President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot twice in the chest and once in the stomach
Scripture "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea." (Exodus 13:17,18)
Observation
"The shortest distance between to points is a straight line." That's what I was always taught in mathematics anyway. But even though it might be the shortest line, it may not always be God's preferred line.
He took the Israelites through a circuitous route, snaking through the hot sands of the deserts of the Sinai. Taking a straight line would have taken them a couple of years. God's route took them forty.
Why? Because His goal is not arrival. It is likeness. If it were arrival, then as soon as we would have gotten saved, He would have killed us. Now we are in heaven! Straight line. Quick trip. Arrival.
If arrival was His plan, then communities and nations should be transformed overnight for all the prayers and ploughing that we bring to the land.
But it is LIKENESS. That is His goal. Romans 8:29 tells us this: "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son."
That's the reason for the long route.
He took the Israelites through a circuitous route, snaking through the hot sands of the deserts of the Sinai. Taking a straight line would have taken them a couple of years. God's route took them forty.
Why? Because His goal is not arrival. It is likeness. If it were arrival, then as soon as we would have gotten saved, He would have killed us. Now we are in heaven! Straight line. Quick trip. Arrival.
If arrival was His plan, then communities and nations should be transformed overnight for all the prayers and ploughing that we bring to the land.
But it is LIKENESS. That is His goal. Romans 8:29 tells us this: "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son."
That's the reason for the long route.
Application
How often we want God to move faster. Promote me faster. Bless me sooner. Develop me quicker. Fix the problem earlier. Change my wife more rapidly!
But God takes His time! It seems like that anyway. I guess in the meantime, He is doing something eternal in me... of character development, leadership skills, virtue building ... actually everything I wanted God to do in the first place! But the best qualities can only be found in the sands, not on the highways. And the best lessons don't suddenly appear. They eventuate. They don't come by Fedex. They come by slow boat.
Monday morning. News arrived that East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Harto was shot, twice in the chest and once in the stomach. Now, for yet another time, the nation seems to go round in circles. When will this end? When will all our efforts to see positive change in East Timor be realized? Why doesn't God move faster?
Yet in His sovereign plan, God has allowed this. He has purposes that cannot be thwarted. He has His reasons that are higher than our understanding. And God is after something more eternal and more permanent in all these - He is deepening the nation and building the church. God knows what He is about!
But God takes His time! It seems like that anyway. I guess in the meantime, He is doing something eternal in me... of character development, leadership skills, virtue building ... actually everything I wanted God to do in the first place! But the best qualities can only be found in the sands, not on the highways. And the best lessons don't suddenly appear. They eventuate. They don't come by Fedex. They come by slow boat.
Monday morning. News arrived that East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Harto was shot, twice in the chest and once in the stomach. Now, for yet another time, the nation seems to go round in circles. When will this end? When will all our efforts to see positive change in East Timor be realized? Why doesn't God move faster?
Yet in His sovereign plan, God has allowed this. He has purposes that cannot be thwarted. He has His reasons that are higher than our understanding. And God is after something more eternal and more permanent in all these - He is deepening the nation and building the church. God knows what He is about!
Prayer
Lord, please change my inner stopwatch to Yours. I think mine runs far too fast. It needs some adjustment so I can stay in step with you and not frustrate myself. You know what you are about. Your plans stand forever and the purposes of your heart to the generations. Amen!
