Many of us take ownership of our ministries and believe we have power
to keep them or give them away whenever we want. However there are times when
our ministries are snatched away from us or someone removes us from service. As
I read about the passion that John the Baptist had for his ministry, I’m struck
by how effortlessly he relinquished his role to Jesus. John might easily have
thought that he and Jesus could be co-leaders or that they could each keep
their ministry, but work in different locations. John might even have suggested
that he take the seniors and Jesus take the young adults and children. When changes of leadership come to our
personal areas of ministries, we should be as gracious as John was toward
Jesus, “He must become greater; I must
become less.” (John 3:30 NIV)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----People are who they are, constructs of perceptions acquired from their experiences, constructs formed by beliefs about their experiences. Call it what you may - ego, self, or identity - each person becomes a framework of viewpoints and skills for ordering his own situations and attitudes towards survival and satisfaction. Many philosophers have lost themselves in the individual’s self identity, believing that nothing exists except mind and thus making all existence a personal creation and possession of each individual. It’s hard to imagine because it’s so nuts. But it is the extreme to which attention upon the self center reaches.
-----“Ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” (Rom 1:20) I think that at one point in time or another every one of us would have made that algebra exam just go away if everything were only in our minds. Nor would there be any annoying people around, like some President making our dollars dust in the wind. The ground is hard, and if you fall it won’t turn to cotton just because you would rather it be that. Although people are who they are, they survive by the sweat of their brows because their lives are amongst others being whom they are, too, all in a place that is what it is, and none are able to do a thing about it except negotiate and cope. Humility has to be.
-----So also God is who He is, “I Am that I Am,” as He put it to Moses. He is the construct of no man’s mind, and what He has made man only discovers. And if God has a need, it is certainly that as many people discover Him more than they make up themselves. So in this sea of people lapping from one end to the other of the time He has allotted them, He has introduced Himself by a bit here and a bit there to first this person and then that one. No man has received more than a bit of what God has made or of what He is. But some have received more than others in this regard or that, and so have opportunity for ministry.
-----Ministry is an abstract thing that can not be possessed. It is spoken of as such, but the possession is really of a choice to participate in a situation. When a person has a particular perception of God in better accord with God’s self perception than another person has, then he possesses a choice to minister when beside that other person. He has ministry only when he actually testifies from his perception, whether it be by giving food, supply, smile, knowledge or inspiration. No man can give or take that ministry, though many think they can. Only God gives ministry - witness Matthias and Paul. And if God’s given ministry requires the acknowledgement of others, e.g. ordination, He will supply the necessary situations in the times and places to which He moves that ministry. So together we all become stones ministering to one another for building into a Holy Temple of His dwelling, building ever more of Him and ever less of ourselves.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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