Tim & Joan: 2009

STRAIGHT INTO THE CITY
Psalm 107:7 (NASB) “He led them also by a straight way, to go to an inhabited city.
While serving in Africa I would sometimes travel “out in the bush” where there where no roads much less signs to give direction to the village or city I was looking for. It was a great relief to find the way and finally see the place I was looking for. Even in a big city that you are not familiar with you can easily become disoriented and even lost. It can be frightening until you find your way again.
This passage in Psalm 107 reminds us of the needy nation of Israel that was wandering in the wilderness. When they prayed to God in their distress, God took particular care of them. They were lost. They were scattered and without a place to call home. They were imprisoned in a sea of pathless sand. They were sick and in danger from the elements and from the enemy. They were hungry and thirsty without the supplies that they needed. They were tired and in need of a place of refugee. They were without direction and did not know where to go.
This passage is about how God gathered them and caused them to become a people. He made them well again and led them to a place of safety and supplies. He led them also by a straight path. He caused them to go to an inhabited city, a place of rest and refugee.
Moses, while in the wilderness, along with everyone else, experienced all the struggles of wandering in the hot, sandy, trackless desert. In Psalm 90 out of his experience with God in the wilderness journey he writes, “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born, or Thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.”
People go to the city for many reasons. All over the world people are running to the cities. How we view our city and what God is doing there will make a great difference to how we face each day and the challenges and opportunities of the city. Often cities are described as places of crime, danger, evil, and dirty crowded places. Cities are actually places of refugee, rest, medical care, supplies, community, and protection from the elements and enemies.
What can we do to make sure we view and live in “our city” as God intended for us to live, love and reach out to the lost. See your city as the right way, the straight way that God has lead you and your family. Make your “dwelling place” a home and a place of refugee. Give thanks to God for clear direction and for the inhabited city that He has lead you to.
I believe God intended the city to be a place of refugee where man can find Him. Is it not true that even in the city we have been given the opportunity to bring salvation to the masses that are lost and without direction, a city full of countless individuals whose souls need to find rest in Jesus? Every struggle and difficulty that comes with living in the city also provides us with many opportunities to be a light in the darkness, to give hope to the hopeless, to feed the hungry souls, to proclaim that God is what the masses are unknowingly searching for in their hearts.
When you think about going home what images come to your mind? As children our homes were intended to be places where we were kept warm and feed and where our parents took care of us. Jeremiah reminds us that God wanted to be a father to Israel. “With weeping they will come, And by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in which they will not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn.” Jeremiah 31:9.
Our cities are full of lost people. People who don’t know the way to God and in some cases do not want to even think about God. They would rather wander in their spiritual wilderness and try to find their own direction. Perhaps worse than being lost is that they are lost and do not know it. They are headed out into the desert and to sure death without knowing the only One who can give them hope, direction, rest and salvation.
Even as believers who have once known the call of God and His clear direction in our lives, we can feel lost and wonder what am I suppose to do in this mass of a city and masses of people. I have been lost physically in my city more than once. I have learned to be comfortable with this situation and particularly with the once uncomfortable lost feeling. It is amazing how in my “lostness” God has put someone in my life that I can share my faith with and the hope that I have in Christ.
Getting off the wrong bus in downtown Vancouver I went to a restaurant/bar to sit down for a few minutes and to have a diet coke. I ask the guy sitting next to me for directions and which bus I should take. He engages me in conversation about who I am and what am I doing in Vancouver. He immediately guessed by my accent and my lostness that I was not from around here. I was able to share with him my faith in Christ and how I am trying to live out my faith in this city.
God knew where I was at all the time and He had a “divine” appointment for me. He led me straight to this man. When I am feeling lost it is because I am looking at it from my perspective. From God’s perspective, He always knows where I am at and where He is leading me to go. When I “feel” the most lost is when I must completely trust Him. I can be lost physically but also at times we can feel we have lost direction in our purpose for being in the city. We can be overcome with all the vastness, bigness of it all, task and place.
Psalm 107:1-22 reminds us to call out to the Lord and then to thank Him for his clear and straight direction and for the refuge and rest that we find in Him. When I have been lost in my city it is always good to come home. As I get closer to my house I begin to feel the blessings of my “home” I can relax, have something to eat or drink and just marvel that God is using me in this city, my city, my urban place, my city of habitation.