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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for October 22, 2009
“The Voice of the Good Shepherd”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
When my feet hit the floor, I say basically the same thing every day.
“Lord, I surrender myself to You today. I want Your will to be done, not mine. Please lead me and guide me and help me to follow You in all things.”
Each day is full of choices, so many paths – which ones are right? Which ones are best? God knows. I don’t.
That is why I surrender myself to Him and His leadership everyday. He is the Good Shepherd. I am a humble sheep.
Every day I need divine guidance. Only God knows what lies ahead. God sees everything that is going on in all the world, I don’t. How can I make wise choices on my own when my data is so extremely limited? That is why I must tap into the Lord’s divine guidance.
Here is one of my favorite stories of divine guidance, from First Kings chapter 17.
The prophet Elijah announced to King Ahab that there was going to be a long drought in the land. Then God specifically told Elijah to head east and hide by a certain brook where he would have fresh water to drink, and God said, “I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”
So Elijah stayed there for a while, and I wonder if he ever thought, “God, why do you have me hiding way out here in the middle of nowhere?”
Then Elijah’s source of fresh water dried up. Now what?
Now the Lord told him to go to another place, and there a widow would provide his food.
If I was Elijah I would have thought, “Good. A woman to feed me instead of birds.” I would have pictured a wealthy widow with great means to provide for me during the drought.
But that was not the case. Elijah went to the exact place the Lord told him only to find a very poor widow who was about to starve to death along with her son.
Now I wonder if Elijah ever thought, “Why am I here, so far from home? And the woman who is supposed to feed me is about to starve to death herself.”
Well the widow had a handful of flower in a jar and a little bit of oil in a jug. And long story short, God kept the jar and the jug from going empty for the duration of the drought.
So Elijah was provided for, but certainly not in the lap of luxury. And he had to move twice, once way out in the country, and once to another country, to a place of poverty.
Can you see any logic in those two moves? Can you connect the dots? Could you plot those two places on a map and say, “Oh yes, it makes perfect sense that he went here then there.”
Not really. In a way they were just two random spots on the map, yet two very specific places chosen by God. Why?
Remember what I said earlier – God sees everything going on in the world. We can try to make decisions based on logic and reason, but our data is limited. It’s hard to make good choices with limited data. But God has all the data, so to make the best decisions possible we need His divine guidance.
Elijah received God’s very specific guidance about where to go, and First Kings 18 sheds light on the situation.
Later on Elijah came across Obadiah who had some very interesting news. He told Elijah that King Ahab had been looking for him everywhere. “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” Obadiah said, “there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you.”
So with the resources of the whole kingdom behind him, why couldn’t Ahab find Elijah? Because God Himself told Elijah exactly where to go!
That is the glory of divine guidance!
On his own Elijah probably would have been easy to find. But as he listened to the Lord and did what He said, he was tucked away safely from the king’s manhunt.
Look, I know how limited I am. I understand why I am called a sheep.
But the good news is, we have a Good Shepherd in Jesus Christ. And according to John 10, He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And He goes on ahead of them and they follow Him because they know His voice.
That’s what I want to be – a sheep that knows His voice and follows Him as He leads.
And that’s why I hit the floor every day and say, “Lord, I surrender myself to You today…Your will be done, not mine…”
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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