Day 7/2 – Contrasting Ministries

———/://///

Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
Contrasting Ministries
Day One Hundred Eighty-three

”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

A lawyer came to Jesus with an important question: How does one get to heaven? It is the test of orthodoxy for all religions, and the lawyer wanted to test Jesus. He didn’t want the correct answer; he wanted to see how Jesus would answer. Jesus referred him to the Law, and the Lawyer correctly responded with the summary of the Law. When Jesus agreed with him, he asked, ‘Who is my neighbor?” That question prompted the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The Levite and Priest are vocational religious workers. They were professional ministers and they didn’t love their neighbor. The Samaritan, a layman not in the ministry, loved his neighbor. He who was in the ministry wasn’t ministering, and he who wasn’t in the ministry was ministering. The vocational religious workers saw ministry in terms of programs, the layman in terms of people. The Levite and Priest said, “My meeting is more important than that man’s needs, and if he wants my help, let him come to where I minister and I will meet him on my terms.”

The Samaritan met the stranger on the stranger’s terms. In all probability: 1 – The Samaritan had a schedule he was willing to interrupt for the sake of this need. 2- He probably never saw the stranger before or since. 3 – Getting involved was messy resulting in blood all over his clothes. 4 -The stranger was never able to repay the favor.

How do you view ministry? Are you a Levite or a Samaritan?

———/://///

Job 22-24 Acts 11 (New King James Version)

Job 22-24
Eliphaz Accuses Job of Wickedness
22 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2
“Can a man be profitable to God,
Though he who is wise may be profitable to himself?
3
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous?
Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless?
4
“Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you,
And enters into judgment with you?
5
Is not your wickedness great,
And your iniquity without end?
6
For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason,
And stripped the naked of their clothing.
7
You have not given the weary water to drink,
And you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8
But the [a]mighty man possessed the land,
And the honorable man dwelt in it.
9
You have sent widows away empty,
And the [b]strength of the fatherless was crushed.
10
Therefore snares are all around you,
And sudden fear troubles you,
11
Or darkness so that you cannot see;
And an abundance of water covers you.
12
“Is not God in the height of heaven?
And see the highest stars, how lofty they are!
13
And you say, ‘What does God know?
Can He judge through the deep darkness?
14
Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see,
And He walks above the circle of heaven.’
15
Will you keep to the old way
Which wicked men have trod,
16
Who were cut down before their time,
Whose foundations were swept away by a flood?
17
They said to God, ‘Depart from us!
What can the Almighty do to [c]them?’
18
Yet He filled their houses with good things;
But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19
“The righteous see it and are glad,
And the innocent laugh at them:
20
‘Surely our [d]adversaries are cut down,
And the fire consumes their remnant.’
21
“Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace;
Thereby good will come to you.
22
Receive, please, instruction from His mouth,
And lay up His words in your heart.
23
If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up;
You will remove iniquity far from your tents.
24
Then you will lay your gold in the dust,
And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
25
Yes, the Almighty will be your [e]gold
And your precious silver;
26
For then you will have your delight in the Almighty,
And lift up your face to God.
27
You will make your prayer to Him,
He will hear you,
And you will pay your vows.
28
You will also declare a thing,
And it will be established for you;
So light will shine on your ways.
29
When they cast you down, and you say, ‘Exaltation will come!’
Then He will save the humble person.
30
He will even deliver one who is not innocent;
Yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands.”
Job Proclaims God’s Righteous Judgments
23 Then Job answered and said:
2
“Even today my complaint is bitter;
[f]My hand is listless because of my groaning.
3
Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might come to His seat!
4
I would present my case before Him,
And fill my mouth with arguments.
5
I would know the words which He would answer me,
And understand what He would say to me.
6
Would He contend with me in His great power?
No! But He would take note of me.
7
There the upright could reason with Him,
And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
8
“Look, I go forward, but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
9
When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;
When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
10
But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
11
My foot has held fast to His steps;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
12
I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth
More than my [g]necessary food.
13
“But He is unique, and who can make Him change?
And whatever His soul desires, that He does.
14
For He performs what is appointed for me,
And many such things are with Him.
15
Therefore I am terrified at His presence;
When I consider this, I am afraid of Him.
16
For God made my heart weak,
And the Almighty terrifies me;
17
Because I was not cut off [h]from the presence of darkness,
And He did not hide deep darkness from my face.
Job Complains of Violence on the Earth
24
“Since times are not hidden from the Almighty,
Why do those who know Him see not His days?
2
“Some remove landmarks;
They seize flocks violently and feed on them;
3
They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
They take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
4
They push the needy off the road;
All the poor of the land are forced to hide.
5
Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert,
They go out to their work, searching for food.
The wilderness yields food for them and for their children.
6
They gather their fodder in the field
And glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
7
They spend the night naked, without clothing,
And have no covering in the cold.
8
They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
And huddle around the rock for want of shelter.
9
“Some snatch the fatherless from the breast,
And take a pledge from the poor.
10
They cause the poor to go naked, without clothing;
And they take away the sheaves from the hungry.
11
They press out oil within their walls,
And tread winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12
The dying groan in the city,
And the souls of the wounded cry out;
Yet God does not charge them with wrong.
13
“There are those who rebel against the light;
They do not know its ways
Nor abide in its paths.
14
The murderer rises with the light;
He kills the poor and needy;
And in the night he is like a thief.
15
The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
Saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
And he [i]disguises his face.
16
In the dark they break into houses
Which they marked for themselves in the daytime;
They do not know the light.
17
For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death;
If someone recognizes them,
They are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
18
“They should be swift on the face of the waters,
Their portion should be cursed in the earth,
So that no one would turn into the way of their vineyards.
19
As drought and heat [j]consume the snow waters,
So [k]the grave consumes those who have sinned.
20
The womb should forget him,
The worm should feed sweetly on him;
He should be remembered no more,
And wickedness should be broken like a tree.
21
For he [l]preys on the barren who do not bear,
And does no good for the widow.
22
“But God draws the mighty away with His power;
He rises up, but no man is sure of life.
23
He gives them security, and they rely on it;
Yet His eyes are on their ways.
24
They are exalted for a little while,
Then they are gone.
They are brought low;
They are [m]taken out of the way like all others;
They dry out like the heads of grain.
25
“Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar,
And make my speech worth nothing?”
Footnotes:
• Job 22:8 Lit. man of arm
• Job 22:9 Lit. arms
• Job 22:17 LXX, Syr. us
• Job 22:20 LXX substance is
• Job 22:25 Ancient vss. suggest defense; MT gold, as in v. 24
• Job 23:2 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX, Syr. His
• Job 23:12 Lit. appointed portion
• Job 23:17 Or by or before
• Job 24:15 Lit. puts a covering on his face
• Job 24:19 Lit. seize
• Job 24:19 Or Sheol
• Job 24:21 Lit. feeds on
• Job 24:24 Lit. gathered up

Acts 11
Peter Defends God’s Grace
11 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, 3 saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”
4 But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me. 6 When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered me again from heaven, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’ 10 Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven. 11 At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea. 12 Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, 14 who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.’ 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”
18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”
Barnabas and Saul at Antioch
19 Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. 20 But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.
22 Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. 23 When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. 24 For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. 26 And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
Relief to Judea
27 And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. 29 Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. 30 This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.