Green P@stures

There is no economic downturn in heaven. Never has been. Never will be.

“Give us this day our daily bread…”

Our Lord told us to pray this. Can He be trusted?

• You can see Jesus on the shore, sizzling fish on a fire. He had no pole, no net, but there they were anyway, enough fish to feed several hungry fishermen. In the Kingdom of God, there are fish prepared that never knew the feel of the natural currents against their scales.
• Six mornings a week, without fail, millions of people would peer out between the flaps of their tents and find their food for the day, sufficient for themselves and their children, on desert floor! It had made its journey from the celestial bakery overnight, more likely in mere seconds, fresh and ready to serve. These were Miracle Meals, quicker than pop-tarts, and without the wrappers to contend with.
• When taxes needed to be paid, a Jewish Rabbi instructed one of His followers to go down to the lake and drop a hook. Even from a house in Capernaum, this rabbi knew the precise time a precise fish would rise to the bait and offer the precise amount needed to pay the surcharge. There are coins in God’s economy that were never minted by man.
• Years ago, in China, a family was disrupted by the sledgehammer of communist ideology. One of the children was beaten to death in a town square because of his unwavering commitment to Christ, followed by the parents being taken into custody and sentenced to hard labor in separate work camps for years. Meanwhile, the younger children were left to their own care. No one would take them in for fear of reprisals so the little ones lived in an abandoned shed and fed off a single bowl of rice that (how do I put this?) never went empty.

Do you believe?

• Charles Orr told of the time when a ministry purchased a printing press in 1906 at a cost of fourteen thousand dollars. The local church that supported the ministry desired to seek the Lord on how they might contribute. A poor woman, but “rich in grace”, went immediately to her knees to ask the Lord for a dollar. Just a dollar, but an amount that was superfluous by her standards. Over the next days, coins began finding their way into her hands until she held a total of ninety-five cents. Five cents short. Just then, she had an impression to have her boys cut up some firewood for selling. One of the boys set to chopping a tree when he noticed something shining deep inside its trunk.

It was a coin. A silver dime. It had undoubtedly been placed in the tree many years before and, at just the right time, supplied in answer to a poor woman’s petition.

Orr goes on to share these beatific words:

“God does not manifest Himself thus to the world, and I sometimes fear that many of His own dear children are not learning as many secrets as they might. How many glorious secret things lie deeper in God than I have gone, I do not know; only, I know there are many. My heart is reaching for them with avidity. Down, down into God; down into His secret pavilion; down where I can see more of His love to me; down where I can feel more of His Spirit’s power; down where His breathings are felt more sensibly upon the soul; down where that still, small voice rhythms more sweetly and can be more distinctly heard—this is the pleading of my soul.

“God’s child has nothing to fear. The love of a gracious heavenly parent is over it. Have faith in God, and He will reveal Himself in many wondrous secret ways. Christ fed the multitude from a few loaves. He is the same today, and He will do the same for you literally. Draw near to Him, and He will teach you secret things.”