Knowing and Enjoying God 8

Jones Julian Austin

My walk with God began in a Pentecostal Church vacation Bible School at the age of 7. I don’t recall it, but Mom told me I came home from there saying, “I love God more than I love you.” That awakened her to open her life up to faith in Christ. My dad followed a couple years later.

My recollection of my first encounter with God came a bit later when a traveling evangelist scared the hell out of me. “Give your heart to God tonight. Come to the altar. If you don’t, it’s possible that you’ll leave this building, get hit by a semi truck and than meet your maker. Will you be ready?” It was a scare the hell out of you “come to Jesus meeting.”

Consequently, my first recalled view of God is one with arm poised, big ugly stick in hand, ready to clobber me. Fear of God. In time that image morphed into a God who cared for me so much that I needed to serve Him and obey Him. The relationship was kind of a love/duty connection. Not bad. Better than the initial fear-based connection. Just not real personal. Until….

The day I asked my earthly father to help me build a barn. I had just purchased 17 acres of beautiful rolling hills, ponds and trees close to Birmingham, Alabama, where we had lived for 15 years. I was excited about building a horse ranch. Fences were stretched. Roads constructed. It was time to build a barn. I had never built a barn or any other structure.

“Dad,” I called over the phone, “come help me build a barn. You’re so good with your hands. I’ll do most of the work, you just show me how.” I’m not sure how much of my motivation to build a horse ranch was to get Dad’s approval which I had never felt. His response, “No son, I’m too old.”

Wow! That hurt. I was reaching out to him. Door slammed. Windows down. In my sorrow, I heard God. That inaudible, deep within impression, lovingly said to me, “I’ll be your Papa. We’ll build it together.”

And that began a journey of love for and with Abba PaPa that superseded any experience before or since. A real spiritual highlight of my life. I’d pray, “Okay, Papa, how do we start?”
“Build a pole barn, 36 by 36. Dig holes two feet deep, six feet apart.”
“Okay Papa, here we go.”

There were times I was stumped on accomplishing the next procedure. I’d pray. The answer would soon come to me. What a deep connection with my Creator God. The picture I had of Him then was one of a loving, gentle father, arm wrapped around me, pointing to the next objective in construction.

This was a prime living out of Psalm 16:11 “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
The chief end of man …to enjoy Him forever. Was I enjoying God? Is the pope a catholic?
“My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in Glory.”

More tomorrow regarding knowing and enjoying God.