Expect Strange Things

“And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.” (Lu 5:26 AV)

Stick with Jesus, and you’ll see strange things every day!  The speakers are those who witnessed Jesus healing the lame man let down through the roof.  When Jesus was presented with the one lame at his feet, His initial response was to declare the man’s sin forgiven.  This stirred the self-righteous and unbelieving to their core.  Correctly assessing that only God could forgive sins, Jesus then stated the evidence of His right to forgive sins would be the healing of the lame man.  Jesus then instructed the ill to rise, take up his bed, and go home.  This he did, to the amazement of those assembled.  It was strange for two reasons.  Forgiveness of sins came from one who appeared wholly human.  Second, by the mere words of instruction, a man sick of lameness for a very long time was made as though he was never lame at all.  The point to be made is God does strange things for those who have faith that He can do strange things.

There was a time when preaching and looking for miracles from God was overdone.  Every event, no matter how significant or insignificant, was seen as a miracle from God.  They were taken as a sign of whatever comfort or choice was involved.  Pennies from heaven, a bird on a limb, a rainbow in the sky.  IT didn’t matter what it was.  Somehow, it was God doing something for someone, looking for anything that said God would do what was in their heart.  Every event was a sign of affirmation for whatever comfort the soul needed, even if the comfort they sought was misguided.  A penny from heaven was seen as a departed one safe in glory, regardless of their status with God.  It was so overblown we ceased to speak of God doing anything out of the ordinary.  We ceased to see the LORD in the rainbow, the bird, or the penny from heaven.  A few weeks ago, a Cooper’s Hawk was hunting a turtle dove right above my head.  This would not be strange if it was in a cornfield.  But it was in a downtown area of a city of 1.4 million people.  The wilderness came to me because I miss the outdoors.  God did that for me.  I saw a strange thing.

We are embarking on a radical change to our ministries and service schedule.  Times and organizational structures are changing.  Why?  Because God needs to do strange things.  God desires to do strange things.  God is waiting for those who will show faith in His name.  He is waiting for those who will believe that He can make a lame man walk.  He is waiting for those who will believe He can and will use a small little church in the heart of a large city to spread the word of salvation.  So much so that many will come to Christ.  God is looking for that individual, like David, who is crazy enough to believe that a giant can be slain by a simple stone from a sling.  He is looking for twelve men who truly believe the world will hear of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it started with them.  God is looking for those who still believe He is in the business of doing strange things.  May we be those people!