Monday, June 13,
2016
Through
Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell
Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and
obey him, bringing glory to his name.
Romans 1:5(NLT)
My experience with the banana I
chose to accompany me to my devotions this morning reminded me of the way my Dad
taught me to cut down a tree. I decided
the banana was a little less than fully ripe when I tried to peel it and only
managed to bend the stem. So, with the
tip of my thumbnail I made a crease in the skin and tried again. The little crease provided enough brokenness
to let the peel break open…and then, the banana entered the ministry;
delicious!
My father’s instruction was that
to cut a tree, without having it fall on your house, car, or head, you must
first notch it (like I “notched” the banana). And it must be notched in the direction you
want it to fall. You must be careful with
this, or you get some pretty interesting results – few of which are pleasant! One of my careless attempts some years back left
quite a lasting impression on our chain link fence.
So, perhaps good logging advice
here, but what does any of it have to do with Paul’s greeting to the Roman
church? Well…frankly, everything. Note that Paul talked about the privilege he
had of sharing his faith with people – the purpose was to create a notch
in their lives that would fell them in the direction of faith and obedience
towards God, bringing glory to God’s name.
Belief in God may
happen in the head and heart, but obedience to that belief is
worked out with the hands. It is faith AND
obedience which bring glory to God.
In my life there were powerful
influences that notched me in God’s direction. My Christian mother, father, and brother were
part of that notch. Our church family
helped form the notch. Acquaintances,
both positive and negative bent me towards understanding that little faith God
had placed deep in my soul needed to give way – all the way to what God wanted
to do with this life He gave me.
As with the banana in my hand,
the slight brokenness of that notch in my stubborn will became the direction of
the work God wanted to do in me – to fall in His direction.
For You Today
The people God has placed in your life’s pathway are
like bunches of bananas; some need the kind of notch your life and witness can
provide.
God’s got a lot of lumbering to do in this world…he
needs notchers!
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: By Ministry of Information official
photographer, via Wikimedia
Commons
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