Sunday, April 21, 2013

Are you Going to Minister or Ministering as You Go?


I heard a sermon some years ago that has never been forgotten. In it a professor talked about the story of the Good Samaritan.  His points reflected upon the busy schedule of the priest and Levite and their total lack of interest in helping the person who had been robbed.  He spoke of how they were most likely headed to the temple or some function to fulfill their religious duties and then asked the question, “Are you going to minister or ministering as you go?” The point he so poignantly made was that we should capitalize upon those moments when we are inconvenienced in ministry. If not we will pass many opportunities to reach out and touch someone’s life. The following story stresses this truth further. In an earlier century, there lay a large boulder in the middle of the roadway. Traveler after traveler walked past the boulder, veering off the side of the road to get around it. All the while, they were shaking their head and muttering, "Can you believe that? Someone should get that big thing out of the way. What an inconvenience!" Finally, a man came along and, seeing the boulder, took a branch from a tree and pried the boulder enough to get it rolling and rolled it off to the side of the road. Lying underneath the rock, he found a small bag with a note. The man picked up the note and read it. It read as follows: "Thank you for being a true servant of the kingdom. Many have passed this way and complained because of the state of the problem and spoken of what ought to be done. But you have taken the responsibility upon yourself to serve the kingdom instead. You are the type of citizen we need more of in this kingdom. Please accept this bag of gold that traveler after traveler have walked by simply because they didn’t care enough about the kingdom to serve." I wonder how many "bags of gold" we have missed because we were too busy trying to get to our final destination. There are those occasions when God places destiny in our paths just to see if we will take the time to receive it.  It is my prayer that we will not be so focused on the end of the road that we bypass ministry in the middle of the road. By all means go minister but be sure you minister as you go.

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