Yet

Have you ever wanted something so bad that when it didn't happen for a while you stopped believing that it would?  Those kind of feelings are when the word YET comes into play and reminds us of the promises of God.

In Acts 7, Stephen was giving a history lesson to the Jewish council.  It escalated quickly as he gained momentum and began to basically call them murderers, which lead to his death, but I digress.

Early on in his speech Stephen reminds them that “Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.  But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and his descendants—even though he had no children yet. 

God had promised Abraham descendants — as many as the stars in the sky — and he had no children.   Such a strange promise — and for years, I’m sure that Abraham wanted to doubt God.  I wonder if there were times though, that in great faith, he said to Sarah — we don’t have any children …. yet.

What is it that God has promised you?  Have you added the word yet to your thoughts and statements about that promise.  You might want to because God keeps his promises.

(I know, I know.  I had visions of blogging more frequently, but my life is just.... very.... busy.  Work is so cool and energizing right now, but I have little energy left for much else.  Which is fine.  I like my life to count for something and Vision 30 and CarePortal are going to change the lives of children and families.... so I'm ok with that.  Can't wait to see how God is going to make this all amazing.

What Can We Learn from Manna

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In Exodus 16 we read about manna, God’s answer to the cries (and whines) of the people of Israel in the wilderness after all the miraculous ways God had delivered them from Egypt.   Manna was their morning food (quail came at night)

1. It would only come once a day —as soon as the dew dried up on the grass each morning.
2. People were only to gather it right away in the morning and not wait until later in the day.
3. They were to gather only as much as they could eat in one day and not save it over night.
4. The day before the Sabbath they could gather two days worth.

So of course there were people who obeyed those commands and their experience with manna was quite pleasant.  However, there were those who could not trust God enough for each day and left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank.  Ick.

While there are a bunch of lessons we can learn from manna, the one I want to emphasize today is the idea of trust and whether or not we view God’s provision through the lense of scarcity vs. abundance.   Contrast these two people’s stories:

1. I wake up every day awed by the miracle that God has given us in providing for our needs.  The manna across the camp each day is more than enough for what I will possibly need.  Some days I confess to overeating, because God has said that we can take as much as we can eat.  I am beyond grateful that I serve a God who cares about me and every single day gives me more than enough to get through that day.

2)   Hmmm.   God has said that he’s going to give us enough manna for today, but what if he doesn’t? What if it doesn’t come tomorrow and I go hungry?  Certainly he isn’t serious when he provides unlimited manna during the day that we should only take enough for a day?  I’m going to save some of mine for tomorrow.  if I hold on to it I can be sure that if God fails me tomorrow I won’t go hungry.  …. 

Person one always had enough manna and remained grateful.   Person two work up to a stinky wormy mess.   And my guess is that person two was one of those who was consistently complaining that he wanted to go back to Egypt where there were leeks and onions.

What do you need for God, just for today?   Can you be content in knowing He is giving you everything you need to make it …. one day at a time.

For your listening pleasure, my dad’s favorite (sung at his memorial service)

Or, if you'd rather, here's Keith Green’s song about this story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF7dsblm3_s

A Million Dreams

As you probably have heard, the subtitle or Mr. Day's book is  "An orphan, an orphanage, and a dream to make foster care obsolete."

This is Vision 30 and I'm leading the effort to get others to believe it's possible.  

It's not a surprise then that “every night, I lie in bed, The brightest colors fill my head, a million dreams are keeping me awake.  I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see, a million dreams is all it's gonna take…a million dreams for the world we're gonna make.”  

Can you envision a region where there is no need for foster care?  A place where communities are so healthy that families are healthy… thus no need for foster care?  If so, you’re one of the dreamers.

Because I’m weird like that, I did the math.  If only 273 people will dream with me (I will count myself as the .972603 person) every night for 10 years, that’s a million dreams.  And, according to the song, a million dreams is all it’s going to take.

As I start my Monday, I am praying for the courage that it takes to continue to talk about a dream when "they say it all sounds crazy and they say we’ve lost our minds".  To dream of a day when when, at least in my neighborhood, at list in my city and the surrounding counties, all kids are safe and families are strong.

Acts 2:17 says, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

I may not be that old, and I’m certainly not a man, but I’m dreaming those dreams.  I hope you will dream with me.