How Do We Know if We're Resting in the Lord?

Or...Resting in the Lord doesn't mean sleeping in your quiet time! When I'm under intense pressure, like right now, I can only focus on resting in God. How do I know if I'm resting in God? I notice flowers and appreciate them. I notice sayings that I have up around my house, and think about their message. I don't speed on the highway (!). I don't hurry. Move quickly sometimes, yes, but absent is the stress that comes with not planning ahead, not leaving enough margin, or lack of self discipline. I have patience with other people, but a razor sharp focus on my boundaries of who I should be involved with and who not. This last week and next week I've had to cancel almost everything but work out of my calendar, to do a project that has been thrust upon me suddenly. But God is giving me grace, and rest. I'll take a Sabbath, exercise, have fun,and worship. I'll work hard the rest of the time, at my computer at 7:00 am many mornings, finishing with a 13 hour day at 8. Praise God, His grace is sufficient. Rest in the Lord. I've heard it said that we get more done if we rest in the Lord than if we don't. I believe it! I heard a teaching on resting in the Lord tonight by Bill Johnson of Bethel church in Redding, CA. He said the Hebrew word "rest" in the Bible is also translated "to give birth." Ah yes, we're giving birth when we're resting in the Lord. Hmmm, I'll have to think about that one for a while! Suffice it to say, that Hebrews 4 and Psalm 37 have a good and much needed message for us in this hectic day and age. "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him..." Not a passive thing. Wait expectantly! --

A Train Whistle

Our country is more divided now than it has been since the Civil War. What are we to do? Can we ever find unity again? I for one have strong political opinions (like many of you), but do not talk about them much at work, nor when I'm with family members. However, when I'm in a prayer meeting, then I let loose. Many people are urging us to get involved, to stand up and be counted. After agonizing over it for a while, I read in Joel Rosenberg's Implosion :" Some of us God has instructed not to be involved in politics." He goes on to explain that some of us are called to pastor, to heal, to minister to people from both sides of the aisle, and we can only do that if we're not involved. I'm called as one of those people. However, I want to publish a quote from Dutch Sheets here, as I think it's relevant.  ‘“I lived in Germany during the Nazi holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. I attended church since I was a small boy. We had heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews, but like most people today in America, we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really taking place. What could anyone do to stop it? ‘“A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track. We became disturbed when one Sunday we noticed cries coming from the train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews. ‘“Week after week that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they passed our church. It was so terribly disturbing! We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow. And we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns. If some of the screams reached our ears, we’d just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more. I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. I can still hear them crying out for help. God, forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene.’”2 Please don’t allow anything to drown out the silent screams of the unborn. Don’t hide from the truth. Post it. Preach about it. Write about it. Do a podcast about it. Publicize it. For God’s sake, stop the singing and listen. Lord, have mercy on us.