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Two friends, Bill, and Harry were stranded on an island in the Pacific. They were walking along the beach, one day, and they looked down and saw that a bottle had been washed up onto the beach. They pulled the cork and, immediately, a genie came out of the bottle. The genie looked at them and said, “How are you doing?”
They said, “Well, we are doing just fine.”
The genie said, “I really appreciate you freeing me from this bottle. I am going to give you one wish each.” He looked at Harry and said, “Harry, what do you want?”
Harry didn’t hesitate for a second. He said, “Oh, I want to be back in Chicago!” Then “poof” he was gone.
Then the genie looked over at Bill and said, “Bill, what do you want?”
Bill thought for a long time. He thought some more and paced back and forth. Then he said, “I have trouble making decisions. I am usually not the one who makes the decisions. Oh, I wish Harry were here.”
This is a fantasy of humankind, a fantasy that we can walk along, find a bottle, and have a genie appear. Then the genie would solve all of life’s problems for us. We could tell the genie what we want, and he would say, “Poof,” and it would be there for us, exactly as we desired.
Life is not that way. Life is a classroom. Life is a series of instructions, a series of classes that we move through and all the time, we are taking a course and we are learning something. All the time, we wonder which way to go. Should I go this way? Should I go that way? Should I make this choice?
The other evening, I was watching TV and one of the psychic hot lines came on. The psychic said she could tell a person anything. I would not have to worry. I would not have to make decisions. If I just called, I would have all the answers I wanted for relationships, career, and health – anything that I desired to make me happy. If I dialed 1-900 and the number, at $2.95 a minute plus a service charge, I could talk to this person.
Today, I am going to talk about a FREE hotline like that. It is a hotline that is available 24 hours a day, but THIS is always 100% accurate, guaranteed. It is called prayer. It is something to get you connected and it is something you carry with you. It is almost like a cell phone, but better. There are not any roaming areas or areas where you go out of service. Wherever you are, at any hour of the day or night, you can connect with God. We come here on Sunday morning to remember that – to be reminded. That is why we are here. This is a big remembrance society, to remember who we are and what God is, and that we can have a close encounter with God.
Do you remember the movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind?” They were so excited about contacting a life form that was smarter, more intelligent than we were. All society, especially the people who were involved and invited to the site of the encounter, were so excited because they just knew they would learn things to make their lives better.
It is the same way when we make a close encounter of the God kind, because we are going to a higher intelligence than in our human mind. A sweet, loving intelligence that is always right, always willing, and always ready to show us exactly how to proceed.
To me, “Close” stands for:
(C) Christ with you, your hope of glory.
(L) Listen. We have to take time to listen. We have to be willing to listen.
(O) Open. To be open to something so much higher and so much better than our own thoughts – when we are, our entire life begins to shine with purpose.
(S) Surrender. I think this is an important element. As we walk along, thinking over our problems, worried, fearful, and anxious, we have to surrender. We have to let go and let God take over in our lives.
(E) Is for that incredible Encounter.
How many of you have had an encounter with a famous person sometime in your life? You have told me that you remember what you felt at the time, and how different it was from seeing these people on television. It is special to us when we have an encounter like that. Does it change your life? Sometimes, I suppose. If it changed your life, it would be because of the influence of the situation, such as when you meet the famous person and they turn out to be not what you imagined at all. They influence your life because you say you do not want to be like them. Or they can be even better than you imagined and you think, “There is a model for my life.”
My friends, when you have an encounter with God, it changes your life. It is a spiritual experience and it can happen in the twinkling of an eye, in a flash, in an instant. Your life is forever changed from that moment, for the better. It is something every minister strives to talk about, but our humble words cannot do it any justice. All we can do is stand here and be a signpost. We talk about the spirituality of what happens in that instant of time, and when it occurs, how much we are changed.
I want to share with you Revelations 3:15-16. Jesus is saying, “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
That sounds like a really tough teaching. The mouth of God, the word of God – God speaks, and something goes into creation. God speaks and it is. If God is going to spit you out of God’s mouth, what in the world is this saying? It is saying that if we are lukewarm, then WE cannot make it happen. We have to have a faith, and a desire, and a knowing. How many times have we been like the man in the genie story? We have just been walking along and say in a lukewarm way, “Oh, I wish I could have that in my life, but I never will. I wish I could do this, but I never will.” We are neither cold nor hot. We sort of wish, but we are lukewarm.
In order for something to occur in our lives, for us to have an encounter with God, and to become co-creators with God, we have to become hungry and burning with desire for the event to take place in and through us. Then God will hold us in the platter of creation.
There was a man who said something that I thought was one of the saddest things I ever heard someone say. He was a doctor and had practically everything he wanted in life. He said, “I really don’t want anything from God. I am just here, on Sunday morning, for maintenance.”
I thought, “How sad,” because even as much as he has, there is always something new and fresh about God every time you connect – and how much richer our lives can be. Never take God for granted, or what you have had in the past. Seek God, today.
The Bible states, “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelations 3:17) This is not saying to you that you are a worm of the dust. It is saying that as much as you have, it is nothing compared to what God can give you.
Jesus says: “Therefore I counsel you to buy from me … ” (Revelations 3:18) When you buy something, you own it. If I buy this lectern, I own it. It is mine. I possess it and it is part of me and part of my life. If I buy a teaching, if I own an idea, then it becomes mine to use and to hold and to enjoy.
Jesus says: “Buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen.” (Revelations 3:18) The white robe is not for your outer garment. This is talking about something to clothe your soul. I could be all dressed up in a tuxedo and still be naked in my soul and feeling empty. Yet, when I am clothed with that white robe, it is clothing that is beyond any outer clothing.
Jesus goes on: ” … salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me.” (Revelations 3:18-20)
What do you eat if God asks you to dinner? Do you go to Sonic? No, you eat of things of the Spirit. You eat of the manna from heaven. You eat of the things that give you strength, vitality, energy, well-being, health, and joy. Can you imagine eating of happiness? Happiness is an inside job. That is what you eat, when you eat with God, and then you incorporate those qualities into your mind, body, and soul.
“To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying … ” (Revelations 3:21-23)
May we have an ear, today, as we connect and feel the magic of God in our lives. I pray it happens during this hour. I truly do.
Sometimes, encounters with God come to us in the form of fleshly people – angels in disguise. I want to share a story with you that Hal Manwaring shares about his life.
Hal says, “A cat has nine lives. I am inclined to think this is possible since I am now living in my third life, and I’m not even a cat.
“My first life began on a clear, cold day in November 1904, when I arrived as the sixth of eight children of a farming family. My dad died when I was 15, and we had a hard struggle to make a living. My mother stayed home and cooked the potatoes, beans, cornbread, and greens, while the rest of us kids worked. We worked all the time, for whatever we could get – a small amount at best.
“As the children grew up, they married, leaving only my sister and myself to support and care for Mother. She became paralyzed in her last years and died while still in her sixties. My sister married soon after, and I followed her example within a year. This is when I began to enjoy my first life. I was very happy, in excellent health, and I was quite a good athlete. My wife and I became the parents of two lovely girls, and I had a good job in San Jose, and a wonderful, beautiful home up the peninsula in San Carlos. Life was a pleasant dream.
“Then the dream ended and became one of those horrible nightmares that cause you to wake in a sweat in the middle of the night. I became afflicted with a slow, progressive disease of the motor nerves, affecting one side and then the other – my right arm and my leg in progression. Thus began my second life.
“In spite of the disease, I still drove to and from work, each day, with the aid of special equipment installed in my car, and I managed to keep my health and my optimism to a degree because of 14 steps. Crazy? Not at all.
“Our home was a split level with 14 steps leading up from the garage to the kitchen door. These steps were a gauge of my life, a yardstick, and my challenge to continue living. I felt if the day would ever arrive when I was unable to life one foot up one step and then drag the other painfully after it, repeating the process 14 times until utterly spent, I would be through. I could then admit defeat, lie down, and die. So, I kept working, kept on climbing those steps, and time passed.
“The girls went to college and were happily married. My wife and I were alone in our beautiful home with the 14 steps. You might think that here walked a man of courage, a man of hope and strength – not so. Here was a hobbled and bitterly disillusioned cripple – a man who held onto his sanity, his wife, his home, and his job because of those 14 miserable steps leading up from the garage to the back door. As I dragged one foot up another one of those steps, slowly and painfully, often stopping to rest, I would sometimes let my thoughts wander back to the years when I was playing ball, golfing, working out at the gym, hiking, swimming, running, jumping, and now I could barely manage to climb, feebly, up those 14 steps.
“As I became older, I became more disillusioned and frustrated. I am sure my wife and friends had some unhappy times when I chose to expound my philosophy on life, which was: it gets worse, not better. I believed in this whole world, I alone had been chosen to suffer. I had carried my cross now for nine years and probably would bear it as long as I lived, as long as I could climb those 14 steps.”
“My wife and my friends would read to me out of the Bible. The one verse they would read more than any other was from 1 Corinthians 15:50. ‘What I am saying … is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye … ‘”
Hal said: “Here I am in this flesh-and-blood body. How can I possibly have a change? I am in pain all the time. I am now crippled, and I didn’t used to be. How can I have a change from God in a twinkling of an eye?”
Then, on a dark night in August 1971, Hal writes that he began his third life. He had no idea when he left home that morning that such a dramatic change was about to take place. He only knew it had been rougher than usual getting down those steps and he dreaded the thought of going home at night and going up those 14 steps.
It was raining when he started home that night. Gusty winds and slashing rain beat down on the car as he drove slowly on one of the less traveled roads. Suddenly, the steering wheel jerked to the right and the car swerved violently. In the same instant, he heard the dreaded sound of a blowout in one of his tires. He fought to stop the car on the rain-slick shoulder of the road and sat there as the enormous weight of the situation swept over him.
He sat there and thought, “It is impossible for me to change the tire, utterly impossible.” The thought that a passing motorist might stop was dismissed at once. Why should anyone?
He said, “I knew I wouldn’t. Then I remembered that a short distance up a little side road was a house. I started the engine and I thumped slowly, keeping well onto the shoulder until I came to a dirt road where I turned in. Thankfully, the lights were on. I pulled into the driveway and I just sat there and honked the horn. The door opened and a little girl looked out at me. I rolled down the window and through the rain I called out that I had a flat and needed someone to help change it, because I had a crutch and was crippled and couldn’t do anything myself. She went into the house and a moment later, came out bundled in a raincoat and hat followed by a man who called a cheerful greeting.
“I sat there, dry and comfortable, and felt a bit sorry for the man and the little girl working so hard in the storm. ‘Well,’ I said to myself, ‘I will pay them for it. I have money with me and I will give them some money for this.’ The rain seemed to be slackening a bit and I rolled down the window all the way to watch. It seemed to me they were awfully slow. Sitting there in my car, I was becoming a bit impatient because they were so slow. I heard the clank of metal from the back of the car and the little girl’s voice traveled clearly to my ears. ‘Here is the jack handle, Grandpa.’
“She was answered by the murmur of a man’s lower voice and the slow tilting of the car as it was jacked up. There followed a long interval of noises, jolts, and low conversations from the back of the car, but finally, it was done. I felt the car bump as the jack was removed and I heard the slam of the trunk lid. Then they were standing at my car window.
“He was an old man, stooped over and very frail looking under his slicker. The little girl was about eight years old, I judged, with a merry face and a wide smile. The man said, ‘This is a bad night for car trouble, but you are all set now.’
“‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘How much do I owe you?’
“He shook his head and said, ‘Nothing. Cynthia told me you were a cripple on crutches. I am glad to be of help. I know you would do the same thing for me. There is no charge, friend, no charge at all.’
“Still, I held out a five-dollar bill and waved it at the young girl and the old man. The old man made no effort to take it. The little girl stepped closer to the window and whispered, ‘Grandpa can’t see it. He’s blind.'”
Hal said in the next few frozen seconds, the shame and the horror of that moment penetrated. He was sick with an intensity that he had never felt before in his life. Here was a blind man and a child fumbling and feeling with cold fingers for bolts and tools in the dark; a darkness for him that would probably never end until death.
“They changed a tire for me. They changed it in the rain and the wind, with me sitting in the snug comfort of the car with my crutch, my handicap.
“I don’t remember how long I sat there after they said goodnight and left me. But it was long enough for me to search deep within myself and find some very disturbing traits. I realized I was filled to overflowing with self-pity, selfishness, indifference to the needs of others, and thoughtlessness. I sat there and prayed like I had never prayed before. I said, “‘God, I surrender. I realize in this moment I have been so much into me and into my problems, and into what hasn’t gone right in my life that I have been more blind than the man who just changed my tire. Oh God, I surrender.'”
In the twinkling of an eye, in a flash, there was a change that filled his whole personality, and an energy entered his body. Was he healed? Did he throw away his crutch? No, but he clothed his soul which was naked a moment before.
He went home that night, and he was a new man. Everyone noticed it, immediately. No longer did he have sourness rising from within; instead, there was a sweetness. The drive home was the best drive he had ever had in his life. He was filled with God to overflowing. He felt magic coming from inside of him. In the twinkling of an eye, he was changed – in an instant.
Can it happen to you, and can it happen to me? You better believe it. An encounter with God is the most real encounter you or I will ever have. It is a spiritual experience that can happen in a moment.
Some of you have been on a cruise ship. You would think that to steer such a large ship, it would take a steering wheel as big as this whole room. But if you go up to the captain’s room on the ship, it is quite different, surprisingly different. What you see is a vast console of computers and there is just one thing sticking up. It is like a joystick on a computer game. Even that is not used 99% of the time. Most of the time, the ship is on autopilot. The ship remembers its destination. It knows where to go.
Prayer and meditation are like that to us. They help us identify not only the destination, but like the autopilot on the ship, prayer and meditation will help us look past the storms. The ship does not stop midway and say, “My goodness, I have a storm here. I’m just going to sit here and worry and be tossed about in the high waves.” The ship remembers its destination. We do, too, when we connect with God. We never waver off course. And more time and energy in our lives can be spent enjoying the journey, instead of taking every step the hard way.
There is a great novel called, “Howard’s End.” The main theme of the novel is to connect. That is the theme of our lives – connect with God. Save time and aggravation, cut through all of the outer stuff of life, and get right to the core. What is at the core of you? It is the Spirit of God. Right there, already, you have an autopilot built inside of you which will take you every step of your way. When you act from this presence, when you stay connected, then you have a solution almost like a genie in a bottle that you can release.
We would like to have as a solution for our problems. We would like to have a turnkey operation to the good life. We would like to have simplification in our lives, so that we could just walk into an area and have everything sitting in Divine Order, perfect with the perfection of God. To have everything in order in ways we cannot imagine, that is what we have when we connect with God inside of us. We take time during the day instead of fooling with all of the outer stuff.
If you go out tomorrow, Monday morning, and your car will not start, you keep trying over and over again. You walk around the car and go to the front of it and open up the hood, look in, and say, “Hmmmmmm … ., everything looks all right.” How many times have we done that? We do not have the slightest idea of what we are looking at, but we do it, anyway. Then we have a choice. We can slam the hood. We can walk around, open the door, sit down in the car, and keep on doing what we were doing before – cranking it until the battery goes dead. Then we have worse problems. Or we can call a mechanic who has a higher level of intelligence about our car than we do. The mechanic can fix it. As long as we continue doing what we were doing, we are a part of the problem. We are making the problem worse. But as soon as we surrender, we automatically become a part of the solution. When we surrender to God, we lose nothing and we gain the potential for everything to happen in Divine Order.
Our external world is where we do most of our adjusting. We are willing to rearrange things in the outer all the time. It is like rearranging the furniture in your home or apartment. But we end up in a perpetual cycle of rearranging and nothing really changes. It is the same old me acting out the same old drama. The other actors may be new, but the plot is familiar. But when we go within in prayer and connect with God, we make changes on a soul level. It is WE who change. We are building something different than an outer building, brick-by-brick, board-by-board. We are building, prayer-by-prayer. Each time we become aware of God, we move our souls much closer to absolute peace and harmony, a close encounter of the God kind.
Let’s make it right now.
Let us pray.
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) And He said, “You are the light of the world … ” (Matthew 5:14) It is reassuring to know in prayer that the same light which indwelled Jesus Christ also indwells me. It is my birthright from God.
I acknowledge You, God, as the light shining in and through me. I awaken to the truth that I need never walk in darkness. I make my light a radiant, shining one by connecting with You, morning, afternoon, and night. God, I reinforce the awareness of my birthright of light with the certainty that I am a spiritual being, ever growing, ever unfolding, always and forever. Light shines through me, illuminating every path. I walk in that light and I progress in right and perfect ways.
In the name and through the power of Jesus Christ, I pray for each one of you that you have an encounter of the God kind – a spiritual experience, today. Amen.
God bless you!
PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________
As we close our eyes and still our thoughts, we are so very thankful; thankful from the bottom of our hearts for the presence of God in our lives. From the most ancient of times, God’s presence has blessed humankind. God is right here and we have a spiritual encounter, right now through prayer.
With a growing awareness of God’s presence, we allow these words to be the prayer of our hearts. Loving God, thank You for breathing the breath of life into me and for blessing me with wisdom and peace.
In the stillness of prayer, we join our hearts with people who are praying with us. We are part of the continuous action of prayer. As we experience the words of this Psalm, let us join with those who have used it in the past and those who will continue use it to celebrate the presence of God.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters;
He restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for His name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff – they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”
(Psalm 21:1-6)
Rest in the silence of prayer …
Thank You, God, for all that I am, for all I know, for all I have, and for all I will ever be. You are my light, my life, and my love. You are my all.
I fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff – they comfort me. Dear God, Your presence assures me that all is well in my world. You light my path. You smooth the way for me. When I feel afraid, Your presence assures me of Your love for me. Your love assures me that the challenge will pass. I fear no evil. You comfort me. Your presence is the true constant in my life and I am confident as I go about my daily activities.
In these moments of silence, I am at peace in Your presence.
He leads me in right paths for His name’s sake. God, Your light shines so brilliantly within me. You show me the ways that are good for me; ways that lead my soul to new heights and happiness. You lead me in right paths. If I feel unsteady or unsure, I go within and You are there, gently leading me to right answers, bringing me fresh new insights, filling me with Your wisdom, and Your understanding.
I rest now in the silence of prayer, and I bask in Your holy light.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. Thank You, God, for the gift of life. Your life force heals me at the very core of my being. I am whole in my soul, in my emotions, in my body. Enthusiasm and energy are mine. Through Your life force within me, I am linked to all life on this beautiful planet. This planet of green pastures and still waters, and I am grateful.
I give thanks that the people I hold in prayer are also renewed by Your healing life. I feel Your life within me, now, in the silence of prayer …
I shall not want. You prepare a table before me and my cup overflows. Thank You, God, for your love. Your love flows through my household, my community, my world. Through Your loving presence, I find the satisfaction of my soul and my cup overflows. The Lord is my shepherd. Dear God, You are all the world to me. You are all I want. You are all I need, and You are the wellspring of my soul.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
The light of God surrounds each one of us;
The love of God enfolds each one of us;
The power of God protects each one of us;
The presence of God watches over each one of us;
Wherever we are, God is with each one of us!
In the name and through the power of Jesus Christ … Amen.
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