Someone came up to Manny Carlos years ago when he visited his office at our Every Nation Building at the Fort. When he got there, he chided, “I’d like to be in your position, in this office at this time.”
What he saw is the present. He didn’t see the years Manny labored, toiled, suffered, strained and travailed to be to where he is today. He didn’t experience all that Manny experienced and what God led him through to get to where he is.
In the days of video podcasts and churches on the web, sometimes being in ministry may look so ‘cool’ and ‘chic’.
It is actually opposite to what Paul experienced.
In 2 Corinthians 2:6, he tells us,
“If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.”
“The afflictions of a Christian minister are designed by God to achieve the comfort and salvation of his flock. All pastoral afflictions are graciously designed to make us rely on God and not ourselves. And therefore our afflictions prepare us to do the one thing most needful for our people – to point them away from ourselves to the All-Sufficient God. In this alone is consolation and salvation.” – John Piper.
While this is not a call to suffering, this is however a reminder to the cost to discipleship and call to follow Christ’s call… whatever it takes!
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