I Had A Most Unusual Experience Today

"In the Lord I put my trust..."  (Psalm 11:1a)

Our text is the first thing I read this morning.  What can be more fundamental to one who loves Jesus than this great declaration of the faith?  It was at once a very familiar statement and a very deep reminder as to just where and in Whom is my life, my provision, my Everything.  But something else, something very powerful then happened.

It was an experience which may be a little difficult to share, but I will try.  When I read, "In the Lord I put my trust," for some reason I looked out the window, saw the leaves falling, wind blowing. All of a sudden I had a flash back of my life, I mean my whole life, from as early as I could remember until now.  It sorrowfully reminded me of just how much of my life had not been, "In the Lord I put my trust."  I thought of the rebellion over the years against Jesus as Lord, for the most part a "subtle" rebellion, not overt as much as covert, but nonetheless rebellion.  Outwardly I seemed quite the average child, teenager, clean-cut, not getting into any trouble with the law, not complaining about going to church services 4 times on a Sunday, etc. But you know as well as I, all of that can just be a cover for "runs-his-own-life."  I can remember once that Jesus showed me I had a genius of obeying what I wanted to obey, and not obeying what I didn't want to obey; it was a frightful awakening. That is nothing but deception.  No person can say, "Jesus Christ is Lord," and live like that.  While looking out the window and reflecting on my life, a wave of "lostness" swept over me.

Then I came back to my reading of the subsequent Psalms, 11-15.  It was as though I was having a vision of being "jerked" back and forth from a life without Jesus to a life in Jesus, from a lonely, empty life to a Life of peace, joy, and unspeakable comfort.  The "God-Breathed" Word was doing this, a life on your own, or a life on His Own.  It was pretty frightful, while a very powerful reminder of just What/Whom we have in Jesus, and what/whom we have and don't have out of Jesus.  I have never experienced anything like it before.  The reality of it all was one of the most powerful "experiences" I have ever had. 

The mind will take us to places of despair over those times in our life when we were on our own, running our life our way.  Yet, as Jesus would have it, my Wisdom Literature reading today was in Proverbs 3, "My son, do not forget (could we also say, 'Do not neglect') my law/(Word), but let your heart keep my commands/(Words)....Peace they will add peace to you....Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;..and He shall direct your paths."  How this "jumped out at me this morning, "Peace they will add to you."  What an absolutely powerful "Breath of fresh air," His "breathed" Word to one in, "the fear of the Lord."  

Look out the window, or look to Jesus.  Look out the window or look to His Words.  Our peace and joy will be determined by our "look."  I regret that I cannot relate to you this most powerful encounter.  But I can tell you that it was as though when I looked out the window into my past, I was off oxygen.  When I looked back to His Words, I was on oxygen, aka, His Breath.

Father, in Jesus' Name, help me today to walk/live in what You have shown me.  Amen.

*********************

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2