Has this ever been your attitude toward church:
“It’s all about Him so don’t bother me with people.”
After all, don’t we say it’s His church and it should be all about Him?
And yet we spend so much time talking about the visitor and the stranger.
Aren’t you making them the most important thing?”
Not at all.
We do not worship them.
We care for them, we minister to them, we love them, but worship is reserved for God alone. .
Take a look at this familiar passage of scripture:
Matthew 25:31-46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.
32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ”
You see, it is all about Him, but He is all about ministering through you to others.
To try and live a life for God without ministry to those in need is to be a hypocrite. You say, “Well, I am led by the spirit and he didn’t lead me to minister.” I say, “That’s o.k. sometimes, but if it is all the time then I question what spirit is leading you.
That is why the church needs to get this right. If we cannot even minister to those who come into our midst why would we think we would do any better ‘outside’?
Church ought to be a safe place of ministry and growth.
This is to be an equipping place so that when we do go
out we are effectively prepared to minister.
No comments:
Post a Comment