Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Through the Fire and Flames
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
-James 1:2-4
He found him in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
-Deuteronomy 32:10
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
-Psalm 147:3
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
-Romans 8:28
...Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
-2 Corinthians 4:16-18
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
-1 Peter 1:6-7
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 3:13-14
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
-1 Peter 2:21-24
What sweet words.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Jesus, Thank You
Me playing "Jesus, Thank You." I'm not that great, you can hear me mess up, especially in the beginning.
But we have so much to be thankful for. Most of us have wonderful family and friends, have been given blessings and opportunities, food and shelter.
But above all, the one thing we should be extremely thankful for is our salvation and eternal security in Him.
Thank you Jesus for your blood, thank you for bringing in a wretch like me to Your side. Thank you for the work on the cross. Thank you for showing mercy on a sinner like me. Thank you for calling me your son.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Serving in Sojourners
In the beginning, my main role in serving our Sojourners College Group was handling all the tech and web related matters: cleaning up our Google Group, emails, Facebook, and website. I was also given the opportunity to record Thursday Night and Sunday School sermons using a very simple voice recorder. Quality wasn't that clean because you could hear a lot of background noise, but it did the job, so I didn't complain. I would upload those messages on our website, and send an email via Google Group notifying everyone that the sermons were up. In the beginning, this is what I did, and all I did.
The rest of what was needed to be done was delegated to people who had experience and knowledge in that area, mostly in the field of planning events, which is pretty big and important to us.
I kept doing what I was doing because it was my responsibility and there was joy in doing this for our ministry, but somewhere down the line I sort of got discouraged in it. My contribution to the ministry felt so small; most of the time I felt like I was in the background, which technically I was. It wasn't that I wanted attention or credit, but it just felt like I wasn't doing much. Everyone else had the important responsibilities of event planning and other stuff like that, and I was just...there.
Sometime during this funk, my ex-discipler and I were going over this book called "Disciplines of a Godly Man," and I think it was in the chapter about "Ministry" that I learned about the disciple Andrew. Andrew is the brother of Peter, who we know was very outspoken, spoke before he thought, and pretty much had his foot in his mouth during the time Jesus was on Earth. But he ended up being a powerful preacher and had such a natural gift in it. However his brother, Andrew, was the type that just fell in the background during the ministry. The author of the book actually calls him "Average Andrew."
But that in no way discouraged him from serving Jesus. Though he did not have the inherent abilities that his brother Peter had, his attitude in serving Jesus in his own capacity was what really shone brightly. Yes, most of what Andrew did WAS in the background, but this did not stop him from having an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus.
Andrew is, in fact, the disciple Philip came to see first when two gentiles asked him if he could take them to meet Jesus. Knowing that Andrew did have that sort of relationship with Jesus where he could just easily go up to Him and ask Him anything.
His faith in Jesus was something to match also. In John's account in feeding the five thousand, we see a snippet of his faith. Jesus asked Philip where they could buy bread to feed the crowd. Philip, who was very diligent when it came to numbers, already knew they couldn't afford to feed that many people. He says in John 6:7, " 'Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.' " Two hundred denarii, or 8 months worth of the disciples' wages, was still not able to feed five thousand men, not including the women and children, even if each of them received a small portion of bread!
But in the next verse, we see Andrew act. "One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 'There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?' " Of course five loaves and 2 small sardines couldn't fill twenty thousand people (men, women, and children)! And yet, that did not stop him from bringing the boy to Jesus. Instinctively he knew Jesus could work with it; he probably didn't know how He could, but somewhere, deep down inside, he knew Jesus could feed them all with only these seven items, even if he didn't consciously knew it himself. He could have easily left the kid, told him to save it for his own family, and just eat. But he brought the little boy to Jesus, because he had a feeling Jesus could do something about it.
God used the example of Andrew to encourage me in my own ministry and faith, and is continually using him as an example as I meditate on what I learned in John MacArthur's book "Twelve Ordinary Men."
Two important things I learned:
1)Attitude: It doesn't matter how big or small your contribution is to your ministry, the fact that you are serving the Lord makes any role important. What you do is serving the saints, your fellow brothers and sisters, and pointing them to the example of Jesus who also served us on the cross. There is no "big" or "small" when it comes to serving, because in the end we are all aiming for the same goal, and that is our spiritual worship to God and glorifying His name.
2)Faith: Even if what you do contribute is still "small" in a relativistic sense, God can use even the smallest things to their fullest potential. Take a look at the mustard seed - it is the smallest seed out of all seeds, but it grows to be one of the tallest shrubs on earth, growing to about 10 feet tall! Jesus uses this as a parable to talk about the kingdom of God. Through one believer, the power of the gospel can have such a tremendous effect once it reaches the hearts of other people. Through that small seedling of faith Andrew displayed, five loaves and 2 fish became twelve baskets of excess food after feeding the twenty thousand. And through the "small" job of emails and recordings, God can use that to further His own kingdom also.
Thankfully, I now also serve by doing worship on Thursday nights. Every two weeks or so, I get the opportunity to co-lead worship with our worship leader by playing guitar.
Big or small, the Lord is using all my gifts for His glory, and I have no problem with that.
When asked, "Do people even listen to the sermons you record?" I respond by saying, "Hey, at least the resource is available. That's the most important thing."
The rest of what was needed to be done was delegated to people who had experience and knowledge in that area, mostly in the field of planning events, which is pretty big and important to us.
I kept doing what I was doing because it was my responsibility and there was joy in doing this for our ministry, but somewhere down the line I sort of got discouraged in it. My contribution to the ministry felt so small; most of the time I felt like I was in the background, which technically I was. It wasn't that I wanted attention or credit, but it just felt like I wasn't doing much. Everyone else had the important responsibilities of event planning and other stuff like that, and I was just...there.
Sometime during this funk, my ex-discipler and I were going over this book called "Disciplines of a Godly Man," and I think it was in the chapter about "Ministry" that I learned about the disciple Andrew. Andrew is the brother of Peter, who we know was very outspoken, spoke before he thought, and pretty much had his foot in his mouth during the time Jesus was on Earth. But he ended up being a powerful preacher and had such a natural gift in it. However his brother, Andrew, was the type that just fell in the background during the ministry. The author of the book actually calls him "Average Andrew."
But that in no way discouraged him from serving Jesus. Though he did not have the inherent abilities that his brother Peter had, his attitude in serving Jesus in his own capacity was what really shone brightly. Yes, most of what Andrew did WAS in the background, but this did not stop him from having an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus.
Andrew is, in fact, the disciple Philip came to see first when two gentiles asked him if he could take them to meet Jesus. Knowing that Andrew did have that sort of relationship with Jesus where he could just easily go up to Him and ask Him anything.
His faith in Jesus was something to match also. In John's account in feeding the five thousand, we see a snippet of his faith. Jesus asked Philip where they could buy bread to feed the crowd. Philip, who was very diligent when it came to numbers, already knew they couldn't afford to feed that many people. He says in John 6:7, " 'Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.' " Two hundred denarii, or 8 months worth of the disciples' wages, was still not able to feed five thousand men, not including the women and children, even if each of them received a small portion of bread!
But in the next verse, we see Andrew act. "One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 'There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?' " Of course five loaves and 2 small sardines couldn't fill twenty thousand people (men, women, and children)! And yet, that did not stop him from bringing the boy to Jesus. Instinctively he knew Jesus could work with it; he probably didn't know how He could, but somewhere, deep down inside, he knew Jesus could feed them all with only these seven items, even if he didn't consciously knew it himself. He could have easily left the kid, told him to save it for his own family, and just eat. But he brought the little boy to Jesus, because he had a feeling Jesus could do something about it.
God used the example of Andrew to encourage me in my own ministry and faith, and is continually using him as an example as I meditate on what I learned in John MacArthur's book "Twelve Ordinary Men."
Two important things I learned:
1)Attitude: It doesn't matter how big or small your contribution is to your ministry, the fact that you are serving the Lord makes any role important. What you do is serving the saints, your fellow brothers and sisters, and pointing them to the example of Jesus who also served us on the cross. There is no "big" or "small" when it comes to serving, because in the end we are all aiming for the same goal, and that is our spiritual worship to God and glorifying His name.
2)Faith: Even if what you do contribute is still "small" in a relativistic sense, God can use even the smallest things to their fullest potential. Take a look at the mustard seed - it is the smallest seed out of all seeds, but it grows to be one of the tallest shrubs on earth, growing to about 10 feet tall! Jesus uses this as a parable to talk about the kingdom of God. Through one believer, the power of the gospel can have such a tremendous effect once it reaches the hearts of other people. Through that small seedling of faith Andrew displayed, five loaves and 2 fish became twelve baskets of excess food after feeding the twenty thousand. And through the "small" job of emails and recordings, God can use that to further His own kingdom also.
Thankfully, I now also serve by doing worship on Thursday nights. Every two weeks or so, I get the opportunity to co-lead worship with our worship leader by playing guitar.
Big or small, the Lord is using all my gifts for His glory, and I have no problem with that.
When asked, "Do people even listen to the sermons you record?" I respond by saying, "Hey, at least the resource is available. That's the most important thing."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)