As I listen to the wind tonight....

“At this my heart pounds

and leaps from its place.

Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice,

to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven

and sends it to the ends of the earth.

After that comes the sound of his roar;

he thunders with his majestic voice.

When his voice resounds,             

he holds nothing back.
God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.

He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’

  

and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’

So that everyone he has made may know his work,
he stops all people from their labor.

The animals take cover;

they remain in their dens.

The tempest comes out from its chamber,
the cold from the driving winds.

The breath of God produces ice,

and the broad waters become frozen.

He loads the clouds with moisture;

he scatters his lightning through them.
At his direction they swirl around
over the face of the whole earth
to do whatever he commands them.
He brings the clouds to punish people,
or to water his earth and show his love.

“Listen to this, Job;

stop and consider God’s wonders.

Do you know how God controls the clouds

and makes his lightning flash?

Do you know how the clouds hang poised,

those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge?
You who swelter in your clothes
when the land lies hushed under the south wind,
can you join him in spreading out the skies,

hard as a mirror of cast bronze?

“Tell us what we should say to him;

we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness.
Should he be told that I want to speak?
Would anyone ask to be swallowed up?

Now no one can look at the sun,

bright as it is in the skies

after the wind has swept them clean.

Out of the north he comes in golden splendor;
God comes in awesome majesty.
The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power;
in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.
Therefore, people revere him,
for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?
Job 37

The Password Is...

Anyone out there remember the original game show called Password?  Alan Ludden was the host and he would almost whisper the words The password is as the TV screen revealed the hidden word for the television audience.

For me, the password these past few weeks has been:  mystery

Mystery not like the Nancy Drew books that I grew up reading.  In fact, I still have my collection of hard-covered, girl-sleuth books.  Oh yes, I enjoy a good mystery book.

Lately the word mystery seems to surround me.  Like I am living the word.  It is a mystery to me how I am able to work fulltime and do my homework for a college course and go visit my grandbaby every once in awhile and have coffee with friends and freeze apples from the abundance of our crop and give time to my husband and try to make a Christmas shopping list and pray for my Dad & Mom during Dad's chemo and...you know...the list goes on. 

It is a mystery that anything actually gets done <consider a smiley face inserted here>.

Living a life of mystery is bigger than the list of tasks that I did or did not get done.  Recently I listened to an online sermon from a pastor in My City.  He related a story of a woman that visited a Sunday morning service.  The pastor greeted her as she was leaving the sanctuary and she informed him she was in town for medical treatment.  She had been told she had over 20 cancerous tumors in her body.  With determination and faith, she told the pastor she knew she had been healed and that the week of tests in front of her would prove her healing.  The pastor admitted at this point in his message that he knew God could heal the woman but he doubted she would be healed.   At the end of that week, the woman called the pastor to report she had been found to be tumor and cancer free!  The pastor was amazed, humbled, and without explanation.  See, a woman in his congregation, the mother of several young children, had gone through exactly the same diagnosis within the past year.  This young mom did not get the healing and died. 

Was God mad and punishing the woman that wasn't healed?  No, because that would be contrary to His character and promises.

Did the unhealed woman have sin in her life and this was her punishment?  If that was the criteria, no one would be healed, right?   Our manual as Believers In Jesus Christ, the Bible, records several instances where people were healed.  In many of those documented experiences, the sins of the person were forgiven along with the healing.  So forgiveness isn't a criterion for healing.

God must have loved one woman more than the other and that is why just the one was healed.  WRONG!  God loves us all.  Period.  No conditions.  He loves us whether we love Him.  How could He choose who to heal?

That sermon is a true mystery.  As frustrating as it is to understand, I actually love it.  It leads me to believe that I only know and see a small fraction of who My Big God really is.  See I believe that He is in control.  He hasn't lost the battle between good and evil.  He has a plan.  He loves, loves, loves all people.  And I cannot begin to explain everything about Him.  He is a mystery.

He is a mystery.  I had to say it again. 

I did a Bible search on the word mystery.  Depending upon the translation of the Bible there are between 25 and 30 verses that have the word mystery in them.  Here is one of them:

Just as you’ll never understand the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman, So you’ll never understand the mystery at work in all that God does.  Ecclesiastes 11:5

 Yup.  That pretty much sums it up.  What is really interesting to me is that in the past few weeks I've probably heard a dozen people say the word mystery or talk about how mysterious and unexplainable God is.  He is really trying to get my attention with that word.  So I'll end this little post praying as I have the past few weeks:

God, my brain cannot fathom all of the concepts of who You are.  You are the Creator, the I AM, my Lord and Savior, Healer, Comforter, Joy Unspeakable, Peace Beyond my Understanding, Lover of My Soul, and so on.  I have experienced You in all of these ways yet I don't understand the how's and why's.  Yet I trust You and know that all of Your mysteries are maybe not things that I will ever understand.  Your timing is a mystery.  In all my life, lead me, guide me, and know that I love You with my whole heart.  In the Name of the All Powerful Jesus, Amen.

Whispering I leave you with this:  the password is....mystery.  As in living life with an incredibly Mysterious God.  He keeps me So Amazed!