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Face to Face with God

by Wes Guy

by Wes Guy

 
Face to Face with God

Theme    

    a. To portray God as my personal heavenly Father rather than some distant disinterested deity
    b. To show what wonderful miracles He has done in my life.

Text:  Proverbs 3:5,6

(Prov 3:5-6 KJV)  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. {6} In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Introduction

What does God mean to you?
Who is God?
What is He like?
Is He a real living being or as many people think of Him as a distant disinterested deity. "He is someone up there!"

Being brought up as a PK (pastor's kid) meant being surrounded by many things pertaining to God, but it really didn't mean much to us as children.

Yes - we were taught not to swear.
Yes  - we had to show respect to our elders - gave up our seats in buses, trains and trams - rose to our feet whenever an older person came into the room.
Yes - we were taught to be courteous to others.
Yes - we were taught to walk on the kerb side.
Yes - we went to Christian Endeavour meetings, Sunday School and two church services every Sunday.
Yes - we were taught that Sunday was a very sacred day and were not allowed to do anything on that day which we did do on the other six days of the week - eg. No swimming , no sport, no running around, etc.
BUT - did we know who or what is God?

ANSWER - UNFORTUNATELY  NO!

We did everything because that is what our parents wanted.

THEN how and when did I come to know God as my personal loving heavenly Father?

In Retrospect

As I look back to my childhood the important thing that stands out in my memory is the LOVE of my parents. As a Methodist missionary and minister of 55 years Dad's salary was very small. When he retired he received the age pension - no superannuation - he would often say to us that he was much better off financially now than when he was a full-time minister!!

How they managed to put their three children (2 boys, 1 girl) through College I don't know, and in those days I don't think we cared.

We did not seem to lack for anything. Mum made all our clothes. I can remember Mum buying my first suit when I was 16 years old for £2-12-6 (a full weeks salary for Dad).

Knowing Christ now as my loving heavenly Father, I look back and see Dad as a Christ-like figure - he lived as Christ lived, thinking always of others first - even giving the shirt off his back to someone who came to the parsonage door saying he had no other shirt than the one he was wearing! Dad never criticised or said a bad word of anybody.

To me Dad was Christ personified.

I suppose you could say that I was a good boy who didn't swear, smoke or drink and even when I joined the Air Force in 1942 I was still a good boy!

BUT - HOW THINGS CHANGED.

In 1947 I was sent to England to do a 12 months special course. There I started drinking and smoking and drifted away from God until 1967 when I was baptised at Ela Beach Seventh-day Adventist church in Port Moresby.

WHAT CHANGED MY LIFE?

1.  My wife Pearl's decision to put God first in her life.
2.  The decision to study the Word of God to see what Pearl knew and why she had made that decision.
3.   First - to give up drinking and smoking.
4.   What had God done for me?
       A. Cerebral Malaria  (see previous article).
       B. Williamtown.
       C. Bodinumu  (see previous article).
5   It wasn't easy to become a Seventh-day Adventist but God went before me.
6.  Events after becoming a Seventh-day Adventist, showing God's leading, guiding and directing.
      a.  I received a phone call from the Director of Civil Aviation (DCA) asking me to go down to Port Moresby, from Goroka, to talk with him about some of the problems concerning the affairs of Talair.  I told Dennis, the Managing Director of Talair, that I was going to Port Moresby to see the DCA Director.  He told me that he did not want me to go and that he wanted me to leave the company.  When I asked him when he wanted me to leave, he said NOW, today.
       b. A day before this event I had received a letter from the Managing  Director of Executive Air Services in Melbourne, Victoria offering me the position Director of Operations of his company.  Here was an answer to prayer.  For a couple of weeks prior to these incidents, Pearl, my wife, had told me that she was missing our two sons, who we had sent to Lilydale Academy in Victoria.  I could not leave Talair because I had signed a Contract.  If I broke the Contract it would be a financial disaster.  We had prayed about what we should do and now God had answered our prayers.   God promised, "Before you can I will answer" Isaiah 65:24

CONCLUSION

Throughout my life God has worked miracles even when I did not acknowledge Him in any way.  He was there leading, guiding and directing me in the way He wanted me to go.  He is a wonderful God and the more I have studied His word the closer I have come to accepting Him as my personal loving Heavenly Father.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?  

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