“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).
“When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8)
On the farm, after we killed the hog, someone had to make cracklings, known otherwise as “cooking the lard.” (They were never pronounced “cracklings;” the ‘g’ was always dropped.)
A fire was built under a black iron pot into which cut-up portions of the less-desirable fatty hog meat was thrown. As a worker stood by stirring, the contents boiled and bubbled and gradually released the lard, leaving behind a crisp rind (called the cracklin’), sometimes carrying a streak of lean. The lard went into gallon containers for household cooking throughout the year. Cracklins became snack-foods for relaxing times, and can be bought commercially even today.
Now, in a similar (but very different!) way, the messages I have preached over six decades of ministry have been boiled down to their essence. (No greasy rinds left, however!) Mostly, the result–that is, the gist of my preaching these days–may end up looking something like this….
When God begins to act, He loves to start small, use ordinary people, employ the most surprising methods, and take His own good time about it. Only people of faith will still be standing by at the end, watching to see what God has done, on hand to bask in the glory He is revealing.
Or, more concisely, “Our God is in the Heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” That happens to be Psalm 115:3.
Our Lord, being God, can do this any way He pleases. But what I have noticed and what I preach is that His way most often seems to involve the following: