Open the eyes of my heart that I may see and respond.
Open the eyes of my heart to see the hurts of others.
Open the eyes of my heart that I may join You in mission.
Open the eyes of my heart that I may bring You glory.
All that You want me to do is clear – if only I would see.
All that I am to say is clear – if only I would listen to Your Spirit.
Opportunities abound.
Hurts are all around.
People are lost.
People are searching.
Open my eyes that I may lead them to know they are found.
May I not stall.
May I not turn away.
May I not give excuses.
May I not seek my own way.
Open the eyes of my heart that I may see You and follow You –
Anywhere and everywhere.
Open, oh Lord, open.
Open the eyes of my heart.
Amen!
LCMC Annual Gathering
Jesus Is Worth It
I am in Omaha, NE at the LCMC (Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ) Annual Gathering. I look forward to this event every year to connect with friends and colleagues in fellowship, worship and networking. It is also a time when I am encouraged in my faith. Case in point, at our opening worship on Sunday, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart through the sermon on Romans 10:14 and thus the following poem flowed out. Praise be to God!
I am a sinner that is true.
God’s wrath is most certainly due.
I fall short through every action.
My deeds have no satisfaction.
But Jesus died that I may live.
And thus to God all glory give.
He is worthy of all my praise.
To Him I will direct my gaze.
But Satan wants me to just quit;
Saying Jesus is not worth it.
But Jesus holds me ever close,
So thus to Satan, “adios”.
And so I’ll live my life for Him.
And not let my light ever dim.
So may I keep on standing strong.
That I may ever sing Your song.
Time to Reap
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
[Matthew 9:37-38]
Have you prayed about this? Have you noticed what Jesus is saying; that the harvest is plentiful? Have you asked Jesus to send people into the field to reap the harvest? Well, have you? Now, have you included yourself in that prayer? No? Well, why not? I bet you’ve said something along the lines of, “I’m not qualified“, “I’m too old“, “I’m too young”, “I’m retired”, or any number of other lame excuses. Yes, I just said that, “lame excuses‘, because that’s what they are. If Jesus sends you into the mission field then Jesus will qualify you. And Jesus has sent you because your mission field are the people in your immediate social network.
What social network? I’m not on Facebook or Twitter?
I’m not talking about social media but your social NETWORK; those people you interact with on a regular basis. They are your family, friends, neighbors, restaurant servers, child’s teacher, UPS delivery person, coworkers, etc, etc, etc. You get the point, right? You are already smack dab in the middle of the plentiful harvest. And the workers that are needed?
YOU!!!
Pray not only that God would send workers into the harvest but pray that God would use you. Don’t just pray for revival in the church but pray that revival begins with you. I guarantee you that if you pray boldly like this; for God to send you into the harvest, God will do something amazing through you for His glory. Besides, those people closest to you, why wouldn’t you want them to know about Jesus?
So go ahead, pray the prayer and then hold on. The harvest is ready. Will you go for Jesus?
The Pastor -|—
The Heart of a Pastor 