Perspectives: Day Two

Well, after an amazing blessing, I am now able to attend Perspectives, which was looking pretty doubtful before. So I am now officially taking the course! The second class was last night, so I thought I'd write some about it.

After worship and prayer, which were awesome, we started off with a simple, fun game to get everyone active and interested. And awake. Then we dug into the message, "The Story of His Glory." The speaker started with a question: Who is the main character of each of the following stories? He described the story of Elisha and the ax head that floated, the story of the old man Simeon in the temple who first recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the story of David and Goliath. But even though we knew the characters' names, we had left out the main character: God. God is the main character of the entire Bible, no matter who else is involved. The entire Bible is about God, and serves to glorify Him.

As believers in Christ by faith, we are sons of Abraham. Because God blessed Abraham and made him a blessing to the entire world, we too are "blessed to be a blessing." We are to serve others with God's glory in mind at all times.

The way the speaker explained the process of glorification, the Bible consists of a set of two opposite motions, which he described in two different ways: believers go out into the world, preaching the gospel, and non-believers come into the church to hear the gospel (centrifugal and centripetal force); God reveals His glory to the nations so that the nations will glorify Him (glory came down so that glory would be sent up).

I had some trouble organizing everything from the night into one complete thought, but hopefully the textbook will help clear that up. But right now I just want to mention a few of the uncategorized thoughts the speaker threw at us. He gave two quotes from John Piper that summed up the theme of "The Story of His Glory" really well: "Missions exists because worship doesn't," and, "Worship is the fuel and the goal of missions." We exist to serve others and bring them to know Christ because people don't know Christ. It seems obvious, but if it's so obvious, why don't we do something about it? We exist to bring glory and praise to God: God's glory is our fuel, our motivation for serving Him (after all, He deserves it), and our goal, the reason we serve Him, what we are trying to gain for Him.

Often when we have to make a decision, we want God to say in a booming voice from the sky, "Do this," or "Do that." But God rarely does that. Instead, as the speaker said, God tends to operate more using red lights than green lights. He closes doors to pathways that are clearly not His will, and leaves other doors open that are not sinful in and of themselves. He helps us realize our talents and skills, the things we enjoy in life, and He uses them to guide us in the right direction. But it's up to us to pick the door we feel God is leading us through. But here's the thing: whether or not the door we pick is the best one, God's will still remains. "There is a perfect will of God, but it's so perfect that you can't mess it up." Just because you picked one door when the other would have been a much better choice, God still has control in our lives and will continue to lead us in the right direction. After all, He already knows when, where, and how we'll mess up. Our failures can't foil God's plan.

The speaker used Gary Frieson's book Decision Making and the Will of God to give tips on how to realize God's will. Three simple questions: Is it moral? Is it wise? (Find out by receiving godly counsel, instead of figuring it out on your own.) What do I want to do? (To me, this sounds more like a question for deciding between career choices. Unfortunately, it didn't make the choice any easier.

The last point I can remember is that "God can override the normal." He parted the Red Sea, He brought water out of a rock in the desert, He led the Israelites with a cloud of smoke by day and a cloud of fire by night, he sent forty days of rain and a five-month flood after the land had been parched for years, He made a nation out of the ancient Abraham (who shouldn't have been able to produce any children at his age). He isn't bound by what makes sense.

One more thing: God more often chooses to partner with us than possess us. He gives us options, and we choose. Rather than saying, "Do this," He just leads us in the right direction and leaves us to choose to obey.

After intermission, the speaker, being of African-American descent, spoke about African-Americans in the mission field. The very first missionary from the United States was an African-American man. But now there are less than 500 black missionaries in the entire world! Through a complicated set of events, African-Americans have been discouraged to be missionaries by white people. So the second half of the class was a message to both blacks and whites: Blacks, rise up for God! Take a stand for the faith that defined you so strongly in the times of slavery! And to whites: Back off! Let them preach, "for whoever is not against us is for us" (Mark 9:40). But keep doing the work you are doing for God now. Man was not meant to work alone: men and women can partner together, so blacks and whites can too.

As the night wore on, the speaker closed with this question, so I'll end with it too: Will your life be a story of God's glory? Will His life be seen in yours, wherever you go, and in whatever you do?