Negligence

Jeremiah 48: 10 Cursed is he who does the work of Jehovah negligently,

A couple of days ago the Lord shocked me with a verse of warning, "Cursed is he who does the work of Jehovah negligently." Recently I have made some lame excuses in not visiting the saints in their homes. I kind-of lethargically left it to others to do the home meetings with the excuse that more saints may be brought to function and that I better not replace their functions. But it turned out that the intended home meetings were not carried out at all. A couple of times, a brother reminded me to go to visit some families, but I silently ignored him with lame excuses. But praise the Lord, the Lord is the living Lord, He spoke and spoke again in times of need.

So I exercised my spirit and will power to visit these saints in their homes even without making prior appointments. One was a mother and a grown up son. Their faith was so weak that even the abandoned religion was invading them back. Though their faith in the Lord is still alive, they need much supply of healthy spiritual food. Our time together was so blessed. The other was a family who could not regularly come for the meeting for circumstantial reason. But our visit brought much warmth in their love for the Lord and the church life. 

True to the Lord's word, they were all in great need of shepherding. Shepherding did not entail any special qualifications. Just a simple heart of loving the Lord and loving the saints is sufficient. A visit in shepherding love is worth more than a hundred messages in the air. When in home visit, the saints' real situation were made known, their hearts warmed up and opened up to receive the ministry of the word. Thereby, paving the way for the Lord to recover them. First, inwardly and then their whole being too. 

I must not and cannot be negligent in the Lord's work. I must be diligent in carrying out the Lord's work. What is out from Him will be supplied with abundant grace to carry out His purpose. What I thought would be difficult was actually enjoyable as He supplied much grace. 

As serving ones and to all serving ones, let us not negligent be for "Cursed is he who does the work of Jehovah negligently." But rather be those in Mathew 24:45, "Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom the master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time?"