{"id":26535,"date":"2025-10-08T06:46:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=26535"},"modified":"2025-10-08T06:46:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:46:49","slug":"what-we-know-about-how-god-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/what-we-know-about-how-god-works\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about how God works"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways\u201d (Isaiah 55:8).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?\u201d (Luke 18:8)<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the farm, after we killed the hog, someone had to make cracklings, known otherwise as \u201ccooking the lard.\u201d\u00a0 (They were never pronounced \u201ccracklings;\u201d the \u2018g\u2019 was always dropped.)<\/p>\n

A fire was built under a black iron pot into which cut-up portions of the less-desirable\u00a0fatty hog meat was thrown.\u00a0\u00a0As a worker stood by stirring, the\u00a0contents\u00a0boiled and\u00a0bubbled and gradually released the lard, leaving behind a crisp rind (called the cracklin\u2019), sometimes\u00a0carrying a streak of lean.\u00a0 The lard went into gallon containers for household\u00a0cooking throughout the year. Cracklins\u00a0became snack-foods for relaxing times, and can be bought commercially even today.<\/p>\n

Now, in a similar (but very different!) way, the messages I have preached over six decades of\u00a0 ministry have been boiled down to their essence. (No greasy rinds left, however!)\u00a0 Mostly, the result\u2013that is, the gist of my preaching these days\u2013may end up looking something like this\u2026.<\/p>\n

When God begins to act, He loves to start small, use ordinary people, employ the most surprising methods, and take His\u00a0own good time about it. Only people of faith will still be standing by at the end,\u00a0watching to see what God has done, on hand to bask in the glory He is revealing.<\/em><\/p>\n

Or, more concisely, \u201cOur God is in the Heavens; He does whatever He pleases.\u201d\u00a0 That\u00a0happens to be Psalm 115:3.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Starting small.<\/strong>\u00a0 The Lord began a nation with Abraham and\u00a0Sarah.\u00a0\u00a0He\u00a0began to deliver Israel from Egypt with an 80-year-old has-been, Moses. And when\u00a0the time came\u00a0to redeem a lost world, He sent a Baby.<\/p>\n

That process continues today on every level.\u00a0 When\u00a0God\u00a0initiates a great ministry, He starts with the germ of an idea or a burden on someone\u2019s heart, and goes from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed\u2026the least of all the seeds, but when it is grown it\u2026becomes a tree\u2026.\u201d (Matthew 13:31-32)<\/p>\n

What did God do as a result of your testimony, your lesson or sermon or your witness?\u00a0 You may not know until you get to heaven.\u00a0 He loves to start in small unseen ways.<\/p>\n

Using ordinary people.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cYou see your calling, brethren,\u201d said Paul to the Corinthian church. \u201cNot many mighty. Not many noble. Not many wise according to the flesh\u201d (I Corinthians 1:26).\u00a0 When Jesus needed 12 apostles, He went not to the rabbinical school nor to the Council of Seventy\u00a0but to the seashore where He chose\u00a0untrained but hard-working\u00a0fishermen.<\/p>\n

Celebrities and dignitaries \u00a0have more obstacles to deal with.\u00a0 The common people, pardon the expression, and those who live simply have fewer complications and can respond more quickly. \u201cAs Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.\u00a0 And He said to him, \u2018Follow me.\u2019\u00a0 So he arose and followed Him\u201d (Matthew 9:9).<\/p>\n

The worker on the Graham dairy farm in Charlotte NC in the 1930s, the man who took 16-year-old Billy Graham to the Mordecai Ham crusade where Jesus saved him, said this very thing.\u00a0 \u201cYou think this lad must have been someone special as a teenager. But he was not. In fact, you could assemble a hundred teenage boys from Charlotte at that time, and if I told you God was going to use one of them to bring the gospel of Jesus to millions, you could not have picked him out of that crowd. Billy Graham was a typical teen. It was as if the Almighty said, \u2018Eeny meenie, miney mo\u2026.I\u2019ll take that one.’\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s encouragement for all of us; it\u2019s an excuse for none of us.<\/p>\n

Employing\u00a0surprising methods.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Those who would be used of Jesus will be asked to give when they have nothing left, to love their enemies, to rejoice in adversity, and turn the other cheek (see Luke 6:27-38).\u00a0 They will sing at midnight\u00a0after the beating\u00a0they received earlier\u00a0goes untreated and they are locked into\u00a0a cold prison cell\u00a0(Acts 16:25).\u00a0 They will rejoice they are counted worthy to suffer for The Name (Acts 5:41).<\/p>\n

The Lord\u2019s plan of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth may require His disciples to be arrested and mistreated and called before Caesar to defend themselves.\u00a0 But when the magistrate orders, \u201cTell the court what you have been preaching,\u201d the disciple is to let the Holy Spirit speak. This is His chosen method to get the truth to the rulers (see Matthew 10:16ff). So, when God\u2019s people are arrested unfairly and put on trial, we must never think the Lord\u2019s plan is being subverted. Often, this is His plan.<\/p>\n

Taking His own good time.<\/strong> So many of the prophecies about the Messiah were given 800 years before Jesus was born.\u00a0 For people alive in 2025, that would be the equivalent of two hundred years before Columbus. The dark ages. So, finally, one night, shepherds outside Bethlehem saw angels who told them \u201cUnto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.\u201d\u00a0 The sheep-herders ran into the city, hurrying from stable to stable until they found the little family, and they fell down and worshiped. Then, they hurried out and told everyone the great news. Then they went home to wait.<\/p>\n

And they waited. For decades, they waited. Nothing was happening.<\/p>\n

Abruptly, without a word of warning,\u00a0one day an unkempt preacher walked out of the desert and began to preach and baptize at the Jordan. \u201cPrepare ye the way of the Lord!\u201d was\u00a0his message.\u00a0 Jesus was near.<\/p>\n

Three years later, on a mountaintop\u00a0angels said to a group of bewildered apostles, \u201cDon\u2019t stand here gazing into the heavens. This same Jesus will come again in like manner as you have seen Him go.\u201d It\u2019s been 2,000 years since that promise was given.\u00a0 Is it still good?\u00a0Should we still be expecting His return? \u00a0\u201cWith the Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day\u201d (2 Peter 3:8).<\/p>\n

When you start following Jesus, you may want to throw away your clock and your calendar. He operates on His own schedule.<\/p>\n

At the end, only people of faith will still be standing, on hand\u00a0to see and enjoy and worship.\u00a0 Everyone else will have grown tired of waiting and have wandered off.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not everyone who starts out following Jesus sticks around to see how things work out, to see the coming together of all things, to enjoy the vindication of Truth and the victory of righteousness<\/p>\n

Some cannot understand how Jesus\u2019 methods apply to their situation and trust more to their own instincts and judgments. These\u00a0abandon ship.\u00a0 They move along to the prosperity preachers and other false prophets who offer simpler programs and more immediate gratification, but have no patience with delayed reward nor appreciation for a Savior who would get Himself crucified and then try to make something good from it.\u00a0 (See Matthew 13:21, among other places)<\/p>\n

Jesus said, \u201cWhen the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?\u201d (Luke 18:8)\u00a0 Will He find anyone still believing, still standing by, still at work. \u201cBlessed is that servant whom His master finds so doing when he comes\u201d (Matthew 24:46).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how He works. Therefore\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

We should beware of placing our agenda, our instructions, our demands before the Lord.\u00a0 He is Lord.\u00a0 He is in charge.\u00a0 Our constant prayers should be \u201cThy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven\u201d (Matthew 6:10) and \u201cWhat will You have me to do?\u201d (Acts 22:10).<\/p>\n

We should learn to wait upon Him.\u00a0 \u201cYou will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous,\u201d He said in Luke 14:14.\u00a0 Can we wait that long, believe that strong, sing that song?\u00a0 David said, \u201cI waited\u00a0patiently for\u00a0the Lord and He inclined unto me and heard my prayer and brought me up\u2026\u201d (Psalm 40:1ff).\u00a0 Said the prophet, \u201cThey that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength\u2026.\u201d (Isaiah 40:31).<\/p>\n

We should not quit even when the results seem meager. \u201cLet us not grow\u00a0weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not\u201d (Galatians 6:9).<\/p>\n

And so, faithful disciple, \u201clift up your head; your redemption draweth nigh!\u201d (Luke 21:28).<\/p>\n

Amen.\u00a0 And double amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways\u201d (Isaiah 55:8). \u201cWhen the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?\u201d (Luke 18:8) On the farm, after we killed the hog, someone had to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-waiting-on-the-lord"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26535"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26566,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26535\/revisions\/26566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}