WHY LORD?

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Since retiring from “full-time ministry” I have wondered why God didn’t open doors of service for me. He did, but I didn’t recognize it. I had my eyes on the pulpit and couldn’t understand why I wasn’t being “called” to preach. In over two years I have had one invitation (back at my last church, Lincoln Heights Christian) to preach on Sunday.

I have preached a few funerals and have another one this week. I have written a fourteen chapter book and I write this blog every day. However, I realize the blog probably doesn’t help anybody but me and the book won’t help anybody if I never get it published. I do a little counseling (sometimes through E-mail) when consulted.

An article from Edward Fudge has calmed my anxiety and answered my questions about future ministry. God sovereignly gives spiritual gifts and he also sovereignly provides occasions for their use according to his own plan. He has given me the gift of speaking and comforting the bereaved. He continues to provide occasions for me to minister in this way. I foolishly have had my eyes on the “professional ministry” when God has never intended for our service to be professional. The modern sense of professional ministry is rarely found in the New Testament if it is even there at all. The primary picture we see there is one of all God’s people, men and women alike, serving one another in God’s strength with the various gifts God gives to them all.

Like Jesus, wake each morning to serve God and he will show you the way.