TO BE LITTLE OR TO BELITTLE?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Songs of Solomon 2 :15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil thevines,
for our vines have tender grapes.
Proverbs 24:10 If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small.
Zech. 4:10 For who hath despised the day of small things?
Did you know Babe Ruth hit 851 home runs?
Did you know Babe Ruth stuck out 1330 times?
This is almost two strike outs for every homerun?
But were records for many years... but Babe is known because he tried.
Don’t be little others?
But be little enough to see that spending time on others is a wise investment.
I ponder working for God?
What an honor to be a Christian worker?
Yet what a load?
Can we see it is hard to keep zeal and enthusiam in the little things, yet it is faithfulness in the little where we please God!
A bird never sings because it knows all the answers, the bird sings because it knows the song. The birds Momma taught him to sing.
Are you teaching others to sing?
Can you see rainbows looking down.
God loves little things and confounds the wise with little trinkets.
Life has a mirror effect, you receive what you give!
As we touch people, and become God’s hand extended to a hurting humanity, we take on the heart of God.
What pastor would not want the church to double in size?
What pastor does not dream of reaching the lost and dying?
What pastor would not want to give thousands to missions?
We dream of greener pastires and great yields. More?
It is not how much water your boat is in...?
It is how much water is in your boat....?
I ponder, why doesn’t every church double?
Why does some ground seem to be fertile but unyielding?
Why can a little preacher give his family and career for a little area and go unapplauded, and a TV preacher flying in a personal jet have crowds waiting in line?
Yet he will not come out and touch the people, security?
How would one feel to give his best effort, lose sleep, pray and cry, and still not see his dreams accomplished? Is he a failure?
A Christian worker’s vocation belongs to God.
One plants?
One waters?
Yet, another reaps?
One is appreciated and loved?
One is unnoticed and his arms hang down?
But we must never forget, our vocation belongs to Jesus.
Success is not easily measured.
There is no easy or simple tactic to finding the heart of God for a people or an area.
Are God’s workers willing to blindly surrender to His call?
There is one measure: a total surrender to God, a giving of self, without counting the cost, without reflection.
As a candle consumes itself for the light, so must we for the family and the church.
We are often fooled when we recognize our strengths and deny our weaknesses. A servant of God will know his weaknesses and guard them with the Heart of God.
The question is not where is the God of Elijah?
The question is where are the Elijah’s of God?
We live in a day where "TROPHIES" count.
We search for trophies of excellency, and miss that people are
the trophies we seek.
I recently read of an English Sergeant stationed in Egypt.
Seems there was a young Private that really loved Jesus.
The Private was often hassled over his commitment to allow Jesus to be his Lord and Savior.
The Sergeant gave the young man a hard time.
The two men had been on duty on a cold rainy night.
The conditions were terrible.
The Company came in from duty, they were very tired, cold, and damp. Before the Private went to bed, he quietly knelt down to pray.
The Sergeant was on the top bunk.
The Sergeant purposely placed his damp, muddy boots, on either side of the praying soldier’s head.
The Private never looked up, he kept praying, with the wet, muddy boots all over his face.
The next morning when the Sergeant heard the trumpet’s call, he jumped out of bed.
There next to the Sergeant’s bunk was his boots, beautifully shining.
The Private had polished the Sergeant’s muddy boots and quietly placed them there.
Nobody knew. just the Sergeant and the Private.
The Private never claimed his rights, or spoke poorly of his leader.
He just served him.
The Sergeant’s heart was broken, he later asked the Private, will you tell me about your Master? I want Him in my heart.
We know soft answers and a calm trust in the call of God accomplishes more than sermons delivered from pulpits.
God enables those He calls to overcome every obstacle.
I had a pastor friend that often said, I would enjoy pastoring if it weren’t for people.
I ponder, why do we need Christian workers, if people did not have problems?
Who needs a doctor?
Where there will be people, septic tanks and there will be problems, the more people, the more septics and the more problems.
Where workers focus on people and people problems, there will be heartache and disappointments.
Our vocation is not for people, it is for God.
As we touch people, and become God’s hand extended to a hurting humanity, we take on the heart of God.
Once, I sensed a pastored was near burnout?
He had seen success, the numbers and budget grew, but he wanted more.
I asked him, are you nearing burnout?
He replied in anger, NO! But, I am about BURNED UP, not burned out, burned up!
Seems people had not carried their share of the load, he felt all alone.
He soon left the ministry, and became a truck driver.
Was John the Baptist a poor man?
Was he educated and visibly impressive?
What made John great?
Few people want to imitate John?
John refused to bend to sin.
John was not a smoothed tongued orator.
John was not a polished professional preacher with a program of social affairs.
John was not interested in counting incoming offerings and silver trophies. John had more than a reputation to defend and people to please.
John’s delivery was not in line with homiletics.
John played no favorites.
John was a feeder of deep Gospel truths.
John was fire baptized, full of the Holy Spirit, Divinely ordained of God.
John was a praiser, a prayer, devil-defying, fearless anointed man of God.
We need men like this today.
God is looking for a man to pray the price.
Pastoring is an impossible task, if we forget to allow for the God factor.
The Word of God does the Work of God!
A pastor’s focus must reach beyond people problems, we must see GOD SOLUTIONS.
God loves people, He looks beyond people faults.
People faults vs. God solutions.
Recently, I dreamed there was a group of frustrated pastors, tired, overworked, and unappreciated. In their frustration, their hands were hanging down. I heard Hebrews 12:12 -15 ring out. (read it?)
The Holy Spirit cried, God’s men, God’s workers, are looking at men and not to Me and not to my Word.
God’s call is that men come to God,
God’s creative powers can overcome the most persistent problems.
Strong holds of many years will fall, if one will but trust and wait on God.
Those that dream of God’s touch, must persist, and be patient.
Having done all, stand. Quit seeing people’s faults, start believing God’s word.
Psa. 119:165;
Isa 26:3. I hope you will read the verses?
God’s word, not mine, accomplishes God’s plan. Jesus totally surrendered to the Will of the Father. Will you?
We must learn to trust God. We must learn to rely on God.
We must learn to submit out of love and completely obey His Word.
The quickest way to the heart of God is in praise and obedience.
It is always to soon to quit. So you are little? So your work is little?
So nobody knows?
JUST Wait, God knows where you have been, where you are, and what He has planned for you. Don’t quit on the brink of a miracle!
Zeal for souls is the effect and proof of the true love of God!
Your zeal to continue in a difficult task is your test of love?
How are you doing?
Have you ever doubted your belives and belived your doubts.
God’s greatest gifts are given in crucibles, great testing, and we never say thanks be to God.
Peace is not the absence of problems! PEACE IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD!
No Jesus, no peace. KNOW JESUS, KNOW PEACE!
Please accept the Divine gift of peace today.
If needed read all of John 14, for the Word of God does the work of God. Think? Ponder? Consider?
Some allow their smallness to hide God’s Greatness! So what, if you are little, a no fancy name individual.
Don’t think that God needs "BIG STARS" to shine for Him to be known!
Read Luke 15: 8, it was the ministry of a little candle, and the match that lit the candle, that a woman recovered that which was lost.
A little candle exposed the dirt. The dirt was vanished, the coin found, the marriage date was set.
The dirt hid the completeness of life, a little candle shined in a dark corner, exposing the problem. When the problem was dealt with, the solution was found. Little matters.
The darker the night, the greater the light. It is not always the "STARS" that will reach into the darker corners of every day living. If we pray for the rain, there will be some mud ... in the mud life grows.
This little light of mine, I am going to let it shine! The little word HOPE becomes a big subject. We need more hope for every day living than we need hope for dying. Sometimes, dying can be easier than living. Dying is in a second, then the transition. Living is a transition that occurs over the years.
A spirit of gradualness can be deadly. It is the length of the rope that puts the sag in it. Hope can tighten the words and songs of our heart strings. Loose string make poor music.
May a renewed hope be yours this day.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
