WHEN THE CHURCH REACHES OUT; BUT IT DOESN'T KNOW WHERE

Stability is quite a respected word among us.  Yet, it's strength can almost be anti-progress for a congregation because solid footing by man's measurement isn't the nature of the Kingdom of God.  Therefore, conflict may be inadvertently imposed within the very center of our activities for we are, of many things, craving for better organization.  Going where one doesn't know where he or she is going appears to be very questionable leadership logic.  It is the format, though, of faith.  So often it would rather seem that to go where we don't know where we are going would seem more likely to fit the path of a fool; not the attentive process of one bent upon sturdy information.

It is at this juncture that the church must decide whether to be aligned to the quite risky Word of the Lord or to the assumed understandable words on the street.  Shall we enter the absurd or the sensible?Not so strangely, even the church tends to opt for what we can measure in our own understanding.

In the fascinating chapter of the book of Hebrews, a very strange comment is made regarding God's famous leader of all faith.  By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.  For me, this truth will never lose its edge.  To move out in clueless fashion has to be anything but reasonable.  Senseless?  Yes.  Ignorant?  Feels that way.  True faith?  Seems unlikely.

Christians live in the midst of the bizarre.  Singing songs into the air, expressing words that we believe are to make a difference through a thing called prayer, or to truly accept the story of a man dying on the Cross and returning three days later is anything but sensible.  To believe that placing money into a passing plate actually anticipates a response from our Invisible God, to much of the world, is one of the dumbest things of which they may have ever heard.

So be reminded my friend that the Bible isn't just another book of creative bedtime stories.  It is the fervent call of God for our hearts to go into an actual zone of deep uncertainty.  Granted, repeating the absurd stories like seas parting or food multiplying can eventually take on a theme of fantasy; not reality.  Yet, reality is absolutely God's quest for each of us.  And this strange activity is where...precisely the ground...you and I experience Divine movement.

We are called to go out on mission for God when we don't have the capacity to foresee, foreknow, or fore-conclude.  We.  Don't.  Know.  We simply go watching for His provision and supply.  This, my friend, leaves us quite vulnerable day by day.  We can't measure how we are doing.  We can't even know where we are going.  God knows.  We want to make effort to follow.  When it comes to Kingdom matters, calculation of the how is rarely the starting point.