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Morton Church of Christ |
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Foibles ( Acts 16:9-15
In
Acts 16:9 Paul has a vision of a man begging for them to come
over to It
was good of Paul to not expect His vision to be literal. Later
Paul and Silas did get to preach to men, but only after being
arrested, flogged, chained, and locked in the inner depths of the
prison. It was good that Paul did not have some preconceived
idealistic view about how the message should be proclaimed and
received. After being released from jail they went back to We are less blessed than they because our sense of mission and church and message has far too many walls, boundaries and rules, all of which provide God with little room to work. Notice in the reading who is initiator of the mission. (Verse 10) Give account of who it is that gave success to the word being proclaimed. (Verse 14) And the evidence of this was what? (Verse 15) In all of this we see God purpose and plan not Paul and Silas’. For you and I, because of our contemporary culture and custom and training in such, we would likely have to draw out an outline which we would follow with expectation. (God too would be accountable to it) We have been educated in how to think through and layout a process which we anticipate with expectation for God to not only show up but honor and bless. Do you suppose that we might have a foible or two in our modern concept of Christianity? Do you think these words of Jesus are still true: "No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I
will raise him up at the last day….” "This
is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father
has enabled him." (Jn.6:44,65)
Jesus makes it sound like God is an active part of the plan of
the Gospel. Our best laid plans and outlines are flawed if God is
not the instigator and motivator and sustainer. There is a foible
in the character of the plan if it is not God’s. How do we
reconcile our vision for the churches future with that of God’s
vision and purpose? Do you suppose these words of Jesus are also
still true today: "The
harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of
the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest
field.”(Luke 10:2) We
have been working towards a future that we have been willing to
attribute to God as His future. Are the words
of Jeremiah still true? JER
10:23 I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it
is not for man to direct his steps. Over the years I have
grown to hate it when a small congregation will use good
scripture to justify their own foibles. They say things like:
“narrow is the way and few are they who find it” Arrogance.
(Lord be merciful) We know and
believe that God has a plan for us in the future. What we are
unsure about is what that plan is and what that future looks
like. We have several obligations to the Lord whom we serve and
to whom we belong. 1. Pray for direction 2. Pray for laborers 3. Pray for equipping and enabling 4.
Pray for receptivity |