Count Down: 14 Days

I leave for Japan in two weeks. Before I go to Japan, I will be in MN for two days for training. So, really, I will be leaving Wichita in two weeks. I am going to try and post every day about something that God has been teaching me. We'll see how this works.

Today I am going to post something from the devotion book that I have been reading to prepare for my trip.

From Gospel Meditations for Missions Day 9

Romans 8:28

            And we know God causes everything to work together for those who love Gad and are called according to his purpose.

            But [Paul’s] plans kept changing. There were obstacles. Like stonings. Team conflict. Traveling mobs. They know they would face persecution, but never know when, or where, or what, or from whom.

            …But we misuse the text (Romans 8:28) as a cliché: Whenever someone loses a job, or has a finder bender, several church members are bound to quip, ‘All things work together.’… That all may be true, but it’s not the point of the verse.

            Let’s not cheapen Romans 8:28 by confining it to the temporal or making it all about us. God is at work in all things to conform us to the image of His son (Romans 8:29).  This inner transformation demands missional outflow, seeing that we are conforming to the One who is constantly seeking the lost.  Paul’s interpretation of ‘all things work together for good’ was not some vague hope of a better situations in the future, nor a passive acknowledgement that someday he might understand the sovereign patchwork….but Paul focused and acted upon one explanation of which he was certain: God sends the saved people to the lost people, and He wants them to preach the Gospel….

            Paul shows us how to see and seize opportunities with confidence in God’s control over events—not for a nebulous ‘good,’ but for the specific good of Gospel advance. It’s like getting new eyes to see the Gospel designs in our seasons of pain or frustration. In the middle of your affliction, with whom can you share Christ?  

The ‘good’ God promises may be a lower paying job with a lost coworker that has been ripening for harvest. A Cornelius. An Ethiopian eunuch. A woman at the well. What if God is choosing you as his messenger, right now, right here?  Your hardship is for God’s glory. And for the coworker’s good. And, if you love God, for your good, too.

…He loves unfurling His glorious Gospel. Because God is ordering your steps, because He is on a grand campaign to draw people to Himself, and because he wants you to proclaim the Gospel, therefore, you can safely assume that the weird, painful, or frustrating things that just happened must certainly have something to do with the Gospel expansion….

God’s yellow pad is smarter than yours. Detours provide new networks to spread the message of eternal joy. For Gospel-centered, God-loving people, what could be better?