Homage to the Doer

Doers make things happen. It's true. There is a beauty to one who will reach into formlessness and mold, shape, and build some thing. There are so many great aspects to speak of concerning doing, that it is impossible to address each one. Nevertheless I shall try to articulate a few that resonate with me.

First, there is the doing or the building of some thing. There is a joy in doing something and doing it well. For the sake of itself. Not because you are working for someone else or because you are doing the minimal amount of work possible that you can get away with. No, there is something powerful in loving what you are doing so that when you are finished, it is done well and it conforms to the exacting standards that excellency requires. Contrasted with the slovenly, half hearted efforts of one who does not care and does not respect oneself enough to do the best they can, it is the difference between night and day.

Secondly, something takes place in the doer themselves when they perform up to their maximum effort. Integrity, responsibility, healthy ambition, and appreciation for excellence are all birthed in the doing of a thing when it is done well. Here's one; appreciation for the value of what is being done. In planting a church, I have learned that men and women who have done this are heroes to be honored and esteemed. This is even more true when the church stays the course of truth over the years, thrives, and produces godly saints that impact their world. Folks, it is hard work paying a church off and establishing it.

I thank God for those who have reached into the cesspool of worldly society, grabbed ahold of a soul, delivered it through the Acts 2:38 message, and then teach and train them into a victorious, overcoming life. Conversely, it is a travesty when a young man comes along that has never done, and because of that fact does not understand the platform given to him by a man or woman much greater than himself that has. Often the shallow will think they are heading into modern and enlightened opportunity by embracing modern ideologies and discarding as irrelevant truths carefully obtained at tear drenched altars. While claiming relevance, they in reality are giving away piece by piece, the blood, sweat, and tears of decades of faithful laboring saints and pastors that have died for the kingdom of God. Decades can be lost in a matter of a few years of spiritual ineptitude.

I am afraid that I am seeing too often in my travels looks of despair and hopelessness in the eyes of the elders as they look upon a new generation eager to launch into worldliness and a casual, maudlin approach to the eternal sacred truths of the Word of God. Young man, young lady commit yourself to the doing of the Work of God. Teach Home Bible Studies, devour the Word of God, pray into the wee hours of the morning, wrestle against the pervasive ungodliness of this generation. In doing so, not only will you do the Work of God, the doing of it will create steel within you that will not bend.

You will understand what price was paid to get to where you are. The dangers of compromise with the world will be illuminated starkly for you, and you will weep over the fact that you did not see them because your senses were not exercised to discern them. Or in other words, you didn't know what you were looking at. The doing of the work of God has placed something within me that no amount of carnal reasoning could. A fatal mistake of many is reasoning with backslidden people who have never done. Often they will be the sons and daughters of doers, but will not be doers themselves. Often you will find in the background of the compromisor a doer that built the platform upon which the compromisor stands. The doer will be clean cut, disciplined, and godly, while the compromisor will be slick, polished, scruffy, and trendy. While they tear down the ideals of preceding generations (all the while praising the godliness of their predecessors), they don't stop to consider that the church they stand in was paid for by the principles they now so glibly condemn. Many times the doer that went before the compromisor would not keep company with the descendant that has never done anything on their own. The descendant now uses the blessings of the doer's years of labor to promote a secular Christian ideal that the original doer would have resisted and condemned if they were still alive. It is so easy to criticize and speak of double standards and modern enlightenment when you have never done. Go sweat, go bleed, go feel the pressure of laying your all on the line and then see if you are so quick to criticize the doer and throw out all they ever stood for.

I know many doers who are becoming hesitant to do because doers are often criticized. It is simple to criticize something done when the critic has done nothing themselves. They are immune from criticism because there is nothing to criticize. I cannot tell you the amount of people who told me I could not start a church for various reasons or that I was doing it wrong. The truth is when you are taking the risk, when you are paying for it, when you believe in it, God will honor it if it is done according to the Scripture. His Word does not fail. As a matter of fact, the Scripture becomes more alive to you then ever before. Scriptures that you took for granted and yawned your way through become poignant and real. You will weep tears at the truth that speaks to you from the pen of another in millennia past that experienced the exact same fear or hope that you currently face. The Divine unction that prompted them to put pen to paper will course through you and will ring like a gong in your spirit. This experience will never be felt by the half hearted, the spoiled, the fearful, the skeptic, the critic, or the unbelieving. It is a lock that only opens with the insertion of the key of doing. C'mon what are you scared of? Step out and do the things you read of in the Word of God.