Following God Into the Desert

by Macy Johnson

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” (Deuteronomy 8:2 NIV)

Like a devoted father, God deliberately shows up where we are. He leads us on adventures through the desert, sweeping away all distractions. He is all we really have, all we really need.

In January 2005, a Sarbanes-Oxley audit team leader asked me to get on a plane in Birmingham and fly to California. “You want me to do what?” I asked, suspiciously.

Master Sculptor

by Macy Johnson

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”

(1 Timothy 6:6 NIV)

Sometimes the Lord teaches us contentment by gently removing whatever make us discontent. We don’t always know the source, but He does.

We are foolish and imperfect, greedy, grabby, never satisfied with what we think we love. We imagine we can fill our empty hearts with created things. Yet, sometimes when we receive what we asked for, we push it away in disgust, like a tomato rotting on the vine.

Angel Rescue

by Macy Johnson

“For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

(Psalm 91:11-12 NIV)

My flight from Atlanta bounced down a Newark, NJ runway on a busy, frosty, Monday morning in January. I slid into the passenger parade from the terminal gate to the air-train, to the baggage claim. Grabbing my zebra-motif suitcase, I stepped into another accounting-controls-audit week at a manufacturing facility.

Fast Learners

by Macy Johnson

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,

and to the ends of the earth.”

(Acts 1:8 NIV)

We are students in God’s school. The Holy Spirit is our Tutor, guiding us through each lesson, opening our spiritual eyes to every truth to be learned.

As a college instructor I was disturbed when my students failed the class. Didn’t they want to succeed? Were they hoping I’d give them undeserved, passing grades?