They Heard His Footsteps

   

“When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

     Adam and Eve heard the Lord God walking.  What does God’s foot steps sound like?  I know in a family, you get to know each persons footsteps so well, that they can walk into a room, and you can know who it is even when you don’t see them, just by the sound of their footsteps.  We each have unique steps, almost as unique as our finger prints.  Our gait or the way we walk is unique to us.   So God walked in the garden.  Adam and Eve could hear His footsteps.  They knew it was Him.  But what does that mean?  When God walked in the garden that means His presence was there.  You can hear His presence before you even see Him or hear Him speak.  There is a hearing of His presence.

   But where was Adam and Eve?  They were hiding in the trees.  In Nature.  In the natural things of the world.  They were in fear.  They heard God’s presence and knew He was there, but they were afraid.  They hid in fear.  They hid in the natural things of this world.  

    After God’s presence came, then He spoke.  He confronted Adam and Eve in their fear.  I’m sure God knew right where they where, but He made them answer the question, ‘Where are you?”  God wants us to locate ourselves.  Where are you?  Why aren’t you walking with me.  Why are you hiding in the trees?  And who’s been talking to you telling you lies.  Who are you listening to?  Why aren’t you hearing me?  All this and more was tied into the question of “Where are you?”

    Locate yourself. Find why and where you’re hiding from God.  Even when you hear God’s presence, ask yourself, why aren’t you then walking  with Him in the cool evening breezes?   Don’t let fear rob you from walking with God daily.  Thank God Jesus redeemed us, and we can again walk about with God daily.  

   These verses imply that it was it was normal that Adam and Eve would walk with God in the cool of the day.  I thought it interesting that it was the cool evening breezes.  I would think God would walk about in the morning coolness (He does walk then too), but after the whole day has gone by and things have cooled down, there was God walking about in the garden.  He was doing a ‘walk about.’  Which means an informal stroll among a crowd conducted by an important visitor.  This crowd was only two people, but He was a VERY important vistor to the garden.  The very creator of it all!

   We don’t understand, and have no comprehension what it would be like to walk and live in perfection.  We live in the world that’s been ‘fallen’ for a long time.  But then, it was perfect, because God always creates perfect.  But listening (hearing) lies caused it no longer be perfect.  When Adam sinned, the world around him fell too.  Our actions, our sin, causes not only our life to have consequences but all around us.  Our children, our friends our little world, is effected by us.  So let it be a good ripple effect, not a bad one. 

    It all gets back to what are we hearing.  Are we hearing God’s footsteps in our life?  Do you know Him enough to recognize His footsteps, as he walks into your garden?  Hear Him.  Get out from behind that tree, and begin walking with Him!  The sound of His footsteps comes before Him speaking into you life.

   One further thought.  In a church setting, God’s presence often comes in before “He Speaks.”  Hear!

 

Life in HDR

 

One of the few photos I ever did in HDR

 In photography, there is a process to produce a photo with High Dynamic Range.  Thus HDR.  To accomplish this, a photographer takes a picture under-exposed, at exposure, and over-exposed, and then in post-production combines the multiple photos into one photo, giving the photo a much more dynamic appearance.  

Our eyes see more layers of shadows and details but a camera can not capture that all at once,  like our eyes.  Cameras just don't have the dynamic range that our eyes do.  

    Our perception of others is much like a camera.  We don't have the ability to see the depths of light and dark in a person's life at first view.  Sometimes we're seeing them in that underexposed time when everything is dark, and very little light is visible in their life.  Other times, they seem happy and joyful, and everything is going great just a ray of sunshine. You think that person never has had a trial or hard time in their life.  And then there is the perception, that they are just middle of the road, nothing bad or good ever enters their lives, but just steady.  None of these perceptions of someone are correct.  Our 'people' viewer is much like the camera.  It can't pick it all up in one shot.  So give people some slack, and don't judge them by their present condition, it's only one snapshot and exposure time in their lives.  Our lives are so much more than that.  We have depth and shadows and light that aren't always visible in one shot.

  "So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace." 2 Cor. 4:16 MSG

Both of these shots below were taken within seconds of each other and then combined for the photo above.  Just the amount of light I let into my lens is what made the difference.  How much 'light' are you letting into the lens of your life?  Let the light of Jesus and His Word shine on your heart and life!  It will bring you into a High Dynamic Range of Life!

One of the overexposed shots I used to combine for the HDR final picture

One of the underexposed shots I used.

Dancing Alone

    

 The woman was smiling as she watched their first dance. That little little girl she’d raised now gracefully gliding across the floor with her smiling young groom.  The first time they met was on the dance floor at mutual friends wedding.  Her, a lovely bridesmaid, him the DJ of the dance.  His eyes saw her across the room, and thought how pretty she looked, and wondered what she was like.  After a few songs, he started the next song on the play list, then went across the room and asked her to dance.  In the days and months that followed, the dance carried on, until he found himself on his knee with a ring in his hand to ask this young lady if they could continue to dance together for the rest of the their lives.  She in her beautiful smile said yes, and as it’s said, the rest is history.

  But today, they danced together again but now as husband and wife.  The woman stood smiling, with a happy tear glistening in her eye.  This was the little girl she had many years ago desperately prayed to have. Now she’s all grown up.  The DJ now invited everyone else to join them on the floor as they celebrated together how God had brought them together.

    She then saw her two sons grab their wives hands with smiles on their faces and begin to glide across the floor to join in their sister‘s celebration.  They had moments earlier taken their sister’s arms and walked her down the aisle, for her Daddy was no longer here to walk with her.  Other friends and relatives joined in with smiles on their faces as they spined and glided across the dance floor.  This was a time to celebrate.  No one noticed the mom standing slilent on the side, with one eye a tear of gladness and the other eye a tear of saddness, for her arms were empty, and noone to dance with her today.  She even quickly glanced around the room for her little grandson thinking maybe she could intice him for a dance on the floor, but she never found where he was, most likely off playing with a new wedding friend some six year old game of action and fun.  So the woman just watched on in silence, with mixed emotions of joy and loss all rolled into one.  No one knowing the pain a widow feels in those moments of great joy for everyone present.  Joy and pain all mixed into one, sorrow and celebration, opposites but related.  Trying to naviagate a dance all on her own, it a world of swirling couples.  Her dance no longer found in the arms of her best friend, was only in her memory and heart. 

Water Stand Up!

  I love the story in the book of Joshua, where the Israelites are about to cross into their promised land.  They’ve been wandering around in the desert for 40 years, and their leader, who they’ve followed all those years, has just died.  Joshua has just started to lead them, and he has some pretty big shoes to fill, for indeed, Moses was a faith filled gutsy man.  He did what God told him to do, no matter how crazy.  Joshua had served under him, and now he’s to take the lead.  No wonder God repeatedly told Joshua not to fear, but to be strong and courageous.  He didn’t want to screw up and wander around for another 40 years in the desert.

  I’m sure there was a few who stepped up to Joshua and asked, “What are you going to do now? What’s the plan?” So following in Moses footsteps, he sends out spies into the land.  Joshua knew well the job of a spy, as he was one of the 12 spies that went and spied out the land forty years before.  He knew how good the land was, he had seen it with his own eyes, and now forty years later only him and Caleb were left who had seen the promised land, and it was time to go in and take it.

  These two spies, like Joshua forty years before, came back with a good report.  It’s a “Let’s go, the land is good, and the people there are terrified of us, so let’s roll.”  So they all head toward the Jordon river. 

    The Jordon River is not a big river, it’s only on average, 33 feet wide and at it’s widest point about 60 feet wide, but in the book of Joshua it states that it was harvest time, and the river was at flood stage, overflowing its banks.  The Jordon averages about 6.5 feet deep, but there are places where it’s 17 feet deep, some sources say even deeper.

  So they camped on the banks for a few days, seeking God, and then went forth with the strangest plan.  The priests are going to carry the Ark of the Covenant into the river.  Joshua told them that when the priest feet touch the water the flow will be cut off  upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.

  Wait a minute!  Are we reliving the Red Sea crossing?  Similar, but not quite, but the same God doing it.  This time, they have to step into it, and get their feet wet.  As they step in,  the water some twenty miles away near the town of Adam begins to dam up with no natural dam.  The water stands up!  Water usually flows down, but this time, it stood at attention and stood up, and backed up. The water below where they had stepped into the river then flowed into the Dead Sea, and the riverbed dried up.  The amazing thing was they couldn’t see the water pile up, because it was 20 miles away.  But God had gone ahead, and at the precise time that they step in, they start to see the water receeding, even though it was standing up some 20 miles away.

    God sees ahead, and is working even when you can’t see it.  When all you can see is the river at flood stage in front of you, and you think you’re gonna have to sink or swim, God is already at work, twenty miles away, making the water stand up!  When you obey and step in, watch how God makes what can drown you stand up so you can cross on dry land.  God will do His part, but first you must do your part.  Step in and get your feet wet!  Do what God has told YOU to do.  Even when it seems a little crazy.  You’ll never see the miracle, if you stand on the shore and only look at the river.  Step in!  Yes, your feet are gonna get wet, but 20 miles away where you can’t see, God is up to something.  He’s making water stand up in response to your obedience. 

“The priests will carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭3‬:‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬