On Hearing God

I believe God speaks to His people in many different ways and I always enjoy hearing stories about people hearing the small, still voice of the Lord.  I heard Him this morning and thought I'd share the odd progression of how He used circumstances and my willingness to pursue Him to speak to me this morning.

As I was driving and praying, I passed these two donkeys standing on a hill.  They were barely illuminated against the horizon as the dawn began to appear.  I thought it was a cool photo opportunity, so I snapped a few pics.  As I continued on my early morning drive, these donkeys kept coming to my mind over and over again.  I wasn't really praying anything too specific - just listening to worship music, enjoying the cool morning air and worshipping.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that the Lord must be bringing these donkeys to mind, so I decided to stop and bust out my trusty YouVersion app on the iPhone and did a Bible search for "donkey".  I had no idea there were so many references to donkeys in the Bible!  As I read through the verses, I came to one that stood out to me:


"The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills panting like thirsty jackals.  They strain their eyes looking for grass, but there is none to be found."  Jeremiah 14:6

I thought to myself, "That is a pretty accurate statement about those two donkeys."  We are in a drought and pastures and crops around here are hurting for water.  So I read the context around this verse and it's a discourse from God telling Jeremiah why he was withholding rain from His people in Judah.  The people complained to God that He had abandoned them, even though they freely admitted their sinful patterns of behavior.  Apparently, they missed the connection between the two.  They accuse God of being "a stranger to us", "confused", and "helpless to save us."  God basically tells them they are on their own because of their lack of faith and how they wander far from Him.

Thankfully, we are no longer far from God because of what we do or don't do.  We are brought near to Him through the blood of Christ and do not have to fear God abandoning us in our moments of stupidity and wandering off.  I drove on, praying for rain and a break in the drought and praying that I would not be like these people and wander far from God simply because I don't understand Him or His ways - whether or not He decides to bring rain.

I mentioned that I was listening to music, right?  As I drove along asking God about this, I was struck by the lyrics of Matt Redman's song, "Fires."

We're standing in the desert of dry bones
But still we see Your life
Walking through the valley of shadows
But holding onto light
And we're waiting, waiting on You God
And our hearts will trust, trust in who You are

[Chorus]
God who keeps our fires burning
Burning through the darkest night
See the hope in our hearts
The faith in our eyes
You can move the highest mountain
You can keep our dreams alive
You're the joy of our hearts
You're the fire in our eyes

Light up our lives with holy flame
All for the honor of Your name
Give us the strength to face the day, Jesus
Light up our lives with holy flame
All for the honor of Your name
Give us the strength to face the day
You're the fire in our eyes

[Chorus]

You're the fire in our eyes
You're the fire in our eyes
You're the fire in our eyes

You will keep the fires burning [x4]

As I drove through this desert we live in right now, I prayed to see God's life all around me, to trust in His ability to keep the fires of faith lit in my heart, to trust in who He is.  I'm praying, singing, yelling and crying and this fire appeared in my eyes, piercing them with its brilliance:

  

God used the sunrise to speak a reminder to me that I live under a different covenant than those folks in Jeremiah's day.  I can trust my God to keep the fires of faith, passion and love alive in my heart - that my faith in Him is actually a gift from Him!  It's one of those awkward paradoxes of belief and truth from a God who loves us too much to allow us to shrivel up and die.  Through Jesus I no longer have a drought of faith - I have abundant life!

God is alive, active and cares today - and he choose to show that to me through an odd combination of driving an old Land Rover in the dark, two donkeys named Pablo and Molly, a curious spirit that searched His Scripture, an incredible worship song from a gifted man of faith and a bright sunrise on a Wednesday morning.  What an incredible, quirky God I serve!

Back to Blogging

I recently stumbled across my old blog and thought it might be fun to resurrect it!  After all, God is in the business of bringing lives back from the dead, so I might as well practice with something a little more simple like a lost collection of random ramblings.

One of my first orders of business with this blog is going to be changing the name.  When I started this blog, I was in a phase of life where the word "meandering" was appropriate.  I no longer feel this aptly describes who I am or how I am living life.  However, I'm not sure what my new title ought to be.  I feel much more focused than I was three years ago - maybe it should be called "Missional Moudy".  Any thoughts?

Waking the Dead

I just finished reading "Waking the Dead" by John Eldredge. If you haven't checked out this book, I would highly recommend it as it has definitely earned a place in my Top 5 books. I don't know if it is mostly a timing thing or what, but the subject matter of our hearts becoming fully alive in God resonates deeply with me. If you've read it, I'd love to hear your comments!

Updates from the Big Gap

As you may have noticed, there has been a rather big gap in time over the past months in my blogging. For your convenience, amusement, bewilderment or whatever else you'd like to call it, I've gone back and used some "Great Stuff" as a 'big gap filler' and blogged about some of the fun and more interesting things I did during those months.

Just to keep things in chronological order, I posted them on the dates they actually happened, so feel free to scroll backwards and catch up with my life. Thanks for looking - both of you!

Communion Joy

I had a wonderful communion experience this morning at church. We do communion quite a bit differently than what I grew up doing. For one, we do it once a month or so and that makes it extra special instead of a routine that is void of meaning. (For me, anyway. I'm not commenting on how it makes anyone else feel doing it every week - just what I always struggled with.) Another difference is that there are different stations around the auditorium and a couple is in charge of serving from each of those. During first service, we had communion during the middle of the service as a bridge between our praise time and the message. I was serving on the altar team, which means I am one of 6-10 people who stand at the front stage and receive anyone who would like prayer. We did our altar time in conjunction with communion and it was so poignant to watch my brothers and sisters take communion together and some receive prayer. I don't know what it was, but God touched me as I watched the church celebrate the Lord's Supper!

During second service, Avery, Jill and I served communion and that was especially meaningful. Jill broke the bread and offered it saying, "This is the body of Christ, broken for you." I held the cup while the members dipped their bread I reminded them, "This is the blood of Jesus that gives you life." Avery held a cloth napkin for anyone who needed to wipe their hands. Sometimes the juice dribbles. :) What a great picture - our little family serving that holy meal and being blessed in return!

Group Life Conference 2008

I had the chance this past weekend to attend a great life group conference that was hosted by the Willow Creek Church in Chicago, but broadcast to us via satellite at the Live Oak Community Church in Lubbock. Jill and I attended along with our great friends Sonny Smart and Brad & Julie Snellgrove and had a great time. The conference started on Friday evening, so we all met in Lubbock for a great dinner at Abuelo's and then to the conference. Avery had a great time staying at her Mam's house.

The conference was a great encouragement as we work with the Life Group ministry at Harvest. This has been one of our passion's for a while and there were some really good training tools offered at the conference.

Off Road Trip to Cloudcroft, NM

While Jill and Avery were in DFW this weekend, I decided to run off to the mountains for one last camping trip before it got too cold. I left Friday afternoon after many unforeseen delays and ended up arriving about 930pm. I met my good friend Jaime Swift there and since he lives in Las Cruces, he had camp selected and set up when I arrived after dark. I hate setting up camp after dark, so this was a great blessing.


We stayed up visiting too late, but woke up Saturday morning and hit the trails after a great breakfast burrito warmed over the fire. (Thanks Ginger!) I brought Moose (my Honda 200 dirt bike) on the back of the Land Rover and Jaime brought his Honda 300 4-wheeler behind the Land Cruiser FJ-80.

Jaime and I had a great day riding trails all around the Sacramento Ranger District, primarily around the Lucas Canyon area. There are some fantastic OHV trails out there and we had a blast riding, resting, enjoying the scenery and catching up on our visiting while stopped.

Moose performed great and I took great pride in my $300 ride as we meandered around the mountain. Jaime's ATV did great as well and we enjoyed comparing the vastly different riding experiences these two very different machines had to offer.


This was also the Land Rover's maiden voyage after receiving an Old Man Emu suspension upgrade and 32" BFG Mud-Terrain tires. It performed great even at altitude and we spent Sunday morning exploring the 4x4 roads of the area on the west side of the wilderness overlooking the spectacular drops down to White Sands Missile Range. I look forward to many more trips in the Rover and figured out several more ways to improve it for future overland travel and camping. This is meant to be a budget off-roader, so those improvements may come slowly.


It was great to be in the mountain wilderness once again and I look forward to next spring when I get to go again!