I was looking for a photo for this post about one of the things suggesting to me that my ministry could be spread the word of the Lord, the gospel. In short that anyone who believes that Christ died for their sins, rose from the grave, and that he’s the only way to the Father (God) will be saved … although scripture adds more and is written a little differently. But the point is my ministry, my calling, what does God want me to do? So for years I’ve sort of run away from the thought of preaching, even though I felt disqualified from being a pastor. Recently my wife and I had a very bad season in our life, and I started reading a lot of scripture, praying a lot and asked the Lord to break me so I could be used. During this period of time, I was listening through some old Christian music I bought years ago, and the Kutless song Shut Me Out came on, and I was singing along with it and the very first stanza has these lyrics:
I know that you can’t stand these things
I’m preaching in the streets
I instantly I kind of skip the whole “preaching in the streets” notion, and continue on and the next two lines which connect with me, and with the previous 2 lines:
But how can I contain the truth I hold inside
With all the hurting people that I see
The song continues on and I’m sort of thinking, “Lord, you surely don’t want me to preach in the streets …. do you?” But I’m touched, and I’m processing the song and other lyrics connect with me also. The short version of what I was thinking about is something like I need to learn to talk to people more and better about Jesus, and it needs to flow freely instead of sounding like a pop quiz. So I’m thinking, maybe the song talks about street preaching, but since I’m not qualified to preach (1 Tim 1:1-7) so maybe what I’m being called to is spreading the gospel somehow else. And after singing along with this song several times, I feel there really is a call in there for me.
This new call would be in addition to posting on this blog precedes, and since it is something the Lord wants all of us to be doing (1 Pet 3:15) I’m trying to put it all together. My wife and my daughter greatly outshine me in this area. I have always relied on figuring that people know I’m a Christian, and I say God Bless you, and I’m really feeling that’s not enough. I have brought Jesus up talking to people, but I can’t shake the feeling that He’s asking something more from me. Jesus has a bigger idea that’s more impactful than what I’m already doing.
Thank you for reading this rather lengthy post, and my God bless you richly and cause His face to shine upon you.