Back in the saddle
Originally written May 19
After nearly a year since I resigned my post as Pastor of CTK Oak Harbor, I delivered the message yesterday. Actually, I led worship (with Ann) AND taught AND did a pre-marital counseling session following church! How did it feel? Like putting on an old shoe.I felt like I was in my element - helping people understand the Bible, and sharing with them insights they found interesting and inspirational. God has given me a gift for teaching. And I need to be using it again. I want to be using it again.
I spoke on the life of Asa as recast in 2 Chr 14-16. Whereas in Kings he is held up as a hero, in Chronicles he is chided for lack of faith later in life. He traded faith in God for reliance upon himself. And he died a bitter, lonely, self-sufficient man. As I prepared and taught that message I realized I was preaching to myself. I have spent the last year or two running away from a life of faith that I have always lived. I have tried to figure out ways to provide for myself and stop relying on the Church to care for me and my family. I have wanted to make pastoral work something I do as a hobby, when God has called me to make it my vocation.
It will be very interesting to see how the next 6 months progress. Where will God lead me?Will Ann and I have the courage to put ourselves and our kids through a move to a new area if that is the way God leads us? Will we, in fact, live by faith and not by sight?
After nearly a year since I resigned my post as Pastor of CTK Oak Harbor, I delivered the message yesterday. Actually, I led worship (with Ann) AND taught AND did a pre-marital counseling session following church! How did it feel? Like putting on an old shoe.I felt like I was in my element - helping people understand the Bible, and sharing with them insights they found interesting and inspirational. God has given me a gift for teaching. And I need to be using it again. I want to be using it again.
I spoke on the life of Asa as recast in 2 Chr 14-16. Whereas in Kings he is held up as a hero, in Chronicles he is chided for lack of faith later in life. He traded faith in God for reliance upon himself. And he died a bitter, lonely, self-sufficient man. As I prepared and taught that message I realized I was preaching to myself. I have spent the last year or two running away from a life of faith that I have always lived. I have tried to figure out ways to provide for myself and stop relying on the Church to care for me and my family. I have wanted to make pastoral work something I do as a hobby, when God has called me to make it my vocation.
It will be very interesting to see how the next 6 months progress. Where will God lead me?Will Ann and I have the courage to put ourselves and our kids through a move to a new area if that is the way God leads us? Will we, in fact, live by faith and not by sight?
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