God’s
Continuous Firsts
7/8/14
A
being that is totally self sufficient, all knowing, continually present in all
places and all powerful is one who our minds cannot really comprehend. Yet
such a being does exist and He is the one being that began all of the things
that we know including our past, our present and our future. It is
also difficult for some of us to understand that God does actually perform
firsts even while keeping the continuous in motion without any breaks in the
chain. How does He complete this? This is a question that
will keep our finite minds busy for the remainder of our lives if we choose to
do so.
When
I was in High School and living in Hobbs, New Mexico there were a couple of
settings there that would blow your mind if I described them to you. The
event that I am going to use here deals with me personally and how God speaks
to one person or group of people in order to complete a task for someone else
who may not understand why things are occurring or what is actually going on or
moving about their surroundings. This is a specific event in time
but it was an event that had dire consequences if the message was not heard or
ignored; namely my life.
As
some of you know my family had a short stint in Hobbs, New Mexico. My
father preached nothing but repentance for six solid months, even in the
Wednesday night services. As one would guess there was a huge reason
for this single message and of course once the enemy has a foothold he really
does not like it when someone tries to expose his foothold. The
complacency within this church concerning these sinful conditions was
magnificent and at one point my parents were shocked at the openness to which
the congregation accepted these conditions in their lives. Many
concerns hit my parents every day and some of these concerns dealt with my
life.
While
they were focused upon my spiritual concerns there was another detail that none
of us were thinking about and that was about my health. Many, many
people understood the attacks that our family was enduring and these people
were constantly praying for our safety. You don’t think that prayer
works?? When I look back and think about everything that our family
experienced during those six months, I thoroughly believe prayer works. At
some point towards the end of our stint in Hobbs my body decided to react to
something and then respond accordingly. It was this response that
became the major issue within my life and I had no idea about what was going on
or about to occur.
Dad
came back from a meeting in another part of the country and was in the Midland
airport when God verbally told him to take his son and flee the city. Dad
has never claimed to literally hear the voice of God on a continual basis but
to this day dad still describes this voice as if it were right next to him as
he was walking down the corridor of that building. This was a first
for dad but I guarantee that this process was not the first for God. We
have many examples of His voice speaking to humans in order for them to
understand what their surroundings are. While mom and dad knew there
were things going on that were not great, God’s timing of His message was a
confirmation that it was time to prepare for our departure from Hobbs, what dad
did not know was about the condition of my body but God had this covered as
well.
A
little while later, in the middle of the night God used His voice once again to
wake a family hundreds of miles away. His voice said to these people
that they should go and get me for my life was in danger. They
agreed with God to do what He wished of them and that they would leave first
thing in the morning. God said “no” leave now. If one is
familiar with God, you know the one being who has been in existence forever,
says to you leave now, then one must understand that human time is of the
essence and things are going downhill fast. It also sends chills
down my spine to have the understanding of the spiritual surroundings enough to
know when time is important for the physical; a concept that is difficult for
us to understand yet possible if we allow God to work through our lives. This
family knows this concept and followed God’s wishes to the letter and left
immediately to come get me.
I
know that within a few short hours my life was in the back of a nice van and
was headed back to southeast Texas. The family did not allow me to
do anything, I was a couch potato in the back of the van and I basically laid
down for the entire trip. When we arrived at their house I was again
sent to the room where I was staying and told to rest as much as
possible. I did not understand why I was being treated this way but
I did know two distinct things, one was that I did not feel the greatest and
two that God had told these people to come get me for some specific
reason. The doctor’s appointment was made and it was the next
morning when I arrived at his office.
After
all of the poking and prodding was over it was determined that I had an
enlarged spleen. Being in the medical field and now understanding
the severity of an enlarged spleen and what it can lead to, I understand a
little bit more about the gravity of that condition in my life during that
period in time. The physician stated that my spleen was so enlarged
that if I had tried to lift anything over 15 pounds or so that it probably
would have ruptured. With the knowledge that an enlarged spleen can
hold over half of the circulating blood cells within your body and even up to
2/3rds of your blood at any time during an enlarged stage, and according to the
physicians, given the size of my spleen that I probably would not have survived
any type of splenic rupture.
Well,
this setting was a first in my life but I can guarantee that this was not a
first for God. I understand now that even though this event directly
affected my life, it was carried out by other people who had the means to do
something about the need at hand. A mute god would not have the
capability to perform this action, nor would a dead god either. A
God that is alive does have the notion to protect His people even when those
people do not understand what is going on or about to transpire. This
event is only one of the many that God has performed that I may never hear
about but it is a true and personal story that was a first for my life but a
continual and ongoing function of God.
There are countless things that I have encountered over my
life that I consider firsts and whether these events could be classified as
good or bad, they are firsts yet they are an example of a continuous God for it
is my choice to serve Him as they pass through my life. It does not matter what your first
experiences might be, but understand that our enemy is out to destroy you and
that there are forces that are lined up against you, just to see that their
mission is completed. God
also has a first for you and in order for that first to come to pass we must be
willing to hear His voice in our lives. I
remember writing my first article and how simple its content was. While I have now written over two
hundred of them I can still tell that I have a ways to go before my writing
style and techniques would be considered perfect in the literary society but
God did not call me to write perfectly only to write in the style that He gave
me and made in me. My
grammar may not always be perfect and my “syntax” may differ from the norm, but
that is ok because God gave me that first article about two years ago now and
has continuously given many to share with you.
How
many burning bushes do you think Moses heard before God appeared to him that
day? Have you heard or watched a bush burn without it being consumed
by the heat and the flames? I can say that I have watched many
bushes and trees succumb to flames but I have never had the privilege of
watching one continually be engulfed in flames yet not burn up. To
be honest, I have no idea how I would respond to such a sight but I would know
that some type of spiritual event was ongoing at that time all the while
shaking in my boots. It took guts for Moses to stand there and to
listen to what God had to say, many of us would have took off running back down
the mountain. That situation was a first for Moses yet God had shown
His glory to others before, it is guaranteed. This might have been a
first but it was a continual process that God used in order for His people to
understand Him.
The
main question that concerns many people throughout the world is why would God
allow Jesus to die for potential salvation for people He did not personally
know? Another popular question that is asked is why would God allow
this type of event to even occur? I could step on some toes here but
that is ok, for this article contains a message that God wishes for us to think
about and just as that family obeyed His message to them so many years ago, I
shall do the same now. When a person understands that God can do
anything He wishes and that person also knows that there are two kingdoms
present that are at constant war with each other than that person can
comprehend why God does things in the manner that He does them. We
may not fully see all of the implications of that act but we can rest assured
that something important was going on at that moment.
Jesus’
life represented everything that God required of man throughout the
scriptures. His life, death and resurrection totally upended every
sacrificial procedure that scriptures had recorded and placed them into a
personal perspective for each and every one of us to understand. Some
of us can fathom this concept but there are some groups out in the world today
that still reject this first yet continuous act of God’s handiwork. This
genius stroke completed the redemption story after the fall in the Garden of
Eden and it allowed direct access to God once again. If one will
open their hearts enough to allow God to show them that this act of Jesus’ life
was ordained by God long before Lucifer even made the choice to go on his own,
their lives will be totally transformed and their spiritual eyes opened to the
truth that surrounds their existence. This one event in history sums
up the entire Constitution of God and the reason why He created us in the first
place.
God
does not need to create another Jesus for His plan was perfect the first time
around even though His process may seem a bit confusing to some, it fits all
perfectly within His continuous life plan for each one of us. It is
a necessity that we remember that God does perform firsts in our lives even
though I am sure that He has spoke to someone else to go and get another person
in the middle of the night. God understands us well enough to know how to
grab our attention and then to use what He has given to us as a means of
delivering His message to others. This is the perfect example of an
all knowing, all powerful and all loving Creator that wants our lives to be an
example of His Kingdom to the world.
Does
God need to give another bush His presence within its life? Who
knows but if God wishes it to be done then He can do it. When God
does something unusual it will not go against His Constitution, for if it does
then it is not from God. Then it is our responsibility to understand
God’s Constitution well enough to know the truth. If we do not then
we could fall into a deadly trap that will only bring harm and shame to others
and cause more division among God’s people. The extraordinary way
that God sent Jesus to earth was a first yet that process was consistent with
the continuous ways of God. Jesus’ creation was both spiritual and
physical just as the burning bush was and the actions of Laura Lou and Henry
Jasper were some 30 years ago.
I also find it very
intriguing that it is us who first doubted God. And through this first of ours
we continuously increase our doubts about God and who He is and about specific
doubts concerning His life. It has been noted that God has been very
displeased with our actions and has had to make some drastic alterations to our
personal worlds, but His Constitution clearly states that He has never reached
the point of doubting our potential. If He had, then He would have
totally wiped us off the earth and ended things a very long time ago.
Let me present this
concept in another manner. When you go to the physician you would
expect that doctor to have completed their training at an accredited school,
correct? Do you ever think about when the first time that doctor
actually chose to become a doctor? What was their first idea or process
that gave them the desire to become a physician of the sick? Was it
them looking at a cell under the microscope or was it them as a teenage sitting
in a classroom learning about all of the options available to her / him within
the medical field? What about engineers that build power plants or
buildings for public use? What about ministers or teachers? What
was their first that brought them to continuously learn about a specific field
of study?
I know that there are
some of you out in the world that read these articles that I write but could
you automatically read the words that I have written down or did you first have
to learn the alphabet? After you learned the letters of the alphabet
then you learned how to connect those letters in order to form words,
correct? Those letters together represented a continuous line of
letters to form that word, and then you learned how to speak those words. Those
words then form a continuous chain to form a sentence and then can form a
paragraph which can then be placed into an article or book. So if
this is a trait of our lives and we were created by God, then why would it be
any different from God Himself?
God
is a God of firsts but He always shall keep His actions in line with His
Constitution. Each one of your lives is a part of that Constitution
yet it always has amazed me that He allows us to choose His ways if we
wish. This concept of choice is a continuous act of God as well and
most of us do not even realize this fact. God is good, all the time
and all the time, God is good for it is He alone who gave us a created and
purposeful life, so why would anyone else’s life be anything different,
including Jesus’. It is through these firsts that God creates that should
be the proof that God is a continuous God and that no matter what occurs in our
life, He first loved us.
DLB
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