Easter Sunday Thoughts: Faith and Opportunity

I just wanted to thank Dustin for jumping in there and backing me up on the discussion about faith. He was not aware that he was going to be asked to that and he jumped in like the friend he is and helped. As I was thinking about the circumstance I thought that it might give me an opportunity to share about opportunities.

Opportunities with the Lord come in many different shapes and from many different directions. What we would consider as being an opportunity most of the time is not how the opportunities of God come about. Let me give you an example.

Let's consider the life of the Apostle Paul. He was raised as a Roman citizen but yet a Jew in a distant city from Jerusalem called Troas. We learn that somehow he came under the teachings of some of the greatest Jewish teachers of his time. When the church was in its infancy, we find Paul giving hearty support to the persecution of the church. Then he meets the resurrected Christ and is saved. God turns what appears to be a life that was bent on hindering the birthing of the church into a life full of all kinds of opportunities.

Do you think that Paul would have ever imagined that the relationships and information that he had gained about the workings and workers of the Jewish religion would be used to further the very think that he wanted to destroy, the church. Do you think that he ever imagined that his knowledge and awareness of the Old Testament Scripture would ever be empowered by the Spirit of God to write the majority of the Christian New Testament. That in his writings he would condemn the very people that he once embraced. Do you think that he would have ever considered these things that happened as being opportunities for him?

What about when God was preparing him to go to Rome, and he had him imprisoned in Caesarea, under the Roman leaders Felix and Festus. Do you think that he ever imagined that this was God's way of producing opportunity for him to witness to these Romans and in the end to get him to Rome.? Do you think that before getting to Rome and being imprisoned there, that Paul would have ever imagined that it was in this environment that God would produce opportunity for him to write letters like Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians?

We have many, many situations in the scripture that illustrates how the opportunities of God come to us in ways that are unexpected and sometimes in ways that we cannot understand. Sometimes also in ways that if given the choose we would have not chosen that way.

All of this precipitated out of me hanging a responsibility on Dustin this past Sunday that he did not expect. What opportunities came out of that or may come out of that, I do not know. I do know that this group has so many opportunities that if we take them there is no way to measure the potential impact on this world for Christ. You are a great group and I praise God for the opportunity you are in mine and Amy's lives. We are truly closer to God and His desire for our life as a result of you being brought into our path. We hope and pray that ours lives will be the same for you.

Just think what the possibilities are if we let God work in His ways. Ways that are impossible for us to imagine. Just as Paul would write, "On, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and unfathomable His ways." (Romans 11:33) What do you think God could be asking of us that we might see as difficult, but in reality it produces opportunity? Comments appreciated.