“I love to hear missionaries pray,
because no one knows daily communion with or the constant provision of God
like a missionary does.” Pastor Myron
Wow. If that's not convicting, I dont
know what is. As many of you know, I am in the candidacy stage of
becoming a full time, faith supported missionary. Typically one might
think of missionaries up there with Sunday school teachers and
Pastors. We have it all together. We know the Bible front and back.
We never worry, and when we mess up its nothing big, or we get it
back together nice and quick.
Don't get me wrong. This is of course
what I strive for but not any more so than anyone else should,
regardless of my personal calling. But we're not what some would call
saints. In fact, the idea of a saint is poorly misunderstood to so
many of today's Christians, I think.
When someone thinks of a saint, they
most likely picture angels and halos, soft speech, gentle walk. Maybe
the sky opens over their head and the heavens sing. I myself picture
a sweet grandmother whom one can't even imagine raising her voice,
let alone doing anything wrong. If this is the case, I am no saint.
And many Christians aren't either, as much as we would love to insist
the contrary.
Let me show you a people in the Bible
who were referred to as saints:
“For it
has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by members of Chloe’s
household, that there is rivalry among you.”
“It is widely reported that there is
sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that
is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is living with his
father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride, instead of filled
with grief so that he who has committed this act might be removed
from your congregation.”
Yes. You
read correctly. Examples of saints. Don't believe me? These are
references from the First letter form Paul to the Corinthian church,
whom he address thus: “To God’s church at Corinth, to those who
are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called as saints.”
Where am I going with this? Well I
stated earlier what my own pastor said about missionaries. As a
missionary, I was encouraged and convicted by his words. I was
encouraged that my daily struggle is known, and I am grateful that I
know for a fact the my pastor and his pray daily for my needs and the
work to which the Lord has called me.
But God has recently convicted me
heavily about my daily walk with the Lord. Yes, I am walking with the
Lord, but am I diligently seeking that time spent doing nothing but
communing with my Heavenly father, my (as I said in yesterday's post)
dearest friend in history? Who could possibly be more important to me
than the Lord who gave everything up for me, as wretched as I was in
my sin?
If nothing else I guess I am posting
for my accountability to myself, as well as from others. I am not perfect. I don't have it all together. But i praise God that he is still working in me. "You're not done with me yet," as the contemporary worship song goes. ("Redeemed, by Big Daddy Weave) I feel as
though I can't really serve the Lord in its fullest capacity until I
realign and refill myself with the things of the Lord.
In what ways are you in need of
refilling or realignment? What has the Lord recently laid on your
heart? How has he encouraged you through the concern of others?
Partially to reinforce one of the main points of this blog, as well as just for fun:
No comments:
Post a Comment