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When Promises Are Broken

Dr. I. David Byrd July 1, 2019

 

“If a man makes a promise to the LORD or says he will do something special, he must keep his promise. He must do what he said”

Numbers 30:2(NCV)

We have spent the first six months of 2019 unpacking the many promises of God. We’ve seen the grace and mercy He provides to us day by day. We’ve seen that we can depend on His promises. We’ve search scripture to confirm His promises. Yet, doubt, disappointment or disillusion creep in when we think He has not fulfilled His promise to us. This month we pause, turn the spotlight, flip the script, reframe the focus to explore the promises we have made to God and ask, “Can He depend on the promises we have made to Him?”

When you give your word, you’re putting your honor on the line. You’re implying that others can trust you because you have integrity. Have you ever considered how God hears the fulfillment of your promises to Him –

I’m willing to offer a belief in you generally, but without specifics attached to it. If what you are asking is too hard for me to do, you’ll understand if I avoid it. I will sacrifice for others as long as it does not affect my own self-interest as I face life’s daily events. I studied your Word and used my intellect to discern all that was right and wrong with it. Besides, it was written by imperfect men. I ignore the parts that don’t make sense or make me uncomfortable. I’ll proclaim my allegiance to you by judging people on the parts that don’t inconvenience me. I’m willing to love those who are like me but as your Word says, I’m required to love my neighbor not those others. I’m not a minister so, at my own discretion, I will tell others about the Good News. I asked you to alleviate that situation and you told me “your grace is sufficient”; I know you understand that’s not quite going to cut it. 

 

Sound crazy? Before you too quickly dismiss this and while you may not audibly say these things to God, have you not conveyed these words to Him by your words and actions? God expects all true believers to be His emissaries. One day we will all have to stand before the Creator and answer the question, did we take Him at His Word and keep our promise?

 

The most basic promise of most believers is to serve Him. Serving is the obligation to love Him. John 14:15 defines loving Him as keeping His commandments. There is a direct link between His commandments and His promises. They are our reward for a life of faith, belief, and devotion. When we prioritize, pick or choose which commandment to focus on, we open the door for the enemy to get into our heads. My friend says, “If the enemy can cause us to doubt one promise from God to us, then over time that will cascade into uncountable other questions creeping into our heads and causing more doubt.”

Today I pose a set of questions that will allow you to unpack how well you have kept your promises to Him. Grab a cup of coffee, tea or your favorite beverage. Find a quiet space to work through them. You can choose how honest to be with yourself in your answers. This is between you and God. These questions are not designed to challenge you from my own perspective. It is the Word of God, the Word that Christ committed to His Church, and the Word that we are commissioned to defend and proclaim. The Word that can keep the Church strong and pure if we believe it and obey it. We convey our promises to Him by our actions and our deeds. Our actions should seek to please God, not have God please us. Special thanks to Chuck Bengochea and Tim Donoho for allowing me to integrate some of their questions with my own:

 

1. What real sacrifices have you made for Christ? The operative word is sacrifices. Not what have you done for Christ, but what have you truly sacrificed. Webster defines sacrifice as, “forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim”

 

2. What pain have you suffered for God? List 3 examples

 

3. List three significant gifts that you have given to God that forced you to change your lifestyle for at least three months.

 

4. If you knew you were going to die soon, what legacy would you leave behind that would benefit the body of Christ?

 

5. Have you ever been so hungry for the Word of God that you couldn’t sleep until you had meditated on it for a while?

 

6. What does it look like to “Seek God with all of your heart”? What changes would you have to make?

 

7. Do you know God well enough that He could brag on you if He wanted to? What would He say?

 

8. Learning to fully surrender to God is a journey; being willing to release your families, your financial future, and your health can be very difficult. Where are you on that journey? What do you still hold onto tightly and why? What do you think would be the outcome if you fully released that part of your life to God?

These are brutal questions for some. For others, these will be the most difficult questions that we have to answer in demonstrating your promise to God. Some of you simply won’t attempt to answer because the spaces for answers might be blank. I pray your first response will be to drop to your knees and join me in asking God to forgive us for not offering him our best.

Processing your answers will set you on a journey. You will find or awaken a depth of faith that wasn’t previously present. It is not too late to fulfill your promise to God; start today working on doing what His Word asks you to do and watch the blessings of the Lord come. E-mail me the challenges, roadblocks, and detours you experience on this journey so that I may pray with you and encourage you as you engage, discern and make conscious choices as you walk out your destiny.

 

Father God,

 Forgive me for not always holding up my side of this covenant relationship. Use me as Your tool, not for my own purpose, but for Yours. Inspire me each day to seek out how I might truly be a worthy servant to You. Give me the opportunity to share my faith in You with others in both my words and actions. And give me the courage to do it boldly, without fear of what the results might be, knowing that it is solely under Your providence what the outcome will be.

 In Jesus name we pray, Amen

 

 

 

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Don’t Neglect Your First Ministry


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REVIVE, RENEW, REFRESH, RECONNECT

We in the ministry spend considerable time with young people or Youth Workers at the expense of our families.  This simple post is designed to remind you to not neglect taking time to get away with your family.  Take time to rev up your family relationship, read, rest and recharge.  (Oh yes, and let your wife shop)  Before you can be a blessing to anyone else, your own home must first be blessed.  Home ministry is the God-given requirement we have as husbands or wives to love our spouses as God loves us.  If we are parents, it includes our role to love and raise our children according to His truth.  The Bible commands us to invest in our spouse and children by nurturing them, helping them develop intellectually, physically, relationally, and spiritually.

A Husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25)

Wives are to submit to their husbands “as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22)

Parents are to raise godly children to be the next generation of those who love the Lord with all their hearts (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4)

The scriptural order of priorities is God, spouse, children and then others.

 

Thanks for reading

 

Stay encouraged, stay engaged and don’t give up on our young people.  It’s not their desire to fall so hold them up.

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Wilderness Journeys Perfect Your Faith To Move Forward

Thank you to those who have supported me during this time of silence and transition.  A good friend asked me “what did you do wrong to be silenced?”, to which I replied not that kind of silence.  It is the silence you experience when God is moving you to a new place and new assignment that causes you to stop, reflect on the past, review His promises for your life and recall the provisions He has provided when you were entering into other places that stretched you beyond your current situation.  When God instructs, prepare to move forward in a way that requires your faith to be strong.  I have been silent on this blog for the past four weeks out of obedience to the guiding of the Holy Spirit.  A preparation process for moving forward.  The New Urban is not about showing hopeless kids hope; it’s about changing attitudes of kingdom building among the adults and young adults charged with leading our youth through this transitional state to adulthood.  It’s about a collective vision of moving young people forward, not a siloed classification of young people.  The Bible teaches that all have sinned and come short of the glory.  All need him, not just the poor, not just those experiencing challenging circumstances but everyone.  I truly believe God is moving Youth Ministry to a new understanding of faith, vision and  equipping of young people.

Faith can be idle when circumstances are calm.  But, when adversity hits then our faith is exercised.  Like muscles, our faith grows stronger when exercised.  I have learned that faith states the dream, examines all options, uses all resources, removes all nonessentials and then moves forward.  I now understand what it means to say – “a man able to see in faith sees things that do not yet exist in the natural realm and sees the potential to bring to pass something marvelous.”

In the Bible, the Hebrew  word  forward is about taking a journey that has many stages to it.  In Exodus 14: 13 – 15 the people had to first stand still and then go forward.  This has been an incredible journey the Lord has me on to this point.  I walk in expectancy of all that He has for me going forward.

 

I invite you to also move forward in your relationship with Jesus Christ, in your ministry and in exalting God, engaging unbelievers and edifying the believers:

F – represents the future.  Things do not happen by chance, they happen according to His will.  Don’t be distracted by circumstances seen with the natural eye.   (Prov. 19:21)

O – signifies ordinary people. God uses ordinary people to accomplish His will.  Throughout history it wasn’t about titles, degrees or pedigree – just ordinary people.  In Romans 16 Paul mentions 24 people used,  Luke 10:1 speaks of 70 that went out 2 by 2.

R – stands for resiliency.  The Bible tells us that “a man who holds his ground can become strong like the oak” (Prov 24:10).  As Christian leaders we are to cultivate our ability to endure under pressure, rise after failure and push ahead when others quit.  Spurgeon said, “by perseverance, the snail reached the ark”.

W –  represents wholehearted prayer. Prayer is an intense dialogue with diety. It is your decision to personally pursue and seek guidance from the Lord.  It is an intense, continual, wholehearted seeking of relationship and conversation.

A – indicates the attitude of faith and courage that fuels your moving forward to fulfill the vision God gave you.   Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the mastery of it.  You must be able to see your vision, say it and seize it.  You must have faith to see what God is doing.

R – stands for remember. Looking back over your life, recall what God has done for you.  Even as you look back over your test and trials, you will see where God has brought you through.  That which seemed like there was no way out, no solution or now path forward . . . look at you now.  And if you are in the midst of a storm now, look around and remember – “you have been here before.”

D – signifies decisions.  Decisions determine your DESTINY. Every decision in your life has a consequence; some positive and some negative.  When we take matters into our own hands, that is when God allows us to struggle in the darkness created by our decisions.  To move forward, learn from wise men’s (and women’s) lifestyles and decision making processes.  Don’t be afraid to seek wise counsel. (This is the biggest mistake most young leaders make – The I Know It All Syndrome).  Don’t take my word, read Prov. 1:5; 8:33; 9:8,9.

 

Your path forward belongs to the Lord .  Be confident and stay conscience . . .

 

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Is The Right To Vote A Racial Entitlement? Oh How Far Have We Moved From God

Scripture teaches us we are to view  government through the lens of scripture, attempting to persuade them to make laws consistent with biblical standards of morality.   I know I have readers who are Republican and who are Democrats and I don’t want to alienate any of you.  Preaching on politics is just too divisive.  But I like Paul will challenge you, as Christians, to faithfully discharge your responsibilities before God on issues of  justice.

 

             “I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for i did not shrink       

                                     from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26-27)

 

Scripture  point to believers who spoke out on behalf of government doing what was right.  Jesus taught, in Matthew 22:21, about the distinction between the things that belong to Caesar and the things that are God’s.  Daniel, in Daniel 4:27 called out Nebuchadnezzar to hear his council and break off his sin by practicing righteousness.  Verse 49 says he was regularly at the king’s court.  Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 29:7 told the Jewish exiles in Babylon to seek the welfare of the city because in it they would find their welfare, the laws and policies consistent with the Word of God.  Joseph oversaw Pharaoh’s great wealth.  Moses demanded freedom for the people of Israel – “let my people go” (Exodus 8:1).   Nehemiah orchestrated the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.  Queen Esther had influence on the king in changing the “policy” that were created.  Several of the prophets witnessed to the moral standards and requirements of treatment of people and how to conduct themselves.  John the Baptist rebuked Herod for the things he had done (Luke 3:19).  In Acts 24:25 Paul spoke to Felix about “righteousness and self control and the coming judgment”.

 

 

Today I am honored to bring to you a man who has been in the fight for justice for a long time.  A man who has stood on the front lines, the soup line, the unemployment lines and the prayer lines in an effort to bring justice to every man. I thank him for inviting me to be a guest on his TV program this Saturday night and for  joining the conversation today.

 

 

 

GUEST POST: REVEREND  JESSE JACKSON SR.

Weekly Commentary | Chicago Sun-Times

In oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act, Justice Antonin Scalia slandered the act as a “racial entitlement,” arguing, “whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political processes.” So, the right-wing justice intimated, the conservative “Gang of Five” on the Supreme Court had every right to step in and overrule the 98 senators who voted unanimously to reauthorize the act (including the senators of every state and jurisdiction required to seek pre-clearance of any changes in their voting laws).

The justice proved once more that he is not a neutral arbiter of the Constitution but a right-wing activist with an agenda to enforce. Deference to the popularly elected Congress and president is, apparently, only when they do what Scalia considers to be proper. When they choose to reauthorize a Voting Rights Act that has protected the rights of millions and transformed America’s democracy since its passage in 1965, Justice Scalia thinks the court should negate their act, since he somehow considers protection of the right to vote a “racial entitlement.”

Scalia’s racial taunt has received the scorn it deserves. It makes more sense to apply his reasoning to the real “racial entitlements” that still scar our nation.

For example, a recent study by Brandeis University revealed a stunning increase in the wealth gap between whites and blacks in America. The gap tripled between 1984 and 2009. In 2009, the median wealth (the difference between what you own and what you owe) of a white household was $113,149. The median wealth of a black household was $5,677.

Why the difference? The study found five contributing factors.

First, whites were more likely to be homeowners than blacks, often because their families are more able to help with down payments. Black families who worked for 200 years in slavery and 100 years in segregation had less ability to accumulate wealth.

Second, whites made more income than blacks, even for comparable work.

Third, blacks are twice as likely to be unemployed as whites, and, with less of a family cushion to rely on, more likely to deplete their savings when unemployed.

Fourth, whites are five times more likely to inherit money, and their inheritance averages 10 times as much. Again, this surely is in part a legacy of our scarred history.

Finally, whites are more likely to have a college education than blacks. Blacks are more likely to find advanced training difficult to finance. They are more likely to graduate with debt, and their average debt on graduation is greater.

The wealth gap is, in Scalia’s words, a “racial entitlement.” Only this entitlement favors whites, not blacks. As Scalia wrote, “whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political processes.” That’s why it took a Civil War to end slavery, and to amend the Constitution to guarantee equal protection of the laws. It took the sacrifice of lives and limbs in a civil rights movement to end segregation, and to pass the Voting Rights Act to provide minorities with an equal right to vote. On economic inequality, the promise of 40 acres and a mule for freed slaves was broken. Dr. King marched on Washington to redeem a “canceled check” marked “insufficient funds.”

If Scalia is right, “the normal political processes” won’t solve this racial entitlement. Nor, for that matter, will the right-wing Gang of Five on the Supreme Court.

Keep up with Rev. Jackson and the work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition at www.rainbowpush.org.
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Maybe The Unity In The Body Of Christ Is Not Important To Youth Workers

I was recently asked what is the Biblical basis for the concept of The New Urban and how do we know it when we see it and how do we live it out.  In framing my answer to this person the narrative of the conversation moves from games, gimmicks and entertainment of young people to authentic collective ministry focused on equipping young people for the pressures and challenges they are facing day to day.

First and foremost the Bible teaches us that we are no longer separated and are all in the same spirit.  Ministry to young people is not urban, suburban or rural; its Jesus Christ crucified.  And our unity is an integral part of that dialogue.

 

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.  For the body is not one member, but many.  

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

 

Second, the equipping of young people is also about our own walk with Christ, for how can we convince young people to live a life that we ourselves are not willing to live.  If we never engage with people unlike ourselves we plant an image of divisiveness in our young people that is not the reality of the world in which they exist.

I believe as the Body of Christ that we are “to present our bodies a living sacrifice” in honor and praise to God (Romans 12:1-2; Eph. 1:6), to reflect the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in our lives, to evangelize the world by the preaching and sharing of the Gospel (Acts 1:8) and to equip Believers with God’s Word to face the struggles of this world.

 

Third, people have differing skills; ministries have different talents and resources.  Working together enables our varying gifts to work together to advance the gospel to young people.   We must do ministry with young people together, not just conferences and meetings of youth workers.

Jesus Christ has given different ministerial gifts to the Church For the perfecting of the saints .  . . for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-16) and it’s through our unity not separation that we bring young people to the full understanding of the gospel. The ultimate mission of the Church is winning souls to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel.

 

The individual looked at me with a blank stare on their face.  He said, but I don’t get it, what events should we do first?  I replied, before you focus on events lets spend some time in prayer and ask God to make sure our hearts are pure.  That the life we live be pleasing to Him.  Ask Him to help us to view everyone as equal, to not think of ourselves as above others and open our hearts and minds to how we work together with people of all types.  That our walk be an example to those under our care and we point them to Christ not us.  Let’s pray for the issues our young people are facing.

He then said, now what? How about we go visit someone at a church outside your circle of influence and let’s spend some time with them in prayer about the issues their young people are facing.

He replied, ok let’s hurry up and get through this, I need to setup the dodgeball game for the kids tonight. I wondered how do you tie it to the Word of God?  “Oh we don’t really, the kids like it and it’s how we keep them engaged.  We’ll do a quick lesson at the end.”

Really

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Spiritual Formation for Motley Crews by Gabriel Salguero

Last week on our consciousness cruise, we metaphorically stopped on the corner of Praise & Judgment to refuel.  As we left that station headed for the ramp to get back on the highway; through a series of detours and events, I was blessed to meet Pastor Gabriel Salguero.  Gabriel is the Senior Pastor of The Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, a multi-ethnic church in New York.  I had an opportunity to speak with him to discuss what God is doing in his neck of the woods.  He has given me permission to share with you his view on Spiritual Formation for Motley Crews.  He discussed his belief that urban churches are presented with unique opportunities to model the rich diversity of the kingdom of God as seen in Isaiah 11 and Rev 7:9.  I am honored to share his words today with all of you.

This continues our mission of continuing to broaden your understanding and consciousness of  The New Urban.  Bringing you this view from multiple perspectives from around the country.  Enjoy and please comment below.

 

 

 

GUEST POST: PASTOR GABRIEL SALGUERO 

These days “discipleship” and “Spiritual Formation” are ubiquitous terms. Blogs, books, conferences, and conversations all strive to respond to the question, “How do we nurture Christ-like disciples in our generation?” While I know well that there is some great writing and teaching being done in this area my hope is that my musings as a “young” (I’m 39 and not sure what young is anymore) urban pastor of a multi-ethnic church restart can in some way contribute to this important conversation. I am of the conviction that spiritual formation and diversity are deeply interrelated.

The Lamb’s in New York is the congregation my wife and I lead. The Lamb’s had its most recent restart in 2007 when we relocated from Times Square to the intersection of SoHo, Chinatown, Loisaida (a Spanish term given to this part of the Lower East Side). The average age of the new members is around 28, and we have some older Chinese and Hispanic immigrants whose average age is between 55-60. In addition, we have graduate students worshipping with folks who barely have any formal schooling. The Lamb’s has two worship services; one in English-Mandarin and the other in English-Spanish. In short, it’s a real motley crew. Honestly, we are probably violating the majority of rules and expectations for church-planters and church-restarters. I am often tempted to pursue the homogenous unit principle (HUP) as I see many of my dear friends growing in numbers at much faster rates. Still we are, at least for the present, pursuing a road less traveled. One main reason for pursuing this course is discipleship.

Many of the NY church-planting successes used as models across the country are paradigms of young urban professionals (Yuppies) that worship together. Indubitably, there is much to celebrate in reaching young urbanites. Still, a challenge remains. While some number of these congregations has some spattering racial-ethnic diversity they often lack economic and class diversity; not to mention leadership diversity. I do NOT believe all congregations have to be multi-ethnic and multi-class. However, I do believe that urban churches are presented with unique opportunities to model the rich diversity of the kingdom of God as seen in Isaiah 11 and Rev 7:9. Beyond modeling the ecclesiology of Pentecost, and the early church experiment of creating a new Christ-centered community of Jews and Gentiles, diversity is essential for spiritual formation in our generation. As this new community learned to work through difference and disagreement for the sake of the cross, they were becoming disciples who learned grace in action.

How does diversity inform spiritual formation? Simply put, Christians are broadened and deepened as they worship, study, do ministry, and share life-together in community. It is across difference where the most important of Christian virtues, love, is tested. Now this has to be beyond window-dressing of doing drive-by ministry “to” and “among” the urban poor, immigrants, and the rich, racially-ethnic diversity of the global church present in urban centers. When all these demographics form a vital part of our worship community and leadership, spiritual formation takes on a richer texture. As we listen to one another across differences, our own assumptions, prejudices, and limitations are challenged by other followers of Christ. This is precisely what Christian ecclesiology is; “unity in Christ with diversity.”

In the main stream, many congregations push for assimilation and homogenization in the name of “urban missiology” and is usually said as, “Whatever it takes to reach people.” However, Christian missiology has a distinctive. Our mission is not absent from ecclesiology. What makes our mission so distinctive is that Christ calls us to embrace the other. In Scripture, this radical hospitality is “xenophilia”–not just tolerance of the stranger but love and celebration of the other. It is not telling the other, “You must be just like me for us to be in community.” The cultural and class-homogenizing impulse while often facile is not the way of the cross. Our congregations ought not to be cultural or class silos that only gather us with people who make us comfortable. Much of culture is going in the direction of echo chambers. Google+, Facebook, and Twitter accounts will be custom-made so that we only have advertisements, friends, and links that reflect our own image. Church ought not to be simply a reflection of me, my class assumptions, my favorite songs, or cultural values. No! Spiritual formation requires that the church reflect Christ not in my image, but Christ as he is in the world.

Now if we seek diversity just for diversity’s sake we’ve missed the point. The motley crew congregation is not something we pursue to be “hip” or “trendy.” We do it because it has always been at the heart of the foundation of Christ’s church. The diversity of Christ’s body teaches us to exhibit and receive grace, to be slow to speak and quick to listen, and to value every member of Christ’s body. A motley crew church helps protect us from reducing the Gospel, to our hermeneutic, our preaching, our culture, our class, or political party. Yes, for in this kaleidoscope of people we can see the multiform grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is not easy; we’ll trip all over ourselves. But we don’t do things because they’re easy. We do them because they’re right. Grace abounds.

 

 

 

Follow Pastor on twitter @salgueros

 

The Church Website is www.lambschurch.org

 

 

If you are in or near New York, Pastor invites you to join The Lamb’s this Wednesday, February 13, as they welcome the season of lent.  You can join them in the following ways:

 

1)  Ash Wednesday Prayer and Ashes

Time: 10 am – 2 pm

Location: The Lamb’s Church, 61 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002

 

2)  Joint Ash Wednesday Service at Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene: In lieu of our mid-week worship service we will be having a joint Ash Wednesday service in the Bronx at Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene.

Time: 7:30pm.

Location:Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene

971 East 227th Street

Bronx, NY 10466

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Urban Leaders – If The Lord Calls You, He Will Establish You

 

God always has a special and unique way to call each one of us into ministry.  The Lord called Jeremiah by His spirit before he was born.  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).  God chooses the way in which we are called into ministry.  Each of us has been essentially predestined to fill a particular place in the building of the Kingdom.  Everything that happens to us as ministers, from the point of birth is either directly planned by God or will definitely be used by Him to cause His will to be done.  This is part of how he establishes us.  He will open His Word to them and enable them to feed the people of God.  Jeremiah had the words of the Lord to speak to the people(Jeremiah 1:9)  Like Jeremiah our ministries must be based on God’s word and not man’s word.  We are to speak nothing but the Word we have been given from God.  The Lord set Jeremiah over the nations and kingdoms (Jeremiah 1:10).  Our promotion does not come from man but it comes from the Lord.  We will be exalted in due time after we humble ourselves.  Jeremiah was called to root out, to pull down and to destroy (Jeremiah 1:10).  We are called to preach and teach against sin and unrighteousness.  To help young people understand what it means to be separated from this world.  To teach them how to discern and make good choices as they walkout their destiny.

Whatever reservations or hesitations we have about our calling are understandable but not acceptable.  Jeremiah had several excuses, one “Lord, I cannot speak” (Jeremiah 1:6) he felt he was inferior in his ability to communicate effectively.  But the Lord will always put His words into the mouth of those He is equipping for ministry.  A second excuse was his Youth.  I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth (Jeremiah 1:6).  God replied “ Do not say; I am a youth, because everywhere I send you, you shall go (Jeremiah 1:7).  What was most important to God was his willingness to obey the word of the Lord.  His third excuse was that he was afraid to go because of the rejection that he would sense even by the expression on the people’s face.  The Lord commanded Jeremiah “do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you”.  God will give abundant grace for us to meet every fearful situation we may face.  God assures that if he calls us he will ensure we are established.

 

What hesitations do you have about your calling?  Let’s talk it out.