What is God Up To Right In Front of Your Eyes?

Sometimes it could be a small Divine appointment like mine yesterday.   Actually, "small" and "Divine" is an oxymoron - nothing God ever does is "small".

I had been thinking about "What is God doing right in front of your eyes" on the 40 minute drive to the office in Monroe, LA.  First order of duty on arrival is always to warm up the coffee I brought from home.  The microwave had been broken the previous week when I was last in the office, and today I was aggravated to find the broken microwave in the office area had not yet been replaced - I mean, don't these people know what's important? 

Then I guessed there was probably a microwave in the break room in the plant, so I head out there. 

I see the cleaning lady, Mary, and we exchange usual pleasantries in passing as I am singularly focused on my mission (male trait).  Yes!   There is a microwave, so I heat up my coffee.  Then it occurs to me I have some new photos of granddaughter Sydney in her first Huntsville snow that I just know Mary would want to see. 

Mary had moved to cleaning the men's bathroom across the hall.  Since she had the door propped open, the proud Papa (me) proceeds right in and I show her the picture on my phone.  I notice Mary's eyes welling up with tears.  My immediate thought was, yes, Sydney is that beautiful, but tears? 

Then Mary told me she had been depressed thinking about her departed mother and that simple picture was a gift from God to brighten her day. 

Just a small thing, right.  I felt more an unwitting accomplice than intentional, but perhaps I might have been tempted to think I had done something rather than God. 

And it's not that after this encounter, the thought "What is God doing right in front of your eyes?" was continually plastered in front of my mind the entire day.  But, it did pop up occasionally and every time it made me look at people and consider the desperation of God-less lives most are living ... and then pray for them.

Maybe God will continue breaking this hard selfish heart.

God's Gift to me this Christmas

God and I have this thing at Christmas.  He almost always surprises me with a gift.  He knows how much I love music - especially Christmas music - so little wonder most of those gifts have been centered around a song.

All the more remarkable that this year I didn't even think to start listening to Christmas music on the radio until sometime around the 8th of December.  There have been a lot of distractions late this year.

Driving to work this past Friday, as I turned onto Industrial Drive, a beautiful soaring duet came on the radio - a soft piano opening,  the female lead's pure solo, the confident male accompaniment delicately blending and balanced so perfectly.  Gave me chills.  Sometimes in beautiful music you can hear Heavenly reverb.  That's what I heard.

The song was the first in a set, followed by 2 others.  I waited for the radio announcer to name the song and the artists, and ... guess what?  He mentioned the last song, but not the others.  This has happened before, and like the other times, I was not a happy camper.  I have actually called radio stations to find out what song played on a certain date and time!

So here I was given a wonderful and beautiful blessing, and I'm upset because I can't listen again and share the song with my family.

Sunday morning I'm at my computer trying to find my way to the name of the song and the artists.  I found many beautiful Christmas songs ... but not that one.  Later as I started the car for the drive to church, there was a Christmas song playing on the radio.  Then, as I neared Highway 167, the next one began - a soft piano opening, a soaring female voice ...

This time the announcer named the artist, and with a few words of the song, I was able to look it up!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.


All is Well


Yes, God gave me a gift, and, as most of us with longer associations with Him know, the gift is almost always Himself - whether wrapped in a song, a deeper glimpse into His Word, or a peek at a baby in a manger on a cold night.

Another Co (God and me) Incident

One of the ministries I contribute to regularly is Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (http://www.rzim.org/), and every other month or so they send an audio CD with updates on the ministry or one of their many excellent speakers delivering a message.

About a month ago, I received a CD with Dr John Lennox giving his comments on the fatal logic errors in Dr. Stephen Hawking's recent book, The Grand Design, where Hawking purports to show that the existence of physical laws like the Law of Gravity are sufficient to ensure the universe would come into existence without any aid from outside influence or intelligence (God).

I loved that CD playing it at least 20 times in my daily 40 min commutes to/from work. Dr Lennox' insights and comments revealed simple truths that somehow had escaped me even after all my study in philosophy, religion, and apologetics. I shared the CD with many people. I kept telling myself I needed to listen to it at my computer where I could easily pause/rewind, so I could capture the many thoughts/ideas and names Dr Lennox mentioned ... but I just never got it done.

In addition to the occasional CD's, RZIM also mails periodic ministry updates in a small pamphlet, "Just Thinking". On a recent morning I happened to notice one lying on the desk near my keyboard that I had not opened, so I decided to take it as I left for work with the intention of reading it during lunch.

That morning while driving to work, a still small inner voice reminded me I had not transcribed the Lennox CD, yet.

At lunch I broke the seals on the pamphlet and opened to the first article, "Stephen Hawking and God" by John Lennox. Though this was not the identical presentation as the CD, it had all the important points - and it had a bibliography!

My Christmas Gifts - Part 1

A confession - I look forward to each Christmas season for the gifts that I get, but not the pretty wrapped ones on Christmas morning like when I was a child. Time spent with family, good food, vacation days, good food - these are all things I look forward to, and as much as I love and treasure those things, they are not the gifts I most anticipate.

I love hearing Christmas music everywhere - Christ-centered Christmas music. I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas is OK, but it doesn't hold a candle to the traditional carols and some of the more recent Christian Christmas standards. Besides, 5 winters of snow shoveling in Cleveland, OH, kind of tarnishes the White Christmas image for me.

My most favorite Christmas song has to be Move Me Closer (A Shepherd's Hymn) recorded in 1987 by Evie. It tells the story of a mantle-manger-set shepherd asking to be moved closer to the Child. It wraps the spirit of Christmas up for me.

Each Christmas for several years now, as I'm driving down the road and listening to the radio, there it is! Move Me Closer begins to play. Sometimes I just turn the radio on and the song begins to play as if it was just waiting for me to get in and start the car. Usually, I'll only hear it once each season. What a precious gift!

The album Move Me Closer is on has long been out of print and has become a collector's item - with a collector's item price. I once bid on a copy on eBay but dropped out after the price went above $50. Just today, I finally purchased a used copy of the CD. I have a habit of copying my favorite songs onto a few CDs so I don't have to carry a CD library in my car, but I don't think I'm going to do that with this song.

Even though I will have the CD and could play the song any time I want, I want to continue to anticipate and be surprised anew each Christmas season as God gives the gift of this special song and its message to me.

Move me closer to the Child ...

(part 2 is here)

Personalize the Debate

This posts answers what I hinted at in green at this post. 

A good friend, Rev. Clarence Powell, relayed this true story to me: 

One day, while serving at the Baptist Children's Home in Monroe, LA, Brother Clarence received a call from a young college student thinking she had dialed a number to arrange for an abortion. (Some might think this was a case of dialing a wrong number, but I think she got the right connection - another one of those co (God and you) incidents.) 

As he listened to the girl talk about wanting to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy, Brother Clarence had a moment of divine inspiration. He asked her, "What's the baby's name?" 

The girl, somewhat taken aback by the question, floundered around, and Brother Clarence explained that all little girls dream one day of being a mother. They even think of names for their children. So, he asked her again, "What's your baby's name?" 

She replied, "Mary." Brother Clarence said, "Well, let's talk about Mary." He prayed for Mary, and, to his surprise, the girl on the other end prayed for Mary, too! 

Brother Clarence referred the girl to a local pastor who got in touch with her and offered love and encouragement. See the difference personalizing the discussion made. 

The next time you are debating with someone about abortion, use this tactic. Instead of talking about impersonal fetuses, the unborn, etc, give the baby a name. 

In fact, I would go so far as to deliberately use the name of one of their children, if I knew it. They may not go along with this, but there's no reason you cannot do it, even if you have to do it one-sided. 

You cannot have a debate that is all emotion, and you cannot have a meaningful debate that is all cold hard facts (unless you are debating a computer -- and if you are losing the debate with the computer, you can just turn it off). 

For a debate to be fruitful, it must appeal to both the mind and emotion. Do not neglect the God-given power of the rightness of cradling a newborn in your arms! 

Giving the baby a name helps paint this picture. Now, go back to my earlier post, referenced above, and use "Mary" where you see green words. 

See the difference it makes.

Appropriate to the Situation

Another from my notebook - this one dated March 8, 1995.

Yesterday while rushing home from work - I was only going to have 15 minutes to change and leave for the Gideon's Pastor Appreciation Banquet, I was listenening to music on one of the Christian radio stations. They began to play the song, "People Need the Lord."

I had been thinking what I was going to say when I was giving the invocation prayer that night at the banquet and the song on the radio struck a deep chord - "that belongs at the banquet," the words are so apt to what the Gideon/church relationship is called to do. I actually gave thought to reading the words to the song as part of the invocation but decided that was not quite what was right.

That night at the banquet, after my invocation and after the meal, Gideon brother Sammy Brewster brought the special music for us. He sang, "People Need the Lord."

Another Co (God and me) Incident. Praise the Lord!

Co (God and me) Incidents

The below was written in my notebook and dated 12-22-99:

Last Friday morning, my wife was listening to the Christmas music playing on the radio as I was getting ready to leave for work. She remarked that the song just ending was one of her favorites -- it was a song I liked, too.

I decided to myself that I would find a CD with that song and give it to my wife as a Christmas gift. However, by the time I got to work, I had forgotten the name of the song!

After straining my brain trying to remember the name of the song to no avail, I finally just said a little prayer, "Lord, if you want me to get this for my wife, you'll have to help me remember."

That evening after rehearsal for our Christmas cantata, our choir director had us sit together in the auditorium to go over a few last things. As he was wrapping up talking about what we would be doing on Sunday morning, he mentioned that so-and-so would be singing a special - Breath of Heaven.

That was the song I couldn't remember.

God answered and my wife got the CD for Christmas.