A Calling to Share the Glory

It is not the job of the Christian preacher to give the people moral or psychological pep talks about how to get along in the world. When that is needed, someone else can do it. But most of our people have no one, no one in the world, to tell them week in and week out, about the supreme beauty and majesty of God.

This quote from John Piper’s preface in “The Supremacy of God in Preaching” has stuck in my heart. There is much I can do when I stand before people week after week. There are many things I could say. What is most pressing? What are they needing? What is my role in this process? I am called upon to tell them of the greatness of God. A wonderful thing happens when God is lifted high, everything else takes second place in our lives. God is not a small thing. What damage can I inflict when I present  Him as a small helper in our lives?  Too often we hear how God wants to make little improvements in our lives. We talk of Him as if He were a strong partner in our lives that we call upon when life gets hard. That is simply not who He is. We cannot make Him smaller than He is. In fact, we cannot make Him as great as He is, we cannot comprehend that level of holiness and greatness. More often we make the mistake of bringing Him down to our level, making Him some sort of super-human figure that is around to solve our problems.

God has called me to proclaim Him. Not other things, but Him. Lord help me to be faithful. I love to preach. God has called me to this task. It is my responsibility, it is my place to obey…or take the easy road. In taking the easy road, the view that God is only around to serve us at our beck and call, are we not like the spoiled child who mooches off of wealthy parents? You know the type. They don’t care to love their parents or honor them. They only care about what they can get from them. What new car, what shiny electronic device is coming down the pipe next. When we don’t lift Jesus high, are we more like the spoiled child than the child who loving depends on his parents for life?

It is no easy task. Nothing is easy in the Christian life. If it were easy we wouldn’t need His Spirit to fulfill our ministries. We could do it all ourselves. I want to be faithful, I want to take the difficult road. The road of putting words and ideas around the Truth of God and His greatness. It is a difficult road if I want to travel it alone. Praise the Lord, I don’t have to. He has promised to carry me, if I let Him. Lord, carry me along this path of proclaiming your truth, your news.  I want to be faithful to share the glory of God.