"The Measure of Faithfulness"

The following is from my book: "Gleanings Gospel Gold."

"The Measure of Faithfulness" - We can only be faithful in what we have, and that is enough. We can only use the intelligence with which God has blessed us: sing with the voice He has given us, witness and praise with the lips and tongue He has placed in our mouths or serve with the hands that are ours.

Too often we find ourselves seeking to measure our grain in another's bushel. Our visions of spiritual grandeur become no more than wistful thinking about what might be or might have been. There is no pleasure or profit in this fanciful approach to spiritual faithfulness. In fact, quite the contrary. As has often been said, "Of all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are, 'It might have been."

We hear a beautiful melody rendered with great inspiration and sigh and say, "If only I had such talent, I would sing to the glory of God!"

We read an inspiring book and close it and think, "If I could only write, I would write a book that would point men to God.!"

We hear an oration delivered with great skill and sincerity; that moves and motivates those who hear it. We respond, "If I could only speaks so eloquently, I would give out the message of Jesus Christ."

We meet an honest and prosperous businessman who has accumulated a store of this world's goods, and we are sure that if God would only bless us with such wealth, we could and would use it all for the cause of Christ and God's ultimate glory.

We hear a visiting missionary tell of the challenges and blessings of a difficult far away field and are convinced that if we could only go there we could become great winners of the lost and that God would use us to lift the spiritual darkness from a spiritually destitute and oppressed people.

As one who attended a theological school and who has been around in the ministry of the gospel for many years, I tend to be a bit dubious of the young student pastor who attends a Bible College four years, preparing for the gospel ministry at home or abroad as a missionary, and never seems to get involved in personal soul winning, jail ministries or other vital outreach ministries in a local church. If he has no burden for the lost all around him, why should we expect a sudden development of a vision for souls as he boards a plane to his chosen field of labor?

God has only asked us to light the corner where we are. We are to be faithful in little things if we expect Him to bless us in all things. He has never asked us to responsible for someone else's field or ministry, but requires us to be faithful in all things He has given us in the place He has placed us." 

The Challenge Of A New Year

In Joshua 3:1-11 we are told that as Joshua and the people of Israel stood on the brink of Jordan, they faced a new beginning. The generation of their forefathers who had fallen in the wilderness because of disobedience was now history. Moses, the great leader of the fledgling nation, had been given a private funeral and burial on the mountain by Jehovah. Their new leader, Joshua, was the man of the hour as he stood ready to lead them into the land promised to their forefathers. God’s presence was symbolised by the Ark of the Covenant that would go before them. Joshua challenges them to go in and possess the land. Joshua tells of the wonders God will perform and reminds them of the victory promised to those who would walk faithfully, courageously and obediently into the new land. His statement, "You have not passed this way before," seems to sum up the challenge involved in stepping out by faith into a new and unknown land. There will be vast uncharted waters ahead. There will be many new and unexplored paths to walk. There will be risks be faced, challenges to be confronted and a high price to be paid, if success is to be achieved in the new land.

As we see the old year out and usher the New Year in, we should understand that we stand on the verge of a new spiritual venture; a new calling to serve the Lord in the land of a new year. In a sense, the challenge of a new year is like stepping out on the beautiful, sparkling, trackless surface of new fallen snow. It is like standing on the edge of the fresh sand of a wave swept beach. Or a child contemplating a clean sheet of paper or a clean slate. All are free of the contaminating touch of man. There’s an old bit of verse that speaks of this challenge:

He came to my desk with quivering lip, the lesson was done.

"Have you a new leaf for me, dear Teacher?, I’ve spoiled this one."

I took his leaf all soiled and blotted and gave him a new one, all unspotted.

Then into his tired heart I smiled, Do better now my child."

I went to the throne with trembling heart. The year was done.

"Have you a new year for me, dear Master? I’ve spoiled this one.

He took my heart, all soiled and blotted and gave me a new one, all unspotted.

Then into my tired heart he smiled; "Do better now my child."

Yes, we are like a those who walk in a new land. We have not passed this way before. Our footprints are yet to be made in the sands of time of the New Year. Yet it is a great blessing to know that as we ring out the old and ring in the new, we can immerse the failures of yesteryear in the sea of God’s forgiveness. We can face with a great expectant faith the challenges of a new year. By the grace of God, if He wills it, we can cross over boldly into the land of the new year with an expectant faith based upon the precious promises of God.

Why The Incarnation?

As I walked up the footpath through knee-deep snow, bent into the icy wind of a subzero blizzard, I saw our excited young children at the window, waiting for my return home from the church study. Opening the parsonage door, I was overwhelmed by their excitement about the snow and their plans to build a snow man. Before I could close out the wind and snow, a tiny snow bird, nestling for shelter in the corner of the eaves, was swept inside by a gust of snow-laden wind. The excitement of the children was immediately refocused upon the plight of this small bird, as it flew frantically from corner to corner of our lounge room, desperately seeking an escape from his strange, new threatening environment, inhabited by, what must have appeared to it to be, a horde of screaming monsters.
I opened the door again, hoping the tiny bird's fluttering wings would guide it back to its natural habitat. By this time our frantic  feathery friend was obviously near exhaustion, and we joined our children in an effort to shepherd it through the door leading to safety and salvation.
All real life stories cannot have a happy ending, and for our children in particular, this one ended in trauma and tragedy. In one last effort to escape, the poor little bird flew into the opening  above our large open fireplace, filled with burning logs.

As they were being tucked into their beds that night and we  faced the task of comforting them and reassuring them of God's love for all His creatures, a bit of illumination seemed to come from the very heart of God.  I said to them, "Didn't we do all we could to help the little bird? Didn't we try to show it the way out; to the place it would be safe and happy again? But it just couldn't understand us. We just couldn't tell it we meant no harm. We were so much larger and so beyond its little world, that it was only frightened of us."
Then I asked, "How could we have told the little bird we cared for it?, How could we have told it we only wanted to save it?" Their eager little faces immediately lighted up with understanding as they vied for recognition to answer.  "Yes," they agreed. "If we could have only become little birds and talked bird talk for a moment, we could have told it we cared and could have saved it!"
What a blessing was ours as we shared once more the old, old story of Jesus and His love, beginning with the incarnation of God in the flesh of man. Focusing upon the absolute necessity for God to come and walk as we walk, talk as we talk, feel as we feel, and become truly God in the flesh of man, in order to communicate to us the great love of God; that He might show us the way of escape from the awful fiery judgment for sin and give us His eternal love, life and salvation in Jesus Christ His Son!