Sunday morning, en route to church, the radio is (as usual) tuned to WFRN, and the current program is the morning service of Nappanee Missionary Church.  The scripture is in Revelation, and the portion I heard was a comparison of the Holy Spirit to a GPS.  In the analogy, the Holy Spirit knows, very well, where each of us are.  He also knows where God intends for us to be, and how to get us from this point to that.  Per Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26, 3:5, 12, 21 and the pastor’s assertion, God wants us to move from being in whatever condition we’re in to the place of Overcoming.  To the overcomers, who swim upstream to reach God against all odds and currents of life, to the overcomers go the inheritance promised.

Remember that word…Overcome…

So I arrive at church, greet my friends, and receive the bulletin – on the front of which is the verse “My Grace is Sufficient” (it means ‘enough’).  This is the first message I was consistently reminded of in the beginning of the current adventure, a year ago.  Whatever may be, God’s grace is sufficient.  This is God’s response to Paul’s request to have a certain thorn removed from his life.  His grace is sufficient, and He will be the one to get us through rough situations and get the praise for our overcoming.

When it was time for prayer requests, a very dear friend seated behind me mentioned that many people are currently going through tough times of trial and testing.  She asked that we pray for these to trust in God and to overcome (yes, she used exactly that word).

When the song service began, the Spirit made absolutely certain He had my attention (not like He didn’t, but…).  There are two things you must understand for this to make sense:

1) God and I often communicate through music, and there are a couple of songs that are “our songs” – and there have been many times when I’ve turned my eyes toward Heaven to say “they’re playing our song”.  He knows, of course, and I’m fairly confident He plans it that way, because our songs show up in times when I need most to know that He still has an eye on me, specifically, lovingly.

2) I attend a Deaf church – the entire service is conducted in American Sign Language (ASL) with no voice interpretation.   The music is a 1-2, 1-2-3 rhythm as familiar to members of the deaf community as a piano or guitar is to hearing people, well, hearing people in the “western world”.   The leader signs, and the congregation copies together, and we sign (sing) of God’s attributes and His leading and our desire to become more like Him – just like other churches, but with our hands rather than our voices.  Occasionally, I will recognize that the text is drawn from the lyrics of a hearing worship song.

With those two background tidbits, return to the Sunday morning service:  It took one verse, and suddenly I realized, we were signing one of “our songs”, a song that has long united my heart with His.  “My Jesus…my Comfort, my Shelter, Tower of refuge and strength…” 

As beautiful as the moment was, and as nicely as it topped off the morning thus far, He wasn’t done yet…

The sermon – “Let the Peace of Christ Rule” (Col 3:15-17) included the following:

• The peace of Christ is to be the referee between your disgruntled heart and others, and between your heart and itself (Col 3:15) – when He speaks peace, there is to be no more argument
• Do as much as you can to live at peace with everyone (Rom 12:18)
• Realize that there are some who will refuse peace – do your best and leave the rest to God
• Life in this world includes trouble, but Christ has overcome  the world (John 16:33)
• The world and the things in it (security, entertainment) cannot provide peace (John 14:27)
• God’s word is our guide, step by step (Psalm 119:105)
• God’s word is able to pinpoint the places we need to change (Heb 4:12)
• Jesus is our guide, to be followed closely (John 8:12)
• In conclusion, remain in His peace by remaining in His word and overcome by virtue of the fact that He has overcome already (Gal 2:20)

This is not the first time, by a long shot, that the pattern of a day has spoken clearly.  God speaks to us all, in a voice and language we understand, with His message for our life season.  Are you paying attention?  What is He saying to you?