James & Tess Arendt
THAT'S THE WAY I ALWAYS OPERATED, EVEN WHEN I WAS A KID SHOPPING FOR THINGS. When the Young People's Society gave me $5 to buy a new Bible, I did the same thing I always did when I was shopping. I went around and looked at all the Bibles in all the different stores. When I finally found the Bible I wanted, then I went around and priced it in all the stores until I had found out where it's NOT, and by the process of elimination, I found out where it WAS. I whittled it down to the one I wanted and liked best and at the best price! After I'd seen everything in town, THEN I bought it! I'VE OFTEN SAID THAT THE LORD ALLOWS US TO SHOP FOR THINGS TO SHOW US and CONVINCE US so we'll know where it's NOT at as well as where it is AT! So when we finally choose something, we KNOW we've got the BEST, the best item at the best price and there's nothing better in town. (Maria: And in the best location if it's a house or something.) Right. That's what shopping is all about, to find the best and to reject all the others.--To "choose the good and eschew the evil."-- 1Pet.3:11 .
GOD OFTEN LEADS US TO THE RIGHT ONE FIRST, then He lets us go around shopping to every other one to PROVE it's the right one. I think I've always operated that way. The Lord has often led us to the right one, but then He's let us go around everywhere shopping to show us that it IS the right one, it is the best!
YOU HAVE TO LOOK AROUND and TRY THE VARIOUS DOORS. In shopping, you shop around and try the various stores. How are you going to know which doors are open or shut unless you TRY'M? I think most people's idea of the open door theory, open doors, is that they visualize a row of doors standing there, some of them standing open and some of them shut, so just at a glance you can tell which ones you're supposed to go through. Everything's closed except that one open door, so you know exactly where to go and you just march through.
BUT MY EXPERIENCE IN MOST DECISIONS IN LIFE HAS USUALLY BEEN that I've had to go down the row TRYING the doors one by one until I find the one that's unlocked. (Maria: Also, when it says, "SEEK and ye shall find" ( Mat.7:7 ), "seek" is the word for SEARCH, and a search usually denotes something that's really DIFFICULT, you really have to go all-out, looking down different paths.) Yes, you have to LOOK for it! (Maria: It's a desperate major effort to go down all the trails and all the paths, to go up and down the different roads, it's a big project!)
YOU'VE GOT TO FIND THE DOORS and THEN YOU'VE GOT TO KNOCK ON EACH ONE of them to find out which one's going to open. "SEEK and ye shall find, KNOCK and it shall be OPENED unto you!"-Mat.7:7. After you think you've found the right one you knock to make sure. Sometimes you've got to go right down the row knocking on EVERY one of them till you find which one opens. Then when you find the open door and somebody opens it, or the Lord opens it, THEN you ask.
THAT'S HOW YOU SHOP FOR THE BEST BUYS, FOR A PLACE TO STAY, OR WHATEVER YOU'RE LOOKING FOR. If you don't know where it IS, then at least you find out where it AIN'T! (Maria: It's very effective because after you're done, you can explain to other people exactly WHY they should go through certain doors, to help them avoid making the same mistakes you made.)
SOMETIMES IT'S ALSO A MATTER OF WHEN. Like the old African-American lady said: "I don't know what unction AM, but I sho' knows when it AIN'T!" If you don't know the right time, sometimes you have to try a few times and then you'll sure find out soon when it ain't! You kind of learn by the process of elimination of the things that it ain't and the times it ain't.
I'VE ONLY GOTTEN A FEW THINGS BY REVELATION, and usually it was something that I couldn't possibly have found out any other way. The Lord HAD to reveal it, because there wasn't any way I'd have found it by going along seeking and knocking and asking. I had to have an absolute revelation. Although even some of those outstanding revelations, we'd already made plans to do something else but the Lord stopped us with the revelation, to show us that that was NOT the thing to do.
YOU LEARN A LOT, I THINK MAYBE JUST AS MUCH, IF NOT MORE, BY CLOSED DOORS AS YOU DO BY OPEN DOORS! I think the Lord really teaches you a lot of lessons that way. He shows you WHY this is not the right door, WHY this is not the right place, WHY this is not the best buy or whatever. By going and trying and testing these others you find out why. It's an EDUCATION! You find out why things are NOT the best and which way is NOT the best and what time is NOT the best, what place is NOT the best, and then you'll be satisfied. SOMETIMES WHEN I JUST WENT and BOUGHT SOMETHING BECAUSE I WAS IN A HURRY, LATER I FOUND OUT I DIDN'T GET THE BEST BUY, and I was sorry that I was in such a hurry.--Or I wondered from then on, "I wonder if I really got the best buy? I wonder if I could have done better? Maybe I should have shopped a little longer!" I didn't really KNOW I got the best. But when you have shopped and tried and tested and knocked and sought and asked and everything else, then you KNOW you've got the best one at the best price and you're satisfied and content to know that it couldn't have been anything else or anywhere else or any other time.-That was IT! This is it!
WHEN YOU FIND OUT THERE'S NOTHING ELSE, THEN YOU KNOW THAT'S IT! When you find out what it AIN'T, that's all a part of the process of finding out what it IS, and then you'll KNOW, you'll absolutely know from direct knowledge that that is it, because beside that there ain't no other! So praise the Lord, you've got it and you're content and satisfied and you're not always wondering, "Did I get the best? Was it the best place, was it the best price or was it the best time?" You found out that it WAS because nothing ELSE was! When you've TRIED everything else, then you KNOW. I think that's one way the Lord really convinces you! (Maria: It's such a good way, a good method, so logical.)
My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
If you like this website, you can show your appreciation by sending me a gift toward my support. My wife Tess and I moved from the island of Guam USA in June 2023 to the city of Allen in the province of Northern Samar, one of the poorer provinces in the Philippines. My only work is maintaining my websites, Deep Truths, and James Japan which costs me $300 per year now. And Tess is ministering to the local people giving them regular Bible Studies in three groups, children, teenagers and adults.
Since my wife and I moved to the Philippines, we sent up a new PayPal account to be able to link to our local bank. Unfortunately now all gifts to us must be specially marked, "Friends and Family or we will not receive it. My PayPal ID: james.arendt@jamesjpn.netRead my bio