Planes, Trains and Automobiles

One night, The Lord spoke to a man about what He had planned for this man's life. The man was just an average joe, just like the rest of us... No better, no worse. To the eyes of the world, he was a normal man. To God, he was a willing heart - a heart that dared to say "Lord, wherever you want me and whatever you want me to do - I'll do it." the Lord replied...

"Raise up your students to hear My voice, to go where My light is dim, where My voice is heard small, where My healing power is not known, even to the uttermost bounds of the earth. Their work will exceed yours, and in this I am well please."

The man was Oral Roberts - Oral Roberts University is an internationally known school. Great leaders have come off of that campus - all because one ordinary man said "yes" to an extraordinary God.

The other day I was having a conversation with my friend and we were talking about how we want our lives to be worth something - We want to do outrageous things for Jesus... there is one issue that tugs hard on both of our hearts and it's the issue of human trafficking and the growing industry of the sex trade.

Women and children are being sold, beaten, and raped day in and day out. Planes, trains and automobiles are carrying these innocent people who have been stripped of their innocence, their youth and their rights. A young female who has been kidnapped and trafficked lives, on average, for three years after the day she was kidnappped. Her body, her fearfully and wonderfully made body, becomes absolutely mutilated due to the number of times she is raped daily.

We have got to put an end to this.

"...He created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he deteremined their boundries... for in Him we live and move and have our being." Acts 17: 26-28

God annointed each and every one of our lives for this time period. For this year. For this week. For today. None of us were born in the wrong decade, or the wrong era. He decided beforehand when we would rise and when we would fall. He already determined our boundaries.

Some of us long to travel the world and to bring the message of Jesus to the uttermost bounds of the earth - others of us are terrified of leaving the U.S. The Lord created us and wired us exactly the way he wanted us to be... When we offer our bodies as living sacrifies to God, we are worshiping God in the truest form.

When my friend and I were discussing our plans of how we want to serve God, he began to tell me a story - there was a man and a wife and they were serving as missionaries in the Dominican Republic. She was pregnant and her babies were born deaf - they ended up having to leave the Dominican for one reason or another and the man cried out to God "Lord, why is all of this happening? We are serving you with our lives as missionaries! Why would you take us out of the Dominican... this country that our hearts have grown to love?"

Brace yourself.

The Lord replies to the man, "Are you going to serve me the way you want to, or the way I call you to?"

"We seek selfish ambition far more than we seek the will of God." - Tim Mannan

I want my life to mean something - but I want to serve Him the way He calls me to... not the way that I want to. If He calls me to the uttermost bounds of the earth, I'll leave in a heartbeat; because that is my dream. But what if he calls me to stay in Oklahoma City for the rest of my life? Or what if He calls me to run a children's day care? - This is when you discover your true motives...

Are you going to serve God the way he calls you to, or the way you want to?