jon mark

some of you may know that in the last couple of years i have really felt the Lord calling me into full time ministry. that being said i get on a website daily to see what church positions are open. more often then not i’ll be reading the job description and i will come to the words, “the ideal candidate will…” then it goes on with a long list of prerequisites for the position. i don’t have 47 years of experience or 47 initials after my name for all of the degrees i hold. and some days i don’t feel that i am all that spiritually mature, as is always a requirement. so i started to let satan have his way in my mind and cause me to doubt that God really wanted me in full time ministry, or if He could even use me.

but then one day in my quiet time the Lord really challenged me with a story found in john 4 where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. there are so many great things in this story. usually i focus on the whole issue of worship. but that morning i kept reading on. the woman, who was living in sin, believed and went on to tell others in her town. twice it says that people came to faith in Christ after she went and told about Him. in fact it says, “Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said…” (john 4:39, NLT) all she did was tell about Jesus and many believed.

God was able to use a woman, which during that time was a big deal. not only that she was a woman who was living in sin. she had been married five times and was living with a man she wasn’t married to. she wasn’t the “ideal candidate” at all, Jesus had the disciples with him, they could’ve been used, yet with God’s forgiveness and grace this woman was able to do God’s work.

for whatever reason i had never really “seen” this part of the story before. that morning i had a great peace in knowing that God could use me if i would allow Him to. i need to live in that grace that He is given me and trust that He is able to work through me.

i have one other person that i will share about next time, who wasn’t an “ideal candidate”. and yet again God was able to use him to do great and mighty things.