Outreach

Today some members from my church paired with the Armor of Light ministry to put on a family event day at the Marine base here. We served a grilled lunch, had inflatable games, pony rides, live music, face painting, and an Easter egg hunt. Most of this particular battalion had already been deployed last month so many that attended today were families left behind. It was a wonderful opportunity to serve those who are sacrificing to serve and protect our country. This is a difficult time for their families, so it was a blessing for me to be involved in putting on an event for them to have some fun together. Personally, I didn't get an opportunity to share with any of them in word, but seeing their faces gives me more to pray for, that our actions and countenance of our faces would be emblazoned in their mind, not because of us but because of Who we represent: Jesus Christ. May His name be glorified in all we say and do. Thank you to those who have served or are currently serving our country, sacrificing yourselves to protect our freedom. I pray that you all would be able to experience the greatest freedom that comes through Jesus Christ...freedom from sin and death.

Complaining

Numbers 11:1 "Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused."

Pretty self-explanatory. Why should we complain when we have so much to be thankful for. When we complain, we are saying that we are not satisfied with the way the Lord is providing for us and guiding us, thinking we could do better or that we deserve better. Looking back over my life, I know that God's ways are perfect. He has blessed me abundantly and I have NOTHING to complain about. Blessed be His name.

Appointed Duties

I was reading through Numbers today and something caught my attention. In chapter 4, the duties of the Levites were being defined specifically for each family—Aaron and his sons who were the priests, the sons of Kohath, the sons of Gershon, and the sons of Merari. What I found interested was throughout the chapter, the Lord specifically assigned duties for each family so that everyone had a roll and no job was left undone.

Often as Christians we can become jealous about what the Lord is doing through the life of another believer. We want to have their life and be assigned their duties rather than being faithful with what the Lord has entrusted to us. On the flip side, we can wonder why other Christians aren’t helping us with our work. They seem to only be concerned with what they are doing that they don’t stop to offer to help us.

My friends, the Lord has given us each a specific task for His kingdom…one that we are designed to do, that no one else can do. It would be slighting the Lord if we thought we knew better than He, thinking we would be better suited for a different task or someone else for ours.

Throughout the chapter God says to “appoint each of them to his service and his task,” “appoint to them all their tasks as their duty,” “assign to each man by name the items he must carry,” “each according to his service and according to his task.” Everyone had a job to be performed “to do the work of service and the work of bearing burdens” in order that the tabernacle, the place of God’s dwelling, might be taken care of.

We, as Christians, are the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the church His body. If we are too busy striving to be something we’re not, as Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:14-27, we will be divided as a body and accomplish nothing, which is exactly what the enemy, Satan, wishes to accomplish in the church. Run your race in your lane. Let us stop quarreling and complaining, but be faithful to the end with what the Lord has given us that He might say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”