When Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples…He
departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. —Matthew 11:1
“He comes where He commands us to leave. If you stayed home
when God told you to go because you were so concerned about your own people
there, then you actually robbed them of the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself.
When you obeyed and left all the consequences to God, the Lord went into your
city to teach, but as long as you were disobedient, you blocked His way. Watch
where you begin to debate with Him and put what you call your duty into
competition with His commands. If you say, “I know that He told me to go, but
my duty is here,” it simply means that you do not believe that Jesus means what
He says.” CHAMBERS
When we were first aware that God was calling us to Haiti, I
recall two distinct responses from people we knew. After having been involved in recovery work for
5 years after Hurricane Katrina, I remember one friend looking at me squarely in
the eyes and saying “Are you crazy?”. At the opposite end, there were others
saying that we should go, encouraging us even. Those two responses to our
saying “yes” to the Spirit’s leading reveal the difference in perspectives in
this world. On the one hand, our first friend
was not a Believer and could only see the danger and hardship of serving in
Haiti. On the other hand the other
friends were Christians, having a spiritual perspective. Seeing the spiritual opportunity and the sovereignty
of God. It reminds me of the 12 spies
that went out for Israel to spy out the land before crossing the Jordan the first
time. (Numbers 13) The majority of
the spies only saw danger, from their mortal perspective. But two, Joshua and Caleb, saw
opportunity. Israel chose not to enter the
land and wandered in the desert for 40 years, until the disobedient generation
had died. Boy, that sounds harsh doesn’t
it.
There is point that must not be missed. Often times we treat spiritual opportunities
as optional. We can refuse now and do something
later, with no consequence. Those spiritual opportunities are direction from
God, but we dismiss them in the face of our fears and doubts, our lack of faith
and devotion. Let me put it in perspective. (James
4:17) “ …. to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to
him it is sin.” We prefer to think of it
as a choice .. it is, disobedience is a choice, the wrong choice.
There is a story in Matthew
19:16-22 about a young man who approached Jesus desiring to prove that he
was right before God. In verse 21 “Jesus
said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the
young man heard that saying, he went
away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” Jesus essentially told him, “Get rid of
everything you have put your faith, love and devotion in and follow Me” The young man went away sad. You see, it’s not the “thing” that is the
problem, it is the devotion to the “thing” that is the problem. To love God with all your heart, every facet
of your being, (Matthew 22:37-38) means
that if He says, leave what you have and go, that is what you do. Trusting that He will provide, because He WILL
provide. The problem is not in God’s
reliability. The problem is in your
faith-ability.
So we went to Haiti, and God showed up. We crossed the Jordan. One last thing. When Martie and I were considering starting
Pathfinder Mission when we had been in Mississippi for about 3 months, we talked
with my mom about it. God was
calling. What would be our answer. She said “Charley, the river Jordan did not
back up until they stepped into the water.” (Joshua 3:15-17)
In other words. Obey God even
when those with no faith or little faith will think that you are “crazy”. CHARLEY
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