Every time I join the guys on the road for a tour I’m aware that I’m stepping into something that is bigger than myself, that is about becoming a part of God’s Kingdom purposes, that is about fulfilling the purpose to which I believe God has called me.
Being on the Make a Difference Tour I think everyone involved feels that way. Featuring Max Lucado, Michael W. Smith and Toby Mac as well as Third Day, it’s certainly a bigger deal than we are used to, and there really is a collective feeling that we are definitely making a difference-with impact into the lives of the thousands in the audience and impact into the lives of thousands of children being sponsored through World Vision.
Max has been an inspiration- the thinking for this tour started as a celebration of 25 years of his life as an author but very quickly he wanted it to be much more than about him and thus channelled the focus to the theme of his new book Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make A Difference.
Here are two Bible verses that I hope inspire you to your own journey of making a difference in the lives of the poor, the broken, the marginalized, the hurting, and the lost.
Paul writes to the Ephesian church:
Eph. 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
In other words, you have been created masterfully by the Lord God himself, and the reason he has created you is so that through Jesus you can accomplish good things, and not just any old good thing-but the good things God has prepared in advance especially for you to do. Max Lucado calls this your ‘personal assignment from God’. That’s why we aren’t just saved and taken up to Heaven! - we all have a personal assignment here on earth.
You might be asking how do I discover my personal assignment? To whom and where is God calling me to make a difference? In Acts 16, Paul has a mission-changing and world-changing vision:
Acts 16:9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
Acts 16:10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
This vision is often termed ‘The Macedonian Call’ and it propelled Paul and his team to change from their own well-intentioned plans into God’s plans. The gospel expanded Westward- and we owe our heritage and our faith to Paul’s obedience!
It’s very, very likely that YOU won’t have an assignment that changes the world-but it’s very, very likely that you’ll have an assignment that changes the world for somebody or some group of people. There comes a time when each of us has a vision from the Lord when a person or people say ‘come over here and help us’. That call may come from orphaned children in India, AIDS sufferers in Africa, elderly people in the USA, asylum seekers in the UK, families in your own neighborhood, or even people sitting at the desk next to you in work or at college.
If you simply spend some time with God you’ll soon get your own Macedonian call, and receive your own personal assignment. It’s time that all believers realised that we can Make a Difference.