God at Work

Clarinda Herald Journal publication date: 08/20/2009

                   “What new thing do you see God doing in the church today?”

                   First off, God is doing what He has always been doing in redeeming His world. God is saving repentant sinners, strengthening believers, and enlarging His kingdom in the earth. However, the uniqueness of every generation has God ‘tweaking’ the every-changing church to keep us on task. I see three primary works of God in the present age.

                   First, God is at work calling his children to the simplicity of devotion to Christ (2 Cor 11:3). No doubt, the work-a-day world is demanding and complicated. But too often, those within the organized church embrace the kinds of “visions and strategies” that drive the corporate world. As a result, the ministries of some churches become so complicated that it takes a CEO to run them! God is calling His people to a holy preoccupation with Christ, His will, and to divest ourselves of needless extras.

                   Secondly, God is at work steering His church away from her reliance upon technique to a child-like trust in Him. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Psa 20:7). Some churches think that if they only had a bigger budget, a better music group, a more talented drama team, and a more charismatic preacher, then they would need nothing else. However, God does not delight in the strength of men but in those who see Him alone as the answer to all their needs (Psa 147:10-11).

                   Finally, I see God at work, leading His people to trust in the sufficiency in His Word, the Bible. “The gospel… is the power of God for salvation” (Rom 1:16). “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). God’s Word saves and transforms! Preacher, you may be a great storyteller, but your charm and wit is fruitless apart from Holy Scripture. Paul the Apostle wrote, “It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Cor 1:21). No, God does not need our elocutionary skills but rather our faithfulness to preach and teach His Word.

                   The “new thing” that God is doing today is, in reality, identical with His unswerving purpose from the beginning. God stays the same, but we so easily stray from His path. We are perpetually prone to distraction. Like a toddler, beguiled by every bright trinket, we can readily run after those things which have “the appearance of wisdom” (Col 2:23) but, in the end, have “no value.”

                   You were hoping for something a little more exciting, perhaps? Sorry…I have no recommendations for you on how to be a better plate spinner or chainsaw juggler! What I commend to you, instead, is the matchless simplicity and beauty of Jesus!

--Pastor Scott (www.askpastorscott.com)

PS. To submit your question for Pastor Scott, you may email him at harvestnow@gmail.com or write him at PO Box 98, Shambaugh, IA 51651