Looking back.. and forward

Just finished reading my bible. 1st Timothy chapter four it was today, and really some refreshing thoughts and verses that came back to me once more. Looking back at how far I've come in the last 8yrs of service, starting from the most minute manner til where I am now, it's been verses like those I've read tonight that really paved the way I walked my Christian life.

It's no wonder 1st and 2nd Timothy are my favourite books of the bible. Why? I don't really understand it either but since I've started studying the bible at the age of 15, the words spoken in the 2 books seems to fit right into my life. Somehow I knew my life was meant for serving God's people in a role of a leader. The contents of 1st and 2nd Timothy were written by Paul, to his young apprentice of a pastor, Timothy. And every instruction, however shortly phrased, seemed to carry significant weightage from Paul's overwhelming experience in leadership. At the tender age of 15, to read those words was like copying and pasting Paul's entire wisdom folder into my harddisk. It was, and still is an awesome experience.

1 Tim 4:8
But godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

1 Tim 4:12
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

My entire adolescence hung on these verses, and none as delicate as to stand upon them in faith to believe that it is possible to be an example for ALL believers in speech, life, love, faith, purity and godliness. And now after serving the Lord for a good 8 yrs, reading these verses brings back a sense of nostalgia I can't describe with words. It's like seeing the words that described your entire life up til this date, words that moulded your history, your past, your present and God be willing, future. I think upon it so much tonight in view of what Jason had said to me on Sunday over dinner, that I would be the youngest zone leader in The Ministry. I had the opportunity to think upon this further over the week and my honest opinion is that it is a really daunting task. To entertain is something so easy to do. A new script, a new show, another Sunday past. But caring for a group of youths ain't that easy, it's so much more than that. It's certainly no chicken pie..

1 Tim 4:15-16
Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

I take these with me thru my dreams tonight, and into the days that are to come. For to me these are more than printed words on a best selling book, it's more than instructions from a wise old man of days before, it's the very key words that will - hopefully - pave an enduring, eventful and delightful service to the Lord in the youth ministry.

Hmm.. so now, how bout the worship ministry? I'll have to chew on that further. 1st Timothy Chapter 5 tomorrow maybe? Haha..