Some thoughts on guidance
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2015:36%20-%2016:10;&version=31;
Sometimes we have to drive to places we don't know. We have three ways of doing this. One is the excellent www.viamichelin.fr or www.mappy.fr giving you routes to places. Another is to get directions from someone. The third is to have someone with you to guide you.
With mappy and viamichelin you always know where you are. It's great really. However, you can go wrong if you miss a turning or a sign, or count your roundabouts or exits wrong. A lot still depends on you.
With directions, well your directions are only as good as the person giving them, and sometimes they can be hard to follow. But you generally know where you're going and sometimes where you are.
What I like best is having a guide - like when we take someone home. They know the way. From time to time they may say things like "Do you know where you are now?" and generally I don't! I can't even guess what the next turn will be, but I am very confident that they'll guide me safely where they want me to be, even though I don't know where I am, where I am going or how to get there.
In the passage from Acts above we see how God got the gospel to Europe. He used common sense "Let's go back and visit the churches". A sharp disagreement. A reasoned decision: Timothy was well spoken of. Then a long fruitless trek across Turkey - I would have been somewhat confused about that, I think. Then a dream and a discussion 16:9 & 10.
I often think about this succession of events in Acts. Lots of things work together to put God's people where he wants them to be. Good things and bad things. Sometimes they know where they are going. Sometimes (usually?) they don't. But those who trust in him have the best thing - a guide.
Sometimes we have to drive to places we don't know. We have three ways of doing this. One is the excellent www.viamichelin.fr or www.mappy.fr giving you routes to places. Another is to get directions from someone. The third is to have someone with you to guide you.
With mappy and viamichelin you always know where you are. It's great really. However, you can go wrong if you miss a turning or a sign, or count your roundabouts or exits wrong. A lot still depends on you.
With directions, well your directions are only as good as the person giving them, and sometimes they can be hard to follow. But you generally know where you're going and sometimes where you are.
What I like best is having a guide - like when we take someone home. They know the way. From time to time they may say things like "Do you know where you are now?" and generally I don't! I can't even guess what the next turn will be, but I am very confident that they'll guide me safely where they want me to be, even though I don't know where I am, where I am going or how to get there.
In the passage from Acts above we see how God got the gospel to Europe. He used common sense "Let's go back and visit the churches". A sharp disagreement. A reasoned decision: Timothy was well spoken of. Then a long fruitless trek across Turkey - I would have been somewhat confused about that, I think. Then a dream and a discussion 16:9 & 10.
I often think about this succession of events in Acts. Lots of things work together to put God's people where he wants them to be. Good things and bad things. Sometimes they know where they are going. Sometimes (usually?) they don't. But those who trust in him have the best thing - a guide.
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