As a Chrisitan, one thing I know about God through the Scriptures is that He is a Holy God. God is Holy. He is so holy that sin cannot come near him. It was His holiness that made Him turn His face away from His Son when Jesus bore the sins of the world on the cross.
The apostle Peter tells us in 1Pet.1:15-16 "...but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy"
We know that God takes holiness seriously because Heb. 12:14 says "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:" The writer of Hebrews tell us that without holiness, no one shall see God.
But what does it mean to be holy? Can anyone really be holy? In the coming days or maybe weeks, we will be exploring this topic on holiness. This is one area where the Lord has been dealing with me about for some time now - the pursuit of holiness. It is my prayer that at the end of this topic, we would not only understand what holiness means, but be fired up to live holy as God has called us to.
God Bless you
Elizabeth
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Called To Ministry?
Called to ministry? Here are a few tips:
By the grace of God, I have been saved and walking with Him now for 18 years, I have learned a few things along the way:
1. Ministry is not a job or career, it is a calling from the Lord Almighty. It is an adventure. (Matt.8:18-22)
2.When the Lord calls a person to do His work, He will always prepare and equip him for the job.
3. The Christian walk is a life of Spiritual warfare, Ministry is no different. When the Lord calls us into ministry, He is calling us to work on His behalf to build up His people in the Word and rescue His elect out of the jaws of satan. Thus a person who is called into ministry is called into spiritual warfare. Because the devil wants to keep Christians ignorant of the Word so they will always be defeated and wants to take as many as he can get to hell with him. That is why as we look through scripture, God takes His time to prepare and equip those he has called.
4. Serving Christ is costly and will definitely cost us and Ministry is no different (Luke 14:27-29).
5. Just because the Lord has called us does not mean the journey will not be difficult (2 Corinthians 11:22-26, John 16:33) but He will sustain us. (1 Corinthians 10:13, Hebrews 13:5)
6. When we chose to follow Christ, we did not come to the master for what was on the master's table, but for the Master Himself. Ministry is no different. It may or may not bring financial rewards that is why ministry is not a career, but a calling. People can and do get blessed financially through their ministry, but financial reward should NEVER be the reason nor the goal for ministry. Neither Jesus nor any of the apostles got rich preaching the gospel. See what Paul said to Timothy ( a young minister) 1 Timothy 6:6-12.
By the grace of God, we have been blessed to have walked closely with some ministries and I tell you, allowing the desire for money and material wealth to be the end result of their work is always the beginning of ministers compromising the gospel. The love of money and material wealth is at the root of the erroneous teaching in some of the faith movement today.
However, I will tell you that there is no greater honor, no greater joy than to serve the Lord and to be called into His service.
May the Lord will give you wisdom in all things and show you what you should be doing and how to do it. But always remember Proverbs 3:5-6. Remember that when the Lord instructed the apostles to be witnesses to Him, he told them to start from their home town (Jerusalem) before witnessing anywhere else. Acts. 1:8. My prayer for myself and for you also, is that as we do what the Lord has called us to do, we will not loose focus, but will start from our very homes, then to the uttermost parts of the world, to the praise and glory of His Holy name. Amen.
Remember IThess. 5:24 "He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it."
God Bless you,
Elizabeth
By the grace of God, I have been saved and walking with Him now for 18 years, I have learned a few things along the way:
1. Ministry is not a job or career, it is a calling from the Lord Almighty. It is an adventure. (Matt.8:18-22)
2.When the Lord calls a person to do His work, He will always prepare and equip him for the job.
3. The Christian walk is a life of Spiritual warfare, Ministry is no different. When the Lord calls us into ministry, He is calling us to work on His behalf to build up His people in the Word and rescue His elect out of the jaws of satan. Thus a person who is called into ministry is called into spiritual warfare. Because the devil wants to keep Christians ignorant of the Word so they will always be defeated and wants to take as many as he can get to hell with him. That is why as we look through scripture, God takes His time to prepare and equip those he has called.
4. Serving Christ is costly and will definitely cost us and Ministry is no different (Luke 14:27-29).
5. Just because the Lord has called us does not mean the journey will not be difficult (2 Corinthians 11:22-26, John 16:33) but He will sustain us. (1 Corinthians 10:13, Hebrews 13:5)
6. When we chose to follow Christ, we did not come to the master for what was on the master's table, but for the Master Himself. Ministry is no different. It may or may not bring financial rewards that is why ministry is not a career, but a calling. People can and do get blessed financially through their ministry, but financial reward should NEVER be the reason nor the goal for ministry. Neither Jesus nor any of the apostles got rich preaching the gospel. See what Paul said to Timothy ( a young minister) 1 Timothy 6:6-12.
By the grace of God, we have been blessed to have walked closely with some ministries and I tell you, allowing the desire for money and material wealth to be the end result of their work is always the beginning of ministers compromising the gospel. The love of money and material wealth is at the root of the erroneous teaching in some of the faith movement today.
However, I will tell you that there is no greater honor, no greater joy than to serve the Lord and to be called into His service.
May the Lord will give you wisdom in all things and show you what you should be doing and how to do it. But always remember Proverbs 3:5-6. Remember that when the Lord instructed the apostles to be witnesses to Him, he told them to start from their home town (Jerusalem) before witnessing anywhere else. Acts. 1:8. My prayer for myself and for you also, is that as we do what the Lord has called us to do, we will not loose focus, but will start from our very homes, then to the uttermost parts of the world, to the praise and glory of His Holy name. Amen.
Remember IThess. 5:24 "He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it."
God Bless you,
Elizabeth
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