Being Qualified or Un-qualified can be used for the glory of God

Written by,

Kyle Eaton
With the help of the Holy Spirit
And the word of God

Have you ever been to a track meet or watched the Olympics? If so, You may have noticed that at the beginning of every running meet the contestant warms up, stretches and assumes a position at the starting line with their hands on the ground. They put one foot before the other raise their “Caboose” up in the air with two things in mind. One is getting the best jump they possibly can. Second, Is getting first place ribbon or a gold metal. Runners often try and anticipate the blast being fired from the gun and sometimes over anticipate it. This becomes a foul! Just like any other sports, you are only allowed a certain amount of fouls before you are out of the game or competition! This brings up my point… As Christians some of us maybe feel qualified. Qualified to be a mentor, qualified to be a public speaker or maybe even a minister, qualified to be lots of things. Or, Maybe some of us feel unqualified! Maybe we lack the confidence to do lots of things other people have such an easy time doing. Maybe you have a hard time forcing yourself to do something out of your comfort zone. Then there is “disqualified ”. Have you ever been disqualified? Have you ever fouled out in a basketball game or jumpstarted at a track meet too many times? If you have you know the feeling. If you haven’t, you feel like you let your team down, you let your parents down, or you let yourself down. Being disqualified is a terrible feeling. God uses Qualifications, un-qualifications and even disqualifications to his advantage. Fist off; let me say that no one not even your minister or mine that is “Qualified” to get into heaven!
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”. Ephesians 2-8-10. Being qualified to do something doesn’t mean you are best suited for the job or task. The opposite goes for being unqualified. Someone may say or think your unqualified but it is truly up to God to make that decision. No one and I mean no one gets a promotion or pay raise on your own! God decides who is best suited and who can handle things like money and power. Take a minute and think of the story of when Samuel was looking for a new king. God sent him to Jesse because he had seven sons and he told him one would be the new king. After Samuel had met all of the sons Jesse brought him he asked, "Are these all the sons you have?" He asked this because he knew that none of these were the one God had told him about!
Jesse replied, "There is still the youngest David, but he is tending the sheep”. Then Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives." Jesse and his sons found David to be un-qualified! In fact, Not only was he un-qualified in the eyes of his family but he also was a shepherd. In these days a shepherd had the lowest stature. In fact, slaves were used as shepherds in this day and age. So when Samuel found out about this he sent for David and said, “We will not sit down until he arrives”….. Did you get that? He said he would not even sit until he arrives! I’m sure Samuel was angry at this point because he asked for all of Jesse’s son's to be there and Jesse ignored the request. So Jesse sent someone and had him brought in from the field. Can you imagine how David must have felt when a messenger came and told him the news? Do you think he dropped everything and came running? He probably asked something like…. “What about the sheep?” In this exciting moment I really believe he was probably worried about the sheep. That’s just the kind of young man David was! Besides, he was unqualified in his father and brothers eyes, right?

The Lord then said to Samuel, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one." His father and brothers jaws probably dropped! Even though the brothers had king like qualities and the town people thought they were great the Lord didn’t want any of them. God had one person in mind and that was David. David probably lacked confidence he probably felt “unqualified” because of the treatment from his father and brothers but God knew what David had in his heart. Even though the sons of Jesse may have thought they were more than qualified God knew who was the best suit! He was described as “Ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features”. David was probably mocked and made fun of. I can almost even hear his brothers making fun of him as he arrived. “Oh here he is the new king!!! Just look at him he is only a tiny young shepherd! Oh what a great king he would make ha ha ….yah right! But it didn’t matter what his brothers thought or what his own father even thought. God had created David for this exact moment in time he molded him like a potter molds his clay. God has molded each and every one of us to his liking. The thing we all need to realize and take from the story of David is that we aren’t always qualified for the things that we may think we are. We might have people putting us down telling us we are unqualified. Or, we could have been disqualified or had something that we really wanted not work out but God has something better in mind. The thing about it is “Qualified - Unqualified or Disqualified, They can all be used for the glory of God!”

Spiritual Concrete

Spiritual Concrete
By:
Kyle Eaton


This message entered my heart in church as our minister talked about the ending of a new year and where we thought we stood at the finish of 2008 and the start of 2009. Right then I had this thought run through my head about concrete. Yea you maybe thinking, what does concrete have to do with the end of one year and the start of another? To be honest with you, I really don’t know either but it gave me a wonderful thought and I just really wanted to share it.

Concrete can represent a spiritual walk in many ways. As a construction worker these types of Analogies are right up my alley.

Concrete consists of three basic materials:

Portland Cement
Water
Aggregates (rock and sand)

Portland Cement - The cement and water form a paste that coats the aggregate and sand in the mix. The paste hardens and binds the aggregates and sand together.

Water- Water is needed to chemically react with the cement (hydration) and too provide workability with the concrete. The amount of water in the mix in pounds compared with the amount of cement is called the water/cement ratio. The lower the w/c ratio, the stronger the concrete. (Higher strength, less permeability)

Aggregates- Sand is the fine aggregate. Gravel or crushed stone is the coarse aggregate in most mixes

Over time we as Christians start to gather “Spiritual Materials” to form a product that we hope is one that is strong and stands the test of time. These “Materials” are things, people or scripture that have made an impact on our lives. As these things take place our “Spiritual Concrete” is being mixed. As we grow in faith and build a stronger relationship with God our concrete starts to cure or harden. This may take year’s maybe even decades but it does finally cure. Once this transformation starts to take place we start to gain physical and mental strength. The strength it takes to spread the word to others. The strength it takes to be a mentor or be an accountability partner. The Strength it takes to love the Lord with all your heart all your soul and all your mind.

Once you get to this point you know it! You can start to feel this confidence that you never had and it is more than wonderful. But as you picture this massive piece of concrete, so hard and so solid, just remember concrete can also have “Breaking Points”. That leads to my next example. All homes now a days are built with what underneath them? A foundation right. Every house needs a sturdy foundation to build on so the house won’t ultimately crumble and fall apart. But as any construction worker will tell you, Concrete is unpredictable! Sure there are steps you can take to make sure you have good enough soil or your not building on a natural spring but concrete can and will crack. If our “Spiritual Concrete” cracks, which it will, problems will arise. If I were to notice a crack in my basement walls I would start to get concerned. At that point some problem solving would start to take place. But if I didn’t get worried what would start to happen? The crack would start to get larger and my house might start shifting and maybe it just might collapse. That is exactly what could happen in a spiritual realm also.

If we notice something that is bringing us down or drawing us further away from God we need to start problem solving. If we don’t get down and dirty and fix the “Spiritual Crack” in our foundation early the problem could be catastrophic! Maybe it would start by sinning more and praying less. This would be the crack starting to form. Maybe our relationship that we had with God and Jesus would start to slip away. This is what would make that “Crack” get bigger. Our confidence would start to diminish and our strength would start fading away. God becomes last on our priority list. We start living or lives believing things are in our own hands and not Gods. This is the total destruction of our “Spiritual Foundation”. Things don’t need to go that far though. If we notice the crack in the early stages its not near as hard to fix. Maybe we even see a crack in our Brother or Sisters foundation start to form. We should address that also, and start going to work. You see a problem can be infectious and dangerous. They can make the strongest Christians, the most well built houses crumble and fall apart. If we as Christians don’t address our “Spiritual Cracks” when we have the time we won’t need to worry about a house falling apart or other worldly examples. Rather our salvation could be in jeopardy if the lord decides to call us next. We need to start figuring out what we had before and how to get back to that point. We need to start at the base of the problem and start fixing from there. Nothing is more solid than Christ alone. If we leave everything up to him and God and make decisions with prayer first, God will lead and we will follow. Fix your “Cracks” with not the help of a construction worker like my self. Ask God for help first and then ask man for help second. Rest and be assured on Christ the solid rock that we can stand. All other ground is sinking sand!

“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”Deut 32:4

“In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.”-Psalm 62:7



My hope is built on nothing lessThan Jesus’ blood and righteousness;I dare not trust the sweetest frame,but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
When darkness veils His lovely face,I rest on His unchanging grace;in every high and stormy gale,my anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His bloodSupport me in the whelming flood;When all around my soul gives way,He then is all my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,Oh, may I then in Him be found;dressed in His righteousness alone,Faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;all other ground is sinking sand,all other ground is sinking sand.