Good Work Perfect

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6

Every now and then I get on a role where I give God my best effort and the results don’t pan out the way I think they should.

When I was young, I went on a local mission trip. The goal was to take the Gospel to every door in a small city.  We spent a couple days learning the right way to present the Gospel.  Then we were paired up and sent out to do door to door evangelism.  My partner and I spent a week having doors slammed in our faces.  The last hour of the last day we were rejoicing that our ordeal would soon be over.

Then we knocked on a door and a teenage boy answered.  We gave our speech about how we were going door to door to invite people to a new church and then we worked our way into the Roman’s road to salvation.  When we finished, we asked the critical question, “Would you like to ask Jesus to be your Savior?” 

The young man said, “Yes.”  And, we prayed with him.

We could hardly contain our joy that at last our work bore fruit.  We gave the young man a Bible and an invitation to Church. 

Years later I realized that all those slammed doors represented seeds of the Gospel, which might later grow as others came after us and presented the Gospel. 

The work we thought was not perfect was part of God’s plan and God used us to help perfect it. 

God Is One Up On Us

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9

My five year old granddaughter was standing on the bathroom scale and I asked her what she was doing.  She said, “I’m measuring my feet."

That’s the way we are with God.  We watch what God is doing and we think know what He is doing, and then it turns out that God is doing is something entirely different.  And, that something is a hundred times better than anything we anticipated. 

God is on our side and He has something far better planned for us than anything we can imagine. 

The Lord Surrounds His People

Those who trust in the Lord

Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,

So the Lord surrounds His people

From this time forth and forever.

Psalm 125:1-2

The Bond of Peace

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1-3

The Apostle Paul urges us to declare a cease fire in the church.  No more squabbling about the color of the carpet or if we have donuts and coffee before Sunday school or other stuff that makes us look petty and weak.

We are called to fight evil in the world, not each other.  To this end, we are urged to tolerate one another in humility.  This means we do not blindly and selfishly demand our own way, but consider how it is we are to behave in order to preserve our unity as Christians. 

When we show humility, gentleness, patience, and tolerance for one another, we demonstrate that we are joined in a bond of peace.

And, when joined, we are a mighty army for God.