Intern Corner
It was a pleasure to host the University of North Florida
RUF minister, Tommy Parks, along with both his family
and RUF group this month.
Our little college group joined them for fellowship on Friday
evening at Point Pleasant.
You may have noticed, as I have myself, that the New Testament writings have a lot to say about the order of a household.
Husbands loving wives. Wives submitting to husbands. Kids obeying parents. It should be no surprise then that one of the
qualifications for an elder centers on the management of the household. I am thinking of 1 Timothy 3: 4-5: “He must manage
his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household,
how will he care for God’s church?”
The longer I serve both as a father and minster (in training), I see the deep wisdom in this injunction. Not only is there a
command, but within the command there is also an encouragement. Yes, men who wish to serve as rulers in the church of
God must serve well in the home. Yet as I serve as a father in my home, I find that there is in the experience a strange mixture
of honest failure and bewildering success. I find in my children the sin that I have come to know in me. I see my rebellion in
theirs, my laziness in their sloth, my bad jokes in their sense of humor, and my hard-heartedness in their stubborn ways. It is
like having three little mirrors running around my house catching me at all the wrong angles. I discipline, I teach, exhort and
encourage and still it is there. The ever-present sin remains wicked as ever, the reflection honest as ever. But then, surprisingly,
I turn to see something else. In the midst of the display of my fallen humanity, there is grace. A child repents. Another does
an unexpected kindness. I hear them quietly singing a hymn to themselves—the one I thought that they had never learned.
The ground, as it were, bears fruit of itself. The encouragement does not sprout up when and where I expect it, but it does
sprout. The sowing is not in vain. All the seemingly futile efforts at parenting have not been for naught. And it is this that is
encouraging. It is this that a minister needs. He needs to know that the Lord causes the growth. He brings the increase. He
is faithful and is about the business of making use of all the dirt and grime of the process to nourish and feed the seed we
sow. How can we manage well if we are unaware of this simple, but true reality? I see it in the college ministry. I see the dirt
and grime of sin. I see the honest failures. But I also am pleasantly surprised by the little seedling sprouting out of that mess.
Indian girls knocking at our door unexpectedly. Tears falling from a face which minutes before was hardened in unbelief. A
desire to read Scripture and pray together.
God is at work.
There is the sign of life. He is bringing about an increase in His way and His time. For this I am thankful, and by it I am
taught to busily rest and trust in Him. I pray that such trust will also find its reflection in those mirrors which move about our
home, not only my children, but also the college students. I hope that you who read this will pray the same with me. Amen.
—Evan Gear
MESSENGER
MARCH 2018
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