“I love it when a plan comes together.”

 Do you remember the saying: “I love it when a plan comes together.”?  

Who said it?  John “Hannibal” Smith

What TV program was it?  “The A-Team. 

Well, there is a plan, a BIG PLAN.  It was a mystery for years but it has been revealed.  God established it and set it in motion.  I ended my last blog with the statement: “God has a plan for us and it is for our good, as HE sees it and His glory.”; referencing Jerimiah 29:11,

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

He has plans for us that are part of His big plan.  Only He sees the whole picture.  We get caught up in the little plans and forget the big plan.  We fret over what we don’t know and ignore what we know.  We act ignorantly on the unknown and are stubbornly self-paralyzed by what we think we know.  We demand special personal supernatural revelation while refusing to read and act on the written special revelation that He has given us.   We profess to believe the Bible; but we refuse to read it faithfully; and when we read it, we treat as some smorgasbord that we can pick and choose.  We treat the Word as medication to be “taken when needed”, leaving it in the medicine cabinet the rest of the time. We, in arrogant humility, profess little faith: yet stubbornly refuse to accept that many of our prayers bounce off the ceiling, because of our bitterness, unforgiveness, jealousy and faithlessness.  Our prayers are rich in religiosity and sanctimoniously sounding words; but weak in Biblical foundation.  We preach what is “written between the lines” and refuse to preach what is written on the line.  Most of our church budgets are spent on feeding hors d’oeuvres and infant formula to spiritual couch potatoes.  We ignore written commands and and make commandments on what is not written.  We profess to trust God but lay awake at night worrying.  We say we believe God’s promises, but our actions betray our words.   We wear WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets as a proud expression of our faith but would never put our reputations on the line by really doing what Jesus did, each and every day of His ministry, like His disciples did. The “keys of the kingdom of heaven”, are in the key cabinet in the church office, right behind the key to the rented storage unit, rented to store the church organ, the hymn books and the old King James and New International pew Bibles that were used prior to the “new” gender correct New International pew Bible.  The “armor of God’ is also in the same storage unit behind the King James Bibles.  We have not bound anyone or anything since the neighbor’s dog got loose and ran down the aisles of the old church that did not have A/C and we had to leave the doors open to cool the place down.  We don’t talk about Satan, Hell or being “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” any more; because it scares the little kids and the visitors.

What could the church do if the church really did what Jesus did, prayed the Word, really acted in accord with His promises. What if we used the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” and actually bound something or someone, like satan and his demons.  What if we actually used the “armor of God”

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matt. 16:19

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand”.  Ephesians 6:13

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” James 1:5-8

“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7

“Truly I say to you, He who puts his faith in me will do the very works which I do, and he will do greater things than these, because I am going to my Father.” John 14:12

“And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” Matthew 13:58

We, His church, are part of that plan, THE Plan.  God had this plan from eternity, something we can not understand.  Man’s sin did not catch Him by surprise.  Man’s need for a Savior, was not His B-plan.  It was His A-plan.  He started to reveal this plan in Genesis 3:15:

“I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

He continued to reveal His plan in the Old Testament through His chosen people and His prophets.  During the 400 silent years between the Old and New Testament, He was faithful. His promises were still in place.  His promised Savior was about to be born when the time was right.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Galatians 4:4-5

God was at work during the “silent years”, preparing the world for His Son.  God used: the Assyrian and Babylon empires, Alexander the Great and Greek culture and language, and the Roman empire to prepare the world for His Son and His Body.  The Jewish Bible was translated into the Greek, the Septuagint, during this time.  Greek became the “English” of the time. The Roman Empire established a system of roads and there was relative peace that facilitated travel and the spread of the Gospel.

Even though there was no prophecy, God was working, just as He has been throughout all history and today. 

Maybe if we thought less about “Us” and more about “Him”. If we “desire(d) first and foremost God's kingdom and God's righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”: we would sleep better, and have a peaceful Christmas season and New Year. May we start doing the work assigned to us, using the authority given to us, accepting the responsibility placed on us, doing what Jesus did and what he commanded us to do.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It's good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people's feet.