2002-01-01
Hi There Dear Ones,
Have you ever been doing a job and paused to wonder if other than getting a paycheck is it really worth it? I sure have. It happened to me when I was working at a job that was the only one I could get at the time. Getting to and from work was an awful hassle, because it involved driving part way, parking my car, and loading on to street car to stand like a sardine packed into its can for the long trip through San Francisco’s Twin Peaks Tunnel. Once that was accomplished, then I had to walk quickly up Sansome Street from Market Street into the heart of this city’s financial district to the shabby third floor office that was my workplace. The whole trip took 1 ½ hours. That meant that with the return trip home, my commute was 3 hours of dead time each day, five days a week. I did that for a year, before I finally found a job in my field of choice.
At the time all of this was happening 30 years ago, I certainly didn’t realize that the Lord was working in my life, preparing me to appreciate better what would come later. In other words, I saw my experience from a human perspective which is a very limited one indeed. It would have been a sad case if my attitude toward the work I did after that had stayed the same. Not everyone is able to do a job that garners them a big pay check, prestige, or a lot of positive attention. In His infinite wisdom our Lord knows that there is something very important every person with a job can do while at work. We can take Him with us. Everyone who does any kind of work, whether it be in the home like raising children, in an office providing a service, or out in the streets like police work keeping crime under control can act in such a way as to reflect the presence of the Father. No matter where your work is, how you carry it out matters.
I was once told that some people will plant the seeds of faith, and often others harvest them. My fleshly desire for instant gratification isn’t served by this, but God’s higher purpose is. Often something that we say or do registers on the mind of another, and there is a delay in it taking effect. That is why you aren’t allowed to know that what you said or did was a turning point in that person’s life that brought him/her to faith. That is why you are a valued child of God when you live “in Christ.” When you live a life “in Christ,” God can use you as his agent to bring others to faith, and you might not even know it.
COLOSSIANS 3: 1-3 “You have been raised to life with Christ, so set you hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on His throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when He appears, then you too will appear with Him and share His glory.”
To my way of thinking there is nothing more important than the freedom and salvation that comes through having faith in Jesus Christ. People who don’t share our faith can’t see that, and it’s often futile to try to talk them into it. The bottom line is that God, through the Holy Spirit is in control of who comes to faith and when. Often the process takes years and an impatient person like me has to understand that God’s timing is best. However, God after first initiating the invitation for a person to come to faith, can use you through the example of how you live your life and your dedication to Him to move that process along. My comments above the frequent futility of talking people into having faith don’t mean that you should never offer your testimony or talk about your faith at times when that is appropriate. We who believe are challenged to look for the right moments to share what we believe, choosing them with wisdom and compassion for the other person or people involved.
I have often cited RO 12: 2 because it reveals the mechanism used by the Holy Spirit to bring a person to faith. “Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God, what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect.” In other words, the first step toward eternal life is by the renewal of one’s mind brought about by the action of the Holy Spirit. Once the mind is renewed, then the heart gets renewed, and finally this wonderful change manifests itself in the words a person speaks from his heart and the actions he takes. I hope to talk about those latter steps in another devotion. For now, let’s just look at this superb and supernatural renewal that God affects in the mind of one coming to faith.
Those of you who know me well, know that I once (and quite arrogantly) asserted to my faithful husband, “now that I understand all the connections between the OT and the NT and have all these excellent Scriptures written down, I’m going to lay the whole thing out for my family (who are for the most part traditional Jews who reject Christ). Then, they will belief as we do!” Pete put up his hand as if to stop my gushing, foolish enthusiasm and calmly said,” no, you wont.” That stopped me short and came as a shock, temporarily mystifying me. “Only the Holy Spirit can bring them to faith, Lynn, not you,” he wisely said. The knowledge of my own arrogance in thinking I could assume sovereignty in this matter that is clearly God’s flooded over me, humbling my foolish self. I needed to understand that there are two parallel truths in God’s realm: God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility to it. Studying the Scriptures and prayer are the main ways we can learn the limits of each.
If you are wondering how this relates to you, then consider the message often repeated in the Scriptures, the one that comes from God urging us to “live in Christ” and “never do anything that would diminish the faith of another.” (RO 14: 13). No matter what your circumstances are, they can be used to plant the seeds of faith in others. By living this way, you free the Holy Spirit to do the work He is sent to do. That is to bring others to faith while at the same time bringing to greater maturity the faith of one who has already accepted Christ as his/her Savior. We are blessed to be living in the age of grace. When we have faith, we are taking God at His Word. (The capital W was not a typo). Through our faith, we are saved and can look forward to victory over second death coupled with inheritance of God’s eternal Kingdom. By acting on the renewal that has taken place of our minds, we can free the Holy Spirit to bring others to this same saving grace. Hallelujah!
PRAYER: O Lord, help us to see how important it is that we live according to the teachings all the persons of the Trinity reveal to us. Give us the wisdom and patience to understand that the process of bringing others to faith is often slow, but is a critically important outgrowth of the example of living “in Christ” that we can set for them. Allow us to dedicate our lives as Your representatives here on earth, so that we join in Your work as You work though us. In Christ’s name. Amen.
I hope that God will bless you abundantly today and always. Peter and I send our love to you with this message.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn