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Norma L. Brumbaugh

Inspirational Writer, Author, and Speaker

PO Box 6432, Chico, CA 95927
nlbrumbaugh@gmail.com

Keep a smile in your heart.

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Mystery Man in the Mojave Desert: A True Story

I have a friend who had an interesting experience with a spiritual twist to it. It happened around midnight. We’ll call my friend “Ben.” He called me the next morning to tell me about it because it astounded him. He wondered what I thought, which I will tell you in a minute.

IMG_0312One little bit about the story that is the backstory to this encounter. Ben had just suffered a broken relationship that went deep. He was hurting the night he drove onto the dirt road in the middle of the desert sands.

Ben was a new believer in Christ at the time. He was absorbing the Word and changing oh so very much. I once asked him how his new faith was affecting him. He answered, “I’m not so angry anymore.” I loved his answer. I had the privilege of sharing my faith with him and got to see him grow spiritually. It was a great privilege (I mention him in my book, The Meeting Place).

Back to the story. As Ben tried to makes sense of his hurt and deal with the anger and pain, he knew he needed to get off alone by himself. His work took him to the desert. He decided to use this time to pray and sort things out to try to make sense of it. He chatted with some people doing roadwork at a railroad crossing in the clear night air, and then he headed off by himself.

The next day he called me. There was wonder in his voice bordering on astonishment. His voice was sort of quivering. You must understand this about Ben, he is a very capable and strong personality, someone you don’t mess with, ever. He is a man in his early sixties. He was sitting in his pickup truck with the window down looking out at the desert typography and the bright stars in the indigo sky. Here’s what happened. . .

Verbatim, in Ben’s own words…

“I am going to share something I experienced a few weeks ago when I went for my night time drive in the Mojave Desert. I was parked up on a hill over looking highway 58. It was very dark, and I was seeking some one-on-one time with God. I was there for quite sometime, when I looked to my left and I could see a silhouette coming towards me.
I looked at this figure coming towards me, I put my pistol into my hand, not knowing what was about to unfold. When this person was a few feet away he smiled, I was still a bit unnerved. His clothes were very ragged, dirty, he looked very unkempt (but no odor as you would expect), and he had the whitest and brightest teeth, perfectly straight,
But it was his eyes that got me. Bright blue, and his pupils were “Star” shaped. He spoke very softly, clearly, and very eloquently. None of that matched his appearance. He asked if I had a dollar I could spare, usually I turn them away, but this time, without thinking I gave him my only $20.00 bill I had. (I only had the $20). He put his hand on my arm, thanked me and disappeared back into the darkness the way he had come.
A few minutes later I got this uncontrolled shiver, from head to toe, and a calmness came over me. I experienced some other things that night after he had left, but I am going to keep that to myself for now. I just thought I would share this part with you. GN GBU ALL
Ben Matthews  2013

 

I asked Ben to describe the man to me because I once had an encounter with a homeless man who sounded very similar. After my experience was over, I believed I had met Jesus or one of his angels on assignment (I’ll share that story next week). We compared notes and it was a perfect match. The whole happening seemed strange to him. The way the man arrived and then how he left. His shining teeth and bright eyes. How the man’s dress did not match his face and being. The way he looked at Ben with that penetrating look.

Later on I requested a copy of Ben’s encounter, which he then sent to me in an email, which is what you read above, word for word except for his name. Ben wondered what I thought. I couldn’t help but think he had encountered an angel or the Son of God. Those eyes and white teeth. They are the defining features. The uniqueness of the interaction. The request, odd in the middle of the desert (that was the same thing I was asked in my encounter). He knew it was something special, that also was telling.

Encounter with a mysterious person, was it a God-thing?
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I hope this story encouraged you. Scripture tells us that some have entertained angels unaware. Have you ever had an experience that may have been some sort of encounter with an angel or spirit being?

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Sacred Space: Enter Silence with God (Part 3)

The 5 Easy Steps of Sacred Space

I never thought I would be writing this book. This week I got to thinking about my spiritual life and what has set it apart from the ordinary. Now, that’s saying a lot and could seem arrogant, but it’s not. I could probably whittle it down to two things, and they are 1) I asked God to change me, and He did (He did the heavy lifting) 2) I developed a spiritual discipline of actively listening while in contemplative, meditative, prayerful state. The second one is what I am dubbing, Sacred Space.

10563146_10202522355134252_3765578909730957646_nWhat is a Sacred Space?

This week I started writing about creating your own Sacred Space, a place set aside for ‘sacred’ contemplative time with God. This is for meditating in uninterrupted silence through an inward practice of seeking God, a rich time alone in unscripted connection with God, where one becomes aware of His eternal essence.

In my personal life, I began doing this practice many years ago when I was a teacher and four of my five children still lived at home (I was a single parent). I chose Saturday mornings for my long, alone time with God, often from when I got up in the morning until lunch time (with a break for making breakfast for the kids…pancakes on Saturday mornings).

I was seeking God with my whole heart, but not to know Him so much, but because I desperately needed Him. Over the course of time, God began to teach me and become real to me. It was incredibly sweet. I was sitting at His table and He was feeding me. My whole sense of spiritual living changed as a result of this Saturday morning time alone with God. I became refreshed and new, freed and healed. It was an ongoing process, and still is.

Sacred space is not achieved through devotional texts or scriptural study time. Rather, it is for the purpose of deep spiritual awakening facilitated through communing with Father-God and His God-head. It is the purest thing I know to complete and over-the-top happiness, which is personally and spiritually transforming on all levels. God is a relational God. That is why we need to get to the business of getting to know Him and then responding to His nudges and presence.

Hopefully I will publish a booklet about this some day with a title similar to this one: A Sacred Space Can be Yours: How to Engage Your Spiritual Walk and take it to the next level in 5 Easy Steps.

The 5 Easy Steps of Sacred Space

  1. A sacred place: Where to conduct your alone time with God, a place that is quiet and without distraction.
  2. A sacred time: When to schedule your alone time with God according to your needs and life-style.
  3. A sacred text: What to read, think or consider as you conduct your alone time with God.
  4. A sacred process: How to facilitate your alone time with God in a meaningful, refreshing way.
  5. A sacred modality. What to include as you prepare and participate in your alone time with God.

PREVIEW SNIPPET — A Sacred Space Can be Yours

A sacred space is not regimented or easily explained, yet it has a design. I could say it is defined by its open-ended lack of structure. That is not the whole story, the parameters must be adhered to or the participant will wander out in left field, where side eddies compete for attention. That is why one must have modalities that focus our attention, and we must act with great intention.

Prayerful, contemplative meditation thrives when this sacred practice is implemented in the Christian believer’s life. Why? It brings us near to the heart of God. He becomes real to us as in a living, breathing, intimate relationship. But this spiritual discipline must be set aside and valued, deemed sacred, in order for our silent sacred space to incorporate the necessary particulars that make the setting and practice both spiritually meaningful and life-enhancing.

This sacred space is called sacred because it deals with the holiness of God and our inter-connected relationship with His Holy Being. There is nothing secular in this practice because it is meant as a means to pursue and seek that which is spiritual in its full essence and related to God, Christ, and Christ’s Passion as it outworks in our lives.

In some ways this is a circular activity with no ending—it spirals upward or downward, depending—and will not complete the circle until our earthly life ends and our eternal life is fully actualized in the heavenly next-life.  The circular movement of our spiritual life is redemptive: there are ongoing aspects of death, resurrection, and new life that continually produce a godly effect in our lives. Hence, it is both loving and painful as the life  we live cycles ’round and ’round. The past reveals the lower rungs, with its blessedness, which document this ongoing spiritual transforming in our lives.

We become healthy in our invisible, core being as we embrace and live what God imparts to us throughout our days, unless we choose to live life our own way without Him. This is true for all people, including people in the church. We are either doing it our way or God’s way. Without time spent in the silence found in sacred space, we tend to remain stale, rigid, staid or stagnate in our spiritual lives without the liveliness of spontaneity and joy that marks a life connected to the Source and the love of God with the inward influence of His being.

It is also sacred because we are choosing to preserve a specific time for this pursuit and will determine to guard and honor it. Something that is “sacred” means it is not up for conversation or manipulation. It is of utmost importance to us because in our sacred space we will plumb the depths and receive the gifts our heavenly Father wishes to impart to us.

For effective alone time with God, in sacred space, there is a need for honesty and seeking, openness and confession, responding and changing. God teaches us once we decide we will actively listen. He comes along side and joins us. The minute we bolt and go back to doing it our own way (even with church things), God will let us go and gives us the reins. We lose our authenticity. At that point, we have impeded the flow. Why eat hot dogs when you can have steak? We’re settling. There is something beautiful about knowing the ways of God and knowing Him as a friend. He loves us so much.

Sacred Space is time alone with God spent seeking Him in the silence.
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