Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Illustrate the meaning of “Don’t Try to Walk before You Can Crawl” (without using the actual phrase or literal example). (01/17/08)
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TITLE: The Lord's School | Previous Challenge Entry
By Irene Joshua
01/24/08 -
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Deut 7:22
I have wondered for days why our Lord God had to drive out those nations little by little and not wholly. There is something to learn from His school. There are no leaps in any career progress or any form of learning, be it studies or life skills or work skills. Everything has to go step by step. And it takes time and diligent effort. This applies very much for Christian work too, not just in terms of developing talents or skills, but more in terms of discipline and character. We cannot do the Lord’s work effectively without going through the Lord’s school.
The Master’s school is the life's school, where we learn from Him through our trials, sorrows, humiliation and correction.The Lord will not want us to do any major ministry without taking us through proper training that will shape our character, personality, build in maturity and help us acquire knowledge.
Many pastors or leaders overlook this fact and fail to apply it when it comes to giving responsibilities to believers in Christian work. It is important that people involved in the Lord’s work should give responsibilities to others in their church or organization or ministries after much consideration into the person’s talent or ability and most importantly their maturity to handle the role or responsibility.
But sadly there have been people- new converts (and also old) who were put into the Lord’s work lacking maturity and knowledge. I have personally been saddened to see immature behavior of young Christians playing the role of leaders in the church. They have turned to be bad witnesses before unbelievers as well as before the brethren because of their snobbish attitude. New converts who have the vigor and the enthusiasm get into the Lord’s ministry to play major roles. I am not against doing the Lord’s work immediately after conversion, but certain roles, like leadership, do have greater responsibilities combined with maturity and poise.
When I was a new convert, I wanted to become a Christian counselor. I dreamed and prayed about it for years. I had a few occasions to do informal counseling among relatives and friends and even worked on a temporary basis as a student counselor. However all those experiences made me feel inadequate for the work. I knew very well that a formal counseling training was necessary for me to become a good counselor. Even more than that, I knew that I still had much to learn from the Lord’s school. It was required for me to be shaped as His child more than for being a counselor. Ten years after my walk with Lord, I do not know if God wants me to become a counselor and do His work, but I know one thing: that I need to be in Lord’s school and go through all the training before I do His work.
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I also liked the way you used a personal experience of your own to give the reader a connection point to the message. Nicely done.
This is a good devotional. I liked the verse at the beginning.
Good job...keep writing.
It is so unwise - and unfair - to throw new believers into the battle without first training them.
One thing I did stumble over, the wording of "Ten years after my walk with Lord" sounds like you are no longer walking with the Lord. Obviously from the rest of the devotional,this is not true, so I think you simply missed a word.
Great job bringning your own experience into it. This always makes a devotional more personal and less preachy. Keep up the good work.