Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

Praise Alone

Three in the morning, on a quiet street in London Ontario. Not a vehicle on the streets, and I was out doing my newspaper deliveries, waiting for my firstborn to enter the world.

It was a great job for a young married man, who was in transition, not knowing where to go or what to do for God. I had been in school for a degree program in the Architectural discipline when I met my future wife, and subsequently the Savior Jesus Christ.

Everything turned upside down, or should I say everything turned itself right side up. Leaving my degree program, I found myself walking the streets delivering over 400 newspapers every night of the week, spending my time memorizing the Word and being quiet.

Looking back on those days, they were great, and I am thankful the Lord placed me in that position. The work only required a couple-three hours each night, and I could spend the remainder of the day with my wife, establishing our family. I had read in the book of Deuteronomy of the importance of that first year with the wife. I can attest to the blessing!

Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.

But I am getting sidetracked to the purpose of this post, for that night in London at 3:00 am, as I walked about those lonely streets carrying 80 pounds of papers, I began to thank God for His working in our lives, for His direction, for His salvation. Then it slipped from being simply thankful for what He has done for us, and for me specifically, to praising Him for who He is.

This shift in prayer was not a part of some scheduled required exercise as a disciple, but one of the purest times of praise to the God above that I had ever entered into as a young believer. I don’t recall asking for anything, asking for anyone, asking asking asking. My prayer of praise slipped from thankfulness for things in my life, my experience, my needs being fulfilled, my my my, into simply considering who our God is, and His amazing character, His spotless life, His complete abandonment for His people, His entering into a life of poverty and trial, His fight to get on the cross and to provide a totally selfless sacrifice for those who loved and hated Him.

That night was a foretaste of being before the throne someday. Nothing ’bout me, all ’bout Him.

As it should be!

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

87

I’m a numbers guy. Numbers are a big part of my life. As an engineer, numbers help me make decisions that will benefit others. My favorite number is 73. A surprising number with many properties make it stand out amongst it’s kin. Properties that I will not bore you with.

When it comes to answered prayer, 87 became my favorite number decades ago. This post will try to tell the story of how God impressed my wife and I with 87.

My sweetiepie and I had just moved into the United States. We were seeking to serve the Lord on a mission field, and the two year training period in Michigan forced us to live by faith. As Canadians, we could not legally work in the US, and the purpose of the training was to prepare us for difficult missionary work. Prior to leaving Canada, we were blessed to have one couple offer assistance in our training. Other than that support, we were fully dependent on the Lord for tuition, rent, food, and travel needs.

Oh, and a key player in this prayer is our firstborn son. He was born in early December, and we were in Michigan for the first of January.

The initial “honeymoon” phase of moving in and beginning the training was wonderful. We met many wonderful saints. One couple took us under their wings in so many ways. I don’t know if we ever thanked Dave and Marsha properly. (If you stumble on this post, let it be known we are thankful, even these decades later, for your love and care.)

As we settled into the training, both my wife and I determined not to speak of our needs to any one, but to the Lord only.

Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Even in our early walk with the Lord, we had seen saints who spoke of their need at every opportunity. It seemed they were trusting their skill at manipulating the emotional strings of others and not in the Lord. That surely was unfair, but we wanted to avoid that appearance.

Some suppers were popcorn, or spaghetti. One lunch was a watermelon. All the students had access to the Mission barrel and we sometimes found food stuffs there. One common source of sustenance was canned LaChoy. It showed up often, and when available, we consumed LaChoy. Funny how we haven’t purchased any since!

Now, as I mentioned, we had a small one, and my wife was breastfeeding this young one. As we entered a somewhat “restricted diet”, it became apparent to my wifey that Joshua was needing some supplementation. He was a voracious consumer, and his momma realized this problem early on.

One night, as she fed our son, she quietly reached out to the Father and asked for some additional milk for Josh. What she exactly prayed, only her and the Father know. But the next morning, after classes was finished, she retrieved Josh from the nursery as I went down to the mailbox.

The mail box was where we received support, and it had been a while since any “blessing” had been received. As I pulled a lone envelope from our box, it seemed somewhat clunky, and when I got back to the apartment, opened it up and found 87 cents. Paula’s eyes brightened, and asked if I could go to the commissary to buy a little carton of milk for Josh.

Now I ask my reader. How much do you think milk cost in 1983? At this particular store, at this particular time, for this particular need, the milk I was able to purchase cost us 87 cents. No one knew of our need and provided funds. No one knew of our need and adjusted the price at the commissary to fit the funds we received. No one knew of the amount of money we needed for that particular need.

Except for One. He knew, and He provided. Let that sink in!

It was a few days later that I was chatting with the financial office of the school, and I asked him about the 87 cents. It turns out that a previous gift we had received in Canadian funds had been exchanged at an improper rate. 87 cents was the result.

Our God is good, even to the answering of a young mother’s quiet prayer in the middle of the night for her child.

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

North or South

Many who have followed this blog realize I am a transplanted Canadian, settled deep in the heart of Texas. All my siblings remain in the Great White North, and at times I think they don’t quite understand our desire, determination and delight in living in the Lone Star state. But this isn’t about Texas! This post is about the timing and kindness, and the evident direction provided by the Father above for a drifting saint.

We had been in Texas for over a decade when I began to wonder if we were to remain. You see, the economy had soured and though we had attained a green card, allowing me to work anywhere in the states, career opportunities for yours’s truly were few and far between. The rare interview that I did gain, I found I was woefully unprepared for. My previous skill set was not matching the employment opportunities in the region, and my times of unemployment were extending into months. Things were become strained.

During a scouring of employment sites, I tripped over an opportunity in Canada, in the province of Alberta. In my desperation to provide for my loved ones, (and understanding that Alberta is basically a Texas wannabe culture), I reached out and provided my resume.

And then I was convicted.

Carl – you have fought to stay in Texas, and now you are loosing patience? Can you not trust God, and lean on Him? Thoughts swirled in my mind, swinging my attentions from a need to provide to a need to trust. If you have been in a similar situation, I am sure you can relate.

But I was convicted. I knew that even if the position in Canada was promising, and the position in Canada was perfect, the position in Canada would be a wrong move! Or at least I hoped it would be a wrong move. (I wanted to stay in Texas!)

It felt like I was between a rock and a hard place. But what am I going to do. I have to provide. I have to support my family. No matter what I did, I felt I would be disappointing God. Stay here and not provide. Move back to Canada and give up on the direction we had received.

So, as you may have expected, because the subject of the blog is prayer, I began to ask for direction. Specific direction. If I needed to go to Canada, I could work there and have my family follow after I was established in the position. If I was to stay in Texas, I needed to have that direction provided also.

I just wanted to have direction from the Lord.

In the background of all my worrying, a little woman started throwing out my resume to firms in the area that were not associated with the headhunters I was leaning on. It has been over a decade ago, but if I recall, I think she simply scoured the area for engineering firms and sent my resume off in a shotgun approach. This little woman sent my resume off to a particular firm in the city just days prior my prayer. And lo and behold, a day after my prayer, an email popped up in my inbox asking me to come for an interview.

The timing of the Lord in His answers to prayer is such a blessing. How is it that in the midst of all that was going on, I had a Father who was actively orchestrating a situation even before my will was bent to His.

I was at that firm for close to seven years, met many good folks, learned much, and never looked back.

God is good, even to those who are slipping in their trust!

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

THE Lord’s Supper and A BBQ

The topic for this morning includes a somewhat convoluted application of my favorite story of the great missionary Adoniram Judson. The story goes that he was in prison, with little hope of ever being let go, and was allowed to receive an article from his wife on her next visit.

What did he request? The utensils to perform the Lord’s supper. The plate for the bread, and the holder for the wine. He was in a terrible prison, with little sustenance provided. Yet he had the faith to request the utensils for the church the Lord had called him to establish in Burma.

That is the story this prayer is based on.

Now to give you some background on how my twisted little mind works. Warning – this application of the story was honored by the Lord, but it may not have been the wisest use of the great missionaries example. The Lord is good.

Nevertheless, as I have mentioned earlier in my posts, our family were guests in the USA for many years, and in our efforts to attain citizenship, we encountered many disappointments. I have mentioned how three of our children were placed in deportation for periods of time, with one deported to Canada. This story is about my third son, and our experience during his time in the federal deportation prison.

His was a lengthy stay, as the legal system was exceptionally slow, with judges being transferred, lawyers dragging their feet and prison systems seeking to keep paying customers. Months and months passed, and with every visit, we became a little less hopeful. My second son had already been removed from the county, and we knew it was very possible for it to happen again.

Each visit, we were allowed to bring some books, writing tools, and funds to transfer into his account for phone calls, and treats from the commissary.

As mentioned, his stay was lengthy, and in my readings, I saw my son in a somewhat similar condition as Mr. Judson. A hopeless situation from all appearances. And then it occurred to me in my prayers, that we had to provide a physical anchor for my son to cling to for when he got out. Not if, but for when he got out.

Ok – so what would be appropriate for my son. He was not a believer, and to provide him the utensils for the Lord’s supper would make no sense, but the spirit of Adoniram’s request could be followed. So what to do? What to do?

My son has always been a cook. He has worked the kitchen since he was eight years old, providing a thanksgiving meal for the family. Yes – at 8 years old!

So, knowing our background, our mental state of being worn down, our concern over loosing another son to a bureaucracy, and having read the story of a great missionary, our prayers went from discouragement to hopeful.

What was the anchor that we provided to our son?

I brought a picture of a fancy bbq in on a visit, held it up to the glass and told him it was being delivered this week. I told him he would be using it when he got out. He somewhat made fun, and I understand that, but as he went away from that visit, I would like to think he had some hope.

The sausage he smoked on that BBQ the first weekend he enjoyed his freedom were some of the best ever.

Thankyou Lord for working in the prayers of an ol’ fool.

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

Convictions

We were at a point on our lives, having to leave mission training due to lack of support, where we were unsure where we were to head next. We asked the Lord, and then requested each of the churches we had established relationships with to pray for direction for our little family. Most churches agreed to pray, but one church that we had visited the year before, in Rouyn-Noranda, called us back. Come up to work in the ministry up here. The pastor, Richard, was a brother we knew from our days in London Ontario.

After the initial invitation, we understood we would be assisting Richard in building up a protestant church amongst the good people of this Quebecois town. Little did we know that once we were on our way, Richard decided to move south to London Ontario to further his education. This decision caused a full blown hollowing out of the church congregation, for many of those in the church also left once Richard, the pastor, announced his relocating to London.

When our family of four arrived in Rouyn-Noranda, we were directed to a rental home by our pastor friend, and proceeded to unload our stuff from the U-haul we rented. Before he left, Richard told me he would drop by in the morning to help me get set up with the provincial government offices. Government offices? That seemed strange to be a priority, but we had just travelled from south Ontario into northern Quebec, and the trip had us a bit frazzled.

True to his word, he showed up in the morning, and took me down to the provincial offices, setting me up to receive welfare/unemployment.

Ok – bells started ringing off in my head. At this point, I don’t recall if Richard had informed me of his intentions to leave the city, or that the church had shrunk down to one small family and an elderly woman, but to look to the government to support the work of the Lord seemed so foul, so offensive. At that moment in that office, I asked for a rescue, a deliverance from being dependent on the government.

Bad news continued to be provided in the next few days, and the situation we had entered started to become clearer. We were a family of anglaise in the middle of a francophone society, without a church to support us, without a mentor to guide us, without any believers we could confide in.

Most of that first week is a blur in my mind now, other than the continual disappointments we were informed of. I immediately began to look for work, and as the Lord is the great provider, I found two jobs to support the family for the next two years. Yes we had committed to two years in this church and we were determined to keep our word.

Flyer delivery in the mornings, and transport truck unloading after that. Both of these “career choices” allowed me to experience the temperature drops of the city we lived in, falling to -40 F in the winter. But we were able to survive, and we saw our two little boys begin to grow up. We experienced the birth of our third child in Rouyn-Noranda, (which is another answer to prayer for later), but found the work to be very challenging.

Additional prayers the Lord answered in relation to the work in this church will be offered in future installments on this series, but for this post, I want to thank the Lord for providing the support we needed as we sought to serve Him in a strange land amongst a foreign people.

He provided work for a “dirty anglaise” to keep his family fed and warm during our time in the church. He answered our prayers for support, giving me enough work to bring home the bacon! Yes we entered into a difficult situation, yet he protected our little family and provided me an opportunity to work amongst those we lived among.

He is good.

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

Daily Bread

We were living in Rouyn-Noranda, just a few feet south of the Arctic circle (I jest), trying to discern our next steps in following the Lord. We had been invited to this small city to help in a church, but I will relent from discussing some of the many prayers the Lord answered in those years in this post.

Except for one.

For some, this answered prayer may seen insignificant, even coincidental, but when I got the call, all I could do was thank the Father in heaven for watching out for a young family that was in a bit of a bind.

We had finished our commitment to the church in Rouyn, and had decided to pursue a career in Civil Engineering at a college in Kirkland Lake. Paperwork had been filed, student loans had been secured and my first day would be within a week if I recall.

The problem we were living under was that my last pay at Transport Rapide, a truck terminal I had worked at during our time with the church, had dwindled away, and the student loans would not be available for a week or so. My sweet wife reminded me that the food stock was dropping, and would soon be depleted.

Very soon Carl. What to do?

It seemed obvious to me that no one was going to hire me, given I had was heading off to school in the very near future. The church we had ministered in was not able to assist.

Our boys were growing, and their hunger was never satiated, and for that I am thankful! Yet the challenge was provision, and I set out walking the streets, going in any business asking for work. As I visited each business, my “anglais” roots were clearly evident, for though I had gained in my ability to communicate with the French, I was not by any stretch of the imagination fluent!

So as I walked that road, I prayed. I am sure my dear wife was also praying. Praying that the Lord would provide as He did in the Old Testament, and as He had when we ventured south for our training. He was, and is a faithful God, and we prayed.

Miles up the road from our apartment, as I trudged along, I entered Manitoulin Transport, a company that unloaded trucks just like my former employer Transport Rapide. If I recall, I entered the business and asked for the manager, informing him I was on my way to school but was in need of a day or two of work until I started my new path as a student.

He took my number, as had some of the previous businesses, and sent me on my way. I got home before dark. We had a small supper, read our Bible story with the boys and went to bed.

I seem to remember that I fasted the next day, but I can’t claim it was with pure motives. I was trying to minimize the impact on the food stores that remained. The morning was quiet, but as the boys woke, I got a call from the truck company I had visited with earlier.

“If you can make it down this morning we got work for you.”

Some may see this as the natural outcome of a fellow seeking work. Some may see it that way.

I don’t. I see the hand of God in all of the circumstances involved in providing a dependent family with enough to continue on.

What was it that timed this companies need for one day of labor from an “anglaise”? I may never know, but that morning was a good morning as I kissed my favorite before heading off to my new task. And later that day, as they paid me my cash, I went home, knowing my wifey would be dragging her wagon to the grocery store to stock up for the next few days.

He is an Almighty God, but He is also the God of the details, the small stuff, and of the poor and needy.

He is good!

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

At the Couch

Introduction

In our last post, I spoke of offering conditions as a part of our prayer life. I seemed to lean into this style of praying for many years, and to be honest, I seem to slip into “bargaining” with God more than I want to admit.

After a bit of reflection, this style of communicating with my Father implies a number of problems.

A severe lack of trust. I simply need to have some control in the situation, as I am reluctant to let go of the problem. I am not convinced inside that He will take care of the problem, that He will provide an acceptable solution, or that He understands what I want! This is ludicrous, since He is the Creator, and the Sustainer, and He knows my heart and mind better than I. Yet I want to negotiate. Foolishness.

A severe lack of love. Of course many may think I am referring to my lack of love for my Savior, and of that I confess my shortcomings. But that is not what I am referring to in this point. As I negotiate with my Father in my prayers, I am exhibiting an understanding of the Father’s love for His child that is wholly inadequate, insulting and repulsive.

For those who have a child, consider, if you will, your own child coming to you, in need and unable to fix a situation. This child is helpless, ignorant of all that is going on in the family, and without the skills to gain a solution, little less maintain the life he or she lives. This child is completely dependent on the Father for his sustenance, for his protection, for his well being and his environment.

And this child comes to negotiate with you, trying to impress you with a promise, or worse yet a threat.

How ludicrous! It is as if the child considers himself on the same level, even as an equal to the Father. Incredulous!

To bargain with God reveals a lack of trust and a lack of understanding the love of God as our Father.

This understanding came home to my mind and heart clearly in the following prayer I want to recount to you.

The situation

We were strangers in a foreign land, and until all the paperwork gets filed, and all the forms are filled out, we were essentially guests in this nation. During this time of being guests, three of my children were detained and set on the course for deportation.

This story is about my daughter.

We came back from a family vacation in Mexico, and due to my daughter needing a medication for a condition, had some pills in the bottom of her purse. As we crossed the border into the USA, an agent found a pill, and pulled her to a separate room.

Within 10 mins, we were experiencing the nightmare of deportation again. (We had lost one son to deportation, and a second son had spent an extended time in deportation jail before being released. Now a third child. Although she was a strong young lady, she was not ready for the trial we were to go through.

By this time, both my wife and I were at our wits ends, desperate for relief, constantly in fear of hearing of our daughter being hurt in the jail, or of paperwork being lost and forcing the deportation prior to due process being completed. Our nerves were frayed and every minor life disturbance was magnified in our minds. We prayed every day, morning noon and night. We begged, pleaded and sought to find ways to get God working. We needed our daughter home.

Except I had not let go yet.

I was up early one morning, sitting on the couch, praying for the return of my daughter. The paper work was not progressing, the lawyer spoke of snags in the process, of the judge being difficult, of the courts being backlogged. I again pleaded with God to bring her home.

And then I realized He may need to take her away. It was a condition I had refused in my heart, a possibility I had never allowed to enter my thoughts. God had to bring her back.

He had to!

What did I need to offer to Him to get this result? How could I manipulate the Lord of All? I was in negotiation with my Creator, and it wasn’t going well!

That morning, I turned to kneel at the couch, and offered my daughter to the Lord, for His will to be complete in her life, for His glory. I laid down my wishes. May He do as He will, and may we be willing to follow no matter.

I would like to tell you that peace flowed through my soul, that my mind and heart felt at ease for the first time in months. I can’t confess that. I only knew that He was in control, that I was broken, and that He was working in the situation to accomplish His goals for my daughter and our family.

Months passed. Our prayers turned from desperation to simple requests. We began to see movement in the courts. As I had touched on this topic in a previous post (Let Me Tell You a Story – Disappointment), let me recount the courtroom proceedings from that posting.

After two court appearances, my daughter was asked to stay behind. The judge was like a machine with all the other subjects, spitting out decisions rapid fire, sealing the fate of many. When it came to her, the judge cleared the room, leaving only my wife and I with her. He proceeded to upbraid the injustice that had occurred in this incarceration, and declared her to be freed immediately.
She was coming home!

Prayer changes things. Prayer changes people.

God is good. He loves us when we are negotiating, untrusting, willful and stubborn. It is so much better to fall on His mercy and love instead of fighting it to get something that may not satisfy.

May we all seek to comply with the will of God in our lives, no matter the immediate loss we may think we will experience.

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

A Petroleum Transfer Engineer

When I met my lovely wife, I was a student in the architectural discipline, very close to attaining my Architectural Technology degree.

Ewwww – fancy dancy eh?. 

I had been attending architectural school for at least two years, but to be honest, it was simply a time of drinking anything with alcohol in it, selling and using drugs and disturbing my neighbors with very loud music.

I was a mess, and being in an “artsy” course wasn’t helping! (My apologies to all my architect friends…) 

What was going to help was a young lady with a message I had never heard before. (If you haven’t read my testimony, I refer you to Testimony)

After I met her and her Savior, I repented of my sin, and ran to the Savior.  One problem though.  If I wasn’t whacked out on “foriegn substances”,  I found that drawing floorplans and house elevations was just not my cup of tea.

Wifey was wonderful though, coming up to my desk late at night, encouraging me to push through, gently being beside me to let me know I had a friend.

She is great.

Nevertheless inside I was dying. I knew this floorplan stuff wasn’t for me, for it had been driven into me by others. No – I had to find my way in life, and now that I had a pretty wife to take care of, I better get at it! Thankfully, the Lord reminded me that it wasn’t my way in life that was the issue, but His will. For that I am thankful, even though I didn’t quite comply without conditions.

Let me explain.

One bright sunny morning, as I was waking up, I offered up a prayer to the Lord, without making a noise, or letting that pretty girl know my thoughts.

“Father, if you give me a job today, I will quit school.”

I look back, thinking of how immature – even more that I am now – I was in my prayers. Sort of like Jacob as he prayed to God with conditions, but that will be for a different time.

I ventured south to a grocery store to see if I could bag groceries, or mop floors, or something. Nothing! I began to get a bit discouraged – yes – after one attempt. Hey – I never said I was a tenacious fella! Nevertheless, I continued on until I visited with an old bossman who took me on as a worker.

I was flabbergasted. I was to start work the next day. I hurried home to let my wifey know, to break the news that I was quitting architectural school to become a Petroleum Transfer Engineer. I knew I had to polish the job description up to sound impressive, for what woman who had hopes of being the wife of a “fancy dancy” architect would be happy with a guy who washed car windows and pumped gas. Yes, I got a job as a gas jockey.

And she understood. Did I tell you she was great. She supported me in my endeavors and has been a fantastic helpmeet for this ol’ fool.

What was the answer to my prayer in all of this?

1. God will provide an answer in order to teach greater lessons. Placing conditions on a prayer is not recommended. More on that later.
2. God will reveal the depth of love others have for a fella when it seems he makes a foolish choice.
3. God can use a very young fool to reach people in the place He leads, for I had many opportunities to share the goodness of the Savior and see folks get right with Jesus at that old gas station.
4. God will provide even if I get fired.  That old bossman didn’t like it if I read the Bible on my break. He really didn’t like it when a fellow employee began to read that Book.

Nevertheless, God is good, and 44 years later, the Lord is still providing, and revealing His love to my family and I.

And my wife – she is still great!

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

Potatoes

My wife and I had just started to establish our home, having been married less than a year when we met a lady by the name of Anne. She was such a sweet lady, and seemed to have such a heart for the Lord. We naturally gravitated to her.

There was a small concern though. She seemed to have been radicalized by a errant thought going around in Christianity about evangelizing the lost.

Yes yes yes, I know. It is common doctrine, an acceptable mental position for the believer to agree to, but she was way out there – way out there in left field.

You see, she was in missions training to reach the untouched, to share the good news with those who had never heard, groups of people who lived a tribal life, hunters and gatherers, even to the extreme of cannibals.

Unheard of. But she was such a servant, and my wife and I listened. Eventually we went to a conference her mission board was putting on. That is where I heard of the importance of good decision making by a man preaching of Daniels choice of food consumption.

I was convinced! My wife – not so much.

So I entered into convincing mode. I made all the arguments, all the pleas, all the demands and every effort to convince her. I realize now my error, but I thought I could “wrestle” her to submission by my efforts, my authority, my desires.

Thankfully her hesitation in joining me in my excitement was to teach me the importance of waiting on God, the power of prayer and the priority of unity in Christian ministry. Her concerns were real, honest and to be considered (if I hadn’t been so preoccupied with my own desires). Eventually it became obvious my efforts to convince her were becoming a point of division between us.

What to do? What ever shall a believer do when an unyielding force meets an immovable rock?

The thought came to me in a flash.

Shut up. Quit trying to convince my wife and leave it with the Lord. My thought was that if God was calling us to this mission, He was able to talk to her about it. I would shut up, – a key element in this effort, for my constant nagging had only worsened the situation – and I would pray each night for 30 days. I would pray that God would open up her mind and heart to leave our family and country, enter a nation where we could not support ourselves, study for two years in a school, and then prepare for the next stage of entering mission work.

Oh – and by the way, we were expecting our first child!

Thirty days of pleading before the Lord. Thirty days of being content before my wife, without mentioning the topic – not even once. Thirty days of uncertainty in my mind as to the outcome, for I had been convinced that the Lord would provide an answer. Therefore I would understand the Lord’s voice in any direction that came out of this effort.

Thirty days passed. I was anxious in my heart – I will not lie. I came home from my day at work to see my wife peeling potatoes for supper. I sat at our little two chair dinner table, looked up at her and asked “Have you thought about missions?”

She looked over to me, peeling a potato, and said “Let’s do it.” She confessed she still had fears and concerns, and they were very valid. We talked. We laughed and we started the application process. We prepared for an adventure that would change our lives forever.

Four weeks after giving birth to our first child, we were on the road to a foreign nation, to a school we had never visited, to a group of people we never knew, and to a situation that promised many many challenges.

There will be other posts of how the Lord provided for this small family, how he taught us difficult lessons – mostly to a hard necked husband that needed the training – and of how He showed Himself as a merciful and kind God, a Savior that knows our weaknesses and yet guides us in His way.

If you are in the midst of a struggle with a friend, a loved one, a son or daughter, even a spouse, where you may be seeking to guide that one into a spiritual decision, take counsel from an old fool.

Human arguments and logic often hardens hearts. Prayer changes hearts. For those who are prayed for, and for those who pray.

May God be looked to for His leading in our lives, even if it isn’t what we think best.

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege to know the Lord for over 40 years. During those decades, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools prayers, the weakness and selfishness of his prayers, and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

That Missing Piece

This prayer was jointly entered into with a young boy who really wanted to go a splashing. Something desperate!

Our family had just moved into a rental home in Kirkland Lake, and the day was a hot one. Little did we know at the time that the future for our family involved Texas. We would learn about hot soon enough!

Nevertheless, my son and I were in the process of setting up a small pool for a bit of splashing fun. Now it is important for the story that you understand the type of pool we are talking about. It wasn’t one of those fancy dancy pools like nowadays, where you simply blow them up. No, I think we got this from a friend who no longer needed it, and it came in three pieces. Very similar to what is considered a doggy pool nowadays, it consisted of an upright ring for a wall for the pool, the bladder, or the skin for the pool, and the crimped edge that would hold the bladder on the wall, so the water could be contained.

We had the bladder. We had the wall. But in the move to Kirkland Lake, we had lost the crimped edging! We looked and looked and you could see my son loosing heart. He had worked so hard to help us move, being such a strong six year old! It just broke my heart to see him so disappointed.

At some point where we crossed paths, I pulled him over and sat down with him on the stoop. I told him I was so sorry we couldn’t find it, and he said he understood, but I knew he was was carrying a load of disappointment. I think he wanted the pool to be ready for when his brother woke up from his nap. They were the best of friends and they would just go crazy in that pool!!!!

You know son, why don’t we ask Jesus to help us find it? Can we pray about that? We bowed our heads, and I asked the Lord to help us find an old crimped edge for an roughed up used pool. I don’t recall hearing my son utter any words, but I am sure the Lord heard that which he did not utter.

After an amen, and a pat on the shoulder, we both got up and ventured off in different directions. Honestly, I had not considered the speed at which a prayer could be answered, but lo and behold, seconds later my son was running towards me down the driveway with a crimped edge held high in his hands, yelling “Jesus answered our prayer. Jesus answered our prayer!”

I can still see him running down the driveway, so excited. He was so loud, yelling a witness out, letting the whole world know that God answered our prayer. But it wasn’t just that he found the crimped edge, so he could have the pool that afternoon. God showed himself to my boy that day. And God showed Himself to a dad in a most insignificant (but significant) way!

God hears the prayers of His children, and in His wisdom, He provides evidence of His attentiveness to His children. Although the Lord has proven Himself in massive answers over the years for my family, this small response over 30 years ago, from the hand of a loving God still lingers in my mind.

He rejoiced. I rejoiced. A whole bunch of rejoicing that day! To top it all off, we got the pool set up in record time, and he got to push his little brother into the pool after his nap!

A great day all around!

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible

Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

Just last week, I was in church with my daughter and her family, when the preacher asked a parishioner to join him on the stage to discuss the faithfulness of God in answering prayers.

Even as they began their discussion, memories of the faithfulness of God, (even as I confess a sporadic, weak prayer life), flooded my mind. Times of comfort and challenge came to mind, sometimes including miraculous answers, and sometimes simply providing the gift of patience in waiting.

As many who follow may know, I have had the privilege of knowing the Lord Jesus for over 4 decades. During those years, He has proved Himself to be a faithful, kind and loving Savior. And as I have learned to lean on Jesus, He has shown Himself to be a merciful Savior, never wavering, even in some very dark times.

This topical series will try to provide a snapshot of an ol’ fools weak and selfish prayers and the ever increasing goodness of God in His responses the those prayers.

I hope my witness to the faithfulness of God will be an encouragement to those reading, and will spur us all on to a deeper, more consistent time of being in the Lord’s presence.

Please visit with me as I tell the story of a faithful God and His care for an ol’ fool. Though David considered himself a poor man in the Psalm, I freely admit, I am just an “ol’ fool” looking to the Lord.

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Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.

Come Join – Considering the Bible