In order for us to serve the Lord in taking care of the young generation in a proper way, we need both LIFE and TRAINING. There are always these two extremes: some emphasize LIFE (saying that our service should be in life, we don’t need to “coordinate” or plan things – let life take the lead, let’s do everything in life!) while others say that we need only TRAINING (we need to plan things ahead, coordinate about many practical things, be practical about things and situations, etc).
On the one hand, we need that all our service and taking care of others would come out of the divine life in us – it all needs to begin from our time with the Lord, from our fellowship with Him, and from the burden He puts on our heart.
On the other hand though, we need to be trained – because of our fallen nature, almost every Christian is sloppy in his spiritual life! We may pursue the Lord today and we may take care of the young ones today, but maybe in one week from now we almost forget about them and we are “taking it easy”…
There are some good examples I enjoyed regarding the need for LIFE and the need for TRAINING: no matter how much you train a dog to speak the dog will NEVER speak a human language since the dog does not have the LIFE of a human being!
But on the other hand, if you are born in a country that does not have English as their first language, no matter how much you WANT to speak the English language, and you may have the human life to help you, unless you are being TRAINED to speak the English language, the life is not enough.
You can train a monkey to fly a plane as much as you want – the monkey needs the human life to do it! But simply having the human life does not qualify one to do this – you need to be thoroughly trained in order to fly a plane!
In the same way, we may have a disposition that LOVES the young people, or we may have a disposition that doesn’t really like taking care of the younger ones – in either case, we need not only the divine life in us, but we also need to be trained!
The training is not merely in teaching the Bible or skills in taking care of practical things – we need to be trained in the way of having a spiritual discipline that builds us up to discipline ourselves! As seeking ones of the Lord, we need to learn to discipline ourselves – be daily in the Word, have morning revival, have a companion with which to pray regularly, take care of 2-3 young ones in a regular and scheduled way, etc.
We need even to buffet our body – not give it the pleasure of “taking it easy”, relaxing, chilling, etc – but being disciplined in ourselves in dealing with the things between us and the Lord, between us and others, and being open to the Lord to give us His heart for the young ones.
Spending time with the Lord in His Word – reading the Bible in a regular way – needs us to discipline ourselves and do it every day. We are not here to do a “good job”, have “good meetings”, or “meet as CEOs” among the saints – we are here to daily enjoy the Lord, daily get into His Word, be built up together, and hate anything of routine!
Our serving the Lord and serving the young ones need to be fresh, in the way of life, and in a trained way at the same time! We need to take the trained way as revealed in the Bible and have meetings that are full of purpose, full of life, ministering life to others!
Don’t care just for a good meeting – care for ministering life to the saints! And if you can’t or don’t know how to minister life, pray for your brother and the Lord will give him life (1 John 5:16)! [enjoyment from some recent fellowship concerning, Serving the Lord by caring for the Young People]
Lord, save us from serving in a natural way! Save us from just imparting ourselves and our own un-constituted being into the saints or the young ones! Strengthen us into our inner man to cooperate with You and be disciplined in ourselves! Lord, we want to deal with anything between us and You! May nothing hinder You in us! Save us from any routine or any natural way! Lord, we want to take the trained way as revealed in the Bible! We want to take the way of life and the training!
Thank You Lord for speaking to us continually to reveal Your desire. Your desire for us to be trained in the way of having a spiritual discipline that builds us up to discipline ourselves. Truly how we need to be renewed daily to be fresh, living, in the way of life, in our fellowship, every aspect of our service is just You. Lord Jesus!
Yes Lord, thank You for Your balance in all things. Lord, that our entire being would be given to You to be possessed by You. That we would exercise our whole Tri-partite being to be one with You in all Your speaking. Lord, we want to exercise our spirit to be one with You; exercise our uplifted and renewed soul to cooperate with You and give You all the ground; and exercise our consecrated bodies to be presented to You and You alone for Your service, Your economy!