WHO AM I?
When God told Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, Moses responded in shock and humility by saying “Who am I?” When God calls any of us, most of us respond
the same way. Yet God, in his infinite wisdom, chooses to use very imperfect people like you and me to accomplish his will in the earth because who we are matters far less than who He is. Still, since you’re reading this blog, you should know something about who I am.
Over the years I have served in churches and government. I am an attorney, a Bible student and teacher, an evangelist and a minister. I’ve been a poet, a pew sitter and a preacher. I am the father of two grown children, a husband to my first wife of over 25 years and have lived on the east coast, the west coast and near enough to the Great Lakes to get caught in lake-effect snow that had me praying for deliverance. Through it all, I have learned that relationship and intimacy with Christ come through obedience and perseverance and that authority in God is given, not taken.
I got saved in my early 30s after years of indifference and rebellion toward God. I call myself a Believer, a Christian, a Charismatic, a Fundamentalist, a Pentecostal, a Messianic Jew, a Jewish Believer and when I really want to stir things up, I just say “I’m born again.” I have seen both great and disturbing things in the church. I have also seen leaders with unassailable character and others who were unspeakably manipulative. I suspect the church in America is pretty much as it’s described in the book of Revelation: of the seven churches identified, two had it right, five not so much. Now multiply that by thousands and the odds are good that we’ve all encountered a church that’s less than perfect, and from our perspective, not exactly “holy and blameless.”
Whatever your view of the Body of Christ and the experiences you’ve had, God wants us to remain in fellowship, to keep meeting together and to be about his business by doing whatever he has called each of us to do. The parable of the wheat and the tares applies to our works as readily as it applies to the words we speak. If we are called to plant a church, we should plant it. If we are called to teach a bible study, we should teach it. If we are called to evangelize, we should speak the word. And we should pray that what we do and say will reflect God’s love and become wheat, not tares. But the only way to find out is to actually start the work we’re called to do and remain teachable and open to God’s correction. Ultimately, our desire should be that we would be counted among those of whom the Lord says, “My sheep hear my voice.”
God put it on my heart to do this blog. He has led me to share the things he is showing me in the word and in the world and to minister through these pages.
John the Baptist said, "I must decrease that he might increase." For nearly two years, I did this blog anonymously, believing anonymity facilitated my decrease. But God has shown me anew that his power is made perfect in weakness. We are weakest when we boldly proclaim Christ for all the world to see, when we risk personal rejection, ridicule and even persecution. Those are the moments we are most dependent on him and when we look for his increased presence to sustain us. Paul put it this way: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."
By stepping out publically in our own weakness, we invite Christ to move through us. And we come to truly understand that apart from him, we can do nothing. It is Christ in us, the hope of Glory, that accomplishes his purposes. That's why Jesus confidently said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."
Be encouraged. Yield to God's love and to his leading. And know that with even a little faith, "nothing will be impossible for you."
When God told Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, Moses responded in shock and humility by saying “Who am I?” When God calls any of us, most of us respond
the same way. Yet God, in his infinite wisdom, chooses to use very imperfect people like you and me to accomplish his will in the earth because who we are matters far less than who He is. Still, since you’re reading this blog, you should know something about who I am.
Over the years I have served in churches and government. I am an attorney, a Bible student and teacher, an evangelist and a minister. I’ve been a poet, a pew sitter and a preacher. I am the father of two grown children, a husband to my first wife of over 25 years and have lived on the east coast, the west coast and near enough to the Great Lakes to get caught in lake-effect snow that had me praying for deliverance. Through it all, I have learned that relationship and intimacy with Christ come through obedience and perseverance and that authority in God is given, not taken.
I got saved in my early 30s after years of indifference and rebellion toward God. I call myself a Believer, a Christian, a Charismatic, a Fundamentalist, a Pentecostal, a Messianic Jew, a Jewish Believer and when I really want to stir things up, I just say “I’m born again.” I have seen both great and disturbing things in the church. I have also seen leaders with unassailable character and others who were unspeakably manipulative. I suspect the church in America is pretty much as it’s described in the book of Revelation: of the seven churches identified, two had it right, five not so much. Now multiply that by thousands and the odds are good that we’ve all encountered a church that’s less than perfect, and from our perspective, not exactly “holy and blameless.”
Whatever your view of the Body of Christ and the experiences you’ve had, God wants us to remain in fellowship, to keep meeting together and to be about his business by doing whatever he has called each of us to do. The parable of the wheat and the tares applies to our works as readily as it applies to the words we speak. If we are called to plant a church, we should plant it. If we are called to teach a bible study, we should teach it. If we are called to evangelize, we should speak the word. And we should pray that what we do and say will reflect God’s love and become wheat, not tares. But the only way to find out is to actually start the work we’re called to do and remain teachable and open to God’s correction. Ultimately, our desire should be that we would be counted among those of whom the Lord says, “My sheep hear my voice.”
God put it on my heart to do this blog. He has led me to share the things he is showing me in the word and in the world and to minister through these pages.
John the Baptist said, "I must decrease that he might increase." For nearly two years, I did this blog anonymously, believing anonymity facilitated my decrease. But God has shown me anew that his power is made perfect in weakness. We are weakest when we boldly proclaim Christ for all the world to see, when we risk personal rejection, ridicule and even persecution. Those are the moments we are most dependent on him and when we look for his increased presence to sustain us. Paul put it this way: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."
By stepping out publically in our own weakness, we invite Christ to move through us. And we come to truly understand that apart from him, we can do nothing. It is Christ in us, the hope of Glory, that accomplishes his purposes. That's why Jesus confidently said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."
Be encouraged. Yield to God's love and to his leading. And know that with even a little faith, "nothing will be impossible for you."
Mark Eskenazi,
God’s Prodigal Son (GPS)
God’s Prodigal Son (GPS)