Pickle Heaven Press-James R. Johnson

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Tag: Psalm 37:4

getting guidance from God — November 8, 2023

getting guidance from God

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I sought divine direction about a decision.  So, I opened my Bible and my eyes fell upon this verse, “their fish stinketh, because there is no water.”  – Isaiah 50:2 (KJV) Wow!  I instantly knew what I needed to do.  I needed to find a better way of understanding the will of God. 

A friend gave me some insight.  As a former Navy pilot, he explained how he had to land a jet on an aircraft carrier at night.  A tough job!  The runway was tiny, moving, and invisible.

There are four successive lights on the landing deck.  He had to visually align his plane with all four.  When the first light was in line with the second, and then the third and fourth, then he had a straight path to follow to safety.

We might think of discovering God’s will in the same way.  We need to align ourselves with four guiding lights.  First…

– Align yourself with the Word of God   

The Bible must be our first and primary source.  Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”  KJV

Submit every decision to the Bible looking for specific commands that affect it.  Respect the “dos” and “don’ts.”  And seek out biblical principles that might affect the decision.   There is no biblical command regarding pole dancing but there are plenty of principles that would nix it as a vocational option.  (Titus 2:4-5)

– Align yourself with the counsel of the wise

The wise are well-seasoned in life – insightful people who have a history of walking with God.  They should know us well enough to give us an informed opinion.

Proverbs 15:22 says, “Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with abundant advisers they are established.”  A wise counselor might say, “Sure that choice is biblically OK, but you probably wouldn’t be happy working as a night security guard because you are a people person.”

– Align yourself with your own desire 

If the Bible says it OK, and your wise counselors give the green light, then consider your own desires and ask, “Is this something that I want?”

Anita may say, “Taylor fits the biblical criteria of a good husband, and my parents and friends think he is an incredible catch.  But is he really the guy I want to spend my life with?” 

Psalm 37:4 tells us that when we delight in the Lord and His will, then He gives us the desires of our heart.  To delight in Him requires that the first and second guiding lights already agree.  When this is true, then we can explore our own heart’s desires.

– Align yourself with a Spirit led conviction

Paul spoke of being led by the Spirit of God. He wrote, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.”  – Romans 7:14.   This is about the Spirit of God imparting a sense of conviction about the path ahead. (John 18:8)

Nehemiah described this experience saying, “I did not tell anyone what my God was putting on my heart to do for Jerusalem.” – Nehemiah 2:12

The Spirit of God leads us, but never contrary to the Word of God.  In fact, He typically takes the Word of God, the counsel of others, and our own desires and uses them to guide us.

But then again, He is God, and may wish, at times, to set aside wise counsel and even our own desires, to take us on a faith journey beyond what we are presently able to see or imagine.  That’s pretty much how I ended up being a pastor. 

Four aligned lights.  That’s what we typically need when we are in the dark as to decisions.  May they light your way and may all your landings be happy!   

A PRAYER: Speak Lord.  We really want to pursue Your will.

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Scriptures are quoted from the NETBible® unless otherwise noted.

chasing the dream — September 6, 2023

chasing the dream

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As a kid, I didn’t have an alarm clock in my bedroom, but I was usually aware of the time regardless of the hour of night.  I just picked up my guitar and began to strum, which prompted my mom to yell from downstairs, “Do you know it’s 1 a.m.?”   “No, but thanks mom?”

I learned the guitar in sixth grade. As I taught myself the chords, I enjoyed putting a melody and words to them. 

My music became my voice.  I was able to sing things I was too shy to speak.  I shared my ditties and people enjoyed them.

So, I got serious about it.  When I got my driver’s license, one of the very first places I visited was a music publisher.  I tried to sell them a song.  They didn’t want it. 

This, however, became my obsession – to publish a song, have a bigtime artist sing it, to hear it aired on the radio and to reap the royalties.

Music was my god back then.  It monopolized my time, my money, and my heart.  But the path to publishing was always blocked and it was destroying me.  

When I finally came to Jesus, music was dethroned, and Christ reigned in my life.

I wanted others to experience Jesus, so I centered my songwriting efforts on Him.  People listened.  Many came to faith and others were encouraged in their faith journey. 

However, music still competed with the Lordship of Jesus in my life.  My evolved desire was to make a name for myself in Christian music. 

I put demo tapes of my songs in the hands of several uninterested artists. A studio in Nashville reviewed and rejected my stuff and I have a ream of rejection letters from publishers.  Like the donkey that stood in the path of Balaam, the Lord seemed to stand in my way.

I believed I would be content only when I had made it in the music biz.  But God deliberately withheld that success from me, that I might learn to be content with Him. 

I took to heart his words in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord.”  He wanted me to find my joy and purpose and satisfaction in Him alone.

And over time, I learned. Jesus became all that mattered to me, and my music became a useful tool to serve His purposes – not mine.  I learned to be content using my songs with the youth group that I led.

But then a crazy thing happened.  One of my youth group kids went to college and became a worship leader.  He used some of the songs that I had written.  

One day a no-name Christian band came to his town and heard him sing one of my songs.  They wanted to use it.  He said, “Yes, Jim wouldn’t care.”

So, they did, they sang one of my songs for over two years to college students around the country, over 200,000 of them.

Eventually they were signed to a recording contract with the biggest outfit in Christian music   And, they wanted to include my song on their first album. 

It was recorded and released almost 30 years after my first attempt to sell a song. I remember the thrill of hearing it aired on our local radio station. 

It was then that I experienced the latter half of Psalm 37:4, The Psalmist wrote, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  Once I made the Lord and His will my delight, He then graciously delivered the desire of my heart without any effort on my part.

I bet you are curious as to the title of the song.  I called it “Kumbayah!”  Not really!  The title is “Have Your Way,” which was a perfect song for God to promote for it was not until I was content with His will for me, that I enjoyed such blessing. 

A PRAYER: Having You, Lord, is so much richer than having a song on the radio.

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Scripture references are from the New International Version.