In This Issue:
Daddy’s Little Helper
Christ’s Sacrifice Versus Ours
Don’t Be in a Hurry to Leave
Which Way?
The Service of Love
Volume: 846 February 14, 2022
Theme: Service
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Daddy’s Little Helper
Bill Brinkworth
Daddy laid on his back, looking up at the slowly dripping kitchen drain. An open toolbox lay just out of reach as he struggled to reach for the pipe wrench from his position under the sink.
The observing toddler saw what his daddy was trying to do and saw an opportunity to help. Waddling over to the tempting array of shiny pieces of metal, the youngster grabbed what he was sure his father was reaching. Dragging a heavy hammer over to his dad, he tried his best to put it into his parent’s hands.
“Why, thank you, son.” although it was not the tool he wanted, the father felt he needed to encourage his son for helping.
The young boy beamed with pride as he felt needed and was a part of his father’s interesting task.
The unneeded hammer was placed down on the cabinet’s floor, and “Papa” asked for help from the boy. “Can you get the large red wrench for me?”
Sauntering over to the toolbox, the boy again scanned the box of gadgets. He, of course, did not know what “red” was, and a “wrench” was just as foreign to him. With a big smile, he grabbed what he thought was what his dad wanted, carried it to the plumber-wanna-be, and accidentally dropped the heavy tool on his father’s chest.
The father chuckled at the wrong choice. It was not the right tool, but he still could use the pliers his son gave him, and besides, it would make the boy feel useful.
“Thanks so much, son. This will do the trick,” and “Papa” labored, making do with the pliers he was handed.
All would giggle at the youngster’s attempt at helping the grown-up. Perhaps, we have even seen a little tike trying to help an adult.
Although the youngster genuinely tried to be a big help, the father really could have done the job faster and better without the little one’s assistance. However, the love the toddler showed by wanting to help was a joy to the parent. The child’s effort was more important than the boy’s knowledge of tools, and that attitude needed to be encouraged.
Our God’s reaction to attempts to serve Him is very similar to the fictional account of the helping toddler. The Creator made this Earth, and all that is in and on it in just six days. He certainly does not need our help.
However, God loves to see His “children” want to help Him and return the love He gives them. Our service efforts may not be much in the light of what God does daily, but our striving to help Him is what He loves and desires. He certainly could do everything better without our “help,” but it is the giving, loving attitude that God wants of us.
We owe God so much. Without His mercy and graciousness, we would be or have nothing. All believers should love Him with all their hearts.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Matthew 22:37 Also: Deuteronomy 6:5, 11:1, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27.
Our actions should show our love towards our Creator and Saviour. Our sincerest attempts to serve the Lord may be much like the toddler’s attempts to help his father. We may not be or cannot do much for our Great God, but He desires for us to serve Him.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Roman 12:1
“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Rom. 6:13 Also: I Corinthians 6:13.
It is an honor to serve and obey our worthy God. Pray and ask Him to show what you can do for Him. While waiting for God’s direction in your life, do whatever you see as a need. The desire to serve God in any capacity is the heart of intent He desires to use.
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Ecclesiastes 9:10
Good works and deeds will save no one from a tormenting eternity. However, if you are a born-again child of God (John 3:3), you should want to show gratitude and love towards the One who loves you so. Your heavenly “Daddy” desires you to serve Him. Will you happily be a vessel for Him to use?
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
“Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.” Psalm 100:2
“A Christian should make a difference in this sinfully dark world! He is the only ‘light’ many will see!”
Christ’s Sacrifice Versus Ours
N. Adams, 1892
While Christ has shown us his hands and feet, let us show him ours as a living sacrifice — our reasonable service. Our hands may be full of prosperity in business. They may give and receive the grasp of new friendships and love. Some may be offered in marriage.
“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.” Luke 24:39-40
Our willing-to-serve hands and heart may receive from God the richest blessing ever laid in them. That blessing was purchased by Jesus’ hands, which were nailed to the “tree.” May we be able to show Christ our hands and our feet with joy and peace and do with them as He would have us do.
“The more we serve Christ, the less we will serve self.”
Don’t Be in a Hurry to Leave
C. H. Spurgeon, 1906
Whitefield and a company of ministers talked together and expressed their eagerness to go to Heaven. Mr. Tennant was the only man who differed from them. He said he did not wish to die. He thought that if Whitefield considered for a time, he would not want to be gone either. He said, “If you hire a man to do a day’s work, and he is saying all the day, ‘I wish it were evening. I wish it were time to go home,’ you would think, ‘What a lazy fellow he is,’ and you would wish you had never hired him.”
“So,” Mr. Tennant said, “I am afraid it is nothing but our idleness that often prompts us to desire to be away from our work. If there be a soul to win, let me not stop until I have won it. Truly, some of us might summon up courage enough to say, ‘I would fain barter Heaven for the glory of Christ, and not only wait twenty years out of Heaven, if I may have twenty years of glorifying Him the better.”
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, and as long as you can.” — John Wesley
Nothing for a Christian to do? You are lazy, sirs. Lazy and sluggish, or you would never raise such a question. It is not, “What should I do,” but, “Where shall I begin doing what the Lord would have me do?”
I would say, “Begin at the place that is nearest to you and where you are burdened to work.” So, they did when they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Every man built opposite his own house. There, the advantage was he did not have to walk two miles to his work at noon and then come back at night. He built opposite his own house, so he was spared all that trouble. When he had a little leisure time, when he went to his dinner, he could sit and look at his work and think how to do it better the next time; there was a further advantage in that.
Much economy and great benefit would come if Christians worked near where they live and took up that part of Christian service most congenial to their circumstances and tastes. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, next to thine own door, and do it with all thy might.
The Service of Love
C. H. Spurgeon
It is said that the soldiers of Persia were driven into battle and that the sound of the whips of their generals could be heard even while the war was raging. They lashed on the unwilling ranks to force them to fulfill their part in the fray.
Not so went the Greeks to battle. They rushed in like lions amidst a flock of sheep to tear their prey. They fought for their country, their temples, their lives, for all that they held dear, and cheerfully and seriously did they engage in the war.
The difference between the Greeks and the Persians is just the difference I want to describe among the professed followers of our Lord. The genuine Christian serves God because he loves him, not just because he fears Hell. He knows he has been delivered from condemnation, being washed by Jesus’ blood.
The Christian should not serve the Lord expecting to earn Heaven. He knows better than that. Heaven is not to be merited by our paltry, poor works. Heaven is a Christian’s inheritance since Christ has given it to him.
A Christian serves God because he loves Him. He is drawn by God’s love towards him and wants to love Him in return.
“God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called.”