Am I over re-acting?

I was leading mens bible study for about 6months, I started in January. It was going well for a few months, then a few times no one would show uo and I ended up being there alone. People would come and go and after the second time no one showed up I felt maybe I should the stop the bible study; postbone it for the rest of the summer and start it up back in the fall, tif there is still interest. Somedays it would be full, sometimes 2 or 3(including myself) some understood and thought it was a good idea. What happens is that they ended up discussing it together and wanted to continue doing it. One guy said he would fill in and take over. I felt hurt about that because I thought we were all on the same page on waiting and I felt I had some type of ownership to it, it was a way I could serve the Lord and others. I stepped up in the beginning to lead it for the men our sunday school class. Instead of communicating to me about it, they planned on doing class anyways. It was the first time I have ever lead and taught a class and I felt it was special to me to lead and help draw out Gods truths for others. I love helping others to dig deeper into the Word, to swim in His WOrd. I love seeing the Holy Spirit encourage them.

Anyways thats about it, I am trying not to be silly, but I felt hurt. I ended up going to my brother and sharing how I felt. he said he understood how I would feel that way, but I can be a little neuritoc at times.
:-( :-)

Brother, you said you "felt" some sort of "ownership" for "stepping up". You may want to prayerfully consider your motives for "leading" this group.

"But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that [i]the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. [b]But it shall not be so among you:[/b][/i] but [i][b]whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:[/b][/i] Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (MATT 20:25-28)

The thing is no men in church step up and serve. the sit on the side lines. There is nothing wrong for having some ownership in something, taking some leadership in something. I felt my motives were fine, the class needed someone to lead a bible study and felt that God wanted me to step up. Jesus never rebuked the disciples when they asked who will be the greatest in the kingdom. there is nothing wrong with have a desire to lead and accomplish. Look at Nehemiah and Ezra. Nehemiah was probably the best example of leadership.

Corey I know you don't even believe in the church "building" and even attend a place of fellowsip, according to previous discussions on other threads, so there is some bias in your comment about the question.i do appreciate it though, but I prayed about my motives and felt that they were in line, but the heart can be deceptive.

Reformer it sounds as if you have been censored by the cold water commmittee at your church. I don't know all the facts, but I know the drill. I launched church website about a year ago and I am the webmaster. I started in June putting the Pastors Sunday audio messages on the site just in case someone wanted to listen to them again or there was sickness and if they had internet service then could listen to them if they missed church. I had a thought inside of me that told me to change the site counter to 1 unique hit per day, per visitor. When I received the first counter report after the change, most days the site got 1 to 3 hits, in a church of 125 people on most Sundays. Busted my bubble, does no one want to hear the word? I also taught an Adult Bible class for a while and so many in the class wanted to justify abortion, homosexual marrige being ok and some would comment about the ACLU being a always being a fine organization. It seemed to me, that some of their affilitions of earthly organizations in their philosphy took precident over God's Word. I was struggling with my health to be there every Sunday anyway, so I resigned. The answer may be in Jeremaih. No one may listen to you, we may be criticized, but if you are speaking truth, you must continue to speak it anyway because it burns in our bones. I think there comes a times when we dust our feet off and go on down the road and he is plenty capable of telling when. It is great when we can please our fellow man, our brothers and our sisters and please the Lord at the same time, but when there is a choice to be made, you know which one is the wise choice.
God Bless
moe_mac

reformer,

Sorry if what I wrote and quoted from scripture came off the wrong way. The reason I asked you to consider your motive is because of my own failings in the area of spiritual pride.

Soon after I was quickened in the Spirit I delved deeply into the scriptures and listened to many sermons a day by A.W. Tozer, etc. The Holy Spirit taught me many new and exciting things during my readings, meditations and prayers and I began to fancy myself a great interpreter. I imagined I would become a great teacher and preacher of the gospel and would bring enlightenment to the masses... But this is the error of spiritual pride.

If I'm not first producing the fruits of the Spirit such as love, charity, and compassion in whatever small way I can, I'm in no way fit to preach those things to others. It is therefore necessary to develop and cultivate a deeply personal relationship with God [i]so that[/i] I may learn to trust and rely on Him [i]so that[/i] I can surrender to the Spirit's promptings and powers [i]so that[/i] He may work Good through me.

As John the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30)

If I attempt to preach the Word before living the Word, I am a hypocrite. If I'm a hypocrite, I'm not in the Kingdom.

God is completely fulfilled in and of Himself: His glory and kingdom will not be increased or decreased by any action of mine. Thus, it seems expedient for me to take the low seat at the feast until such a time as my Lord calls me to a higher one.

In the meantime I must remain patient and persevere in faith with the small things before I'm promoted to the larger ones.

Again, sorry if I offended.

"But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." (MATT 23:8-12)

"When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (LUKE 14:8-11)

Maybe you should consider that perhaps the role God wanted for you in all of this was to get the thing started. And then someone else would take it from there. A lot of times the person who begins a thing isnt the one who ends up navigating. Certain people are visionaries, and are good at getting things off the ground. Once other people catch on to the idea it can take on a life of it's own.

Let it go, brother. Deny yourself and your pride.

Krispy

JelloTaster wrote:
1Co 6:7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

Perhaps, brother, you have some reason to be hurt as it appears there has been some miscommunication and you've got the short end of the stick. However, in 1 Cor. Paul is telling us that we are to humble ourselves and allow ourselves to be hurt or mistreated by others rather than cause strife and bitterness in the brotherhood. My recommendation is that you rejoice because God is allowing you to grow in this area! God knows what's happening and He intends to use you in this ministry, He'll put you in the place He desires. Chris[/quote

Thanks brother, that was all I was looking for, someone to understand and cause me to think. Not to just throw out rebukes. Thanks for the gentleness and comfort; that is a great verse. I was not sure what kind of responses I would get, I know that most are willing to throw the sword quickly and without thought.

Thanks