Relationship with God

The Grace for Second Thoughts

2 Comments / Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t judge you on your first response or initial reaction to things? I know I am. With God, it is what you do in the end that counts. More times than I care to admit my first response to God’s initiative in my life has been the wrong one, as it was for this first son in the parable that Jesus told.

Saying “no” to an authority figure like a parent or a boss is one thing. Saying “no” to God is quite another. Jesus was very pointedly using the story of these two sons to contrast the two divergent ways people tend to respond to His direction in their lives. (Matthew 21:32) On one hand we have the tax collectors and prostitutes, who were notorious for their initial “no’s” to doing the right thing and righteous living. But the Gospel message so softened their hearts that they finally, upon second thought, said “yes.” Through repenting of their self-willed ways they eventually put their faith in Jesus as God’s son. On the other hand, there were the chief priests and elders who feigned compliance to the will of God, but in the end, did not follow through, repent of their self-willed ways nor accept Jesus as Messiah.

I have several grandchildren who are in the toddler stage. They are sweet and loveable and a big part of my world revolves around them. But one thing they always remind me of is the stubbornness of our fallen nature. We all from birth have a will of our own and given the right circumstances we will voice it in either passive or aggressive ways. It never ceases to amaze me how a stubborn will in such a little body can so fearlessly challenge the will of someone so much bigger, stronger and wiser.

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In Praise of Solitude

2 Comments / Life Balance, News & Reflections, Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16 NIV

I just returned from a three day solo retreat spent in a little log cabin located in a remote neck of the western Wisconsin woods. My purpose was to sequester myself away, free from modern amenities, media distractions and human interaction to seek the face of God. Years ago that was an annual practice of mine, looking forward to setting aside time apart from the hustle and bustle of the world, to still my soul and listen intently for the voice of God. Sad to say it had been a number of years since I made that a priority but thankfully my long overdue withdrawal to the wilderness more than met previous expectations.

Spending time in solitude, expressly to delight in God’s presence is a unique experience. It helps when a person can isolate themselves geographically in a nature scape removed from civilization. Cloistered in a simple one room cabin with a window to the wooded winter stillness of white and gray set against the wash of an azure sky, I could not help but sense that God must surely be in this place.

I was struck right from the outset how the utter simplicity and austerity of such a setting so readily strips the worldly traveler of every false dependence and diversion. “What, no internet or cell phone coverage?” No, only silence and the sounds of nature; and the sounds you create through the motion of everyday activity, all woven intricately with the golden threads of your prayer and worship.

For me, my most faithful companions in times alone with God are my pen, journal and Bible. I’ve found reading and pouring over the words of Scripture to be like the sun around which all my reflections and prayers and meditations and worship align their orbits. And then my journaling becomes a natural expression of their reflected light with which God illumines my soul.

It might be said that austerity brings clarity and I have found in such settings that God often poses clarifying questions for reflection and evaluation. Such questions bid the harried sojourner to slip his heavy knapsack to the ground and sit a spell, so as to take an inventory of its contents. Not everything we so dutifully carry has been placed there by God and He wants to once again remind us that “His yoke is easy and His burden is light.”

Here is a list of the clarifying questions I sensed Him bidding me to ask. They enabled me to leave my respite in the woods carrying a much lighter load than when I arrived.

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I want to know Him!

2 Comments / News & Reflections, Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

“I want to know Him.” Philippians 3:10

It was some thirty years after walking with and serving Jesus that the apostle Paul wrote these words. Some would think it a bit curious that one as experienced in the things of God as Paul, would still be driven by that one over-arching desire, to know Him better. But it was the all-encompassing pursuit of his life ever since his Damascus road conversion when Jesus first revealed Himself to him in a blinding vision with the words “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” The unfathomable grace of this Jesus, who would choose to arrest a man from being a persecutor and call him rather to be an ambassador, forever captured Paul’s heart. Paul’s life from that moment on was dedicated to getting to know this Jesus better and better, who had intervened and shown him such unmerited grace and mercy.

Norman Grubb, beloved Christian author of the past century, wrote an autobiography entitled “Once Caught No Escape.” I have often thought that title aptly encapsulates the story of every follower of Jesus who like Paul has been apprehended by His grace. It is lifelong quest to seek to comprehend such grace and mercy calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light, even while we were yet sinners, separated from Christ, without hope and without God. (1 Peter 2:9, Romans 5:8 &Ephesians 2:12)

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Follow His Star!

Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

Astronomers tell us there are millions and millions of stars in the sky. Isn’t it fascinating to consider that the wise men from the East identified the one and only star, “His star” the one that was able to lead them to the Christ child? How did they do it? One would think that for an ordinary person to pick such a star would be even greater odds than picking a winner in a national lottery. And yet, throughout the centuries to this very day, countless numbers of ordinary people continue to see His star all the time and as they follow it, eventually it leads to Jesus. How does God do that?

We dare not get hung up on a star as the instrumentation of God’s guidance. A star is merely a sign that God uses to show us the way to Jesus. Stars come in all forms and shapes. More often than not they look more like unusual circumstances or the special and/or ordinary people God places in our lives. They can also be things we see or things we hear. Or even things we feel or merely sense. But when God initiates them, and we notice them and decide to follow them, good things happen.

For instance, several months ago on a Saturday, a young woman struggling with depression and despair was driving her car on the 35W freeway that leads into Minneapolis.

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Joseph’s Journey

Growth & Development, More on that message..., Relationship with God / Tom Stuart

“When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.” Matthew 11:24 NIV

Like everybody who says “yes” to God, Joseph could not begin to comprehend the implications of such a divinely inspired decision. Unknowingly he was signing up to embark on a sacred journey of trust into uncharted territory. Not unlike Bilbo Baggins answering Gandolf’s invitation in The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey, it would take Joseph places he could never have imagined going, both in the natural and more importantly within his own soul. Had he or Bilbo known what the journey held in store, they would probably have stuck with their initial “No.”

Joseph’s acquiescence must have led to great anticipation as he and Mary settled into life together in his home and prepared for the birth of the child. Undoubtedly he was breathing a sigh of relief thinking the “big” decision was now behind him. He was surely enjoying the new found sense of peace and freedom from the recriminations of initially feeling betrayed by Mary.

Answering God’s call ultimately bids us to venture beyond the comforts and predictability of home. And unlike Lot’s wife we had best accept that eventuality right now; as there is no profit in lingering or looking back. Unbeknownst to Joseph, nearly 1500 miles away in Rome, a decree was being issued that would subsequently make its way by courier to his little village of Nazareth at the far eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

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