Scripture
But now, when may I do something for my own household?” Genesis 30:30

But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Luke 12:31

Observation
For ministry to work well a pastor must place himself second so that the needs of his congregation can come first. If he is worthy to be called a shepherd, in lean times he will ensure that all the church’s bills are paid first and he is paid last. Again if he is shepherd material, when the church has no meeting place his need for a home comes second and the shelter of the church comes first. God does not require that of everyone, but if a leader can put the needs of others first it is a sure sign to him that he is worthy to be called “pastor”. A shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Jacob was a great shepherd and servant. He worked for 14 years for his uncle with a slide rule pay scale. His wages were changed 10 times, yet he still cared for a flock that was not his own. He wanted the best for the sheep. Yet as a young man in his early 30′s he wanted to provide for his family. Jacob spoke the words many pastors are afraid to voice, “When may I do something for my own household?”

Is there anything wrong with a shepherd’s desire to provide for his own family? No, so long as it is accomplished in the way Jesus designed for a spiritual leader’s personal needs to be met. Here’s the secret: “Seek his kingdom, and all of these things will be given to you as well.”

At age 21 my ambition in life was to own property, a Mercedes Benz and to be financially secure. But then my plans were messed up with a call to shepherd people. The collision point was in a holiday house on little Coochie Island off Australia’s coast. On the bookshelf was the biography of Hudson Taylor. As a medical apprentice he lived by total faith in God to supply his finances so he could be ready to live as a missionary. At one point he was owed wages from the doctor, but he would not ask for them from his employer because he wanted to trust God alone to supply for him. Taylor wanted, as he said, to be “worthy of China.” His prayer was answered, the money came in time, and my world was rattled.

That night Fred and Ivy Maddison, a retired pastor, invited me for dinner. Fred had been a stage commedian before he found Christ under the preaching of Billy Graham. He became a pastor and ended his days caring for the only church on the island. He was called by the locals, “The Bishop of Coochie” and was loved by all on the island.

In their humble house over a steaming meal, Fred and Ivy told me of their conversion, call to ministry and the joy of trusting God to supply their needs. What they said about money was hard enough for me to hear, but the fact that they were so happy about simplicity and trusting God made me nervous. The next day while reading more of Hudson Taylor, I threw the book down and went for a 360 degree walk around the little island’s shore. On a point of sand I made a decision, from that day forward I would put my needs second and God’s people first.

Years went by. Fred and Ivy needed to move back to the mainland to be nearer to medical care, but they could not afford a home. Then came a call. Years before they had given hospitality to a young man and let him stay in their home for a few months. He had become a wealthy businessman. He had heard of their plight and bought for them a home for them to live in for the rest of their days.

When the kingdom-first call of Jesus gets tiresome I remember Fred and Ivy. There was one constant in their lives: their needs were met.

Application
Can I do something for my household? Absolutely, but for the pastor the way is indirect. Care for the needs of others first and in some surprising way your own needs will be met as well.

Prayer
Father, promises that are familiar should be easy to keep, but each day there are new ways of application that are more difficult to embrace. The call to trust you is not over until you say “well done”. So I embrace again what you asked me to do 25 years ago. Kingdom first; self second. That is the safest way to live. Amen.

Lesie and I went to Bryce Canyon, Utah, one of the prettiest places God has made on planet earth.

Let the tree of no other nation
proudly exult in its own prosperity,
though it be higher than the clouds
and it be watered from the depths.
For all are doomed to die,
to go down to the depths of the earth. Ezekiel 31:14

Why are the crumbling pyramids still standing in Egypt? The Bible says that God has a reason for leaving the relics of Egyptology scattered in the African Sahara.

I just did a quick internet search of the ruins of Egypt. One comprehensive site gave no fewer than 13 pages of single spaced, bullet point place names of archaeological sites to visit. On the list are pyramids, tombs, temples, palaces, obelisks and towns. Tomb robbers with crowbars and archaeologists with toothbrushes have scoured the desert and still are finding more. Egypt was one of the world’s superpowers, an the dry climate has preserved much to see.

Why?

God says that he has kept Egypt’s ruins alive for one reason: that nations will live in humility. An empire has dehydrated before, another can dry up again. One day tourists may be visiting the ruins of the Capitol Mall in Washington, or the strip in Las Vegas, the rusted hands of Big Ben or the crumpled steel of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Egypt’s ruins keep us humble.

The pages of history are in hot pursuit of every nation to swallow them up into the yellow pages of memory. Nations have a life span but most rage on as if empires are eternal.

Each year I plow through Ezekiel and Revelation in the Bible reading plan that I follow. Those are two heavy books to bench press together. But I just told my wife that I’m glad of reading them for they help me to keep from getting too attached to what the good life has to offer. The only thing permanent is not in this world. Only as my life is connected to the Lord do I have any hope to make any long lasting impact with my life.

I was speaking to a friend moaning about his mother-in-law. She is a shopaholic who has a penchant to snap up exquisite bargains and then leave them with her children as heirlooms. He showed me boxes of beautiful stuff he and his wife are never allowed to sell. Each piece is to be passed down through generations from her. He said, “She has this driving passion to be remembered.” Like many she is trying to lasso her significance to the shifting stuff around her.

How then should we live? I don’t think the answer is to sell up and put up a pup tent. Remember Jeremiah in the middle of his doomsday prophesies bought a block of land and told the refugees to build houses. But I do think it calls for an inner sense of detachment from the things around me. Reading Revelation and Ezekiel reminds me that life is not forever and not all the good things of life are in this life.

Father, help me today to live loosely holding onto your unseen hand. Amen.

Press arrow to enjoy this worship song as you read today’s devotion

Natalie Grant “In Better Hands”

Scripture

“King Solomon was wiser and richer than all the kings of the earth – he surpassed them all. People came from all over the world to be with Solomon and drink in the wisdom God had given him. And everyone who came brought gifts – artifacts of gold and silver, fashionable robes and gowns, the latest in weapons, exotic spices, and horses and mules – parades of visitors, year after year” (1 Kings 10:23-25).

“King Solomon was obsessed with women Solomon openly defied God; he did not follow in his father David’s footsteps. He went on to build a sacred shrine to Chemosh, the horrible god of Moab, and to Molech, the horrible god of the Ammonites, on a hill just east of Jerusalem. He built similar shrines for all his foreign wives, who then polluted the countryside with the smoke and stench of their sacrifices. God was furious with Solomon for abandoning the God of Israel, the God who had twice appeared to him and had so clearly commanded him not to fool around with other gods. Solomon faithlessly disobeyed God’s orders.” (1 Kings 11:1-10).

Observation

Clarke Gable was the success story of early Hollywood with many fawning admirers. A friend had stopped by his home for a visit with her little boy. While Gable chatted, her small son played with toy cars on the carpet. His imaginary race track looped in f igure eights around the feet of a grand statue. The figurine the child had pulled into his little game was none other than the Oscar that Clarke Gable recently won for his 1934 performance in “It Happened One Night.” On his way out the door the little rascal tugged on Gable’s coat and asked, “Can I have this?” His horrified mother saw her son pointing to the golden statuette. She scolded him, “Put that down at once young man!” But Clarke Gable soothed her anger. He pressed the gold award into the boy’s hands and said, “”Having the Oscar around doesn’t mean anything to me; earning it does.” The actor seemed to know that past success can be a comfortable hammock upon which he may be tempted to rest, rather than a springboard launching him to the next level.

King Solomon’s life was so successful that he had all the chimpanzees, peacocks and women that a man could want. But unlike Clarke Gable, Solomon lost sight of why he had them. Everything came to Solomon delivered and paid for. But King Solomon forgot why. It was not because of Solomon but because of the wisdom God had given him. His eyes were diverted from the Giver to his gifts until the gifts became an end in themselves. He forgot the process of earning wisdom while enjoying the fruits of wisdom.

Application

The world’s richest man is not one who has everything but one who remembers clearly when he did not. The Sam Waltons of this world scouting out a billion dollar empires in an beatup pick up are by far the worlds richest men because they never have forgotten their beginnings.

No matter how life escalates I need to keep returning to origins. And when life returns to origins I need to rejoice in the reminder of where all has come from.

Prayer
Father, apes, peacocks and women and more could pull me from you. Help me to remember always where I have come from and the process that has brought me to where I am. Let success be safe with me when you test me with that trial. Amen.