Too Good not to Steal. . .

From Ronnie Whitehead’s Blog
Brazos Pointe Fellowship

I don’t normally take complete posts from other bloggers, but this was really good. What do you think?

Need vs. Call

Is it a need? Or is it a call from God?

I was at a Small Groups Conference, not long ago, and a statement was made that, at that time, passed over my head and into a “I’ll look at that later” file. It’s one of those things that you hear, you shake your head, and say, “I knew that.” But the weight of it doesn’t hit until later on.

Here’s the statement that was made in context of seeing the vast numbers of needs around us every day:

“The NEED does not constitute the CALL. There are always way too many needs for me to meet.”

This really puts some pressure on me in one regard, but takes a lot of pressure off of me in others. I think we spend way too much time “accessing” needs, and way too little time “accessing” the call of God on our lives. The most recent opportunity has been all of this disaster relief from Hurricane Katrina. What an unbelievable amount of needs. Do those needs demand a true accessing? Yes! It’s a tragedy that has wrecked people’s lives. Do we need to be involved in it? Yes! Am I? Yes!

There’s a story that happened in the Bible surrounding Jesus, His disciples and a woman. This woman, in Matthew 26, came to Jesus and broke a very expensive vial of perfume over His feet and wiped it with her hair. The disciples tried to rebuke for wasting such a valuable commodity, but saying that the “need” was to sell that perfume and give the money to the poor. Jesus then turned and rebuked the disciples by making a shocking statement in vs. 10 when He said, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me… wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Wow!

What did she do that was so amazing? I don’t want to steal any thunder from this weekend’s message at BPF, but let me end by saying this. The important thing is that we stay close to God and listen for His instructions; from His Word and from His Spirit that lives inside of us. Hearing Him, and obeying Him is the key. I have to continually ask myself, “Am I following the needs, or am I following the call of God on my life?” The good thing is, often times, those two intersect.

posted by Ronnie Whitehead @ 9:15 AM 0 comments