Declining Opportunity

King Saul seeks to kill David.  David hides in a cave with his armed men, and Saul walks in.

And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed.” So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul.

A second time, David had the opportunity to strike Saul down:

So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?” And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.”

When I was a younger man, God used to lead me more through opening and closing doors.  As I get older, I sense that God is allowing me to use my discernment to decide whether or not to seize an opportunity.

As my sense of mission and purpose becomes clearer, opportunities for jobs, for ministry become increasingly obvious about which will help accomplish the thing to which Christ has sent me.

Go!

"The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, 'Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.'"

(Acts of the Apostles)

Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.  He knew and understood the culture of his homeland.  Yet God intended for the followers of Jesus to be scattered across the face of the earth.  As Paul traveled with the message of the Lordship of Jesus to the principal cities of each Roman province, he begins to realize that the culmination of his ministry will be to help solidify and plant the Good News about Jesus in the capital of most of the world at the time.

Jerusalem to Rome.  What is my Jerusalem?  What is the Rome that Christ leads me to?

For me, my Jerusalem is the U.S. Army.  My Rome is San Antonio.

Servants Lead

"That the leaders took the lead in Israel,
     that the people offered themselves willingly,
     bless the Lord!"

"My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel
     who offered themselves willingly among the people.
     Bless the Lord!"

(Excerpts from the song of Deborah and Barak)

If Christ has commissioned us to go out and do something, we must go, offer ourselves willingly and take the lead.  Christ doesn't talk very much about leadership, but he has a lot to say about servanthood.  We serve others by leading them towards the goal he has set for us.