“A good movie has memorable scenes, and so does good life.”

Donald Miller A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

If your devotional Bible reading is in The One Year Bible (Tyndale), you are slogging through a repetitive story of viciousness with some nasty family squabbles. Thanksgiving Dinner at the Palace was a good place to get killed. You and the whole family! It wasn’t until we started studying Jezebel—the Queen and the spirit—that I fully understood why God was adamant about the Israelites staying away from their neighboring nations and especially their gods.

There are two verses that—did you know there are more than 2500 species of mosquitos? These verses have been like pesky mosquitos buzzing around my soul.

“All his life Joash did what was right because Jehoiada the High Priest instructed him” (2 Kings 12:2).

“So the Lord raised up leaders among the Israelis to rescue them from the tyranny of the of the Syrians; and then Israel live in safety again” (2 Kings13:5).

Joash is unique among the Kings and leaders because of a godly coach/mentor. At our Tribe meeting last evening, I wondered out loud how we should treat the crazy politics in USA 2014 and how we should pray for the illegals swarming into this country. 

The hundreds of thousands of refugees on our southern borders are like another swarm of mosquitos around my soul. I’m about to risk my voter’s registration card spontaneously igniting by quoting Nancy Pelosi. She sees all those refugees, and they are illegals, as an “Opportunity.” In spite of her eloquence, it is a growing crisis. Opportunity and crisis go together. I think the words have common roots.  This crisis has its roots in leadership default.

Opportunity presents itself when someone with access is gripped by and then responds to a vision.

David Wilkerson’s son has written about his father in a new book David Wilkerson: The Cross, the Switchblade and the Man Who Believed.

It was the mid 1950’s when Wilkerson, a small town Pennsylvania preacher, felt an inescapable burden for the gangs of New York City. He had no access to them, but went to the mean streets, slept in his car and followed what he understood to be God’s guidance. His obedience gave him access. God opened doors. He preached the Good News to the gangs. A book was written, a movie was made and the story continues.

Opportunity–Vision–Access.

Some of our tribe will be going to Haiti in 2015. Some of our friends just returned from a work camp in Colorado. I’m wondering when the “southern border opportunity” will become the work camp or mission trip of choice.

I am praying that God will raise up a cadre of leaders who will see the “opportunity.” I am praying that God will produce a generation of “priests” who will coach, teach, mentor and train. Given the atmosphere in Israel, I’m wondering who spoke into Jehoiada?

Here we are on the eve of another holiday. I’m reading two books about historical leaders and shake at their expeditions and the challenges they met. I’m also thinking about the “memorable scenes” that my family will recall as we say, “Remember the time when…?” I also am aware that I could never take on the challenges Theodore Roosevelt welcomed even if I ate those White House pie crusts every day. But I can respond in faith and obedience to opportunity, vision where I do have access.

What are the opportunities you see into which you have access?  Vision and access. Vision and access. Vision and access. One more swarm of mosquitos around my soul. Vision and access.  

D. Dean Benton

Benton Quest House