Serving God for 50 years

How do people know that they are supposed to become pastors? For James Hill, it was a message from God. Hill, who recently retired from First Baptist Church in Graham, Texas, told his story to The Graham Leader:

'...at the age of 13, I had gone to bed, and I couldn’t go to sleep. I just knew God was dealing with me about answering His call to the ministry. About midnight, I went to my mom and dad’s room and woke them up and told them what God was telling me. They called my pastor, and he came over that night.'

When Hill told his parents and pastor that God was calling him to be in the ministry, they all had the same reaction — praise God. A week later, Hill went in front of his church and announced that he would be following God into the ministry.

Coincidentally (or not), Hill's wife Betty was told by God when she was 13 that she was going to marry a preacher and teach. In addition to marrying a preacher, Betty was a teacher for 38 years.

When God speaks to you, it is to you

In "Starting Well: Building a Strong Foundation for a Lifetime of Ministry," one of the authors shares an interesting anecdote about faithfulness and responding to God, related to a small group that he had recently joined:

After the first month or so, the group began to grow. About three months into the group, there were about 10 or 12 people attending. It was around this time that God gave me a 'faithfulness test.' While I was hurrying to get ready to go to the group, I felt that God showed me a picture in my mind's eye of what He wanted to do during the ministry prayer time at the end of the meeting. In this little vision, I saw and heard what God was doing with the others and I saw myself leading this prayer time. It was very vivid. It was also one of the first times that I had ever received a word picture from God like this. I got to the group a couple of minutes early and 'interrupted' the prayer preparation that I had seen and what I thought it meant. I left out the part about me leading the ministry time. The leaders of the group encouraged this kind of participation from the group members so they weren't put off by what I shared.

At the end of the teaching time, the leader of the group shared a part of the word picture that I had shared with him and asked us to respond to God. We all tried to respond to God and waited for God to release the Holy Spirit's power. Nothing happened. Around this time, I snuck a quick glance at the leader, who was looking right at me. Inside I thought, well so much for that idea. I felt a little embarrassed. Just at that point, I heard a voice inside my head say, 'I asked you to lead this time, not the leader of the group.' I knew at that point that I had to respond to this voice. I broke the silence of the group and shared what I thought I had just heard. I shared that I felt a little unsure and insecure about what I was doing but I felt that I needed to take a risk and go for it. I lead the group in prayer and waited. God responded. Exactly what I had seen in the word picture happened. I was a little overwhelmed.

That's an interesting "faithfulness test." I'm sure that the author has experienced more tests that have stretched him even further.

How to stop worrying

Every so often I post material from my church. Last week's sermon, "How to Stop Worrying," was really useful. Here's what our pastor recommends:

* Worry is defeated as we change our focus.

* Focusing on God.

* Talking to God.

* Trusting in God.

* Worry is defeated as we change our thinking.

* Take every thought captive in the name of Jesus.

* We are not God. We are not in control.

* Worry is defeated as we change our responses.

* The promise of peace.

The Bible passage that was emphasized during the sermon was Philippians 4:4-9. It's an excellent passage that helps us reorient our focus.

The death of a child bringing glory to God

On. pp. 137-138 of "Starting Well: Building a Strong Foundation for a Lifetime of Ministry," there is a sad story about a man who was a pastor and had a sick daughter. He had heard from God, who said that He was going to use the man's daughter to bring glory to His name. The daughter died.

...God uses situations, like his daughter's death, to shape his leaders. God was shaping him. He said that on the day she died, he remembered something that we had said in September about responding to God in a crisis. He chose to go deep with God. He knows that God is with him in the pain. God is providing strength for him. He is experiencing God's love in a new way.

At the end of our conversation, he said one thing that I'll never forget. He said, 'God was right when He said that He was going to receive glory through my daughter. At the time that God told me that, I thought He was talking about healing my daughter. I didn't realize that God was talking about my response to Him in this situation. My choosing to embrace the pain and to embrace God (going deep with God) is the means God is using to receive glory. My response in this situation is speaking louder than any words I've ever preached about God.' We embraced again and I was deeply moved.

This story is about the power of perspective. This precious pastor chose to embrace God and learn about Him. The situation that the pastor and his family are facing together is tragic and it hurts. He said that he (and his family) were still in the process of grieving her loss. We don't understand why God allows certain things to happen. But when we face crisis situations or difficult and challenging situations, we must respond. We can go deep into God or we can turn from Him.

This story reminds me of my friends, Tom and Deb Henderson, who lost their son Ian this year. I have heard stories of people finding God through seeing their response to the tragic situation.

Hindrances to hearing God

On p. 94 of "Starting Well: Building a Strong Foundation for a Lifetime of Ministry," authors Richard Clinton and Paul Leavenworth cite three major hindrances and two additional hindrances to our hearing God:

1. Unbelief -- an unwillingness to trust God and His ability to come through on His promises.

2. An undeveloped spirit -- a lack of sensitivity to the Spirit based in a dependence upon sight rather than faith.

3. A spirit of deafness -- an inability to hear because of unforgiveness in our lives toward self, others, and/or God. Unforgiveness can provide Satan an inroad into our lives for "torment."

The two additional hindrances to our hearing God are:

4. A callused conscience -- a lack of moral sensitivity because of sin and rationalization.

5. Neglect -- an inability to hear because we are not spending time with God.

This list originally comes from chapters 3-4 of Larry Lea's book "The Hearing Ear."

Learning how to hear the voice of God

In my Focus of a Warrior men's group, we currently are reading a book called "Starting Well: Building a Strong Foundation for a Lifetime of Ministry."

There's an entire chapter on hearing and obeying the voice of God. The authors outline on pp.87-92 six basic steps in learning how to hear the voice of God:

1. We need to want to hear the voice of God.
2. We need to get to know Christ through the reading and studying of the word of God.
3. Consistently obey the clear teaching of the Bible.
4. Learn to meditate on the word of God.
5. Learn to discern the Spirit.
6. We need to step out in faith when we are reasonably sure that we have heard from God.

It can be tough for me to step out in faith, yet I find that when I do, my world gets reconciled.

The religion of "B.C."

I always enjoyed the comic strip "B.C." by Johnny Hart. I also enjoyed the "B.C." video game that I played on my cousin's Commodore 64 growing up, although it was a little boring just rolling along on the stone wheel.

I didn't realize, though, the religious influence that Johnny Hart infused into his comic strip. A Religion News Service article includes a bit of the background:

'He wanted people to know that God had a sense of humor,' said his daughter Perri Hart. 'He really always felt that this was what he was called to do.'

Johnny Hart's widow and daughter have compiled the religion-themed "B.C." comics into a new collection, "I Did It His Way."