In This Issue:
Your Race Is Not Finished!
Old Age Did Not Stop Him
The Right Side Is the Brighter Side
Eternal Springtime!
Volume: 821 August 2, 2021
Theme: Aging
D aily Devotions, Bible Studies, Sunday School lessons and printable versions of The Bible View (including church bulletin insert and large print versions) are available at https://openthoumineeyes.com/ and http://www.devotionsfromthebible.com/.
A free, printable pamphlet entitled “What Does God Say about Drinking Alcohol” is available at https://openthoumineeyes.com/lessons/Drinking_Pamplet.pdf. It would be appreciated to hear who plans to use it, so I can decide if I should offer more of these short pamphlets for ministry use.
Your Race Is Not Finished!
Bill Brinkworth
Preachers often have messages geared to encourage young people to live for and serve God. They should. They are our future. However, little encouragement is directed to us older folks.
Because of health issues, physical limitations, changes in personal situations, or lack of opportunity, many no longer can do what they “used to do.” Those doors of service have been closed, BUT God has not given us a free retirement pass. We do not have God’s okay to watch from the sidelines and let others do the work, in most cases.
We may have done much for the Lord when we were younger. Some may have taught Sunday school. Others may have gone soul-winning, worked on church buses bringing children to church, interpreted for the deaf or those speaking in another language, brought folks to church in their car, cooked for those that were old or sick, and many other ministries. We may no longer be able to do those things, however, the Lord is not done with us yet. We can still do something for Him!
There is still much to do, and experienced believers are needed more now than ever! There may be limitations on what they can do, but all can still serve the Lord in some capacity!
Pray and ask God to open your eyes to see what you can still do for His glory! Perhaps you can:
- Let all see and hear of what God is doing around them. Most are focused on their troubles and needs and cannot see God working around them. A seasoned believer can open eyes to see that there is a God, and He is still working in the world.
“Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.” Psalm 150:6 - Be a friendly smile to all you encounter. Most encounter doom and gloom most of their days. An uplifting, caring person is a light in an ever-darkening world. A Christian should have joy they can share.
- Prayer ministry. Adopt a ministry or person to pray for consistently. Engulf the throne room of God with petitions on their behalf.
- Card ministry. Perhaps you no longer have the mobile ability you once had. However, you can “visit” those that need encouragement and show friendly concern by sending cards or letters.
I once knew a young, disabled woman that had a burden to serve the Lord. Prayerfully, she selected a “random” person from the phone book and wrote them a letter telling them about the Lord and how they could have God’s promise of Heaven. She ministered without leaving her apartment. - Phone ministry. An entire world can be reached with one’s phone.
- Encourage all, especially ministry workers. Remember how one’s inspiring words uplifted you to continue living for and serving the Lord? Now it is your opportunity to motivate others in a godly direction.
“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” I Peter 4:11 - Give to the younger folks. Remember when you struggled financially and how a simple gift showed you the hand of God was meeting your needs? Now you can be used by God to reveal His goodness in another’s life.
- Ride the church bus and encourage the bus workers and befriend children.
- Have a listening ministry! Although an experienced Christian has more wisdom that would benefit others, sometimes it can be more helpful to sit quietly and listen to others bare their burdens and hardships.
- Minister to widows, single parents, and those that may have little support from others. Everyone needs a caring friend!
- Write letters-to-the-editor in your local newspaper. The Christian side and thinking of current events needs to be heard. Seldom does the world hear anything but the worldly side of a situation. If a Christian does not share God’s view on events, who will? Bible-based thinking is far different from what the ungodly have been taught. They need to hear it from believers.
There is still much that all Christians can do. While we have breath, there is something for which God can use us. God’s way is always the best, and the unsaved and spiritually weak will not know of it unless they hear or see it from a believer.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1
Christian, God is not done with you yet. Do not mourn over what you no longer can do. You can still be the spark that encourages others forward to serving and seeing God’s mighty hand. Continue to serve Him while you still can!
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” I Corinthians 10:31
“That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. 3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;” Titus 2:2-3
Old Age Did Not Stop Him
Watchman-Examiner
Though a man always of delicate constitution physically, George Muller began evangelistic tours at seventy. For 17 years, he traveled around the world eight times. He continued many of his responsibilities at the large orphanages he founded. Mr. Muller did all that beyond the age of ninety.
His frequent and severe illness and general disability had disqualified him from military duty as a young man. Many prophesied early death or hopelessly succumbing to a disease for him. Yet at 92, he said. “I have been able, every day and all the day, for the last 70 years to work.
He ascribed his marvelous preservation and accomplishments to three causes:
- Exercising himself to have always a conscience void of offense, both toward God and toward men.
- For the love he felt for the scriptures and the constant recuperative power they exercised upon his whole being.
- The happiness he felt in serving God and His work relieved him of all anxiety and unnecessary wear and tear in his labors.
“Age doesn’t matter unless you are cheese.” — Burke
The Right Side Is the Brighter Side
Sunday School Times
A preacher was in the company of another traveler. They talked together for some time. Finally, the stranger remarked to the minister, “Sir, I think you must be on the wrong side of fifty.”
“No, sir. I am on the right side of fifty.”
“Surely,” the traveler remarked, “you must have turned fifty.”
“Yes, sir, but on the right side. For every year I live, I am nearer my crown of glory.”
“The harvest of old age is the memory and rich store of blessings laid up earlier in life.” — Cicero
Eternal Springtime!
Adam Clark
I have passed through the springtime of life,
I have endured the heat of its summer,
I have culled the fruits of its autumn,
I am now passing through the rigors of its winter.
At no distant day, I see the dawn of an Eternal Springtime,
It comes to meet me. I run to embrace it. All hail!
Eternal Springtime! Hallelujah!
“What a tragedy it will be to live many years, but open one’s eyes in the next life and discover it Hell. Now, while you still have breath, be saved by trusting Christ as your Saviour!”
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9