Live or die, stick and serve...TOGETHER!

We must go together...

Both those called into leadership ministry and all the believers they lead must go together in the Lord. There is only one Body. We share Christ together. There is no room for self-exaltation. There is no room for demanding our own way, but only room for us discovering God's way together.

horizon on Highway 49 South between Roxboro and Bushy Fork.
Storm or sun, leaders face the horizon together. 

The passage below has been difficult for me. Why? I fully understand Paul's allusion, under the inspiration of the Spirit, that such as minister the evangelistic, sanctifying ministry of the word are as those who were brought out to the Roman games.

The apostles, Paul asserted, were like those people who were part of the Roman Colosseum games whose only fate was destruction. They were brought out at the end of the day's games to be torn to bits by animals or destroyed by gladiators just for the entertainment of the crowd. If such a victim survived today, they would brought ought again the next day; if they survived again, they would be brought out again...and again...and again...until such time as they were destroyed.

Or, perhaps Paul was thinking of conquered and captured prisoners, paraded before the citizenry before being destroyed.

Either way, such ones are used for the building up of the saints but often unappreciated by those very saints.

Paul said, "For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things." (1 Corinthians 4:7-13 ESV)

This phrase: "...exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world..." Whew, I get tired thinking about it...

No comfort. No retirement. Used until used up.
Well, that is if such use is only counted in temporal terms.

Whether leaders or the led, we must go together. Period.

So, to all you who are called to lead, salute. Press on. Fight the good fight. Do not grow weary in doing good. Rejoice always. Pray all the time. Rejoice in all circumstances.

And, if today didn't kill you, trot out tomorrow and get used again.