God The Initiator

JOHN 15:16 ESV

You did not choose me,
but I chose you
that you should go and bear fruit
and that your fruit should abide,
so that whatever you ask the Father
in my name, he may give it to you.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
(In Meditating On the Word)

”If we ask how we should begin life with God, the Scripture answers that God has long since begun life with us. If we ask what we can do for God, we hear what God has done for us. If we ask how we can live without sin before God, the forgiveness of all sins in Jesus Christ is announced to us.”

Most of my Bible memory work has been verses, many of which I was taught in Vacation Bible School, or Sunday School, or Training Union, or in R.A.’s when I was very young. Some of those I still recite in the King James Version, and enjoy doing so, for the language is so beautiful. I have also learned verses in various evangelism and discipleship  programs in which I have been involved. I certainly use some of those in day-to-day life and in ministry even today. When I began teaching Bible at Baptist Hiigh School, Jos, I was challenged by the easiness with which Nigerians memorized chapters and even books of the Bible. Though I joined in with Bible classes as we learned to recite a couple of shorter books, I cannot claim to have them still on my tongue nor in my mind. I do, however, continue to keep a few chapters in my mind because they means so much to me as God continues to open up the magnificence of His loving Will for all of us He has made His children.

One of those is  Psalm 139. I treasure this chapter because it presents God as the INITIATOR of all that good and redemptive and joyful in this world, in my life, and most abundantly in the life to come. Just read these powerful promises:

 

VERSE 1
O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

VERSE 4
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

VERSE 13
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

VERSE 15
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

VERSE 16
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

 

Pretty impressive, right? God  has been, is, and always will be acting to glorify His Kingdom all around me and within me. Praise His Holy Name! So, my thoughts this week center on God and how He has always initiated His relationship with me, how He continues to do, and how He will always do so. 

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8

1. He knew me and loved me before I knew myself.

In Revelation 21:6, God seated on the throne, says “It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” God has always been. He is now. He will always be. Psalm 139 makes it abundantly clear He has always known me, and He has always worked purposefully to make me the man I am in order to bring Him glory. Things I still do not understand about myself, He has always known. And His Holy Spirit indwells me as His redeemed child, to reveal to me who He is and what He will accomplish in and through me.

2. He established for me a good and godly heritage.

In His perfect plan for achieving His glory through my life, God so arranged families to have me born to godly parents who had godly parents, and so on . . . My parents and my grandparents, my aunts and my uncles, and their own people lived lives of gratitude and faithfulness before God. They instilled in me, my brother and my sisters, a love for God which has led me consistently to follow Him and His Will. Even in Scripture He has blessed me with a heritage based on the lives of faithful worshippers and servants of God.

3. He encircled my life with godly mentors and teachers.

For as long as I can remember I remember godly men and women teaching me about God, His Word, His World, His Son and His Love for me. I remember Sunbeam leaders, Sunday School Teachers, Training Union Leaders, Christian School Teachers, Youth Leaders, Choir Leaders, Godly Parents of Students and Youth Group Members, Pastors, Older Believers, Christian University Professors, Principals, Colleagues As Teachers, Senior Missionaries, Fellow Missionaries and Small Group Leaders and Co-Members. It’s amazing to consider such a vast array of faithful Christian lives used by God to guide, encourage, correct and strengthen me.

 

4. He established patterns in my life which have deepened my knowledge of and understanding of His Way.

 

Again, from early on in my life, God has called me to salvation, to be nurtured by His people, to instill in me practices which deepen my faith and my love for HIm. Always I remember being taught the beauty and the truth and power of the Bible. Always I remember being taught and being included in prayer as a constant privilege and responsibility in my life as I relate to God, my Heavenly Father. Always I remember enjoying the unique joy of worshipping and learning and serving God togetherwith fellow believers in the Church. Always I remember being challenged to share all of God’s goodness with others through my words, through my actions, and even through my attitudes. 

5. He placed faithful people alongside me who have walked beside me in the path He has prepared for me.

My mission team involvement began as a Summer Missionary here in Etowah County. My mission leader, Marsha Eichenberg, and my team members over the course of five summers, taught me the ins-and-outs of sharing the love of Jesus with people who do not know Him. Then when I went to Nigeria as a single, I shared a compound with the Holcombs and the Wilsons, young couples also beginning their missionary careers. We learned together as wonderful Nigerians and senior missionaries shared with us the wisdom gathered over the course of their years of service. Then my closest and dearest co-laborer, Becky, joined me in marriage, and has been constant as a companion on the road of service and worship God has for us together. Now in retirement our Pastor, our ministry staff, my Sunday School colleagues, my D-Life colleagues, my Prayer Team colleagues—all guide me in the way God would have me go. Obviously God has never left me alone as I serve Him.

 

6. Even until today He both challenges and encourages me to follow and serve Him more fully.

His Command in Matthew 28:19-20 has no time limit, not until Jesus comes again. Daily He challenges me in Bible Study, in devotional writing, in prayer, in declaring and living His Word—He strengthens me for His service. What joy He brings as we believers follow Him in delivering His eternal Gospel message of salvation through faith in Jesus, until every man, woman, boy, and girl knows.

7. He is preparing for me and all of His redeemed children New Heaven and New Earth when His Will will be accomplished eternally.

The reality of that is almost too wonderful to comprehend. Maybe, there will be a moment of silence before we all break out in praise to God who has initiated it all, who has been continuously working, and who will see it achieved—one universal chorus from every people, language, tribe and tongue, worshipping and serving Him in absolute glory forever and ever. Praise the Father! Praise the Son! Praise the Holy Spirit! Amen! Amen! Amen!

ALWAYS BEFORE, ALWAYS NOW, ALWAYS IN THE FUTURE

Always before there was
the heavens and the earth,
always before there was
the sun and the earth,
always before there was
the day and the night,
always before there was
the seas and the dry land,
always before there were
living creatures on the earth,
always before there was
both Adam and Eve,
always before, He was
the INITIATOR of His plan.

Always, every single moment
and through ever single day,
always in my waking and
even in my sleeping,
always in my going forth
and even in my coming back,
always in my working
and even in my playing,
always in my speaking,
and even in my silence,
always in my beginning
and even in my ending,
always even now, He is
the INITIATOR of His plan.

Always forever in the future
and forever eternally,
always for my tomorrows
and for my eternals,
always for the next year
and for my next decade,
always for my hopes to come
and for my dreams fulfilled,
always for His promises
and for His covenants made,
always for His steady plan
and for His glorious design,
always He will be
the INITIATOR.