Russell A. Cardwell Online

Again and again, Balaam raced ahead of God’s plan. Each time God sent an angel to guard the path, and each time Balaam’s donkey saw the angel and stopped Balaam from going ahead. Each time Balaam beat her with a stick until at last she spoke.

Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.

The angel of the LORD asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared her.”

Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back.”
-Num 22:31-34

When I was about 7 or 8, we went to an amusement park—Six Flags or something. I was walking along behind my parents looking up at all the sights, when at some point I noticed that the people I was following did not look exactly right. I caught up with them and found that they were not my parents at all, they were just similarly dressed. Even at that age I had a cool head in a crisis. We had passed several forks in the path, and I did not know where we had gotten separated. If I went forward, I might be going the wrong way. If I stayed where I was, they may not turn down this road looking for me. I decided that once they found I was missing, they would turn back looking for me. And the quickest way for me to be found was to go back to where I saw them last.

In the Jack Hayford book, Explaining Worship, he talks about the components of prayer, the first of which is confession. He says that even if gross sin is not a part of our lives, we still need refinement and cleansing, if for no other reason than that we have been exposed to the dirty conditions that characterize the world. Even when we do well, we still cannot measure up to God’s standards. He says, rather than condemn ourselves we need to go before God and say, “Lord, I’m growing in Your ways, but I’m not there yet. Forgive my shortcomings and continue to shape me into Your image.”

Even if we do take the wrong path, we need to come back quickly to God‘s path. Sometimes we may not know where we went wrong. Instead of worry and struggle, trying to figure out exactly where we went wrong, and come up with a way to fix things ourselves, we should do as I did as a lost child. We should ask ourselves, where was I last close to God? I know I was on the right path then. Return to that point, and start from there. God is probably already waiting there for you.

If we keep pushing ahead, we may wind up like Balaam, being taught a lesson in humility and obedience by an ass.

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Always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise they won’t go to yours.

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

It is better to be a has-been than a never-was.

Of two evils, choose neither.
—Unknown

If Jesus came back and saw what was going on in his name, he’d never stop throwing up.
—”Hannah and Her Sisters”, Max von Sydow’s character, while watching a TV evangelist appealing for money.

El sueño de la razón produce monstruos. The sleep of reason begets monsters.
—Goya

• Winning Souls, not Beating Them

Imagine that you go to your friend’s door, long after midnight. The lights are out, the door is locked, your friend says, “Do you have any idea what time it is? We’re trying to sleep in here. Come back tomorrow.” And you say, “I need your help. Company has come from out of town. They’re hungry, the stores are closed, I don’t have enough to feed them all. If you have any extra food in the house let me have it for tonight.”

What is your friend going to do? He’s going to give you what you need. He may be grumpy about it, but he’s going to give you whatever help he can. Why? Because he’s your friend. And he’s going to appreciate your boldness. Your boldness in waking him in the middle of the night will convince him more than any words you could say of the urgency of your need. Not only that, he’s going to feel honored. You have honored him, you have shown him how much you believe in him and what kind of character you believe he has. Who does not feel honored when your friend asks something of you like that? What does it tell you about the way they feel about your character? They’ve shown you that they believe you are a person of value. And if you value their friendship you’re going to do what’s needed.

So this is the way it is with God. Do we value our relationship with God? And do we show God how much we value Him? How often do we refrain from asking God for the things we need , for the things we want, expecting that God knows what we want, God knows what’s going to be needed? How often do we simply turn it over to Him and say, “Thy will not mine be done,” and hope for the best? Is not a sort of pride involve in this?

What Jesus is telling us here is that God appreciates boldness. If we boldly step up to the throne and say “God, this is what I need. I have these needs. You are my God. Take care of me. Help me.” It’s not that God

How does this work? I don’t really understand how this works? What happens if we don’t ask God for what we need? Is God going to not provide for us? This is something I don’t wuite understand.

Here is one possible answer. God has created us. God does care for us. We are His children. But He has created us as free agents. He has turned us loose in the world to do as we see fit. just as when your children grow up, you will turn them loose into the world to do as they see fit, to live or die by their own decisions.

But when they leave home, that doesn’t mean that you’re no longer available to them for help if they need it. If one of them needs help, you say “If you do need help, just call, and I’ll be there.” But you’re not going to be meddling into their affairs all the time. Or I certainly hope not. That would not be welcome. Or good parenting.

Anyway, that’s the way with God. He has turned us loose, sent us off into the world and said, “Here. I’ve given you stewardship over your life. I’ve given you stewardship over the earth, and it’s up to you to do what you should do or not. If you get into trouble, call me and I will help. Ask and you’ll receive.”

But He’s not going to be poking around in our business all the time. Even if He does care for us. He will honor His agreement. This is a contractual agreement He has made with us. I will be your God. Skip all this stuff and I’ll get back to that part.

I think that what this is saying is that unless you call upon Him, He is not going to intervene. And He is not going to intervene because you are not calling upon Him for assistance. That is an indication to Him that you have decided to take care of this problem on your own. And you have rejected God’s assistance in this matter.

So what do I need to do about this? I guess I need to ask for God’s help in the things that matter and not keep doing things on my own. Maybe that’s a question for further thought: “Are there any things in your life that you have chosen to handle on your own and not ask God for help?”

• Obedience and Favor

Throughout the Lenten season, I’ve been using John 15:13 to introduce our Lent theme song, Above All—

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

I have focused on the magnitude of his love—the awesome amazing love. And I have focused on the magnitude of the sacrifice. Just to give up the bliss of eternity, the perfection of paradise to descend into this darkness, this fallen world—is that not sacrifice enough? But to suffer the agony, the ignominy of the cross! What kind of love is this? What kind of sacrifice?

But somehow when I said the words again on Easter Morning, the final word leapt into focus: the word friends. He said, “lay down his life for his friends.�?

The arithmetic of the crucifixion fools us. Jesus died thousands of years ago, thousands of miles away. He died to save all humankind—all the teeming billions of souls strewn across the globe and stretching down the centuries and millennia, for all time. The math defeats us. We are single blades of grass lost in a prairie as seen from outer space. And Jesus—that far away, long ago Christ—who are we to him? Yet here he plainly says he died for his friends. That’s us—you and me. He calls us his friends!

On a clear day, have you ever stepped outside and looked up into the air and seen that vast expanse of blue, and it looks so far away? But this is mere illusion. For in reality it’s right here, all around us. We breathe it in without knowing, every moment of our lives.

The same is true of Christ. Let’s not be fooled by the math. He is no long ago, far away, guy in the sky. He is closer to us than the very air we breathe.

For in him we live and move and have our being.

—Acts 17:28

He is right here. Right now. Always. Forever.

From our first cry to our final breath, Christ is with us.

We are his friends, and he will never, ever leave us alone.

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Only You fill me.
The things of earth leave me
thirsty.
Though I drown—
drench myself in the waters
of the world—
Though I stuff myself with
earthly fare—
I hunger still
wanting more
Only You can satisfy
Only You fulfill my desire.

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Ordinarily I don’t write down these kinds of things, but this was a God-thing too blatant to miss. Usually God does his work behind the scenes in ways that are subtle and often go unnoticed, or can easily be explained away. About a year-and-a-half ago, I made a purchase on one of those “no payments, no interest for 18 months� plans. I’ve done this before; you make payments as you go along and be sure you’re finished before the interest comes due. But this time, there was always some other need that took priority, and I kept putting the payments off.

Last Wednesday, as I was doing my finances, I noticed that my 128 months was over on March 25th. It had to be payed in full or I would have to pay the deferred interest (at 20.9%)! I didn’t have that much extra cash laying around so I transferred some money from savings and paid the bill in full. I’d rather lose the piddly bit of interest from the savings than pay the 20%.

Sunday, as I was going through the unopened mail from earlier in the week, I opened a letter from my mortgage company. I was expecting it to be next month’s bill. Instead, it was a review of my escrow account. It seems that in the past year, I had overpaid my taxes, and rather than lower my payment to let the account catch up, they sent me a check to refund the surplus.

Can anyone guess how much the check was for? If you said the exact amount of the bill I just paid, you would be wrong. It was for $0.42 more. I think that just covers the cost of a stamp, a check, and an envelope.

That check, by the way, had arrived on Tuesday, the day before I made the payment. Had I opened it right away, I would have known God was looking out for me all along.

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