I always like it when we
have visitors because I get to show them what I can do. Watch this!
(Laughter)
There is an old story about
a fellow who was very close to God and always wanted to do God’s will. Because of his openness to the word of God he
always did what God wished and he did it well.
But one time this fellow was, he is a single guy, and loved God and he
was home alone. His name was, let’s see
let’s be diplomatic about it. Let’s call
him Ed.
Ed was at home alone and he
was praying and this bright light shone in his house. The Lord God of Hosts appeared and said, “Ed,
oh Ed I have heard you. You’ve always
been so good at listening to My word and living it. I have a special mission for you because you
want to be challenged.” “Yes Lord, I
do.” “Look out your window. You will see that I have placed an enormous
boulder in your front lawn. See
it?” “Yes Lord, it’s huge.”
“This is what I want you to
do with that boulder Ed. Push it! Just push it!” “Oh, yes Lord I can handle that.”
So God left. “I’ll be back to check on you someday.”
Ed, every day would go out
and change and push that boulder. He’d
go to work, come home and push that boulder for hours and hours, day after day
after day, after week after week, after month after month. And a few months went by and there’s Ed
pushing this boulder. And he’s pushing
it. Ed began to doubt God just enough—he
left the door open just enough so that clever Satan could come along and tease
Ed. And he mocked Ed. “What are you doing Ed pushing this
boulder? It’s ridiculous.” “But God asked me to push it.” “But you can see it’s not going anywhere, it
weighs tons.” “But God wanted me to do
it.” And Ed began to say to Satan, “You
know, you may be right. I am
foolish.” Satan left.
But Ed kept pushing that
boulder and God came back. In Ed’s house
He said, “Ed, I am back.” And Ed hung
his head low and said, “Oh Lord, I am so ashamed.” “What are you ashamed about?” God said to
Ed. “I’m so ashamed. You asked me to push that boulder and I
pushed it and pushed it and nothing happens.
Oh, God, You must be so disappointed in me.” God smiled at Ed and said, “Just the
contrary, I’m very pleased. Very
pleased. You have done exactly what I
asked you to do and you’ve done it so well.
You pushed and pushed that boulder.
I never asked you to move it, only to push it. Look at you Ed. You are not muscular, you are tan, you’re
brawny.” And Ed was happy and so was
God.
I don’t know the rest of the
story. I think God took the boulder
away.
We chuckle at that story but
you know that fellow could be you or I, any single one of us. With reference to the word of God, it’s our
stance before the word of God. We take
the word of God. God speaks to us in so
many different ways. You know God speaks
to us through the scriptures and it’s not always with sound because deaf people
receive the word of God. It’s not always
with sight, blind people receive the word of God. So where do we receive it? Here in our hearts. It’s through the scriptures, through the
mouths of others, what others say and act out to us through different
situations in life.
And what do we usually do
with the word of God? We decipher
it. We rip it to pieces, word for
word. The etymology of each word and we
need to understand the historical significance, etc. But we rip it apart, perhaps too much at
times and we say, “This is what God wants of me. Thus this is what God wants of
everybody.” It can’t be that way.
The word of God is
intimate. The word of God is
personal. The word of God is
loving. The word of God is also
challenging because the word of God is not a thing. The word of God is the Son of God, and He has
a name. He is Jesus the Christ who was
born for us, lived here for us, suffered for us, died for us, raised from the
dead and is with us again forever.
It’s like the seeds that
Jesus talked about. The seeds are thrown
out and there are different kinds of soil where they land. It’s not up to us to decide where those seeds
land. We want to be the fertile
ground. The word of God that comes to
us, that’s the key word. What is God
wanting of us. Receptivity. We must be open to receiving the word of
God. Not figuring out what the word of
God is going to do. Leave that to
God. Let’s leave that to God.
They say faith moves
mountains, we don’t move mountains, God moves mountains. Let God do the moving.
We obey the Lord. Be open. Let the God of surprises do as He wills with
us and through us.