Utumishi Blog

Mid-week and it feels like we’re warming up and going a bit deeper – in getting to know one another and in getting into the Word. Two areas I found really helpful yesterday:

Preparation

• Read, read, read the passage and read, read, read the Bible. To understand the Bible we need to… understand the Bible. There are no short cuts.
• The urgent (pastoral visits, phone calls etc.) easily take the place of the important (preparation) but also (as one brother very honestly put it) the trivial (rearranging the furniture, checking facebook) can easily take the place of the important too.
• There’s a double challenge in many churches here (as another brother shared): You can do a emotional/motivational/pump-up sermon with little preparation and you will be appreciated. In contrast if you go for an expository/Bible-driven sermon you will need to sacrifice a lot of time unseen and few will appreciate it.
• Meditation is preparation – chewing over  the text for a few days is the way to go.

Humility (Philippians 2)

• “Humility has difficulty co-existing with self-awareness.” We need to get our eyes off ourselves and look to the interests of others and especially Christ.
• Without humility, Christian life and ministry cannot exist. Prayer, learning, mentoring, true leadership – all require a daily humbling.
• “You really know you are a true servant when you have a positive reaction towards people when they treat you like one.”

Please pray for us as we work together later today especially on applying God’s Word.