Monthly Archives: October 2021

Rise and Respond

Rise and Respond

I was reading in Acts 9 about when the Lord confronted Saul on his journey to Damascus. It is such an awesome story of a call to salvation and a call to be on mission.

In the story, the Lord confronted Saul with a bright light in a very supernatural moment. The Lord got his attention and gave Saul direct instructions. It was during that confrontation that his life was transformed, and he began proclaiming Jesus Christ, acknowledging that he is the Son of God (Acts 9:20).

Saul was called to rise and respond to the command of the Lord. And the Bible said that he did, and as we continue to read the Bible, we see how God used Saul (later changed to Paul) in some miraculous ways. In fact, Acts 19:11 says “Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul.”  In other words, he was put in a position to see some amazing things that God did through him because he answered the call to rise and respond.

But what if Saul had said “No!” First, he would have been in direct disobedience and even rebellion to the command of God. And we all know that God has ways of getting our attention and convincing us we need to obey. Remember Jonah? But secondly, he risked missing those moments of experiencing the amazing things that God did through him.

But what if Saul had said “Sure!” and then adjusted God’s plan? Again, he would have been acting in disobedience and not trusting God for the results. Saul would have hindered God’s best blessings for him.

But what if Saul had said “Yes!” and followed the Lord for now, but then later became complacent and allowed the excitement to wear off. Again, he would have been out of the will of God and miss out on countless blessings.

I think sometimes we all do the same things. Sometimes we react with an immediate “No!” In doing so, we miss experiencing moments of God’s amazing plan. We may even suffer his discipline until he gets our attention.

Sometimes we even adjust God’s plan because “we know better.” Or so we think. In doing so, we can miss God’s best for our lives.

And sometimes, and maybe more often, we are excited in the beginning but then become complacent once the newness wears off. It is in our constant serving our Lord when He shows us His best blessings.

God has ways of getting our attention to rise and respond to His call. He often gets our attention in several ways:

  • Through Suffering. When life is hard, unfair, painful, or just plain gut-wrenching, we have nowhere else to go but to the Lord. Those times opens the door for our learning, our trusting, our growing, and our preparing.
  • Through Supply. God at times gets our attention by giving us gifts, abilities, finances, resources, talents, positions and calls us to use those for His purposes.
  • Through Surprises. There are times that God gets our attention to rise and respond in unexpected ways, unexplained moments, or from unlikely people.

But I do know this, that God is calling us all to rise and respond. He has a plan for you, and He is waiting for you to say as Isaiah said in Isaiah 6:8 and Annanias said in Acts 9:10, “Here am I.”

He’s calling you to be on mission…now! Will you rise and respond?

Check out the opportunities to be on mission at www.kybaptist.org.

The Lord is waiting for you to rise and respond!

Is it really a fork?

Years ago, while following my handy-dandy, trusty GPS late one foggy night on a KY backroad, the path split.  The GPS told me to go in one direction, but my “gut” said go the other.  I followed my GPS.  After winding through the narrow road, which seemed to get narrower and foggier as I drove, the directions from my GPS eventually led me to a metal gate at the entrance of a cow field.  In newfound wisdom, I thought to myself, “This GPS is wrong.”  Lesson learned: never assume your GPS is always right. 

We have all found ourselves at the proverbial “fork in the road,” when a decision needs to be made but we have more than one option.  How do we know the will of God when facing decisions in life?  Do we simply follow our GPS?  Could it be that we flip a coin?  Or maybe we just go with our “gut” feeling. There actually is a better option.  Scripture is not silent about these “forks in the road.”    

The wisdom of King Solomon offers us guidance when facing decisions in life.  He urges, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NASB).  I am afraid that all too often we make the “will of God” out to be some mystery that He hides from us, only revealing it to us if we say or do the right things—that is, pick the correct fork in the road.   

To trust in the Lord with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding and acknowledge Him in all our ways is another way of saying, “walk faithfully with God.”  God’s promise for a straight path—a successful, agreeable, right path, is only after we are careful to trust in Him.  God’s greatest concern in our lives is not whether we buy this car or that car, whether we move here or there, or take this job or that job.  Rather, God’s greatest concern is that we fully rely on Him, that we live our lives in submission to Him. 

God is after our lives, not simply the decisions we make with our lives.  He wants us wholly devoted to Him, and in being so, He will make our paths straight. In other words, God is more concerned about the journey along the path than He is the particular choice on the path.  Lesson learned: let’s not be as focused on the “fork in the road” as we are on His work in our lives along the road.  It’s a journey along the path more than it is a “fork in the road.”   

The Simplicity of Cross-Cultural Ministry: Ordinary Conversations Serving an Extraordinary God

Each month I look forward to receiving Alex Tenenbaum’s ministry newsletter.  These newsletters are full of stories about how he ministers to people just as he goes about his everyday life.  Alex is a quiet kind of guy but wow, is he ever impacting those in his church and community circles. 

Alex is a KY-Mission Service Corps Missionary, serving through Forest Baptist Church in Louisville as Director of Community Engagement.  His main role is to equip church members and mobilize them to make disciples in the community by finding where God is moving and create ministries to meet the practical needs of the community.  Not only is Alex equipping church members but is leading by example.

Alex has a passion for unreached people groups of the world and desires to see them come to know Christ, as well as a passion to disciple believers to go deeper in their faith.  As a result, Alex has gotten involved in a cross-culture community in Louisville and even moved into this community to intentionally minister to and reach them with the Gospel. 

You may find Alex helping a young man with his driving test, connecting residents to ESL classes, helping to sponsor a cookout in order to meet his neighbors, partnering with a nearby hospital to offer materials, classes, and training for those he serves, helping residents to get into college, and organizing Bible study and prayer groups.  He shares stories of how all these activities have opened doors to share Christ and to help others grow in their relationship with Christ. 

One interesting story Alex shared is about an evening they ordered Chinese food and it was mistakenly delivered to the wrong address.  Alex went to the other home to share about the mix-up, which led him to a thirty-minute conversation with a high school student.  Not only was this young man in school, but he was also having to work to provide for himself, his mother and niece.  He had moved to Louisville from Rwanda in 2020 and is still growing in the English language.  Alex encouraged him, shared that he could support him with his classwork, and be another friend to connect with.  “He has an interest to connect with the church, but as of yet has not,” Alex said. “There were silent moments when we hung out but, as I was about to leave, this young student said that he doesn’t know how he will thank me for visiting him that night, that it is so good to have a friend.  This reminded me,” Alex went on to say, “that we just don’t know how our simple steps of faith can really bless and impact someone else’s life.”

You can be sure this is only one of many conversations Alex has with men and women each week, and that he looks for every opportunity to show and share the love of Christ. 

Please pray for Alex and for Forest Baptist Church as they reach out into their community to “know” their neighbors and share the Gospel.

To learn more about Alex’s work, or to subscribe to his monthly newsletter, go to https://fbcnewburg.org/ministries/community-engagement.   

Consider “adopting” Alex through the KBC Adopt-a-Missionary program.  Click on www.kybaptist.org/adoptmissionary for information.