WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD
Have you ever done something that was completely new and/or unexpected? When was the last time you went out on a limb?
Over the past while, I have been feeling unsettled. I felt as though God was preparing us for something different, but wasn’t able to put my finger on it. We’ve been praying for His clear direction concerning the future of KWA, and I spent A LOT of time on my face talking to God about it. No season of ministry is every without problems (ministry is working with people, and being a people, too), so while we were facing some challenges, none of them seemed insurmountable nor were any situations pushing us out the door. We have felt all along that Quispamsis is where God called us, and where we wanted to stay, for a looong time.
While praying here at KWA one Saturday night about a month ago, I felt God clearly speak to me through two passages of Scripture:
Luke 5:37-38 and Joshua 1:6 .
Jesus taught that new wine can’t work if it’s put in old wineskins. They stretchiness is gone from the used wineskin, and it won’t adjust to the stretching caused by the fermentation process of the wine. It will bust open and spill everything good out on the ground.
- Sidebar: Friday I brought the kids with me to work (no school) and Heather had packed them some snacks. The cover on a bottle of Sunny D came loose and the lunchbag was transformed into a slushie. Cookies soaked in Sunny D, mmmmmm!
I prayed about this passage alot, asking God to speak to me about what He was trying to say to me through it. I felt as though He was going to use us to continue in the new direction we’ve been leading KWA toward. I honestly thought the ‘new wineskin’ was going to be a renovated KWA…
I was right, to a point. God is changing something here at KWA, but it wasn’t the congregation, it was me. He made it clear that I was the wineskin that needed changing. What would look different here were the leaders, not the followers.
As I prayed, I knew that God was bringing this chapter of our lives to a close, and that He was directing us toward something different. The second verse (God’s encouragement to Joshua) was something I would need to hold onto as we stepped out into what is now the great unknown. We did something many would consider DUMB: we resigned without having a place to go to.
It’s funny though–we haven’t been panicky. We were shocked at first, and really didn’t like to hear what God was saying to us, but as we walked on through it, we came into a place of peace and trust. We took the steps necessary to obey God, and He’s been dumping His blessing on us. A passage I read last night says it well:
“We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us…” (Hebrews 6:18-20, the Message).
We’re holding onto the promise God made us, with both hands, and we’re excited to see how He is putting everything together. We’re bummed about leaving KWA, and the wonderful friends here, but we are confident that He knows what He’s doing, and that just as He’s got something good for us, He has something good in store for the corporate body of KWA.
So, we’re discovering that the words Louisa Stead wrote in 1882 are still true:
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to take Him at HisWord
Just to rest upon His promise
Just to know, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord’
It’s going to be alright. There’s no better place to be than in the hands of Jesus!
