By Alesa Miller Pastor’s wife and mission partner Special to the Signal
When Jeff and I first started dating, needless to say, we were young and stupid. (Perhaps that is why we are still together) we were just 13 and 16 yrs old. After 43 years of knowing him, the other day he told me “You are so crazy!” as we were joking around. I responded “ Well maybe that is why I am still here”
We celebrated 39 years of marriage this year and when I look back and see all that we have been through, I do think we are a little crazy! At least to the eyes of those that live for the world and themselves and not for God, it might seem that way.
See, Jeff and I have always tried to follow what God wanted us to do and that doesn’t always make sense to those around us.
I remember one specific time when Jeff informed me that we were moving to Kansas. We lived in Atlanta at the time and I had no desire to move to the midwest farming community where my family was from. I love the bright lights and the conveniences of the city too much to want to leave Atlanta.
But Jeff insisted that we were going. I thought he was crazy then. After all, He was a southern boy, born and raised in the heart of dixie. There is no way he should want to move to the midwest.
He would not relent. “We were going!” he told me that is what he felt God wanted us to do. “I informed him, “ If God really wanted us to do that, then God can look at our checking account and see that we don’t have enough money to move to Kansas, If He wants us to move, then He will need to provide the $2,000 it will take for us to move because I’m not going until He does.” I wish I would have said 2 million dollars now!
Because, 6 weeks later, we were in Kansas pulling up to my parent’s house with our 3-year-old son between us in a Uhaul as we pulled our car behind us.
That move eventually catapulted us into full-time ministry and some 30 yrs later now into missions.
But what I am thankful for most of all about this story is, That Jeff listened to God even when it seemed crazy. Our pastor at the time in Atlanta told us that this decision was the stupid thing he had ever heard.
Sometimes what seems crazy to man is exactly what God is calling us to do. Because after living in Kansas for just 6 weeks with my parents, in the wee hours of the morning I heard my mom call from my parent’s bedroom “Come to quick Alesa your daddy is dieing” I was thankful my husband had listened to God and drug me to Kansas to live that day.
As an only child and having the only grandchild it was priceless to get to spend those last few weeks with my dad alive. It was also the answer to prayer that as a 15 yr old girl made as my parents and I rushed to make a 15 hr trip back to Kansas to be with my grandma before she died “I prayed to God, don’t let me have to hurry up and get there when it comes time for my parents to pass away” God honored that prayer some 10 years later.
It wasn’t till after my dad passed away that Jeff told me, he was underneath a house working in Atlanta when he felt like the Lord told him, “You need to take Alesa and Lee to Kansas and you need to do it now if you want them to spend any time with her dad before he dies”
You know the Bible says “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27.
We all are going to die one day if the Lord doesn’t come back before then, the question is, where will you go? What will your judgment be?”
In the book of Matthew, Jesus tells us in verse 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, (of the Lord’s return) not even the angels of [f ] heaven, but my Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
You know, in the Bible days they thought Noah was crazy too for building an ark. After all, it had never rained on earth before that time. But the craziest thing would have been for Him to have not built the ark.
Can you imagine the relief he must have felt as the rain began to come down? The heartbreak as the people outside who ridiculed and called him crazy pounded on the side of the boat begging him to let them in. Knowing there was nothing he could do because the Lord God Himself had closed the door and it was not to be opened till those inside were safe.
I’d say the craziest thing that anyone can do is NOT follow what God tells them to do because that is when we will find ourselves in the biggest mess. Think what would have happened if Jeff hadn’t followed God’s lead underneath that house when he heard it. What if Noah hadn’t followed God’s directions to build the ark?
God loves us and cares about us! So it isn’t crazy at all to follow Him in fact it is the smartest thing any of us can do! So who are you following today? What is God telling you to do, that you have been hesitant to respond to? Don’t wait too long. You don’t want the floods of this life to come before you are ready!
To find out more about Alesa Lewis Miller and the ministry she and her husband are a part of go to https://ift.tt/ujCRYQ0 and hear how they are now Strengthening Churches, Changing Lives, One Project at a Time. Also, get ready for more of her writings as she releases her first book “Behind the Parsonage Walls” This summer, to keep updated follow her on her Facebook page with the same title. https://ift.tt/8O7ExUu
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