Romans 8:28
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Oftentimes when we think of God's will, we think about what God wants a person to do for the rest of their life. For instance, God's will for my life is to be an evangelist. Most people think of God's will as vocational, but God's will is more than that.
Acts 9:27
"But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus."
It was a forty-five minute session in which my dog and I went round and round until finally temporary success was achieved. I was training my dog to get into the down position, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Forty-five minutes later, she had succeeded three times in a row to obey the command to go down. In spite of the constant failures, I envisioned a dog that would immediately obey my command in spite of all the antics she performed. Today, she has no qualms about going into the down position when commanded. This would have never happened if I was short-sighted with her failures.
Acts 8:29
"Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot."
Philip must have wondered why God wanted him to leave a great revival meeting in Samaria to go to the desert. You would think that God would be pleased with those being saved in Samaria, but what didn't make sense with Philip certainly made complete sense to God. What Philip did not know at the timing of God's command to go to the desert was that there was a man who needed to be saved in the desert. Had Philip resisted the leading of the Holy Spirit, this great soul-winning experience that we all enjoy reading would have never happened.
John 18:10
"Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus."
Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying with His disciples, when a band of men came to take Him by force. When one of the servants of the high priest moved to arrest Jesus, Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of this servant. There is no doubt that Peter was angry for more than one reason. He was angry because Judas Iscariot was with the crowd who wanted to kill Jesus. He was also angry because this servant wanted to take his master to have him killed. Yet, though Jesus knew all this, He told Peter to put his sword in the sheath.
John 13:2
"And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;"
We often taken for granted the lives of those whom we are often around. Because someone is relatively healthy and they are going about their normal daily business, we oftentimes take for granted that we will see them later though we are not guaranteed this will happen. If we knew when would be the last time we would see someone, we would get the most out of our last time together.
The 10/26/14 FBC Hammond bulletin is up at Baptist City.