From the Home Place

August 20, 2025

Yesterday Miss Deb and I, and Coffee of course, found ourselves on the road again. A little over 300 miles and we were back home again. You see, from Lusk, Wyoming everywhere is a long way away. Casper – 105; Cheyenne – 150; Scottsbluff, NE. – 90; Rapid City, SD. 150. To find a town big enough to have some of the “big box” stores is an all-day trip.

I’m willing to wager that at some time in your life, perhaps today, you have felt that God is a long way away as well. After all, we are instructed about prayer, “Our Father who art in Heaven.” Heaven, man that is a long way away! Even our high-powered telescopes can’t find heaven. Yes, they can find the heavenly atmosphere that our solar system lives in, but they still can’t find the heaven where God lives.

In the words of Alester Beggs, “When you feel like God is far away, guess who moved?” I first heard this statement in 1983 and have to remind myself of it at times. You see my friends, there are those moments for each of us when we feel the space between ourselves and God. Jesus felt that space on the cross of Calvary when God placed the sin of mankind upon His shoulders. Because God cannot look upon sin, God turned His face away from Jesus, to which Jesus replied, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?”

For sure, sin does cause God to look away from us, but the moment we confess our sin, He forgives us though the person of Jesus Christ. When God feels far away, “guess who moved.” In James 4:8 we are encouraged with these words, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

You see, God is as near as a simple prayer when my life is in accordance with His holiness. Sin separates, but confession reunites. So instead of asking God where He has gone to, we just need to look inside of self. For when self is right with the Savior, God is near, even in “times of trouble.”

Stepping toward God with you, Neal