The Crazy Life of Obeying God
I’m picturing him bending over to come out of the crawlspace, suitcase in tow. And his wife is all, What in the world are you doing?
We’re moving, Abram says.
They move –the whole kit and caboodle. Just because God says. And it’s a little nuts.
So there I was…
A few Januaries ago when God first whispered women to my heart, and I was all, You’ve got to be kidding. Moses-esque.
Then a woman visited our evening church service for a few weeks. She stopped coming, and I can’t even remember her name. But one day she left a book on my husband’s desk at church, with a sticky note: A gift for your wife. I haven’t seen her since then.
Generous but weird, ya know?
But hey –a new book. So I started to read, and it was the testimonies of all the Calvary Chapel pastors’ wives and how they came to know Christ. At the end of the first story was a little biography about the pastor’s wife tucked at the end. It said, something like, “And now she ministers to women in her church.”
I read on. The next testimony ended with, “And now she ministers to women at her church.”
Lord, seriously.
I read on. The third testimony ended with, “And now she ministers to women at her church.”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Never, ever, ever do I skip ahead and read the end. That is BAD book reading manners (mom!) But I couldn’t help myself. I quickly flipped forward. Story after story ended with, “Ánd now she ministers to women at her church.”
This was just the beginning of God talkin’ to me, you guys. When God is speaking to you, it’s like you’re in a house of mirrors and you aren’t going to turn around without hearing the same message everywhere. For months I couldn’t open a book or talk to a friend or be online without hearing about the needs of women. After talking to the women’s ministry director at my church, she graciously has given me the green light to do some caring for women, as pastor’s wife at our Saturday night worship service.
So yesterday I went to the printer’s and paid a few dollars for invitation cards that I’m going to hand out at church Saturday night. They have this cheerful graphic on them:
At the printer’s they took my money like it was no big deal. Like people walk in every day and say, I’m here to pick up the flyers that seem ridiculous and put me at huge risk for humiliation, and what if I’m wrong and that wasn’t God talking all along but just my overactive imagination?
It’s a little women’s gathering, you guys. Just a humble Bible study and get-together for those Saturday night girls I go to church with. It’s not like I need to rent an event center, and it won’t even require a microphone.
But for this quivering heart it’s scary and big.
God calls us to live big.
“The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1 NIV)
At the end of the day, we have to recycle the list of all the reasons we’re not good enough to do what God has asked us to do. And then we do what he says, like crazy people.
Cra-zy.
So what is it God keeps putting in front of you?
How is your Bible study going?
Our first meeting went so well -everything I hoped it would be. Thank you for asking!
Yes, Christy, the Lord has a way of getting the message across to us when He has a job He wants us to do! As an older adult, like as in old lady, LOL, I have had that experience more than once! But isn’t it great that you know it is His voice you hear! (Just like He said in John 10 where He spoke about his sheep knowing his voice.)
This is an encouraging word to me -and very valuable coming from an “experienced” lady! 🙂 I do know his voice.
You’re gonna love this. Our womens ministry here at our calvary chapel has a devotional every morning on line called Walk His Way. I’m copying the one for this morning. Read it and laugh! God’s talkin to you honey!
“For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.” 2 Corinthians 8:12
Willingness
I have been ministering in various churches for many years. My first call to step out of the pew and into the trenches, so to speak, came at a church I didn’t even attend. There was a little church near my home my family had just moved to, and I was a bored teenager. My mother declared, when summer started, that I needed to find “something to do, or I’ll give you something to do.” I knew what that meant—extra chores!
The church had a large sign stating that Vacation Bible School would soon start, so I walked into the office and asked if I could volunteer. I was rather introverted and when I look back on it now, I can hardly believe I did that. They took me right in. It didn’t seem to be a problem that I didn’t attend that church, or any other church.
It was a long time ago, but I remember lots and lots of popsicle stick crafts, red punch and cookies for snacks, cool mornings, being allowed to wear shorts in a church building, and skits on the last day. (It’s funny what sticks with you after four decades have passed.)
A year or so after that, I began attending Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, a mega-church in those days, in Southern California. There were lots of opportunities to grow in the Lord and to serve in the body. I stepped up again in children’s ministry, and that led to leading camps and opening my home for Bible studies. Many years and one big move 600 miles north, and I landed in Women’s Ministry. I think the Lord had to move me, or else I would have never left the safety of what I had the most experience with and what was comfortable: kids.
I had a willingness when I started out as a teen. I had no experience that would qualify me, but I was allowed to participate. This acceptance of coming just as I was changed everything in my future. I was appreciated and useful to the church and thus to the Lord. I was accepted according to willingness.
If you feel you have nothing to give to the ministry, no particular talent or gift, please know that you can still step up and minister to others. Remember that ministry isn’t primarily organized or public. The daily ministry of relationship with others must not be overlooked or devalued. Loving, giving, comforting, praying, and encouraging are ministries we are all called to. If God puts you in a public ministry, one where you are known and recognized, it will be His doing and not yours.
First, be willing to do or give whatever He puts in front of you!
“Jesus, we long to serve You, but we don’t always know what to do. Show us Your will for us, and help us to walk faithfully in it. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
This is so encouraging. I am willing!