God of mercy and peace, send Your rich blessings of both upon this dear reader. In Jesus' Name, amen.
I was richly blessed during this entire weekend. On Friday night and all day Saturday, Nellie and I participated at the Pastors Beach Retreat for the McAllen District. The Rev. Bob Allen, district superintendent of the Kerrville District shared with us the principles of Partners in Ministry, on which we will spend this week. On Sunday we woke up very early to travel to Rio Grande City to participate in that church's 150th birthday. Nellie and I spent a year there in 1979-80 where I was named pastor for my first fulltime appointment. We attended the 8:30 "Spanish" service (not one thing was spoken nor preached in Spanish :( ) and the 11 o'clock worship service, where our bishop, Jim Dorff preached. It was a wonderful event and we were glad we attended.
Partners in Ministry is a training for local churches on how best to partner together in doing the work of the Lord. Too often we leave the ministry to the pastor saying, "That's what s/he gets paid for!" Not so. As baptized Christians we all have a charge and responsibility to grow the Kingdom of God. The PM program has a H.E.A.R.T. method on which we will pray and study this week. The H stands for "Hear and Understand Me."
The Jews have as their Shema, Deut. 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD". To understand know the Lord is our God and that God is one LORD, we must hear. The Psalmist said in Psalm 102:2, "incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily," meaning God hears us when we call on Him. More cannot be said about the importance of truly hearing one another. The old saying is God gave you two ears so that you would listen twice as hard before speaking. Yet, you and I know folks that are so ready to speak they don't hear what we are saying, they're just waiting for a break to get their opinion out. To partner in ministry means to partner in listening and understanding. Not everyone will have the same opinion, but we must listen and try to understand where they are coming from.
Just as God lovingly listens to us, let us today more lovingly listen to one another. Hear for what God may be saying to you in the words of someone. Of course, not everyone will be bringing a message from God, but that's a topic for tomorrow!
PRAYER: O God, as David said, so do I, 'incline your ear to me and answer me speedily.' Let me have a heart and spirit that is willing to listen and understand others. I ask this in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
