The Lord blessed us with a beautiful weekend. Our granddaughter Ada in Boston celebrated her 5th birthday. She kept her family busy. The Lord blessed us with a joyful day in His House yesterday. He blessed with a great season of laughter and joy in worship and celebration. There were moments of impromptu sharing and celebrations.
I officiated in a wedding of a beautiful young couple this past Saturday. I had known the bride since her very early days. She comes from a beautiful and winsome Christian family. Her grandpa is a retired united Methodist minister. One of her aunts is a judge. One of the bridesmaids is a beautiful Indian daughter of a Christian family from Kerala, India. The organist was a very gifted and talented Christian artist born in Taiwan. The wedding was held in one of our most beautiful United Methodist churches. The church is a gothic Cathedral-style building. When the young organist played the Pipe organ the music reverberated throughout the whole building. She played some of the powerful hymns of the church along with the classical wedding march and the recessional pieces. One of the special places this church has for me is that our three daughters were married there. This was a great occasion for the celebration and declaration of Christian marriage between a man and a woman, ordained by the Lord which the Lord blesses as He blessed the marriage at Cana of Galilee where He performed His first miracle according to the Gospel according to John.
It was Helen Keller who said, “Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all.” Those words would ring true no matter who said them, but coming from someone who lived a life like Helen Keller, they merit special consideration. Blind, deaf and unable to speak from a very early age, she somehow found a way out of the darkness and into the world around her. Her story is one of the great miracles of the twentieth century. Millions of people have drawn inspiration from her example.
Let us carefully consider her words : “Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all.” When we bring this observation over into the spiritual realm it looks something like this: The life of faith is inherently a life of risk. Let us go back to the Bible and take a look at the men and women who did great things for God. Almost without exception, they were risk-takers who weren’t afraid to lay it all on the line for Jesus our Lord.
. Consider these examples . . .
Noah built an ark in a land where it did not significantly rain.
Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, the only home he knew, to go to the Promised Land.
Moses returned to Egypt - the land from which he was a fugitive, to lead the people of God out of Egypt.
Joshua marched around the walls of Jericho, following God's commands, in order to knock them down.
David, a youth, defeated Goliath, a seasoned soldier who was 9 1/2 feet tall.
Elijah, a "wanted" man, faced down the prophets of Baal.
Esther, a very beautiful young woman who had risen to be queen, risked everything to save her people.
Daniel, a young captive, refused to defile himself with the king’s food.
Nehemiah led the Jews to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
When we read the Bible, again and again we discover that the men and women who accomplished great things for God weren’t content to accept the status quo. They thought that more could be done if only someone would lead the way. And when no one else stepped forward, they themselves volunteered. Christ calls us to find out what he is doing in the world, and then to fling ourselves wholeheartedly into his cause.
I want to live until the very last moment, fully invested for Christ and His Kingdom, doing everything I can to advance his cause in the world, taking risks on the basis of Kingdom principles. Staying in the boat may be comfortable and safe, but that’s not what the life of faith is all about.
In Christ.
Brown
https://youtu.be/HcnfT4arZtI
No comments:
Post a Comment