The plan for global transformation

You call this a plan?

^{I have been sharing a bit of my journey with Matthew chapter 10.}

^{This chapter comes as Jesus sits the boys down and says, “Guys this is what you need to know if you are really going to be effective”. It is basically a one chapter training school}

^{I have been teaching about Christian Mission for 18 years, and very rarely have I come close to outlining a plan the way Jesus seems to here.}

^{Honestly for the first month or so of wrestling with Mathew chapter 10 I avoided this bit of the chapter because I just didn’t want to hear it. This doesn’t much sound like a plan that I want to be part of..}

¹⁶“Stay alert. This is hazardous work I’m assigning you. You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.

^17-20“Don’t be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don’t be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they’ve done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don’t worry about what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.

^21-23“When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don’t quit. Don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you’ve run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.

Basically Jesus is saying the plan for Global transformation is for his disciples to be persecuted.

What kind of plan is that?

Most of us don’t need to go to bible college to learn how to be persecuted.. we go enough of it in the first grade!

It seems that the persecution isn’t the only part of the plan.. it is our response to the persecution, and in fact Jesus seems to be saying not to have too firm a plan about that.

I love where he says So many times in my life I have found that to be true..“Don’t worry about what you’ll say or how you will say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words”.

Our job is to be living in this moment, and responding to the situations we find ourselves in.. rather than trying to organise the world around us.. This is such a different way of seeing the world, I find myself wanting to resist what he seems to be saying.

As I lived with it though, more and more I could tell that there is something important here.

As it started to sink in it was like God was saying:

“Matt stop trying to organise the world around your needs.. Be in the moment with me. It wont always be easy and it won’t always work out the way you want it to.. but you know what? It’s the moments where it feels like everything is falling apart that I am most able to work through you”.

Yeah it’s not a plan that I would make, but as I look at the history of the world, and when the church has grown the most, it seems to be how God does seem to do things..

So much for prosperity theology!!