GlocalNet

The http://www.globalfaithforum.org is growing - there are people coming from many nations - more than I’d expected.  Writers, diplomats, clerics of various kinds, for them I think it’s somewhat “novel” that an evangelical church would want to build relationships.  But keep in mind, the history of this thing didn’t start as a conference but as a group of my friends that are non-Christians that wanted to hang out a weekend at our church, and as people heard, pastors wanted to meet them, others wanted to come and thus - something I didn’t plan per se or expect has evolved to this.  In our staff meeting someone was sharing with me about how God had established something without our position, ability, etc.  and they were right.  It’s exciting and challenging at the same time.  Getting non-Christians to come relate to evangelical Christians is a challenge - but candidly - evangelical Christians are a challenge as well, make no mistake.  All this loving others stuff and getting the Good News out - well, for many - that’s just to a point of convenience. 

Later last week a friend of mine emailed me a powerful message about when God has an “appointed” time or “appointed” us to do something or there is an “appointed” opportunity.  I shrunk it down and put it in my journal so I could read it and reflect on it.  The next morning in my daily worship as I was reading the Scriptures, that word came up again and again unexpectedly.  I then flipped over to Habakkuk to look at something else, and there it was again in 2:2-3 How that God has an appointed time - wait and be patient, but when it comes it will come quick. 

I read a book on history not long ago and the premise was that things gradually build and people think they know where it’s going to fall - and then one “tumbler” unexpected comes into place and changes history forever and often it doesn’t fall in the direction you think. 

I look at my own life - and I’ve seen the same thing.  I spend at least a month at the end of each year studying the past year, listening to what I sense God saying, looking at everything - then began to pray and plan for the next year.  I really believe in that.  But it never happens as fast as I want or as big as I want!  I feel like a plodder - I move forward in the same direction that God leads, but it’s slow and tedious and difficult and I get tired, and frustrated - but I still stay focused.  Then something happens, something unexpected - something I didn’t plan for.  It changes everything - my paradigm, my strategy, my understanding.  Everything that was planned and prepared for and accomplished in the past led to that one unique unexpected opportunity that would come my way.  But that opportunity - was never about just that opportunity - but about so much more.  When I moved forward in obedience, it wasn’t like taking a step forward - it was like taking 5 or 10 steps foward - then my mind, my structure, my communication all had to catch up with it. 

I’m a sailor, not an engineer.  I’m writing a book with a Vietnamese Diplomat - he wants to call it “The Witch Doctor and the Engineer.”  I’m not too fond of that title - gotta find something else!  But reading moments, catching the wind, yet holding steady to Christ - my course and my destination has allowed me to see and experience life in unexpected ways. 

I’ve learned my dreams are not nearly as exciting as God’s divine intersections.  My dreams are fun - exhilarating.  Often it can be about enthusiasm and hype in getting everyone on board.  God’s divine intersections are unexpected, sometimes frightful, sometimes even unwanted.  But God’s intersections and appointments are more than fads - they bring long term change and help us discover him ways we never knew him before. 

We all admire Gandhi - how he took on the British - but we fail to remember how the British took him on, and even it was from his own tribe that he was assassinated.  We all admire Paul for reaching out to the Gentiles - that’s us non-Jewish Christians - yet he had a whole traveling band that followed him and trashed him.  I wish Paul were alive today - I have no doubt he’d be freaking people out with his passionate engagement of all peoples in all places!  There is no doubt, God loves the Jew, the Gentile, the Muslim, the Communist - but I am equally convinced - we don’t know how to love them.  We want everyone to accept Christ as evangelicals - yet we don’t even speak to others and if we do - we are looking them in the face while speaking to our own tribe, which does nothing for them but build more walls. 

Young pastors, church planters - have your plan & be prepared - hear from God - but stay flexible and nimble for his divine intersections - he’s called you to do far more than just lead a church - but to lead a charge that will glorify God and make his name known.  By the way - those divine intersections rarely come without divine interaction on a daily basis early in the morning on our knees and in his Word.