I recently had a one-on-one with
a pastor who was passionate about making his message clear. I appreciated his
desire; however, the longer he talked the more he seemed to turn our visit into
a teaching moment. As a mature believer I have to admit I was somewhat put-off
by what felt like his attempt to be superior and make me a student. Paul said, “For
by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more
highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in
accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just
as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have
the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body,
and each member belongs to all the others” (Ro 12:3-5).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Jesus taught His disciples to pattern their prayers like, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” That’s quite different from “My knowledge be of service, my advice be taken.” My Harley-Davidson outweighed me by three-and-a-half times. I made it do what I wanted it to do, but I let it do it in its own way. A couple times I wasn’t sure exactly what happened or how it happened, and one of those times a policeman who flagged me down was also astounded at what he saw. Life is bigger than us, and although with a good deal of humility, respect, and love we can rather influence the things and people we encounter, we must allow that big machine to handle our influence in its own way. Sometimes that is very comfortable when we’ve surrounded ourselves with the godly. But those occasions where we must be at work amongst evil treachery, it gets scary what life will do from its own momentum. But still, we are given only a human helping of control over our surroundings and influence upon our neighbors, plus whatever gravy we’ll allow the Holy Spirit to pour of Himself. Everything beyond that being the Lord’s turf is a good getting off point for shutting up and letting your listeners resume their own lives.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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