January 20 2011, 2:15 pm | Daniel Bollen
I used to think there was nothing worse than filling up your gas tank in the pouring down rain. Unfortunately, today I became enlightened. Filling up your gas tank in the pouring down FREEZING rain is even worse. On top of that… I didn’t have a jacket. I know, I know, real smart right?
So I am standing outside** filling up my tank being pelted by thousands of little bits of flea-sized hail (lets call a spade a spade… frozen rain is just millions of tiny pieces of hail, its nothing special… “don’t try to church it up” ) when it hits me, no pun intended, Paul clearly warned us about this type of situation in scripture. 2 Timothy 2:4 says “be prepared in season and out of season”… I should have listened to Paul and carried my jacket with me. After all, it is the middle of January.
Ok, so maybe that’s not the whole verse, and maybe freezing rain isn’t exactly what Paul had in mind when he said:
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
but I was reminded of this verse yesterday when I received some of the greatest encouragement a middle school pastor could ever receive.
As I was talking to a student who wants to get baptized, I started asking basic questions about his beliefs on salvation and when he felt his salvation experience began. As I continued to ask questions, I found that two other students were instrumental in leading this young man to Christ. He has only been coming to our church for about a year, but during this year, his two friends have had countless conversations answering any questions he had.
These two clearly demonstrated Paul’s words… not only did they preach the word, they were prepared in season and out of season, in church and out of church, in school and out of school. They corrected and rebuke and ultimately encouraged! Another brother has entered the Kingdom because two students were obediant to Paul's call to be prepared… Are you prepared? Because you never know when you may have the most important conversation of someone else's life... and you better believe I am not standing outside in frozen rain/flea sized hail again without a Jacket!
2 Timothy 4:2
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
**Why was I standing out there? Or why didn’t I just flip down the little latch thing that holds the handle down you might ask… umm… maybe because the little latch thing was broken!! That’s right, I chose the one pump that the latch thing was broken on… go figure…**