As i wrote my upcoming book about the life of Enoch, i became convicted that Enoch’s walk with God was not a slow leisurely cakewalk through paradise that we might have wrongly envisioned it to be. Enoch was chosen by God to be a prophet – bringing unpopular messages to a world that had become evil. His walk with God was probably through some rough terrain, and some very trying circumstances. His walk with God by faith was anything but easy.

Impeculiar! Spell-check just told me the word is incorrect. Google tells me the word does not exist. And yet … it seems to be the perfect word to describe an attitude or action that others consider to be peculiar when, in fact, it should be the norm. i wouldn’t say the action is “ordinary,” because nothing about it is ordinary. I wouldn’t say the action is “unusual,” because it should be our daily response. But conversely, i could not describe it as “usual” or “unremarkable.” So, it must be impeculiar! Please allow me to explain.

The wind was blustery, and the waves were towering, when Peter first stepped out of the boat. But i would venture he was no longer seeing or hearing them – at least at first. The only One he was seeing and hearing was his Lord … as he stepped out of the boat with reckless abandonment.

Are you currently in a place that you are waiting on God to fulfill a specific promise He has given you? And, if so, have you been waiting for a long time … and is the end nowhere in sight?

We may be alone on the journey, or we may be surrounded by friends or family that are encouraging us along the way – but they don’t really know how to help us. They haven’t traveled that same path before. They don’t know the road markers. And try as they might, they just aren’t able to provide us with what we need. We need someone who has walked that path before us. We need someone who knows the way. We need someone who we can confidently follow.

You may recall the account recorded in the Book of Exodus about the day the people of Israel came to Aaron demanding that he make them a god made of gold, while at that very moment Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the stone tablets from God Himself. The tablets contained the terms of the Covenant between God and His people etched by His own finger. On a day that their attitudes and actions should have conveyed their allegiance to the One True Living God, they were demanding a lifeless imitation of gold.

At critical junctures along the pathway of our lives, we encounter doors that are either open or closed. We tend to perceive the open doors as an invitation or acknowledgement to proceed, and we often walk through them with excitement and expectation. However, we tend to look at closed doors quite differently. Those closed doors often represent to us something we really wanted to do or experience, and we respond to the closed door with disappointment – i.e. a missed job or life opportunity, a missed promotion, a missed adventure, etc. In those instances, we can sometimes mistakenly view God as a cosmic killjoy.

i invite you to listen to the portion of his story you may already know … and the rest that could have been. Though some of the other characters and details contained in the story are fictional, you will find the truth conveyed about the One who brings hope to the hopeless is very REAL! My prayer is that you will allow this story to be a personal reminder that the One who brought him hope is capable of bringing it to each one of us today … if we will only receive it.

You will recognize the main character in this story as the one who is often referred to as the woman with the issue of blood.

i invite you to listen to the portion of her story you may already know … and the rest that could have been. Though some of the other characters and details contained in the story are fictional, you will find the truth conveyed about the One who brings hope to the hopeless is very REAL!

If there was ever a day we needed to be reminded of the message of hope to be found in Jesus, it is today. This is the first of three short stories i am posting about men and women who experienced that message of hope at the moment of their greatest desperation.

My prayer is that you will allow these stories to be a reminder that the One who brought each of them hope is capable of bringing it to each one of us today … if we will only receive it.

This week we look at the story of the despairing father.