Gen. 28:15 was God's word to me this morning. Jacob has a dream where he sees a ladder between heaven and earth with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. God stands beside him and says that He will bless Jacob with offspring that will populate the earth and be a blessing to the entire earth. He then says in v. 15, "Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
Wow, I was so tired yesterday, and God had to remind me again what He said to me when He was calling me into ministry back in 1991. I sat in my car outside Ruby Tuesday's with one remaining week of employment as summer youth minister in Chesapeake, VA. I had no job lined up in Richmond, VA where I was called by God to attend seminary and no way to pay for seminary. You might say, "that was just poor planning!" and you would be right. But as I left Ruby Tuesday's, my parking brake was engaged and broken. I was late leaving the restaurant and was not sure how to find the seminary campus. I finally figured out how to disengage the parking brake and it hit me in the thumb causing me to think with expletives. I leaned forward, looked through the front windshield heavenward and cried out loud to God, "God, do you know who I am? Do you remember me?" I then inserted the key into the ignition and cranked the car. The radio came on and these words from the radio, "Goodbye Ruby Tuesday!" I immediately heard clearly in my heart and mind God say to me, "I know who you are and where you are! Trust me!" I began to cry! I received a new calling from a church in Richmond within the next couple of weeks and I received grants to cover all of my seminary expenses.
God has continued to remind me of this promise through the years since 1991. I wish I did not have to be reminded, but each crisis in life takes me back to the beginning, to the foundation of my calling and my life. I have a God, we have a God, who wants us to know that "God knows who we are and where we are. We are to trust God absolutely and completely!" (WYA2TM) As I sit here today, at this minute I do not know how things will turn out for my wife's career, or for our finances. We cannot live without this income and she may be done, according to someone at the school board yesterday. I place my faith in God. I'll let you know how this turns out. I have turned it over to God!! No matter what happens, God will be with me/us to complete the good work that He began. Phlipp. 1:6, "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ."
Dr. Fitzgerald
