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Look Up To God

November 25, 2023 by Bill Leave a Comment

This phrase, “look up” has come to me several times lately. As I looked back over my past posts, I saw five with the title “Look Up” Each one with a different look at that term. It must be important. When trouble comes our way, we usually tend to look at the trouble and not, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” (Psalm 121:1). In Numbers 21, God’s people complained against God in the desert and He sent venomous snakes among them and many died. They repented and God told Moses to, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” (V. 8). They had to “look up”. Also in our technology infused world, if we don’t know something, we “look up” the answer. Right? God has the answer, “look up”.

One of my favorite songs, especially as I’m going through this troubled time, is Complete by the Parachute Band from 2000. One of the lyrics says, “So I lift my eyes to you Lord. In your strength will I break through Lord. Again, “look up” to the Lord. A very comforting vision we can see from this and the scriptures is this: Imagine yourself kneeling at the Throne of God with your head down burdened by troubles, repenting and asking for forgiveness. Then you hear a voice from above, “Hey, child, look up here. I love you and I’ll take care of it.” You look up into the loving face of God and see Him smiling back at you, (can you see it?) and all your worries seems to fade away. God then asks you to stand up and offers you, with outstretched arms, a big hug.

In my blog, there’s a post about looking to God. It refers to an old hymn and says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” Same idea, “look up” Go to www.roadrevelations.org and search, “Praise Beside the Path” to read it.

The last “look up” I’ll mention is the most important. Revelation 1:7 says, “Look, he is coming with the clouds,’ and ‘every eye will see Him”. On that day Jesus will appear in the clouds, which are above us, and every eye shall see Him. We will all “look up” at this wonder. Some will be afraid because they haven’t prepared but many will be joyful as they “look up” at Jesus and hear Him calling us up. What a day that will be! Are you looking up? Have you prepared and accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Don’t Go There!

September 11, 2021 by Bill 1 Comment

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:9).

God is always wanting to speak to us. He wants to show us, “great and mighty things, which you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3), but we must be willing to listen and be in a place where we can hear. I frequently “hear” things from God and it’s almost always when I’m in a quiet place: doing morning devotions, driving, in the bathroom or walking. I want to expound on something I “heard” recently. I was walking around the end of my bed going to open the window shades one morning and heard this, ”Don’t set foot.” As I thought about that, I got a picture of a person on a street facing a satanic church and God was saying, “Don’t set foot in there, don’t go there!” Well, how many of us would actually consider going into a church of Satan? None, I hope. But where are the places God is telling us to, “Don’t set foot!”? Think about it, the devil is always trying to tempt us to “set foot” in places God is not pleased with and we all know where those places are for us. If we are walking with God and are attentive to His voice, He will warn us, “Don’t go there.” Some places are obvious but others are not. “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14), he’s always trying to deceive us. We need to listen to God.

Another picture I got once was related to the phrase, “That caught my eye.”, something you noticed and looked at. There are things we shouldn’t look at. I thought, ”For something to catch my eye, I would have to first cast my eye on it.” Before someone can catch a ball, you first have to throw it toward them. “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;” (Habakkuk 1:13). Don’t look!

One more vision about “Don’t go there!” is in a large train station. There are trains coming and going all the time to different destinations. Think of these as “trains of thought”. Which thought train are you going to board? Again, the devil will offer you great deals to get on his train but…don’t go there! Reminds me of Josh Turner’s song, “Long Black Train”. “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

So, don’t set foot, don’t look and don’t get on the wrong thought train. Listen to the Voice that is with you. “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21). Be blessed!

Lead, Guide and Direct

September 19, 2020 by Bill 1 Comment

We’ve all heard the phrase, “lead, guide and direct”. Most of the time it’s part of a prayer for ourselves or someone else wanting God to lead, guide and direct in the way we and others should go. I’ve prayed this many times. Recently, God gave me a little deeper understanding of the phrase and showed me what it might look like on the Path of Life.

Imagine a person on the Path and they’ve asked God to, “lead, guide and direct” them as they travel along, and He sends Jesus to do it. The first image I saw was of Jesus out in front saying, “Come on, follow Me and I’ll lead you in the way you should go.” “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3). Sometimes, Jesus will be out in front of us pointing us in the right direction to follow Him and maybe holding out His hand for us to take hold of to be sure we’re with Him. Lead me Lord.

The next image was the guide. How does someone guide us? Well they can stand beside us and talk to us with directions on where to turn, not to turn, when to stop, when to wait, how to avoid obstacles, etc. But sometimes, and this is what I saw, God will give us a guide, His Word. The Bible is the ultimate guide for our lives, and we must have it handy, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11). It’s best to have God’s Word memorized, in our hearts and minds so we don’t have to stop and look something up or have to ask someone else. We use YouTube videos to show us how to do some things so wouldn’t it be awesome to have God’s video instantly play in our mind to guide us when we need it? Guide me Lord.

And the last image I saw was direct. I’ve found that sometimes God wants us to take the first step into a new direction on the Path. He will tell us where to go but He might not tell us why. He will stand behind us and say, “OK child, I’m directing you to go this way and I want you to trust Me and move forward. I’ll be right here behind you.” “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21). Direct me Lord.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will be right there with us as we travel the Path of Life to keep us going in the right direction and to accomplish their plans for us. And we know that sometimes we get off the path, led astray by the enemy, but our Master and Savior will be right there to lead, guide or direct us back to the Path. Thank You Lord!

Lyrics To LOVE – Raise Me Up

August 21, 2020 by Bill Leave a Comment

I was listening to my Christian playlist while driving the other day and the song, “You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban began playing. By the way, I’ve found that my car is one of my “prayer closets” and I was in there with God on this day. The lyrics of the first verse began forming scenes in my mind and it went on from there to give me a tear-filled vision of God’s love that, I’m sure, someone else needs to “see” as well. Let’s look.

Picture a person, maybe you, who’s so burdened down with troubles that they just have to sit down beside the path. “When I am down, and, oh, my soul, so weary. When troubles come, and my heart burdened be.” As they sit there, they’re shaking their bowed head and whisper a prayer, “God, I need You.” Can anyone relate? Then, in the silence of the nature surrounding them, they feel a strong hand on their right shoulder. Surprised, they turn and look up and see Jesus standing there with a big, loving smile on His face. He says, “Child, can I sit down with you?” “Then, I am still and wait here in the silence, until you come and sit awhile with me.”

Jesus takes a seat next to them beside the path and says, “I know what you’re going through and I’m here to help just as you’ve asked.” “But first, I want to show you some things.” He points His finger toward the distant mountains and says, “Look at those green mountains, aren’t they beautiful?” The person smiles and acknowledges, “Yes Lord, they are.” “Let me show you something.” Jesus stands up, holds out His hand and says, “Come with Me.” They take His hand and suddenly, they are on the top of that mountain they were just looking at! “You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.” Wow! They look out over the valley and are amazed! Jesus says nodding His head, “You know, I made these mountains. In fact, I made all the nature and animals you see around here.” Then He looks the person in the eye and says, “But what’s amazing is…I made you in the image of Me and the Father and we love you much more that all of this.” Oh, they’re heart is overjoyed, and they’ve forgotten the burdens they were carrying down below.

Then, Jesus says, “Hold on, I’ve got something else to show you.” Again, He takes them by the hand and suddenly, they’re transported to the middle of a body of water. The wind is blowing, and the water is pretty rough, but Jesus warns, “Now, don’t look down at the waves, keep holding My hand and keep your eyes on Me.” “You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.” “You’re going to go through some hard times in your life but remember, I’m always here with you and I’ll take you through it if you’ll hold on to Me.” “And if needed, I’ll pick you up and carry you at times.” “I am strong when I am on your shoulders.” The person says, “Oh Jesus, thank You for showing me all this.” “You’re welcome child.”

Then, they’re back down on the path of life again. The person exclaims, “Jesus, Jesus, thank You for reminding me of Your love and provision.” “I know now that, whatever I’m going through, I can call on You and You will be there for me.” “With Your help, nothing is impossible for me.” “You raise me up to more than I can be.” Jesus says, “OK, don’t forget, I’m always here when you need me.” “Now, let’s get up and move on.”

Resist

August 8, 2020 by Bill Leave a Comment

I have several things I read during my morning devotion time and one of them stood out to me recently. God speaks to me in different ways and, on this morning, it was the imagery in my mind or like a video playing to show me something. The prayer I read was, “Lord, may nothing separate me from You today.”, then, the video. I saw me and God walking on the narrow path of life, God leading the way. Then, suddenly, a temptation demon jumped out from the side of the path and stood between me and God. He had, what seemed to be, a desirable offer for me. I looked up at God and He says, “Your choice, what are you going to do?” (How many times has this happened to us?) We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23). “Well, I’ve submitted to you God (James 4:7), Your power is in me (Ephesians 6:10), and You’ve given me the authority to use it (Luke 10:19), so…” I turn to the demon and declare loudly, “Demon, I’ve submitted to God and I resist you. Get outta here before I stomp on you!” He gets a frightened look on his face and flees back into the bushes. Now, there is nothing separating me from God, nothing standing in the way. God smiles, nods His head and says, “Good decision. Now, let’s keep going.” Can you envision this scene?

We have to know the weapons we have and how to use them. We have to go out with the full armor of God in place. We have to have the confidence to draw our sword of the Word and stand! If we submit to God, resist the devil, and stand in God’s power and authority, the enemy has to flee. Are you ready? Are you equipped? Hey, are you walking with God? Let’s be prepared as we journey toward our destination.