AUGUST 4 "IS WORK A FOUR LETTER WORD, IN THE CHURCH?"
I am
reading about this religious revival, a religious "awakening"
something ....apparently every church yearns for, or so we say. But you
know what I noticed as I'm reading through Chronicles, especially today, I'm
noticing it's allot of work and it's costly. And there are few that want to
work and there are fewer that want to give. For all the people celebrating and
having a great time in this "religious revival" there is also a group
of people that are very tired, over worked and quite frankly, not really
enjoying themselves or this wonderful idea of Josiah's.. It's allot of work, in
verse 14 we read, "the priests had been busy from morning till night
offering the burnt offerings..." Now I have been in the Church and
in Ministry long enough to know, that the priests were not rejoicing over this.
If they are human like the people in our churches they were venting, saying
things like, "next time Pastor, I mean...Josiah gets a wild idea to have
revival, let him do the work himself and see how great an idea it is, why are
we the only one's doing the work and everyone else is just eating and
celebrating while we are busting our buns. This is ridiculous, next time I'm
telling Pastor, I mean Josiah, I'm not helping. I'm exhausted, do you know how
much work we have and we still have to clean up and everyone else is just going
to go home, watch!" And you know, they will just go home, they won't
help and the bulk of the work will fall upon the shoulders of the few and if
not careful, we can become bitter and very irritated in the midst of
supposedly, "serving the Lord". Work is a four letter word to most
people, most people by nature are lazy, but you would think, that in the
church, work would not be a four letter word, after all, aren't we all a bunch of
Christians filled with God's Spirit doing "the word of the Lord", And
of course you know I'm being facetious. Most church members are just
wanted to enjoy the service, enjoy the event, enjoy the festivities and then go
home. They don't know and don't care to know, how everything is getting done
and who's doing what. Earlier in Chronicles we read that originally the
celebration actually had to be delayed because there was not enough workers
(priests) to do the work. Then we read a chapter latter, that even the
few that showed up to help, were not consecrated, as they should have been to
perform the work (sacrifices) so in desperation, they bent the rules and said,
"just go ahead and do the sacrifices anyway, this isn't the right way, but
what choice have you left us". One of the most read blogs of the year was
titled "Quite the Ministry" because that title struck a chord with
many readers. Many Christians involved in Ministry in their churches are burnt
out and ready to quit. They are tired of doing all the work, while others feel
no compulsion, whatsoever to help. The call of the disciple is still and will
always be, "to deny thyself, pick up your cross and follow me". The
natural tendency is to be selfish and lazy, but we must fight that. The more
that get involved the easier the load becomes and joy returns to that ministry.
The joy of service comes back to that Christian; who once joined that ministry
with great enthusiasm and thrilled to be involved. Every Sunday you sit in your
church and watch how everything works, do you ever wonder, "how's
everything working and who's making it work and is there anywhere that I could
do to lighten the burden? Is there a reason these priests, with their own
families to care for, were stuck offering sacrifices from morning 'till night?
There is no justifiable reason other than the fact, that WORK is still a four
letter word, even inside The Church of Jesus Christ". What can you do, to
lighten the burden of the Priests, so that, they, who have families too, can go
home at a decent hour and not work undue & unnecessary hours, that will
eventually burn them out and then what? Then that individual quits the ministry
and by doing so, leaves fewer to carry the load; therefore putting more
pressure on then, causing more to be burned out and it's a vicious cycle. Jesus
said, "Pray for workers, for the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are
few". Jesus didn't say, Israelite are few, He didn't say, the Church
members are few, Jesus didn't say, "the Christians are few",
Jesus said, "the workers are few" and how true that was back in
Josiah's day, how true that was back in Jesus' day and how true it is today,
work is still a four letter word, even amongst God's people.
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