Accidental Or Providential?

An incident from the past was brought to my mind this week. My granddaughter was only ten. She had come up to the Gold Coast from New South Wales to spend holidays with us. She had gotten her first small watch for her birthday. That afternoon I took her to the beach. On the way down the long winding path through the sand and sea grass she somehow dropped her tiny watch without being aware of the loss. After her swim, she missed her watch and we spent half an hour searching the sand all over the beach where we had placed our towels.

On our way back to the car, with the innocence of a child, she asked me to stop along the path and pray with her that someone might find her watch or that her mother, who had given her the watch, might not be hurt because she had lost it. As we knelt together to pray, she placed her hand in the tall grass growing from the deep sand beside the path. We had only been praying a minute or so when she felt something underneath her hand and I heard her cry, "I've found it! God has answered my prayer. He's given me back my watch!"

In my mind and experience I felt the so-called "odds" against this happening in an accidental way would have been mind boggling. So did my granddaughter. We should always remember to praise and thank God for even His smallest mercies!

The Ministry Of Encouragement

In the letters of Paul there seems to be a constant urging that we who followers of The Way should focus our lives upon building up our fellow believers rather than the opposite.  That we are all called to a ministry of encouragement.   In the letter to the Hebrew  Christians the writer tells us that a primary reason for our assembling together in the local body is to encourage one another along the way. (Hebrews 10:25)

If we are to participate in the ministry of encouragement, we must have a clear, constant and compassionate confession of faith in Christ. Not only in the first instance, but every day of our life as we walk our weary way through this wicked world of woe. This confession is based upon the Word of God which never changes and upon Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Then we are called to consider how to inspire, stimulate and encourage our brothers and sisters to love and good works. As we gather together we are to consider how we can live Christ-like lives and encourage and embolden others to do the same. If we are to fulfil this ministry of encouragement, we must avoid one obvious pitfall at all costs. We must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It is clear that forsaking the assembly and the ministry of encouragement are diametrically opposed.

The Greek word for encouragement indicates very close involvement in the life of others. It derives from two words, para (alongside) and kaleo (to call). It is clear that those who are called to the ministry of encouragement are called to walk alongside their brothers and sisters. It is significant when our Savior told us that He would send the Holy Spirit to walk alongside us and help, guide and encourage us in our walk with Him, He used a form of the same word (paraclete) (See John 14:26, 16:7) There is no ministry that yokes us more closely with Christ nor links us more intimately with the work of the Holy Spirit than the ministry of encouragement. Through our encouragement of others we are sharing this uplifting ministry of the Holy Spirit.

An encourager of necessity then becomes one who walks alongside us and helps us along the road of our daily walk with Christ. Just how can this help be most effectively given? It may be good to note that our English word for encourage comes from an Old French word that means "to put courage into - to embolden." A dictionary says it means "to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope: to hearten, to spur on, to stimulate etc." How can an encourager affirm others  in this manner? Sometimes God can use just a smile, a touch or a listening ear or a few simple words to lift, inspire and encourage those around us. God had the wise man to pen this principle in a beautiful poetic thought that should be heeded by those who wish to be God's encouragers. "A word fitly spoken [is like] apples of gold in pictures of silver." ({Prov. 25:11) 

                                                             Only A Word

Only a word of anger, but it wounded one sensitive heart;

Only a word of sharp reproach, but it made the teardrops start,

Only a hasty, thoughtless word, sarcastic and unkind,

But it darkened the day before so bright, and left a sting behind.

Only a word of kindness, but it lightened one heart of its grief;

Only a word of gentle cheer, but it flooded with radiant light,

The pathway that seemed so dark before, and it made the day more bright."

The Christian Work Ethic

As a young lad I had the special experience of following a horse drawn plough as the land was being carefully prepared for planting and cultivation. There is hardly a thing that is more pleasant to my mind than those memories of long ago. In my mind’s eye I can feel once more the pleasant coolness of the rich damp soil against my bare feet on a hot and humid afternoon. The earthy and pungent odour of new turned soil again fills the air around me. In the quietness of my memory I can still hear the sound of the breaking plough ripping its way through the fallow ground, leaving in its wake a squirming trail of worms, grubs and insects, and the occasional nest of field mice struggling for survival.

The sights and sounds of spring overwhelm me with a nostalgic yearning to set my hand firmly to the plough once more and yell out, “Giddap,” to the team for just one more turn around the field. But the memory of row upon row of shiny sod cleaved by the sharp plough also reminds me of sweating from sunrise to sunset under the glare of a blazing hot sun. I can also feel the pain of muscles strained wrestling with a heavy turning plough.

As the long afternoon of struggle wears on, I can feel once again a bone-weariness, giving way to an almost irresistible desire to lay aside my assigned task and make my way to the old swimming hole to frolic in its cold depths with the neighbourhood boys.

It was in such a rural setting that I learned my first lessons of discipline. The discipline imposed by my desire to hear my parents say, “Well done!” The discipline required if I were ever to know the self-satisfying sight of a field well ploughed, planted, cultivated and harvested. What a great blessing parents impart to their children when they give them such a gift of a disciplined work ethic!

Jesus implies discipleship may be viewed as an expression of such discipline in the spiritual realm. The need for a serious and disciplined attitude and approach to the work of God has never been more apparent. It seems increasingly difficult to find people of God who are willing to carry His work on to an ultimate productive and fruitful conclusion.

It seems many would much rather be frolicking with friends of the world in the cool pool of the pleasures of this world, than toiling as yoke fellows with Christ and fellow-labourers in the hot sun of the field of spiritual endeavour. There is no doubt about the nature of our field of spiritual labour . Jesus commanded us to pray that the Lord would send labourers into the field of lost souls.

We know what is involved in preparing the ground to plant the good seed. We know it is necessary to break up our fallow spiritual ground. We know a bit about the cultivation and watering often necessary to bring forth the harvest. We know we need to go forth with weeping, bearing the precious seed of the Word of God. We know the promise of the harvest to those who will really lift up their eyes to the possibilities involved in witnessing and soul winning.

We know the law of sowing and reaping applies to the spiritual as well as the physical world and that our Lord has promised that we will reap in due season, if we faint not. If we would be His disciple, we but need to keep on keeping on for  the glory of God!