As I celebrate my 5th month of youth ministry I am seeing so many touched and changed by the Lord but also so those who are carnal, sinful, rebellious, hateful, violent, lustful, and full of evil behavior. My temptation is to always “preach the hell out of them”. Preach hard, long, mean, and full of “righteous indignation”. But as I meditate on the scriptures I am constantly reminded of Abraham our father in the faith. “The arm of the flesh is always faster then the arm of the Spirit but the fruit is death”. Remember that the promise came to Abraham and his response was to make the promise happen with Hagar. He didn’t trust the timing and process of God and did it his own way. He had the promise of God but did not rely on the power of God. The result was that little religion known as Islam! The second time he trusted that God was BIG enough to awaken Sarah’s womb and the result is that his SEED not seeds would save mankind from there sin. I say that to say that as a pastor and a father in the gospel I have to resist the temptation to try to change people and trust that God is the only one who can change and awaken the human heart. I am convinced that if I continue to direct people to Christ and his finished work the Holy Spirit will breathe on us and change us from the inside out.
Oh Lord that we would trust your words more then our ability to speak them, that we would trust your Spirit more then our preaching style, and that we would have more faith in the power of your resurrection then our own strength which is weakness to you…
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