READ: Malachi 1:6-14
“Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.” – Psalm 26:8
Many people dishonour God when they take His calling lightly. They prefer to work for unbelievers than to work for Jesus. They prefer to go for missions for the United Nations or the UNHCR, the WHO or the Red Cross. They are prepared to be in any country of the world for any of these organisations. Many people are happy that their children work for such organisations, even if it is in the most dangerous countries of the world. But they despise and reject the idea that their children would be missionaries to the nations of the world.
I have had families send their drug addicted children to the bible school to become pastors when they were still hooked onto their drugs. I have had people send their children with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses to the bible school. I have had people sending their children with hydrocephalus and severe mental retardation to the bible school. These same people would not send their normal children to the bible school to become pastors. They send their normal children to the university and their abnormal, uncontrollable children to the bible school. They assume that God’s work should be done by social dropouts and mentally ill people. This is the highest kind of dishonour to the work of ministry. It is an insult to the intelligence of God.
I have had wives warn their husbands to stay away from me so that they would not be contaminated with the idea of working in full-time ministry. Is that not the demeaning of full-time ministry? Why wouldn’t you want your husband to work for the Lord? Is it not an honourable thing to work for the Lord? Who should be in full-time ministry? Should it be only idiots and ne’er do wells that work for God? Remember that as you despise God, He will also lightly esteem you!