quite a rebuke :)

Ministering When It's Inconvenient

Posted on 02.19.10 by Erin Davis
Topics: Impacting your world, Relationships with Others

In Matthew 15:29, we find Jesus trying to rest on a mountainside. He barely sat down when a crowd of people came to Him looking to be healed. How did He respond? He healed them.

When Jesus received word that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been killed, He tried to grieve alone. But crowds of people followed Him and begged for His attention. Scripture tells us that instead of hiding in His grief, He had compassion and healed the sick in the crowd (Matthew 14:13–14).

On the night before Jesus was betrayed, He didn't hide out. He didn't run away. He spent the evening with His disciples. He even took the time to serve them by washing the mud from their feet (John 13:1–17).

If we look closely, we find an interesting pattern. We know that Jesus spent His time on earth serving others. But have you ever considered how often He ministered when it was inconvenient?

He served others when He was tired.
He served others when He'd have rather been alone.
He served others when He was sad.
He served others when He'd been serving non-stop for days and days.
He served others when things went terribly wrong in His own life.
He even served others when He knew His own death was right around the corner.

I am deeply challenged by this truth. You see, I don't mind serving others when it's convenient for me. I like to help out when it works into my schedule or fits into my agenda for the day. But there are lots of times when ministry is inconvenient. I'm tired. I'm stressed. I've got more important things to do than to meet the needs of those around me. Under those circumstances, I feel justified in giving priority to my own needs and temporarily ignoring the needs of others.

But this isn't how Jesus lived. It isn't how Jesus served. And it isn't what He wants from you and me.

The reality is, serving others requires sacrifice. If we only do it when it's convenient, we're missing the point.

What's keeping you from serving like Jesus? Will you let Him inconvenience you today?

The creeping up of Spring

Heavy sunshine and cool breezes.

Spring and Summer, how I have missed thee.

It didn't seem too long ago that I wore my black thongs everyday in the summer, running around. Yet as I tried them on again, it made me feel like I was meeting my cousins again after a few years; cousins who I could be very close with, yet every time we meet for the first time, there's an awkward shyness, a foreign feeling and sometimes some discomfort when we don't fit together as well as we used to.

Nowadays it doesn't feel like I'm stopping.. there's always something to be done after something else. I'm longing for that time where I'll get to sit around and gaze at insignificant things; the things I never get time to pay attention to.

I've actually been spending a lot of time on sewing and just simple craft design blogs lately. Among my favourites is A Little Red Ribbon - I've realised that a lot of these ladies who run these blogs are mothers who want to express their creativity whilst loving the people around them, and they're a wonderful read.

Bizarrely, the fact that there's only 2 and a half months to go until Japan startles me. So little time.. yet I can feel that God is still teaching me day to day, whether I realise it or not.

Yesterday while on the bus, the gusty winds swung the whole vehicle from side to side - it was quite scary, really. Lately I've been quite unsettled and unsure about some things, and my bookmark that I was quite sure was randomly placed, brought me to Psalm 13 in the bible.

How Long, O LORD?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

¹How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
²How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

³Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
⁴ lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him,"
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

⁵But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
⁶I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Euge has been telling us to do this thing for ages: pondering on the words the psalmist uses, why they use that word, where else in the bible it's used...

Trying that yesterday, it takes a long time to ponder over a single psalm - I can see how someone could be thinking about this for a whole day, or even a whole week!

What does the word steadfast mean? Why does David trust so much in this steadfast love? Should we be trusting in it? What does it mean to be trusting in it? Why does he use the word steadfast and not anything else, for surely God's love is not just steadfast? Is God the only place/one we can find steadfast love in?

Why does David rejoice? Why does it find joy, when the rest of his psalm is in such a longing tone? What does it mean for us to be rejoicing even when we're asking God for answers?

What is the salvation that David speaks of? If the salvation as we know it comes from Jesus, is David referring to Jesus, the one who was promised by God? Or is it another type of salvation, such as from war?

Because. It's a big word. BECAUSE of what He's done already, I'll sing to him - David doesn't say, I'll sing to him so He'll deal with me bountifully... and what does bountifully mean anyway?


Hmm...

Praise God also for Credo mission on campus :) I liked John Smuts' talk on 'If I were God I'd end the Suffering' especially, and the Muslim & Christian debate was especially eye opening -I realise that I have a lot of reading up to do. Be sure to check out the video/audio recordings on the Credo website!

.. and then there's reading for the Constitutional law essay.