Insights from Ministry

Have you ever seen a boxing match where one guy is in a corner, putting all of his effort into holding his gloves up? Where someone is certainly going to win the match in a matter of punches, and the defense-less boxer is overmatched in the corner?

I do. I was in Senegal and talking with a young man, lets call him Mamour. I was sharing the gospel with him, for probably the 5th or 6th time (certainly not punching him!) WE were talking and if it were a debate, I would've been getting points left and right. I asked him a question and logically, I had used his own assertions about Jesus against him. He had to either admit he was wrong in what he said, or he'd have to agree with me.

I asked him the question, and Mamour looked into the sky, and was silent. "What is he doing" I thought..."He's in a corner now, he has to agree with me that I am right." He simply said "That can not be right." He essentially suppressed the truth, and refused to answer the question.

This was a big insight into my time in Senegal. I saw that people in Senegal, in a largely Muslim country are what the Bible would call "spiritually blind" (2 Cor 4:4). Communicating the gospel was difficult in this culture, and I realized that it is because until God reveals it to them, they will be blind.

However, this got me thinking. What makes Mamour blind? And then the more stunning thought came to my mind, "What makes Matt able to see?" Why could I see the light of the gospel, but Mamour could not? Oh the humility hits hard now. God has been gracious and merciful to me to allow me to see. That is the most important thing.

Yet most of my time in my first few months on staff with CCC, I find myself seeking to box people into a corner, I mean, my job is help students encounter the living God. I am a minster of the gospel, and so I want to be good in the ministry, and serve God with all of my heart (because he has showed me great mercy and grace!). Is ministry success truly what God wants me to strive after and boast in?

I'm not sure it is. Luke 10:20. After the disciples perform miracles in Christ's name, they are jazzed about everything. They're thinking that, NOW they can really please Jesus. But Jesus warns them not to boast in their ministry,

"Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Jesus wants us to rest in his grace rather than his calling to do his work. His work is important, but if that is where I find my identity, my security in life, then I will forget about his grace, his gospel, which is "the power of God unto salvation." (Rom 1:16). His grace IS the power for ministry, and that is what he wants us to rest in.