Devotional 050309

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. The nature is so green after the rainstorm. Everywhere I look out from my window tells me that spring has arrived; trees are budding and wild flowers are blooming (Yes, it means allergy season has begun too). Though there is no good news on the horizon as far as our economy is concerned, the freshness of spring tells us that cold winter will eventually fade away, and hope of new spring is on the way. There is always new opportunity when we are still alive on earth. God is going to use us for His Kingdom, and He will continue to shape us to become the channel of blessings to others. The key word is ‘adaptation.’ We need to change our lifestyle in order to excel under the current circumstances. God is good but He is not nice. He will use the environment to ‘mold’ us because He cares about our ‘character’ more than our ‘comfort.’

"I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace" (Acts 20:24). Joy means the perfect fulfillment of that for which I was created and regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing. The joy Our Lord had lay in doing what the Father sent Him to do, and He says - "As My Father has sent Me, even so am I sending you." Have I received a ministry from the Lord? If so, I have to be loyal to it, to count my life precious only for the fulfilling of that ministry. Think of the satisfaction it will be to hear Jesus say - "Well done, my good and faithful servant;" to know that you have done what He sent you to do. We have all to find our niche in life, and spiritually we find it when we receive our ministry from the Lord. In order to do this we must have companied with Jesus; we must know Him as more than a personal Savior. "I will show him how great things he must suffer for My sake."

"Do you love Me?" Then - "Feed My sheep." There is no choice of service, only absolute loyalty to Our Lord's commission; loyalty to what you discern when you are in closest contact with God. If you have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the need is never the call: the need is the opportunity. The call is loyalty to the ministry you received when you were in real touch with Him. This does not imply that there is a campaign of service marked out for you, but it does mean that you will have to ignore the demands for service along other lines.

I agree with brother Chambers that we need to find out our niche or our S.H.A.P.E. in Rick Warren’s term for ministry. Instead of trying to do many things, we should focus to do a few things in according to the way you are gifted. We usually get burn out easily when we are asked to do the things that we are not wired to do. In order to be a faithful servant of the Lord, I must learn to say ‘NO’ to the things that I am sure God did not prepare me to do. At the same time, I should passionately and proactively pursue the ministry that I know God has gifted me to accomplish. In this way, I will not regret for not seizing the moment of life that God has given me today. Remember. There is not such term of ‘layman’ in the Bible. There is only ‘disciple’ of Christ in the Bible. And the calling of a true disciple is to make disciples of all nations in wherever you are.

Love you in Christ,
Lawrence