Wow God {Day 17 – Intentionality}

I had the honor and privilege of sitting in a room tonight with brothers and sisters in Christ from across the globe.  As I sat there and listened to the stories of Christians from China, it was obvious that these beautiful Christians live very intentional, on-purpose lives.

I sat in awe and excitement to hear about their plans to expand their mission efforts into other countries and how the only way to really do it is to mobilize thousands of “foot-soldiers”… “a simple task really.”  (Say, what?)

Or there’s the story of a woman who had a three-year prison sentence for handing out free calendars that had a Bible verses on them.  Then, when they tried to let her out early so that she would stop converting everyone in the prison, she said, no… that her prison sentence was 3 years and she would stay there 3 years.  And she did.

To sit across the table from people who consistently risks their lives to put the Living Word of God into the hands of brothers and sisters…

All I can say is WOW.  Their life focus is clear… their hearts are set on Christ alone and His mission.

I couldn’t help but be brought to tears as I heard of THOUSANDS being brought to Christ in a single day. But those tears of joy were also mixed with a few tears of pain.  It’s sad for me to think how distant that concept seems in our own country.  Seriously, these brothers and sisters spoke many times throughout the night in terms of THOUSANDS, not a few here and there, not even in hundreds, but thousands and millions. Thousands of Bibles, thousands of baptisms, thousands of lives transformed… in a single day.

When was the last time I woke up one morning, and thought “Hmm, I bet God is going to bring thousands of people around me today into a relationship with him.”  I don’t know if I ever have.   Can you even DREAM of waking up and expecting that thousands of people would come to Christ that day. It may be hard to imagine, but it’s something I want to imagine. It’s a dream I want to have.

The coolest thing about all of this is, like many things in life, God doesn’t give the whole big picture from the beginning.  Instead, it happens through step by step, obedience and intentionality in each moment’s calling from God.  These brothers and sisters in Christ we met tonight ARE intentional to listen to His voice and to take the courage He gives them to be bold in their faith in the little things… and the enormous things.

Absolutely incredible!