How do I know the will of God?

It's been a busy-busy-busy past few days. After changing several flights at the last minute, I flew to Newark NJ to attend the visitation and memorial service for a childhood friend up at Trinity church in Montville. I spent some time with the folks [in NJ] before flying over to San Jose last night and spent this Lord's day in San Francisco with Micah and Vielka.

It's sad that as one gets older, you fall out of touch with people even without meaning to. As the saying goes "weddings and funerals, weddings and funerals." That's what ends up bringing people together. While the cause for such a get together was surely the worse, gatherings of far flung brethren are perhaps the best ways I can imagine spending time. As a pastor put it recently, ... that's what the bread-and-butter of heaven will be-- spending time with fellow redeemed sinners. I had time to talk to Mike Thomas, Cinthia, Rachel, Nate and Lisa, to name a few; it really was a blessed time. Pastor McDearmon preached an abbreviated sermon for the memorial service, much of which was laid out in great detail by Dan and Priscilla a month earlier when it was clear that the end was imminent. I believe it was the best, clearest, most heart gripping sermon I've ever heard him preach. All in all, an amazing day, fitting of the sure hope that the power of Christ provides even in the face of the last and greatest enemy.

Today's message was a good one; I visited City Church of San Francisco where Micah and Vielka currently attend. The service wasn't quite what I am used to, but seemed appropriately Christ centered. The message centered on the well known verse from Proverbs 3:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not upon your own understanding
in all your ways acknowledge Him
and He will direct your paths.

Pastor Scot made the point that the issue in knowing God's will is a matter of trust, not one of information. There are many who would say they want to know God's will in the sense that they want to know what He has planned, so that they can then be arbiter over whether they will God along with that plan or not. God knows exactly what is best for me and how to carry it out, and it is nothing but pure arrogance to presume that I have the right to sit as judge over Him. While most people would say "I'm not like that at all," self-centeredness is wrapped around our nature so tightly that we often do not even perceive it.

There was a quote in the worship bulletin; I don't remember the author name, but I'll summarize [and embellish according to my understanding] its gist. Knowing the will of God is not achieved by impressions, nudges, or other mystical communications of the Spirit. Editor's note: shame on all those believers, both true and sham professors, who would say "the Lord told me" or suchlike as a justification for their course of action. It is by being conformed to His image, by the progressive work of the Spirit, that we begin to love the things that He loves, value the things that He values, and desire the things that He desires. Learning the will of God is not knowing His plans, so that we may judge them, but having our will conformed to His so that we don't have to think "well what does He want me to do" in some kind of "slug it out and follow His orders." Instead, I notice myself being changed to such an extent that I don't need to follow His orders, because what my Spirit-renewed self-will most wants lines up perfectly with His character, without needing Law-induced rule-following to prod it to conform.

More trip-updates and craziness of my life at a later time.