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Jul 24, 2007
a sense of wonder Back in the spring of 2002, some of us who were preparing to launch FOCUS were meeting in the “green room” at UCC. As part of a devotional time, John Wentz had each of us read a verse that we had come across recently. My first thought went to Habakkuk 1:5, which I had read just a few days earlier, perhaps due to the fact that I was taking a class on prophetic literature at the time. Anyway, going back to 2000, I was struck off and on with the feeling that God was going to do something big. As we were planning FOCUS, John and I both had this feeling quite often. I suppose that it was with this background that reading Habakkuk 1:5 had jumped out at me in the way that it did. However, I initially chose not to share Habakkuk 1:5, opting instead for Romans 12:1-8, like a good worship leader should have. However, someone in the group made a comment that nobody was likely to be sharing from Habakkuk. I took it as a sign that that was the verse that I should have shared in the first place, and thus, I read the following: “Look at the nations and watch— And be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days That you would not believe, Even if you were told. (NIV) It’s a passage that some of us who were involved in the launch of FOCUS would refer to years after the fact, and occasionally it’s still something John and I refer to. Lots of amazing things have happened since then, but I don’t think that which I kept sensing has happened yet. It’s possible that it has, and that my limited view of things has kept me from realizing it. There were times, though, when I felt that were on the edge, about to jump into a major time of revival, only to back off or never quite reach our destination. I’ve mentioned that a couple of times in the past on this blog, particularly in the winter/spring of 2006. After that, I lost that feeling of anticipation. Again, I don’t know if it was a moment I missed, or one of those things where God just decided to move on, or if it was just a thing where my part was over and it was time for my next big challenge. So, fast forward to July, 2007. Yes, that’s this month. Back in my first weekend in Iowa, I went to church with one of the board members for the campus ministry here. Speaking that week was a guy who was preparing to leave to do mission work in the Middle East. Throughout his message, he talked a lot about many of the missionary efforts in the Middle East, most prominently the “Back to Jerusalem” movement. The “Back to Jerusalem” movement is a movement in the Chinese church. They have noticed that the movement of Christianity has gone westward, starting in Jerusalem, moving its way west throughout the Roman empire, then into Europe, then crossing the Atlantic into the America’s, and now it is quite prominent in East Asia. Tracing this movement, they see the spread continuing westward until it gets “back to Jerusalem.” So, it isn’t Jerusalem that is their target, rather, it’s everything between China and Jerusalem. It was really exciting to hear him talk about this movement, and just how God was working in China and the vision that has taken over the church there. Obviously, with the general distrust of white people in the Middle East, the Chinese have an opening that we may not have had. The reason I mention all of this, of course, is that Habakkuk 1:5 is one of the theme verses for “Back to Jerusalem.” I don’t know what all of this means, but as this verse came up again, on what was my first official day on staff here in Iowa, it has helped renew that sense of God planning something big. Given that I have had this feeling since 2000, one of the big things that I have learned is that I am going to have to be patient in seeing it fulfilled. posted
by Unknown @ 8:20:00 PM |
