Found Faithful?

I have a pastor friend who constantly reminds me that we (pastors), are not called to be famous, but faithful. Those are good words because it's easy to focus on the wrong things. It is tempting to want people to "see you in action", but it's been said that we are playing to an audience of ONE. I should only be concerned with what God thinks, what God sees.

Here is what the Bible says about this: Luke 16:10 "Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
 I guess you have to prove yourself faithful first in little...It's a matter of responsibility. You have to prove you can handle "a little" before you can handle "much". With God's grace and power, I hope to do that.

The Waiting Game

At Bellwood, we are seeking to hire an Associate Pastor of Youth and Children. We have a diverse group of folks who are serving on the Search Committee. We had been meeting every other week to do a lot of preparatory work, but now we are in the period of waiting to see who may respond to our new position. I sent the Committee this email today to hopefully encourage them a bit.

Since we seem to not really have a need to meet until we have some prospects, I thought I would touch base with all of you. I hope that we are faithfully praying for the new Associate Pastor of Youth and Children and that we are praying for Bellwood. I really feel good about the work we have done so far. There is evidence of that (job description, church profile, 20 Pastoral tasks). These are the things we can see, but we might be tempted to get discouraged because now we are in a mode of simply waiting – and not necessarily seeing results.Yesterday, while reading in the Chronological Bible, this jumped out at me:  Psalm 5:3 “Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly”. Isn’t that good? We bring our request…and we wait with expectation. We are not just hopelessly waiting or blindly waiting. We wait with anticipation that God will answer and provide at the perfect time.Hang on to this! Don’t get discouraged. Don’t lose hope. Something good is already happening.

Waiting is hard, but this Psalm encourages us to wait with expectation - meaning that God does hear. He is not deaf or turned away. We may have to wait awhile - a very long while in some cases- but we wait knowing that some day, some way God will answer. Be encouraged. 

Theocracy vs. Monarchy

In our readings in the Chronological Bible, God has made it quite clear that He was to be Israel's king (theocracy), but the people wanted a human king (monarchy). Theocracy is God's ultimate will, but since the people rebelled, His remedial will is to meet the people where they are and lead them back to His ultimate will.

Saul was the people's first king. He had his good points: Didn't amass wealth, had no standing army and stopped the Philistines. He also had his bad points: He took on a religious role (remember he didn't wait for Samuel the prophet?), he also didn't follow the rules of Holy War.  

King David also had his good and bad points. Good: He defeated the Philistines, expands the empire, makes Jerusalem the capitol, and develops the arts. Bad: breaks rules of Holy War, took matters into his own hands with Bathsheba, took a census of standing army, builds palace and sets up a harem.

Despite all of this, God still used these two men to accomplish His will. God promises David that a king will always sit on his throne. David's son Solomon will be the next king (we haven't gotten there yet), but that is God's remedial will. However, we know that God's ultimate will is for His Son Jesus to sit on that throne. Jesus is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

We have a ways to go in our readings before we get to Jesus. We will actually see that Solomon's kingdom will divide and create a whole host of problems for the people of God. They will end up in exile (which looks like that's the end of the story) But through it all, God continues to show his steadfast love by offering the promise of hope and a deliverer...