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| “Answer the Phone When the Call Comes In!” |
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| Written by Doug Cravens | |
| Wednesday, 02 September 2009 | |
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Acts Chapter 6: 1-6 “Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and Wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:3-4NIV As we read in our text today for Acts Chapter 6, the number of the disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the twelve gathered all the disciples together and said: “it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables, Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and Wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” The early church suddenly had a problem. Some of the widows were being neglected!!! They weren’t getting any food. The apostles essentially said, “We need to do something about this. We need to make some changes in order to take care of our widows so call on those with the gift to serve.” And there were those willing to take on the job of waiting the tables to allow the disciples to better serve the community of faith. They knew that there were those who had the talent to assist in the service of the Lord. And today each of us has something to offer in the service of the Lord. The text in Acts relates that there was a need to call on others who had gifts to serve the work of the Lord. It may not have been something that was expected or even desired by those who were called upon. As Rick Warren shares in his work The Purpose Driven Life, our ministry opportunities may come unexpectedly and certainly not within our own time line. But we must be prepared for the times when we have a chance to act do so with strength and commitment to the task; as we are the hands of Christ acting into the world until his return. And, please always remember we all have something to offer through out our lives. There is the story of a man who was walking down a nearly deserted Mexican beach at Sunset. As he walked along, he noticed another in the distance. As he drew closer, he noticed the man doing something, leaning over and, then seeming to throw something into the ocean. As the two grew closer, the first man noticed that the second was picking up starfish that had washed up on the beach; and one at a time, he was throwing them back into the water. Then the man said to the other: “Good evening friend, I wondered as I watched you, what are you trying to do? The man replied, “I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die.” The first man then said: “I understand, but there must be thousands of starfish on the beach…Don’t you realize there must also be other beaches along the coast with thousands of starfish which are stranded on the beach? You can’t possibly help them all.” The local man smiled, then he reached down picked up another starfish and as he threw it back into the sea; he said: “It Made a difference to That One.” We must be committed to do whatever we can, whenever the opportunity avails itself to serve and to act as the hands of Christ. Prayer: Lord let us answer the call when called upon regardless of timing, or how we judge it to fit into our agenda. Amen. ...Doug Craven |
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