Today's Devotional

September 8, 2005

Subject:  When Life Comes Into Focus

John 12:40 - "He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them."

Aren't you glad that God doesn't show us the picture clearly from the beginning?  I think He just temporarily blinds us sometimes for our own good.  If he showed us everything up front, we would most likely run away in disbelief that He could pull off most of the things that He plans to do with us.  It's like the focus lens on a camera.  We often can sort of see a fuzzy image of what God is doing, but then just a little turn of the knob or a push of the button and we can finally see it clearly.  Now we know what it really looks like.  Well God's doing the lens work for me these days.  Here's how:

Okay so "my" plans were to retire from the Marine Corps and try to do my Charleston Plan full time and spend more time working in the ministry at the church that my brother pastors.  Long story short, for awhile it appeared that we might lose the entire church property to someone else attempting to buy it.  That would not have destroyed the church of course, but it would've caused us to move or whatever.  I was mostly upset that I was finally going to be able to work at the church every week by moving to Texas and just like that, it was going to be gone.  In the meantime, you know about my High School JROTC job.  I was taking it because it entailed working with kids and it was close to my mom and dad's house.  I started the job and was not motivated.  I felt that I should be doing something completely different, such as the church.  

Then one day out of nowhere, the owner of the property shows up the church and says that he will meet with me and gives me until the 15th of September to come up with the money to purchase the church and he will sell it to me.  So how does this all tie together and give me focus?  Well I was upset about the job but it is "very, very" good money.  God, through the employment, was providing the means by which we could acquire the property to do what we want to do; worship God.  It began to come into focus when I went to the owner of the property to see him about donating the community center (one of the properties that I will attempt to purchase by Sep 15) to our church so that we could host Hurricane Katrina victims in the facility.  He responded with a very ugly remark about the victims and I seethed with righteous anger that he would be that uncaring about people.  So from that day on, about a week ago, I've been praying that God would give me that property so that we can help others with it.  

Because God has slowly focused the lens and things are now coming into view, I go to work each day, motivated, knowing that the money I work to earn  has purpose in the God's grand plan for His kingdom.   Yes it will cost me a lot of cash, but tomorrow I follow up this devotional with another that says it's okay to have "Debt With A Purpose."     

Carlen