Packed for a purpose
This Blog is going to spin off a thought or two and I’m going to
borrow a little from author Max Lucado.
Yesterday I had some thoughts I was sharing with my friend Russ who I
work with in children’s ministry. My
former pastor at Real Life Corpus had a term of “Leveraging Technology”. When I originally started doing this Bible
study blog thing it was an offshoot of doing a Bible study for people who
worked nights because this is still something I feel churches fail at. There are many people working nights who do
so by choice like me and we don’t always do stuff in the day. Too much sunlight, too many people, too much drama
and stress. Think about it for a second
and you will see the humor because I’m an introvert working a shift where you
don’t interact much with people, but I do a Bible study blog online for anyone
to see which is also extremely extroverted.
There’s irony there. Before
you shut me off, hear me out on this, not everyone on the planet is on the same
schedule as you. Not everyone likes and
does the same thing as you. Scary I
know. Each of us is designed
differently. See here’s where we get
back to my thoughts with my friend Russ. In Matthew 28:19-20 it says this. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always even to the end of the age.” We
live in a day and age where every one of us has access to a smart phone that
can record a video, take a picture, scan something or do all kinds of
things. Why are Christians not
leveraging technology to reach the nations?
I’m not good at a whole lot but
God called me to write and encourage. I
will tell you when I do these blog videos or send them as email or post it
online that’s something I know how to do but it’s also terrifying because I must
share my thoughts. Here’s something those that have seen me do these videos don’t
know that I’m about to reveal. I took a
speech class in college, and I did a five-minute speech one time and I can tell
you the first two minutes I breathed.
That’s all I could do. Here’s
another weird fact, I’m a trainer at work.
I can teach people one on one to do the job but don’t put me in a big
group. For two days I had kept reading these verses
in Galatians and I didn’t have a whole blog to write about it, but I knew it
needed to be shared so I typed them and posted them on Facebook and let God use
them in people’s lives. God can use
something that simple. I can tell you this when I was at my lowest
point sometimes all it took to get my eyes back on God was someone being kind,
sharing scripture, just asking questions or showing an interest in my
life. You don’t know what the other
person around you is going through. I
talked to my friend ‘s David and Jason recently and they almost jarred me into
resuming the email portion of this and once again leveraging technology because
they can read an email whenever and be encouraged. I had given up doing this as an email. See sometimes the person called to encourage
needs encouragement too.
That brings me to part of the Max Lucado Devotional I read today
because it was a reminder to me about how you and I are designed by God.
“You were born prepacked. God
looked at your entire life, determined your assignment, and gave you the tools
to do the job.” The weird way you and I act God can use that
to glorify Him. For some weird reason
God decided Zac was going to like to write and read and share and somehow God
has used that with a blog that was born from a Bible study for people working
nights. Somehow, He has me and my wife
Becky helping with children’s ministry which is something I never ever planned
on. But if you went back to my past I
helped with kids at nearly every church, I have been part of. I sat and thought about that last night, and
it was an odd thing to realize. There are simply things God has designed you
for that don’t always make sense. The
devotional also brought up this verse that caused me to think a little as
well. Exodus 35:35 says this “The Lord has given them special skills as
engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet thread on fine
cloth, and weavers. They excel as
craftsmen and designers.” Think about
that for a second. I’m a security guard,
former waiter, cook’s assistant and customer service agent. My wife is a dang
amazing cook. King David was a shepherd
that became a king. Peter was a
fisherman. Matthew was a tax collector;
Jesus was a carpenter. Everyone of us a
has skills and weird things we’re good at and God can use that. You
were meant to interact with people. I
said before we all have the technology at our fingertips to share God’s
word. Maybe we do it like my friend
Darrell where he stood up in a country church and just read a chapter. Maybe like Zac we do a full blog video. My dad preaches full sermons. Maybe you just pray with someone or listen
and invite them to eat. I encourage you
though to use the gifts God has given you to help others.
Meant to Be by Steven Curtis Chapman
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