In This Issue:
Working with the Boss A Better Work
You Did a Great Work for the Lord
Where Is God? Keep On Keeping On
The Deer Hunter The Faithful Teacher
Volume: 960 June 3, 2024
Theme: Working for the Lord
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Working with the Boss
Bill Brinkworth
During Pastor Renshaw’s preaching, my heart was stirred by the preacher’s charge, “What do you want from Jesus?” Some would quickly request that their marriage be fixed, that they get a better job, that they get the right mate, and countless other desires.
The more spiritual would choose to be closer to God, as they realize that having a closer relationship with God would provide both spiritual and physical needs. I thought about the preacher’s question, applied it to myself, and believed God gave me my answer to the preacher’s question in my life.
I love working in a ministry. One of the reasons I like to do things around the church and in the ministry is because I get to work alongside good Christians and fellowship with them. Most of the time, we have too many things to do to afford time to have one-to-one fellowship, but working in a ministry allows us to have fellowship together and do something for the Lord at the same time. Sometimes, as an added bonus when working in a ministry, I even have more fellowship with the preacher. I get to work more directly with the “boss,” who is usually way too busy to be able to spend time with all the church members.
My thoughts about what I want from Jesus continued. While I am most comfortable being around God’s people and enjoy working with them, the real reason for my enjoyment is that I get to see God working more closely while active in a ministry. While at “work” in a ministry, I get to have a closer relationship with the Lord, see how He is currently working in lives, how He answers people’s prayers and needs, and how He does the “impossible.” God’s workings are probably more real to me than one who only comes to church on Sunday because I see Him work more often.
Yes, I could be fishing on Saturday instead of inviting children to come to church on Sunday, but then I would miss being at their home at the right time to talk with a person who was waiting for someone to stop by so they could find out more about being saved. I could have watched a Saturday TV movie rather than study for my Sunday school lesson for several hours, but then I would have missed how the “worst” child in class got saved and was transformed to be the most interested and changed Bible student in the whole class. It would have been more relaxing and less stressful if I had not gone out visiting folks on Thursday night, but then I would have missed the hundreds that have gotten saved and gotten things right with God over all those years.
The greatest experience I have ever had in my life has been to do something for the Lord. I know I am not the smartest, best worker, or best teacher, but I get to work with the “Boss.” There are tremendous advantages and blessings when you work closely with God.
Imagine that the God who created the universe, put the stars in place, and breathed life into every person on Earth would let me work with Him. What an honor; what a privilege to see all the mighty things I have seen God perform while working alongside Him. There is nothing more exciting and fulfilling.
Saved person, is your life without a purpose and excitement? Do you have the deep down feeling that your life is missing something and that there is emptiness in your life? If so, I encourage you to work for the “Boss.”
You are robbing yourself of an exciting life when you only live for yourself and do not do anything for Him. When you serve God, you will see, hear, and experience wonderful things you would otherwise miss. There is no greater joy than to have a close working relationship with the Father! Get involved in a ministry for the Lord today.
Pray about what Godwould have you do, and even shock your pastor by asking him how you can get involved in a ministry today!
“When God needs something done near where you live, are you the first servant He thinks of using?” — Brinkworth
One day, I saw a steel engraving that I liked very much. I thought it was the finest thing I had ever seen at the time, and I bought it. It was a picture of a woman coming out of the water and clinging with both arms to the cross. She came out of the drowning waves with both arms around the cross perfectly safe.
Later, I saw another picture that was far more meaningful. It was a picture of a person coming out of dark waters, with one arm clinging to the cross and with the other, she was lifting someone else out of the waves. That is what I like. Keep a firm hold upon the Cross, but always try to rescue another from an eternal “drowning.”
“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” — Holmer
You Did a Great Work for the Lord
Author Unknown
One time, Ian MacLaren went to a house and saw an old Scotch woman standing in her kitchen, weeping. She wiped her eyes with the corner of her apron. When the pastor asked her what was the matter, she confessed, “I have done so little.” She continued, “I am so miserable and unhappy.”
“Why?”
“Because I have done so little for Jesus. When I was just a wee girl, the Lord spoke to my heart, and I wanted to live for Him.”
“Well, haven’t you?” asked the minister.
“Yes, I have lived for Him, but I have done so little. I want to be of some use in His service.”
”What have you done?”
“I will tell you. I have washed dishes, cooked three meals daily, cared for the children, mopped the floor, and mended the clothes. That is all I have done all my life, and I wanted to do something for Jesus,”
Sitting back in the armchair, the preacher looked at her and smiled. “Where are you boys?” he inquired.
She had four sons and had named them after Bible characters. “Oh, my boys? You know where Mark is. You ordained him yourself before he went to China. Why are you asking? He is preaching for the Lord.”
“Where is Luke?” questioned the minister.
“Luke? He went out from your church. Didn’t you send him out? I had a letter from him the other day.” She continued, “A revival has broken out on the mission station, and he said they were having a wonderful time in the service of the Lord!”
“Where is Matthew?”
“He is with his brother in China. And isn’t it fine that the two boys can be working together? I am so happy about that. John came to me the other night; he is my baby, only nineteen, but he is a great boy. He said, ‘Mother, I have been praying, and tonight in my room, the Lord spoke to my heart, and what do you suppose He told me? I have to go to my brother in Africa! But don’t you cry, Mother. The Lord told me I was to stay here and look after you until you go Home to Glory.’”
The pastor looked at her, “And you say your life has been wasted in mopping floors, darning socks, washing dishes, and doing trivial tasks. I’d like to have your mansion in Glory when we are called Home! It will be near the throne because of your great workings for the Master!”
“It is high time that the ideal of service should replace the ideal of success.”
— Einstein
Where Is God?
Author Unknown
“Our daily duties and trials”, someone said, “are the veils under which God hides Himself” as He draws near to us. The secret of satisfaction then, as well as the pledge of success, is doing whatever we do to the honor of God. In every humble or distasteful employment, see Him work. In every burden borne for another’s good, remember God’s Word, “… Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Mat. 25:40)
Keep On Keeping On
Author Unknown
A terrific storm occurred in 1666, at a time when the end of the world was expected. Sir Matthew Hale sat on the law bench at the time. The lightning dazzled the eye, and thunders crashed with appalling power. The assembly was panic-stricken and cried out that the Day of Judgment had begun. Some men betook themselves to prayers, and all were filled with horror.
The judge was quiet and unmoved. He calmly ordered the court business to proceed as usual. Even if the end of all things were at hand, of which there was no evidence, he wished to be found diligently attending his daily business.
If the thunders and lightings of trial and testing loudly proclaim havoc around you, keep doing what the Master requires of you!
The deer hunter gets out of bed long before the sun is up and climbs the mountains. He watches from the first gray light for the creature, which is the object of his pursuit. Ask him how it is when he returns late in the evening that he has had nothing to eat all day. He will answer, “I never thought of it. I saw a chamois on a distant crag and hastened after it. I leaped the ravines. I climbed the steep faces of the rocks. I was almost on my prey, but it was gone.
“I crept up to another range again, holding my breath lest the scent of me should alarm the watchful buck. I thought of nothing but my sport, and I never thought of hunger until my bullet found its mark in the heart of my prey, and I drew out my hunting knife. It was not until I began to lift the game to my shoulder that I remembered that I had neither eaten nor drunk that day.”
If only there were more workers for the Lord with less thought for themselves and more thought on the prey for the glory of God!
The Faithful Teacher
D. L. Moody
A 75-year-old woman had a Sunday school class two miles away in the mountains. One Sunday, there was a terrible rainstorm, and she considered not going that day, but she thought, “What if someone should go and not find me there?” She then put on her waterproof coat, umbrella, overshoes and went to her ministry.
She found only one young man when she got there and taught him the best she knew how. She never saw him again but perhaps thought her class had been a failure that day.
That week, the young man enlisted in the Army. A year or two later, the teacher got a letter from the soldier thanking her for going through the storm that Sunday. The young man thought that stormy day he would go and see if the teacher was in earnest, and if she cared enough about souls to go through the rain.
He found she came and taught him as carefully as if teaching a large class and won the young man to Christ. When he lay dying in a field hospital, he sent the message to the teacher that he would meet her in Heaven.
Was it not a glorious thing that she did not get discouraged because she had but one Sunday school student? Be willing to work with one. You will never know this side of eternity what God will do with your efforts.
“When generous acts bloom from unselfish thought, the Lord may be with us though we know it not.” — Larcom
