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Revelation
and Vision
About 350 years ago a
shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year
they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The
third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into
the wilderness.
In the fourth year the
people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a
waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness.
Who needed to go there anyway?
Here were people who had
the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great
hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even
five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision. With a clear
vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great.
Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries. ── Lynn
Anderson.
It started like so many
evenings. Mom and Dad at home and Jimmy playing after dinner. Mom and Dad were
absorbed with jobs and did not notice the time. It was a full moon and some of
the light seeped through the windows. Then Mom glanced at the clock.
"Jimmy, it's time to go to bed. Go up now and I'll come and settle you
later." Unlike usual, Jimmy went straight upstairs to his room. An
hour or so later his mother came up to check if all was well, and to her astonishment
found that her son was staring quietly out of his window at the moonlit
scenery. "What are you doing, Jimmy?" "I'm looking at the moon,
Mommy." "Well, it's time to go to bed now." As one reluctant boy
settled down, he said, "Mommy, you know one day I'm going to walk on the
moon." Who could have known that the boy in whom the dream was planted
that night would survive a near fatal motorbike crash which broke almost every
bone in his body, and would bring to fruition this dream 32 years later when
James Irwin stepped on the moon's surface, just one of the 12 representatives
of the human race to have done so? ── Bill Hybels, Who You Are When No
One's Looking, IVP, 1987, p. 35.
In 1212 a French shepherd
boy by the name of Steven claimed that Jesus had appeared to him disguised as a
pilgrim. Supposedly, Jesus instructed him to take a letter to the king of
France. This poor, misguided boy told everyone about what he thought he had
encountered. Before long he had gathered a large following of more than thirty
thousand children who accompanied him on his pilgrimage. As Philip Schaff
records it, when asked where they were going, they replied, "We go to God,
and seek for the holy cross beyond the sea." They reached Marseilles, but
the waves did not part and let them go through dry-shod as they expected.
It was at Marseilles that tragedy occurred.
The children met two men,
Hugo Ferreus and William Porcus. The men claimed to be so impressed with the
calling of the children that they offered to transport them across the
Mediterranean in seven ships without charge. What the children didn't know was
that the two men were slave traders. The children boarded the ships and the
journey began, but instead of setting sail for the Holy Land they set course
for North Africa, "where they were sold as slaves in the Muslim markets
that did a large business in the buying and selling of human being. Few if any
returned. None ever reached the Holy Land." Two cunning men enjoyed
enormous financial profits simply because they were willing to sacrifice the
lives of thousands of children.── Steve Farrar, Family Survival in the American
Jungle, 1991, Multnomah Press, p. 60-61.
One time when Michigan
State was playing UCLA in football, the score was tied at 14 with only seconds
to play. Duffy Daugherty, Michigan State's coach, sent in placekicker Dave
Kaiser who booted a field goal that won the game. When the kicker returned to
the bench, Daugherty said, "nice going, but you didn't watch the ball
after you kicked it." "That's right, Coach," Kaiser replied.
"I was watching the referee instead to see how he'd signal it. I forgot my
contact lenses, and I couldn't see the goal posts." ── Bits &
Pieces, September 15, 1994, p. 7-8.
The story is told that
after Helen Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, had given her the names of
physical objects in sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God and
tapped out the symbols for the name "God." Much to Miss Sullivan's
surprise, Helen spelled back, "Thank you for telling me God's name,
Teacher, for he has touched me many times before." Helen Keller knew something
of God's signature from nature, but it was wordless.── Source Unknown.
T.E. Lawrence once said,
"All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty
recesses of their minds awake to the day to find it was all vanity. But the
dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for the many act out their dreams with
open eyes, to make it possible..."── Source Unknown.
Vision: the capacity to
create a compelling picture of the desired state of affairs that inspires
people to respond; that which is desirable, which could be, should be; that which
is attainable. A godly vision is right for the times, right for the
church, and right for the people. A godly vision promotes faith rather than
fear. A godly vision motivates people to action. A godly vision requires
risk-taking. A godly vision glorifies God, not people. ── Bob Logan.
Vision is the ability to
understand the history, the present condition, and the potential of the church,
and to conceive a plan for action that will maximize the ministry potential.
More often than not, vision is a result of having spent much time absorbing the
facts about the community, knowing the resources upon which the church can call
(people, funding, facilities, equipment, etc.), and devising sound but creative
strategies for moving forward. Vision always entails progress: it is never
satisfied with the status quo. ── George Barna, How to Find Your Church,
p. 104.
Nature never taught me
that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that
in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. ── C.S.
Lewis, The Four Loves.
"THE NEED FOR VISION"
INTRODUCTION
1. Any successful endeavor requires a vision... a. The word "vision": 1) Literally means the ability to see things that are visible 2) But it also used to mean the ability to see other things a) "unusual competence in discernment or perception;intelligent foresight" (American Heritage Dictionary)
b) "Vision is the art of seeing things invisible" (Jonathan Swift) b. Such ventures as business or politics require "men of vision" 1) Companies require CEOs with vision, countries require leaders with vision 2) Without the ability to visualize worthy goals and how these can be realized, very little of importance is achieved 2. In the Lord's work, we desperately need an elevated vision of what it is all about... a. We need greater goals (what can be done) and greater objectives (how it can be done) b. Jesus certainly had a great vision: the saving of souls! - cf. Mt 9:36-38; Jn 4:35 c. We need to have visions that are worthy of the "King of kings and Lord of lords" [What can help us to elevate and enlarge our vision in the Lord's work?Let's first notice how an inadequate vision can actually stifle our work...]