Pastor Buddy’s Blog

I will always give you favor with My people…

Filed in NHL |

Journal,

Looks like I’m back on memory lane again.

Yesterday morning I completed my devotional studies in the book of Isaiah. How I love that book. I sort of see Isaiah as the apostle Paul of the Old Testament, while I see Paul as the prophet Isaiah of the New Testament. Both these precious men share wonderful mysteries about Christ Jesus.

And I can certainly see why the book of Isaiah is often referred to as the fifth gospel.

Well, this morning I began with my devotions in the book of Jeremiah. No sooner had I got started when a memory triggered in my mind. And I actually remember the date. It was Saturday evening, November 2, 1964, in a mission Pentecostal Church in Montrose, Colorado.

Here’s the scene - The service had ended and I was standing in the back of the church. A minister’s wife came to me with what she said was a word from God. I was so young in the Lord that I didn’t really know what that meant. But I can still pretty much remember what she had to say. It was close to a quote from the portion that I read in my devotion this morning. Here is the portion from Jeremiah 1:5-8 as recorded in the NASB:

“‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.’ Then I said, “Alas Lord God! Behold I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.” But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am a youth,” because everywhere I send you, you will go, and all that I command you, you shall speak.’ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.’” (1:5-8)

I don’t recall the sister speaking to me the exact words from Jeremiah, but it was close enough to stir my heart this morning. However, I do recall two statements she made that have traveled with me all these many years. She said of the Lord, “You will go where I send you. And you will speak what I give you to speak. Do not be afraid of their faces.”

Then she added of the Lord, “I will always give you favor with My people.”

Yes, I have learned through the years to be a bit cautious when people want to give you a word that is supposedly from the Lord. Yet in this case I can truthfully say that the Lord has fulfilled His word to me over these almost 43 years since that time. Among other things, He has always given me favor with His people.

And I can also truthfully say that I’ve ever felt like a child when it comes to being a servant of the Lord. To this very day I have nothing but the deepest regard for the pulpit ministry. In fact I’ve often wondered why anyone would wish to hear me speak. (And that is not false modesty.)

Well, the wonder of it all is how our lives are made up of memories. I find myself walking down memory lane quite a bit of late. Where does it all end? I suppose it ends when we walk right into heaven. Or, maybe that is just the beginning. Wow - what a thought!? 

In coming back to what pertains to the Lord, my earliest childhood memory comes from when my mom would kneel by my bedside, as I kneeled and prayed, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” I would not get into bed until I had “God blessed” everyone I could think of. (I’ve shared this in an earlier entry.)

It was so important to me as a child to not forget to ask for God’s blessings on every single person that I knew, and even upon some that I did not know personally. (Course you have to remember how small my childhood world was at that time.)

The oddity is that while mom had taught me to pray and to call on the Lord, we were not a church going family. Seems mom had sort of burned out on religion. (This was back in the 40s.) I really didn’t know what a religion was. My first memory of attending any kind church was when I was nine years old when we had moved back to Louisiana from California.

Here it gets even more interesting. I literally fell in love with going to church from the first time I entered the door of a church. It has been that way ever since. Yet over time I’ve discovered that there are no perfect churches. We are just saved sinners, meeting together to love and worship the One who saved us by His grace.

To this day when Betty and I are traveling, every time we pass a church I get a warm feeling. It really doesn’t matter what denomination it is, I always feel a sense of kinship with the church meeting place. I know that people meet there to worship the same Lord and I love. And I feel like I could walk through their doors and be right at home. (I’m not speaking of groups that take from the simple gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m not very comfortable with the idea of meeting with them.)

Now, here is a statement that fits my experience with the Lord. (It applies to all true believers.) Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” (Jn10:27)

What this about the voice of Christ? For me it was also in 1964 that I had my first experience with Jesus speaking directly to my heart. Believe it was July, 1964.

My heart was thirsting to know the Lord. This was during a time when religion was sort of taking the place of where a relationship with the Lord should have been. I realize that this may sound a bit strange, but it happens. Sometimes our religions become our Savior replacements. (Just think about it.)

Anyway, I believe it was a Sunday afternoon. I’m in our living room reading the Bible when a strange thing happens. While reading John 14, I became aware of the divine presence. It was like a holiness had settled in our living room. It was like the Lord was drawing me personally into the setting where I was reading.

I came to John 14:9, where Philip says, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

This is where Jesus actually speaks to my heart, and says, “Have I been with you so long, Buddy, and you don’t know who I am. He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

I could not read any further. The tears flowed down my cheeks on to the pages of my Bible. When Jesus spoke to my heart, it was like I was meeting my childhood friend, the very friend that I had prayed with, “Now I lay be down to sleep.” I knew at that moment that the Lord had been with me through all the years since my childhood.

This is another reason that my devotional reading this morning stirred such a memory. When the Lord said, “Have I been with you so long, Buddy, and you don’t know Me,” it was as though He were saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

Do you get tired of hearing me say, “I can truthfully say”?

Well, I can truthfully say that all the days of my journey in this world I have been ever conscious of the Lord’s presence with me. He has visited me in dreams and visions and in other visitations. He speaks into my spirit ever so often. He has often shown me things that were going to happen before they happened, but only as I needed to know them.

Please don’t think that I am glorifying my walk with the Lord. My glory is in the Lord alone. I think that every true Christian can share a very similiar testimony. After all, what is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if it is not personal and rewarding. How can you have a relationship with someone who never speaks into your life? You cannot.

In fact friendship with God is the very essence of the Christian walk. It centers upon Jesus being our personal Lord and Savior, and our ever constant friend. A friend is someone that you can open your heart to and have that friend share with you their own thoughts.

Jesus said to the first disciples, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (Jn15:14)

Where does all this bring me today with regard to my journey with NHL and my trip to MD Anderson next week? For one thing, the Lord told me to expert the unexpected. I shared that in my last entry. That is really all I need to know for the present.

Each morning I continue to receive my divine assurances from the Lord. He has not given me any specifics. Of course He really doesn’t need to do that. I love Him and trust Him with all my heart. And whatever the outcome may be, I know that I belong to Him.

Yet the divine assurances continue to come. In one of my last devotions in Isaiah, I read where the Lord said, “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.” (Is65:24)

When I read this my attention was directed to Matthew 6:7,8, where the Lord said, “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

Our heavenly Father knows exactly what we need at all times. This is where the wonder of trust comes. And the Lord often answers our prayers before we pray them. What another awesome thought.

Jesus instructed believers not to worry or be concerned about tomorrow. He went on to say, “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

Very often the Lord will give just what we need to know so that our faith remains strong. In my case it is, ‘expect the unexpected.’

Well, enough for now.

More and more love coming your way.

Buddy