Tag: Ministry

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John Devotionals

Three questions

Phillip

So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?”

He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. (John 6:5-6)

I was thinking this morning what it meant that Jesus was testing Phillip.

What was he asking Phillip?

I’m not sure, but I imagine he was asking, “Do you know who I am yet? Do you know what I’m capable of doing? How much do you trust me?”

If that’s what Jesus was asking, Phillip failed the test on all three counts.

All he could see was the disciples’ inadequacy in meeting the needs of the crowd.

But Jesus already knew what he was going to do. And in his grace, he used what little Phillip and the disciples had to feed thousands.

Sometimes, I am like Phillip. Jesus sees people around me he wants to minister to. He already knows what he’s going to do. But he turns to me and asks, “Do you know who I am yet? Do you know what I’m capable of? How much do you trust me?”

But instead of seeing who Jesus is and what he can do, all I can see is my own weaknesses and inadequacies.

The truth is, my weaknesses and inadequacies are irrelevant. What’s important is who Jesus is. What he can do.

The only question is will I trust him and do what he asks.

Because Jesus is more than able to take what little I have to touch those around me with his love.

So maybe I need to think on those questions more.

“Do you know who I am yet?”

“Do you know what I’m capable of doing?”

“Do you trust me?”

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Exodus Devotions

What we all need

Carrying burdens

“What you’re doing is not good,” Moses’s father-in-law said to him.

“You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you. You can’t do it alone.” (Exodus 18:17-18)

“You can’t do it alone.”

I found it interesting that Jethro told Moses that not long after the battle against the Amalekites.

Moses literally couldn’t keep his hands up as he was interceding for the Israelites before God, but Aaron and Hur supported him until victory was achieved. (Exodus 17:8-16)

And now Jethro was telling him again, “You can’t do God’s work alone.”

That’s something we all need to remember.

Our leaders may seem like “super-Christians,” but they can’t do their jobs alone.

They certainly need our prayers and encouragement. But they also need us to do our part in ministry as well.

God has given each of us gifts to minister to others. Ministry is not just the job of the leaders. It’s the job of every Christian. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

But beyond that, all of us need support in our Christian lives.

Our personal ministries to our families and those around us can get heavy. Life itself can get heavy.

So let’s not try to live our Christian lives on our own.

Let’s support and encourage each other so that our load will be lightened and we’ll be able to endure. (Exodus 18:22-23)

As Paul put it,

Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

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2 Corinthians Devotionals

That our ministry might not be slandered

2 Corinthians

We are not giving anyone an occasion for offense, so that the ministry will not be blamed.

Instead, as God’s ministers, we commend ourselves in everything… (2 Corinthians 6:3-4)

Those words really struck me this morning.

The gospel message will cause offense. Whenever we confront people with their sin and God’s holiness, whenever we proclaim Jesus as the only way to salvation, we risk offending them.

But while people may be offended by our words, they should see an integrity in us that they cannot question.

Just as importantly, they should see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, God’s love, kindness, patience, among other things.

Why did Paul’s words strike me? I wonder sometimes if I ever give people occasion for offense, an opportunity to disparage the gospel I proclaim.

The truth is, there are times I have. And I’ve had to repent.

But all of us, not just me, are called to be Christ’s ambassadors.

By his grace and his strength, may we all live up to that calling, giving people no room to disparage the gospel because of our words and actions.   

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Mark Devotionals

Where our power comes from

Mark

After he had gone into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive [the demon] out?”

And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.” (Mark 9:28-29)

The disciples were embarrassed. Many times before they had cast demons out of people. But this time, they couldn’t. Why not?

I think it was because after casting so many demons out, they were starting to think that their power to do so came from within themselves.

Oh, maybe they didn’t actually say so, but their attitudes and actions showed it.

Frustration that the demon wouldn’t leave. And a failure to come to God in prayer.

Often times, the more we do ministry, the more our confidence grows. We start thinking, “I can do this!”

But what is our confidence in?

In ourselves? In our gifts?

Or in God?

If we put our confidence in ourselves and our gifts, things may go well for a while. But in the end, we’ll face frustration and failure just like the disciples did.

Remember where your power comes from. As Jesus said, without him, we can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)

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Acts Devotionals

Finishing the course and ministry we have received from Jesus

Acts

But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24)

I think it’s easy to look at these words, and say they’re only for the elite Christians like Paul.

But the truth is all of us have received a course, all of us have received a ministry from the Lord.

Namely, all of us are called to testify to the people around us about the gospel of God’s grace, the message of repentance and faith in our Lord (21).

Of course, no course or ministry looks exactly alike. Not all of us are called to travel from place to place to share the gospel with people we don’t know.

But all of us are called to share the gospel of grace we have received with those around us. To share with others what Jesus has done for us so that they too might share the joy we ourselves have. (1 John 1:3-4)

Who has God put in your life?

At the end our lives, may we all be able to say as Paul did,

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

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Luke Devotionals

Doing our Father’s work

Luke

As I looked at the story of the adolescent Jesus, his words to his parents struck me.

Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49)

Jesus probably isn’t saying here, “I needed to be here in the temple to worship my Father.”

Actually, in the Greek, the word “house” is not even there. It literally says, “Didn’t you know it was necessary for me to be in the …. of my Father.”

Obviously, he was in the temple, so the word “house” gets put in there by translators. But in the KJV and the footnotes of most translations, it says, “it was necessary for me to be doing my Father’s business.”

And that was probably Jesus’s ultimate meaning: “I need to be involved with the things my Father is doing.”

As God’s children, so do we.

That doesn’t necessarily mean we need to be serving at the church every day. It does mean that wherever we are, we need to see what God is doing around us.

Whenever we touch people with his love, that’s doing ministry. That’s getting involved with our Father’s business.

How about you? Are you involved with your Father’s business?

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Luke Devotionals

Our foundation

Luke

I’ve talked about Jesus’ baptism before in a previous blog about how when the Father looked upon Jesus, he said, “You are my Son. I love you. I am well pleased with you.”

And one of my points was that God essentially says the same thing to us as his children.

But there’s one thing I want you to note here: When did the Father say all these things to him?

After Jesus had started preaching? After he had started performing miracles? After the cross?

No, the Father said this before Jesus had done any of these things.

The foundation of the Father’s love for Jesus was not the ministry Jesus did. Rather, the foundation for Jesus’ ministry was the love the Father had for him.

That’s why it didn’t matter to Jesus what other people thought of him.

That’s why when others hurt or even betrayed him, he was able to forgive them.

His foundation in ministry and in life was the love the Father had for him.

What is the foundation of your ministry and life?

Is it the fact that the Father looks at you and says, “You are my son. You are my daughter. I love you. I am well pleased with you”?

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Philippians Devotionals

The grace of ministry

PhilippiansHope

When I was reading Philippians 1 this week, it struck me that Paul saw ministry as a grace he received.

He said, “you are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:7)

For him, to spread the gospel to the Gentiles was a grace received from God. To do ministry in his own prison, that was grace from God too. And by the Philippians supporting him financially, they were participating in God’s grace of ministry.

How often do we see ministry as a gift from God? We usually see it as service. As something we do for God.

But when we see it that way, it’s easy to start becoming proud. “Look at what I’m doing for God!”

But ministry is a grace we receive from God. We don’t deserve to be used by God. We’re sinners. We fail. We make mistakes. And yet God in his grace says, “Won’t you join me in my work.”

He didn’t have to use us. He didn’t have to give us spiritual gifts so we could serve. But in his grace, he lets us join him in his work.

How about you? Do you stand in wonder that God lets you join in his kingdom work? Or do you somehow think it’s something to brag about?

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1 Samuel Devotionals

Seeking the Lord’s favor?

1 Samuel

Here we see the first of Saul’s two major failures that led to his loss of the throne God had given him.

He was supposed to wait for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice before engaging the Philistines, but Samuel was late.

And with his troops panicking and deserting him, he “forced himself” to offer the sacrifice. After all, he needed to “seek the Lord’s favor.”

It’s interesting to see Samuel’s words in verses 13-14.

It was at this time that the LORD would have permanently established your reign over Israel, but now your reign will not endure. (1 Samuel 13:13-14)

One wonders if Samuel’s lateness was really a test to see if Saul would obey God even under extreme pressure, much in the same way that God tested Abraham in the offering of Isaac.

I don’t know. Maybe Samuel was just late and all he was saying was that the battle against the Philistines was supposed to solidify Saul’s reign in Israel.

But here’s the thing: Samuel said,

“The Lord has found a man after his own heart, and the LORD has appointed him ruler over his people, because you have not done what the LORD commanded. (14)

Saul made the mistake that many people do: they think that God is most interested in religious rituals, religious works, or even works of ministry. They think these are the ways to gain God’s favor in their lives.

But what God is really after is our heart.

All our religious works, rituals, and ministry work mean nothing if God doesn’t have our hearts. And that’s a theme we see throughout the Bible.

Had God had Saul’s heart, Saul would have had a successful reign. What Saul showed in his actions was that God truly didn’t have his heart.

His foolish actions that day were the mere symptom of that much larger problem.

Were God to test your heart, what would he find? Would he find a heart that belongs to him?

God is not primarily interested in your ministry and how successful it is. Nor is he primarily interested in how much you tithe, or how often you read your Bible, or pray.

All these things are important. But the thing he wants most from you is your heart. And if he doesn’t have your heart, in his eyes, he has nothing.

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2 Corinthians

That our ministry would never be discredited

2 Corinthians

All of us, whether in formal ministry or not, are called to be ministers of Christ.

We saw that earlier in chapter 5, where Paul tells us that we have been given the message of reconciliation and are called to be Christ’s ambassadors.

But it can be so easy for our ministry to be discredited. Put another way, it can be so easy for our Christian testimony to those around us to be discredited.

That’s why Paul wrote,

We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.

Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way. (2 Corinthians 6:3-4)

How can we be a stumbling block to those around us? By the way we live. By our attitudes and by our actions.

And so Paul did his best to make sure that he lived his life with integrity, no matter his situation.

He said that though he went through multiple hardships, yet he lived in purity, understanding, patience, kindness, and love. (2 Corinthians 6:4-7)

Think about that for a minute.

How often does our testimony suffer because in the midst of our hardships, we start complaining? Or we lose patience with people. Or we become self-centered, forgetting to be kind and loving to those around us?

Yet whether people honored him or not, whether people praised him or spread rumors about him, whether people considered him honorable or an imposter, whether people respected him or ignored him, whether he went through sorrow and joy, Paul always maintained his integrity.

He continued to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, holding on to righteousness, wielding the Word of God in one hand and the shield of faith in the other.

Can we say the same about ourselves? May our ministry to others never be discredited through our actions and attitudes.

Let us instead walk each day in integrity, in love, in purity, and in patience.

Most importantly let us walk in the power and comfort of the Spirit.

And if we do, we will make a difference in this world.

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1 Corinthians

Our attitude in ministry

1 Corinthians

It can become so easy to become self-absorbed in ministry. To think, “What am I getting out of this? Where’s the respect? Where’s the financial reward?”

Yet for Paul, there was an inner fire to preach. He said,

Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:16)

Paul’s words remind me of Jeremiah’s when he said,

But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. (Jeremiah 20:9)

So for Paul (and Jeremiah), financial reward, respect, and everything else really had no bearing in his thinking on whether to preach or not. He had to preach or be miserable.

He went on, saying,

If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. (1 Corinthians 9:17)

What does he mean by this? He’s saying that by preaching with a heart of joy and love for the Lord and for others, he has reward.

He says in verse 18, he found his reward in being able to offer it for free.

Why was that a joy? Perhaps because by doing so, it brought people into the kingdom that might not otherwise have come in.

Like some people today, there were probably those that were skeptical about Paul’s motives. They thought ministers like him were just in it for the money.

But Paul was able to disarm those suspicions by saying, “Hey, I want nothing from you. I merely want to give you what I have: forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God.”

In fact, whenever people looked at Paul, they saw someone that didn’t want to take from them, but to serve them. He was always giving up his rights in order to minister to them.

And because of that, more people came into the kingdom, increasing Paul’s joy. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

Not only that, Paul knew it brought joy to his Lord’s heart as well.

But even if Paul didn’t have a heart for the people, nor a heart to do what God had asked him to do, still he would have had to preach because like it or not, it was a charge God had given him and no one else.

And if he didn’t do it, God would hold him accountable.

You see this in the parable of the talents. One guy had no love for his master and was in fact afraid of him.

Because of this, he did nothing with the money his master had given him to invest. And his master held him accountable for it. (Matthew 25:24-30)

Jeremiah certainly knew how it felt to be compelled to fulfill the charge God gave him despite his feelings.

In chapter 20, you see that his preaching was not particularly voluntary. He spent his time complaining to God that God was being unfair to him and that all the people were abusing him. (Jeremiah 20:7-8)

And yet he preached because of the fire that burned within him that he could not hold in. Like Paul, he was compelled to preach and woe to him if he didn’t.

But how much better if we serve from our hearts? Not because we have to, but because we want to?

Life is so much more rewarding when we do so. Ministry is so much more rewarding. And most importantly, we will receive reward from our Lord when we see him face to face.

How about you? What kind of heart are you serving from?

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Acts

The One who knows our hearts

Acts

In this passage, we see the choosing of Matthias to take Judas’ place as one of the 12. A couple of minor points before I get to my main point.

Some people think that Peter and the other apostles made a mistake in appointing Matthias as the one to replace Judas.

They say that Paul should have been the one who took Judas’ place, and that Jesus in appearing to Paul and appointing him as an apostle had, in effect, appointed him as the one to take Judas’ place.

I used to think that, but now I’m not so sure. In particular, because Paul himself recognized Matthias’ position as one of the 12 in 1 Corinthians 15:5.

He hardly could have meant the resurrected Jesus appeared to Judas when Judas was already dead. So he must have meant Matthias.

Paul also said of himself that he was the least of the apostles and was not even fit to be called an apostle (although he clearly was one). (1 Corinthians 15:9)

The second point is on Judas’ death.

Matthew 27 says that the chief priests took the money that Judas had scattered before them and bought a field while Judas went and hung himself.

However, here in Acts, it says that Judas bought the field, and that he plunged headlong and his body burst open. How do we reconcile the two?

Apparently, Judas had hung himself on a cliff over the valley of Hinnom, and perhaps some time later, after his body had started to decompose, the rope snapped or was cut and his body fell headlong into a field in that valley.

Perhaps having heard what had happened, the priests then bought the field in Judas’ name, as it really wasn’t “temple money.” (Matthew 27:6)

Now on to the main point. It’s very interesting that the other apostles talked about how Judas had shared in their ministry.

There can be little doubt that he had preached the good news of the kingdom, cast out demons, and healed the sick as Jesus had commanded them on their two mission trips throughout Israel (Luke 9-10).

Yet even then, Jesus knew his heart. That though Judas did all these things, his heart was not truly with Jesus. And the time came when Judas was exposed and ultimately cast out from his position.

He was then replaced by another whose heart was right before God.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that for those of us in ministry, we really need to search our hearts every day. To search our motives. To see if our hearts are truly His.

We can do many things in Jesus’ name. People can even get saved in our ministry. But God knows our hearts. And if our hearts are not right before him, the time will come when we will be cast out from our position and be replaced.

Even worse would be if the day came when we stand before Jesus and say,

Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? (Matthew 7:22)

But Jesus looks at us, and says,

I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers! (Matthew 7:23)

Where is your heart? Have you truly given your heart to Jesus? Or are you just playing a role?

If you are simply playing a role, whether you’re a Christian or not, eventually your position will be taken from you as it was taken from Judas. And it will be given to someone whose heart belongs to Christ.

Who does your heart belong to?