Impact

            I was recently looking over an article I wrote for another occasion and thought I'd reproduce it here.  Forgive the rather large quote to begin with but you'll see what I'm after.
            “An air-monitoring station atop a California mountain has detected wind-borne particles that drifted across the Pacific Ocean from coal-fired power plants and smelters thousands of miles away. Some experts predict that expanding economies in other nations could one day account for a third of the pollution in California. The US, however, remains the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and other countries are feeling the effects of America’s energy consumption.
An Associated Press report quoted atmospheric scientist Dan Jaffe: “There is no place where you can put away your pollution anymore.” Every nation shares the world’s atmosphere and is affected by the actions of others.
A similar principle is at work in the global community of those who follow Jesus Christ. We all have a stake in the lives of others because our actions, good and bad, affect every other Christian. In the body of Christ, each member belongs to all the others (Rom. 12:5). Because of that, we are urged to exercise our spiritual gifts (vv.6-8), and to be loving, faithful in prayer, and generous (vv.10-13).
Our obedience to the Lord may seem insignificant in the big picture, but it breathes freshness and life into the spiritual atmosphere of every believer.”  — David C. McCasland
In case you are wondering whether you have much of an impact in the lives of others (even within your own church family), let me remind you with great certainty that even your smallest kindness to another brother or sister in Christ...your simplest act of generosity...your time invested in prayer; all of these are used of God to “freshen the atmosphere” of faith.
We don't serve because we want others to serve us in return.  We serve because others need us to minister to them and to be the hands of Christ to them.  We need each other and we belong to each other.
Furthermore, the world around us needs us to function as a body.  This is both in the larger picture of Christianity as a whole and in the smaller picture of your local church family.  There are many who are outside the family of God and we will not be at our best unless each person takes their place and uses their gift wholeheartedly to have the most significant impact on them.
I hope you realize that even that which you view to be your smallest sacrifice is a sweet aroma to your Heavenly Father.  By the wind of the Spirit, He spreads the activity of your faithfulness and strengthens his kingdom; many times in ways that you'll never even know about.
Does that encourage you today?  It sure does me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time for another change

            My wife and I have just stepped into a transition time.  This past Sunday, after our morning worship service, I read my resignation to our church family.  While it was something that had been brewing in our hearts for some time and something which we are supremely confident that God wanted us to do, it is still very difficult to declare an end to a pastoral relationship with people whom you have served with and loved for almost 9 years.  In some ways; it is made more difficult for us since we do not know yet where we are going next.  We are simply convinced that God has said "start walking; I'll let you know when you get there."  A good friend of mine sent me this quote from Francis Chan and it means a lot to me right now: "God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doe...
Read more

Still Walking...

Image
     Those of you familiar with our situation right now know that we have purposely put ourselves in a position where we will be in trouble if God doesn't come through.  That's a rough quote from a statement made by Francis Chan that I got from a friend a few weeks ago.  I'm still mulling over those words and have found myself enlivened and refreshed by their challenge.  It's funny how we see things more often when we are consciously thinking about them.  I was reading this morning from 1 Kings 17 about Elijah the prophet of God.  He was singularly used of God in a dramatic way.  He prayed and it stopped raining...for 3 years.  He prayed again and it rained.  He prayed and God raised a young man from the dead.  God did some incredible things through Elijah.      This morning I read the account of the widow that Elijah stopped to visit in the little town of Zarephath.  You're probably familiar with...
Read more

God is Good

     A little over a week from today, we'll all sit around a table filled with more food than we probably should consume in a day to celebrate a national holiday designed to focus our attention on the goodness of God to us over the previous year.      I thought I'd spend the next couple of posts talking a little about thanksgiving; not the holiday, but the attitude.  Thanksgiving always begins with a foundation of some sort.  For many people, thankfulness is directly connected to possessions and provisions.  When I have enough to pay the bills and some left over to have some nice things; I am thankful.  If, on the other hand, I am struggling month to month or I seem to have less than someone else that I am observing, then my thankfulness drops and I begin to be frustrated with something that is missing from my life.      When I approach thanksgiving from a different vantage point, I start to understand something very i...
Read more