day it was he who carried me,piloted the chopper,operated on me,and nursed me back to health. Who is God ? He is the star that guides my path.

[longbeard11]

WOW!! Awesome stuff guys!! Keep it coming.

[lightsoutcalls]

   About 5 years ago next month I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.  I went through 3 rounds of chemo and 20 days of radiation 5 days a week.  I was blessed to have a Christian doctor who didn't hesitate to pray with me in his office, and treatments were done here in town. 
I think it was more difficult for my wife than it was for me.  We went through some difficult times financially in those weeks.  During the process, a callmaker from another site organized an auction and donation drive.  God blessed us with over $1,000 through these efforts, which was awesome.
   One Sunday afternoon during this time, my wife and I were at my folks house having lunch.  I had gone out to relax on the couch after lunch when someone rang the front doorbell.  After the un-identified person left, my mom called me into the kitchen where she handed me an envelope that this person dropped off with another $1,000 in cash inside.  This person asked to be and still remains anonymous to me.  I only missed a few days from work, which were covered by sick leave pay.  My wife wasn't working at the time, so God's financial provisions during those weeks were huge blessings.
   Since that time I have been cancer free. 

[snoodlum]

I am a great sinner .  Jesus Christ is a great Savior !! You'll never regret the day you accept Him!

[Turkey Beard]

I own 2 funeral homes and it's a regular thing for me to be short of money when it comes time to pay the bills, do payroll, etc.  Times are tough and I've got no collateral, and unfortunately, there are people who feel that they aren't obligated to pay their bills.  It's happened more than once that a "written off" funeral bill came in to be paid JUST when I needed it.

The most specific thing I can think of where God directly intervened in my life was during a very busy time in the business when I was just completely worn down.  I'm the only embalmer, so it's me all night and all day when we're busy while my staff stays home and sleeps.  Anyway, a good Christian friend called me about 7:30 a.m. one morning and asked me to go on a day-long golf trip with an Arkansas Razorbacks basketball game in the evening (this is a December gold trip).  I told him I didn't think I could go, I was just too busy.  As I hung up, I remembered that I had JUST GOTTEN DONE praying about getting some relief from my stress/job.  I heeded God's gift and called him back and have gone on that trip 3 years now.  Ever since that day I've called this friend my helicoptor from the story about the guy who prayed for God to save him from a flood and then the guy refused help from the row boat and the helicoptor, saying that, "God will save me."  I'm sure you guys know that story.