ADVENTURE AHEAD!

So when we decided back in early 2015 that we were going to move to Florida, we were both ready.  We knew there would be losses – moving far from Jim’s family and mine, absence of a change of seasons, leaving the neighborhood where we’d lived for 31 years, and leaving the church we loved – but we knew the timing was right and that the Lord had prepared our hearts.  So we made our move and we have been very glad we did.  We are loving life here.

The one thing we thought would be easy here in the Bible belt was finding a church.  We did a lot of research before we got here and a bit of visiting when we arrived.  In all, we narrowed down our search to two very different churches.  Equidistant from us in opposite directions, each had its strong and weak points.  We were about to settle on one of them when neighbors we had come to know in our community told us about a third that wasn’t even on our radar.  About the same distance from us as the other two, in yet a third direction, we decided to visit before finalizing our decision.  I’m glad we did.

We immediately liked a number of things about it.  The preaching was great, biblical, with lots of application for our lives today.  The music, while probably a bit more contemporary than we might have liked, was thoughtfully chosen and lifted Jesus up in praise and worship.  The congregation was generationally mixed with singles, families and older folks; and was also racially and ethnically mixed.

We’ve attended now for a few months and have decided to stay.  Once that decision was made we jumped right in.  I went through the process of preparing to teach kids on Sunday mornings and we both volunteered to help out with Vacation Bible School.  Jim has also been put in touch with one of the members of the finance committee to see if he can be plugged in to serve there.  

On Saturday afternoon, a couple from church stopped by to drop off some VBS supplies Jim and I will prepare ahead of time and they stayed to chat.  They were so excited that we had chosen their church and were anxious to become involved.  And then they said something I have been thinking about ever since.  They suggested the Lord had intentionally brought us there, to that church.

I always hesitate to go there in my thinking.  I can accept the Lord moving us on from one place to another, even when we are serving and He is prospering and it seems like an inopportune time to leave.  But it always seems presumptuous to me to think that the Lord might SEND us to a specific place for purposes of His own.  The Lord has His resources all over the place and could send anyone, so why us?  Who are we?

However, there is certainly precedent for this in the Bible.  I’m thinking especially of Philip in Acts 8.  Revival broke out in Samaria, of all places, and Philip was in the thick of it.  Verses 5-8 say this:

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.  And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip. . . and there was great joy in that city.

Imagine.  All you have to do is preach Christ and multitudes listen and heed what you say!  Who wouldn’t want to be part of that kind of work of the Spirit?  And who would EVER want to leave?  Probably not Philip, and yet. . . . .

Acts 8:26 says:

Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.  This is desert.  So he arose and went.  And behold, a man from Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians. . . had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning.  And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.  Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”

Philip ran, heard the eunuch reading Isaiah the prophet and explained there and then how Isaiah was speaking of Jesus.  Almost immediately the eunuch believed and asked to be baptized.  

From his ministry to multitudes in Samaria Philip was sent to one man (but a significant man of great influence!) on a lonely desert road.  From “successes” in the thousands to one “success” in the desert.  What an exciting life of spiritual adventure Philip was called to live!

Jim and I left a church we loved where God was doing some great things, because it was time, and we were confident it was God’s time.  What He has for us here we don’t yet know.   

I don’t want to be presumptuous and say, “He led us here because we’re needed”, but I will say that what lies ahead WILL be exciting, and it WILL be an adventure.  And like Philip, we plan to just do what He asks of us and see what happens.