Remember

I am all up into remembering.....
I read all through Scripture where God commanded the Israelites to remember.
Remember His works that were manifested among the people.
Remember His name....
Even in the ten commandments, God called for the people to "REMEMBER" the Sabbath and keep it holy.
In their wilderness journey from Egypt, Israel set up stones of remembrance to commemorate times and events where God intervened on their behalf.
So in my mind, the act of remembering (especially of God and what He has done in my life) is a vital part of this relationship I have with Him.

Today is one of those remembering days.
On July 6,1997, I was ordained as a pastor into the Association of Vineyard Churches. It was, what I thought at the time, the culmination of a long journey which included a lot of running away from God. On that day, I stopped running an embraced what I knew was a call to pastor. But little did I know or even understand what lay ahead in this journey.

On this day (February 26) I was part of a team that had gone to the Anniston Vineyard to take part in a celebration. I was leading worship that particular day and I remember that the presence of God was extremely thick in the room. People were just going crazy in their worship. I remember standing on stage as we sang and played thinking to myself, "I want more of this! I want to expend myself in worship to you, Lord!" No sooner had I thought these words, a counter thought or impression came to me. "You will enter my work.......full time.....on August the first." As always, this thought was followed by my own mind saying, "Was that God or was that me?" Seems to be the M.O. that I use whenever I think God may have spoken to me. I was excited because it was what I truly wanted to do. Be a full time pastor. I tried to push the thought out of my head, but it would not go away. All the way home, I tried to think of how I would tell my wife, Vicki. "Hello honey, a funny thing happened over in Anniston. God told me to quit my job and go full time in the ministry." Yeah, that would go over good. You have to remember God was telling me to do this...I had not been called by the Vineyard to be a pastor on their staff. In effect, God was telling me...."Go do the work I've called you for.....don't worry about a salary or money or anything else. Just go do it."

I remember walking into our house. Vicki was in the kitchen cooking. I began to slowly try and relate what I had heard, trying to choose my words carefully. I finally reached the point of no return. "Honey, I think God wants me to quit my job and go full time in this pastoring thing." Without turning around, my wife said, "I know...He spoke to me this morning, and told me the same thing." She went on..."I also know that you're suppose to start on August 1st." She knew it at the same time I knew it. That God! Go figure.

Well, here we were in February and August was six months away. I was working at a local Electronics assembly plant at that time, and we suddenly began to get overtime. Me, in my keen wisdom, thought that God was telling me to work all I could and put back as much money during this time. It would be like a nest egg to get us through the period of "no salary" until something happened. I took to the task with great relish. I was working as much overtime as they would allow me to, and the "egg" was growing. All was well. But it wasn't part of God's plan. The weeks rolled by and our nest egg grew as I continued to put in overtime. Then in July, during our prayer time, God spoke to Vicki and me and told us that we should give away all that we had saved up. His words were, "You are going to trust me. You will enter the month of August with "0" dollars in your bank account." Needless to say we were excited and scared to death at the same time. We spent the better part of the week trying to make sure this was God that we had heard. Turns out it was. To prove His faithfulness, God also told us that He was going to be our portion. We were to look to Him. So over the remaining weeks of July, we wrote checks to help people we knew were struggling. I found a real joy in giving away....this joy was soon followed by sheer terror as my flesh cried out, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!!" But it was God who had spoken, and it would be God that sustained us from that point forward.

Now, here fifteen years on the other side of that day, Vicki and I are still plugging along. God has proven true to His word and we have seen His faithfulness all these years. It has been a hard lesson at times, but one that I would not have missed.
Can't wait to see what the next 15 years holds in store.
"Saddle up, boys! We got us an adventure!"

God on you....
mb