Wednesday, January 18, 2006

God's Guidance

My Bible study class is currently in Genesis 24 & 25. This morning, I would like to encourage my readers to ask themselves, then answer, one of the questions from the study of those chapters.

"The servant did not ask for a vision or miraculous event but for guidance through clear signs in natural circumstances. When has God guided you this way?"

This question was referring to the servant who was sent by Abraham with specific instructions about finding a wife for Isaac from their clan. Abraham didn't want Isaac to marry a pagan Canaanite woman, so the servant went back to Abraham's former home to find the right woman. It is an interesting account which brings us to the question, when has God guided you in a similar way?

I can look back now and see God's guidance throughout my life; even if I didn't see or realize His presence and guidance at the time. Generally, I would say that God has often guided me by placing certain people in my path at the precise times I either needed them to influence me towards faith in Him, or, when they needed my help and asked for assistance in a particular circumstance. I have already shared several accounts and stories regarding these experiences on this blog. I even shared what I deemed a miraculous event during my visit with my father at his deathbed. There is one more that I'd like to share, and I plan to prepare it for tomorrow's post.

Again, as I have previously said in the past sometimes I hesitate to share such incidents. I don't know why I hold back, but it probably has to do with the fear of ridicule. However, as was the case with the angel speaking to my dad at his deathbed, I found that others had similar experiences and once I shared, the they became willing to share their individual experiences with me.

In my discussions with other born-again, Bible believing Christians, I have found that no two testimonies are ever exactly the same. Whether a person came to Jesus Christ at a huge stadium event or in the privacy of their living room, each person's heart is ministered to individually and personally. This is how Jesus works in the hearts of people. He saves each of us in an individual way, unlike any other person's experience. Christians often call their born again conversion a personal relationship with Christ. Why? Because it is! No one else shares the same exact testimony. Isn't that amazing?

One analogy might be the fact that science has told us that no two snowflakes formed in the atmosphere are ever the same. Seems like a simple and inconsequential event, but do you remember when you were a child and first heard that? Didn't you think that was miraculous and amazing? I did. That is the awe of being a child discovering new things.

I still have that awe when I think of my Savior, Jesus Christ, and what he did at the cross for mankind. The fact is that he died for our sins collectively, of course, but also for our own individual souls!

He died for just me!

He died for just you!

Isn't it amazing that if you were the only person on earth, he would have died just for you? Wow! He is a fabulous Lord and Savior!

Just like no two snowflakes are ever the same, no two persons are ever the same either. But we have far more worth than any snowflake falling to the ground. The Bible says that God has counted every hair on our heads! Seems trivial to perhaps the casual observer. But what that verse communicates to me is that God is concerned about every tiny detail and knows every single thing there is to know about each of us. He knows it all. The good, the bad, and the ugly!

Yet, HE LOVES US.

If He didn't, He would not have sent His Son to die for the "bad and the ugliness" of our sins! And with simple faith, repenting and trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of our lives, we are forgiven and become God's children.

Yes. We are all born "children of God" and we each have that built in conscience that God has given us to know right from wrong. But sin has skewed that conscience and we become entrapped in sin and iniquity. We are spiritually dead because of the sin on our souls. The only way to be forgiven for our sins, the only way out of such iniquity; the only way to become spiritually alive again is through the Messiah, Jesus Christ, whom God sent to save us from eternal separation and death!

God's guidance is there in each of our lives; whether we recognize it or not. Perhaps He is knocking on the door of your heart this very minute! Will you ignore His knock or open that door and let Him in?

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