The missions of God are sometimes not on carriages of gold. Not always might a divine ride seem pleasant. Sometimes the safest way might be through the dusty path; and ‘destination’ is not the same for everyone even on the same road. If we should judge divine approval solely by the pleasures of the ride we could miss some rides to Paradise. Jonah rode in the slimy belly of an underwater ‘machine’ that God had sent to transport him to Nineveh. It was no pleasant ride. He called it an “affliction,” and it made him cry (Jonah 2:2), yet it took him to Nineveh where destiny was forever to announce his name. It is true, though, that if he had not missed his first call, if he had not chosen first to flee, he might have had a better ride on a calmer sea than under it in the belly of a fish.
The Preacher's Diary
A STRANGE SOUND IN A GOOD SEASON
Some prominent prophecies could be immediately annoying, being clearly at odds with the people and place to which they seem directed. It therefore happens that the proclaimers of such prophecies get readily tagged as false or fake prophets because what they predicted didn’t come to pass as generally expected.
Sadly, sometimes, the error in such cases is not in the prophet but in the hearers who had assumed an interpretation because they felt sure that the prophecy was clearly understood. A long time ago, a prophet called Zephaniah was there, as the following scripture would reveal:
CRITICAL LANDMARKS FOR DIVINE APPOINTMENTS
- Finding Mr Mark
There is no proper Christian who has never prayed for divine direction, because we always want to make the right choice – in marriage, career, housing, business, travels, etc. We ask God for guidance because we do not know the best way. Unfortunately, we frequently miss our way because we often fail to heed provided landmarks. Sometimes the misses are so painful that they leave us with the nagging sadness as of a highly favoured team that missed a decisive penalty in the dying seconds of a very crucial game.
When one guides another, it is traditional to give directions with recognizable indications, so that the other can tell where they have reached when they see those indications or landmarks. For example, you might say to a stranger seeking direction, “To get to Mr Mark’s house, take the second street left, where you find a tall mango tree. Walk about a minute down that street to the Catholic cathedral to your right, then take the road opposite it. Walk down two minutes until you get to the tall telecommunication mast. The green-roof bungalow next to it is his house.” The landmarks are: second street left, tall mango tree, Catholic cathedral, telecommunication mast, green-roof bungalow. If any of those landmarks should be missing at the indicated place, there is bound to be confusion, delay, frustration, or even a termination of the trip. It is one thing to obey instructions and walk in a given direction, it is another to find the landmarks.
WHEN YOU FIGHT YOUR HELPER UNKNOWN…
1. Boomerangs
Sometimes we think to hurt the other person when we deliberately do them wrong, but it occasionally happens that we only hurt ourselves, at times painfully and irreversibly so. Regrets then follow realisation, but sometimes too late, especially when obstinate ego has joined hands with our purposeful cruelty.
I watched a short video recently, which was said to have been based on a real life story. A man was driving to answer an emergency when he got stopped at a police checkpoint, the type that Nigerians would mischievously call a ‘tollgate.’ He told the officers that he was a doctor, that there was an emergency, and that he was actually a “moving ambulance.” They were callously adamant. They kept asking stupid questions and making veiled threats. It seemed obvious that they wanted something else.
SNAKES FROM GOD
- Stubborn Pasts
Sometimes at the nervous bends on the journey of life, we bring upon ourselves silly troubles that inevitably leave sad reminders of a foolish past. In other words, the wrong past does not always leave us without consequences.
On their journey from bondage in Egypt to freedom in Canaan, the Israelites felt so “discouraged” with the journey that they got reckless with their lips and “spake against God, and against Moses.” As consequence, “the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died” (Numbers 21:4-6). Maybe they supposed, like some of us do, that the pressures at the time gave them a license to be unruly with their tongues. They had to unlearn that the unforgettable way.
AN ENEMY IN OUR PALACES
And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.
Micah 5:5
- The Subtle Comer
First, “into our land”; then, “in our palaces”: the Assyrian, the enemy. He has his eyes ultimately on your palaces when he begins so ‘peacefully’ to enter your land. The enemy you welcome into your space might sooner be your ruler. Too late then to cast him out. He shall have become too strong for you.
Into the land, he ‘comes’; in the palaces, he ‘treads.’ The coming might be peaceful and touristic, but the treading certainly thoughtless and audacious. Plan. Strategy. Time.
Into your sanctuary he comes as donor, as deacon, or even as a most willing janitor; then he proceeds to tread your prided palaces, your altars, your souls. Into your home he comes as hardworking helper and friend, then when he has stolen hearts enough, like tricky Absalom (2 Samuel 15:6), in the hallowed throne-room and bedroom he treads (Acts 16:16-19; Judges 16:15-17).
O God, open our eyes. And we hereafter shut the gates against him. Amen.
REDISCOVERING CYRUS (Part 2 of 2)
- NO LYING POLITICAL PROMISES
King Cyrus did not make political promises that were never to be fulfilled. He followed up his Temple-Project promises with practical implementation, much unlike the popular politician today. For example, he restored to the cause of that Temple Project such precious resources as the treasures of gold and silver that his other-godly predecessors had confiscated from that holy place (Ezra 1:7-11). Not only did he fulfil his personal promises of support to the Temple Project at Jerusalem, he personally made a proclamation encouraging other citizens to support that same Project that himself had publicly identified with. If that is Cyrus, may he rule a thousand tenures.
REDISCOVERING CYRUS (Part 1 of 2)
1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
2 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Ezra 1:1-3; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23.
- WHO WAS CYRUS?
Cyrus, that is one name commonly conjured by apologists as a metaphor for the sanctified outsider that should rule over the skeptical remnants in the land. Who was Cyrus? You probably were better taught at Sunday school than some of us, so have never been shaken by such good names often shopped to cloth stark villains. Follow me.
There is a Place …
Moses sought an encounter with God. In response, God said to him, “Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock …” (Exodus 33:21). That specific place “upon the rock” was going to be the place of the requested encounter. Why didn’t God do it where they were already having the conversation?
Don’t Try this at Home
Moses asked to see the glory of God. God told him that his request was beyond mortal capacity, “for there shall no man see me, and live.” However, God was going to oblige him the rare experience, so He asked Moses to go stand at a particular spot, somewhere “upon a rock … And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by” (Exodus 33:20-23). In other words, God was saying to him, “I will take you up and put you in a cleft, a crack in the rock, then cover you with my hand while I pass by, until you can see only my back when I am far gone.”
