Me Serve?

I love to see God's children
winning others to know the Lord,
with faith as their foundation
and the Bible as their sword.
It gives my heart such joy
to see God's family grow--
to watch as they give their lives to Jesus
and my Lord they come to know.
I sing praises of jubilation
as others give their testimony;
My thankfulness is sincere
and my smile - it isn't phony.
I truly love to see those around me
work to share the wondrous story,
and I look forward to the day
when we'll all meet in glory,
and I'll watch as crowns are given
to those who do deserve...

What that? What did you ask me, Master?
What do you mean did I serve???

We are often comfortable with sitting back and relaxing until someone professes belief in Christ, and THEN we go into action. We smile with genuine joy, and we extend a warm handshake to express a welcome; we tell individuals how truly glad we are to have them join the family of Christ. Then, we walk back to our padded pew and wait on the next person to come forward.

God's Word shows us that these are "the latter days," and Christ's return draweth nigh. The words of the prophets seem to be found in the headlines of our newspapers today, and yet we sometimes prefer to not draw a connection between the two. Members of our family are still without Christ, neighbors are out of fellowship with God's children, and we're still sitting on our padded pews. Think of the results we would see if EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US sought out at least one person to share God's Word and love with. What would happen if every member of our church put the name of one specific person on our prayer list and asked the Lord to open up ministry opportunities with that person?

Perhaps we're thinking that as long as SOMEONE is doing the work, we're off the hook. No way! Each of us will be held accountable for the efforts that we didn't make. What about all those who will face eternity without God because we never left our pews?

From February 14, 1984