Tag Archives: church workers

August 28, 2016 · 5:30 pm

THROUGH WHO’S EYES?

I remember attending a party quite a while ago, when break dancing was the hit. As a four year old boy with very little self-consciousness and without any understanding of the concept of shame, I thought I was a really great dancer. You can’t blame me too much; after all I was seeing the world through my little eyes. My opinion must have been the right one as far as I was concerned.

As I took centre stage, people were clapping and laughing hysterically. I thought they loved my deft moves. However, like the little boy in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, someone had the courage to bring me down from my high horse. My dancing was in fact nothing short of disastrous and I had no fleeting idea. This is much like what happens as we tread along life’s well-worn paths, we form opinions, our thought patterns are shaped and we develop customized perspectives towards almost everything. We almost always see ourselves as right, because we judge ourselves through the ‘self filter’.

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Looking at life generally and zooming in on our service in the Kingdom, we may actually have an incorrect view of what God demands from us, if we judge only through our own eyes. I guess the people that Jesus will address as He did in Matthew 7:21-23 will realize this too late:

‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

I can imagine how shocking and devastating it will be to hear that at the end of the road; after we must have thought to ourselves that we fought the good fight and finished the race well. We may even have had people cheering us on and singing our praises. But these opinions do not really matter in the end. Only one thing indeed matters – the view through God’s eyes.

When Jesus called His disciples, He had the priority clearly defined – Stay with me first before you go on to any form of service.

He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Mark 3:14-15

In staying with Him, we know Him more, we become more and more like Him until our will is lost in His will and our selfish motives and intentions for serving in the Kingdom become non-existent. Whatever service we are using to occupy till He comes should flow from that personal relationship and an outpouring of love for God – this is the will of God. He wants us more than whatever we can indeed offer.

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September 19, 2015 · 4:26 pm

TONGUES AND POWER

But you will receive power and ability when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses [to tell people about Me] both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (AMP)

And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. Acts 2:4 (NLT)

Just before the ascension of Jesus Christ, He promised to fill the disciples (and all Christians by extension) with the Holy Spirit to enable them fulfil the work of the ministry that was handed over to them. Shortly afterwards, this promise was fulfilled and this team went on to become the greatest band of world changers that the world has ever known. They went on to preach the gospel, speak with new tongues, heal the sick, deliver the oppressed and in summary live out Mark 16: 17 – 18

These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” Mark 16: 17 – 18 (NLT)

The encounter with the Holy Spirit changed everything about them. Peter that denied Jesus in difficult times became a great preacher; recording about 5000 converts after his first major outreach. People brought their sick relatives to the streets so that his shadow would fall on them and heal them. All these happened because the Holy Spirit gave them the ability. The other disciples have similar stories of awesome exploits surrounding them. By the help of the Holy Spirit, even Stephen that was ordained to serve tables and share food also performed amazing miracles (Acts 6:8).

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Fast-forward to our generation. We have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit! Really, it’s the same Holy Spirit that worked in Peter, Paul, Stephen, Phillip. We speak in tongues and most times, that is the only evidence of this baptism. I really don’t think that was the whole plan from the beginning. We didn’t get the Holy Spirit just for speaking in tongues.

My thought is that when we receive the power of the Holy Spirit, we should live supernatural lives every moment of every day. It should make our church services unpredictable. It will make praise and worship more than just singing and dancing. It should make us pray for the sick as a first response to sickness. The power should enable us to turn people to disciples of the Lord and not just increase our church attendance. It should make us speak the Word of God with great power and not just eloquent speech. If we have that power, we will not allow ourselves to be manipulated by men to part our resources; instead, we will give bountifully and cheerfully. Moreover, the power imparts the excellent spirit in us, so that we stand out for the right reasons at the work place. We ought to be changed by the power and ability for the purpose of changing our world.

Where did we miss it? We need to get back to the culture of personal fellowship with God. The power to fulfil God’s purpose comes from waiting in His presence. The early church pioneers had to wait in the upper room until they were endued with power and ability. I believe that if we can wait, the same power and ability can be ours and we can fulfil God’s mandate effectively.

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June 30, 2015 · 11:49 am

WORKING FOR GOD

Somehow, we have always had it ingrained in the recesses of our minds that we had to do things for God and get really involved in church activities in order to get God to like us and do things for us. This meant that the answers to our prayers had a direct relationship with how much we had ‘invested’ in actually pleasing God. When praising God, we had to dance really hard like David danced for God to notice us and our shout of “Amen” had to be the loudest. And then to cap it up, we had to be actively involved in one or more church service units and be in church every other day. These are things and reading the verse below convinced me the more that serving God is not really about things:

 “Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive God’s revelation, you Gomorrah-schooled people.  “Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”  God’s asking. “Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves? Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats? When you come before me, whoever gave you the idea of acting like this, Running here and there, doing this and that— all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship? “Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—   meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more! Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out! I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning”. Isaiah 1: 10 -11(MSG)

When we become children of God, serving God in any area that we have grace to serve should be as natural as breathing is to any living thing. We don’t serve or do things because we need things, rather it is because He is our father and we are His children and the Kingdom is our Father’s Kingdom.  Most times, we clearly miss the point that what God really wants is just for us to love Him. Every other sacrifice or service should just flow out of our lives as a result of our love for our Father and the relationship we have with Him.  If God was interested in things, Uzzah would not have died when he tried to stop the ark from falling (2Samuel 6:7), after all he was doing a good thing.

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Every segment of our lives as God’s children should form part of our worship to God and there should be no compartmentalization into spiritual life and secular lives. God created us that we might be worshippers, but we have become everything else but worshippers. We have put working for God ahead of worshipping God.

I will end with this quote from a previous blog post.

“God created us for His pleasure. Our Christian service is also a part of us that should give Him pleasure. If I experience God’s blessings or not in the course of the service, I will still serve Him. God’s blessings are completely free and there is no way I can pay for all that He has done and all that He will do for me. Relating this to the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the Pharisee came on the platform of all that he had done for God, while the Publican came ‘Just as I am without one plea’. We know the rest of the story. In Matthew 7: 7 – 8, God did not say you should go and ‘labour in the vineyard’ before coming to Ask, Seek and Knock. If I need anything, I can simply go to God as my Father and just Ask”

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March 5, 2015 · 11:56 am

THE INTELLIGENT CARPENTER

I was reading the book:  “Going Public With Your Faith” by William Caar Peel and Walt Larimore and I came across the quote below:

“The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. Church by all means, and decent forms of amusement, certainly–but what use is all that if in the very centre of his life and occupation he is insulting God with bad carpentry? “ ….Dorothy Sayers

We can relate the quote above to the following verses of Colossians 3:

“And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father” Col 3:17 (NLT)

“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”  Col 3:23 (NLT)

The key word for me is WHATEVER. The summary of the quotes is that as a Banker, an Engineer, Teacher, Soldier or a Stay-at-Home Parent, and indeed whatever we find ourselves doing, we should see every aspect of our lives as part of our worship to God, because we indeed spend a major part of our lives outside the church and worship ought not to be confined to the church building.

The average Christian sees a clear difference between the secular life and the sacred life, whereas there is no difference in the eyes of our Father. With this mindset, we make distinctions between our work as Christians at the workplace and the work of the Pastors in the churches. We easily forget that the death and resurrection of Jesus has made all of us a generation of priests. The pastor oversees a local assembly while colleagues make up the congregation for the Christians at the workplace.

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We are required to fly the banner of Christ at work, while living above reproach and exceeding work targets and the expectations of our bosses. Our lives at work must never give people any reason to speak against our Faith and our Father. Instead, we should shine the light so brightly, lifting up the name of our Lord and thereby attracting more and more people to the Kingdom of our God. Our excellence and general conduct outside the walls of the church and especially at work should drive people to seek to know the God we worship.

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The Bible and even history books are filled with examples of men who saw their work as worship and thereby became world changers. These are men that we look up to today as heroes of our faith:

Nehemiah was a government official, serving under the kings of Persia. Joseph metamorphosed from slave to servant to prisoner and eventually a top government official in Egypt. Abraham was more like an entrepreneur specialised in livestock farming. Daniel was an adviser to several kings in Babylon. William Wilberforce was a distinguished Member of Parliament in England. One thing that is common to these great men is that each one was outstanding at work, displaying extraordinary excellence. Nothing stops you from forming part of this list. The grace of God is sufficient for you.

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October 22, 2014 · 6:16 am

IT’S NOT ABOUT ME

Reading Max Lucado’s book: ‘IT’S NOT ABOUT ME’, I came across a fascinating story of something that happened when he was a guide in the art museum. His job was very simple: Lead the visitors to the paintings, answer their questions and step out of the way. The idea was for them to take in as much of the painting as possible, without unnecessary distractions and diversions. He stayed on track for some time and did just as he was directed to do.  However, he soon started talking a bit too much, thus shifting the focus from the paintings to himself. Little by little, he began to unconsciously block the paintings and just going on and on with his stories. He was sharply brought back in line by these words: “This job isn’t about you Max. Don’t obscure my masterpieces”

Most ministers set off on the right track, initially preaching nothing but ‘Christ and Him Crucified’, until those wonderful remarks at the end of the service begin to pour in: “Pastor, I felt God all through the message, the message was speaking directly to me”, “That was a wonderful message, I have never heard it that way before”. The worship leader just wants to lead the church into God’s presence, but the compliments can’t be avoided: “Your voice was so angelic”, “The worship session was something else today, everyone was caught up in the spirit”. “I felt something like a shock during the opening prayer”

When these accolades start pouring in, we start planning to ‘Preach up a storm’ at every meeting and singing to strike the right chord that will generate those wonderful comments. This somehow affects all of us, not just the preachers, prayer leaders and the singers. We all have a way of unconsciously deflecting the glory that is due to God to ourselves.

The truth is that there is nothing really wrong with the compliments and we never really set out to take God’s glory. However, when we let our guards down, we fall for this age long trick. Little by little, one short step after another. The tiny seed is sown in our hearts and it just grows without restrictions.

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Our objective as ministers in any capacity should always be to direct people to God our source. We should always strive to count ourselves as nothing but mediums. We are similar to the donkey that God used to speak to Balaam, the fish that God used to call Jonah to order or even the rod of Moses that turned to a snake to reflect God’s glory.

When God moves via our ministration, it is not because of us, it is not about us. It is not for us. Paul planted, Apollos watered and the increase came because of God. It is all about Him. Our ultimate goal should be never to obscure the glory of God in any way, just like the moon reflects nothing but the light from the sun. May we never fail in this assignment in Jesus’ name.

So then, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you may do, do all for the honour and glory of God. 1Cor 10:31

photcredits: allaboutgod.net

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February 10, 2013 · 4:11 pm

GOLD MEDALS

RACEWALKING! I recently learnt that word. I knew the sport, but I never really knew the name. It’s actually one of the long distance athletic events at the Olympics. It’s that sport, in which the people walk in a rather comical manner. The winner of the race gets a gold medal, which has the same value as the gold medal won by the winner of the 100m race. Very few people actually know anything about the sport and an even less number of people would actually aspire to become racewalkers.

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This same scenario plays out in the church today, where more people aspire to be engaged in the more ‘visible’ services and possess the spiritual gifts that place them in public view. The erroneous belief is that the more visible or seemingly impactful you are, the more valuable you are to God and the more important you are to the church. In fact, this is not a problem that started with the new generation Christians. Paul saw it in the Corinthian church and he wrote in 1Corinthians 12:

 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body…17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? … 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

 As small as the toe nail of the smallest toe is, if it is hurting, the whole body will not operate optimally. Every gift and ministry is essential for the wellbeing of the body of Christ. I believe that if you have been called to be a toilet cleaner in the church and you do it effectively, you are fulfilling your ministry. The same way the pastor who preaches every Sunday and during the mid-week service is fulfilling his own ministry. Can you imagine how wonderful the service would be if the toilets are running over, the seats are dirty and the whole auditorium is decorated with different grades of dirt.

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 I remember the name Hur being mentioned in the Bible only once, when he held up the hand of Moses with Aaron. He fulfilled his ministry, because by his service the people of Israel won the battle. Whatever God has called you to do, Occupy Till He Comes. People don’t have to notice you for God to notice you. He sees you even when you are fulfilling that ‘lowly’ service. Your reward surely awaits you.

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