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Unexpected Opportunities: How to make room for them

Have you ever had your plans for the day interrupted by someone else’s unexpected plans for you?

That day, I had my Friday all figured out in my head and was reading my Bible.  Before I could finish, a friend came over to the house.  He had a military general waiting for me outside the gate, waiting to take me somewhere. I had no idea where he wanted to take me, so I was a little bit nervous about it.

download-2In the end, he brought me to his house here in town and had something to discuss with me that was important to him. He had seen our dictionary, and through it our heart for his people, so he felt he could trust me.

He wanted to help bring a school, wells, and hospitals to his region of the country by digging for gold.  A relative in the US had sent him a metal detector.  And because I was an American, “Of course I’d know how to use it!”

I had never used a metal detector before in my life, but together, we were able to figure it out somehow.

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Who will stand up for the weak?

take a stand

So often in our world, troubles and hard times remain where they are because no one is willing to stand against the ones who seek to take advantage of the weak, those who refuse to let the walls of protection be rebuilt.

Then one day, God provides a courageous Nehemiah to demand that the walls be rebuilt.

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard all this, they were very displeased that someone had come to seek benefit for the Israelites. (Nehemiah 2:10)

Nehemiah received the authority from the King of the Empire to stand up and refuse to keep things as they are.  The walls will be rebuilt.  The lives of the weak will no longer be trampled down by oppression.

Troubles can continue for years and years without resolution, because no one is willing to stand up and say what needs to be said. (more…)