Search Me, O God

People crave ‘ministries', have pride in ‘their ministries’ hold on to them as personal territories and perhaps even fight over them! They can be regarded as rewards, prizes, position, recognition and entitlement without due regard to the mind of God on the matter and the way in which He holds us to account

Source: Calvary Baptist Church- Kinston

I suppose that this blog has sprung up from reading Jeremiah again and being astounded at the job he was given, the age at which God called him, where the job took him and what demands were made on his life over a long period of time. Just like Jeremiah; Gideon, Moses, Paul and Daniel are a few other characters in scripture who were not looking for a ‘ministry’. In fact, Jeremiah, Moses and Elijah – three of the biblical prophets went on record as being thoroughly ‘fed up’ with the task that the Lord had given them. For example, in Exodus 4:13 Moses asks: ‘please send someone else’ and in Exodus 5:22-23 ‘things have not got better only worse’, Elijah in 1 Kings 14:19 says; ‘I’m the only one left and they are trying to kill me too’ and in Jeremiah 15:10 ‘O that I had never been born’! These are by no means the only places where scripture points to suffering accompanying those who obey a calling from the Lord. (Read Hebrews 11:36–38 for yourselves).

In John 15:18-19, Jesus, our best authority on everything, said ‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you’. In Luke 6:26 Jesus also says that the opposite can be true; ‘Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets’. These biblical examples are a context not often associated with the idea of ‘ministry’ today. People crave ‘ministries’, have pride in ‘their ministries’ hold on to them as personal territories and perhaps even fight over them! They can be regarded as rewards, prizes, position, recognition and entitlement without due regard to the mind of God on the matter and the way in which He holds us to account. Scripture on the other hand provides significant warnings about the consequences of misleading the innocent, Matthew 18:6-7 ‘If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me - to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!’ and in James 3:1 remarks that teachers will be held more responsible; ‘Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly’.

The Old Testament recounts a number of stories of prophets who either disobey or apparently make mistakes and pay severely. Jeremiah 29:31-32 includes a number of warnings for false prophets and false shepherds like Shemaiah; ‘This is what the LORD says… Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and has persuaded you to trust in lies, this is what the LORD says: I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good things I will do for my people, declares the LORD, because he has preached rebellion against me.’?Also, Hananiah in Jeremiah 28:15-17; ‘Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies.  Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD. In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died’.

Source: Daily Bible Readings - WordPress.com

We must be careful not to grab something and make it ‘our ministry’ rather than something that the Lord has simply asked us to do. If its ‘my ministry’ and we pursue our own path we may easily be seduced into seeking only those things that are seen to be successful in human terms. Success in man’s terms tends to be associated with things like popularity, influence, money, numbers, reputation and following. People are apt to forget that Jesus - the greatest man that ever lived - was forsaken by many later in His ministry when He told them the truth (John 6:66). Our temptation can be to encourage people by giving them good news, but the danger is that we give this out of our own hearts ‘in the name of the Lord’. Jeremiah and other bible authors in their turn remind their generation; ‘the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true’ (Jeremiah 28:8-9).

Success in God’s terms has often involved exclusion, injury, hunger, shipwreck, prison and martyrdom. Jesus warned His followers in Luke 9:23 ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me’. At one-point Jeremiah was so burdened by his ill treatment that he determined to say no more: ‘So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore 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 20:8-9). Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe was warned not to seek favour for himself when all of the world was in chaos. God said in Jeremiah 45:5 ‘Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life’. In other words, like today, the world as they knew it was being shaken and God rebuked Baruch for trying to seek a more comfortable place and position for himself – He said; ‘be content that in this chaos I will preserve your life wherever you go’.

So, what are we to make of this? In the West, our Christianity can easily follow the changing culture of the world. We seem to readily assimilate worldly values into our faith and churches. Those that are ‘successful’ - often seen, easily heard, assertive in making their giftings known, and competitive - are frequently regarded as being in the ascendance and attract imitators and followers. In contrast, in scripture the ‘man of God’ was often found in the jail, stocks, or cemetery! Paul said that people regarded him as being rather contemptible in appearance and flawed in speech. His sometimes sad second letter to Timothy finds him cold and in prison knowing that he was near the end of his race. The true gifts and callings of God are often associated with trials and tests of different kinds.

We must be careful not to be over-eager to speak over and into people’s lives as ‘thus says the Lord’ (read Jeremiah 23) without checking out that we are actually carrying a message from Him. There is every chance that the Lord will hold us accountable for words that spring from our own hearts. I guess that good ways to check include: ‘Do I really love this person with the love of Jesus?’; ‘Does the message tie up with scripture?’; ‘Am I willing to pay a price for being the Lord’s messenger?’ and ‘Is this word like a burning fire shut up in my bones?’

Let’s be aware always that we serve an awesome and Holy God and that his gifts (which Paul urges us to seek earnestly) and callings are not a route to recognition but rather to serve as warnings for this generation and the building up of the church.

Author: Chris Pearson

May God bless and enrich your life

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