Is it good or is it God?

I worked through Henry Blackaby’s classic study, Experiencing God, as a young pastor’s wife and it made a tremendous difference to my spiritual life. Truthfully, it didn’t happen right away. God allowed some tough circumstances to use the spiritual truths I had learned as a way to remodel my spiritual choices.

In one chapter, Blackaby wrote, “We don’t choose what we will do for God; He invites us to join Him where He wants to involve us.”  

I’m not sure if I thought that message was for other people or if I thought being married to a preacher meant I had already done that, but I heard those words a couple of years before I actually received them as truth for my own walk with the Lord. 

That one lesson, once learned, changed the rest of my spiritual journey. 

A good life isn’t necessarily a godly life 

I really wanted to be a good preacher’s wife, a good mom, and a good person. I thought if those things were my goals, at least I would be going in the right directions. I stayed busy working hard and volunteering for service. I tried to attend as many things at the church as I could, believing that to be my ministry. I was faithful to go to a ladies Bible study each week because I knew I needed to learn more Scripture. I went to bed tired but feeling like God must be pleased with what I was attempting to do. 

Then we moved to Atlanta and I found I was very allergic to some things out there. That October, allergies led to sniffles, then a bad cough, which I was “too busy” to worry about. I had promised to step into my son’s third-grade class one day so his teacher could go to her daughter’s school program. I taught the class and was walking home when I realized I didn’t have enough air to get up the hill.  

I eventually made it, called the doctor, and asked for a prescription. He told me to get to the hospital as soon as I could. As it turned out, I had the same pneumonia that had killed Jim Henson a few months earlier. The doctor told me I probably only had a few days left before the medications would not have worked. 

It took a month to get well but, as it turned out, it was one of the best months of my life. I learned a lesson that has carried me ever since. 

Our spiritual journey is not measured by the good things we decide to do for God and others. Instead, it is about knowing God’s plan and calling and living in obedience to that. 

The knowledge that makes all the difference 

I sat in my recliner for almost a month trying to allow my lungs to heal. Atlanta was beautiful in October. The leaves rained down with brilliant color, and I watched them and thought about God. After a lot of thinking, praying, and listening, I realized that this life of busy attendance wasn’t because I was obeying God’s expectations. I was honoring others’ expectations instead. 

I was grateful to God for saving my stubborn life. I watched the beauty of this world float by outside my window and realized that all I thought about serving God hadn’t worked out very well. I could have died and left Jim with two young boys to raise. I could have harmed others while all the while I thought I was “helping.” 

At the end of a month of recuperation and spiritual regeneration, I finally came to understand that Blackaby’s words weren’t just a lesson to hear. I needed, as Blackaby would say, to adjust my life to what God had planned it to be. I made a commitment to God to do that. 

If you want to experience God 

I pulled my Experiencing God workbook off of the shelf and reread it. I realized that I had written the right answers on the lines and had added important thoughts from others in the margin. But I just hadn’t made the choice to allow the knowledge to alter my choices.  

  • I needed to experience the Holy Spirit in my life.
  • I needed to hear the Bible speak God’s voice into my life.
  • I needed to tell some people no in order to tell God yes.
  • I needed to learn to notice what God was doing in the world and “get in on it.”
  • I needed to obey God’s word so that I could know God and completely trust him as my King.

That is just some of what the Lord taught me during those days and months that followed. Sanctification takes a lifetime, but it only begins when we realize it isn’t about what we do; it’s about allowing God to do his work in and through our lives. 

If we want to experience the reality of God, we must step fully into the knowledge that only he is God and everything else is only an attempt to become a god in our lives. (By the way, that is the work of Satan.) We don’t know how to serve God and others until we come to learn the value of simply being available to God so that he can serve others through our life as we are yielded to his Spirit. 

Is it good or is it God? 

The lessons I learned during that season of my spiritual life led me down roads I would never have imagined.  

  • Eventually, I knew God wanted me to teach a ladies Bible study.  
  • Eventually, I came to recognize the silent but audible voice of God’s leadership.
  • I began to do some public speaking based on what I had learned.
  • Eventually, I wrote a book and titled it Content to be Good, Called to be Godly.
  • Now I am serving at Denison Ministries as the Lord continues to lead.

Please know, I don’t say any of that from a place of pride. The list above is what God accomplished, not me. I would have filled my life with good things that I wanted to do for God. I learned that my life was simply to be a conduit for what God wanted to do through his Holy Spirit within me. 

Now, I just want to share with others one of the most important lessons God ever taught me. Truthfully, it took a bad bout of pneumonia to get me to listen. Maybe this blog post can save someone else from learning this the hard way. 

Is your life filled with good things, or is your life a list of things God has done through your obedience to his Spirit-led call in your life?  

Blackaby wrote, “We don’t choose what we will do for God; He invites us to join Him where He wants to involve us.” 

Are those words something you believe or the truth you live? 

Your answer will make all the difference in your spiritual journey. 

At the perfect time, Jesus will return

We drove past an old cemetery in Mineral Wells, Texas, that was marked with a historic seal. That seal means some of the headstones probably date back to the Civil War or earlier. I’m fascinated by the history and all the stories represented by the headstones. In many ways, cemeteries tell the stories of life on earth. 

A new thought occurred to me as we drove past that cemetery: there are no cemeteries in heaven. 

Last week, I taught a verse from Romans that has returned to my thinking several times since. I realized that it needed to be my words for the blog post this week. 

The verse is from Romans 5, and I prefer the wording in the NIV version that says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). God picked the perfect time to send Jesus to this world so that he could live and then die for the ungodly.  

Jesus was born the first time, at a perfect time, and he came for the sake of the ungodly. When Jesus returns, it will be a perfect time as well, but the next time Jesus steps into this world, he will come for the godly.  

The perfect time

Many articles relate to the phrase “at a perfect time,” and many quote verses from the prophets. Jesus picked the perfect time in history to be born in a Bethlehem stable. He began fulfilling Old Testament prophecy with his first moments on earth. But there are also a lot of practical, earthly reasons that made it a “perfect” time. 

Rome was the world power of the day, and the world was unified under one government, as it had never been before. The phrase “all roads lead to Rome” explains one of the most important reasons for Christ’s timing. For the first time in history, people, soldiers, and ideas traveled, and everyone’s worldview grew as a result. Not only were roads built for travel, but the shipping industry was also vastly improved and ports had opened up to vessels from all over the known world. 

Would the early Christians have been able to leave Jerusalem for other cities without those roads, ships, and the protection they offered? 

The Greek language was the universal language of the day. Every city had people who knew Greek and could serve as teachers and translators. Would the news of Christ have spread throughout the region if everyone had needed to learn Hebrew to understand it? 

And, most importantly, God’s people were truly looking for their Messiah, knowing the prophets had promised God would send him to restore and save them from the hardships of this world. 

So, on that spring morning in Bethlehem, Jesus was born. Paul described the first coming of Christ saying, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4–5). 

Jesus entered the world at the perfect moment in history so that all people could be redeemed by his sacrifice and become God’s adopted children. And the adopted children of God were promised a new home.

His return will be perfectly timed

I was reviewing the book of Romans for my Bible class, getting ready for our last weeks of the study. I taught a significant verse from each chapter, which is why I was reminded of the verse about the perfect timing of Christ’s birth. One thought led to the next, and I began to wonder what the perfect timing of Christ’s return would look like. 

I’ve heard discussions about the end times, but those discussions end with the certainty that none of us will predict that time and all of us will be surprised. The point of the end-times discussions should be that we are living aware, expectant, and ready. Jesus’ parables teach us those truths.  

The apostles thought Jesus would return in their lifetimes. There have been many times in church history that would have indicated his return was imminent. Yet the church remains in the world, still looking. 

Consider all those things that indicated a “perfect time” the first time Jesus came to earth. Then consider all that has happened in recent years as a result of the internet.

  • The whole world is open for travel at the push of a button.
  • There is one language, or a program that enables a computer to translate.
  • The movement of ideas and information can travel anywhere a smartphone can go.

We began our internet ministry years ago and later realized that, for the first time in human history, Christ’s words from the Mount of Olives were able to be fulfilled. Jesus said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). 

It is interesting, even exciting, to realize the perfect time for Christ’s return could be soon. It could also be a thousand years more. That said, predicting Christ’s second coming is not the point of this blog post. 

The next time Jesus returns, it will be for the godly.

Who are the godly?

Most Christians don’t think of themselves as godly, but we are. We belong to God, and through Christ’s sacrifice we have been made godly.  

We could all pick up paper and a pen and create a long list of ungodly decisions we have made . . . just last week! But, that isn’t the way Scripture defines who is godly. 

It’s important that we hold the biblical viewpoint that says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). 

Godly people are those who belong to God through faith in Jesus. We will never act completely godly until we are completely God’s, in heaven. Until then, we can glimpse our potential through his Holy Spirit.  

Jesus is coming again

There are a lot of reasons to believe this would be a perfect time for Jesus to return. There is every reason to live like it could be tomorrow. Jesus would tell us to share the gospel until time is perfected by his return, or when we are perfected in heaven.

I hope those thoughts will linger in our minds this week. 

This might be that perfect week and we want to be ready.