Barney Wiget's Blog, page 47

Bringing Up Buried Treasure

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Though we’re all susceptible to living shallow lives, essentially we are beings capable of living lives of immeasurable worth. Most people have lost hope for meaning and need to be provoked to believe that they’re not merely what they appear to be on the outside. They may live primarily from––and/or for––their exterior, unaware that they even possess an inner part, let alone how to tap into it. Yet each human contains as much sunken treasure as everyone else to be brought up from the depths. They may have never peered below their own surface, but it’s there.

For most, the treasure is covered by years, even generations, of the silt and sand of neglect. The gold is obscured and appears as a nondescript bulge on the ocean floor. It’s up to us, as “people of understanding,” to work alongside the Spirit to provoke them to pursue the true worth of their deeper part and bring it to the surface.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends the profits of which go to YWAM San Francisco.

An Uncommon Combination of Clout and Compassion (Part 2 of 2)

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In Part 1 we began talking about the account of the centurion in Luke 7 who possessed both clout and compassion. He had great social and political power as well as “great faith.” He cared deeply about the dying servant in his house and the Jewish people under his authority, and treated them all with integrity and generosity. Jesus was “amazed” by the man and deemed his faith greater than that of his own people. This combination of clout and compassion is as rare today as it was then.

Most of us enjoy leverage of one sort or another, probably more than we realize. You don’t have to be a centurion to have clout. If you have people who are dependent on your opinion of them for their paycheck, you have sway. If you are wealthy (even middle-to-lower-middle class) or you’re white or you’re male, you possess something that the poor, the non-white, and women don’t. Anyone with the “upper hand” possesses leverage over someone else, which in itself is not a bad thing. In fact, clout can be used for good as well as for evil.

Read: James 5:1-6

You can buy clout if you have the money or you can inherit it at no fault of your own. In the latter case, all you have to do is be born in the right time in the right place to right family with the plethora of opportunities afforded people in your position.

The majority culture has the power to bless or oppress those in the minority, and history shows that they (we) will surrender that power with no small struggle. When we realize that our majority status is being threatened and that “others” are beginning to outnumber us, we wall ourselves into our safe havens and hold on for dear life. Threaten our majority status and it’s game on!

“The strong must disadvantage themselves for the weak,” says Timothy Keller, “the majority for the minority, or the community frays and the fabric breaks.”

Our clout-crazy culture is fraying at this very point. We’ve been duped by absolute power and corrupted absolutely. It’s the “meek that will inherit the earth,” not necessarily the rich and powerful. In our fear and insecurity, instead of following the meek and humble Lamb of God, we seek out the fiercest wolf to lead us, to protect us. In Jesus’ upside down kingdom, instead of by fame, fortune, or ferocity, greatness is measured in humility and servitude.

This centurion realized he was in the presence of Someone with greater clout than his: “I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you.” That’s the sort of humility that we need in our culture today with so many enamored with the power of wealth and social privilege. The Lord of glory himself, though he had access to legions of angry angels, he started his earthly life in a cave, grew up in a Podunk town, owned no home, rode a borrowed donkey, allowed the haters to lynch him, and bury him in a borrowed tomb. He’s the epitome of clout conjoined with compassion! Rather than imitating the lesser gods of compassionless clout, we should strive to emulate Jesus.

While God may not routinely require that we forfeit leverage itself, he always demands that we surrender how we use it. He doesn’t always demand that we give away all our money and means, but that we steward them in the most generous ways possible.

The majority culture can’t very well choose a different ethnicity, but like the centurion, who reached outside his own tribe, we can treat those in the minority as equals before God. There’s no room in the Father’s heart for a Western world “caste system.” We must steward whatever form of leverage we possess in such a way as to reflect the personality of the One who gave it to us in the first place.

Read: “What Should We Do? (Part 2)”

If we “love our neighbors as ourselves” (whoever they may be and from wherever they come) we will steward whatever power we possess for their benefit. In contrast to his colleagues, this centurion saw his servant and the Jews as “neighbors” to love rather than underlings to exploit.

Might doesn’t mean right. Men, who on average are stronger than women, must never use their strength to abuse them. Parents must always use their strength to protect, and never to harm their children. Elected officials must remember to use the power of their office for the common good, not just their own. Law enforcement officers possess the power of a badge. They mustn’t use it to ill-treat the public. (God isn’t anti-cop, just anti-bad-cop!) He’s anti-power-mongering of any kind––religious, political, or social. We must all use the power of our privilege for the good of all, especially those whose need are greatest. This is what Jesus calls “great faith.” This is the sort of faith that amazes him.

Let’s amaze him today!

An Uncommon Combination of Clout and Compassion (Part 1 of 2)

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Roman centurions had clout––and plenty! But not many were accused of an overabundance of compassion. Sanctioned by the most powerful empire on earth, wherever they roamed, they wielded the limitless authority of Rome. The Jews and all other occupied lands lived under the thumb of the state and in fear of the army’s oft-capricious tactics.

The centurion in this account was an exception to rule and a wonder to Jesus. This man “highly valued” his servant and he “loved” the Jews. He even built them a synagogue! The Jewish elders went so far as to claim that he “deserved” a miracle. Not exactly your run of the mill Roman commander!

I’m guessing that Jesus wasn’t often “amazed” at the people he encountered––at least not in a good way. He branded this Gentile military man’s faith as greater than anything he’d seen among his own people. Until now I’ve always thought of his so-called “great faith” as having to do with a greater measure of certainty that he possessed for the miraculous, and that we should all strive for the same. I’m now inclined to think Jesus might have been referring to the centurion’s overall disposition, the “faith” that describes his way of viewing himself, God, and the people over whom he had power. Let me explain…

His “great faith” referred to his connection to the God who cares about servants and oppressed subjects of the empire. Though he had the sort of clout that goes to the heads of most people in his social position, his great faith inspired great compassion for those weaker than him. He possessed a rare combination of clout and compassion. He had both social leverage and sincere love, something quite uncommon in our current classist culture, even among Christians.

He said, “I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” That’s clout––the power and privilege to squeeze what he wanted from most anyone he wanted whenever he wanted. But instead of using it to subjugate those underneath him in class and clout, he employed it to serve them. It’s such a rare occurrence it amazed the Lord!

Unless inspired by something deep inside, the privileged and powerful seldom climb down the ladder to help someone below them. They might do some periodic pro-bono work for “the needy” or don rubber gloves and serve turkey at the rescue mission on Thanksgiving, but it’s more of a photo-op than a matter of conscience.

Read: “What Should We Do?”

Jesus said he couldn’t find such faith in all Israel! Their so-called spiritual leaders had long since lost all sense of concern for their people. They had plenty of clout, enough to get Jesus crucified, but little compassion.

Unfortunately this is often the case with many of our more prominent and powerful spiritual superstars today. Instead of the humble heart of the Good Shepherd, it’s book deals, big crowds, and celebrity-sized budgets that get them out of bed in the morning.

When it comes to the actual welfare of those they were elected or appointed to serve, our superstars in government have no better record. Many of them tend to be more concerned with crowd-pleasing, personal power, and reelection than for the people they “serve.”

Read: Isaiah 3:14

Jesus was amazed by rare combination of clout and compassion in the unlikely person of a Roman military commander. He saw something in him that was missing in his own people and he called it “great faith.” What kind of faith would you call “great”? Does clout alone constitute “great” to you or would it require a clear compassion component?

Stay tuned for Part 2…

In the meantime, have you read Reaching Rahab: Joining God in his Quest For Friends? I hear it’s pretty good, and half the profits go to YWAM San Francisco.

One Way To Pray For President Trump

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As you know, God tells us to pray for our leaders. I pray for President Trump everyday. He needs it and I need to do it. Sometimes I use the Lord’s Prayer as a backdrop. It helps me cover more bases and stay on track.

Regardless of whether or not your opinion of Mr. Trump’s presidency matches mine, you might find here some useful hints for how to pray for him if you choose to. While my view of his performance is obvious, it’s not my intention to judge him here, but to pray for him. The Lord tells us not to judge (i.e. condemn) but to judge correctly (i.e. use discernment).

Without some degree of discernment we can’t very well pray for anyone about what they need or how they need to change. I don’t want my prayers to be so vague that even God doesn’t know what I’m talking about, so I name some concerns about President Trump that I believe he cares about as much or more than I do. If I’m wrong, I figure  he can adjust his response accordingly.

If you need precedence for this kind of praying, thumb through the Bible’s books of poetry and the prophets. Thumb through those books and you’ll notice there are many other ways the poets and prophets prayed for the leaders of nations, including harsh pronouncements on judgment on them. That isn’t my intention here, as I offer just “One Way To Pray For President Trump.” If this doesn’t suit you, don’t simply fail to pray for him, find a prayer that does.

[If you want to know more specifics about the profound disparity between my worldview and that of the president, you might check out any number of articles I’ve written about him and his policies. Look especially scroll through the category called “Doing Justly.” From these you’ll notice how much restraint I used in detailing my view of our president’s many flaws in this prayer.]

You’ll notice that my emphasis here is not on my flaws and failures––or yours for that matter. When I make the Lord’s Prayer personal, which I often do, my focus is on the gargantuan gap between the way I am and the way I want to be. But for now, I invite you to join me in bringing our president to the throne of grace.

Our Father in heaven

Our country’s highest office is the White House, but you, Father, are in an even higher place place––heaven. From there you see all and know all, including what our president needs in order to do the job for which he was elected. You see his flaws, and from your highest vantage point, please Father, bend Mr. Trump’s mind and heart toward yours. He obviously can’t see what you see, so broaden his peripheral vision to be able take in a larger portion of socioeconomic demographic of our citizenry than just his own.

Hallowed be your name

Appropriate to your dignity and supremacy may President Trump respect you. Help him to treat you with singular and hallowed veneration. Honestly, he often seems to respect no one but himself, so please put the fear of God in his heart, of the sort that initiates wisdom.

Your kingdom come

Lord, we need you to reign here in our wayward country led by our wayward president. May he begin to act as though there is a power higher than his own. And may your high power invade every cell of his being. You rule well, Father. You’re the King and we want you to rule in the White House along with every other house in America.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven 

Heaven is the place where your perfect will is done perfectly all the time, yet much of what we see in the White House is clearly not your will. His lifestyle, prejudice, narcissism, and injustice are not reflective of your will. We pray for your will to be done in Donald Trump’s life. Work your will in and through the man we’ve elected to the highest office in the land, indeed in the world. If there’s no other way than to exert your will apart from his conscious cooperation, please do.

Give us today our daily bread

Many of our citizens and the citizens of the world are inadequately fed each day, please help our president to do whatever he has the power to do to lead our country into a more equitable distribution of wealth. Give him compassion to care more deeply about poor, here and abroad, and the wisdom to address it.

And forgive us our debts

Even though he doesn’t ask you for forgiveness, humble President Trump and reveal to him his flaws. In the meantime, we ask you to forgive him for how he has sinned against women, people of color, suffering souls from other countries, and pretty much anyone who disagrees with him. I don’t want to list all his sins, any more than I am able to list all of mine, but forgive him, Father. (And me too.)

As we also have forgiven our debtors

Help us to forgive our president for trespassing on our lives in ways that have done us harm. And help him forgive those who have harmed him in word and in deed. Heal his soul wounds that I assume go all the way back to his childhood. Transform his penchant for vindictiveness to forgiveness.

And lead us not into temptation,

Lead President Trump in the opposite direction of the sinful lures that seem so desirable to him. Since the love of money is the root of many kinds of evil, Mr. Trump’s massive wealth has put him in a Solomon-like category of privilege and the many temptations that go along with it. Lead him away from those, Lord, and help him to live a generous life that is pleasing to you.

But deliver us from the evil one.

Open President Trump’s eyes to the bonds of wickedness in his life. I can’t imagine but that some of what comes out of his mouth and shows up in some of his priorities and policies is ignited and sustained by the evil one. Deliver him, Lord.

For yours is the kingdom

You alone have the right to rule the planet as you see fit. Every crown, deserved or not, will someday fall at your feet when we all bend to bow before you. I hope and pray that Mr. Trump will bend low in worship today before it’s too late.

Yours is the power

Only you can do the things for which I pray. If I had the power to change Mr. Trump into a man of integrity and good conscience, let alone into a man of God, I would do it in a heartbeat. But you can do it. Please wield your power to attract him to yourself, Lord.

And yours is the glory

Historically you have been quite harsh with some of those who, instead of acknowledging your glory have claimed it for themselves. You are the One from whom all glory comes and to whom all glory goes. No man, regardless of stature, fame, or fortune is worthy as you are worthy.

Forever and ever. Amen!

Presidents come and go, but your rule is eternal. This government, with all its imperfections, will someday fade, but you and your kingdom are forever and ever. Amen!

God’s Kiss

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So when you see your hair falling out in clumps, you could choose to celebrate it as an indicator that the cancer-killing chemicals, like assassins are hitting their targets, so chalk up the loss of mane as collateral damage. I didn’t need a blood test or an x-ray to tell me that cells–– the good, the bad, and the ugly ones–– were being gunned down by the new sheriff in town. The evildoers were being brought to justice and getting what they deserved. Unfortunately, the sheriff shoots with a scattergun, which kills more than bad guys. Nevertheless, when I felt, to put it mildly, bad, it boosted my morale to know that something good was happening at the same time.

As a bonus, the assault on my hair-producing cells uncovered a pleasant surprise on my noggin— a birthmark I didn’t know I had. After all, I’d never seen my scalp before. As long as I can remember, it’s been covered with hair–– once black, then grey. I guess I was bald as a baby, but I don’t remember and wasn’t accustomed to looking in the mirror until about Junior High.

Upon careful inspection, my daughter in law, Tori, said it resembled a heart. God must’ve kissed me when I was entering this sometimes-heartless world! I liked to think that God stood there in the delivery room, awaiting his opportunity to gently and affectionately brand me on the crown of my head as one belonging to him with a kiss.

– Originally published in The Other End of the Dark: A Memoir About Divorce, Cancer, and Things God Does Anyway (the profits of which go to Freedom House).

How Kindness Cleans Out The Clutter (Part 2 of 2)

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Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. Luke 11:39-41

“The moment the Christian finds himself laying up treasure for himself, the moment he discovers a selfish purpose animating him in the pursuit of the material, that moment he must let it go or lose his Christian character.”  E. STANLEY JONES

IN PART 1 we made some introductory remarks from this passage on Jesus’ radical claim that somehow being generous with the poor can actually clean us up.

It’s the contrast of outside and inside that intrigues me most about Jesus’ words here. He’s saying, “If all you want is a righteous looking life, a facelift exterior, you can’t enter my kingdom.” An exterior version of the Christian life is merely “makeup.” It might make you look better from a distance but you’re not you’re not actually as good as you look.

I’ve taught on this tithing verse dozens of times over the years as a pastor, and not just to squeeze the saints and coax them to cough up their ten percent. I genuinely believe tithing is good for us. But Jesus indicates here a specific benefit not commonly brought up in most pastors’ yearly “Cheerful Giver” message.

That’s the one where we remind people that though God loves a cheerful giver, he accepts money from a cranky one! While that may be true, and such a practice might effectively stave off pests from our crops for a while, I’m not so sure that that kind of giving has the inherent power to clean out self-indulgence and greed from our souls and improve our reputation to the world.

FYI, you can’t find here an automatic guarantee of financial benefit if we’ll give a certain percentage or amount. Giving to get something in return is a crock and the preachers who preach it are posers. In that arrangement, the giver is skunked and all the financial benefit goes to the mansion fund of the preacher!

“Very often the giving of the one tenth may be the buying of an indulgence and may be utterly unchristian,” claims E. Stanley Jones. “The line is not to be drawn at the place of the one tenth, but at the place where our treasure ceases to be laying-up for others and becomes a laying-up for ourselves, hence unchristian.”

But there is a benefit to the giver for his or her giving. Jesus says here that being generous with the poor acts as a cleaning agent. How does that work?

First of all, don’t forget that in their day, it wasn’t as though they would sit on their couch and drink wine coolers while giving on their phones through Paypal. Texting in their tithes wasn’t an option. They had to actually know a poor person or family and when they decided to share out of their resource they had to have actual personal contact with them.

Through all our media outlets we can know all about poverty but still not know any poor people. This, in my opinion, is a tragedy––for both us and them. One of the most sanctifying influences in my life is hanging out with people who have less than I do.

I’m not saying that writing a check, giving online, or texting it in is meaningless. I do those things too. There are billions of impoverished folk who beyond our personal contact. But knowing and enjoying a mutual friendship with disadvantaged humans is a most soul-cleansing priority.

Don’t you think that when Jesus and his disciples embraced the “unwashed” masses in their communities that some of the dirt rubbed off on them? Ironic, don’t you think, that in order to get clean on the inside we might have to get a little dirty on the outside in the process?

READ ALSO: How Jesus Feeds the Hungry

I think of two reasons “the poor are always with us” like Jesus said. First, they’re always with us, i.e., hang around us, because we’re the kind of people who care about them and love caring for them. Second, God keeps the poor around us, like any number of other sanctifying influences, because they’re good for us. When we serve the poor we serve Jesus, murder Mammon, and get our souls cleansed of greed. Win, win, win!

God sends the advantaged to the disadvantage and vise versa for mutually enjoyable relationships. A true symbiosis occurs when we interact with folk from the “other side of town.” “Compassion is hard,” says Henri Nouwen, “because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering . . . We ignore our greatest gift, which is our ability to enter into solidarity with those you suffer.”

Jesus told a rich guy to sell everything he owned and give the proceeds to the poor. The poor, if he’d been willing, would’ve been a huge blessing to him by being there to relieve him of his greed and self-indulgence!

Wanna be relieved of yours and be clean inside and out? Find someone worse off than you and share your life and resources with them and see what happens!

READ ALSO: What Does Jesus Want From Me?

“Since you excel in so many ways—in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us—I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving.” 2 Corinthians 8:7 (NLT)

Making My Mind, Mind

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After some of my well-meaning friends added to my confusion with sincere, but unwise, advice and comments, I applied the blood of Jesus to the doorpost of my mind and asked for the toxic thoughts to be turned away. I pleaded with God to save me from fear, anxiety, vengeance, bitterness, worthlessness, hopelessness, and despair and to fill me with his thoughts.

Though I could not completely avoid the nagging voices of depression and despair, I began to block this “stinking thinking” by trying to “fix [my] thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely and admirable. . . about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4: 8). Rather than letting outright lies and half-truths camp unchallenged in my mind, I sought to “cast down these imaginations and bring every thought back into captivity” (2 Corinthians 10). Whenever I wrestled my renegade thoughts under control or struggled to differentiate clearly between truth and lies, I told myself that I was making my mind, mind. Because I knew that if I didn’t make my mind up, something— or someone— would make it up for me.

– Originally published in The Other End of the Dark: A Memoir About Divorce, Cancer, and Things God Does Anyway (the profits of which go to Freedom House).

 

Hunting for Uncut Diamonds

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Rahabs of all types reside, recreate, and work in all our spheres of influence. They may not, at first glance, look like the “sort of persons” that anyone would vote most likely to become Christians, but that’s the essence of the adventure of joining God in his quest for friends. He uses all kinds of people to invite all kinds of people to become his friends.

How could we ever know about anyone’s spiritual disposition if we aren’t willing to look past their exterior and delve into what’s beneath? Like the scouts, we’re on a treasure hunt for uncut diamonds, looking beyond their off-putting exterior and tuning into the deep treasure within. As Solomon mused, “The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but a person of understanding draws them out.”

There is a depth to Rahabs of every color and creed with whom we come into contact, something more profound than we might perceive at first glance. They may not yet perceive it, but they’ve got something deep inside them––someone to be, some life to live, something to contribute to the culture. It’s up to us to help them discover their submerged treasure and use it for the glory of God and the good of people.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends

How Kindness Cleans Out The Clutter (Part 1 of 2)

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Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. Luke 11:39-41

Jesus says a lot about things “inside-out” versus “outside-in.” If we want to live right side up in our upside down culture we have to do it from the inside out. There’s no other way. As Oswald Chambers says, “It’s the inside out that makes the right side up possible!”

The upside down world attempts to live a quality life at the circumference regardless of quality of life at the center. It can’t be done. God always begins at the center. He insists that we can’t live at the circumference unless we’re alive at the center.

That’s why it’s so important to remember that Jesus is a “Live-In Savior.” He’s not the sort that makes periodic checkup visits. He moves in! And when he does, we get better in every area we choose to submit to him, including how we relate to our possessions and properties.

The outside-in approach doesn’t please God, make us better Christians, or help the world around us. It’s only the inside-out version that does those. The way and why we share our resources with others is an apt example of this. Let’s listen in on Jesus’ conversation with some outside-inners.

Some such folk invite Jesus to dinner, who then proceed to make a fuss about him failing to perform the ceremonial washing of his hands before the meal was served. They make a Matterhorn out of a molehill, something for which religion is famous, and then something for which he is famous, Jesus turns it into a teaching moment.

He goes straight from the pre-meal hand washing to post-meal dishwashing. “You guys clean the outside of the dishes, but from the inside you’re chock so full of greed that you excrete wickedness.”

We all have an “outside.” It’s what appears in the bathroom mirror into which we look long enough to regret it. And there’s the “inside” that only the mirror of God’s Word reveals. Standing in front of it is even more risky than the other, but much more productive. The only way to successfully and fruitfully live like Jesus is from the inside out. Regrettably, greed and wickedness* dwell inside all of us, at least everybody I know, but then you might have better friends than mine.

*In Matthew’s version Jesus says “greed and self-indulgence.”

The only way to extricate these is to reach in and pull them out like weeds. And one way––maybe the only way––to do that, Jesus says, is to be “generous to the poor.” Sounds a little weird, yes? But check out what he said: “as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything (as in inside and out) will be clean for you.” Wow!

Of course this is no blanket guarantee that every time we give something to a poor person we automatically get all squeaky clean. There’s giving and then there’s giving. There is a sort of charity that promises no substantial reward at all.  These guys he’s addressing were meticulous givers and tithers down to the herb leaves from their gardens, the spirit of which doesn’t seem to have any cleansing quality––inside or out.

Sheer dutiful giving, while it may put food on someone else’s table that otherwise might’ve been bare, won’t necessarily actually cleanse our own soul. The givees might be fed and the givers might feel better about themselves, but there’s no guarantee of anyone’s insides improving.

If, while giving, we “neglect justice and the love of God,” our tithing and other alleged acts of generosity may pay the pastor’s salary (not an altogether bad thing in itself), keep the lights on at the church, and buy some soccer balls for the poor kids in Honduras, but it does little to change the life of the giver, and offers limited benefit to the reputation of Christ’s Bride in the world.

“American churches,” writes Ronnie McBrayer, “spend $19 billion a year (every year) on building construction and maintenance. That much money spent every year on food and on education programs could eliminate global starvation and malnutrition in less than a decade.” Hmmm.

Make no mistake; being generous doesn’t earn us points with God or trick him into forgiving us for all the bad stuff we do. Jesus isn’t talking here about forgiveness, the cleaning up of our record. Only the blood of his cross can do that. In this instance he’s talking about the cleaning out our soul of its greed and self-indulgence. If that’s what we want we’ll have to take what he prescribes to get it.

Giving from the inside, i.e., from a heart of compassion, is something altogether different than heartless, mindless check writing for our tithe or another good cause. It’s the kind of selfless benevolence that washes us all over! Like bleach, it cleans out greed and washes off wickedness. It has purifying power. Put another way: Generosity murders Mammon!

As Clarence Jordan says, “Since Mammon is a particularly unruly type of god when it’s anywhere except on the throne, it will be necessary to put it completely outside in order to keep it quiet.”

Let’s take one more pass at this passage next time…

 

You might find an example of this soul-cleansing, world-changing generosity in my book, Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends. Just a thought.

Accidental Evangelism

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Our flight plan and the Spirit’s are typically dissimilar. Problem is, changing course from our plan in order to get on course with his plan isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Inconveniences aside, what could be more important than being in the right place at the right time for a divinely scheduled appointment, especially if it involves influencing someone toward the Maker?

We were created to “do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” “Eternally Ordained Opportunities” is what I call these works that God providentially prepared in eternity past. In other words, he puts Rahabs in our path and gives us the opportunity to partner with him in his quest to befriend them.

Most of my divine appointments with Rahabs are purely accidental on my part. Of course there are times when I’m actually aware of some prompting of the Spirit, but mostly I just try to live responsibly before God and trust that he’ll orchestrate the unforeseen.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends