Sacrificial Preaching...

"Lord, am I a Christian by indoctrination or revelation? If I am merely parroting truths that have been dictated to me, woe is me and woe is any congregation that listens to me. 

When Christ met Paul on the Damascus road, He revealed Himself to His former enemy. Afterward Paul did not confer with flesh and blood but escaped into the desert to receive further revelation (Galatians 1:15–17). Later, when he emerged to preach Christ, it was an incarnational message he preached, not one learned at the foot of a teacher. 

All divine knowledge is received inwardly. Christian education has its place, but only to make Christ’s revelation to me possible. It cannot make that revelation actual. Too many Christians are around today who have taken on the culture of Christ without taking in His person. What is worse, too many spokesmen for Christ in the world are like the disciples before Pentecost—surrounded by Christ but not invaded by Him. After Pentecost the disciples did not need to be taught; they only needed opportunity to release what had been revealed. What had formerly been meaningless words now became truths that seared their hearts.

 If Jesus did not dare to speak from Himself (John 7:17), how dare I? If Jesus spoke only what was revealed to Him by the Father (John 7:16), how can we possibly preach anything unless it is revealed to us? What we need in our pulpits are men who talk about God based on firsthand knowledge. God revealers will never lack an audience. I will do what Habakkuk did: “Station myself on the [watch] tower, and watch to see what He will say to me” (Habakkuk 2:1, Berkeley). It is what God says to me that becomes the message people longingly desire."

 “Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth” (Jeremiah 1:9).

~ Glyn W. Evans, Daily with the King

Some Random Thoughts...

Here are a weeks' worth of random thoughts I came across a few years ago. May they help to keep you strong as they have done for me ... 

SUNDAY - God used your last sermon or teaching lesson to impact someone’s life no matter how you think it went.

MONDAY - Many people don’t tell you this, but they are thankful for your sacrifice and your dedication.

TUESDAY - The storm you’re in isn’t in the forecast forever. It will pass, the sun will come out, and things will turn around.

WEDNESDAY - God has called you to be faithful, not “successful.” Don’t let your worth be tied to whatever level of success you think you do or don’t have. Give ministry your all, but let God handle the results.

THURSDAY - For every tenacious critic, there are exponentially more people who support you and trust you.

FRIDAY - Conflict is the passageway to relational breakthrough. You can navigate conflict – be quick to listen and slow to anger. Lead with mercy. And in no time, you’ll have an advocate rather than a perceived enemy. 

SATURDAY - The impact your ministry is going to have and has had a positive ripple effect on entire families.

Stay the course Pastor, because you're loved  ("But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." - Rom. 8:37 NASB 2020) and being prayed for every day ("Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." - Rom. 8:34 NASB 2020) 

~ PJVS

Too Busy?

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." - Mark 1:35 

What more can be said? If the Master found it necessary to start the day in solitary prayer, what about his servants?

"The men who have most fully illustrated Christ in their character, and have most powerfully affected the world for him, have been men who spent so much time with God as to make it a notable feature of their lives. Charles Simeon devoted the hours from four till eight in the morning to God. Mr. Wesley spent two hours daily in prayer. He began at four in the morning. Of him, one who knew him well wrote: “He thought prayer to be more his business than anything else and I have seen him come out of his closet with a serenity of face next to shining.” John Fletcher stained the walls of his room by the breath of his prayers. Sometimes he would pray all night; always, frequently, and with great earnestness. His whole life was a life of prayer. “I would not rise from my seat,” he said, “without lifting my heart to God.” Luther said: “If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” He had a motto: “He that has prayed well has studied well.” - E. M. Bounds in Power through Prayer

How is your prayer life my friend? Has your working hard for God hindered your waiting long on God? Quality time in ministry stems from quality time with God. If you're too busy to pray ...  you've become too busy.

~ PJVS

End of the Age...

"The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels." 

- Matthew 13:38-39

I well remember my father-in-law's sage advice when it came to fads or quirky ministry ideas. "Just give it time" he would say. I learned a great deal from my pastoral mentor. He taught me that God keeps the books and in time "wisdom is proved right by all her children" (Luke 7:35). We need to stay on point and leave the rest to Him until the end of the age.

Early on, weeds will have the appearance of wheat. It's not until the wheat sprouts that the truth is known. But, what then? Are we called to be "weed police" or to be "wheat producers"? The answer is obvious when we hear our Lord's slightly different analogy to Peter in John 21:15, "Feed my Lambs". Stay on point by producing wheat and leave the rest to the Lord until the end of the age.

Harvest time always comes at the end of the season. As with the farmer, so should pastors patiently work the field in which they have been placed. Weeds of all sorts will pop up and occasionally appear to be the real deal with great success. Don't get flustered, just produce the wheat by feeding His lambs. It's not harvest time yet, so leave the rest to the Lord until the end of the age.

~ PJVS

Passing the Baton...

"You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." - 2 Timothy 2:1-2

During the Olympics we find a wide variety of competitive races. Most involve one athlete who will carry the whole race by themselves.  But the "relay" race depends on the involvement of many. At certain points in the race the next athlete picks up the cause until they pass it on to the next team member. The relay race is all about "passing the baton".

Paul taught, mentored, and wrote Timothy by passing on great Biblical truth and spiritual experience. He expected Timothy to do the same by entrusting such lessons to reliable men who would also pass them on to others. The role of leadership is a "relay" event; not to be run as a single or private privilege. It is a calling intended to change lives, while equipping a new generation. We are expected to "pass the baton".

Every pastor has great Biblical truth and spiritual experience to pass on to others. The theme of the "Next Generation" is a significant focus of this passage. Pastors are best raised up by pastors. Who are you mentoring for future ministry today my friend? Do you have someone to whom you are "passing the baton?"

~ PJVS

"Leadership training cannot be done on a mass scale. It requires patient, careful instruction and prayerful, personal guidance over a considerable time. “Disciples are not manufactured wholesale. They are produced one by one, because someone has taken the pains to discipline, to instruct and enlighten, to nurture and train one that is younger.”

~  J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership 

In Obscurity... Glory!

“Pastors enter congregations vocationally in order to embrace the totality of human life in Jesus' name. We are convinced there is no detail, however unpromising, in people's lives in which Christ may not work his will. Pastors agree to stay with the people in their communities week in and week out, year in and year out, to proclaim and guide, encourage and instruct as God works his purposes (gloriously, as it will eventually turn out) in the meandering and disturbingly inconstant lives of our congregations.

This necessarily means taking seriously, and in faith, the dull routines, the empty boredom, and the unattractive responsibilities that make up much of most people's lives. It means witnessing to the transcendent in the fog and rain. It means living hopefully among people who from time to time get flickering glimpses of the Glory, but then live through stretches, sometimes long ones, of unaccountable grayness. Most pastoral work takes place in obscurity: deciphering grace in the shadows, searching out meaning in a difficult text, blowing on the embers of a hard-used life. This is hard work and not conspicuously glamorous.”

― Eugene H. Peterson,

 Under the Unpredictable Plant and

 Exploration in Vocational Holiness. 

May your "Ten Minutes" in ministry obscurity pour out "glimpses of Glory" that will last for all eternity. Remember why you began this journey and keep "blowing on the embers" as your heart burns for the Glory of God and the souls of men. 

Yours in obscurity, that Jesus might shine,

~ PJVS 

God's Great Things

"If I am bored with ordinary people in ordinary places, then am I not bored with what God delights in? If I think that local limits of body and place are too small a thing for a person as gifted as I am, then don’t I want to escape what God himself gladly and daily inhabits? If I stare at a face, a flower, a child, or a congregation and say, “But God, not this. I want to do something great for you!” Am I not profoundly misunderstanding what God says a great thing is?”

― Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus  

"For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." ~ 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

The joy and awesome privilege in serving the King of King and Lord of Lords should overwhelm us every day...wherever our Lord places us. May you be awestruck this week with the great thing that God has entrusted to your care and find great joy in making a difference for the Master.

~ PJVS