This morning I leave early to have donuts with my daughter and grandson before arriving at school! How fun is that! We go from there to the tutorial program their church has going for kids in public schools who are not doing well without help. My daughter, who is children’s pastor, felt led to start this last August when school began since Oklahoma City schools are totally on line for the moment. The first of November they are to begin returning to the classroom. It has been a great ministry at a time like this.

I do enjoy watching how God is working when we come here. It is refreshing to step away from home and awaken yet again to the reality of God’s immensity. I know this, but to experience it is so much richer. How I love this Father of ours!

I so often forget how much problems look alike no matter where one is. When we are isolated at home as we have been for so long with this pandemic, we often think our problems are unique, yet in spending these past two weeks away, I easily see and hear the same problems, the same concerns, the same fears–people are human and humanness carries the same genes no matter where we are.

This morning as I have been having my bible reading I’m hearing Moses give his final directions to the Children of Israel before God takes him on his final tour of the promise land and then home for eternity. This is a new crop of children. All of their parents have died and have been buried somewhere in the desert over the past 40 years. These new children didn’t know the great food of Egypt, the luxury of a home, etc. They knew tents, manna and clothes/shoes which hadn’t worn out. Now they were about to enter a promised land which will become their home. However, will they experience the promise or will they revert back to the sinfulness of their parents and not know the promise?

It is so easy to get lost in the trauma of the day, the surrounding circumstances, the drama of human living. God is always telling us to lift our eyes above the current situation. Yes, we live in it, but we don’t have to find our hope in it. Our hope is only seen and known as we look up to God Almighty and BELIEVE the promises He gives us in His Word. Will we get so lost in the circumstances of today or will we look up and remember the Promises of God? Yes, we live in the circumstances of today, but I don’t need to let these determine the “joy of my heart”. For today I shall look up!

We have been with our kids for a couple of days now and yesterday was a wonderful time to go to church with them. Our son in law taught his Sunday School lesson on zoom for the only thing which is open for them is their worship service. In order to see the kids’ friends which have become our friends too, they had several couples come last night for dinner and fellowship. How fun it was!

As I listen to the dilemma’s they face here, it sounds just like home. It is hard to sort through what each of us should be doing individually and collectively as a body. In times past it seemed the church was the main influence on our greater government’s thinking/decision-making. Today our churches are primarily influenced by what the government is telling us. Sorting through what is the right thing to do and what is the best thing is tough everywhere. God is working in the midst of this. In fact, I keep being reminded that man learns to respond best to God when we are in crisis. Well, I pray we all learn huge lessons about God and responding to Him from what seems to be this present darkness.

What I do know is that God still nudges through His Holy Spirit’s presence within us/me. Sorting through one’s own emotional passion and knowing if we are responding to God or self or if self-passion aligns with God’s purposes is a conundrum. I just know I will move forward as the doors open and will attempt to keep my spiritual ears listening better than my human emotion responds. Such is the journey for today. In the meantime, I am so glad to have this time with our kids!

Sometimes the journey just doesn’t allow time for routines. That is the case yesterday and this am. Actually this morning I slept longer having been up since 3:30 am the day before. We’re in Oklahoma with our daughter Amber’s family. Going to church early with her so I’ll be better the rest of the week when their routine begins again. This vacation is truly a blessed gift.

We’re at the Knoxville airport waiting to fly to Oklahoma City to spend the next week with our family there. God is so good. Yesterday with our friend from our Turkmenistan year was a real blessing. It was as though there had only been a weekend since we’d been together. I’ll be more on track tomorrow. God is always good!

Today will be our last one in Tennessee. Early tomorrow we will fly to Oklahoma for a week with our kids. Yesterday I acted on a nudge which turned out to be a blessing for today. Twenty five years ago Kathy and I were in Turkmenistan starting their first international school. This followed the year we had spent in Yemen. Shortly after arriving we met a young man who was there teaching English at the university. He was from Tennessee and was supported by his church to take the gospel to this country. One couldn’t be in any of these countries as a missionary so his secular assignment was teaching English. We became good friends during this year and we have stayed in touch on a limited basis for these 25 years following.

Yesterday morning I had a nudge to reach out to him to see if he were by chance living close to where we are. Turns out he is only 30 minutes away. He now teaches English as a Second Language (ESL) at the state university here. He has one class this morning and he is then coming to spend the day with us after the class. It will be a fun time to catch up with him. Our relationship grew close because of our becoming accountability partners while we were in this foreign land. The story behind this is one only God put together, but I rejoice each and every time it comes to mind. He even has been involved in a local Celebrate Recovery after his return from Turkmenistan.

Reaching out to him yesterday was an intuition nudge which I had started to ponder rather than respond. However, due to yesterday morning’s devotional time I acted on it rather than delayed. I’m so glad I did and now we get to have this time together. Wow! God is so Amazing!

Today’s devotional time in each of the readings from the devotional books to the bible talked about the results of impulsivity. Not only did they talk about it, they labeled it as sin. Oswald Chambers said that impulsivity is a part of our human nature and we want to respond to it due to our humanness. Christ had learned to discipline any impulsivity so that he responded only to God’s leading. Chambers said that in our christian walk we are to learn to replace impulsiveness with intuition. Intuition is the voice of God’s Holy Spirit within us while impulsiveness is the voice of our human nature.

I’ve never taken a step back and looked at addictive behaviors as an impulsive response to living. Yet, as I do look at this I can see it plainly. Whatever the motivation is to satisfy an addiction, it comes from an impulsive thought–“oh it’s ok this time”, “oh, this one is fine”, “no one will care”, and the list could go on and on. It is truly a selfish response to living life.

When we are nudged by God’s Spirit to do something it can seem as though it is an impulsive step. However, the difference is that there are no red flags from our spirit in acting on it. We likely have the “what if” thoughts but they aren’t followed by secrets. Any impulsive action we take will usually be followed by knowing I won’t/can’t tell.

I am going to spend some time on this topic. I know God is wanting to grow me in this arena of living each day. One area I do know He wants me to grow is trusting intuition as His Spirit’s Voice. When I am given a nudge I want to ponder it. This is true with impulsive thoughts and it is true for intuition with me. God is wanting me to learn to separate them so I’m going to step into this as my lesson to grow.

I love being here for this week. It truly is beautiful country. Learning the history of this area is one of the best parts of coming. I love nature. However, learning about what brought man to this part of our country and seeing what they did with it is an unexpected bonus. I came for the nature, but I love finding out about the human part too.

Yesterday we took a bus tour (a mini bus) with about 15 others. The driver was born and raised here. He is a tour driver and guide, a school bus driver for the local school district, and a pastor for his church. He also paints scenery of the old Tennessee and sang and played a couple of hymns for us as we went into one of the little old settlement churches. I doubt that he is even 40 years old yet. God is using him.

Another unexpected feature of coming here is finding out how many Americans are troubled by our current state. Our country is longing to return to its biblical roots. To return to the morality which is outlined so well by God’s Word is the desire of millions. I keep having the message of the book I’m reading and have mentioned several times: I Give You Authority, come to mind. The evil which has entered into the lives of so many in our country is wanting to overtake our country and every Christian element for which we once were united. Satan has a way of doing this in such devious ways! God is telling me to use my authority given by Him through Jesus Christ to face this spiritual battle with authority. He will be our Power but it is up to us to use our authority and cast these demons out when we pray. Join me if God is nudging you in this same direction.

I awoke this morning and had some alarming news. The man I went to see a couple weeks ago who I’d known best when he was a growing boy, was hit by a car and has been in the hospital for almost a week. I don’t know any more than this. He sent me a message just so I’d know. I’ve responded but that seems lame compared to what he likely needs. He just said it was pretty bad. Life is just so difficult for some. I can’t reason my way through it, I just need to leave this with the God for which I can have all confidence.

I am amazed with the number of people there are here. But then I have to awaken to the population base on the eastern side of our country compared to the western side where I live. The other difference is the size of the states which makes the driving much more convenient. I found out yesterday that October and July are the busiest months for this place. Cars and people are everywhere. This keeps surprising me for I wasn’t expecting such a crowd! I guess everyone wanted to be here when Kathy arrived!

As I near the ending for the book of Numbers, Moses has anointed Joshua as the new leader praying over him in front of the entire group. God has told Moses he will not be entering the Promised Land due to his disobedient behavior bringing water forth when the people were complaining. However, God still wants Moses to see it so He will take him on a personal tour of this land ahead of God taking him home for eternity.

I am simply amazed with this story. In all of the times I’ve read through the old testament I’ve just never felt like I do this morning. I’m reading about my friend Moses. I want to remind God of how faithful Moses is, but then God quickly reminds me just how faithful He was to Moses and all of the children of Israel. This same faithful God is mine today. I’ve been disobedient so many times and yet God gives “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow–blessings all mine with ten thousand besides”, as the words of the old hymn describe!

I love where we are. It is so peaceful and quiet. During the night there is no sound, and even in the mornings when people are typically going to work, there are no sounds. It is very dark at night for we are just far enough beyond the population that we don’t have city lights impacting anything.

I mentioned yesterday about the deepening relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not sure how to put into words the phenomenal difference between knowing Jesus as my Savior, Lord and Intimate Friend, from living a life trying to earn the right to have Jesus be my Intimate Friend. Being free of the quilt and shame from one’s past is the biggest ingredient in this.

Today I was reading about Balaam and Barak. Balaam just couldn’t give Barak the blessing he wanted. Balaam would only give him the information which God gave to him. This was a continued blessing upon Israel and their future in Barak’s land. This land was soon to become that of Israel.

Even though I’ve lived the majority of my life in the same region I’ve never felt it was my home land. I’m happy there. 10 of my 12 grandkids are there and the gardening season is good so this makes me happy. Somehow though, my home land is not this earthly place. Knowing my relationship with Jesus is firm and my body is the home of The Holy Spirit made clean for Him by Christ’s Work on the Cross, I look forward to calling heaven my homeland. I will serve God and I want to do this while here, but my heart does long to see Jesus face to face. What a wonderful Savior we serve!