hi guys this week's focus will be on ministry within our cell(wow! so timely!)
well i remember having a train of thought, something like, 'man if i'm so involved in ministry i'm probably not gonna have a life'(not that i really had one in the first place la). ok well, maybe not exactly those words, but definitely something along the lines of wanting to take a break, have fun, go diving, blah blah blah.
so then, i remembered this passage
Matthew 10:39
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
(NIV translation)
Matthew 10:38-39
38-39"If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me.
(The Message translation)
honestly, this is quite a revelation to me. friends have asked me to heck going church and go out more, go diving more, basically do a lot more stuff on sundays that would conveniently clash for that 9.15am - 12pm timeslot. and though the comments usually bounce off my thick skull, i do find myself wondering how fun it would be, for example, do spend most of my weekends diving(if i wasn't a christian i'd probably do that).
my point here is, if we're seen as people with no life cos we spend all our weekends in church, at church, on church, we're doing at least one thing right.
let's not even talk about Jim Eliot(the guy who wrote 'he is no fool who loses what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose'), Stephen, or other martyrs who lost their lives in an obvious way. what Ministry will require is our heart, our love(lots and lots of it) and our time. it will be a sacrifice. it may leave you wondering 'WHY on earth am i in this?', it may leave you disillusioned, broken, angry or hateful.
but does it have to?
This is how we give up our time to the Father. our life(or at least part of it). i count myself more than fortunate that i enjoy being in the ministry i currently am in. but perhaps enjoying our ministry may never have been a prerequisite for joining. what if i get asked to join the dance ministry one day(heaven forbid!)? of course, being asked by mere humans who want to laugh at me hop around in a tutu, and being asked by God, are two entirely different things.
i guess, as many of us know in our heads, that worship is not about gaining anything. and so, it is important that we understand that to enter into a ministry is to sacrifice something. whether or not God gives us anything in His infinite grace and mercy is another matter.
so. finally on to the prayer pointers. just one today.
- that God will help us prepare our hearts and mind, to choose between having no life, or having fun.
- that we will understand that ministry is a sacrifice.
>>and i live just for you my lord.
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