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God Works in a Mysterious Way!
God’s thoughts and ways are perfect and righteous, far beyond our understanding.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. —Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)
As 2025 came to a close the Lord made it clear to my wife and myself that He had some new plans in store for us. You see, Cheryl, my wife has decided to step away from teaching elementary school. Because of that we needed to seek for God’s guidance as to what we would do for an income to sustain our simple lifestyle. As most of you know I am disabled and unable to work but one thing that I have continued to do through God’s grace is share the gospel and teach the Bible. During the last year or so I had begun to sense the Spirit nudging me to look at returning to vocational ministry on a part-time basis. I had shared this with Cheryl and she had been encouraging me to pursue that if I seriously felt that nudge. So, on a particular hard day for Cheryl at school she came home and asked me if I was looking for an opportunity to get back into ministry. I said in a smart and joking way, “Am I supposed to be.” As you can imagine I got the death stare.
Well, to make a long story short that night I got on my computer after she went to bed and began the search for a church that was looking for a bi-vocational pastor. God chose to show me two possibilities and closed the door quickly on one as they were just a week away from calling their next pastor. But there was still one possibility so I quickly emailed them to see if they were still looking. At this point I am sure you know how the story ends. Yes they were and yes they have called us and I actually had my first official Sunday there on December 28.
In God’s mysterious way He has called us to go and minister at First Baptist Church of Big Piney, Wyoming. It’s a small church in a small town surrounded by God’s amazing glory. Looking from the back of the house we will call home to the west stands the Grand Teton mountains and looking to the east is the Wind River range. Two beautiful rivers, with amazing trout fishing are nearby, the Snake and Green rivers. The church has about 35 members and averages 30-40 on Sunday mornings and is in a position to have a great impact on the communities of Big Piney/Marbleton which are separated by one mile and function as one town with two seperate names. One interesting fact is that it’s nickname is “The Ice Box of the Nation” due to long winters and extreme cold from the middle of November til early March. Even though this year God has chosen to give them extreme and unusual warmth.
It always amazes me and catches me off guard that God’s thoughts and ways are far beyond our comprehension. God is holy and dwells in perfection, and no one could ever come close to understanding His ways. God’s thoughts and ways are perfect and righteous, far beyond our understanding. On the other hand our thoughts and ways are blemished, imperfect, wicked, and simplistic. Therefore, we must never try to “second-guess” God. Although many people try to diminish God’s image into nothing more than a super-man, a person whose thoughts and ways are only a little above man’s, nothing could be further from the truth. God’s thoughts and ways are as high above ours as the heavens are above the earth. Imagine the incomprehensible distance between the highest star in existence and the earth. God’s thoughts and ways exceed man’s by a far greater distance than even that because He created the highest star. God clearly does not think or act like we do. Although Scripture does not give us complete answers to all questions, it does give us enough information to enable us to trust God and to know right from wrong. Through the truths revealed in Scripture, we can know much about God, and we can have assurance that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. Therefore, when God extends to people the invitation to seek Him, people must seek Him.
That is what Cheryl and I have chosen to do. Through seeking Him He provided us with an invitation. An invitation to go and serve Him in a land that is unknown to us, but is ripe for the harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God.
