Word for the Week

Heart to Heart
by Leon E. Thompson

Do you have a "passion" for Christ and His Kingdom? Passion is defined as a "strong feeling or emotion" such as hate, love, etc. While passion can expand in one's life, it can also be lost from one's life! It can also be displaced or misplaced. Someone has said that the only way to overcome a lesser passion is to displace it with a greater passion.

When Christ called people to Himself and His Kingdom, He called people who were busy and occupied with their work (their passions). "Fishermen of fish" became "fishermen of men" and a "tax collector" became a "Gospel writer!" It is quite evident that a person of "passion" an be greatly used of God and can serve His Kingdom well if that "passion" is God-directed.

"Where is your passion?" is a question often asked by our Wesleyan District Board of Ministerial Development members of our district ministeral candidates. Those who will be filling the pulpits must have a "strong feeling of love" (passion) for Christ and His Chuch!! This passion must be maintained throughout our entire ministerial tenure if we (You and I) are to be effective "servants in His Kingdom."

Where is your passion? "And she stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to was His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet. and anionted them with the ointment" (Luke 7:38).

Written for the Sepember-October, 2000, Carolina Wesleyan by Leon E. Thompson