Have you ever noticed that something your preacher, Sunday school teacher, the Bible, or even God has brought to your attention seems to keep popping up EVERYWHERE? Yeah, that happens to me a lot. After about the 5th time it comes up, I just say, "Okay God, you've got my attention now. Sorry I ignored you the first few times." This happened tonight, and I just thought I should share, because I'm sure it happens to a lot of us.
When we started our new Sunday school class for 18-30 year olds, our first study was about church membership. We discussed how most people in the church now view church membership like a country club membership. We go to church to see what we can get out of it, not to see what we can give. When we first started I thought, "No, I come here to worship God, not to see how the church will cater to me." But as I thought about it, I thought about how I sometimes wish they'd turn the heat up, or not play a certain song, or turn the tempo up a little, or pad the pews a little more, and so on...and that's when I realized that I wasn't viewing church membership the way I should.
So then I started thinking, "How can I serve the church? What can I give?" I immediately started thinking of the big things: preaching, teaching, and leading worship. I'm not a good speaker, and I don't feel lead to be a preacher, so that's out. I'm not the best with kids, and I'm pretty young myself, so I knew being a Sunday school teacher was out, too. Leading worship was all that was left, and if you've heard me sing or try to play an instrument, you know you don't want me leading your worship on Sunday mornings. I'm not really sure what I'd be good at. I don't consider having many special skills, and it's hard to apply the things I'm good at to serving the church (sarcasm is definitely not something I can use to serve the church, even though it is my specialty).
We did that study several months ago, and somehow it keeps popping up everywhere. Tonight it popped up in my new Sunday school study. As I was reading through Leviticus, I read about the building of the tabernacle, the key offerings the Israelites made to God, etc. The main thing I got out of reading through the passages and the weekly review in the study was the seriousness of sin and how God sent Jesus to take the place of the offerings. But as I got to the end of the review, something hit me that I wasn’t expecting. It read, “Bezalel and Oholiab were gifted by God with various skills in order to oversee the construction of the Tabernacle and its furnishings. God gave to them abilities so that at the right time, they could be used for His purposes and for the service of worship. Likewise, God gifts all of His people so they can be used by Him for His purposes. … Note: Bezalel was the grandson of Hur, the man who helped Moses hold up his arms over the battle against the Amalekites. In the big picture, Hur was an assistant, almost part of the background, but nonetheless just as important. God has not called all of us to be a Moses or Aaron, out in front of the people, but He still has great need of Hurs, who will faithfully serve Him in whatever role He calls them to fill.”
Wow. How was God not talking to me through this? It took Him throwing it at me on multiple occasions, but tonight He put this in front of me to read, and I finally got it. So even though I don’t know the exact thing I’m going to do to serve the church, it’s much easier knowing that God has need of a Hur like me.
P.S. Sorry if I step on some toes. I stepped on my own toes if it makes you feel any better. :)