I had started a blog w/ Xanga but for some reason just found it difficult to maintain. Not necessarily maintain how it looked, although that was confusing at times, but maintain logging in and actually adding substance of any kind. A friend of ours has a blog with this site and seems to do fairly well keeping up with it; so I thought I would model after him. We'll see how this goes.
I've a week before I take the ordination exam in Wadsworth. I've studied and worked very hard. I've taken two college level courses and I'm in the middle of another (which I'm terribly behind in). I'm finding the courses to help me with studying for ordination. It's forming me and molding me; I like it in some ways and in others I'm quite bothered. I find I like the discipline it's cultivating to get through this process. The material studied so far has been good and beneficial to a life poured out in ministry and service to God and His people.
I guess the part I've liked least is how few "normal" folks in vocational ministry there are. It's really bizarre how many unoriginal folks who fancy themselves cutting edge, creative, engaging, relevant (YIKES) and original. I'm sorry, but put yourself back in the wrapper and wait awhile before we unwrap your sorry self. It proves stereotypes exist for a reason and there IS a reason why so many find the church irrelevant, intolerable, needlessly boring, and yes, sadly, selfish and cruel. I'm watching who is leading our churches and it not so much repulses me as much as disgusts and disheartens me.
Although, I have met a few that are truly gifted, excited, passionate, authentic, truly in love with Jesus, doctrinal balanced, theologically solid, intelligent, relevant . . . blah blah blah. So, let's not give up all hope. Besides, it's not my church; it's not my body; these aren't my children; they're God's church, body, children. He calls and anoints whom he wants.
I like what A.B. Simpson writes: "Christ has overcome for us every one of our four terrible foes: Sin, Sickness, Sorrow, Satan. He has borne our sin, and we may lay all, even including our sinfulness itself, on Him. He has borne our sickness, and we may detach ourselves from our old infirmities and rise into His glorious life and strength. He has borne our sorrows, and we should not even carry a care, but rejoice evermore and even glory in tribulations. And He has conquered Satan for us, too, and left him nailed to the cross, spoiled and dishonored, a shadow of himself. And now we need only claim His full atonement and assert our victory, and so [overcome] him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). Beloved, are we overcoming sin? Are we overcoming sickness? Are we overcoming sorrow? Are we overcoming Satan? Fear not, though the strife be long; Faint not, though the foe be strong; Trust thy glorious Captain's power; Watch with Him one little hour, Hear Him calling, "Follow Me, I have overcome for thee." It's not about what we look like or our particular personality; it's about Jesus doing the work through us as we abide in Him and His ways.
