GPS--God Positioning Salvation

Global Positioning Systems, known as a GPS, became all the rage in the past decade. I used one recently to locate an address in Houston. Guided through a maze of toll roads, freeways, and near-back-alleys, my GPS took me the most direct route to my destination -- a narrow backstreet housing a tarpaulin company.

Have you ever wondered why you are positioned where you are on earth? Why you were born to your parents? Have you speculated why you live where you do? Why some of us are at the right place at the right time and others at the right place at seemingly the wrong time?

I’ve had those thoughts this week as we witnessed via newscast from Tucson, Arizona, the chaos that evil can foist upon innocent bystanders. At times like these, we need great doses of hope. A couple of things came to mind this week, springing from the Bible’s first two books, Genesis and Exodus.

Moses, inspired by God, wrote the accounts of the beginning of the earth and the laws given from God. He recorded what God inspired him to know about the period before the flood. God said that the earth was filled with violence, and that’s one reason the earth and its inhabitants were destroyed and the family of Noah chosen to further inhabit and create the new generations.

Violence breeds in evil hearts and can also cause the mentally unstable to commit deadly harm. From experience, we know that the majority of people cherish life. God-believers sanctify life because of our knowledge and belief that God created the man with a soul, in his own image. It’s what we teach our children because we long for a world without sin and evil. We want wickedness subdued as seen in Tucson last week. We want life spared, as seen last week, when many came to rescue the destruction caused by one.

The apostle Paul spoke with the Athenian philosophers, who had built altars to many gods, even one addressed to “THE UNKNOWN GOD.” He took the opportunity to explain to them that God “who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth.” That God does not dwell in temples built by human hands. He is not served by human hands. Our catering and pampering don’t keep him alive. He is the source and beginning for mankind, “life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25).

Paul further explained that we “live and move and have our being” only through God (17: 28). I’m comforted by the fact that God put me on this earth in the years, and locations, and with the specific people where he wanted interaction. Paul gave information about God’s positioning of the people he creates, that God determines “the times set for them and the exact places they should live” (v. 26).

The book of Exodus tells us how God globally positioned Israel’s (Jacob) family to Egypt where they grew to several million over 400 years. When the time was right, God rescued them from this temporary homeland where they became slaves and were exposed to many gods. He moved them out into a desert place through his servant-leaders Moses, Aaron, and Miriam (Micah 8:4). God re-positioned them and provided a desert training ground and sustenance, so their faith and trust could grow for the one true God. One of the first commandments he gave them was to “have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

Exodus remains a superb book, but two verses especially speak to me at this juncture in life. Moses asked a favor from God, and it became my theme scripture for 2011. “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so that I may know you and continue to find favor with you” (Exodus 33:13).

In the Pulpit commentary God’s pursuit of each of us is described as the “courtship of the soul.” Those words also portray the index-card-words for this week (below), what God said in a gorgeous metaphor when he brought the children of Israel away from Egypt. GPS may be a new invention of mankind, but God’s desired placement of us has always been to move us near his heart – God Positioning Salvation.

God seeks our companionship for our own good. Dedicate this week to allowing God to crowd out all the nonessentials and fill your heart with him as you remember his words to the rescued Hebrew slaves.

Index card words for week two: “I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4).