with Allen Bach and Clay O'brien Cooper
as told to JD Malone
June 2006
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
Our everyday relationship with God!
Allen: Clay has a great topic this month. This subject always bares witness with me because my big thing is relationship. I have gotten a lot out of reading Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. I love it when they talk about the ministry of Jesus and how the disciples met up with him and started following him. I have always compared that with my walk and relationship with Him being like their’s. These were real people and you can really relate to those guys! They were all full of doubt and were frustrated, they were just real people. What really intrigued me about the whole thing was how Jesus kept revealing himself to them. The first miracle Jesus performed was turning water into wine. They were like… what is the significance in that! From there he went to healing the blind, sick, casting out demons, and healing leprosy. Jesus spoke to the most intelligent people in the world and just dumfounding them with the simplest analogies. His parables were so simple but deep that the wisest guys in the world couldn’t understand them. In the three and a half years the disciples spent with Jesus, it was amazing to see how they got to know the lord better and better and actually became, as Jesus called them, friends. The miracles were big but I think it was the time they spent with Him everyday that gave them that relationship with Jesus. That is what we have to do to have the same relationship with Him.
Clay: As Allen pointed out Jesus performed amazing miracles, but the friendship he had with the disciples were built upon Jesus revealing Himself through small everyday encounters. Sometimes we travel from High Point to High Point with God and we get to looking for something big and significant like the miracles he performed. Really the most rewarding thing about having a relationship with God is that when you get up in the morning, God is with you. He wants to hang out with us. He is interested in all the things that we have going on from our families and our relationships to our job and hobbies. So really when we get to the place where we include him in on everything from when we get up in the morning to when we go to bed that night God is able to reveal to us just how much he cares about us. Then you start to see how all the little things in our daily lives can mean so much to us! When we do that we come to appreciate each and every part of the day because when you put God into that equation and we put God at the forefront of thoughts and actions we begin to see how he magnifies every little part of our everyday life.
Allen: What is interesting to me is how we parallel with the disciples. As you hear about God doing things in your friends lives and we see him do things in our lives we grow closer to Him, just as the disciples did! We take for granite many times but God shows up in our lives all the time. Its like Clay said it is the little things in our daily lives that can mean so much! I encourage my kids to keep a book of faith, what I mean by that is every time you see God do something in your life write it down in your book. It will help you realize just what God is doing in our lives. He shows himself and reveals himself in the smallest of ways. It might be you need to hear something from the Lord and it comes through somebody that you meet, which is what I call a divine appointment. Knowing that God keeps showing up time after time helps build that faith. It helps us to know that we are going to be able to depend on Him.
Clay: That’s right Allen just knowing that God keeps showing up time after time is a faith builder. I’m as guilty as anyone of kind of looking from the perspective that I want something big to happen, like in my roping. What I come to find out is when I get up in the morning and I start having fellowship with God, not just talking to him but taking the time to listen to what he is trying to tell me on the inside, I realize that is where life can be experienced to the fullest! All it boils down to is this, in my everyday routine of life I have to put God first in my thoughts and actions and it is just amazing how it turns out!
Allen: David is a perfect example of this same thing. God protected David from the bear and the Lion. When David went up against Goliath his faith that had been built from those previous experiences with God, shinned through! He said if God would deliver me from the bear and the lion why wouldn’t he deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine that is challenging the armies of God. That is the way we are supposed to be in our relationship God. He shows up and does little things in our lives not just for those moments but for future moments in time when he is going to do something really fantastic for you or through you for someone else.
Clay: Allen had a great example. I have found that these same principles parallel to my roping. Through the years it seems like numerous times I have found myself slipping away from the basic fundamentals. I wind up looking around thinking how come things aren’t working. When I start analyzing my roping, the problem is usually simple; I have stepped away from the basics in one area or another. As soon as I get back to the basic fundamentals and foundation of how things are supposed to work then it all comes right back to life again. Since God created it ALL it ALL works the same!