Recognizing God's wake-up calls

I have so many posts I'd like to do floating around in my head...but currently I don't have time to sit down and write. Therefore, I'm sharing with you this great article I recently read on Ann Graham Lotz. (Ann is Billy & Ruth Graham's daughter) I hope it blesses you as it did me!!

Sept. 7, 2007

Anne Graham Lotz on recognizing God's wake-up calls

Don't miss blessings that come in plain packaging, says daughter of Billy Graham

By BARBARA KARKABI
Copyright 2007 (I think I'm ok in sharing this since I gave credit and linked back to the source-someone let me know if I'm wrong-thanks!)
Houston Chronicle

"The package arrived wrapped in plain brown paper. Inside was a small multicolored basket stuffed with tissue. But nothing else.

Anne Graham Lotz, the well-brought-up daughter of Billy and Ruth Graham, was confused about the straw basket but nevertheless called to thank her mother for the gift.

That's when Ruth Graham laughed and asked what she thought of the "real present" wrapped in the tissue paper Lotz had just thrown away.

"Luckily, I found the tissue paper and inside was a little gold ring, with a piece of lapis lazuli," Lotz recalled. "It had been given to my mother by an old friend from the British Museum."

As the story goes, the stone was from the Susa palace where the biblical Queen Esther was said to have lived with the Persian King Ahasuerus.

"I had thrown away a priceless treasure because I didn't like the way it was wrapped," said Lotz, who uses the story as a metaphor in her talks.

"Sometimes I think God sends us priceless treasures but they come in ugly brown packages. It could be the death of a loved one or an illness, or several things at the same time. We get caught up in the wrapping and ask: 'God, why are you doing this to me?' "

Lotz, founder of AnGeL Ministries, suggests looking at difficult experiences as a kind of personal wake-up call from God.

"It may be that God is trying to give you a fresh experience of grace and his power and love," Lotz said. "He has a blessing for you in it, but we throw it away because we don't like the way it's wrapped."

Wake-up calls can happen on a national level, too. She pointed to Hurricane Katrina and Sept. 11.

"God doesn't send them, but he allows them into our national life to wake us up," Lotz said in a telephone interview. "There is more to life than what we sometimes seem to be living for — our pleasure, entertainment or our bank accounts and reputations."

It's not always easy to find those blessings, and Lotz knows this from personal experience. The second of Billy and Ruth Graham's five children, she never felt any pressure to follow in the path of her famous father.

"It wasn't a natural thing for me. In fact, I would have felt the opposite pressure to stay at home," Lotz said.

The Baker Institute's William Martin,who wrote a biography of Billy Graham, described Lotz as a talented and powerful speaker.

"She delivers a strong message and doesn't tell jokes or try to jolly people into listening," Martin said. "She has many of the characteristics of her father's early preaching."
Martin said the first time he heard Lotz speak, he was stunned at how similar her gestures were to that of her famous father.

"She is a compelling figure," he added. "Her message: 'Just give me Jesus' is very biblically oriented. But she draws good crowds." ......As confident as Lotz appears, she has a secret — she gets stage fright almost every time she talks. So did her father.

"My daddy would say that every time he got up on a pulpit, his stomach turned over," she said. "It keeps you sharp and humble."

Since her mother's death in June, Lotz has tried to spend as much time as she can with her father. Recently, she gave him a puppy for what would have been her parents' 64th wedding anniversary.

"They were so in love. I never imagined a world without her, and I don't think Daddy did either, so it's not easy," Lotz said. As for her father's health, she said, "Daddy's mind is real sharp; he has some issues, but he will be 89 this year so I think he deserves to have some issues."

Lotz' personal ministry started because she was trying to be a better mother. "I wanted to be a mother like mine. She spent a lot of time with her Bible and in prayer, and I just didn't have the discipline to do that."

"I was losing my temper a lot," Lotz recalled. "I never saw my mother lose her temper, and we were a very feisty family. ... I wanted that kind of relationship with God and Jesus. It was so contagious and special."

But with three children, a husband and a busy schedule, Lotz felt that, without meaning to, she was neglecting God or drifting away from him.

To correct that, she started a local class based on Bible Study Fellowship International, just so she could take the class. She ended up being the teacher for 12 years. Hundreds of people had joined in the first few weeks.

"They had never been in Bible study before and didn't know I couldn't teach, so we just learned together," Lotz said.

Her revivals for women grew out of a series of challenging personal events.

Over 18 months in the late 1990s, her mother was hospitalized five times; her three children all decided to get married within eight months; her son was diagnosed with cancer four weeks before his wedding; and Hurricane Fran hit her home in North Carolina, destroying more than 100 trees in her yard.

"I felt that one of those things was hard enough, but all of it compressed in time just made me want to scream," Lotz recalled.

"My doctor offered medication, but I said: 'I don't want a quick fix.' I didn't even ask God for a miracle. I wanted a fresh touch from heaven because I felt that if I could get refreshed from the inside, then I could handle some of these things on the outside."

Lotz believed that others faced similar feelings, people "who desperately want a fresh encounter, not because they are bad, but life is hard, you know; it can be overwhelming."

Lotz began what she calls "Just Give me Jesus" revivals for women. Forget the idea of an old-fashioned tent revival. What Lotz offers is a reconnection with Jesus.

"God got me though those 18 months," Lotz said. "He just gave me a heart's cry for revival, and then he used that heart's cry to offer revival for other women."

Lotz also believes God has issued a wake-up call for organized churches — one she fears they are ignoring.

"I know there are many things he might want to say to the church, but for me as a messenger, there's a bottom line. I think he is calling his people to wake up about their relationship with him. I think in church we point fingers at other people and their social sins.

"Instead, God says: 'I'm not concerned with other people. I'm concerned with you.' We need to get it right."

See full article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/5116690.html