This is just a little bit long, but hang with me… today, a couple years ago, I was at my desk and felt a piece of paper sticking out from under the bottom of the desk, hung in the crease where the desk comes together, side to top. I pulled it out and it was that note pictured here.
I don't know if it was for a deacons meeting, or a business meeting, but I knew the hand writing to be Rev. Johnny Smith. Do you see that second item on the list? "License Tim Bowes to Gospel Ministry."
When I saw it back in 2018, I got chills. I immediately looked over at the wall and took note of my Certificate of License. As you see from the second picture, this affirmation became official on January 19, 2000.
Wow... Johnny gave me some books several years ago, and I remember finding this little note stuck in a book as a bookmark, but I had lost track of it since originally finding it. Now, January 19, 2020, just like I did on the same date in 2019, i pulled it out and did some praying.
Looking back to 2000...
Wow… Just wow.
I remember having discussions with Johnny that I wasn't sure that I was called to vocational ministry, but it was pretty clear in those days that God was calling me to do some preaching and a lot of teaching. I remember the discussion to affirm that ministry sort of scared me.
I wondered whether my home church would affirm that gifting, and I wondered if other local churches would respect their affirmation. I knew I had to trust God and it was His calling that mattered most, but I cared about the affirmation of my church family. It was like putting a thermometer in my calling and finding out if it was real and healthy.
I was wrestling pretty regularly and pretty fiercely with trying to understand whether I was being called in the vocational ministry or not during those days.
It was sometime after initially talking with Johnny about being licensed and actually being licensed that I surrendered to a call to vocational ministry. That was January 4, 2000. I didn't know then where that would lead me, and I didn't know that less than a year later I would be a dad, I would've left my wonderful job at the power plant, I would've become a college student, and I would have begun my time as the associate pastor of Berry's Grove Baptist Church. I didn't know that I would go to work for Youth For Christ / My Life Matters, and I didn't know that I would fill pulpits in dozens of churches, be an interim pastor in more than one church, nor did I have a clue that God would allow me to plant a church and pastor it for over 12 years now.
When Johnny wrote that note, I didn't know any of those things were going to happen in the next few months. When Johnny wrote that note, I didn't even know my wife was going to be pregnant in a few short weeks. Wow... God is good.
Absolutely, God is good! Saying "yes" to God in the moment mattered. I didn't need to understand all the nexts that were to follow. I just needed to say "yes," and to trust and obey.
Proverbs 3:5–6
[5] Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
[6] In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths. (ESV)
Praise God. Amen.
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