Given May 4, 2006
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Psalm 23:5.” I wrote about this topic a couple of months ago and the fact that this scene is on earth and not in Heaven. But I got a different view of this scripture the other day.

Picture this: Here I am, in trouble and my enemies are all around me. They’re in a circle around me and closing in. I call out to God and He appears outside the circle and says, “Back off thugs! I’ve got something for my son Bill.” Well, of course my enemies step aside trembling and let God into the circle. He sets up a table and chair, puts food and every good thing for me to enjoy, (1 Timothy 6:17) on it, and says, “Have a seat son.”

Don’t you know my fears are gone and I sit down to feast at the Father’s table. But the good part is that my enemies are still around me but all they can do is stand and watch me be blessed by God! He didn’t chase them away or destroy them. He just put a hedge of protection around me and made them stand there and watch!

If you’re in the middle of “trouble” and you feel like your enemies are closing in on you, cry out to your Father in Heaven and He’ll come and set a table for you. “…I shall fear no evil for Thou art with me.” Psalm 23:4.

Given May 7, 2006
It was an overwelming time during Praise & Worship this morning at our church, at least for me. I do the morning prayer right after Praise & Worship time and I was having some difficulty even walking and talking because of two things.

One, God had directed me to pray for peace and read the scripture in Phillipians 4 that speaks about joy, worry and peace. Well, don’t you know, our pastor, (who leads Praise & Worship), said he was led to sing, “Peace, peace, wonderful peace. Coming down from the Father above…”. That confirmed that peace is what the people needed to hear that day. What an awesome God!

Two, what really brought the tears was a vision I received during that time. I was thinking about how the Holy Spirit is a gentleman and won’t force Himself in where He’s not invited, even in churches. But when we invite Him in through praise, worship, or prayer, He comes in readily.

The vision I got was of Jesus coming into the church with a big smile on His face and leading a crowd of people and they were all very happy. These people represented the answers to our needs. Salvation was there, along with Healing, Wisdom, Deliverance, Provision, and all the other needs we have. We would run up to Jesus and He knew us! He greeted each of us like He really knew us and was happy to see us, (and He does and is). Then He, knowing our need, would turn and introduce us to Healing or Deliverance, or whoever and say, “Go with him, he’ll help you out.” And the point was that we ran to Jesus first then He introduced us to the answer to our need.

If we invite Jesus in, He will come and bring with Him everything that we need. “God inhabits the praises of His people, Psalms 22:3“. “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4:19” What a beautiful picture!

Given September 2005
We all know that, down through history, Satan has been deceiving God’s people. He began with Eve and is doing it to us today. He’ll make things look really good and tempt us to, “take a bite”, then we see the ugliness of it all. “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:14“.

At this time of high gas prices, (and it’s worse now than it was in September), this sign beside the road looked pretty good. It might make you want to say, “Wow, what a good price. I’m going over there!” But what was beyond told the rest of the story. If you didn’t take a closer look, you would have gotten off the road to where you were going and gotten into a place where fire had been. “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3“.

This place had been burnt out and vacant for months! God has us going somewhere but Satan is constantly trying to get us off the highway to Heaven and into his messed up, burnt out places. Take a closer look and don’t be deceived.

Given September 4, 2004
If something you’re doing or about to do isn’t going well, think about who you think you’re doing it for. Does that make sense? We think we know who we’re doing a job for or who will see the results but who all is really looking? Here’s my example.

It was my week to mow the church grass and a couple of young people were supposed to come help me. Well, guess what? They didn’t show up! So I started on the job by myself, no big deal, right? Well, after about 2 1/2 hours, I was getting pretty worn out and realized I had another hour to go before I could finish. I started griping about having to do ALL this myself. People I knew were driving by, waving, going to eat or something. I was hungry too but I had to finish this job before I could have my supper. I was railing on the kids who didn’t show up and getting myself pretty steamed about the whole thing. Then….

That small, still voice on the inside said, “Bill, who are you doing this job for anyway? Are you doing it for the pastor, for yourself….who are you mowing MY church grass for?” Oh man! I was convicted big time! I then realized I should be doing this job for the Lord. If the church grass looked good, then all those people driving by might have a better impression of the church. I repented on the spot and asked forgiveness.

After that, even though I was almost exhausted, my frame of mind was that if God was pleased with what I was doing and my attitude about it, then that’s all that mattered. Even on the side of the church where no one would ever see, I weed-eated, (is that a word?), anyway. God was watching!

“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, Colossians 1:10“. Since then, I have often remembered this lesson and tried to have the right attitude about anything I’m doing. If for no one else, I’m doing it for the Lord and I want Him to be pleased.

Given April 28, 2006
I was reading my devotion this morning and it was about Moses and the burning bush. You know, Moses wasn’t too cooperative in this job interview with God. Our school system has been conducting interviews recently for various openings and I thought about that as I contemplated Moses’ responses.

When someone goes into a job interview, they, first, have chosen to be there then they will do and say anything they can to convince the interviewers that they’re the one for the job. But Moses was just the opposite. God sort of tricked him into coming to the interview to start with, (the burning bush), then He told him what He wanted him to do and that he already had the job. But instead of saying, “Thanks”, Moses told God how he wasn’t qualified and couldn’t do the job! But God’s response is the key.

“…God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” …So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. Exodus 3:4, 10-12” “I will be with you.” God called Moses in, gave him a job, not caring whether he was qualified or not but said He’s go with him on the job. What a boss!

It would be awesome in the workplace if the boss picked you out, called you in, gave you the job, then said, “Now, let’s you and I go do it.” God HAS done this to us. He’s called us to do a job and He’s ready to go out with us. And that will insure the job will get done successfully! “Here I am, God, let’s go!”