“Purposely Stay Away From Public View, But Act At The Right Time!”

“Purposely Stay Away From Public View, But Act At The Right Time!”
There is a deception called popularity. Being in the limelight always attracts attention from others but it also gives them opportunity to quickly see you for who you truly are; which is usually a contradiction to what you want to project.
About this time in 2015 when we came to office, the PCC lawyer entered my office and after the formalities he said, “I must confess that I used to think that I knew all the PCC pastors who mattered, but I’ve never heard about you.” I told him that there are some people whose stories are not told unless they tell it themselves. However, every thing has its time.”
There are times when “deceptive aide-de-camps” flatter you into vain publicity, not so much because they have your interest at heart, but because “The king’s dog is the king of dogs.” I’m reminded of the man who said he would prefer to accompany Jesus into Jerusalem not as a person in the crowd, but as the donkey on which Jesus rode. It was the donkey who walked on the cloaks which the people spread on the road for Jesus to walk on.
Deceptive friends are full of flattery and the gullible who love cheap popularity always easily fall for it. And when your publicity turns into shame they are the first ones to laugh and mock at you. They flatter you, but they don’t believe in you. Imagine that it was Jesus’s brothers who said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No-one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret…show yourself to the world.” John the gospel writer comments, “For even his own brothers did not believe him.” They were asking Jesus to make himself public by going to Judea at a time when he was “purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there wanted to take his life.”
There is an appointed time for everything. Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come, for you any time is right. The world…hates me because I testify that what it does is evil…”
Jesus however went to the feast, “not publicly, but in secret.”
There are certain missions in certain towns which must be fulfilled! You may and should purposely stay away from where they want to take your life, but still when it is a call of service you must go there “not publicly, but in secret!”
Going there in secret did not deter him from his ministry. Halfway through the feast he went “up to the temple courts and began to teach…”(Jn. 7:1-14).
A few take home lessons:
When you smell danger, then do your work discreetly!
Avoid publicity until the right time.
Do not listen to those who flatter you about your popularity, they are like hunting dogs chasing game. They do not hunt for you, they hunt for themselves – self-interest!
Even when there is danger where duty calls, still be there, “not publicly, but in secret!”
Don’t forget your mission: Testify that what the world does is evil, even if they hate you for that!
May God bless and equip you with the Holy Spirit who will guide your judgments, enabling you to discern the right time! May you not seek for vain glory through cheap popularity, but that you “purposely” stay away from prying eyes and act only at the right time! Peace be with you!