God works in mysterious ways.
We all know that. We’ve all been able to look back on something and totally see how He intervened or made something happen. We’ve all asked for ABC, but got XYZ…later realizing that XYZ was, indeed, what we needed after all.
To borrow a line from one of my very favorite songs: Well, God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”. Abe said, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on!” God said, “No”. Abe say, “What???” God said, “You can do what you want, Abe, but the next time you see me comin’, you’d better run!!!” (“Highway 61 Revisited”, by Bob Dylan)
You know the story…Abraham and his wife Sarah wanted a child so badly for a long time. When they FINALLY (and believe me, their “finally” was WAAAAY longer than any “finally” you or I will ever experience) had a son, God wants them to do what????? He wants Abraham to sacrifice him. K-I-L-L H-I-M.
Murder is wrong, right? But, so is disobeying God. And you think you’re facing conundrums in your life!!! At the last second, of course, God, realizing that Abraham is so willing to seek God’s will that he’ll even take his own child’s life, tells Abraham not to. Because He knows now that Abe WAS WILLING TO GO THE DISTANCE. For God.
I’ve been talking a lot with the college students in our ministry lately about things that are happening in the world. In a nutshell, it seems to me that people seem to be waking up to God’s calling. As the Bible says will happen, when we do that (seek God, do his work), Satan wakes up, too.
I’m going to take a tangent here, to provide some background, but I promise I do have a point…
I have a theory that for the most part, Satan leaves us (well-off, modern Western believers) alone. Why would he waste his time? We’re comfortable. Nothing really shakes us into action. Or shakes us into a dependency of leaning on God. We have everything we need at WalMart. In the grand scheme of things, we aren’t “needing for” anything. At all. So as long as we plod along and follow the American dream, I feel Satan leaves us to it.
He busies himself where his efforts are truly needed: Places like Africa and other third world places, where Christians are living radically. Where they MUST cry out to God, call on Him, lean on Him fully, and depend on Him for everything they do. To be a Christian in America doesn’t mean much. I’m not bashing America, but the very freedom that we all (myself included) love so much, means that we don’t have to take much of a “stand” for our faith. Now, in Africa, Asia, India, and lots of other places, Christians DO have to take a stand. And in many cases, the consequence is death. THAT is the place Satan wants/needs to put his efforts.
But…as I said…I feel we are waking up to what we’re supposed to be doing. I have a little bit. I’m not saying I’m “making the stand” or doing anything significant. But the Dirty Roots Revolution is a collective effort that started organically with a bunch of folks going out and making a difference for Christ. And good HAS come of it. Lives have been touched.
On one particular day (see Alexander’s Story on our blog), I think the world was actually altered by all of the goodness flying around. While I knew something beautiful had happened, I didn’t expect negative repercussions.
I now realize that all of that goodness that happened (several innocent bystanders were nudged into positive action because of Alexander’s story)…a little apathy was defeated that day. People got involved and DID good. And, Satan, while he was busy with something that “mattered”, snapped to attention and said, “WHAT was THAT????”
I take no credit for this. In fact, I didn’t even realize these things until later.
Ever since that day, things have been harder for the DRR. We’ve struggled more. We’ve run into more roadblocks. But, we’ve also been more and more blessed.
We’ve become a target for Christians who are angry that we’re encouraging folks to reach out to “the least of these”.
Alexander – the homeless man we were able to get new glasses for – was attacked the week after we got the glasses. For the sake of time and space, I won’t go into the details (but would be willing to talk to you about the situation). We were originally told the new glasses were broken. After a LOT of stress, prayer, running around, etc., we FINALLY learned, about two weeks later, that what during the attack, Alexander’s bag was stolen. When the thief saw the glasses, he found someone who knew Alexander and returned them. He kept the bag, but returned the glasses. We were devastated by the original news, but lifted it up. And God worked.
At the same time these negative things were happening (which were ALL happening at the same time, by the way), I was asked to speak for about six different organizations and churches over the course of about four days. I was asked to speak to youth ministers at the AgapeFest. I was invited to share the DRR message on the main stage at Agape in front of about 5,000 people.
With the action came two attacks. Through the attacks we prayed. We were blessed.
My point here is that God’s children are waking up. But that means Satan will, too. I used to hear people say “Satan did this or that” and it bothered me. A college student once told me in frustration, “I’m sick, I’m stressed, I’m busy, I have too much homework, I’m behind, and now, this morning I tried to print a paper and my printer broke. The devil is attacking me!” That’s giving Satan a little more credit than I’m comfortable with. I don’t think that situation is the devil…that’s just a crummy day in an imperfect world.
Again…when we wake up…Satan will wake up. This is happening everywhere. College students are coming back from missions trips and telling me that the work of the DRR is being echoed by small groups across the globe! This is amazing!!!
But we must realize, when we wake up and do God’s work, there will be trouble. Jesus Himself said people wouldn’t get it. People would not like it.
But He told us we’d be blessed by it. We do good…we may experience troubles…we give those up to God…we lean on Him…we pray. And blessings will come our way, too. To sustain us through the hard times.
I pray for peace now more than I ever have. Not answers. Not even comfort. Not for deliverance. Just peace. Peace.Peace.Peace. Peace just for today.
As promised, here is my point…
Six of the students in our college group have been planning for many months to travel to Ethiopia with a group called International Crisis Aid. ICA is most known for rescuing girls across the globe from the hells of sex trafficking. Our friends on this trip will have a bit of that experience, as well as working in a medical clinic, an orphanage, etc. Their hearts are IN this. They fell called/led to go. They WANT to go.
Then the word came that there was a mistake and there weren’t enough folks signed up to go. So it was put on hold. They were told only a miracle could make it happen.
But word came in later on, that they WERE going to be able to go. Miracle! They resumed fundraising efforts, now with an even tighter deadline. They had a lot to raise.
The trip is right around the corner and everything was almost ready. They got a call about two hours ago, saying the trip was off. This time for good. The United States has declared Ethiopia unsafe due to a potentially volatile election wherein they’re expecting riots, etc.
These kids will NOT be going to Ethiopia.
And while they’re all broken-hearted about it, keep thinking it’s yet ANOTHER “Abraham & Isaac” story. I’ve heard SO many of these over the last couple of months. “We thought God wanted this…”, “God put it in our hearts and we worked so hard for Him…”, “We cried out to God and He moved, but then things changed…”.
The DRR even had a situation present itself that we thought would be HUGE for our future. A real answer to prayer. And it fell apart in our hands. Not for lack of trying or praying. It just wasn’t right. For whatever reason. God knows.
In all of these various situations I’m thinking of, folks involved didn’t do anything wrong. Quite the opposite. They did what they were called to do. Many times against great odds. They lifted the situations up to God. I can tell you personally, with the DRR, we prayed that God would take this situation and do what he wants. It’s scary to do that. and it’s painful when you do and then it doesn’t work.
The people involved in all of these situations I’m thinking of were left feeling empty when God seemingly switched gears on them.
But…my thought right now, and my question is, “What if God is getting us ready?”
I’m not what you’d call a super-“charismatic” Christian. But my experiences lately have nudged me a weency bit more in that direction. When I speak for the DRR I always say that it doesn’t take an expert to know that things are just flat wrong in our world. They’re “off”. Things are NOT right.
I said to our college group once that I felt their generation was going to make the world better. One of them corrected me – rightfully so – and reminded me that, biblically speaking, the “world” IS going to keep getting worse. BUT…the chasm between the good and the bad, the light and the dark, is going to get wider. And THAT is good. She knew what I was getting at, but I needed to rephrase: The world will get worse. But…those who truly seek the Lord are going to have to stand up and REALLY seek Him. To cry out for Him. To give it all up for him. Scary stuff, to be sure. But GOOD stuff. What HE intended all along.
I’m not alleging we’re in the end-times. I figure those started the day Jesus went to Heaven. That’s not my concern right now.
But “hot and cold” is the concern. If we’re going to say we’re “hot”….we have to live “hot”. And we have to expect trouble.
So, what if this is where we are? I’ve talked to so many people who have echoed these thoughts. So many people have affirmed that they feel this “darkness”, too. I don’t know what else to call it or how else to define it. There’s just a “darkness”.
But there’s also light. And I feel that the countless “Abraham & Isaac” moments that my friends are experiencing, are, for lack of a better term, “getting them ready”. For what? For…something.
Maybe this is how God whittles us down…refines us. Maybe this is how He helps us see what’s important. For those six students…this Ethiopia trip is important. One of them has already told me, “I know I’m going…I just don’t know when”.
For some, maybe this is how God shows us what is NOT important. What we’re willing to sacrifice or live without. Using the Ethiopia example, maybe some of the students gave up something in order to save money for their trip. Maybe now they know they can live without whatever that was.
Or maybe everyone going through these “Abraham & Isaac” experiences is just supposed to realize that they’re awake now and CAN NOT go back to sleep.
I’m pretty sure weird times are ahead. I’m pretty sure we’re going to enter a period of time where what is right and moral is not necessarily the same thing as what is accepted or common (or maybe even legal?).
You’ve heard me say that we’ve taken the claws of the lion before. Jesus is the lion. And we’ve made him “easily digestible”. We did that so people wouldn’t fear Him. But…he is NOT easily digestible.
Everything is upside down in the Kingdom of our God. Poor means rich. Death means life. Last means first. Sacrifice means gain.
As a society we put so much value in being “counter-cultural”. NOTHING is more revolutionary or counter-cultural than following Jesus. Nothing. And while the “counter-cultural” stuff we seek out (which is mass produced, by the way…duh!) is pretty much generally accepted, being counter-cultural the Jesus way WILL . PISS . PEOPLE . OFF.
There is no more delicate way to say that. But I believe it’s the truth. THE GOVERNMENT DIDN’T WANT TO KILL JESUS. THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS DID. Weird times. And that’s not just a crazy story…That was Jesus. Our King. Our example. The One we’re supposed to strive to be like.
One of the characters in the “Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe” (Mr. Beaver, I think?) said, “Safe??? Ooooh, make no mistake He is NOT safe. He IS good….but He is N-O-T safe.”
Get your armor ready, friends.
EPHESIANS 6:10-20
