My son is about 18 months now. We were walking on a campus dirt road today. I was walking in front and Josiah-Seth followed with his plastic lawnmower. Now I know there are cars driving on this road also, but they are only permitted to go 20km/h and it is easy to hear them come. He was dawdling and playing more than following me. I kept calling and watched him and made sure that I was at a safe distance should a car pass by. He slowly came wandering in my direction when I heard a car approach; I ran to him and got him out of harm’s way. He knew of nothing and was more upset with the fact that he was disturbed while playing than the fact that he could have been hit by a car. I was just glad nothing happened to him.
Isn’t this a wonderful picture of our Father in heaven? He is always near, watching, calling and protecting. We walk in the road of life with much danger around; not even knowing what might befall us. We meander around and sort of hear God calling us somewhere in the distance. When we get into harm’s way He yanks us out and sometimes it hurts, but it is because He loves us and want to protect us. It reminds me of the verse in Hebrews 13:5 that states He will never leave or forsake us. Wow, what a great promise of comfort. If we as earthly fathers are so protective, how much more will our heavenly Father protect us?
I read in a mission’s magazine today about Christians that become atheists. One of the couples was called to missions and they studied hard. The husband educated himself very well with the Word and then went to translate the Bible amongst a people group. They were in ministry for a couple of years when the husband decided to denounce his faith and become an open atheist. According to the writer of the article (who is a professor and a specialist in her field with a couple of books behind her name), this is a trend among Christians to denounce their faith in Christ. Some of the reasons for this are the fact that the more one studies the Bible the more questions arise and doubt creeps in. After time has had its way, the person finds himself in atheist land.
I must admit, this really bugged me for there were and are times that I don’t understand deeper things in the Word and I feel doubt creep in, but in order not to give doubt a foothold I’m reminded of the Scripture in John 6:53-69. In this scripture, Jesus tells His disciples that if they don’t eat of Him and drink His blood they have no part of Him. Man! That must have sounded really bad to the rest of the group. I probably would have been the first to show my heels. Most of the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying, and as a result, became the first atheists – from believers who walked with God to atheists who deserted God.
Now here is the pivotal point in my faith: Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them if they were going to bail as well? Peter turned to Him and said something along these lines: “There is no one to whom we can go; You have eternal life, You are God. We have found the Truth. To turn and go somewhere else would be suicide. We don’t understand exactly what You have said, but we trust You”.
Now, there are times that I read the Word and I am not sure what is going on, but I know that I have found God and I choose to put all my trust in Him. I would not know where to go or what to do for He is my all. Even in times when it feels that He is not near or I am far away from Him or when I have fallen for the hundredth time I have to trust and believe.
him and made sure that I was at a safe distance should a car pass by. He slowly came wandering in my direction when I heard a car approach; I ran to him and got him out of harm’s way. He knew of nothing and was more upset with the fact that he was disturbed while playing than the fact that he could have been hit by a car. I was just glad nothing happened to him.
