This story probably won't resonate with you very much....for it is peculiar to something that happened to me 30 years ago, but I humbly submit it to you anyway. I have to lay some groundwork first. I was a very new Christian. In fact I'm not really certain that I was actually regenerated at the time, but I was excited about this gospel thing that was overwhelming me. My wife and I went on a cruise to the Caribbean and I didn't even take along a Bible. We were on the last leg of the cruise and a storm came up at sea making it impossible to do anything on the ship. I lay on the single bed, more of a bunk, and opened the drawer of the table only to find a Bible put there by the Gideons. New and ignorant on how to read the Bible, I opened it and put my finger on the page to see if God had anything to say to me. It was the 93rd Psalm and as the ship tossed back and forth while glasses and other items were sliding on the table I read ".....Greater than the roar of many waters-the mighty breakers of the sea- the Lord on high is majestic." Enough said on that!
Now for today as I was with some friends. In just general conversation among five or six of us the subject of 'time' came up and one of the men knew what he wanted to say but butchered his thought a little. It came out something like this... "time is like walking in the ocean and then your footprints are quickly washed away and you can't see them." We knew that he meant 'walking on the sand at the shore' but hammered him mercilessly for a few minutes anyway. The words he used stayed with me for a little while and I later commented that actually they were profound in a Zen Buddhist sort of way, similar to the 'sound of one hand clapping.'
Fast forward and I opened up my Bible a little while ago for my daily reading. I read a lot of late in the Old Testament prophets and recommend the same to you. In fact if you are not reading in this area of the Word of God.....in this day and age.....then you are probably missing something that God may have for His church; and the Psalms also speak to us in a very prophetic way!
For no special reason I started today's reading with the 73rd Psalm. I read slowly and take notes and highlight quite a bit but eventually came to the 77th Psalm. Terrors of some sort are inflicting the people and the Psalm begins "I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and He will hear me." Today is May 7, 2015 and the National Day of Prayer sponsored by Shirley and Dr. James Dobson. The theme of this year is "Lord, Hear Our Cry!" I then came to verse 19 which reads....."Your way went through the sea, and your path through the great waters, but your footprints were unseen." This resonated with me so because that silly and unscriptural episode of mine 30 years ago was near the beginning of the Word of God being opened to me. But it more than resonated with me....it moved me to prayer for my hope is that that single verse, so very similar in particulars to my friend's comments today, so seemingly purposeful in how this transpired, that it might someday be a source of praise to him as the 93rd Psalm is to me!
Now for today as I was with some friends. In just general conversation among five or six of us the subject of 'time' came up and one of the men knew what he wanted to say but butchered his thought a little. It came out something like this... "time is like walking in the ocean and then your footprints are quickly washed away and you can't see them." We knew that he meant 'walking on the sand at the shore' but hammered him mercilessly for a few minutes anyway. The words he used stayed with me for a little while and I later commented that actually they were profound in a Zen Buddhist sort of way, similar to the 'sound of one hand clapping.'
Fast forward and I opened up my Bible a little while ago for my daily reading. I read a lot of late in the Old Testament prophets and recommend the same to you. In fact if you are not reading in this area of the Word of God.....in this day and age.....then you are probably missing something that God may have for His church; and the Psalms also speak to us in a very prophetic way!
For no special reason I started today's reading with the 73rd Psalm. I read slowly and take notes and highlight quite a bit but eventually came to the 77th Psalm. Terrors of some sort are inflicting the people and the Psalm begins "I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and He will hear me." Today is May 7, 2015 and the National Day of Prayer sponsored by Shirley and Dr. James Dobson. The theme of this year is "Lord, Hear Our Cry!" I then came to verse 19 which reads....."Your way went through the sea, and your path through the great waters, but your footprints were unseen." This resonated with me so because that silly and unscriptural episode of mine 30 years ago was near the beginning of the Word of God being opened to me. But it more than resonated with me....it moved me to prayer for my hope is that that single verse, so very similar in particulars to my friend's comments today, so seemingly purposeful in how this transpired, that it might someday be a source of praise to him as the 93rd Psalm is to me!
