Sat, Jul 8th - 3:45PM
Five things I would change
If I Could Live Them Again
Today’s devotion is about my walk with God during my ministry years. On the 13th of July, this month, I celebrated my 70th birthday. It’s a time for me to reminisce.
A question which is often asked of older folk is, "If you could live your life over, what would you change?" I’ve probed that question. I want to share what I consider to be the top five things I would change.
One thing I would not even consider changing — that is my surrender to the Lord in saving faith and His call to the gospel ministry. No job nor profession, nor anything in this world, can substitute for the preaching ministry.
The top five things I would change is actually one single unit with all five being considered as number one.
I would be a better husband to my wife and father to my children. I have the opportunity to strengthen my marriage because we are both living and in June of 2007 will celebrate 50 years of marriage. But our children are now married with families of their own.
If I could walk the same paths in ministry life I would seek to pour more of my life into my children. I would be a better example before them, striving to teach and show them a deeper love for the Lord and for His church. I would seek to lead them into a deeper commitment of faithfulness to Biblical principles. To some degree that opportunity is till available although on a limited basis.
I would learn humility for myself. One of the most hurtful observations I’ve learned coming from the mouth of a church member is that I am arrogant. I’ve always sought to be positive and sure of the gifts the Holy Spirit allotted to me for ministry.
So, I strive in these later years to be confident in the abilities allotted to me by God’s Holy Spirit in a humble manner. I love life and I don’t want to portray the Christian life as a drab, dead, boring experience. When I meet folk in the normal traffic pattern of life and when we gather for worship at church, I want them to see the joy of the Lord on my face. This isn’t arrogance, it’s simply living out the One living in me.
I would be a better student of God’s Word. My life has been spent in God’s Word. But I’ve also wasted a lot of precious hours focused upon other pursuits, hours which would have benefitted my life through deeper and better study habits.
I would be a better student of preaching for communication. I’ve always felt that nothing substitutes for nor benefits the congregation more than the pastor’s communication from the pulpit. That one thing has always been, and still is, I believe, the first focus of pastoral ministry.
The pastor has many hats to wear. There are sick folk to whom he must minister, there are funerals to be preached, weddings to be conducted, administration responsibilities, the lost to reach, the saved to teach and train, and a church family with a multitude of counseling needs to be met. But if he fails as a pastor teacher, communicating Biblical truths in an inspiring and clear manner, individual believers won’t mature spiritually under his preaching ministry.
If I could do it over again, I would seek more diligently from the Holy Spirit the gift of preaching and then sharpen my ax so I could be more effective.
If the years of ministry could be retraced, I would seek to be a better all around man of God. I can’t retrace those steps, but I can remember the words of the writer of Proverbs who penned, "A man’s heart plans his way; but the LORD directs his step" (Prov. 16:9). I’ll hone the abilities God has given to me and minister in the power of His Holy Spirit the remainder of my years.
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