Troup Baptist Association
Monday, September 06, 2010
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Pastoral Nuggets (September 2010)On the Way Somewhere Else
The story of life as we know it began with God creating everything. His crowning creation was mankind. God’s sole reason for creating mankind was fellowship. Then, because of sin, man fell from his state of sinless perfection. This resulted in mankind’s loss of purpose and the necessity of a Redeemer. It also resulted in the promise of thorns and thistles as a reward for mankind’s best efforts to sustain himself. The rest of the story of life is about God’s plan of restoration for fallen man.
I believe that satan subscribes to the premise: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. His tactics are the same today as they were in the beginning. His purpose is to distract and disqualify us from the purpose for which God created us. But thankfully, God does not change either. And just as he dealt with the distraction and subsequent disqualification satan caused mankind in the Garden of Eden, He deals with the distractions and disqualifications satan causes in our lives today.
I believe that in our heart of hearts, each of us realizes that we were created by God for a specific purpose. We all have a piece of sky somewhere with our names on it that we should be soaring in. It is what we were born to do. It is what cranks our tractor. It is what we are passionate about. But not many ever reach their piece of sky and soar. Why? Because satan distracts, and sometimes even disqualifies us, as we move from where we are to where God wants us.
We live in the age of instant communications. Most of us have computers & cell phones that make us readily accessible to anybody and everybody at anytime they choose. We send instant messages and e-mails. We tweet on Twitter. We have a Facebook page. If we have children, we have school, homework, ballgames, band practice, and a thousand different things vying for our attention all at once. In fact, distractions are so prevalent in our lives that somebody coined the phrase, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” However, I changed that phrase. I say it this way, “Life is what happens while you are on your way somewhere else.”
satan’s tactics worked so well in the Garden of Eden; he even tried it on Jesus when He walked this earth. But I am so thankful that Jesus knows how to work His will, even in the interruptions of life. Have you ever noticed how many miracles Jesus performed while on His way somewhere else or while being distracted or interrupted?
· In Luke 8: 41-56, Jesus was on His way to heal Jairus’ daughter when a woman with an issue of blood touched Him and was healed.
· In Luke 7: 11-17, Jesus was on His way into the City of Nain when He met a funeral procession coming out of the city. He stopped the funeral procession, touched the casket, and commanded the young man to get up – and he did! (By the way, Jesus probably was not on the funeral directors’ Christmas card list. Can’t you see a funeral director sitting down with a family to plan a funeral for a recently departed loved one? Perhaps the family asks if they can have the funeral service on Tuesday. The director tells them he will have to let them know a little later. He has to check and see where Jesus is going to be on Tuesday – ‘cause if He runs into the funeral procession, He will break the funeral up with a resurrection! J)
· In Mark 2: 1-12, while Jesus was preaching and teaching in Capernaum, four men brought their sick friend to Him and interrupted Him. They had the audacity to tear off the roof without having a committee meeting, treasurer’s report, or a business meeting!
· In Mark 10: 46, you will find where Jesus was leaving Jericho and He encountered and healed Blind Bartimaeus.
· In John chapter five, you will find where Jesus was going to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. While He was there He walked by the Pool of Bethesda. There He saw a crippled man who had waited 38 years for the water to be troubled. He was never able to get in first. Jesus healed him immediately.
· In Luke 22: 45, while on His way to Calvary, Jesus performed a miracle. In the Night of Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, He healed the centurion who was suffering from a separation disorder. Peter had just separated his ear from his head with a sword!
And on and on I could go, but I think the message is clear. satan’s tactic is to distract and disqualify us so we cannot fulfill the purpose for which God created us. Jesus’ purpose is to be in those distractions and disqualifications restoring us to the Father.
I am thankful that in my life, while on my way somewhere else, whenever satan distracts and sometimes even disqualifies me, God is always there to restore me.
As a young man, I was living in life’s fast lane on my way to hell with the pedal to the metal. I was distracted by a friend one Sunday who let me borrow his bass guitar amplifier with the understanding that I would attend church with him that night. The Holy Spirit of God arrested my soul in that little church that night and gloriously saved me. My life has never been the same.
Not long afterwards, while practicing for a Christmas Play with the youth of the church (That tells you how long ago it has been!), the most gorgeous creature I had ever laid eyes on walked through the door. I married her six months later. And as of the writing of this Nugget, that was thirty-six years, four children, and seven grandchildren ago.
I served as the pastor of Roper Heights Baptist Church in West Point, Georgia for about ten years. I had a wonderful ministry there and had already decided in my mind, that if God permitted, I would retire there. I was serving on the Associational Missionary Search Committee for the Troup Baptist Association. We had decided that unless it was “a strong move of God,” we would not consider a pastor serving in an association church. We already had a man picked out. All we lacked was one reference check from his resume. You don’t have bad references on your resume. However, this one came back questionable. The more we dug the more questionable it became. The committee decided to back off. The next thing I knew, they were looking at me. Two to three weeks later, I was the new Associational Missionary for the Troup Baptist Association. The night after I was voted in I looked at Marianne and asked, “What just happened to me?”
Life is what happens on the way somewhere else. Satan distracts and disqualifies. But God is in the interruptions of our lives restoring us to the will of the Father. Wow! Ain’t it so? Ain’t it so?
Brother Aaron
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