What did he mean by that?! It sounds like the Christian's worst nightmare! "If I give my heart to God, He'll send me to Africa as a missionary!"
Bill Hybels cleared it up, last week, at this year's Summit. He asked, "What precedes vision?"He, then, shared about Moses seeing the Egyptian guard beating the Hebrew slave, and hearing the sounds of the blows. Moses dealt with it in anger, and slew the Egyptian, which led to his expulsion from Egypt.
Forty years later, God came to Moses at the burning bush, and said, " I have seen and heard the same things that you have seen and heard, and I don't like it either. I'm going to send you to do something about it."Hybels shared his experience in watching Saturday morning cartoons with Popeye, and reminded us of Popeye's frustration, when he would say, "It's all I can stand; I can't stands no more!" That's when he would eat the spinach and conquer the enemy!
John Perkins told us at a Transform Indiana meeting last year that when God calls us to a vision, He calls to see and hear what He sees and hears. It's interesting to compare the callings of Moses, Joshua, and Nehemiah. Each is different, but each contains an aspect of seeing and hearing. Jesus talked a lot about seeing & hearing.Hybels presented examples of David & Goliath, Nehemiah, Martin Luther King, and Bob Pierce of World Vision. Each one had a "defining moment" when he saw and heard something that he couldn't stand. The frustration led to a vision to solve the problem.
Bill Hybel's "defining moment" came when he invited a high school friend to his church, and his friend was "wrecked" because he was not accepted at a church that "didn't give a rip for those who were far from God." It led Bill to a vision of a church that could turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.This caused me to reflect on what I can't stand, and what my " defining moments" were. I was impacted by the polls that George Barna's organization did, that showed that Christians don't act any different than non-Christians. That has really disturbed me, because Jesus Christ transformed my life! From the moment that I accepted His death on the cross for my sins, personally, my life changed! I've never been the same! Over the past 35 years, the Holy Spirit has continually transformed me "by the renewing of my mind."
God gave me a vision for transformed lives in Indiana that has led to the formation of Transform Indiana, a coalition of ministries and individuals that are focused on the transformation of lives, families, neighborhoods and communities. The focus of CBMC Indiana is on the transformation of lives through Operation Timothy, life-on-life discipleship.Another thing I can't stand, is the barriers that exist between churches. We are to be the body of Christ, but "the fingers and the toes" are always f ighting with each other. Ken Blanchard said, at last week's summit, that we have a terrible marketing plan for selling Jesus. Each church ought to be a "franchise" to sell the same product. We should be partnering with each other against the competition - all the worldly options for our time, talent, and treasure. Instead, churches look at each other as the competition.
It would appear that most pastors thought, when they read Nehemiah, that he said, "Build a silo around your house." Instead, he said, "Work together with the people close to your house, to build a wall around the whole city." That's what we are trying to achieve with Transform Indiana - for each person, each church, each ministry to work with each other, to build the wall around each community in Indiana - to work together to solve the problems that affect all of us.Now I understand what TD Jakes was talking about. The things that frustrate us the most, the things we can't stand, are the problems God is calling us the solve.