Thank you for your service!

I have noticed with dismay over many years the way many Christians lust after church positions and titles. If their zeal was motivated by genuine service for God, it would have been admirable. But no; they just want to be recognized. To get some sort of prestige in the company of the believers.
Only if these few gullible folks knew what they were getting themselves into!!

We are at war, make no mistake. We are fighting a resolute and defiant enemy. An enemy who is not even interested in spoils. He just wants to kill. To steal. And if given adequate room and laxity, utterly destroy!

As noble as it is to desire enrolment into the service of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ; the fact remains that you have to be "called". You must be called. It's that plain and simple!
The tasks are enormous and the risks are just too weighty for uncalled folks to dabble into. And just incase anyone misconstrues the possible misadventures that wait for all those called into ministry, Apostle Paul reminds us through his second letter to the church in Corinth just what he had to go through, as occupational hazards, since his call into ministry.

Take it as his brief resume. A CV of some sort, and choose your pick. Consider the beatings, the whip lashes and rod-induced bruises. Also review his escapades on the seas with the shipwrecks, the drowning episode, the mob attack by stoning, his encounters with highway robbers, the visits from assassins sent after him from his home country, Israel; the 'lone-wolves' who haunted him from strange lands during his missionary trips, backstabbing from folks inside the church, the hunger, the exposure to extreme weather conditions, the shame, the nakedness... I mean, choose your pick.
These and many more, are some of the daring experiences that beckon on men and women called into God's service here on Earth. And if these are not enough to scare you, the realization that going through such experiences without being officially employed by God into His service is ill-advised and drenched in utter folly, should!

We must understand that Jesus is the one who selects men and women into His service, according to His purpose and will. He looks for them. Chooses them. Trains and equips them, before He deploys them. These ones were predestined. It is these few that Jesus toughens up for the encounters they'd likely face on the field of battle. Onslaughts, from Heaven's rough, tough and determined enemies.

Make no mistake, if you're called into God's service, it is a rare privilege. And time is sure to prove that it is a very profitable and honourable experience.
A venture, that has eternal and everlasting rewards. But before those rewards come, you'd sure have a 'story' to tell!

GENRE: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation