Are We Looking For God In All The Wrong Places?

If you thought this blog would be about how we shouldn't be in ungodly places you are right...and wrong.  Of course, we're not supposed to be in some places and situations but that's not what I'm getting at with the idea of looking for God in all the wrong places.

Last week when reviewing a workbook on kingdom ministry, I came across an interesting statement. It said, "...of the sixty-nine divine interventions in the book of Acts, sixty-eight of them happened in the marketplace."  I confess I have not gone through the book of Acts to verify these figures, but the basic point is beyond doubt.  God shows up in so many places except the "religious" ones in Acts.  The streets of Jerusalem, in the houses of believers, at the stoning of Stephen, a desert road, jails, ships, Roman centurion's houses...just to name a few.

Where do we look for God to show up?  It is easy to get excited in gatherings of believers when we sense the presence of God.  But if Acts is any indicator, maybe we aren't seeing God showing up because we don't look for him in certain places like the marketplace.

The marketplace can be challenging for those Jesus followers trying to be faithful in their conversations and ethics.  Just the frantic pace of most workplaces tends to numb our senses to anything except doing the next task, taking the next order or making that last phone call.  But in the book of Acts, sixty-eight times out of sixty-nine....

Let me ask a series of "what if" questions:

• What if God is showing up and we miss him because we aren't looking for him except on Sundays?
• What if we started expecting God to show up when we entered the marketplace?
• What if we developed "eyes to see" and "ears to hear" for those times God is ready to move through a co-workers challenging project or problem at home?
• What if God is not showing up in our religious gatherings because he knows if he does, we will want to build tabernacles and camp in our religious clubs leaving the marketplaces out?

A familiar verse to most of us is John 3:16.  "For God so loved the world..."  Wait, God so loved the world?  Before we read about God sending his son or anything about eternal life we need to get this down, God so loves the world.  God's focus is on the world before he focuses on the church, not that the church is unimportant.  Christ loved the church and died for the church.  We need to see God's focus on the church is because his ultimate focus is on loving, reaching and redeeming the world.

God's people have always struggled with God's priorities and agenda.  The story of Jonah is all over this.  All through the story, people are turning to God.  Pagan sailors, foreign kings, ungodly gentiles and even the animals repent.  The only one God has trouble with is his own prophet.  Jonah does not want to go to Nineveh.  He only goes after spending three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish.  (I always said after being in the belly of a great fish I would probably hear the call to be a missionary too.)  In the end of the story, God puts the question to Jonah like this:

"And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left--and also many animals?" Jonah 4:11 NIV

Shouldn't God have concern for our marketplace?  Try going to work with the expectation of walking into situations where God is already present and ready to show up.  Expect God to do the most surprising things through you in the lives of your coworkers.

Let's start looking for God in all the wrong places and expecting him to show up.

3 Important Things I Learned On A Job Interview

Recently I went on a job interview for a holiday help position at Barnes and Noble.  The job posting looked interesting to me and who wouldn't want to be surrounded by books. Before going on the interview, I did my due diligence researching the company and browsing LinkedIn and Monster.com for tips on interviewing.

The interview followed the typical interview format.  When the interviewer got to the end of his questions he asked, "Do you have any questions for me?"  Well, being well prepared, I popped out with the following question, "If I get this job, what are the three most important things for me to learn during my first week?"  You can see this is a great question to ask on an interview.  I imagined the interviewer thinking to himself, "This guy is a go-getter... He's really looking to improve his productivity...I've got to use this on my next job interview" and other such good things.

His response to my question was surprisingly quick and to the point.  He didn't miss a beat and said, "First, learn how to greet a customer and find out what they are looking for or need.  Second, you need to know how to operate our book finding system so you can find that book and put it in their hand.  Third, learn how to operate the register and sell them the book."

What stayed with me though is his following comment.  He said, "These three things are what everyone working here has to know first and do well."  He went on to let me know training is available to any employee for anything in the business.  First, they learn these three things and after that, it's up to the individual employee to initiate what they want to learn for their own advancement.

It struck me how this simple concept is focused, powerful and effective.  Talk to customers, assist them in finding what they need and then show them how to get it for themselves.  Simple.

Driving home from the interview I went over in my mind what had just been said.  It occured to me this kind of simple, effective approach could be applied to Jesus followers.  Here's what I mean:

Every person coming into a personal relationship with Jesus needs to know three important things.

1.  How to engage in conversation with people who do not know Jesus.

When I say engage in conversation, I am including listening first to hear the heart needs of people. We don't need to artificially stear every conversation around to Jesus.  I've done this and found I was focusing more on relieving my own percieved pressure to "witness" than anything else.  The other person was just a prop for me to feel better about myself.  We just need listen to people with an ear to hear the heart-level need that comes out.

2.  How to share our story of finding Jesus.

You will be amazed how God will bring people into your life with needs connecting with your story of finding Jesus.  In fact, we should expect this to happen because this is how God works.  We have heart-felt needs.  God meets them.  Then someone else comes into our life with whom we can share how we were comforted by God.

3.  How to lead someone in prayer starting their relationship with Jesus.

There is nothing like praying with another person and hearing them commit their lives to Jesus.  It can be as simple as asking them to pray after you a simple prayer:

Jesus, I realize that you died for me on the cross.  I believe that by your death I am forgiven.  I believe that you were raised from the dead and you are Lord over all.  Today I am surrendering my life to you and ask you to become my Lord and Savior.  Help me to become the person you want me to be.  Amen.

This may all sound simplistic.  I think one reason we do not see more people coming into a relationship with Jesus is because we miss the important simple stuff.  A comment was made by a conference speaker about a problem we have in the church.  He pointed out that in the church we think we are supposed to help people be good. The problem with this is they can get "gooder and gooder" and still miss the vital thing that will actually transform their lives.

Talking about Jesus and sharing your story is not just for the spiritually hyperactive.  It is part of normally following Jesus as a disciple.  When we begin to follow Jesus we become partners with him in his mission of saving the lost.

Some may say leading others to Christ is not their gift. Spiritual gifts are how the Holy Spirit works through us to help others in the body of Christ grow in spiritual maturity.  There is a gift of evangelism but  that gift includes not only effectively bringing people to Jesus but also stimulating more believers to share with others.  Sharing our story is the natural outflow of our love relationship with Jesus.

Doing these three things well is not just for those who are naturally outgoing.  For example, look at Andrew in the gospels.  Andrew is not known for anything he said or wrote. Andrew is known for one thing- introducing people to Jesus.  He introduced his brother Peter to Jesus.  He brought the boy with the small lunch to Jesus.  When some Greeks who wanted to see Jesus came to Andrew and Phillip, he introduced them to Jesus.  That's just about it--he introduced others to Jesus.

Let me ask you, "How are you doing with these three important things?"  Don't get sidetracked from keeping the main thing the main thing.  I challenge you to focus on these three things over the next thirty days.

Blessings on you.

John P. Holsey