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Topic: Discipleship (02/23/04)
TITLE: Quiet or Not - Who Are You? By Martha Currington 02/28/04 |
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Ephesians 4:7 (KJV)
This title and subject matter is different from what I had planned to write. I wanted to write about the discipleship traits of the apostle, John. Since scripture reveals his close relationship with Jesus, and John referred to himself as “that disciple whom Jesus loved”(John 21:7, 20), I know that it would be appropriate. Nevertheless, the more I read and researched John’s life, I felt inadequate to condense and write it at this time. So I am writing about a subject that I know “ first hand”, that being, “quiet Christians” and their discipleship traits.
Some of Jesus’s twelve disciples, according to Biblical accounts, were more extroverted than others. Some appeared to have quieter natures. Thus, Jesus values the worth of diverse personalities and their unique places of service in His kingdom work.
If you think about it, you probably know many quiet Christians who have helped you or have influenced your life. Or maybe you’ve observed their behind-the-scene actions.
Years ago, while attending a Sunday night church service, our pastor, a very dynamic person, full of energy and apparent happiness, pounced, yes, pounced, from behind the podium. Off the platform he came, into the front center of the church aisle. Raising one hand, while lifting his Bible in the other, he loudly proclaimed, “If you don’t feel what I’m feeling right now ,then you don’t love God!” A few “amen’s” echoed from the congregation.
There I sat, timid and still. Seemed as if he was looking right at me! But I knew that I loved God! I was a born again, baptized believer, a Christian...just a quiet Christian, that’s all.
Needless to say, that remark stung, opening a door for Satan to hound my “easily hurt feelings.” I didn’t say anything to anyone about it after the service, but “I couldn’t stop thinking about it!” When I got home, I wrote the following :
Quiet Christians
There are such people as quiet Christians, who feel quietly, but deeply, the call of the Spirit. They pray silently, and their prayers are heard just as the prayers from the ones that God created a different way.
Smiles from quiet Christians have as much roots from deep within the heart as bubbling laughter from Christians with more extroverted natures. God’s quiet people love God and others just as passionately as anyone else. They have to have times of solitude too, because that is when God speaks to them; they hear and receive amid the silence, just as others do.
Quiet Christians may not have the gift of eloquence but there are times God can use them, when, and where He can use no one else.
Never say people do not love God because they don’t express it the same way as you do.
God may use those people far more than you think. You see, God knows their hearts!
I fully intended to give a copy to the preacher, but ...I never did. I also once wrote:
I sit alone and think a lot
Sometimes good, sometimes not
And often I write my thoughts
It’s a quiet way of having my say
So, I guess, in this instance too, without anyone else knowing, I was having my say.
I’ve grown in my quiet, Christian walk since then. I’ve come to realize our pastor must have been referring to “ the joy of the Holy Spirit”. The same Spirit that produces bubbling-over joy in him gives a quiet, peaceful spirit to me. This preacher remains my Christian friend until this day.
Twenty-six years later, God called me “to write”. He is having “His say”, and I quietly, humbly answered, ”Thank you Lord , for the privilege.”
So ... as the reader of this article, quiet or not? Which one describes you?
Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen (Romans 15:33) KJV
Copyright 2004 Martha J. Currington