A Word about Paying Attention

Today I want to share a word about paying attention, as I comment on Luke 11:1-13. This passage reads:

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

I am sure we have all heard the joke about the fellow who said, I am so poor I can’t even pay attention.” He is probably a fried of the guy who said, “I am such a poor musician I can’t even play the radio.” Be that as it may, the ability to pay attention is actually an important life skill. One year a police department’s annual report listed “Inattention to Driving” as the biggest cause of traffic accidents in their jurisdiction, and that was before the advent of cell phones! No doubt the percentage of collisions caused by people not paying attention to driving has gone up in recent years.

Another area in which people need to pay attention is when they enroll in a service in the internet. Sometimes a webpage is designed such that when a person thinks they are buying a one-time service, they are actually agreeing to a subscription that will result in future charges on their credit card, whether that be done monthly, quarterly, or annually. Some folks have lost a considerable amount of money that way, because they did not pay attention to the fine print.

A Lesson about Prayer:

In our focal passage for today, Our Lord was asked to teach his disciples how to pray. That was a natural request, since the disciples were the learners, and Jesus was their teacher. We also know that on several occasions Jesus used a prayer, or a person who was praying as an object lesson, therefore the disciples knew He had some specific and strong ideas about how one should pray. 

In response, Jesus taught the disciples what we often call “The Lord’s Prayer,” although this might be a misnomer. Jesus was teaching how the disciples should pray, not how He would pray. In fact, if we want to see how Jesus prayed, we should consider the “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17. That’s why some faith groups have called the prayer in Luke 11 “the Model Prayer” or “The Family Prayer.” Regardless of what it is called, it shows us the things that God pays attention to in the lives of His followers.

A Lesson about Priorities:

First, God wants us to praise Him and to see His Kingdom advance. 

God is worthy of all the praise and honor we are capable of, and even more. Because He is all-good, all-wise, all-loving, and all-pure, we should adore Him and praise Him. We should want His ways to overcome the evil ways of the world. This is God’s highest priority, and if God pays attention to these issues, so should we!

Next, we see that God is concerned about us as people. 

God wants us to have our needs met, both our physical needs and our spiritual needs as well. Remember, Jesus said He came to give us life, but not just life. He came to give us abundant life. If God pays attention to the physical and spiritual lives of people, so should we!

Finally, in the model prayer, we see that God pays attention to trials and troubles in our lives. 

God had heard the groans of the Jews enslaved in Egypt, and He also responded to the needs of Job. He called out Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and Jesus healed the sick, made the lame to walk, and made the blind to see. If God pays attention to the troubles of people, so should we! 

A Lesson about Power:

After Jesus finished giving the disciples an example of how to pray, He took the opportunity to move on and provide a teaching on what might be a more important point. 

Yes, those who follow God need to pay attention to the same things that He does; however, as imperfect and frail human beings, it is unlikely that we will always get our prayers right. Sometimes we will be totally selfish in our prayers, and at other times we will forget to pray at all. Jesus, therefore, went on to remind us that the power in prayer doesn’t reside in us, but in God.

Jesus used a common illustration of a neighbor asking for help at midnight to underline the most important part of prayer. The power in our prayers does not consist of a specific form, or a specific set of topics, or of a specific schedule, or even a specific amount of passion. No! The power in our prayer comes from the specific God who pays attention to us!

Even though we often have to be excessively persistent in getting humans to pay attention to us, that is not necessary with God. And even though we frail and sinful humans give good things to our children (usually), we know that sometimes that isn’t true, such as in the case of child abuse. Even when we do give good things to our children, we can over-do even that. I know of a couple that would send their children to stay with the grandparents over the summer. When the kids came back home, they looked like butterballs because of how many treats they were given by their loving but doting grandparents.

God, however, gets everything right. He aways hears us, and He always gives us the right answer. Though we may feel at times that our prayers go no higher than the ceiling that is never true. God hears us. He pays attention to us, and like the best parent in the world He does the right thing for us, only better.

Personal Application:

Thank God today that He pays attention to us. Take advantage of His attention by spending time with Him and conversing with Him. God wants to fellowship with His people, and when we feel distant from God, we can be assured He isn’t the one who moved.

One last question before I close, If God pays us, should we not pay attention to Him? I think the answer to that rhetorical question is obvious, but I will give an answer anyway: of course we should! 

Every Blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Laughter

Today I want to share a word about laughter, as I comment on Genesis 18:1-15. This passage reads:

Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”

Every pastor has stories they can tell about events when if they didn’t laugh, they’d cry. Many of these seem to stem from baptisms:

One pastor was baptizing a large man in a small baptistery. He banged the man’s head against the side of the baptistery, and the man came up out of the water cursing. He was saved, but he was not yet discipled!

Another pastor was baptizing a young girl who decided to do a “cannon ball” dive into the baptistery. The choir got baptized that day as well.

Finally, a pastor and a revival speaker did a joint baptism service together. After the baptism, the pastor rushed back to change clothes for the rest of the service. After he got back into the sanctuary, he noticed his feet were hurting. He didn’t realize why until the revival speaker almost fell on the way to the pulpit to preach. The pastor had put on the evangelist’s shoes, which were one-and-a-half size smaller than his own!

As we look at our Scripture for today, we find a find a time when Sarah, the wife of Abraha, also laughed. Let’s see what this event may mean to us today. m

Maybe Sarah Laughed Out of Disbelief:

When we are intimately involved in a situation, we often grasp it well. The details to us are crystal clear and they are very important. The details to us loom as big as a mountain. One thing that pastors and chaplains have learned is that people involved in a tragedy must “tell their story” until they have finished telling it.

The reality here was that Sarah couldn’t have a child. She was too old, and Abraham was too old. It was humanly impossible. 

I remember as a pre-teen working on solving a math word problem in a group work setting that included some girls. My solution had the mother giving birth at age 70, which caused a great deal of derision on the part of the girls. Even in the 21st Century giving birth at that age is unheard of, and Sarah was two decades older than that!

The thing is, Sarah forgot something vital: Nothing is impossible with God! God made the rules by which the world works and, He can also suspend them! As Jeremiah 32:27 tells us, 

"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” 

Maybe Sarah Laughed Out of Fear:

On the other hand, it is possible that Sarah believed God. Maybe she knew God could do impossible. After all, this was obviously a family of great faith. Maybe she knew exactly what God was going to do and it scared her to death! Giving birth is hard enough for a young woman, but for a woman over 90. . . ?! This is like watching a train wreck about to happen: you’re horrified; you can’t so anything about it, but your eyes are glued to the scene.

We are often that way, too when God asks us to serve Him or when God asks us to witness for Him. Maybe, when God asks us to live for Him, we are just too frightened.

Apparently, Sarah forgot who God is:

•  God is the Great Physician.

•  God is the Good Shepherd.

•  God is the Ultimate Counselor.

•  God is the Prince of Peace.

If God wanted Sarah to have a baby, she could have it safely, and without undue difficulty. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:9: 

And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

Maybe Sarah Laughed Out of Bitterness:

There is no doubt that Sarah was bitter about her childlessness. She had no child of her own and her plan to get a child by Hagar backfired. She wanted a child so badly she could taste it so maybe she got angry with God!

Sarah as not the only person in the Bible to get angry with God. Jonah did. Job did. He did not curse God, but he was angry. The Children of Israel did on several occasions as Moses led them to Canaan. Even the great prophet Elijah did.

Many of us have also gotten angry with God. We can even see evidence of this in popular culture. For example, in the 1972 disaster movie, “The Poseidon Adventure,” Gene Hackman’s character was a minister who became angry with God because of the deaths of so many victims. 

Like we do from time to time, Sarah forgot some truths that would have helped her with her attitude. She needed to remember that God is good, loving and kind and that God is righteous and just. God never does evil and the evil that does exist is from Satan, and also from our own human sin.

Jesus Himself taught us in John 10:10 that:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Maybe Sarah Laughed Out of Resistance:

Maybe Sarah’s laugh was more of a snort. Maybe she thought, “No way Jose!” Maybe she thought, “There’s no way you are going to get me to do that!” Maybe she was looking around to see who else God was talking to. "Are you talking to me?"

Again, Sarah is not alone in resisting God: Cain resisted God. Jonah resisted God. The Rich Young Ruler resisted God. 

We also resist God 's leadership. A pastor I once knew was leading his church to reach out to their community, and to help people find their faith in God through innovative outreach ideas. Things had gotten off to a strong start until the next deacons’ meeting, in which the young pastor was told, “Preacher, if you want to go where no man has gone before, you’re going alone!”

By the way, that church is no longer open.

Sarah forgot that she was a part of God’s Plan of Redemption. She was a partner with God and she was given an opportunity to be an agent of salvation. She was offered a chance to share with God the glory of His work.

God, in His grace, has chosen to do His Holy work of salvation through people! The church is not just a civic club; what we do has eternal consequences. 1 Peter 2:5 and 9 remind us: 

“. . . you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light . . .”

Maybe Sarah Laughed Out of Joy:

Maybe Sarah was filled with the joy of what God was about to do. Maybe she was like my wife’s elementary school student who once wrote on his paper “100 A+, You Go, Billy!” 

After all, God’s glories are so big, our hearts can’t contain them, and we often burst out in to joyous songs of praise and adoration.

Like Sarah, many others in the Bible had reason to celebrate. David danced with joy at God’s victories. Mary burst out into praise after the angel told her she’d become to mother of the Savior. Simeon was so moved by seeing the baby Jesus that he cried out to God that he could now die happy.

In fact, we, too. need to get ready to laugh with joy. Revelation 5:13-14 tells us this about Heaven: 

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!" Then the four living creatures said, "Amen!" And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.

What About Us?

Why are we laughing today? 

Out of disbelief, or fear, or resentment, or resistance, or joy?

As Our Lord Himself said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear”

Every blessing, 

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Marching Orders

 

Today I want to share a word about marching orders, as I comment on Hebrews 11:8-10. This passage reads:

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 

When military units get their marching orders, their commanders will call together their staffs and initiate a process called the Military Decision Making Process, or MDMP for short. This is a detailed, painstaking, frustrating, and often torturous process by which these staff officers will develop various Courses of Action, or COAs for short, for their commanders to choose from in order to accomplish the assigned mission. The standard outcome of MDMP is the production of three separate Courses of Action which can be compared and evaluated, and, ideally, have one chosen as the COA for the unit to follow.

What about an individual? What happens when, instead of getting marching orders from an army general, a person gets marching orders from God? I think that, often, the same kind of process can take place, albeit much more informally. If a person is feeling led by God to do something,  then that person may weigh various options before making a commitment. In fact, the Bible gives us examples of three different options we might consider when given our marching orders from God.

Course of Action One:

The first course of action we might take is to renege and simply refuse our marching orders. The prime example of that in the Bible is Jonah, as we see in Jonah 1:1-3.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Jonah had the opportunity to go to the enemy of his people and his God and to preach the Good News to them. We know from other passages in his eponymous book that Jonah hated the Ninevites, and would have loved, literally, to see them burn in Hell. What he didn’t know, however, was that God was about to initiate a great revival among the Ninevites, one that would give his own people, the northern Kingdom of Israel, forty years, the time of an entire generation, to repent of their own sins and return to God.

We have no idea how the history of God’s people would have changed had Jonah whole-heartedly embraced his marching orders. He didn’t, however, and not only did he refuse them, but he also ran away in the opposite direction. By doing so, Jonah showed that he was not only a rebel, but also a coward. If he was going to tell God no, he should have at least had the intestinal fortitude to stand his ground and take his punishment like a man.

In the end, God’s will prevailed. He caused Jonah to make an amphibious landing so that he could preach the Gospel to the Ninevites. Even though he didn’t seem to put much effort into his sermon, a great revival broke out and the Kingdom of Israel was afforded a generation of time to repent. That they didn’t was not a reflection on God’s grace, but it might have been a reflection of the kind of person Jonah was in his own heart.

Course of Action Two:

A second course of action open to us is found in a parable of Jesus. This parable is found in Matthew 21:28-32, and it’s known as the The Parable of the Two Sons:

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.”

Another reaction we can have when given marching orders from God is to have a bad attitude. That’s essentially what happened in this parable. The first son refused, but then obeyed. The end result was good, but the process he took to get there was, let’s say, unfortunate. It would have been better for him had he saluted his dad and cheerfully obeyed him, but at least he obeyed, in the end.

The second son, on the other hand, also showed a bad attitude. He said, “Yes, sir!” But then he proceeded to renege just like Jonah did. In fact, he lied to his father. Alcoholic’s Anonymous has a saying which applies to him: "If what you say and what you do don’t match, then what you say is a lie, and what you do is the truth."

We must remember that God is not interested in lip service; this son’s reaction reminds me of a sign I once saw in a motor pool at Fort Bragg: "The maximum effective range of an excuse is ZERO meters."

We must not underestimate how much God prizes obedience.  As I mentioned recently, Samuel rebuked Saul’s disobedience by telling him that “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” and Jesus told us, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” 

So, in the end, the first son did what was right, but at what cost? What was the cost to his relationship with his father? What was the cost to his relationship with God? What was the cost in stress and frustration? In fear and shame and doubt? What was the cost to his father’s reputation in the community that his son would refuse his command? 

Acts 1:8 tells us that we will be witnesses for Christ, but, what kind of witnesses we will be depends largely on how we respond to God’s marching orders for our lives. Obviously, the first son’s reaction was better than either his brother’s or Jonah’s, but it was still sub-optimal. 

Course of Action Three:

A third course of action can be found in our focal passage for today and also in Genesis 12:1-4.

"The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran." 

Abraham, who was known as Abram when God gave him his marching orders, shows us a radically different course of action to take when God calls. Abraham was not a young man  when he was called, and he had a large household. He also had deep roots in Harran with much family and many friends there. God, from a human perspective audaciously, told Abram to saddle up and move out, to go to place that He would reveal to him at a later time, which is a remarkable requirement.

I can never remember an instance in my military career when a unit was directed to move without an objective to take, an assembly area to occupy, or a training area to utilize. It is just not done that way. Admittedly the Troop Leading Procedures used by the Army and the Marines do allow commanders to start their troops moving before the final plan of action has been locked down, but they will always specify a route to follow and an assembly area to occupy before starting a movement. Any commander who launches a unit on a “march to nowhere” would soon be looking for a job.

God, however, works by a different set of leadership procedures. He told Abram, “Move out,” and He expected Abram to trust Him. And, as both the Old Testament and the New Testament record, Abram did so. 

Romans 4:3 gives the final assessment of Abraham’s COA: "What does Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.'” 

Our Decision:

So, if given a choice of these three Courses of Action, what would a wise person choose? I think it is obvious. 

The only COA without a flaw is the one taken by Abraham. “It is always right to do the right thing” as one of former commander’s often said, “even when no one’s looking.” 

The right thing, of course, is to obey God with all of our heart and soul and might.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about the Mantle of Leadership

 

Today I want to share a word about the mantle of leadership, as I comment on 1 Kings 19: 15 & 16 and 19-21. This passage reads:

Then the LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." Then Elijah said to him, "Go back again; for what have I done to you? “ He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant. 

If you think that you have clicked on last’s weeks edition by mistake because the Scriptures are the same, let me put your mind at rest. We will be looking at the same passage of Scripture, but from a different perspective. 

When  we reviewed this passage last week, we highlighted the need to intentionally multiply ourselves through investing in others, which is exactly what Paul taught in 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” So, we can see that both the Old Testament and the New Testament instruct us to find the leaders whom God will use to lead the his people when we are long gone. 

Remember, none of us will live forever. We need to be like Elijah and be sensitive to God’s leading. We also need to be like Elijah and obey God when he leads. In addition, when the mantle is passed to us, we need to be like Elisha, and receive it with whole-hearted obedience, which is something we will look at today.

God's Call is Rarely Expected:

Right from the top, we can see that God’s call to leadership is usually, if not always, unexpected, and this is exactly the case here with Elisha. 

Elisha was occupied plowing a field, taking care of his family’s business. He also had his hands full as well. I have never tried to control 24 oxen, and I really don’t want to try! The point to observe here is that God’s call doesn’t come when we are ready; no, God’s call comes when He is ready. The saying that “God doesn’t call the equipped but that He equips the called” surely applies here. In fact, it seems to be a constant principle in the history of God’s leadership of His people.

Moses, for example, was not called leadership when he was a prince of Egypt, but when he was a shepherd on the backside of the desert. Samuel was called while he was in service to the High Priest, and David was tending sheep. Nehemiah was a servant to a foreign king in exile, as was Daniel. Peter, James, and John were fishing, and Matthew was collecting taxes. Saul was on the way to persecute the church. None of them were idly twiddling their thumbs; all of them had things to do, places to be, and people to see. Yet, God, in His Sovereignty, looked down from the Heavens and said, “That one! That’s the one I want!” The same thing still happens today, so don’t be surprised if it happens to you or one whom you love.

God's Call Comes in His Timing:

Another thing to observe is that when God is ready, He expects us to be ready, too.

Elisha was surprised at his call, and conflicted at well. God’s call meant he had to leave behind everything that he had known and everyone whom he knew. In Old Testament Israel, family literally meant everything. The leadership structure of the nation was through tribes, which were extended families. Children were taught by their parents, and they worked on their family farm or in their family business. Even the worship in the Temple was led by priests and Levites who were following in their fathers’ footsteps. Family was a big deal!

So Elisha asked Elijah for permission to say goodbye to his parents . This was a natural human response, and a culturally appropriate one to be sure, but it wasn’t what God desired. Elijah’s literal response to this was, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?“ We can probably interpret that to mean, “Your obedience is between you and God. I didn’t call you, He did. You have to deal with that yourself.” This is just like the man in Luke Chapter 9 who asked Jesus for permission to bury his father before following Him. Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury the dead.” In that same passage, another would-be follower of Jesus wanted to go tell his parents goodbye, just like Elisha. Jesus told him, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.” When God wants us, He wants us on His schedule, not ours.

While some in the Bible tried to delay, others responded immediately.  When God called Abram, he packed up everything and followed God to a place God would show him later. Moses yielded to God at the Burning Bush, and the disciples left their nets and boats and followed Jesus. In Philippi, not only was Lydia and family baptized as soon as the realized the truth of the Gospel, so was the Jailer and his whole family as well.

God's Call Brings Sacrifice:

Elisha responded to God’s call, and he didn’t go to bid farewell to his family. He did have something he needed to do, however, and that was to make a sacrifice of a yoke of oxen. While it is possible that he sacrificed all 24 oxen, I suspect that he only sacrificed the last pair, but that was a tremendous sacrifice nonetheless. His actions remind me of an old joke which goes like this:

The barnyard animals all loved the farmer, and wanted to do somethings special for him on his birthday. The cow had an idea, and said, ‘I know, let’s serve him breakfast in bed! We can prepare bacon and eggs, and I’ll give him a glass of warm, fresh milk.” The chickens enthusiastically clucked their approval, but the pig quickly objected, protesting, ‘Wait just a minute!  For you guys milk and eggs are offerings, but for me, bacon is a real sacrifice!

There is no doubt that leadership is sacrifice. Leaders are first in and last out and in the church, a leader’s responsibility extends past the workday and the work week. Jeremiah the prophet recognized that leadership was sacrifice as did Paul, who described his experiences of serving God this way:

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,  I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

Some, when confronted with these prospects, are like the students in a class who look down at their desk hoping that the teacher won’t call on them. This is probably why Saul was standing at the back of his family when Samuel came to anoint him king of Israel. Thankfully there are others, like Isaiah, who proclaim boldly, “Here am I Lord, send me!” And was Elisha bold or what? His ministry was the very definition of “Go big or go home!” Nothing makes a statement like sacrificing a couple of oxen and feeding the neighborhood! The fact he made stew instead of barbecue might even indicate that he was in a hurry to catch up with Elijah!

God's Call is Honorable and it is Honored by Him:

As we have looked at Elijah and Elisha in this passage of Scripture, we have seen men who were sold out to serve God. 

Like Jesus, Elijah did not see his status as prophet in Israel as “something to be grasped,” but when God told him it was time, he let go of his position and called out his replacement. Elisha, knowing the awesome task which was being placed before him made a public commitment to serving his Lord. Like the Spanish explorer Cortez, he “burned his ship” and didn’t look back. These men, and other people like them in the Bible, are truly models for us to follow as we multiply leaders and take up the mantle of leadership.

What about us? Are we ready to burn our ships? Are we ready to follow God regardless of the cost? Can we say with certainty, “Here am I Lord, send me”? Such commitment is a sacrifice, but one that God will honor and one that God will use as we follow Him into leadership.

Every blessing, 

Dr. Otis Corbitt