Its all over

At our last church board meeting I talked about reviewing  this past years work of the deacons – so that they will be accountable. It passed well except for one deacon. The same one that we had trouble with about a month ago. He really did not want to be accountable for his work. Saying that he does his ministry for Jesus…… I would not step down from my view of being accountable. I told the deacons that this would also be a good time for them to speak to me about my ministry. There was a deadlock, so I said that we have a problem. We all tried to get him to acknowledge that it wasen’t such a bad thing, that we find accountability all over in the Bible – but to no avail. I told him not to take a decision before a week, not to rush but to take time to think. The following Sunday I asked him to tell me after the meeting when we would meet, that I would like to talk to him. He left Church without giving me a date. He did not come in that evening (he usually does). He did not call me to give me a date when we could meet but he came to the church two days later. I was busy I could not receive him – so we made a rendez-vous for the next day. When we finally met we spoke for about an hour. He was very calm but had not changed his mind. So he resigned of all his functions. He was not mad or anything like that. He was very open and honest about not wanting to be evaluated. We prayed and shook hands – there was nothing I could do – his ears were not open. Later in prayer I thanked the Lord for the way things had worked out – God sometimes does things in surprising ways and this is one of them.

Sometimes you never know why.

Sometimes you never know why things happen, but you understand better AFTER the fact. I received a call from a person I did not know, they were looking for a Minister for a funeral service. Although I did not know the people and that they lived about 50 miles away, I said “yes”. Two days before the funeral I had a flat tire on my way home and I noticed that all my tires were really in bad shape, they had a lot of milage on them. I thought that I would get some new ones down the road. When time came for the service, the weather was terrible and the traffic – bumper to bumper. It took almost two hours to get there and another two to come back. I was wondering why did these people chose me out of all the ministers around especially since I lived so far away. The funeral went well and I really took time to spread the Gospel. I was given an envelope with a warm “thank you so much”. Later when I opened it there was $500 in cash!!!! I just couldn’t believe it – that’s a lot of money. When I told my wife, she praised the Lord and reminded me that I had to buy four new tires and the Lord had provided….. She was absolutely right – Amen! Sometime you never know why somethings happen. Often its the Lord providing your needs through other people. There is also a lesson to learn: Never refuse to help people if you really can.