It\u2019s called \u201cthe mic creep.\u201d It occurs when, in the midst of a program or service, the emcee begins to move toward a guest speaker to indicate \u201cit\u2019s time to wrap it up\u2026you\u2019re going long.\u201d I\u2019ve used the move many times myself, but recently I had \u201cmic creep\u201d occur to me! I saw it happening out of the corner of my eye, as the emcee of the Sunday School class began to creep closer, indicating, \u201cYou\u2019re done here, Husted. Land the plane!\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed internally, even as it was occurring, as I was given 2-3 minutes to promote an upcoming EA event, and yet I always like to incorporate Scripture into any speaking opportunity.<\/p>\n
Recently, I\u2019ve been studying the life of Elijah, including reading A.W. Pink\u2019s commentary, so I found inspiration in the content below.<\/p>\n
1 Kings 17 – Elijah Predicts a Drought to evil King Ahab<\/strong><\/p>\n 2And the word of the LORD came to him: 3\u201cDepart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n A.W. Pink notes, \u201cInstead of a river, God often gives us a brook, which may be running today and dried up tomorrow. Why? To teach us not to rest in our blessings, but in the blesser Himself.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Over the past 5 years of Empowering Action, God, in His wisdom, has not seen fit to provide EA a raging river of financial support, overflowing its banks, but he has provided a constant brook.<\/p>\n 4You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there<\/strong>.\u201d<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n Pink again notes, \u201cThe prophet might have preferred another hiding-place, but to Cherith he must go if he was to receive the Divine supplies: as long as he tarried there, God was pledged to provide for him. How important, then, is the question, Am I in the place which God has (by His Word or providence) assigned me?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n As individuals and institutions, it is imperative to regularly ask, \u201cAm I in the place which God assigned me? Am I performing the good works that He prepared beforehand that I should walk in?\u201d (Ephesians 2:10)<\/p>\n For me I find clarity of my current calling in personalizing Paul\u2019s words to the church of Rome, in Romans 1:1, which states,<\/p>\n \u201cPaul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKent, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to empower Christ\u2019s church to combat poverty, set apart for the gospel of God.\u201d<\/p>\n And I find motivation to \u201ckeep my hands to the plow\u201d as long as the Lord commands in this endeavor in the following passage from Psalms and quote from Richard Baxter.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be an unspeakable comfort to look back on a life well spent. And to be able to say, \u2018My time was not cast away…It was spent on doing good to men’s souls and bodies.\u2019”\u2013 Richard Baxter <\/em><\/p>\n Psalm 90:16-17<\/p>\n Let your work be shown to your servants, <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s called \u201cthe mic creep.\u201d It occurs when, in the midst of a program or service, the emcee begins to move toward a guest speaker to indicate \u201cit\u2019s time to wrap it up\u2026you\u2019re going long.\u201d I\u2019ve used the move many times myself, but recently I had \u201cmic creep\u201d occur to me! I saw it happening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-living"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/blog-elijah-600x300.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/blog-elijah-600x300.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kent Husted","author_link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/author\/khusted\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nand your glorious power to their children.
\nLet the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
\nand establish the work of our hands upon us;
\nyes, establish the work of our hands!<\/p>\n