Isaiah 48:
15 I, even I, have spoken;
yes, I have called him.
I will bring him,
and he will succeed in his mission.
16 "Come near me and listen to this:
"From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret;
at the time it happens, I am there."
And now the Sovereign LORD has sent me,
with his Spirit.
17 This is what the LORD says—
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
"I am the LORD your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had paid attention to my commands,
your peace would have been like a river,
your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants would have been like the sand,
your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be cut off
nor destroyed from before me."
One of the things that boggles my mind about non-believers is how they can keep their eyes shut to the vast number of "coincidences" that occur in our lifetimes. You JUST happened to be in the right place at the right time... but it doesn't mean anything, right? Your whole life becomes one long string of meaningless coincidences that when you look back on it (if you look back on it) JUST happens to form a convenient pattern that brought you to this place and this time with just the right skills to do the things that you have an opportunity to do. Law of averages or chemicals in your mind playing tricks on you to make you think there is significance in random chance... anything, but God.
My faith was not tested by these thoughts that I've been having. I think I was simply pausing in order to contemplate my path up until this point and wondering if I'd managed to arrive here by happy coincidence or by revelation. My answer to that - a direct and completely obvious answer from scripture - could not have been more clear. God influenced my path in just such a way that I happened to read that passage last night right after writing that blog post. If God can communicate to me in that way, why not through a daydream?
I agree with what Pastor Dave Lamb said in his comment about people seeing signs and portents in too many things and using those as excuses to do the most horrible things (though I'm not entirely sure they DIDN'T hear God, just that maybe they didn't understand Him). I use the words and actions of Jesus as a litmus test for all that God has told me to do. And so far, I can honestly say that I've never "heard" anything from Him that failed the test. I don't always understand why I'm doing what I'm doing, but so far I've never had a reason to doubt that what I did helped further His kingdom. But its easy to look at people who claim that God told them to torture other people and see that they're delusional. It's much harder to dispute people who claim that God told them to serve the poor or feed the homeless - though sometimes these people might do even more damage in their attempts to do "God's Will". In the end, I like what Randall Sherman suggested - that I should do what I think God is telling me to do and have faith that He'll knock me upside the head with a holy 2x4 if I start going down the wrong path. In my experience, this is probably the most accurate statement of God's plan that I've ever read - and I've got the 2x4 marks to prove it. ;)
Anyway, I've got my answer. Now to get back to work on Kenya.
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