Saturday, June 30, 2018

Light of the World


Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.                           Revelation 3:20


One of my favorite pieces of art hangs in the Keble College chapel in Oxford, England. The painting, The Light of the World by English artist William Holman Hunt, shows Jesus holding a lantern in His hand and knocking on a door to a home.


One of the intriguing aspects of the painting is that the door doesn’t have a handle. When questioned about the lack of a way to open the door, Hunt explained that he wanted to represent the imagery of Revelation 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.”


The apostle John’s words and the painting illustrate the kindness of Jesus. He gently knocks on the door of our souls with His offer of peace. Jesus stands and patiently waits for us to respond. He does not open the door Himself and force His way into our lives. He does not impose His will on ours. Instead, He offers to all people the gift of salvation and light to guide us.

To anyone who opens the door, He promises to enter. There are no other requirements or prerequisites.

If you hear the voice of Jesus and His gentle knock on the door of your soul, be encouraged that He patiently waits for you and will enter if you welcome Him in.


Lord, thank You for the gift of salvation and Your promise to enter when we open the door. Please help me to respond to this gift and open the door for You today.


Open the door to Jesus; He is patiently waiting for you.


Friday, June 29, 2018

PROJECT PEARL



“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”                              Matthew 13:45-46






One hundred-foot-long tugboat Michael lumbered along at the sleepy speed of three knots. It towed the semi-submersible barge, Gabriella, loaded with the million Chinese Bibles in 232 waterproof wrapped one-ton packages. By 9 p.m. on that historic night of June 18, 1981, Michael and its crew of twenty men weaved through a maze of anchored Chinese navy ships in the darkness near the port city of Shantou, southern China. Thousands of local Christians waited patiently in the darkness on the appointed beach.


The off-loaded floating packages were towed to shore by small rubber boats. Chinese believers came out in the water—some up to their neck. They pulled the blocks up onto the beach and cut them open with shears, handing the 45-pound cardboard boxes of Bibles to one another up the sand to the tree-line.


Two hours later, Michael and Gabriella and the crew left the scene with one million Bibles in the care of Chinese believers. They promised to circulate them across the entire country. In some cases, that process took as much as five years and many Chinese Christians paid dearly for it.



Over the past 30 years, Open Doors has received documented story after story—often from unusual places and situations—of the impact of those Bibles on the fast growing church in China. Project Pearl Bibles have been seen in virtually every province of the country.


A former colleague of mine from Singapore continues to minister in China. In the late 1990s, he met a large house church network of Christians in central China who still had no contact at all with foreigners from outside the country. They testified that it was the receiving of many Project Pearl Bibles that encouraged them and motivated them to share the gospel widely and thus grow to their current significant numbers.



One of those pocket-sized Bibles was received by a young Christian who had been praying for a Bible of his own for three years. After reading it through three times in three weeks, he felt God calling him to become one of the many itinerant evangelists preaching in China’s countryside. After fifteen years of ministry, he pastured a network of house churches that grew to over 400,000 members. His network of churches continues to need more than 20,000 Bibles a month just for new believers.




RESPONSE: I will appreciate the several Bibles I have and commit myself to learning and living from it.



PRAYER: Pray for Christians today in a variety of situations who are still waiting for their first copy of God’s Word.


Thursday, June 28, 2018

Ring in a Dumpster


Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.                                                   Matthew 7:7



In college, I woke up one morning to find Carol, my roommate, in a panic. Her signet ring was missing. We searched everywhere. The next morning we found ourselves picking through a dumpster.



I ripped open a trash bag. “You’re so dedicated to finding this!”

“I’m not losing a two-hundred-dollar ring!” she exclaimed.

Carol’s determination reminds me of the parable Jesus told about the kingdom of heaven, which “is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44). Certain things are worth going great lengths to find.

Throughout the Bible, God promises that those who seek Him will find Him. In Deuteronomy, He explained to the Israelites that they would find Him when they turned from their sin and sought Him with all their hearts (4:28–29). In the book of 2 Chronicles, King Asa gained encouragement from a similar promise (15:2). And in Jeremiah, God gave the same promise to the exiles, saying He would bring them back from captivity (29:13–14).


If we seek God, through His Word, worship, and in our daily lives, we will find Him. Over time, we’ll know Him on a deeper level. That will be even better than the sweet moment when Carol pulled her ring out of that trash bag!

Lord, help me to seek You with all my heart.


To find God, we must be willing to seek Him.


Today's Devotional from: OUR DAILY BREAD

  Posted HERE


Wednesday, June 27, 2018

What is the Mission of the Church


The word mission is not a biblical word, so we must define what we mean when we talk about a mission.

The word mission comes from the Latin words mitto (to send) and missio (sending). 


So mission implies that someone has sent something to accomplish a task. In other words, God has sent the church to accomplish a task.

So perhaps a better way to reframe this question is what has God sent the church to accomplish? While there may be many good things the church could do, what is the primary thing that God has sent us to do?

Most Christians can agree on the basics of the faith. Most would agree with Gregg R. Allison that “The church is missional. It is the body of divinely called and divinely sent ministers proclaiming the gospel and advancing the kingdom of God.”1 However, while we may agree that the church is missional (sent on a mission), there is a growing debate about what exactly we are sent to do.

The majority of the debate surrounds the church’s calling to share good news (evangelism) and do good works (social justice).
Most scholars debate the mission of the church like there is a pendulum with one side swinging towards good news and the other side towards good works. Swing too far towards good news and the good works people fear you will lose your love for people. Swing too far towards good works, and the good news people fear you will lose the gospel.

The irony is that no pastor would stand before their congregation and say, “Do not do good works.” And no pastor would say, “Do not share the good news.” Both are good and important aspects of the church’s mission.

So what is the mission of the church then? Is it good news, good works, some combination of both, or something else entirely?
I will argue that the mission of the church is not just good news, and it is not just good works. The mission of the church is to make disciples. And disciple-making, as defined by Jesus in the Great Commission, is a combination of both good news and good works.

What Did God Send Us to Do?

If the church’s mission means that the church was sent by God to accomplish a specific task, then we must begin by asking, “What did God send us to do?”

The Great Commission is the primary place where we see God sending his church. We call it the Great Commission because it is where Jesus gave his disciples their mission, and this is still the church’s mission today since we are still disciples of Jesus.
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he stood before his disciples and proclaimed:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matt 28:18-20).

To better understand Jesus’ commission to us, we need to walk through six parts of this commandment. It may be helpful to reframe them as six questions.

1. Jesus gives us the why.

Why should we do this mission?

Jesus reminds us of his authority. Being God, he has all authority in heaven and on earth. It is a reminder that what he is about to say is more than a suggestion, it a commandment from God, himself.
There are other reasons to carry out Christ’s mission, such as our love for others, but our primary reason is simply that God has commanded us to do it. If there were no other reasons, this should be reason enough.

2. Jesus gives us the when.

When should we begin this mission?
Jesus commands the disciples, “Go.” In other words, he is initiating the mission, sending us to accomplish a task. There is a sense of immediacy in this command.
We are to begin immediately.

3. Jesus gives us the what.

What are we sent to do?
Jesus tells us the specific task that he is sending us to do: “make disciples.” This is our mission. We are sent to make disciples of Jesus. But Jesus, in his infinite wisdom, knows that making disciples is too vague of a mission.
We need more guidelines. So Jesus continues to define what he means by making disciples.

4. Jesus gives us the where.

Where are we sent?
He tells us to make disciples in “all nations.” So our mission is not limited geographically, or ethnically. The disciples may have been inclined only to reach Jews in Israel, but the mission is broader than that.

Our mission is to make disciples all around the world among all people from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Rev 7:9).

5. Jesus gives us the how.

How do we make disciples?

This is critical for our discussion. There are two things that Jesus says we need to do:

1.  Baptize them in the name of the triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
2.  Teach them to obey everything Jesus has commanded.
We will explore these two sides of disciple-making more in-depth below.

6. Jesus answers our objections.

What if we aren’t good enough? What if it’s too risky?
Jesus reassures us that he will be with us always. He is sending us to go on a mission, but we are not alone. He will be with us, and the Holy Spirit will guide and empower us along the way.
We won’t accomplish the mission under our own power because we are good enough, but under God’s power because he is more than enough.

In summary, the mission of the church can be defined in response to these six question:
1.  Why should we go? God has commanded us to go.
2.  When should we go? We should go now.
3.  Where should we go? We are sent to all nations.
4.  What task are we sent to do? We are sent to make disciples of Jesus.
5.  How do we make disciples? We baptize them and teach them to obey Christ.
6.  What if we aren’t good enough? God will be with us.

This is what I mean when I say that the mission of the church is to make disciples.


The Two Sides of Making DiscIples

To further understand the mission of the church, we need to draw out the implications of the two-sided nature of disciple-making according to Jesus.

Jesus told us to make disciples by baptizing them and teaching them to obey his commands (Matt 28:19-20).

In the New Testament, baptism always follows conversion.
For example, on the day of Pentecost, Peter preaches the gospel and “those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41).

In Acts 8, Philip preaches the gospel, and “when they believed… they were baptized, both men and women.” (Acts 8:12).
Later, Philip encounters the Ethiopian eunuch and helps him understand the gospel. As they approach some water, the Ethiopian says, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?… and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him” (Acts 8:36-38). The eunuch believed, so nothing prevented him from being baptized.

Therefore, baptizing someone implies that they have heard the good news of the gospel and have responded with faith in Jesus (Rom 10:17).

This is the evangelism side of disciple-making.

After baptism, however, the disciple-making process does not end.
After baptism, we must then teach believers to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us.

So we must ask, what has Christ commanded us? We do not have enough room in this paper to get into all of Christ’s commands. Fortunately, he gave us a summary.

Jesus was asked which commandment was the greatest, and he replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22:34-40).

This has come to be known as the Great Commandment. According to Jesus, the commandments to love God and your neighbor summarize all of the commands in Scripture. Therefore, when Jesus says that part of making disciples is teaching them to obey everything he commanded, we can summarize his commandments in the Great Commandment.

This point is critical because most people who argue against the Great Commission, making disciples, being the mission of the church contend that it makes evangelism (good news) a priority over service (good works).

They point to the examples of Jesus healing the sick, caring for the poor, and modeling what it means to love others. But they miss the point that making disciples is not just about evangelism. It includes teaching people to obey the Great Commandment, which would include our obedience as well.

So making disciples includes good news (baptizing) and good work (obeying). Jesus sent the church in the Great Commission.

We are to make disciples. And how do we do that? Baptize them (which requires sharing the good news), and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded (which results in doing good works).
Going back to the earlier pendulum analogy with good news on one side and good works on the other, we can see why this is a bad paradigm of thinking. The goal is not a balance between good news and good works, where we limit good news in doing good works, or we limit good works by focusing on good news.

Even if the pendulum were perfectly in the middle, some would think it should be more towards one side or the other. I believe that the mission of the church and the pull of evangelism and service is more integrated than that. Good news and good works do not compete with one another.

Instead of seeing the mission of the church like a pendulum, perhaps it would be better to view the mission of the church more like a coin.
The entire coin represents making disciples, but it has two sides: baptizing and teaching. You cannot have one side without the other. They are both partners in creating the whole picture of making disciples.

Therefore, when people debate whether or not good news or good works should have a priority in the mission of the church, it is like two kids looking at different sides of the same quarter arguing that the coin is more “heads” or more ‘tails.” Their perspective is off.
The mission of the church is to make disciples, but disciple-making is two-sided. We make disciples by baptizing and teaching.


The Mission of the Early Church

The example of the early church provides further support that the mission of the church is to make disciples. From the beginning, the church focused on baptizing and teaching.

In Acts 2, we can make three important observations:

First, on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit first came upon the disciples and empowered them “to speak in other tongues” (Acts 2:4). Hearing the commotion, people “from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) gathered to see what was happening. This was a confirmation of Jesus sending the church to go “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19).

The first gathering of the early church went to all nations.
Second, Peter takes advantage of the situation to stand before the crowd and preach the gospel (Acts 2:14-36). Immediately after he shares the good news, he calls the people to “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38). Many believed, so the church baptized about three thousand people on its first day (Acts 2:41).

This was a direct fulfillment of the church’s mission to make disciples by “baptizing them” (Matt 28:19). But they didn’t stop at baptism.
Third, while most Bible translations place a heading in Acts 2 between verse 41 and verse 42 creating a division that was not in the original manuscript, these two sections are tied together. Immediately after three thousand people are baptized in verse 41, we see what the church did with thousands of new believers in verse 42: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching” (2:42).

What did the apostles teach them? While the Bible doesn’t say specifically, it is safe to assume that the apostles taught them what Jesus taught in the Great Commission, to obey all that Jesus has commanded (Matt 28:20), because we see the fruit of their obedience in the following verses. They practiced fellowship, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, giving generously to those in need, and worshiping God together (Acts 2:42-47).

In other words, their obedience to Christ’s teaching resulted in doing good works.

We also see many examples of the Great Commission playing out in Paul’s missionary work. In Corinth, Paul preaches the good news but receives some opposition. However, Acts 18:8 tells us that “Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.” So Paul preached the good news and baptized those who believed.

Next, we read that the Lord speaks to Paul in a vision saying, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you” (Acts 18:9-10). The Lord’s command echoes Christ’s promise in Matthew 28 that he will be with us. So what does Paul do next? Acts 18:11 says, “he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”

Looking at this one example from Paul’s ministry, we see that Paul’s mission was the same as the church’s mission—to make disciples by baptizing and teaching them. He spent a year and a half in Corinth preaching the gospel, baptizing believers, and teaching them to obey God’s Word. He was following what Jesus commanded in the Great Commission. And Paul’s mission is the same as the church’s mission, and it is still our mission today.

Therefore, from the beginning of the church in Acts 2, we see the church set out to fulfill its Great Commission mission to make disciples. Throughout the remainder of the history of the early church, this mission continues to play out.

The apostles go throughout the world making disciples by sharing the good news, baptizing believers, and teaching them to obey Jesus.

Keep the Focus on the Mission

While few Christians would deny that making disciples is part of the mission of the church, reputable scholars still cannot seem to agree 
on what exactly the primary mission of the church is.2

So while they may include disciple-making, they also elevate other things like creation care, social renewal, or church sacraments to the same level or above the primary mission Jesus gave us.

We miss the mark when we take good things and make them primary things.

If you try to do everything, you will accomplish nothing.

The mission of the church must be focused on keeping the main thing the main thing.

If we do not keep the focus on what Christ commanded us to do, then we will drift into a vague, directionless existence that accomplishes nothing.

Jesus sent us to go to all nations to make disciples by baptizing new believers and teaching them to obey God’s commands.

The argument between whether this means that the church should focus on sharing the good news or doing good works is circular. We are sent to do both.

Evangelism is a prerequisite of baptism because they will not believe if they do not hear (Rom 10:17). And our love for others that compels us to serve is the fruit of our love for God and obedience to his commands (1 John 4:19-20).

The mission of the church is a paradox. It’s not just good news, and it’s not just good works. It is a combination of both in the call to make disciples.

Source:

1.  Gregg R. Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 140.



Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Pastor Rick Hudgens - an Introduction


Sharron and I been in God's Waiting Room for several months now. We have been faithfully seeking God each day. We are reading God's Word together and praying together each day. I shared in a testimony in a Sunday School Class that when you are desperate it bring a deepened dependence upon God.   

This is a video my daughter Stephanie assisted me in creating to send to several churches to introduce myself. I post it today - that if you read my blog and do not really know me - here is a simple introduction. 



Monday, June 25, 2018

How to know when it;s time to call it Quits




Summer has come and it feels like everyone is on the move. Almost every day I hear of another church staff member leaving their current role and transitioning to a new assignment. At the same time a week seldom goes by that a pastor doesn’t ask if I know of any available children’s, student, worship or connection pastors. (If they could find someone to lead all four that would be awesome.) 

So how about you, is it time for you to leave your church and start again in a new community?

The answer is probably no, or at least not yet. Many times we move from one role to another for less than healthy reasons. We might be frustrated with leadership, tired of conflict or feeling stuck in our current role. Each of these points to unresolved issues within ourselves that need to be dealt with before we pull up stakes and move on. I have made the mistake of leaving a rolebecause of internal issues I didn’t see or didn’t want to work on. Unfortunately when I got to my next job it turned out that I brought all of my baggage with me.

Don’t leave your current role because you’re struggling with the people you work with or because you don’t feel fulfilled in your role. A wise man once said, “How long are you going to work on what’s not the issue before you work on what is the issue?”

There are times, however, to polish up the resume and move along. Below are five situations I’ve experienced, or walked through with others, that point to a date with a realtor:

Reasons you should quit
YOU FEEL A CLEAR CALL FROM GOD TO A NEW SEASON

Everyone feels called to do something else when things are tough, that isn’t necessarily a sign that its time to move on. A clear call, however, is a feeling that just won’t go away. You go to sleep at night thinking about your next assignment and you wake up in the morning stuck on the same thought. Your spouse is onboard, your trusted friends and mentors are on board, and you have an internal peace that now is the time. 

Leaving Seacoast Church was an incredibly tough decision. I loved, and love, the church. I had great relationships with the leaders. Almost everything I knew about ministry I learned while working at Seacoast. But Sherry and I knew that it was time for a new chapter, and everyone we talked to agreed that we were hearing from God. That may be where you are today.

YOU DO NOT RESONATE WITH THE CHURCH CULTURE

Sometimes you might not fit in a particular church culture. Often it is hard to tell from the outside what the culture is like, and once you are on staff you feel trapped. In those cases it’s important to ask a couple of questions:

1.    What does God want to change in me through this culture? God may have you right where you need to be to shape your character into who he created you to be. Just because the culture is difficult doesn’t mean God isn’t using it to transform you.

2.    Am I in a position to change church culture? God may have you where you are to help bring health to a culture that is unhealthy. I remember having this discussion with a friend who was in a very challenging culture and considering a move. As we talked he realized that he had been brought to the church for such a time as this. He ended up staying and he has had an incredible impact on the culture of the church.

YOU DISAGREE WITH THE OVERALL DIRECTION OF THE CHURCH
This is one of the most significant reasons to consider leaving a church. You may be in an environment where leaders are making very poor, even sinful decisions, and the church may be headed in a direction that you cannot support. The first step, of course, is to talk with the leaders to try to understand or resolve the issues you are struggling with. If, however, you cannot get peace about what is being done and the direction being taken, it is time to leave.

Do not stay at a church you don’t believe in, following leaders you don’t support, just to collect a paycheck. You and your family will be much better off if you get a job at Walmart. God is not calling you to be inauthentic in ministry, and he is not calling you to sow discord. There are times when the best thing you can do is to simply get out.

YOUR ROLE IS TAKING A SIGNIFICANT TOLL ON YOUR FAMILY

There came a time in the life of my family that I had to step away from vocational ministry. Unhealthy patterns in my leadership and relationships, combined with resentment building in my wife’s heart toward ministry and toward me, almost destroyed our marriage. After months of discord I realized it was time to step away.

The mistake I made, however, was thinking stepping out of ministry would solve our challenges. We did not continue the hard work we needed to do to reach a place of health, and ended up in a worse place than before. Only through the grace of God and some excellent counselors did we finally learn how to have a healthy marriage and a healthy ministry.
Bottom of Form

(You can read more about our journey in ministry and marriage in our new book, Together: A guide for couples in ministry.)

If your family is suffering because of your role at a church you need to seriously evaluate whether it is time to step away. If you do leave, however, don’t repeat my mistake. Get the help you need to rebuild your marriage and family.

Two final pieces of advice as you are considering making a move. The first comes from a mentor who told me, “Opportunity is often temptation in disguise.” Just because you have another opportunity doesn’t mean it’s time to leave.

The second piece of advice comes from years and years of ministry and life; it is almost always too soon to quit. Unless one of the reasons above really resonates for you, hang in there. God is still at work.

A decision to stay or go is always tough. If you’d like someone to process with, don’t hesitate to email me at geoff@ministrytogether.com and let’s talk.


Source:


Geoff has served on the leadership teams at Seacoast Church and Saddleback Church, and as Managing Director of Exponential. He is the author of several books, including Together: A Guide for Couples in Ministry written with his wife Sherry. Along with writing, Geoff coaches churches and leaders around the U.S. and in Europe. Geoff lives in Denver, Colorado. Twitter: @geoffsurratt



The original article appeared here.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

The Gospel Here & Now: He Is with You


Christ conquered death to give us life. And yet, we still face problems and trials. It’s not a matter of what you face . . . it’s a matter of Who is with you as you face it.


Are you projecting to impress?


COLOSSIANS 3:12

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”



Saturday, June 23, 2018

A Biblical Framework to Process a Calling to and Prepare for Full-time Ministry.


Regardless of what your opinion may be about women filling positions of leadership in the church, Jesus spoke of several women who played important roles in spreading the gospel message. 






The following article is an excerpt from the new book Now That I’m Called: A Guide for Women Discerning a Call to Ministry by Kristen Padilla. Her book provides women with a biblical, theological, and practical framework to process their calling and prepare them for full-time ministry.

Wondering if God is calling call you to vocational ministry? Find clarity in these two biblical steps adapted from Padilla’s book Now That I’m Called.

First, go forth in prayer. Jesus’ ministry was marked by prayer. He often withdrew by himself to pray (Luke 5:16). Jesus prays before miracles, such as the feeding of the five thousand (Matt. 14:19) and raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:41–42). His greatest test—his betrayal and death on a cross—was bathed in prayer. Jesus prayed in the garden; he prayed on the cross. He very likely prayed every step of the way. Jesus also taught his disciples how to pray (Matt. 6:9–13) and later urged them to pray so that they would not fall into temptation (Matt. 26:41).

Prayer is not a suggestion, an add-on, or a recommendation. Prayer is a command from Jesus himself. It is also a right, a privilege, a blessing, and a necessity for a Christian ministry. Prayer brings us into the royal court of our triune God. If you want to have a ministry that mirrors Jesus’ ministry, then prayer must be an essential component. Our ministries and our faith won’t survive without prayer. But even when we don’t know how to pray or what to pray, he is faithful to help us when we ask.

Second, go forth in trust and obedience. Jesus teaches us that our Father is good and trustworthy. Everything I have said in this book boils down to the goodness and sovereignty of God over our calls and ministries. Trust him to see the call he has given you through to its completion. Obey him, even if obedience is difficult and you don’t understand why. Depend on him, fully trusting in the truth that God loves you and wants to involve you in the work of ministry.

One day the King will return and set everything right. There will be no need for stewards of God’s people “for the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17 ESV). Do you catch the irony in this statement? Jesus, the Lamb, will be the shepherd. Lambs aren’t shepherds; they are shepherded! Here, again, Jesus is flipping the world upside down. The sacrificial lamb will be the shepherd of all people. He is our redemption and our God.

In Revelation 19, John sees a vision of a wedding between the Lamb and his bride. Who is his bride? The redeemed people of God—men and women. Whereas God’s story and our story began in a garden, it now ends with a wedding in a city. Men and women, once again, are serving side by side as worshippers (Rev. 7:9–14) and as priests ministering, this time to their husband, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Men and women together become the bride submitting to their husband (Rev. 19:6–9).

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” (Matt. 9:37). Many people have yet to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, and many in the church have yet to be discipled! There’s work to be done, and if God is tenderizing your heart, calling you to be his ambassador, serving on his behalf for his people, then go! Get prepared for the long journey ahead in such a way that you will last until the end. And remember that God is the author and finisher of your faith and ministry. He holds you. He is with you.

On the pulpit at my church is a plaque that reads, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16). Because of how the plaque is placed, every minister who stands in that pulpit touches it while he or she preaches. It is there as a reminder that the minister’s job is not to tell stories or jokes or good moral points; it is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. My prayer and charge for you is that your ministry will be marked by, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” Preach the good news of Jesus Christ. By your life and doctrine, proclaim him as Savior.

And when you are done serving him in this world, the words you will have waited to hear, will come because of who he is for us and what he has done through us: “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matt. 25:21)

Now go in peace to love and serve the Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


Source: