Minister to Me

Ezekiel 44:16, “They shall enter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My table to minister to Me and keep My charge.”

The other day I encountered a homeless guy in the parking lot of an Exxon station. He had a sign that said “Just trying to survive.” He also had a shopping cart, and was digging through the garbage pulling out aluminum cans. Moved with compassion I cleaned the change out of my car, and gave him all the money I had.

I said, “Hey Survivor, Jesus love you.”

He said, “Don’t pray for me, pray for my buddy sick in that patch of woods down the street. I’ve been to 3 stores looking for him some Alka Seltser extreme cold…”

After some more chit chat I drove away. My mind wandered to wishing I had money enough to keep sleeping bags, cots, and coats in my truck. I thought how cool would it me to be able to go to the store, buy a charcoal grill, and go cook those guys a hot meal. All thoughts… no action.

But later that night the encounter directed my dreams. I dreamt that I was talking to God. Well… not talking, but more bitching. I complained that He called me to be a minister, and yet my only ministry is really a blog… or so I thought. I asked Him, “who have you sent me too? Is it the homeless?” I blabbed on about how my vocation as a loan officer looks nothing like the vocation of a minister…” I asked for the thousandth time, “Why the financial struggle, isn’t there a ministry “profession” out there for me that has sufficient resources?”

It was then the Father asked me, “Who did I call you to minister to?”

I answered, “I have no idea, all I know is that You said, ‘Where I have called you to there will be no support.’” (Which I have always believed it would be an indigent group not capable of supporting a minister.)

God replied quite emphatically, “I have called you to minister to ME!”

I do not expect a soul to understand the fullness of this statement, but I could kick myself for having gone 48 years without even considering it. Yes when I gave that homeless man some money I was as the world would call it, “ministering to him.” But the reality is I was responding to the Holy Spirit, and therefore truly ministering to Him. To put it another way, the Christ in me was reaching out for the Christ in him.

I keep looking for a job, a vocation, a profession as a minister to some people group; but God in one statement wiped that thought process from my mind. Ministry to God is not any of those things. Ministry to God happens anywhere, it is happening now as His presence fills my spirit, and my soul cries out Glory to God. It happens with the homeless man, not because I have met some temporary need, but because God has held him his entire life through the most hostile of circumstances and that that homeless man would still have compassion for his fellow man. Do you see the difference? Do you see the beauty that I see?

I get with new clarity what Christ meant when He spoke in John 5:19, “… the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing…” Christ did not come to minister to us, Christ came to minister to the Father. John 8:28 offers the same insight when Jesus said, “… I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.” Or his references to only doing the Father’s will… because He came to minister to God, not to us. We fix, we do, we plan, we organize when “we are ministering to men.”

We love when “we are ministering to God.”

Let this relieve the pressure to spiritually perform for others. Let this give proper priority to your plans to fix a person or segment of society. Minister to ME, God says. Let that be the focus of our soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2bQtqIkrRk

Never Quit

2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

A couple days ago my friend Jim Spivey wrote in his blog, “… he asked, ‘Jim, how do you keep walking?’”

You see Jim’s life is dedicated to walking with others in and out of their greatest needs… to be a reflection of Christ as he says. And in this, not only do his own life’s problems come to bare on his soul, but the problems of the hundreds he ministers too as well. How can he subject himself to that?

How can any of us subject ourselves to life?

A friend of mine often says, “Life is hard, wear a helmet.” And life is hard, but hardwired into us from God is this desire to never quit. Oh sure some do quit. Some quit with suicide, some quit with dropping out of society. But if we all will keep walking we will come to that moment of God’s glory that changes our soul eternally.

Do you think life is easy? Do you think ANYONE goes unchallenged in finances, or relationships, or health? Is there a place in Christ where any of us are immune, and no longer need to wear the helmet?

I will assure you not.

For me, many of you know that the struggle God has chosen to shape my soul is financial. I have not closed a loan in a month, and now find myself $3800 short of covering the monthly bills. It has me stressed out, and to say otherwise would be a lie. Now I can call my “dad” and borrow the money, or I can wait on the next glory of my DAD in heaven. I wait on God and His glory. (or at least try to) And it is not just me who need the next glory, the next shinning of God’s face in our blinded spirit.

I know a Pastor whose son is being held in jail on a charge of attempted murder. There’s a pair of men who need the next shinning of God’s glory. My friend Jeff experienced God’s glory when the doctor’s announced his cancer was in remission, but I will promise you it seemed a thousand miles away as he walked out the healing. My friend Mark has cancer… he needs God’s glory. My friend Dana has blood and bone marrow cancer… he needs God’s glory, and what of his children. My nephews and niece lost their father at 50… but they have been seeing God’s glory time and time again since. Glory that reminds them their Dad is in a perfect place, and God is in control of their lives. Anne has a disease that causes her eyes to burst, and yes it is as painful as it sounds… she needs God’s next glory. Can you imagine have to have your eye repeatedly stitched back together?

My friend Gary (a Pastor) is in an epic struggle of family, and for his very soul. I cry because these are my friends, but I laugh at the insignificance of being short $3800.

My friend Bob was desperate for God to heal his blindness, but man did it with surgery. Is this a spiritual crisis of faith, or is this God’s next glory?

I think Laura will tell you of God’s glory in her remission of colon cancer. But what of the woman I spoke with the other day who is about to lose her home, and desperate to know what the future holds for her. Do I tell her we don’t get to see the future, only a blurring image of the past when we arrive at God’s next glory?

Of the many quotes Jim used in his blog this one stands out to me.

“’Now shall I walk or shall I ride?’

‘Ride,’ Pleasure then said;

‘Walk,’ Joy replied.”

-          W.H. Davis

We walk because joy anchors our soul. We walk because we know God’s next glory is coming. It is ok to despise the shame of the walk, just keep walking… never quit. God’s glory is not in the destination, God’s glory in all along the path. If you stop walking, or try to ride to the next destination you will miss the glory. 

The Pursuit of Happiness

Hebrews 12:2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith, who for the JOY set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame…”

My mom sent me a text the other day. I assume because I wasn't feeling well at her birthday celebration, and was a bit on the grouchy side. But the text said, “What is it that would make you happy? … like life?” I didn’t respond there because it is clear to me that God would have me respond here.

First and foremost happiness is nothing more than an emotional response to pleasant circumstance, or if you will happenstance. In fact I would argue that there is nothing spiritual at all about “happiness.” We are happy when we get our way. We are happy when we indulge our glutton. We are happy when we accomplish goals, or get new things. But happiness is fleeting, and it by in large is false. So I personally do not pursue “happiness.”

This sounds a little bit crazy, and perhaps pessimistic doesn’t it? But have you read my writings to this point? What would make me “happy” is to have a salary that I could depend on and not have to live check to check making commissions that go up and down. But my “happiness” would cause me to miss the JOY of God’s blessings and miraculous provision. Happiness would have had me miss the joy of a free horse. (Read that one.) Happiness would have never let me get close to Robert Franklin because it would have made me happy to "fix" his life rather than be in it.

It would make me “happy” to see my adult children with careers, and direction, but that would deny me the JOY of watching God move in their life, and to witness their interaction with Him.

It would make me happy to have a huge following on this blog with lots of comments and accolades, but then I would miss the joy of God sending these words around the world.

Psalms 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Based on this scripture I wrote the desires of my heart down. Happiness would be that they would all happen NOW. But it is great JOY that I see God provide them in His timing, and in His measure.

Do not confuse a stern face as being a heart without joy. For I truly am a blessed man, who sometimes wearies from the struggle with myself. I have a wonderful life! I have a wonderful wife, and children who love me. I am not here to pursue happiness. I am not here to “like” life. I am here to be “conformed to the image of Christ.” (Rom 8:29) Sometime that means being in despair. Sometimes that means life will bring you to a place where you despise it all, but deep underneath there is a JOY that keeps us moving forward. I do not care if I “like” life. I am here to “live” life. We are not here to be “happy.” But if we will love God, then there is an undercurrent of joy that keeps us going when life is hard or unpleasant. Joy is the bedrock of my soul. Happiness is nothing more than a roller coaster of my flesh.

And my SOUL is FULL of JOY!