Pray for our mission team as they work at Laurel Mission in Kentucky this week. It will be a challenging time with the recent passing of Rev. Titus Boggs and with the rains from tropical storm Lee.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Pastor's Penpoint - "Preparing ... not Planning" - September 2011
James 4: 13-16. "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'
Is James telling us not to plan? Yes and no. James' warning is important to leaders in that leaders are to plan for their organizations but not to plan for their own lives. Does this mean that we are not to establish our 10-year plans for our lives? Yes. James' advice is that if we, as individuals, want to do something, then we should ask God to wish it for us rather than for us to wish it ourselves. The reason for this is that when a person sets out to accomplish his personal will for his life he negates the opportunities that God provides. This is evident in the lives of people who sought their own success and achieved it, yet comment that they feel like something is missing. Contrast this with the people who seem fulfilled in what they are doing and who tell people they would not have predicted a few years earlier that they would be doing what they are doing or going where they are going. The difference between the two types of people is that the first is planning and the second is preparing.
What's the difference between planning and preparing? Planning is deciding what you will do and preparing is becoming ready to do what you might be called to do.
Did Moses 'plan' to tend sheep for 40 years? Did Saul 'plan' to join the very Christians that he persecuted? Think about how Moses' tending sheep prepared him to lead the Israelites from Egypt. Moses argued with God and pleaded with God not to call him to this task. Can you imagine Moses talking to his father-in-law and saying how a few years before parting the Red Sea that he would not have believed that he would do what he did? Can you imagine Paul meeting his pre-conversion friends on the road and commenting to them how well his personal career plan was going? It is a common refrain from folk that if someone told them a few years earlier that they would be doing what they're doing now they wouldn't have believed it. But, using hindsight it is easy to see how our past experiences have prepared us to serve God in where He has placed us.
In the coming months, those who have stepped forward in leadership at Mt. Olivet will be preparing for the plan God will put before us. The Nominating Committee will convene and prayerfully discern who God has called to leadership, the Commissions will meet to prepare the various calendars of activities and work that needs to be done, and the Administrative Board will meet in November to prepare a plan based on how we believe God is calling this church to serve in ministry in the years to come.
As we prepare for our God's plan for our church, please join us in preparing for how God is planning for you individually as well. ~Pastor Todd
Is James telling us not to plan? Yes and no. James' warning is important to leaders in that leaders are to plan for their organizations but not to plan for their own lives. Does this mean that we are not to establish our 10-year plans for our lives? Yes. James' advice is that if we, as individuals, want to do something, then we should ask God to wish it for us rather than for us to wish it ourselves. The reason for this is that when a person sets out to accomplish his personal will for his life he negates the opportunities that God provides. This is evident in the lives of people who sought their own success and achieved it, yet comment that they feel like something is missing. Contrast this with the people who seem fulfilled in what they are doing and who tell people they would not have predicted a few years earlier that they would be doing what they are doing or going where they are going. The difference between the two types of people is that the first is planning and the second is preparing.
What's the difference between planning and preparing? Planning is deciding what you will do and preparing is becoming ready to do what you might be called to do.
Did Moses 'plan' to tend sheep for 40 years? Did Saul 'plan' to join the very Christians that he persecuted? Think about how Moses' tending sheep prepared him to lead the Israelites from Egypt. Moses argued with God and pleaded with God not to call him to this task. Can you imagine Moses talking to his father-in-law and saying how a few years before parting the Red Sea that he would not have believed that he would do what he did? Can you imagine Paul meeting his pre-conversion friends on the road and commenting to them how well his personal career plan was going? It is a common refrain from folk that if someone told them a few years earlier that they would be doing what they're doing now they wouldn't have believed it. But, using hindsight it is easy to see how our past experiences have prepared us to serve God in where He has placed us.
In the coming months, those who have stepped forward in leadership at Mt. Olivet will be preparing for the plan God will put before us. The Nominating Committee will convene and prayerfully discern who God has called to leadership, the Commissions will meet to prepare the various calendars of activities and work that needs to be done, and the Administrative Board will meet in November to prepare a plan based on how we believe God is calling this church to serve in ministry in the years to come.
As we prepare for our God's plan for our church, please join us in preparing for how God is planning for you individually as well. ~Pastor Todd
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)