Thank You Henry T. Blackaby

"While I pastored Faith Baptist Church in Saskatoon, we began to sense God leading us to an outreach ministry to the college campus....Our denominational student ministries department recommended we begin with a Bible study in the dorms, and it did not work.  One Sunday I pulled our students together and said, "This week I want you to go to the campus and watch to see where God is working and join Him."...

"According to [Romans 3:10-11 and John 6:44] no one is going to seek God on his own initiative.  No one will ask after spiritual matters unless God is at work in his life.  When you see someone seeking God or asking about spiritual matters, you are seeing God at work.  That is something only God does in a life."  

On Wednesday one of the girls reported, "Oh Pastor, a girl who has been in classes with me for two years came to me after class today.  She said, 'I think you might be a Christian.  I need to talk to you.'  I remembered what you said.  I had a class, but I missed it.  We went to the cafeteria to talk.  She said, 'Eleven of us girls in the dorm have been studying the Bible, and none of us are Christians.  Do you know somebody who can lead us in a Bible study?"

As a result of that contact, we started three Bible study groups in the women's dorms and two in the men's dorm.  For almost two years we tried to do something for God and failed.  For three days we looked to see where God was working and joined Him.  What a difference that made!  Over the following years many students trusted Christ as Savior and Lord.  Many of those surrendered to full-time ministry and are now serving as pastors and  missionaries all over the world."

(Experiencing God: Henry T. Blackaby (pages 69-71))

This so eloquently puts into words what I have wondered for a long time.  When we are busy 'doing ministry' are we really looking for what God is already doing, or are we too occupied with our own agendas?  And even if we were looking, would we stop what we were doing and address someone's spiritual questions or would we shove them aside until a more 'convenient' time?  And if we did stop what we were doing, have we spent enough time getting to know our Father to adequately answer the questions?

Today, those are the things that make me go hmmmmm.