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The Dilemma Of Obedience
David Darst 
God never speaks to us in startling ways, but in ways that are easy to misunderstand, and we say, “I wonder if that is God’s voice?” Isaiah said that the Lord spake to him “with a strong hand,” that is, by the pressure of circumstances. Nothing touches our lives but it is God Himself speaking. Do we discern His hand or only mere occurrence?
As Becky and I have bee contemplating this move back to Texas…this move back into Pastoral Leadership, we have asked ourselves many times about this. “is this particular scripture I’m reading on this particular day with this particular group of circumstances going on in our lives, God’s way of speaking?” or is this just coincidence?
I asked Becky when reading our daily reading about Abraham Gen. 31:3 Then the LORD said to him, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”(A)
I asked Becky at a time when it particularly strong. “could it be that simple?” The answer is YES! God speaks through His word simply; however the obedience is not so simple. But Belief is forward progress. We believe as we act upon what God has told us or what we think God has told us and as we act that which God has said begins to unfold.
Wanderings
Psa. 39:12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
at the age of 42 I have struggled with having a place with roots a home. The bible says: that we are Pilgrims — Heb. 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
I have roamed the earth from the east coast to the west coast from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. I have ventured to foreign countries (Mexico, Africa, Honduras, Europe) to name a few and the one constant that I have found is that God is God…He is there where ever one may roam. He is our home He is our Great possession.
A persons life is full of wanderings. I see it throughout most of the biblical characters. We see God’s intervention with Abraham “go to a place where I will show you” God set him to wander…His children and grandchildren were wanderers. There was a time in David’s life that God had him wandering around. The obvious wanderings of the children of Israel, not to mention the Prophets. Isaiah, and Jeremiah.
It does something to a person and their faith when is able to wander and reflect as he wanders. I’m coming to know that as you wander it has a way of removing the wonder. Wondering if God is with you, how He will be active in your life. It has a way of filtering out your doubt and solidifying your faith to know that no matter where I roam, I have a home. That home is my Life in Christ Jesus.
Wandering teaches us blind obedience, obedience to trust God, learning that there is never a place that one may go where God is not.
Psa. 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
Wanderings teach us that we are never alone. Geography has nothing to do with Theology. No matter where I may be Geographically — God is God and His promise is that “Lo and I AM with you always…even until the end of the age.
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