In And Out

I read something the other day that brought me back to a verse I have had show up many many times in my walk with the Lord…

2 Tim 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ESV

I always felt that it was a challenge to be instantly ready and available any time, at any moment, but Oswald Chambers had a different view. Season doesn’t have anything to do with time, it refers to us, whether we like it or not. It’s speaking to our doing only what we feel inclined to do, which more often than not results in doing nothing. Chambers refers to folks in this category as “unemployables” in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually decrepit and refuse to do anything unless they are somehow spiritually inspired. The truth is just the opposite. When our relationship with our Lord is in the right place, we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.

Here is Chamber’s challenge: “When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration, you say – now I will always be like this for God.” The truth is that you won’t because God will ensure that you are not like that. We need to understand that times like those are a precious gift from God, they do not come from ourselves. They are entirely His.

Chambers calls this making a god out of one of “your” moments. This is when God backs out of your life until you have learned not to try and make something out those moments and you are walking with Him, prepared to be instant in season and out of season as He directs. And that means having the Word locked up in your spirit to be able to preach [share] the gospel when the Holy Spirit directs, not when we feel it’s the right time. Always standing fast at your post, ready to embrace every opportunity the Lord brings your way, whether that opportunity is convenient or inconvenient. It’s God’s moment not yours. This is how Albert Barnes described it:

“He is not to confine himself to the appointed times of worship, or to preach only when it will be perfectly convenient for himself, but he is to have such an interest and earnestness in the work, that it will lead him to do it in the face of embarrassments and discouragements, and whenever he can find an opportunity. A man who is greatly intent on an object will seek every opportunity to promote it. He will not confine himself to stated times and places, but will present it everywhere, and at all times. A man, therefore, who merely confines himself to the stated seasons of preaching the gospel, or who merely preaches when it is convenient to himself, should not consider that he has come up to the requirement of the rule laid down by the apostle. He should preach in his private conversation, and in the intervals of his public labors, at the side of the sick bed, and wherever there is a prospect of doing good to any one. If his heart is full of love to the Saviour and to souls, he cannot help doing this.”

The bottom line is that we need to be ready to share the gospel and not let any opportunity  slip by [in season]; and likewise when we don’t feel its the right time [out of season]. It’s the Lord’s call whether we like it or not because we don’t know when the Holy Spirit will be working on a persons heart.

And critically important … let it be known that In and Out Burger is in Denver and we hope it’s only a matter of time before a Double Double is on the menu in Fort Collins. I had one in Phoenix just to be sure I’m fully prepared!