Today is a special day!

Six or seven years ago, I was on staff at Crosswinds Community Church. I served as Associate, and Youth Pastor. The church wanted to ordain me for gospel ministry, and we were moving forward to do so. Then as I was doing my routine study, I heard from the Lord about this. He specifically told me that I was not to go through with ordination at this time. I did not understand, but knew I needed to be obedient.

I told the pastor, and then the church. They agreed to license, but not ordain me. They did not have an issue with doing it this way. I was very thankful. They are precious people.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why God had postponed this. I came up with no solid answers (shocking, I know). I have often wondered over the years if I had done something wrong, or otherwise gotten in the way of His plan, and was being punished. Seldom did I really feel this way, but it is the thought process I went through.

I remember when He first called me into ministry back in 1997. I was convinced my ministry would start within the year. I could not see anyway that it would take longer. Shocking, but I was wrong again. I saw full time ministry as the only solution to what He had called me to, yet He did not lead me to full time ministry until two years ago.

Now 9 years later, I am finally going to be ordained. I am very excited. This time, I went to Him with the question, is it right this time? The words he gave me were from Esther 4... "for such a time as this, you have been raised up." As I thought this over, and wanted to know if my God was really the author of this, I received confirmation from someone very close to me, who unknowingly spoke those exact words just when I was asking the question, without being aware of my conversations with the Lord.

Tonight, it is to finally happen. I Praise God, and am humbled that He would allow me to serve Him in this way. I do wish BJ could have been a part of this service, but truly, my Father knows best.

dad (brent)