Roll

P 2898 Wot’s in YOUR way?

/ DVH

As you know, we go away regularly on the road, to give away bibles and other Christian materials. This time, as we’ve been preparing, it seemed that my health was going to be more of a problem than it has been in the past. Yet hubby strongly felt that God wanted us to go to Robe SA, plus a few places along the way. That town is over 2067 kms one way, 4,134 kms there and back! That’s a whole  lot of driving and traveling.  

In the end our only option seemed to be to travel down the inland road, which would take us 10 days –  nearly 20, there and back.  We can only do about 300 kms each day because we both have health issues, plus we always want to allow time to go to talk to people along the way. We had already eliminated flying because neither of us were sure if either of us could manage the long flight. However, we weren’t very concerned about any of it until the time got a lot closer, and by then, it became apparent that physically neither of us would be able to cope with such a large journey. 

Plus, our middle daughter, Kylee, and her son Jed, suddenly had to move house. The house they’d lived in for 11 years is going to be sold in June/July. She is a single mother of a 14 year old teenager, and she is homeschooling him, plus working 3 jobs. Fortunately recently she cut those jobs down to 2 – otherwise we might have to clone her!! Like a lot of other people today, she has to work very hard just to pay the rent, and put food on the table. And right at the time she had to move, and one part of her back-up team was about to trot off and leave her! She also can’t afford time off, she will still have to work as well. That’s the trouble with money trees, you over-pick them or they die!

Parents like to fix things. To be completely honest I personally probably jump in and ‘fix things’ without always praying first! Ho-hum. Because we want to help our daughter, it seemed that we couldn’t go on this journey at all, unless we went at some other time. Fortunately hubby hadn’t booked anything yet, so we prayed and the Lord confirmed our choice – March. Meanwhile, while we weren’t looking God had already taken care of ‘what concerns us’, as He promised He would in the bible! Our daughter and grandson have found somewhere to live, praise Him! I think, that when we make arrangements in our own strength, driven by worry and concern, God laughs. 

However, it seemed to us like we were between a rock and a hard place at the time! Over to my point: After this complication I gave it all up – my plans, plus all the bits and consequences to the Lord, and shut the door between me and the whole thing, very quickly. Then I left it alone. The next morning I continued to read the bible in my normal place, Mark – about the Lord’s death:

Mark 16:1-3“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” …

Did you get that? It is easy to miss. These dear women had not planned ahead, they were already on their way to do what they set out to do. It was their final act of Love for the Lord. And it suddenly occurred to them they were not going to be able to GET IN. Now let’s read verse 3.

“… But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away!”  The pressure on these precious women had immediately come off. God removed the impediment, right out of the way, and they didn’t even pray or ask for it … because they didn’t even think about it until they were nearly there! How good is God?!

Boy, that scripture hit me so hard … right between the eyes…. I realised that I had to use my faith and step out, despite the impediments. Yeah, can you believe it? After all I’ve written here! Then He spoke to me in my heart: “You can go on the plane, I have removed that stone.” That stone was unbelief I’m thinking!! The Lord patiently explained to me that travelling by plane actually meant only 2 hours of discomfort, against 10 days of tiring, uncomfortable car travel.

When you look at it like that — it’s an easy peasy choice! The minute we heard from the Lord: “Go by plane” — every single thing fell into place. We had favour everywhere we booked – especially with the plane bookings! People bent over backwards to help us, because God Himself was working on our behalf.  

I want to finish today by saying this — there will always be a stone, a rock, a canyon, a river, an ocean, a boulder the size of Uluru in our way, when we decide to choose to obey Him! Whether we remember to ask for His help or not, God is still faithful. Stuff happens …all of the time. We can choose to do things with Him, or without Him – but with Him is so much better! And sometimes, because Jesus is GRACE personified, as we make a decision, He takes the impediments out of our way.

He is waiting for our ‘yes’ … …so wot’s in your way? Bye. 👋

P 2860 God will deal with it!

/ DVH

Sometimes we need to use our faith to deal with the blooming great rock that is in the middle of the pathway between us and what God asks us to do. And then we need to keep on walking forward in faith. Let’s look at Mark 16:2-4“Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.”

These dear women wanted to make sure that the Lord Jesus was buried reverently, according to their religious customs, so they woke up early and hurried to the tomb. They loved the Lord so much they wanted to minister to Him in this way – even though, in their minds – He was dead. The bible teaches us that Father God loves to surprise His passionate lovers!  On the way to His tomb the ladies suddenly realised that a whole lot of big soldiers had rolled a huge rock across the entrance, and these women had no hope of moving it. They showed their faith in God when they kept on walking toward the tomb!

When I read those words today, I thought of many past scenarios in my own life, where I had projected my own physical, mental and emotional inadequacies, into a situation and felt hopeless. Actually, those inadequacies had become the hypothetical large rock in my way … but those oppositional things didn’t exist in reality. My mind used logic to bring them up  It made me wonder how often we do that to the Lord – we start out in faith and end up in logic! 

So here’s an illustration from my own life. There are times when the Lord says to us: “I want you to go to this city or that state.”  In my mind’s eye, I immediately eliminate the apparent rock of air travel, because of my disabilities. To start with, a two hour air trip takes us nearly 4 hours. We have to get on the plane long before anyone else, and we can’t get off until the people on the plane have been off-loaded, and they are on their way home! Waiting is not good for chronic fatigue. The result is like trying to drag a dead horse around.

Meanwhile our luggage is often the only bit left on the carousel, going round and round all alone. Poor little lonely suitcases!! 🤣  Plus we can’t afford to go on a plane because it is too expensive. If we were to allow even those two thoughts, (and there are loads more)to guide us, we are putting a (faithless) rock in our own path, and suddenly going by plane seems insurmountable. It just seems easier to go with our own understanding – which, means limited faith. This happened to us recently – and yes, we are going by plane!

Of course we would be foolish to ignore the fact that plane travel is a pain in the neck, that’s the rock-that-is-in-our-way and we know it is there, it was there the last time we looked! Yet we cannot live by the fear that we are inadequate and can’t move it, because the bible says: “The just shall LIVE by faith.” And fear and faith are completely incompatible. The thing I’ve noticed about fear is that it is a pesky little gnat, it slinks away to return at a moment’s notice! So here’s what I do:  as I walk along toward the blooming great rock that I know will be in the way of what I need to do … I give that obstacle and its removal to the Lord, every single time the thought of it harasses my mind and emotions. And I do that on repeat.

Sometimes, as I get near whatever mythical-rock-that-shall-not-be-moved-by-the-likes-of-ME — I begin to wonder what incredible thing God will do this time to fix the situation I find myself in. Thinking like that creates a sense of spiritual anticipation. David ran at Goliath, remembering that he had once killed a lion and bear with the Lord’s help, while he was minding sheep. I like that action. I like the idea of running at my enemy yelling and screaming: “God did it before and He will do it again.” Sometimes I even remind the other guy how dumb it is to get in the Lord’s way.  

Yeah, . I tell my Saviour that if He really wants me to do what-ever-it-is, then this is His problem, and if that rock/hurdle is still there, then I am packing up the fight and I will go home. I remind the Lord that I am easy either way, going home, or pounding on a rock that I can’t move … but my mustard seed of faith is still in whatever HE is going to do next. I have even been known to say: “How are You going to get us out of this one Lord?” 

I just want to say that at the same time during this process my emotions will be jumping up and down yelling: “Gotta find a solution NOW!” So I tell that stuff to shut up, in His Name. Whatever happens, I like to remind myself that one way or another our God will deal with that rock! And in the end, I get a brand new testimony of how wonderful He is! On that note, bye again for today. May God bless you!  👋