If the Angelic Postman Never Knocks on My Door
Christian Commitment in a Confused World
by
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Chapter TEN - His Purpose, Not Ours
We may often be given
a glimpse into the future through
a vision,
a dream,
a promise.
But not always how we get
from now to that future,
from here to there.
Abraham knew
he was to father a son by his wife Sarah,
but didn’t know when it would be.
Joseph knew he was to be a ruler.
Between his dreams and his enthronement,
he had to walk one painful step at a time,
never knowing anything beyond that one step
that was before him to take in the moment.
Moses, likewise, knew
he was to be the deliverer of the Jews
from Egyptian slavery,
but didn’t know the time or how.
David knew
he was to be king in Israel and
had been anointed to become one,
but he spent the next thirteen years or so
running from Saul,
hiding in caves,
struggling in exile,
not knowing when he would actually be installed king!
Over and above all that,
and running side by side with it,
is the ultimate glimpse:
the clear promise of our destination –
heaven,
the end of our journey of faith,
the conclusion of our pilgrimage.
But we do not know
how long the journey will be for each of us.
We do not know when we will get there.
We have to trust God for the trip
between here and there.
We have to walk,
taking every step by faith.
We have to be able to develop
the confidence
that He will get us from here to there,
no matter what the way may be like:
rough mountains,
difficult valleys,
marshy wastelands
or what we may meet on the way:
waters,
wars,
fire.
Each of us must fit into
His general will for humanity and His entire Creation,
as well as His specific will for each individual
as He works His overarching purpose out,
and does so according to His divine plan and timing.
God must be Sovereign
For He is the Creator and Master
He is the author and finisher of our faith
He is the Lord of Lords, and King of kings
He is the beginning and the end of all things.
It follows that His purpose
has to be the chief factor
in any consideration of:
what happens or doesn’t happen,
what stays or disappears,
what comes or goes,
who rises or falls,
who is first and who is last,
who rules and who serves,
who wins and who loses,
as well as
the when and how, and
the how far or near,
how long or short
of each of these.
This is why,
at the end of the day,
there really isn’t too much that is personal
about the faith of the believer.
He exists solely
for the Kingdom of God and
for His purposes
and for His pleasure.
It is written of the great king David that
“after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation,” he “fell asleep and was laid with his fathers . . .” (Acts 13:36)
His phenomenal military might,
all his famed exploits,
the great Kingdom that he built,
and all the glories of his reign
came to this one thing:
serving the purpose of God in his generation.
Nothing more!
Others will pick up – and they did –
where he left off
and continue
in the long divine tradition
of being agents in the hands of God
for the working out of His purpose.
David himself had picked up the baton
from those who had come before him.
The earlier beautiful story of Joseph,
for another example,
does just the same thing.
When the Psalmist recounts
the history of the people of God he says:
“When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.” (Psalm 105: 16-17)
All that Joseph basically does is to serve
the purpose of God in his generation,
like David,
and all others
who come and go in succession,
it’s just a little part he plays
in the whole history
of God’s people and God’s Kingdom,
even though he governed Egypt for eighty years
and his epic life remains
one of the world’s favourite stories of all time.
At the end of his ordeal,
he himself also did realise
it was never about him at all
but about the purpose of God.
And, years later,
as he stood before the same brothers
who had sold him off as a slave, he said
“It was not you who sent me here, but God. . .to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. . .you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 45:7-8; 50:20)
John the Baptist ended his life in Herod’s jail,
his head chopped off
and served on a platter to Salome
to appease the murderous rage
of her adulterous and incestuous mother Herodias.
Yet John ended his ministry fully accomplished
as the messenger
who prepared the way for Christ.
Hear what he says of his life:
“The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase and I must decrease.” (John 3: 29-30).
He was simply content to be
‘the friend of the bridegroom,’
for that was the purpose of God, the Creator, for his life!
John’s joy was complete
because Christ had been realised.
His joy had nothing to do
with any material blessing of any kind.
He had none.
He owned nothing,
was very ascetic,
and even lived as a recluse most of the time
before he burst on the Jewish scene
to get the people ready
for the most epochal event in human history,
the coming of the Messiah.
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About the Book
Why are people confused about Christianity? Why do Christians themselves struggle with disappointment while society at large is so adverse to the teachings of the faith? If the Angelic Postman Never Knocks on My Door cuts through the dark clouds of confusion in the public square and suggests this confusion is largely because Christians themselves have lost their own message and, with it, their true identity.
A large chunk of the church, unfaithful and backslidden, is declining rapidly. Desperate to reverse the trend, it dabbles in heresy and apostasy as it seeks to accommodate a fallen, corrupt, and broken world that is at best indifferent but which too often responds with militant intolerance. The result is that the light of the church is fading while the surrounding world darkens.
Against this backdrop flows the free prose of this lucid monologue. Greg Obong-Oshotse’s collection is a first-person reflection on what Christian commitment looks like to a true disciple of Christ. It is unashamed of the gospel, unperturbed by political correctness, and relentlessly Biblical. Ask yourself: are you near to God or far away from Him? Are you a true or false disciple? This book will take your measurement.
About the Author
Greg Obong-Oshotse, a former journalist, was a Marxist and an atheist before he came to faith in Jesus Christ and was called to preach the gospel. He trained for the Methodist ministry at Wesley House Cambridge and has degrees in theology from the universities of Cambridge and Wales. He and his wife live in the United Kingdom.