My Personal Faithful Trouble-Maker

Saturday 5-30-15 (La Lucila, Argentina)

Scripture reading:  Prov 13-15    Rom 11

S.  Prov 14:4  An empty stable stays clean, but no income comes from an empty stable. NLT

O.  The more we prosper, the more we have to clean the stable.

A.  I once had a friend that accepted the task of serving as pastor of a troubled church.  He felt that he had identified the guilty ones and started cleaning the stable.  Soon he could brag that he had a “trouble-free church”… because the seats were now empty.

I had another friend that had a “trouble-maker” in his church.  He told me that he felt that the Lord placed that person in his church for his personal benefit.  He said he was learning and growing in character from the difficult experiences apparently caused by his “faithful trouble-maker.” 

A church full of new converts is a mess.  But it is a glorious mess.  The pastor and his helpers have to be cleaning up differences and squalls behind each crowded meeting.  A clean church is an empty church.

P.   Lord, give it to them!  Whip ‘em good!  Hear me!  I’m pleading to You to change them… and instead You start working on my heart to change me.  Just ‘taint fair!’  I know I am in the right, Lord.  My two best deacons agree with me!  The other three just don’t have the facts.  Hey Lord, are you even listening to me?  You are?  Oh!  And now You have something to say to me?  But Lord, I haven’t spelled out the facts yet.  Oh!  You already know the facts?  Okay, Lord, You win!  You win!  You always win!  I guess You placed them there to polish me into a brighter, shining light.  I hope it works.  Oh!  It will if I let it?  Let’s talk about it tomorrow.  I think I have had all I can swallow for today.  Amen.  

Ralph