This week our pastor had a bit of a kerfuffle. Greg Laurie is preparing for the Harvest Crusade coming up August 17-19th. He’s never done this before, but this year he decided to put up billboards to advertise. He hung them up in various places in Orange County. The billboard looked fairly tame. It had a black and white picture of Greg Laurie holding up a black book. Then next to that picture were smaller pictures of the music groups that would be playing at the Harvest Crusade. Fine, right? There was no racist slogans on the billboards. There was nothing offensive whatsoever.

But in this age of political correctness, someone complained. Gasp, there’s a man holding up a Bible, right in my face. I’m offended. Well, the black book Greg was holding up could have been any book, you couldn’t tell what it was. But the complainer demanded the billboards be taken down, because, these people, this person, was offended. So the group that put up the billboards called Greg Laurie and apologized, but said they were taking down the billboards.

This kerfuffle made national news, so Fox had Greg Laurie on one of their shows to talk about the whole incident. Now the Harvest Crusade was getting national news coverage. The billboards were done, but now Greg was on national TV talking about the incident, getting national coverage of the whole thing.

You can’t beat God. You can’t make Him go away. You can’t destroy the gospel. You can’t beat God, period! Try it! Take Him on. Tell Him what you really think of Him.

You won’t be alone. Many men have gone before you, to try and prove that God doesn’t exist. Do you know what happens to those men? They all become Christians. They hurl themselves against the Rock of Jesus Christ, ready to do battle with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The oppose the very God, Whom, even the winds and sea obey Him. And they come away broken, realizing their need for a Savior. They come to accept Him.

Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, and J. Warner Wallace, all became Christians as a result of trying to prove God didn’t exist.

Do you know China has some of the worst persecution of Christians? You can’t worship God in public without fear of being arrested. Christians hide out in farms or caves to worship. Do you know that the more they persecute the Christians there, the bigger and stronger the Christian church has become?

You can’t beat God. The enemy set out to destroy Jesus Christ some two thousand years ago. He was beaten and mocked, then hung on a cross to die a horrible death. But the enemy lost that day. Three days later, the tomb was empty. Jesus Christ had risen from the grave. And now over two thousand years later, the gospel lives on. People become Christians everyday.

So take down our billboards that offend you. God will win. Try and prove God doesn’t exist. God will win. Persecute the church. God will win. Come against God, with all of your might. And He will come at you with all of His love. He will save your very soul.

God’s never late. God’s never early, either.

Years ago, when I was pregnant with our first child, my hubby had applied for a teaching job at the same school that I worked at. He interviewed for the position, had all the right credentials he needed, so we thought he was a shoe-in for the job. We thought he had it in the bag. He interviewed for the job in June. Though, he hadn’t heard from my principal for over a month, we thought for sure he’d get the job. God knew he needed a full-time job. I was about seven months pregnant and unsure of what my future held. Due to some weird circumstances, he was currently working as a part-time tutor.

My position was an Academic Advisor, so that afforded me the month of July off of work. I had to go back to work on August 1, to finish the class schedule. There weren’t many people back to work at this time except for my principal, who I thought was sure to hire the hubby. I came back to my job, seven months pregnant, in August, with the air conditioning broken. I wasn’t feeling great. The hubby was going to call that day, to find out about the job. I was sure he was going to get good news.  I needed good news. I was hot, uncomfortable, and pregnant. I needed to know, at least, that my hubby had a new job to look forward to. I needed to know that our future was secure.

The hubby called me, while I sat, sweating in my hot office, seven months pregnant and emotional. He didn’t get the job. Something about, they didn’t want a married couple working at the same school. It could cause problems. I was floored! He didn’t get the job??? But we needed that job! God knew we needed that job. What we were going to do now? I wanted to cry, but then I would look like a total cliche, sitting in my hot office, seven months pregnant and crying my eyes out. I saved it for when I got home.

I didn’t know what we were going to do. I had to throw myself into my job, as it became really, really busy, trying to finish the class schedule. The hubby still had his tutoring job. I resigned myself to believing that the decision was made for me-I would have to keep working after the baby was born.

Then, just barely a week before the labor day weekend, a voice inside my head told me to call this one school district’s job hotline. I did. I didn’t know why I should call the hotline. Nobody was looking for teachers, a week before labor day weekend, just before school was about to start.

But lo and behold, this district was. They were looking to fill four science teacher positions, the exact subject the hubby taught. I immediately called the hubby and told him to call  ASAP. He did. He called me right back. They’d scheduled him for an interview. Literally, days before school was starting, the hubby would be interviewing for a teaching job.

The hubby had the interview on Friday. The Friday before labor day weekend. The school would start the following Wednesday. We would have to wait for three days to find out if the hubby got the job. This time, we prayed and prayed about the job, not confident, like we were the last time.

Saturday came and went. Sunday came and went. Then Monday, we kept praying through the whole weekend. The hubby was going to call them, first thing, Tuesday morning. Then he would call me for whatever the results.

I couldn’t do anything, but stare at the phone that Tuesday morning. The hubby called. And by the sound of his voice, I knew he had the job. He tried to pretend he didn’t, but he couldn’t hide it. They wanted him to come in that day if he could, because Wednesday was to be his first day of school! He got the job! A day and a half, before school was to start, the hubby had a brand new teaching job!

The Christian life is always a process. God is never late or early. Think about it. If he answered our prayers, immediately and gave us exactly what we wanted, when we asked, what would we ever learn? Firstly, we wouldn’t need God on a daily basis. Secondly, we wouldn’t really rely on Him. We could just throw up our prayers at Him, then continue with our day. But that’s not how it works. God reveals Himself to us through every hardship, every request, every prayer. Our hardships draw us closer to Him and that’s always what He wants from us.

This year has been a whirlwind of paperwork, getting my son into a college that he can swim for.

It started with filling out a FAFSA form (free application for federal student aid). I was filling out the form, on line. It requested the school, my son was going to, because they would need that information to provide him with student aid. Everything was going fine, until I had to sign the form. It said the fastest way to sign it, was to do it electronically. And the way to do that, was to have the IRS text me a code, I enter the code into my form, and that would be my electronic signature. Easy, right? Not so much.

I had completed the form and then put in my cell phone number, so they could text me the code. I did that and waited. I had my cell phone sitting next to me. No texts. I gave them about five minutes. Nothing came through. I decided to do it again. I waited for the text. Again, nothing came through. I was getting frustrated. I tried it a third time. Waited for the text. Nothing happened. I had my husband text me with his phone to see if my phone was working. It worked.

I gave up. I had to settle for requesting a code by regular mail and waiting for two weeks before I could get it. This was frustrating, as the school was pressuring me to get this paperwork done.

So I put the paperwork aside and told the school in my head that they just needed to hold their horses.

Within that two week period, my son got bad news from the school he wanted to go to. He wasn’t on the swim team. He was crushed. He quickly contacted another school and the coach wanted to see him the next day. That was promising.

To make a long story short, my son got on the swim team for this second school. I had to immediately, complete the FAFSA form for the new school. I did. And what was strange about all of it was, I tried the whole texting thing, and immediately got a text with a code to electronically sign the form. It was instant.

As soon as I was able to get the code for the new school, I realized, “Oh, God had my back the whole time!” You see, if I had signed the form, for the other school, I would have to redo all that paperwork, and then transfer it over to the new school. That would have been a major headache.

We were now, applying to the right school. The one that would take my son onto the swim team. This school, would allow my son to still live at home and commute, which saves us about $10,000.

God knew all along. But God teaches us, as he answers our prayers. God doesn’t do things the way we want Him to do things. He puts His fingerprints all over our problem, so we can clearly see His hands working, in our lives. As soon as I was able to easily get that text for the other school, my mind went back to when I couldn’t do it. I saw clearly, God was stopping it and saving me. But it didn’t look like it, at the time. That’s how God works. He doesn’t just give us all the answers we’re asking for. It’s a process. And if He can show us, who He is and how He operates, He will never miss an opportunity to do that.

I have figured it out. I know the secret to living the Christian life. I’ve got all the answers. I know exactly what I’m doing…NOT!

The longer I live this life, the more I have come to realize how little I know. I don’t have all the answers and I’m pretty sure I’m going to leave this planet without ever having all the answers.

As I grow older, I’ve not gotten wiser. I’ve gotten more needy. I have always been the steady person. I’m the one who doesn’t get too worked up about things. I remember, in high school, seeing kids get really worked up about things or some issue. I never had that kind of passion. We would study history, in high school, and read about people protesting this, that, or the other. I never really felt that passionate about anything.

And now that I’m older, I get nervous about things I never used to get nervous about. As I was contemplating the major changes that were happening in my life this year, I developed a twitch in my eye, that just wouldn’t go away. I would think about how we were going to pay for college for my son. Then my eye would go crazy and start twitching so badly, I would literally take my finger and hold it down, to curtail the twitching. If the twitching seemed to go away in my eye, then I would twitch someplace else. My calf would twitch or I’d feel my cheek twitching.

I was nervous about my daughter heading off to England to live there for eight weeks. I had to stop watching the news, because some story would come out of England about constant terrorist attacks there. It felt like, as soon as we were to get off the plane in England, we would have to duck and run for cover. I questioned God, as to whether this was a good plan for her.

So in all the stressors I have been dealing with this year, I felt so unhappy. There’s a line in a play where a woman comes down to her broken down castle and sees dead bodies strewn about and she says, “I’m not happy here.” That’s been my theme all year long, “I’m not happy here.” It’s not like I’m going to off myself, but I’m not happy. My eye wouldn’t stop twitching and I found no joy in anything.

I have found one answer that has kept me sane. It’s helped alleviate the twitching and helps me feel some joy. Like God always does, He brings us to the end of ourselves, so He can reveal who He is. He takes us to the ledge and when we feel like there is nowhere to go, He declares to us, “I am Here. I have always been here. I said I will never leave you or forsake you!”

“Oh, that’s right,” I say. God wants us to reach the end of ourselves, so He can move in and be the balm for our souls. He is the Living Water for our parched selves. He is the abundance, that we may live abundant lives. He is our hope, our salvation.

So that is the one answer I have. God wants me not to have all the answers. He wants me in that place, where I have no other resources. He wants me at the end of myself, so He can be my All. He can be my answer.

“Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest,” Matt. 11:28.

He wants us all to come to the end of ourselves and let Him work through us. And that is my only answer. But I have to tell you, it’s a good one. When I reached the end of myself and threw myself into God’s arms, my twitching went away and I finally felt joy. Yay God!

A few weeks ago I was awoken in the middle of the night by a weird sound. It was like a scurrying sound. Something was in my bedroom, scurrying around. Was it an animal? What was making that sound? It was a frantic sound. It was all over the place. I laid there in my bed, trying to figure out what it was. It honestly sounded like something small was running around my bedroom.

I got scared. Was that a demon? Was a demon running around my room trying to freak me out? I laid there for a long time, listening and getting more frightened by the minute. I prayed it my head for whatever it was to go away. I prayed for protection from the Lord.

I finally gave in and woke up my husband. I didn’t want to fight this thing alone. I needed back up. I woke him up out of a dead sleep and told him he needed to turn the light on, something was in our room. He was half asleep and told me just to go back to sleep. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t sleep while whatever it was, was making that loud scurrying noise.

Suddenly, my husband got up to go to the bathroom. I begged him to turn the light on, on his way out. He obliged me and I lay there in the bed, afraid to look at the foot of the bed, afraid of what I might see. There was nothing at the foot of my bed. I heard the noise again, then looked up at the ceiling. Something just flew up towards the ceiling and was bouncing off the ceiling making a weird buzzing sound as its wings hit the ceiling. It was a moth! A great big moth, trying to escape our room and bouncing off the ceiling. I breathed a sigh of relief and went to go get a can of raid to kill the thing. I managed to kill it with a couple of sprays of the raid.

How in the world did something that big get in our bedroom? Our window was open, but we have a screen on it. A moth that big couldn’t have possible gotten in through the window. Now I wondered how the thing got in.

I went back to sleep, relieved that I didn’t have a demon running around the foot of my bed. But I was a little troubled, as to how something that big got into my bedroom?

Things aren’t always what they seem. Problems we face in life, may seem bigger or more insidious than they really are. We may think it’s the end of the world, but it’s not. We, as believers, have God on our side, watching out for us. He says He will protect us. He will never leave us or forsake us. He is the friend who is closer than a brother.

I know, a lot of times, my first reaction to a problem is to panic. But I really shouldn’t do that. There’s never a time, when God is going to turn His back on me. He promises He won’t and I need to trust in that promise. I have His word on it.

For all of us who are believers, we can’t get taken up with the problems we face. Things aren’t what they seem. God is greater than any problem we face. We need to remember that God will never leave us or forsake us. God is never going to apologize to us for forgetting us. He’ll never forget us. He’ll never leave us. He’ll never forsake us.

And if you hear a loud buzzing sound in your bedroom at night, it’s most likely not a demon, but a giant moth trying to escape.