Being real

I had set the Lord a deadline.

Whether I was right to do so some people have disputed, as I have shared the story with them. And perhaps they are right. My thinking was that because God is real we can afford to be real with him. I must stress though, it very much needs to be done in a humble way.

I was a novice in the ministry when ‘being real’ got under my skin to challenge me. In God’s great grace our call to the church had been unmistakable for my wife and me. In fact we were certain about what would happen months before the church was. That was not foolish self-confidence on our part, but all to do with God’s kind reassurance to frail people.

Spiritual fillip

Preachers are called into ministry, yes, with a view to feeding the church on the Word of God, but also with a view to seeing unchurched non-Christians saved. Timothy was commanded by Paul to ‘do the work of an evangelist’ (2 Timothy 4.5). Would God use me in that way? I don’t think my motivation was about pride, but more about wanting to see people come to faith and for the existing church to be encouraged that God could still and would still bring ‘rank outsiders’ to Christ in the modern world.