Pawns?

I was thinking of the story of Job last night.  All my life I always focused on the story, the main theme.  Job losses everything, gets sick, dialog's with friends, and finally God and him have a chat.  But, look at the beginning of the story.  Satan comes to God and asks God to remove protection from Job and He does.  Why?  Well, it is to make a point that Job will not leave God.  Due to God removing protection, people are killed - Jobs whole family.  They did nothing wrong, they may have been believers is God - but to make a point...they are allowed to be killed.

The question I have is this...are we pawns in the cosmic struggle between God and Satan?  Look at Judas.  Scripture hints that this was his destiny from the beginning - this is what he was born to do...a pawn without a choice?

And the last thing I will leave with you...if God allowed Satan to kill innocent people to make a point...was this not murder?  Just a thought.

Direction

There was a time when I believe, and lived, that the church was the one place that would give a person direction.  What I have found out working inside and outside the church, the church itself has lost direction and is lost.  Now, I believe the church can be a great place to socialize with those you know, but when it comes to truly offering directions for a person...no.  The one place that should offer hope to a person who is lost, most often condemns and shuns those on the outside.  They pump up the idea that outreach is the focus for why they exist, but being a Director of Christian Outreach for 18 years....that idea is false.  They spend time and money to revamp and reorganize the church with the outreach banner being waved, when really the focus is all about the members there and what they want.

So, where do you go to get direction?  Do you need a church to tell you?  No.  True direction comes from seeking out God and where He sees you going.  It is time for us to come out of the box and see God for who He really is and what He expects of each of us.  Also, each of us (me included) need to really take off our blinders and see the people around us and see them as the ministry and refocus our attention on the truly lost and stop thinking the "church" will do it.  It is time to step out from behind the walls, and GO to those who are lost instead of WAITING for them to come to us.

Hopes & Dreams...

I was watching another WWII documentary on Auschwitz concentration camp and there was an image of a ditch that had been dug for mass executions.  They showed the ditch, which was full of dead bodies of Jews that had been shot and the next image that came across the screen I will never forget.  It was one of a mom with her two children standing waiting to be shot.  One of the children had their head turned looking into the ditch of all the dead bodies.  The expression on this little 6 year old face was one of fear and shock as she knew what was about to happen.  I had to pause the film due to shock, sadness, and anger...and thought, what was going through this little girls mind?  All the hopes and dreams this little girl had would soon end due to the hate of another.  


I wonder how many of us have had our hopes and dreams destroyed.  We have forgotten those hopes and dreams that once fired us up, and now we have just "settled" with life the way it is.  I once asked a good friend of mine to write a skit based on this.  The skit was called "Pancake Dreams."  The lead character had such hopes and dreams, but as certain events in his life smash his dreams like a pancake, he looses all hope and vision for the future - he just....settles.  


I wonder, how many of us have forgotten to sit back and just....dream and regain the hope that was lost in our lives? 

Hope?

We have been taught, you can be anything you want to be.  I have found this to be, for the most part, false.  There are so many factors that limit what you can be such as money, location, social status, personal appearance, age, etc.  I believe most of us have lost hope in the future and thus we settle for mediocrity.  Once you loose hope, you loose the drive to succeed and the push to become the person you think you should be.

So many of us have become so focused on just getting through the day that there is little time to think about the future.  Even if you are able to glimpse at the future...it does not look bright.  Most of us only see the storm that is barring down on us and we go back into the mode of only dealing with our day to day activities.

Have I lost hope, for the most part....yes.

 

Another day....

I sat last night watching WW2 in HD on netflix, and an clip of a child squatting next to the road shaking came up.  What caught my attention was her eyes.  They were staring off into space...she looked like she was not even there...she looked.....lost.  As I sat there, I wondered how that child's life turned out.  Did she die in the war? Did she survive?  If she did how was her life after the war?  Did she remain lost?

The image really made me think and wonder, how many people in this world are lost?  How many people get up day after day, and go off to their daily routine with not much change.  Their minds on constant hold with little or no stimulation.  No drive or push to become something different.  Honestly, I am one of those people...I am among the daily living lost.

I look out my office window and wonder, is there more?