Today's Devotional

July 26, 2005

Subject:  Starting A Church, That's A Lot Of Heavy Lifting

John 12:32 - "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."

At the church, we're preparing for "Big Crowd Launch Day."  It's when we pull out all of the stops, which are not many right now, and we try to get as many people to the church as possible on that day.  It's interesting to see it all work because I can't seem to get enough done no matter how hard I try.  I have the feeling that I'll end up saying, "this didn't happen because I didn't do ..."  Of course that's clearly out of perspective. 

Like anything, running a church is really hard work and requires lots of blood, sweat and tears.  However, if we get it right, we won't end up with the perspective that I'm trying to steer clear of.  While we do lots of heavy lifting, the real heavy lifting is done simply when we lift us Jesus.  As they did with the cross, when He was lifted, then He was able to do the drawing.  

Today if we're going to do anything for God, we've got to be prepared to do some heavy lifting.  It's gonna require painting by stripping off  the old man and putting on a fresh coat of the new man.  It's going to require daily cultivation of the yard to prevent weeds from growing up and it's going to take a good cleaning in lots of places that nobody checks, like behind the ears and under the arms.  And finally, if you want to do some of the heavy lifting, you've really got to lift up Christ.  When Christ is praised, He draws to His church whomever He chooses. 

Note to self: We do the lifting and He does the drawing.

Carlen