A message to my Happy Word of Life Bible friends

A message to my Happy Word of Life Bible friends:

By Michael Medina WCM, ULC

The Light of Christ Ministry



   Text: Acts 20:28 “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock ove...

A message to my Happy Word of Life Bible friends

By Michael Medina WCM, ULC
The Light of Christ Ministry

Text: Acts 20:28
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed the Church of God, which He has purchased with His Own Blood.”

Last Sunday, June 24, was the 36th birthday of our Mother church, The Salvation and Praise Fellowship Inc. (Happy Church). Our church expects our presence as well as we expect a nice welcome from our motherly head-pastor, other leaders as well as acquaintances and churchgoers. It is also our united expectation that Christ will be honored on that day.

This day and the next two days will also be the time of reunion when we get stuck in one place to bond, mingle and share the challenges of our rewarding job in advancing the gospel or those moments we made a positive impact and surprises with our preaching. All these fulfillment we always gave God the glory. But people and things come and go. There is a spiritual satisfaction with each of our cherished ministry that we are to do more to live up to the expectation of our teachers and that which will endure into eternity.

Back home and each year, we also celebrate our own church anniversaries and thank God for the special day. As graduates of our Bible School, we know more fully about girding ourselves for the ministry since we spent two years of our lives equipping and depending on the Lord in all we do. Our earthly ministry may sometimes become a failure after another but later we see failure as an effective teacher and then we discover the high ground we are looking for. From a good experience, let me share you this.

FEED YOURSELF. You cannot pass along something which you yourself have not received. Our Lord does the calling and we are called to a special ministry to lovingly and courageously teach the Word of God to the Body of Christ, the community of believers (Ephesians 4:11). We must RESPOND to this call and be faithful in passing the faith to someone else. Then we profit more from our calling because we submitted ourselves to learning the true gospel, even with our painful circumstances then and the bitterness during our short stay in school. All these helped strengthen our faith and increased our learning in the middle of suffering. During those times, we obeyed and trusted our leaders, we put ourselves under there authority and gave them joy as we also received the gain of good insight (Hebrew 13:17).

WATCH YOURSELF. Take heed to the ministry that we received from the Lord and make sure that we fulfill it (Colossians 4:17). All along the way, there are terrible emotional suffering brought by painful tragedies while doing our ministry. These heartaches are pointing us to Jesus who gave us meaning to this seemingly senseless pain. We must not consider giving up for we have consecrated ourselves to Christ already and that all those sufferings are just teaching us that we cannot learn in any other way. Let us cling to God’s promises, ask Him for direction, do not lose sight of His purpose for us and complete the work the Lord gave us to do. More importantly, we are also to pay attention to ourselves, what we believe and what we teach others. When someone tells you to do away with discipleship and start conquering nations for the Lord, do not entertain such idea. Discipleship is a relation with Jesus where we find companionship, comfort, wisdom and reality. The Lord’s Great Commission is still very relevant today. Only kings and soldiers conquer nations. We do not do not clamor for attention and achievement on this but we need to fill our church pews with disciples, not members. Whoever came up with such thought certainly did not march from our Home of Refreshing and refused to put into practice the adage written in Matthew 25:35-36. Recall what you have learned. The discipler does it first and the disciple follows. Then both the discipler and the disciple does it together. And lastly, the disciple does it alone while the discipler observes in the back. “The student is not better than the teacher. But everyone who is completely trained will be like their teacher,” (Luke 6:40). We do not want to be the cause of believers going in the wrong direction because they heard and believed in all the false teaching we said. (1 Timothy 4:16). As it is said, “Satan has many tools, but deception is the handle that fits them all.”  

FEED YOUR FLOCK. Feeding them includes urging them to give careful attention to personal and social effects of turning away from our one true God. Feeding them is to hide God’s Word inside their hearts and let it guide their way of living. Peter expressly gives the good example as demonstrated accordingly not by constraint but willingly since we are privileged to do so and we are to do it all by God’s will and not by our any other hidden motive (1 Peter 5:2). We should also be careful not to show favoritism but feed them all alike: newest converts and the strong, mature believers (1 John 21:15F). We put on our best efforts and feed them with our eloquent preaching of God’s Word and then give the Father in heaven the deserved glory. 

WATCH YOUR FLOCK. We focus on our flock and not on ourselves. We put them first by listening in rapt attention and forgetting ourselves. Sometimes, we watch by listening and its the most loving thing we do to them. Our very life and own example is likewise a gold-medal effort we can show to our flock. In everything we do, we must not go too far. We must be able to control ourselves and be worthy of respect. We must be able to welcome people in our home and be able to teach (1 Timothy 3:2). Although these are not qualifications but having these qualities demonstrate a good attitude of a Christian leader worth emulating. Spiritual growth and survival of our flock depend on knowing how to feed and watch them. We are to be diligent in knowing the state of our flocks and look well to our herds (Proverbs 27:23). Whatever is given is given to us, we are to care for it with devotion and wholehearted commitment with the help of the Holy Spirit. Remind each one that he or she is not an overlooked or ignored member of the body of Christ and he or she can still honor Him with his or her unique skills for God’s glory.

To conclude, we are all share life with one another and together we walk in God’s light. The apostle Paul says that desiring to be a pastor or minister is desiring a good work. Stop thinking that as a church leader, you deserve more returns than your actual duties merit. Your title and your responsibility should be like that of Jesus showing the task of a lowly servant washing the disciples’ feet. Remember, friends, it’s what we do that counts. The more we serve the Lord, the more we will serve well. All our service is for God and God alone. Amen.