What is your vision?

As we look at the word of God and church history, there seems to be a pattern. Men and women with great visions from God started with great dissatisfaction about what they were seeing that did not line up with God’s plan. · Moses’ complaint was God’s people should not be enslaved, and God’s response was: “Let my people go.” · Gideon’s complaint was God’s people should not live in oppression from their pagan neighbors, and God’s response was: “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” · Elijah’s complaint was God’s people should not be serving other gods, and God’s response was Mount Carmel. · Jesus’ complaint was that religion was dead; God gave Him the vision of abundant life for all who would come. · Paul’s complaint was that God’s people were reverting to the ways of the flesh and the bondage that behavior brought on, and God gave him a vision of “who we are in Christ.” It is told that Abraham Lincoln decided to run for president after viewing a disturbing scene. He was standing at the docks observing a ship pulling in to dock. After docking, African men, women and children were taken in shackles to an auction block and sold, often splitting up families three ways or more. Lincoln was so upset he clenched his fist causing his fingernails to cut into his hand and blood was literally dripping from his fist. His complaint turned into a vision that produced the Emancipation Proclamation. Possibly the greatest complaint since Jesus was that of Martin Luther. Luther became so incensed by inequities that he observed in the church it drove him to study, which produced his Ninety-Five Theses and his assertion that “the just shall live by faith.” That complaint didn’t just produce the Lutheran Church, but rather is the seed for Protestantism today. As we drive along the streets of our city we go past the fruit of Martin Luther’s dream in every neighborhood. The question is: what is your complaint and has it become your vision?