One of the Ballarat radio stations have segments throughout the day where they play short segments of stand up comedians. Some of these are really quite funny, some are just funny and some are not. I remember hearing one comedian remark that they always found it interesting when they watched the original Star Trek that despite claiming to "Boldly go where no man has gone before" everywhere Kirk, Spock and the rest of them went, there always appeared to be men (and women) there already.
I remembered this point the other night as I was driving home listening to a podcast from one of my favourite authors and speakers, Erwin McManus at Mosaic. It was kind of a side point to his message, but Erwin was talking about how he thought it a bit odd for people to say that they are taking God to a place, because God is already in that place and is moving there already.
This got me thinking a bit.
It never ceases to amaze me how God has moved in my life. On the rarest occasion I am very aware of God directing me specifically in certain ways, ways that require me to make specific conscious decisions and changes. At other times, I am aware of God being active and involved in my life, but my response needs to be one of continued obedience, keeping on doing what I know God wants and being patient and allowing God to work the rest of it out. And then there are times where I look back and am amazed at how incredibly involved God has been in my life, even at times where I wasn't overly aware of it.
If in my own life God has been active without me being aware of it, how much more is he active in the world without many, many more being aware of it??!!
Christian theology talks about preceding or preveninent grace, the grace that God has prepared far in advance that allows us to enter into relationship with Him. Thomas Oden of Drew University defines prevenient grace as, "...the grace that begins to enable one to choose further to cooperate with saving grace. By offering the will the restored capacity to respond to grace, the person then may freely and increasingly become an active, willing participant in receiving the conditions for justification. (thanks to wikipedia)" So even before we choose to accept, believe or even acknowledge Gods existence, God is going before us and preparing the way for us to enter into a relationship with Him.
Throughout the book of Acts, we see many instances where God had prepared the ground for the apostles to reveal Him to others. I think of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, Peter with Cornelius and his household, the conversion of Saul who changed his name to Paul and how this Paul revealed to the Athenians the true God through a statue in their city dedicated to an unknown God.
I am without a doubt that God has prepared the way for us to share with others our faith and allow God to reveal Himself to them. And if God has gone before us, and is preparing the way, who are we to sit back and not go??
What could possibly stop us?
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2 comments:
Nice blog Joel. It is sometimes difficult to think that people outside of the church could hear God. We as Christians get precious about OUR God. We think WE MUST take God to people, when really God is already there and maybe we don't have to do or say anything. He will do it all.
Hey Anonymous,
Thanks for your response. I think I wrote a blog a while ago about the concept of God being our god. The fact is that God is not ours but that we are His.
I agree that God is already moving in peoples lives, but I do not think that this excuses or allows us to do nothing. We still have a responsibility to share with others what we beleive and to assist them as they seek God and as He reveals Himself to them. You never know, it might be your actions or words that are the last step in someone seeing God revealed in their life.
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