God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
So be encouraged, Christian, that the best is still yet to come. Death is your portal into glory. Lose the false concepts of heaven. If eternity is nothing more than having little wings that can’t support your oversized body as you sit on a cloud playing a harp, you can’t count me out. Even if heaven is only the best this world has to offer, many can easily lose interest. I mean, after all, how long can you play golf, even if the course has no water hazards or sand traps? Rather heaven will be the fulfillment of everything our hearts have been built to desire… Fix your minds on the things above. Set your hearts on the eternal!
If God has called someone to ministry He will provide the grace to meet the qualifications for it. The biblical criteria for those in church leadership pertain not only to intellectual and theological skills but also to character, with an emphasis on moral and spiritual maturity. Any effort aimed at identifying those called to church leadership and providing encouragement to them must entail appropriate steps at character development [according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1].
