Your call is being recorded

Seems that every other call I make to any company, for any reason, whether United Airlines, Target Department Store or my little tennis club in suburban Sydney... I hear this message.

"Your call is important to us," then somewhere in the electronic greeting I hear, "your call will be recorded for training and coaching purposes." And usually I'm ok with that. After all, I want companies to improve, especially the next time I ring them. [That said, I wish they would have recorded the last phone call and then improved in their service to me today.]

Because of 'privacy' matters, they also end their pre-recordings with "If you don't wish to have your conversation recorded, just let us know when we answer." Now that I'm thinking about it, over the years, there would be so many conversations with companies, in fact, with so many people, that I wish were not recorded, or which could be accessed and amended.

I remember the controversy surrounding the American president, Richard Milhaus Nixon, in 1972-1973. He had already been the Veep under Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. Then he ran against John Kennedy and lost in 1960's first-ever TV election. He sat on the sideline, and in 1968 took his turn to run again, this time against the Democratic Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Nixon won easily. The country was going mad with Vietnam, hippies, and inflation up to 2%. We needed a change, and in came Nixon. 'Trickie Dick' some called him.

By now, if you didn't live in that era, or in that country, you would have had ample opportunity to see several almost-documentary movies whether it's David Frost's interviews or Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in "All the President's Men." The story includes 18 minutes of erased tapes from conversations in the Oval Office in the White House. What was on those tapes? We won't know. Maybe the president simply said, "I'd rather my call was not recorded today."

His end was nigh, as a result of those missing minutes, and he humbly and sadly left office yielding the presidency to Gerald Ford, who was never elected to either President or Vice-President, but served as both.

The tale of missing minutes; the reminder that sometimes you can erase what you don't want to have said... I'm thinking that I would love to have that button somewhere in my life, to rewind and make the right choice, or to say the right thing, instead of what actually came out of my mouth. I live in a series of regrets so often, it's painful.

OK, maybe I never lost the presidency of the US because of such erasures, but I imagine I've lost friendships, or at least I've lost face in front of family and friends, and people I don't even know!

The Proverbs remind us "In a multitude of words, transgression is unavoidable." (10.19) So it's better to quit speaking, rather than continue speaking and look for the erasing elements later. The saying ends with "he who restrains his lips is wise." I would love to live in that wisdom.

What about you? Would you rather your call is not recorded at all? Will you watch your words more carefully tomorrow? Can you pray for me to ensure that my lips don't cause me pain tomorrow?

Always on time

I remember my friend Steve and I prayed for God's direction. We believed we were supposed to start a new ministry there in Lawrence, Kansas, but as young men, and as young believers, we were not 100% sure. We asked the Lord in prayer for assurance, for confirmation, for a sort-of guarantee that we were hearing correctly. Our prayer was hopeful, but not powerful. Just a plea or two from children to their dad. I remember praying something like, "If this ministry (which would eventually become the Mustard Seed Church) is of you, please confirm this with a little bit of money."

We wanted to start a house (commune) ministry like the House of Agape in Kansas City. We wanted God to help us in our venture. It would be a place for young people, hippies, druggies, socially rejected folks, to find the Living God. That was our hope.

The next day Steve went to his mailbox and found a notification of a transfer of some funds from a relative to him. The amount of the transfer was not clear to him, so he rang the bank and found out the amount was upwards of $20,000. What?!! For Steve, then 21, to receive this information was clear. He knew this money was obviously the answer to our prayer from the day before. But wait a minute, the letter had already been sent a few days earlier than this moment in March 1972. Was this really an answer to our prayer? I mean, we hadn't even prayed yet when the sender, no doubt a clerk at a financial facility, had put the stamp on it and sent it through the mail system. The question remains... can God answer a prayer before it is even asked?

This week I was in Singapore and was at Changi Airport after a successful weekend of ministry. I was really tired and awaiting my flight home to Sydney. In a nearby seat in the airline lounge, I saw an Asian man obviously upset. He was feverishly looking through his backpack, taking item by item out and turning with worry at each removal. What could be wrong? I decided to go see if I could help.

Daisake is from Japan, and had been in Vietnam. He flew from Ho Chi Minh City and arrived into his transit city of Singapore a couple hours previously. It was now time for his onward flight to India, and now he couldn't find his passport. Oh no, that's not good.

The agent at the lounge also came to him. We asked where he had been. Had he been wearing a jacket? Had he used the restroom? I went there to check. Nothing. I looked under the chairs in which he had sat. Nothing. The agent at the lounge recommended we go to the info area, so he and I went to the information booth downstairs. I urged him to cut into the long queue because his was an emergency. I apologised to the folks in the queue as he cut in. No one really minded. They understood it seemed like an emergency.

I took a photo of him and the agent. I sent it onto Instagram and Facebook on my feeds. I asked people there to pray for him. They who read that post didn't know him. They didn't know the situation. I said, "Please pray right now for daisake from Vietnam who lost his passport" Nothing more. And people responded. Prayers went up from around the globe. I showed Daisake the posts, and told him that I was a minister. I told him that I had asked my followers to pray for him. He was amazed.

But no help from the pictured agent. We speed walked to the Singapore Airlines help desk another 400 metres away. Again we cut in line. And again no dramas from the others. He was so upset and the time was fast diminishing for his flight to depart. They had already been boarding at the gate for 40 minutes. Could the agent help? She was very helpful and considerate, but I wondered if anything could be done. This is when a copy of a passport that a person carries with him (a good bit of advice from me) would have helped in such a case. But Daisake didn't have such.

Then, for no apparent reason, the agent rang again to the boarding gate. The agent upstairs had done that 30 minutes earlier. She told the agent there of his situation, and amazingly the agent there said, "We have his passport. It was turned in. Have him hurry."

WHAT!?! Wow, no time to say a long'goodbye' and only a chance to celebrate the mercies of God and for me to know whom to thank. It was the prayer warriors worldwide who instantly joined me and him, and the person who found and turned in his passport. Oh, and the Living God who ever looks out on His creation and cares for us in our smallest and largest concerns. "Hallelujah!" I said. And "Hallelujah" Daisake said.

God is always on time. And yes, sometimes the answer is sent even before you pray. Wow, the God of eternity can answer an as-yet-unasked prayer since He sees the beginning from the end.(Isaiah 46.10)

There are biblical stories that remind me of this truth as well. The children of Israel escaping slavery in Egypt at just the right time, the prophet Samuel approaching King Saul at the right time, Yeshua arriving at the shiva-sitting household of his friend Eliezer (Lazarus) and miraculously raising him from the death. God's time is not ours; He has a different schedule than we do. But His timing is always right.

One day near the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths), Sukkoth, His own younger brothers challenged Yeshua to go up and perform some miracles to garner either sympathy or to recruit more followers. The scene is here:
"Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For not even His brothers were believing in Him.
So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.”Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.
But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret." (recorded in John 7.2-10)

God's timing is perfect. It isn't your timing. Be patient. Wait on the Lord.

The Jewish prophet Habakkuk wrote in chapter 2:3 “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”

Peter also understood this in his letter he wrote, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3.9) God's love is real and worth awaiting. And worth receiving.

Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah, "AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU,
AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.”
Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION” (2 Corinthians 6.2)

"Thus says the LORD, “In a favourable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;" (Isaiah 49.8)

Dear friend, if you aren't already a believer in Yeshua, now is your day. Receive His love and care. Say "yes" to Yeshua. He died for you. He rose from the dead. He is returning to His own. Be one of His. Your time is now.