Sometimes God uses one situation to get my attention in another.
Let me explain.
Today at Grace Community Church we ordained Ben Reed to the ministry. Ben is community groups pastor at Grace. In our tradition, ordination is separate from licensing. We see licensing as the act of making Ben legal to perform marriages and meet state requirements as a minister. Ben has been licensed for several years. Ordination is a more symbolic act of a church body recognizing a person who is fit for ministry. It’s a ceremonial way of acknowledging Ben’s obvious calling.
Ben waited for ordination until he had served long enough with a church that could easily validate him and his calling. That would easy for us at Grace. Ben is one of the nicest guys I know. He’s mature, a great leader, and a wonderful husband and father. I consider Ben a close friend and I genuinely feel I could trust Ben with my life.
As the elders of Grace met with Ben recently, one piece of advice came to my mind for Ben. I believe it’s a sobering word for all of us.
I said to Ben:
Satan loves to mess with the good guys…
It’s true. It’s true of churches and individuals. If everything is going well for you, watch out, Satan will come trying to disrupt things. He loves to steal the good marriages. He loves to spread lies within the good churches. He loves to bring tension during times of triumph. Satan loves to destroy the work of God. If he can mess with a good marriage, for example, those outside the church are more likely to question God. (Surely you’ve seen this…)
Of course, Satan doesn’t limit his work to the times of plenty, but those times often distract us from our need to protect ourselves from the enemy. I’m thankful Ben’s ordination reminded me to stand guard.
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13
Have you noticed Satan seem to enjoy destroying the good guys?
