Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - When You March Off the Map - #4195

Friday, February 7, 2003

I consult my atlas pretty often. And I can count on the fact that anywhere I go, there's a detailed map for it. It wasn't always that way. Back in the first century B.C., for example, much of the world was still unmapped. So when the mapmaker got to the edge of what had been explored, he just drew monsters and dragons. The story comes down from that time of a Roman officer who was leading his troops on a mission that took them into unmapped territory - dragon territory. So, he sent a courier back to Rome with a blunt - and slightly desperate message, "We have just marched off the map. Please send new orders."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You March Off the Map."

Those Roman soldiers weren't the last people to march off the map. We're still doing it today. Especially in this uncertain and uncharted world we live in. Maybe you feel like you're suddenly without a map, venturing where they may be monsters.

It can happen when things suddenly change financially for you, or occupationally, or medically. You can suddenly be thrust into the unknown by losing someone you love, by changes with your spouse or your child, by all kinds of upheaval. You did know where you were going and all of a sudden, you don't have a clue. It's all up for grabs. Maybe you've gone beyond what you can figure out, beyond what you can fix, beyond what you have the resources for. It's scary in the dark. You have legitimate reason to fear failing, or falling, or losing a lot.

Well, when you're ready for a totally awesome promise from your all-powerful Lord. This is a promise for those of us who have, in one way or another, marched off the map. I've been hanging onto this one like a little child to a Daddy recently. Listen. It's our word for today from the Word of God and it's in Isaiah 42:16 . Your Lord says, "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them..." You can't see where you're going right now, you're into ground that is full of unknowns. God promises you that He's going to lead you every unfamiliar step of the way ... because it's not unfamiliar to Him.

Hang on - it gets better. "I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth." Yes! You have to walk into the darkness ahead to experience this, but God guarantees that, as you do, He will light up the steps in front of you. And those rough spots, those dangerous places you're worrying about - He said He'll make those smooth. Then, in a final signature, He says, "These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." Case closed.

For all the dark places, for all the rough places, for all the new places, the Bible says your Good Shepherd "puts His sheep out - and He goes ahead of them." (John 10:4 ) Any place He leads you, He will get there ahead of you, getting it ready, dealing with the hazards, locating the resources. So you can dare to move confidently into the dark, along that unfamiliar, uncharted road stretching ahead of you.

You may have marched off the map. But Jesus is there as much as He has been on the road you knew. You need new orders. Well, you'll know exactly what you need to do - on just the day you need to know.