You know its pretty funny to sit with educated folk. They mostly talk as we do. . . . . A lot of common talk and such like. They don't parse their verbs right and they don't properly enuciate all of the proper consonants. By and large, this is very refreshing.
It is an observation of mine that I will demonstrate my mastery of a matter by my actions and my words. I work amongst some of the most educated people of our society, and it is on a regular basis that I understand that prolonged education sometimes misses its intended mark, while others demonstrate a high degree of mentation without shouting about it.
Also what I learned last year is out of date.. . . I must continue to learn in my chosen field. The area in which I work demands that new matters and new techniques be applied to face old familiar enemies of the body. Those errant issues of the heart have been with us long and will continue to be with us until the coming of Jesus.
There is a lot of spiritual application of this matter. What was good for the battle yesterday will not fight todays battle today. While some constants remain, the disease of sin is progressive in society. In fact, those weights and sins that so easily doth beset are in constant need of a healthy dose of new understanding of scripture, a new dose of repentence.
My degrees of yesterday mark only the battles that I have faced and hopefully allow me a better degree of understanding of the battle and how to fight. But still, there is a new wilderness that needs taming and the learnings and leanings of yesterday are quite confined and not far enough reaching to get me through. Perhaps this is why the mercies of God are renewed every day. Perhaps I take liberty with the context of this scripture, but humor me if so.
I need a new degree in mercy, in dedication, in revelation every day. Paul would have said of him that much learning made him "mad." Perhaps it was that the more understanding he had of the issues of life, the more that he would understand his absolute, unabashed degree of need. I have need of Him. The older I get the more I understand that I am a man much more in need of a Savior than I did just yesterday. . . or the day before. . . .Or the past year.
Whether I gained the knowledge and matriculated magna cum laude via a university or a college, or it came on the chin of the school of hard knocks, I cannot allow those lessons to blind my vision of what is in the headlights of this trial or lesson. See, those degrees are based on yesterdays' knowledge and yesterdays' battles, and they may not be the answer to today.
In this sense, my education is regressive, it was designed to treat yesterday's questions and problems, and I struggle to a new day of understanding. I reach forward. . .trying to forget those things of the past. . . and yet remembering the basics of what keep me grounded but also understanding that the more I edge toward the Crystal City, the battles loom larger.
After all is said and done. . . . . I find myself back at the greatest classroom of the ages, hunched forward in the Garden of Pressing, and crawling to the Cross. . . the wonderful Cross.
The lesson of everyday is this. . . .
I am very much a man in need of a Savior.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
The Calling's Completion
On Thursday of this week, I will help to lay to rest a fellow soldier of the Cross. I can't help but to reflect on some of the amazing accomplishments of a man named Jeff to whom most of you probably never met, never saw and never would have as his quiet demeanor didn't lend itself to flash or being out front.
He touched many of your lives, though, in ways that you'll presently understand. He received the Holy Ghost in 2001 or 2002, and began to grow and began soon to bear fruit. He was a willing soldier that would climb on a bike and pedal 62 1/2 miles for Sheaves for Christ, raising money for the missionaries. In fact, he would raise startling amounts of money, some of it coming out of his own pocket, and other funds coming from a willingness to commit to a cause where he would never receive any plaudits or atta boys from those who were the direct receipents of this willingness.
I would say to you that if you gave him a pat on the back, you would certainly embarrass him. He was just that kind of soldier.
But I began to wonder what about the calling that God had placed on his life. He was 35, in the prime of health and life. We were pressure washing a building next to our church and he slipped and fell.
But he was only 35. . . . .
He had only been preaching maybe a couple of years. . . . .
He didn't blow hot and cold, just steady on. . . .
He was one of the first ones to start the worship in our church. . . . .
He would ask me, in fact, the last time he preached a couple of Wednesday nights ago, how to better communicate and "step away" from his notes. . . . He was quick to learn and to listen.
But why was he asked to step into another dimension? Why, when there was a great number of years and good things to come? Why when there were so many sermon's left in his mind, and so many ones yet to preach? Why place a calling on someone's life and yet not seemingly let it have a chance to bloom and grow to a full fledged tree?
I have chewed over this thought for quite some time, as the time seems to have drastically altered since Saturday at 0950 AM.
I can only conclude a very few things.
The calling of God on a man exist much more in the moment than it does in time of the future. When the opportunity of expressing that calling comes, give it all that you have, because there is no promise of tomorrow. Not for us, nor for that calling that exists within you.
The calling is meant to be exercised now, not tomorrow.
The completion of the calling must happen every time that we step into a pulpit, whether in a traditional church setting or outside those walls of the House of Prayer.
While I percieve the calling in my life to be a lifelong journey, while there is a component of the future in my mind, I cannot allow myself to be caught in the future so much that I can't focus on the present.
I leave you with this thought, gentle reader. The Bible is clear that there is not an hour like this hour to achieve and accomplish. I entreat you to not leave anything dangling, or miss any opportunity to exercise that calling.
Jeff Jefferson is and was one of my most dear and precious friends. His gentle disposition has taught me much.
But Jeff had his callings' completion Saturday pressure washing a building for the Lord. Not the anticipated pulpit, but one that reverberates in my soul. He spent his life doing ministry and placing his calling on a high plane.
God Bless you.
He touched many of your lives, though, in ways that you'll presently understand. He received the Holy Ghost in 2001 or 2002, and began to grow and began soon to bear fruit. He was a willing soldier that would climb on a bike and pedal 62 1/2 miles for Sheaves for Christ, raising money for the missionaries. In fact, he would raise startling amounts of money, some of it coming out of his own pocket, and other funds coming from a willingness to commit to a cause where he would never receive any plaudits or atta boys from those who were the direct receipents of this willingness.
I would say to you that if you gave him a pat on the back, you would certainly embarrass him. He was just that kind of soldier.
But I began to wonder what about the calling that God had placed on his life. He was 35, in the prime of health and life. We were pressure washing a building next to our church and he slipped and fell.
But he was only 35. . . . .
He had only been preaching maybe a couple of years. . . . .
He didn't blow hot and cold, just steady on. . . .
He was one of the first ones to start the worship in our church. . . . .
He would ask me, in fact, the last time he preached a couple of Wednesday nights ago, how to better communicate and "step away" from his notes. . . . He was quick to learn and to listen.
But why was he asked to step into another dimension? Why, when there was a great number of years and good things to come? Why when there were so many sermon's left in his mind, and so many ones yet to preach? Why place a calling on someone's life and yet not seemingly let it have a chance to bloom and grow to a full fledged tree?
I have chewed over this thought for quite some time, as the time seems to have drastically altered since Saturday at 0950 AM.
I can only conclude a very few things.
The calling of God on a man exist much more in the moment than it does in time of the future. When the opportunity of expressing that calling comes, give it all that you have, because there is no promise of tomorrow. Not for us, nor for that calling that exists within you.
The calling is meant to be exercised now, not tomorrow.
The completion of the calling must happen every time that we step into a pulpit, whether in a traditional church setting or outside those walls of the House of Prayer.
While I percieve the calling in my life to be a lifelong journey, while there is a component of the future in my mind, I cannot allow myself to be caught in the future so much that I can't focus on the present.
I leave you with this thought, gentle reader. The Bible is clear that there is not an hour like this hour to achieve and accomplish. I entreat you to not leave anything dangling, or miss any opportunity to exercise that calling.
Jeff Jefferson is and was one of my most dear and precious friends. His gentle disposition has taught me much.
But Jeff had his callings' completion Saturday pressure washing a building for the Lord. Not the anticipated pulpit, but one that reverberates in my soul. He spent his life doing ministry and placing his calling on a high plane.
God Bless you.
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