I came home tonight after church, plopped in my office chair and surfed for a few minutes to see what’s new, and I was so encouraged by all of the posts I came across tonight. It’s certainly an interesting experience to be blessed by a bunch of people you’ve not seen in years who live hundreds of miles away… but God can use blogs just as easily as he can use psalms.
The pastor asked me today how the job was living up to my expectations, and I told him honestly that I had been depressed–not at the job, because I love working there at the church and I love ministry and I love the people. But being in the ministry gives you more opportunity to focus on reaching the lost and building up the church and in turn makes you keenly aware of just how deep a void there is. I guess it’s like Jonathan Edwards said, the greater your understanding of God’s holiness, the more repulsed you are by your own sins. For me, it goes: the greater my passion for reaching the unsaved, the more overwhelmed I am by the staggering sea of faces.
I spoke on the book of Joshua to a sparse handful at prayer meeting tonight, examining the dual themes of obedience and courage. Then I led the Awana kids in a rousing rendition of “With Jesus In The Boat You Can Smile In The Storm”. But as I drove home down Route 1, I couldn’t help but think about the kind of courage and obedience it would take to reach them all. If only we had the faith and fervor of Caleb… toss the cane and take the mountain…
