Status Updates From The Clay Pot Conspiracy: Go...

Sometimes we must wait like the women who could not properly annoint the body of Jesus until the right time.

Wonder 5 I was in the Navy and I never thought of myself of having enemies. It’s a thing in ministry. False teachers, false leaders, falses fellow believers cause heartache. On top of that, the world tries to knock us out. Why did COVID policies target churches, but not liquor stores?

God can repair broken relationships in ways we can never imagine. I have DEFINITELY seen this in a school’s life cycle. If we nurse that wound and stay on the high moral ground, we might never see it. It is a hard thing to do, but God sent his son to the cross because he values reconciliation so much. We must realize that ministry may mean being impaled by Christians. We will be okay if we mirror Jesus to each other.

Expect setbacks and failures. Embrace the suck (ha, ha). Focus of faith. Look for the dawn, it will come during those dark, long nights. God alone has the moral high ground and we need to let that go when we are wounded. God offers grace to us and he is also offering grace to those who are doing the wounding. If he can offer grace to Saul, he can offer grace to anyone.

We can’t control how people respond to us. God influences that. We are responsible for how we treat others: God is repsonsible for the fruit. Satan is real. He enjoys devouring non-believers and disillusioning believers. He sets us up for disappointment and sows doubt. Our best bet is to put on the full armor of God and seek God, asking for faith. Seek and ye shall find. God stands with us even if we do not see it.

Sometimes we suffer with fellow believers and sometimes it is from fellow believers. Then he mentions something very familiar. An institution’s success or failure often depends on a few individuals. Sometimes it’s the the few that holds things up. Sometimes it’s the person that turns the tide in a good direction or breaks the camel’s back. We are called to replay death and resurrection in our own life.

Taking up our cross means that we sometimes are impaled on it. Sometimes our cross is fellow Christians who misunderstand us and put a target on our backs. Sometimes our cross is the chaos that our stupidity and sin causes. Teaching is a deposit which involves risk and sometimes there is no return. When Christians go after us, we need to see what they are becoming, not what they are doing.

“Pastoring is a deposit, not a transaction.”

“Leadership was never about exalting our strengths. God’s plan was always to deliver his strength through our weaknesses.”

“Our weakness + God’s power = Resilient ministry”