Those are the words of surrender that I told the Lord back in June of 1982. I was in the jungle on the Island of Panay in the Phillippines. I was with a group of 20 Christian teenagers and 4 adult leaders. We were there for 30 days building a block church for the local believers and the Christian Missionaries. My surrender was sincere and heartfelt. I was by myself and I felt the loving presence of the Holy Spirit as I willingly gave my life to Him.
As the years followed I decided to stop going to college to become a teacher and instead spent two years at home with my parents praying and seeking the Lord in trying to decide how I should serve Him. One time while I was at home praying and reading the Bible and seeking the Lord for direction, I fell asleep. I woke up and heard a real voice saying "Daniel, Daniel, your tools are here." I had fallen asleep with my Bible on my chest and my hands around it. I knew that God was calling me into full-time ministry. In 1985, I went to Christ for the Nations Bible College in Dallas, Texas to prepare to become a missionary.
It is now some 26 years later and I have not gone to the mission field and become a missionary. Or have I?
This is my 18th year in Education. I am currently teaching Physical Education at Rancho Viejo Middle School in Hemet, California. I teach approximately 350 students in seven classes each day. Since all of the students on campus have Physical Education every day, I see all 1,500 students out on the P.E. fields. God has brought me here to do a work for Him. This was not my idea of a mission field, but it is God's mission field. Remember, I told Him "I'll go wherever you want me to go and do whatever you want me to do."? Our ways are not God's ways. His ways are higher than our ways. It just didn't fit into my original thoughts of what He wanted me to do. I have struggled with this over the years and prayed and asked God "Is this really what you want me to do?" I grew up in Minnesota and went into teaching because I enjoyed my schooling and the school environment in Minnesota. The California schools are much different than the school I went to in Minnesota. Schools are over-crowded here and there are a lot of students that struggle because of broken families. But, I surrendered it all too Him and it is His plan and not mine that matters.
I started out teaching at a Christian school for my first five years of teaching. That was easy to feel I was being used in a real full-time ministry. Since then, I have been teaching in the public schools. Guess what? You don't have to be a Pastor, Missionary, Worship Leader or even work in a church to be in a full-time ministry. The fact is, the moment we surrendered to Jesus Christ, we went into HIS full-time ministry.
I accept where God has sent me. I still struggle with it at times and ask for His guidance and am open to other jobs if He leads me there. But for now, I do my best to serve Him each day by being a light of his love to all of my students. I can share things that Jesus said like "Forgive and you will be forgiven" and "If you give mercy you will be given mercy." I can talk to kids about their families and church and tell them about mine. I can't try to lead any of them to salvation. That's O.K. God knows what He is doing and where He has sent me.
How about you? Do you know you are in a full-time ministry? If you are a Christian, you are a full-time minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. Open your eyes and look around you (and I will do the same), the harvest is ripe and ready for the touch of the Lord. Let's let Him lead and do our best to follow and be ready to plant a seed or water one that has already been planted.
I am adding the words of Jesus as even He struggled with the will of the Father and then surrendered even to death on the cross:
31 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:
‘ I will strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’[d]
32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”
33 Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”
34 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”
And so said all the disciples.
The Prayer in the Garden
36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless[e] I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.
44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”
We often times think that we need to be in some remote place to be a true missionary. Sometimes I think that would be easier! I find we Americans are often not as hungry as we should be and so what God really wants from us we rebel against. There is much work to do, right here at home. Again, I say that we have all been given different gifts. We need only be open to what God wants us to do.
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