And God Came Down!

Psalm 119:130
The unfolding of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.

Last night was a night of unfolding for a lot of the men.
During our 9 p.m. Bible study, the word was powerfull as we were in the 32nd chapter of Genesis. We were looking at the behavior of Jacob as he wavered back and forth from crying out to God to save him from his brother Essau, to manipulating events and people in order to win favor with his brother.

Manipulation is one of the key character defects in an addictive lifestyle, so this chapter really hit home hard with those who were present for the Bible study. The one thing that I am trying to do is make this scripture come alive. To read it like the people were real people with real problems. You and I know that they were real people, but for what ever reason, some pastors have a tendency to not covey that message. It's like they make the stories seem distant and not relevant to life today. When you can start talking about deception and manipulation and trying to work situations into our favor.................well, people can truly identify that. Throw a God into the mix who is working his plan for humanity and you've got the making for some learning.

At the end of the study I opened the floor to those who needed prayer.
One came forward and asked for more understanding about the Word of God.
He kind of was embarrassed to ask, but I assured him that it was very scriptural (James 1) and that God would grant this prayer. This whole "God is really real" thing is new to this man and he is running into God every day in different ways. God is speaking to him and he is still trying to wrap his mind and heart around the fact that God would do this.

Next a man came up who was so full of gratitude for what God has done for him that he was about to bust. He could barely get the words out "I just want to thank God for everything." Of course this gratitude was mixed with a lot of "Why me?" He wondered why God had chosen him to give him this new life. There was a lot of "I'm not worthy to receive" in his language. I assured him that none of us were worthy and that is where the gratitude comes from. I asked him if he truly wanted to do something foolish. He replied, "Yes..". I told him that I wanted him to shout "Thank you Lord!" at the top of his lungs, as loud as he could. He closed his eyes and then what came out was an explosion. "THHHANNNK YOUUUUU LORRRRRD!!!" as quickly as he said it, The Holy Spirit covered this man and he sank to the floor. He was more surprised than anyone and lay there as if trying to make sense of what had just happened. It was truly like with the man's "thank you".....God came down and said, 'Your welcome" and blasted this man.

We ministered to him long after the meeting had finished.
It was something new and something he was going to have to chew on for a while.
He had never had anything like this happen to him before.
We left him with scripture to read and asked him to write down any question he might come up with about what had happened. We agreed to meet and talk with him at a later time.

That is why I do what I do.
To see that one individual have his world completely undone by God.
As Todd Bagley so aptly put it........"You and God were breathing the same air."

God on you.........
mb