Good morning dear friends,
today is graduation at the bible college here in Siegen. Three wonderful students are graduating after four semesters. They have been such a blessing to us all and I know God longs to and will blow them away with His plan for them as they diligently seek Him. Keep them in your prayers as they follow after Him this summer.
For every other student graduating today, we all are going different routes, some back home to waiting family and friends, some staying on to help at the conference, others visiting my homeland Ireland, and for me in a few weeks I take my longest flight yet!
One thing I have seen this semester, is that Gods hand is mighty and powerful. Flick open your bible to Psalm29, if you dont have one its all good cause you can google search it! I read this a month or so ago and was thinking over and over about David's words, look at verse 4:
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
I prayed to God to show me His power and might. So often I put God in a box. I try to squeeze him into what I know or what experiences I have had with Him, and then I read a biography of a missionary and I am blown away at what God does. Its a very sad thing to put God in a box and to rely on what I know or have seen.
What was different about these missionaries? The key is that they did not rely on their knowledge or experiences but they relied on the Word of God, trusted what He told them and moved forward with Him. As you read through the old testament and the new testament, you realise how big our God is and how able He is.
Let us not look to others and compare, or derive our beliefs from others, or draw our expectations from what we see others do but look only at God and His Word and what He has done. Why?
Ephesians3: 20&21 says:
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ASK or THINK..
The voice of the Lord is powerful, this is very true, but even powerful to us now-a-days can mean an army, loud and controling. Though God could be all of these things, the voice of the Lord is powerful in ways that we do not think. Sometimes when we hear Him but because He is loving, gentle and caring with His direction we say things like, 'no that couldn't be God!' And so we ask Him for more direction, more clarity, more signs.
In Matthew16:1-4, we read that the Pharisees and Sadducees came testing Jesus and asked that He would show them a sign from heaven, in Jesus' reply to them He says in verse4, " A Wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."
Jesus knows their hearts and so He points them to the Scripture and says to them you have all the signs you need to believe. Though they may be coming to Jesus with a different heart than you or I, I still believe it all falls back on unbelief, pride and for us a lack of trust. We have all the signs we need, open His Word and see.
Has God answered your prayers but you are still searching? Are you still against Him and hardened to wanting to hear from Him? Yes, His voice is powerful but if you do not want to hear from Him, if your heart is not right, if you are holding onto things other than Him then He will not force you to hear His powerful voice. This, however does not make His word un-true.
My prayer for all the students today, for all of you, and for me, is that we would listen, He is speaking. Are we willing to hear?
Love from me to you, through Him.
today is graduation at the bible college here in Siegen. Three wonderful students are graduating after four semesters. They have been such a blessing to us all and I know God longs to and will blow them away with His plan for them as they diligently seek Him. Keep them in your prayers as they follow after Him this summer.
For every other student graduating today, we all are going different routes, some back home to waiting family and friends, some staying on to help at the conference, others visiting my homeland Ireland, and for me in a few weeks I take my longest flight yet!
One thing I have seen this semester, is that Gods hand is mighty and powerful. Flick open your bible to Psalm29, if you dont have one its all good cause you can google search it! I read this a month or so ago and was thinking over and over about David's words, look at verse 4:
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
I prayed to God to show me His power and might. So often I put God in a box. I try to squeeze him into what I know or what experiences I have had with Him, and then I read a biography of a missionary and I am blown away at what God does. Its a very sad thing to put God in a box and to rely on what I know or have seen.
What was different about these missionaries? The key is that they did not rely on their knowledge or experiences but they relied on the Word of God, trusted what He told them and moved forward with Him. As you read through the old testament and the new testament, you realise how big our God is and how able He is.
Let us not look to others and compare, or derive our beliefs from others, or draw our expectations from what we see others do but look only at God and His Word and what He has done. Why?
Ephesians3: 20&21 says:
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ASK or THINK..
The voice of the Lord is powerful, this is very true, but even powerful to us now-a-days can mean an army, loud and controling. Though God could be all of these things, the voice of the Lord is powerful in ways that we do not think. Sometimes when we hear Him but because He is loving, gentle and caring with His direction we say things like, 'no that couldn't be God!' And so we ask Him for more direction, more clarity, more signs.
In Matthew16:1-4, we read that the Pharisees and Sadducees came testing Jesus and asked that He would show them a sign from heaven, in Jesus' reply to them He says in verse4, " A Wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."
Jesus knows their hearts and so He points them to the Scripture and says to them you have all the signs you need to believe. Though they may be coming to Jesus with a different heart than you or I, I still believe it all falls back on unbelief, pride and for us a lack of trust. We have all the signs we need, open His Word and see.
Has God answered your prayers but you are still searching? Are you still against Him and hardened to wanting to hear from Him? Yes, His voice is powerful but if you do not want to hear from Him, if your heart is not right, if you are holding onto things other than Him then He will not force you to hear His powerful voice. This, however does not make His word un-true.
My prayer for all the students today, for all of you, and for me, is that we would listen, He is speaking. Are we willing to hear?
Love from me to you, through Him.
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