Having a vision for the future can be easy since we (think we) understand current realities and realistic probabilities. Recognizing God's vision is another matter entirely. Typically we're blind to what God is doing, and the scriptures make that clear in two familiar stories.
The selection of David to be anointed as Israel's next king portrays God's prophet Samuel struggling to figure out what it is that God wants in the next monarch.
God provides Samuel with a workable ruse to go out to visit Jesse's people in Bethlehem, dodging the paranoid wackiness of current King Saul, which has also made Jesse's people wary of the visitor from the royal court. Yes, God helped Samuel lie. Get over it.
Then there is a "beauty contest" of sorts as the mature sons of Jesse, seven in all, take the runway for Samuel's evaluation. Samuel is thoroughly impressed, but God is not moved - not with any of them. God reminds Samuel that the criterion is within - a matter of heart and spirit - not in outward appearances. Boy David isn't even in the lineup, yet he's the one to be chosen. (Even the text's editor screws up the criterion; talk about blind!)
In John's gospel, the ever unfolding story of the healing of the blind man turns from the blindness of the beggar to the blindness of everyone to what Jesus is doing and who Jesus is. It gets quite comical. Finally, Jesus tells the once-blind man exactly who he is.
God is plenty active in all our lives and the lives of those around us. Check out the sermon video below and note the downloads available as you consider a vision test for what God is doing in and around you.
The selection of David to be anointed as Israel's next king portrays God's prophet Samuel struggling to figure out what it is that God wants in the next monarch.
God provides Samuel with a workable ruse to go out to visit Jesse's people in Bethlehem, dodging the paranoid wackiness of current King Saul, which has also made Jesse's people wary of the visitor from the royal court. Yes, God helped Samuel lie. Get over it.
Then there is a "beauty contest" of sorts as the mature sons of Jesse, seven in all, take the runway for Samuel's evaluation. Samuel is thoroughly impressed, but God is not moved - not with any of them. God reminds Samuel that the criterion is within - a matter of heart and spirit - not in outward appearances. Boy David isn't even in the lineup, yet he's the one to be chosen. (Even the text's editor screws up the criterion; talk about blind!)
In John's gospel, the ever unfolding story of the healing of the blind man turns from the blindness of the beggar to the blindness of everyone to what Jesus is doing and who Jesus is. It gets quite comical. Finally, Jesus tells the once-blind man exactly who he is.
God is plenty active in all our lives and the lives of those around us. Check out the sermon video below and note the downloads available as you consider a vision test for what God is doing in and around you.
| 03-26-17-ff-answers.pdf |
| 03-26-17-blind_to_what_god_is_doing.pdf |