The Ministry You May Not Want

I heard a preacher say, “The difficulty that God brings you through provides you with a ministry to others.”

I remember seeing a church sign, one of those where they post messages on the sign, it read, “God didn’t save you to make you comfortable, but to make you a comforter.”

What really counts when life on this earth has been completed is that we have fulfilled our purpose.  God gives us a ministry.  Will we recognize it?  Will we do it?

Seven Reasons Not To Worry

1. God said don’t do it, (1Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:6)

2. It doesn’t help.

3. It is an enemy to your health.

4. God has already made provision for your every need, (2Peter 1:2-3.)  You simply need to get in position to receive what He has provided.

5. God’s ways are always better than your ways, so if you could figure out something to do, it wouldn’t be as good as what God will lead you to do, if you will look to Him.

6. Worry is a subtle form of pride, and God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble, (1Peter 5:5.)

7. Most of things you worry about will never happen anyway.  It is the devil’s deception.

Wow!

What exactly does that word mean?  Nobody knows.  At my best guess, it’s a word that expresses amazement.  It is a word of appreciation for something that’s out of the ordinary.

Did Jesus ever say, “Wow?”  No, I’m pretty sure He didn’t, but if that had been a word of His day, I think He would have said it on several occasions.

• When Peter asked to walk on the water
• When the poor widow gave her last two small coins in the treasury
• When Mary broke a box of perfume valued at a years wages and poured it on Him
• When Paul said, “I count every thing in my past as garbage, when I compare it to what I have in Christ.”

There are other incidences, but you get the idea.  Jesus never changes.  Our faith in Him, His authority, and His word still have the “wow” effect.

Commands

Whether it’s the policeman  or some other authority, we are constantly reminded that there are commands to which we must respond.

The Bible has many commands.   There are three truths concerning any biblical command:

WE MUST DECIDE TO DO IT.   If the response was automatic, there would be no need for a command.

WE CAN DO IT.  God never commands us to do anything that He does not provide the wherewithal with which to do it. 

THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT WE MIGHT NOT DO IT.   Sadly, this is where all too many people live: in disobedience to the Lord’s commands.

 If we make the decision to show the Lord’s command, “No Respect,” we deprive ourselves of the good life that He has provided for us in Christ.   Failure to obey the command of policeman will bring unpleasant results, and even moreso, will failure to obey the commands of Lord bring unpleasant results.  On the other hand, there are great blessings for those who trust and obey.

Getting Along

Rodney King’s big line of his lifetime was, “Can’t we all just get along?”  There are some common sense, not to mention biblical rules to getting along.

Be considerate of others.   Seems like that would go without saying, but it is often the missing link in troubled relationships.

Say “Thank You” to those to whom thanks is due.   People love to hear those words, but more than that, when they do hear them, their regard for those who spoke them goes up.

Overcome evil with good.   It is a very Christ-like action to be kind to those who are not kind to you.  If the other person has any heart at all, it will make a strong impression that will probably pay big dividends in your future dealings.

Leave vengeance to God.  In Romans 12, God says that vengeance is His, and that He will repay.   Do you trust God to take you to heaven when you die?  Then, can you not trust to take care of this little matter?

How Long Should You Try?

It depends on the subject.  If it’s your marriage, you need to do everything possible to make it a life-long covenant relationship.   If it is your job, or some other endeavor, there needs to be a way to know when to say, “when.”

We wouldn’t want to quit too soon.  I heard a radio commentator say that John Edwards is probably kicking himself right now for getting out of the presidential race when he did.  Maybe he quit too soon.  Most of us don’t want to hang on too long, either.  My grand-dad was like that about driving.  He was crowding 90 years old, running over stuff right and left, but couldn’t see that it was time to quit.

In matters of faith, there is never a quitting time, but there are times when people get involved in areas of responsibility that they are not suited for, and in those cases, the wise words of Kenny Rogers should be heeded:  “You’ve got to know when to hold’em and know when to fold’em.”

Ship To Tarshish

God told Jonah to go and preach to the people of Ninevah, but he went the opposite direction.  He boarded a ship going to Tarshish.

The devil must be pleased when God’s people board their ships for Tarshish.  We all have them.  Every time there is the prompting of God to head a direction He tells us, the ship for Tarshish presents itself, just waiting for us to get on board.

Jonah’s reasons for getting on the ship to Tarshish included such things as fear, prejudice, pride, patriotism, laziness, and stubbornness.  The devil will always furnish you with what you believe to be a reason.

We will find, as did Jonah, that the ride on the ship to Tarshish is not pleasant.   There is a song that says, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

We will have gone a long way toward victory over the deception of the ship to Tarshish, as soon as we realize that there will always be one to present itself, but that all awaits it is a stormy sea and a prepared judgement.

God gave Jonah another chance.  He is the God of another chance.  His mercies are new every morning.

I Must Tell

Have you ever had something happen to you that was so good and so exciting that you just had to tell it to somebody?   I was in the Post Office, one day, and I saw a man who was a member of the church of which I was pastor.  He said, “I’ve got to tell you something.  I’ve got very good news, I’m about to come into a large sum of money.”  I could see that he was very excited, and as he continued to tell me about it, he said, “I got a letter from the Readers Digest, yesterday, and I’ve been selected as one of the final five to win millions of dollars!”  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that everybody gets selected to be in the final five.

This man was exited over something he thought he might get, so much so that he was telling me about it, as if it were already reality.  It would be exciting to win several million dollars in sweepstakes, would it not?  Have you ever thought about how your life would change with such a gift?  One thing is for sure, and that is if you were to win it, it would only be for a limited amount of time.  The old trueism would once again prove true: you can’t take it with you.

Yesterday, I assisted in the funeral of a lady whom I had not seen for several years.  I had been her pastor a number of years ago.  The minister, who was her pastor at the time she died, told about how she had become such a vocal witness of the Lord’s saving grace.  He told how she would tell telemarketers, “I will listen to you, if you will listen to me for a moment, first,” and she would take that moment to tell them how God had changed her life and how He would change their lives, also.  He told how she had been such a witness to her medical doctor, and had developed such a friendship around her Christian testimony with that doctor, that the doctor had taken the day and had driven to another town to be able to attend her funeral service.

Jesus said that we are the light of world.  We really can be.  We just need to realize that what we have been given is far greater than the winning the Readers Digest sweepstakes, and out of our excitement, we only have to tell.

Victim Mentality

Do you know people who think that every thing that happens to them, happens because of what somebody else did or didn’t do?  I’ve heard people say, “I don’t go to church, because my parents always made me go to church when I was a child.”  I sometimes ask them if their parents made them do any other things, like brush their teeth, take a bath, and use good manners?

We can never control other people, but we can control how we look at the situations of our lives.  We cannot stop all bad things from happening in our lives, but we can deal with them in the most powerful way possible, and that is according to the teachings of the Bible.

One thing we need to understand is that a moment cannot ruin our forever, because God’s mercies are new every morning.   The devil is “the thief,” and his mission is to steal, kill, and destroy, but in Christ, we can stand against him at every turn, because Jesus has come that we might have life to the overflowing.

Don’t blame others for your situation.  Repent of any wrong-doing on your own part and look to the future, standing on the promises of God.  Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before.  Wouldn’t that make a great song?

Spiritual Laws

Gravity is a natural law, meaning it is an absolute in the workings of the world.  Gravity is always at work.  Any day of the week, any time of the day, any place on the planet, gravity is going on.  It’s a law.

There are also spiritual laws that, like natural laws, they are always working.  Whether or not we are in submission to those laws, will everything to do with the kind of life we experience.

I did an internet search on spiritual laws, and I got stuff from how to become a Christian to mystical eastern religious guidelines.  What I’m thinking about is three very basic spiritual laws that are like branches from which many others may hang. 

The law of love is the greatest and most important.  To love God and love people is the greatest of the commandments and is the summation of all the law and prophets.  If you fail at this point, you will not be in position to benefit from any of the other spiritual laws.

The law of faith is second, but is completely dependant upon your submission to the law of love.  First Corinthians 13:1-3 says that no matter how much you do, or how much faith you have, it is no good without love.  However, the law of faith says that unless faith is operative in your life, you cannot please God, you cannot come to God, and you cannot receive anything from God.  On the other hand, to him that believes, all things are possible.  Everybody has faith, but many people have their faith misplaced.  Adrian Rogers said, “Many people have strong faith in thin ice!”  Faith that has its basis in the word of God cannot fail.

Finally, there is the law of confession, which says, “What you say nails it down in your life.”  In the creation, God said, and it was.  I’m thankful that God has been merciful and has placed a filter between what we say and what we get, so that it doesn’t just immediately happen.  We’d all be dead!  Just think about when you said, “My head is killing me.”