looking back

Sunday July 5^th, Ezekiel 2: He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me.  We are commissioned and sent into this world as the children of God.  It is not always a bed of roses.  Often it is those closest to home to whom it is the most difficult to bring the message.  But as God calls you, God has already been in the process of preparing you for the task.  Preparation on our part is good most of the time, but sometimes it is also a way to avoid the task given to us.  For the each and every day evangelism we face in our lives, the ones where someone is dropped right before us in need of hearing the word, there are generally two reasons.  One is that person needs to hear the word from you that day and God has set up the meeting.  Sometimes that meeting is in a most unusual place, like a supermarket aisle, but remember God has set it up and you are ready for it.  The other is that God has set up this meeting because the other person needs to bring the word, and perhaps a little eye opening in the process, for us to hear and experience.  Most of the time both tasks are performed simultaneously.  In most events we are ministering and being ministered to.  It is usually only looking back on it that we can begin to discern the difference.