The Business of Moving

God moves in mysterious ways. More precisely, in the context of my family, God moves “us” in mysterious ways. Twenty years ago almost to the day, I was driving by a piece of property on Pole line Road and saw a for sale sign. That’s it, I thought to myself out loud, and when I got to where I was going to meet up with Bonnie, I told her that we were moving. She wasn’t really convinced as she had once thought that we would never move from where we were then living; a house we had built on property given to us by my parents.

Well, needless to say, we moved into our second newly built home in the fall of 1989 and started attending Community Baptist Church. It was a nice little church, much like the one we attended in O’Connor, we knew most of the people, and we - I should say, I, was content to simply attend and fellowship where necessary. After a while, we started to see that things were being run by all the same people. Some people were even complaining about it, if you could imagine. We decided that we couldn’t sit and join the complaining, we needed to join the Church and get involved if we thought that it shouldn’t be the same people running everything.

Long story short, God was moving me again. I went from Property Committee member, to Chair of the Committee, to Deacon, to Chairman of the Deacons Board, and wow! Here I sit, Pastor of this “nice little Church”.

When I became the Pastor, I thought of how it might be a good idea to be in the community. That first fall, Bonnie and I went and helped pack boxes for the Christmas Cheer, Bonnie was asked to sit on the board for the next year, and I thought; yeah, this is good. I would pick up the mail and join in conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Wilson and other members of the community; it all seemed good.

But driving through the village one day, I had a thought; it might be even better if we actually lived in the community. I saw a house that I thought might be right for us and asked Bonnie what she thought. She thought it would be okay and I said; “well, if God really wants us living right in the village, this house will go for sale.”

Long story short, and it’s a great story that space won’t allow me to give all the details, we are moving into the house at the beginning of August. It has been truly amazing the way God has moved us over the last twenty years. Ten years before we arrived in Murillo, He had moved a few men and women to start a church and I am so thankful for that.

Max Lucado might say; “He Still Moves Stones”. I could have remained a “stone”, half buried, stuck in the mud where I was twenty years ago, but here I stand, amazed in His presence, as He has moved us right into the place He wanted us to be from before time began.

If I could encourage everyone with this; don’t dig in, follow hard after Him, He’s prepared the way. Get involved, don’t sit and watch others do the work, use your God given gifts and talents where they are needed and be a part of His-story. God has been in the moving business for a long time, He moves people today just as He always has throughout history. It started in the Garden, continued in and out of Egypt, from Nazareth to Bethlehem to Jerusalem to the Cross. Moving people from death to life, from contentment in a lifeless death to discontentment in watching others in that dead life. Moving us to go, go into all the world and make disciples.

I thank God for this little church that exists to glorify Him as we worship together, disciple one another, and fellowship together, all the while, going out and reaching the world, this very lost and very hurting world we live in, with the love and compassion and truth of Christ.