Thank God for mad people!

I just want to thank God for those madly obedient people who love Him!
Where would we be without them?!
Seriously, where would we be without them?
God weaves these people intricately into His redemption story in such detail that you could not possibly imagine it holding together without them. And yet their involvement balances precariously on their choice to be obedient.

Take Rebekah (read Gen 24), a young woman who was recklessly generous; instead of just drawing enough water for herself, without a second thought she gladly spent the next few hours drawing gallons of water for a caravan of thirsty camels.
It was indeed nice of her but it had massive consequences.
God had already told Abraham’s servant that the girl He intended to include in His redemption story was going to be recklessly generous. “You’ll ask for a glass of water,” God told him, “but she won’t stop herself from providing all the water your camels can drink. Even though the rope will burn her hands and the weight will strain her shoulders, she won’t stop, even when it makes her late for her evening meal. I’ve put this in her heart and she’ll be cheerfully obedient in doing this.”
Here Rebekah was casually obedient; it was in her nature to be generous. However, the next morning she was decisively obedient.

Early the next morning, [Abraham’s servant] said, "Send me back to my master."
"But we want Rebekah to stay at least ten days," her brother and mother said. "Then she can go."
But he said, "Don't hinder my return. The LORD has made my mission successful, and I want to report back to my master."
"Well," they said, "we'll call Rebekah and ask her what she thinks." So they called Rebekah. "Are you willing to go with this man?" they asked her.
And she replied, "Yes, I will go."
So they said good-bye to Rebekah and sent her away with Abraham's servant and his men. The woman who had been Rebekah's childhood nurse went along with her. Gen 24:54-59

Since girlhood Rebekah was no doubt regaled with stories of beautiful brides and breathtaking marriage ceremonies. No doubt every story that her nurse told her as she drifted off to sleep would end with the heroine marrying her prince. At night she’d dream about the dress she would wear on her wedding day; she’d anticipate the joy, the laughter, the dancing. Without a shadow of a doubt her family looked forward, with great delight, to their daughter’s wedding day too.
However, by leaving with Abraham’s servant that morning she was being decisively and sacrificially obedient. She generously gave God her dreams and He wrote her into His story of redemption culminating in the victory of the cross. While her actions were not overtly ‘spiritual’ in nature (no huge Holy Spirit anointing etc) who knows how the story may have turned out in the absence of such generosity.

Look back on your life and begin to realise how much your life has been changed by the casually generous obedience of one of God’s people?
Where would we be without them?!

I want to thank God for friends of mine. I know that there are many that I could mention but Pauline and Jon have recently blessed Ruth and I more that they could imagine.

After discovering our unexpected success at ‘trying for a baby’ Ruth and I began to realise how much was about to change in our lives. We were going to have to put moving on hold and all of a sudden our 2 door car (another blessing and another story) was going to cause us problems with baby seats etc. We thought how great it would be to have a 4 door car (of any kind) but since we’d never afford it we simply put it out of our minds.
Praise God – He did not put it out of His!
All God did was breathe a suggestion and Pauline and Jon couldn’t help themselves. Upon upgrading their car, they gladly gave us their old 4 door car! Madness. Thank you guys – and thank God!