Access from the sidelines!


This February I had the amazing privilege to attend a pastor’s conference organised by the RZIM (Ravi Zacharias International Ministries). It was a spiritual buffet with a line-up of speakers who were simply amazing. After each session there was usually a little crowd of pastors waiting to meet the speaker to talk, to pray, to share and also to get in a picture or two. I unfortunately am still recovering from a bad ankle and so was never going to be able to be quick enough to be part of that bunch (although I did manage to get my own conversations in somehow). But sitting there on the sidelines and observing I learned something beautiful that just wowed my soul again.

One of the speakers was pastor Jeffery Vines. He was travelling with a small team. One member of this team with him was his own daughter and another member was his closest friend, his “Jonathan” (A reference to David and Jonathan from the bible) as he called him. I watched as pastor Jeffery passionately encouraged pastors and the ease with which he exposited scripture and skillfully challenged us to grow in our own faith. After his session he had a whole bunch of pastors surround him to ask questions and get photos. As I said earlier, this was the normal scene after any session. During one of these times a thought came to my mind. In the midst of this sea of people all it would take would be for Jeffery’s daughter to say “dad could we talk” and he would be gone. He would excuse himself and go to chat with his daughter. Or maybe if his friend, Clive said “hey Jeff, could we have a quick chat” he would be gone again. We would all have to wait till he came back.

They have access to him. We all got to be there and chat and talk and even pray with him but his daughter and his friend, well they have access to him. This thought just reinforced so much courage in my heart as I thought about how the Bible teaches us that God has chosen to call us His children (John1:12, 1 John 3:1) and Christ has called us friends (John 15:15). We have access to Him, to that amazing throne room of heaven. I thought to myself about how I take that access for granted and how much richer my life would be if I chose to use that access and that privilege. As the old hymn writer says “Oh what peace we often forfeit and O what needless pain we bear; all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

Aside from all the amazing sermons and workshops God reinforced His love to me as I sat there on the sidelines with my crutches and I could not help but enter a time of prayer a time of access!



Oh and yeah I also got up and got a pic with Jeffery by the end.

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