James’s sermon on Hosea 2 last night was brilliant – talking about God the pursuer, the husband who longs for his errant wife and how we can prevent or allow that intimacy.
He mentioned 3 ‘l’’s – being lead, being a listener and being a lover.
In short, to summarise his talk, we need to allow God to lead us, letting go of our own will. Then we need to make space to listen to God speaking – God is always talking but we fail to stop and listen. Finally, we need to respond with love. As we allow God to lead and we listen to him, our only response can be to love.
Lydia from small group recounted a story that her mum had heard from a christian speaker named Beth Moore.
Beth was at an airport waiting to catch a flight and in the departures lounge was a man in wheelchair looking a mess. She felt God say to her ‘brush his hair’ to which she thought ‘no way’ but the nudge was so insistent, she walked over to him and quietly said ‘Sir, please can I brush your hair?’. He replied ‘you’ll have to speak up because I can’t hear you’ and so taking a deep breath, she said loudly ‘Sir, please can I brush your hair?’. Everyone stopped and stared at the crazy lady offering to brush the gentleman’s hair. He said ‘yes’. ‘I haven’t got a brush.’ said Beth. He had one to hand and as she was brushing his hair, she felt God say ‘ask him if he knows Jesus?’. Having embarrassed herself with the whole hairbrushing thing, she didn’t really want to take risks but asked the man anyway ‘Do you know Jesus?’ The man said he did and turns out he’d just gone through major surgery, he was catching a plane home to see his wife and he had been praying to God about sorting out how he looked because he wanted to look good for when he arrived and met his wife. Anyway, the man, now groomed, went to catch his flight and as Beth boarded hers, one of the air hostesses caught her eye and asked if she was the lady who’d brushed the man’s hair. Beth said ‘yes’ and as the lady asked why she did such a kind thing, Beth felt the nudge again to ask ‘do you know Jesus?’ So she asked the hostess who didn’t know Jesus and they started talking.
Wonder if the air hostess knows him now?
So, here it is – I long for the intimacy with God where he leads me, I listen and I love him more each day. I want to be obedient as Beth was, as Jesus was, even if it means embarassing myself (I do it all the time anyway!)
Lent begins on Wednesday and I am in anticipation for this season of getting intimate with God. Already, in my meagre preparations for this time, I have learnt things about my relationship with him and about myself – which is great – bring on more!
