Series: Highways & Hedges~ Is God Leading You Down a Narrow Street?

Or, is HE sending you out into the great unknown?

Some Christians call themselves followers, disciples or apostles. Others call themselves missionaries, emissaries, or ambassadors. Still others refer to themselves as just plain messengers. No matter how you refer to yourself, the bottom line is that we are called to go out and be witnesses for Him throughout the world.

So, where is God leading you? Can you look out your window, and see people walking by on the sidewalk, or do you have to drive several miles just to see your nearest neighbor? No matter where you are ~ in whatever capacity is your walk with God ~ He will have someone there that you need to speak to, encourage, or help in some way. There will someone that the Holy Spirit is wooing, and you are given the honor of being a part of it. He uses what  is unknown to us to  build our faith.  

God will work with your personality; He will not ask you to do something that you are not equipped to do. But, He will keep expanding our envelope, and putting us outside our comfort zone. That’s one way we can know something is from God-if it makes us uncomfortable. If we stay within that safety zone of comfort, we cannot grow, and if we cannot grow, then we are essentially unteachable. If we are unteachable, then God can’t use us.

So look around your small town, your city block, or your country lane, and see where God is sending you. It might be outside of your comfort zone. If it is, then go with confidence that the situation will be used to help you grow and mature,so as to broaden your horizons and prepare you for the journey ahead.

The

next part

of your journey

starts here!

Series: Highways & Hedges~Here Am I, Send Me

Are you willing to go where God wants to take you?

A person doesn’t necessarily have to pack a suitcase in order to be willing to “go into the highways and hedges” to compel the people to come in. In fact, a lot of us can just go next door, or across the street. In our experience so far these past 5 years, we have seen many more willing to go to the jungles of Africa before they would offer Christ to their neighbor.

The best example of willingness to “go” is Isaiah. “Here am I-send me.” God wants to send us where the seed needs to be planted. And, while we are there, we might harvest a seed someone planted years before. We don’t see a wheat crop in the middle of the interstate. Where He is asking us to go may be a little off the beaten track. It may not be Africa-it might be a group of teenagers that hang out under the bleachers at the Friday night high school football  game.It might be old man who fought in the war or lost his wife to cancer, and turned to a bottle, that no one else will approach.

Our great commission, as commanded by Jesus, is to go out from Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) We know Jerusalem is where God lived-in the temple-and now we are the temple in which He lives, so the spreading of the Gospel has to start within ourselves. We must know it by knowing Him, in order to share it with others.

Next comes Judea. Those who are non-believers in our households, our family and friends, coworkers and neighbors. Venturing into Samaria, we will meet those people who have tried “religion” and didn’t like it, yet profess a “knowing’ of God. And, if we happen upon a woman by a well, we know we will be well received. (A little pun, there, to make you smile.)

And, lastly, we get to “the uttermost parts of the world.” It can mean Africa, but it doesn’t have to be that far away geographically. And, it doesn’t mean that is somewhere that hasn’t heard the Gospel. It is those places where the Gospel has been rejected, for whatever reason, causing that place to be “off limits” by others who are still in Jerusalem or Judea. Like under the bleachers on a Friday night, or visiting someone who has been through a terrible ordeal. Or, it could be someone who was not “raised in church” and simply hasn’t heard about the Lord from someone on a personal level. The scenarios are as many as there are people in the world.

Does God want you to “go” for Him? Absolutely! Do you have to pack a suitcase to do it? Not necessarily!

Series: In the Potting Shed~God's Dirt

We are God’s dirt~the soil for His garden. We know that Adam started out immortal but, after the fall, God told Adam that he came from dust, and would one day return to the dust. (Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7) But, we are also likened to the potter’s clay, molded into shape by the skillful hands of the Maker. (But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8)

The key to being dirt in a pot, as opposed to the dirt of the ground, is that God has chosen us, taking us out of the ground, and putting us into a pot, where we can grow the seed of His choosing, under His supervision. The same seed can be sown in the dirt of the ground~outside, unprotected and undernourished. Without someone to take care of it, that seed might soon die, leaving the ground bare. Or, a seed from the enemy can come in and take root in the dirt that holds the Godly seed, causing turmoil in the person’s life as he or she grows. (But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. Matt. 13:25)

It is the Maker who fashions the clay, sows the seed, putting it in His protected place, watering and nourishing it, until it matures into a healthy plant. Then, He transplants it into a place of His choosing, so it can continue to grow, bear fruit, and drop seed into the fertile ground in which it grows, to bring up the next generation Godly seed.

So, we are all God’s dirt. But, whose seed is taking root in you? We are also God’s clay. Are you letting Him mold you into what He wants you to be? And, we are also seed that grows, bears fruit, and sows more seed. Which stage of the seed’s life are you in? Or, has the enemy planted a counterfeit seed in you, that you are not aware of?

A garden really lives

only insofar as it is an expression of faith,

the embodiment

of a hope

and a song of praise.

- Russell Page, The Education of a Gardener, 1962

Series: In the Potting Shed~Godly Seed

What seed has God planted in you, that He wants you to nurture in a protected environment, until it is ready to be planted outside?

Scripture is full of analogies of seed, gardens, vineyards, and other agricultural metaphors. Has God given you a seed? An idea? A dream? A vision? A desire of your heart? In the very first stages of growth, when the seed erupts from the ground, it’ is difficult to see what the mature plant will be. This is when it must be protected the most. Frost, heavy rain, or too much sun can wipe out its existence before it has a chance to get established. So, while the root system and the next set of leaves develop, protect the seed you have been given with faith and patience, until you see the next stage of growth.

You might find that some of the seed are meant to be short-term goals; they mature in just a few weeks, giving you fruit in the same year you planted it. Other seed might be long-term, taking years to mature and bear fruit. In Scripture, the righteous are described as trees, particularly oaks ~for strength and stamina, and palms ~for uprightness and honesty.   

Regardless of what kind of seed you are nurturing, give it the best care possible, because God will use it to carry out a work that He has been preparing you for all along. You will learn faith and obedience through a squash seed, and you will learn patience and perseverance through an acorn.

And you will learn that you are worthy of your calling, by keeping your face looking to the One who first planted the seed in you.

Nothing Is Wasted

Last year, we counseled a heroine addict for five months, after he surrendered his life to the Lord  in his 14th rehabilitation program since he was 18. He was then 32. And it was the first one he had ever been to that  was Christian based.  When we came into his life, he was racked with guilt because of all he had gone through, all that he had put his family through, and all the losses he had suffered because of his addiction. That was when the concept of "nothing is wasted" first really hit us.  We had talked between ourselves about "where we used to be" as opposed to where were then, in Christ. But, the deep realization that God wastes nothing had not fully enveloped us. God changed that after just a few hours with Johnny.

Sometimes we go through some very rough conditions to train us for our true calling. Johnny had a great desire to help other addicts who were just coming out of rehab centers, trying to live a "normal" life. He could not have understood their needs without having been there himself.

There actually examples in Scripture of this very concept. David herded his father's sheep at a very young age. Biblical scholars believe him to have been around 16 to 18 when Samuel anointed him. Males were not counted as men, according to several places throughout Scripture, until they were 20. David was not referenced as a man, but still  a boy when he volunteered to take on Goliath. But, because of experiences that no one knew of but him, he knew Who was his protector, and Who would bring about the victory. Later, when David was on the run from Saul, he learned battle strategies that would help him later when he fought as king, delivering Israel from her enemies. Those years as a sheepherder was not wasted. They taught him how to lead God's people. Those years running from Saul were not wasted. They taught him how to deliver God's people.

There is another example in Scripture, a little less obvious, but a huge building block in the construction of God's people. Back in Genesis is a story of a certain young man, somewhat spoiled, and a thorn in his brothers' side. His name was Joseph. We are familiar with his story. Thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, thrown in prison, then made second-in-command over Egypt in one day. But, what prepared him for that job as prime minister? 

If we are not careful, we will skip right over the slight mention of it within his story, and focus on what his did because of the famine. But, when he was in prison, he had two major things going for him. The first was favor from God. We are told that God made sure he was well liked by the prison guard. The second was his job in the prison system. Scripture says he was in charge of distributing the meals to the prisoners. Meager helpings rationed  out to every prisoner. This prepare him for the work he was to do later: ration out meager helping to everyone confined by the famine.

See: nothing is wasted. Whether God lines it up as a part of his plan, or it is somewhere that Satan takes us, God will use it. Beth Moore, in reference to the sexual abuse in her childhood, said it this way, "What Satan used to bind me up, God used to set me free."

We can all take courage from that. And, we can stop feeling guilty over our past. We can't call it a "mistake", if God is using it as a lesson to teach us something valuable. Nothing is wasted.