Tuesday,
April 11, 2023
Let the message
about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the
wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a
representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the
Father. Colossians 3:16-17
The Apostle instructs
the believers at Colossae to make certain everything they do is done as a
representative of the Lord Jesus. That
is a heavy responsibility!
As a pastor, just
out of seminary in 1983, my first day on the job I sat in the office (which was
a room attached to the back of the parsonage).
All of my books were on the shelves, which, thanks to Mrs. Preacher, had
just been dusted and polished, along with the desk, panneled-walls, and
everything else. Even our cat had received
a thorough spraying with Lemon Pledge before he was allowed in there.
My Bible was opened,
along with a pencil and a new legal pad.
I was ready to begin work on Sermon #1.
I looked around at the bookshelves, mimeograph machine, and thought: I’m their pastor, and I don’t have a
clue what to do next.
In some ways I’ve
never escaped that thought, because it’s always been a surprise from one day to
the next what God will lead us into. That
day I felt something akin to what Abraham must have experienced when God called
him to pack it all up and follow Him to a place he’d never seen. It was an adventure (to say the least) and
Abraham had to learn a whole new way of thinking. He was going to be God’s representative in a
strange land. And that is still
happening today.
One of the most
sacred responsibilities a believer can accept and practice has nothing to do
with being a larger-than-life personality, so you can lead a church or your
family, or a few coworkers to follow Christ.
Rather it is allowing the richness of Who Christ is to fully, and
firmly, indwell your being. It’s about
opening-up your heart and will to what Jesus shows you is your part of the harvest
to labor.
For instance, I came
to that small membership church in the tiny town of McIntosh, Florida with the
clean desk, and a new legal pad, and no clue.
But I was thrilled to be there, and thought I’d arrived in the place I
would spend the next forty years, or more, preaching and growing that little
church into a lighthouse. That was eight
churches ago! The ride along the way has
been interesting, bumpy at times, and teaching me all along the way what was
really important…letting Christ dwell in me, no matter what the events of the
day brought. In times of plenty, we
learned how to share. In times of
scarcity, we trusted God to multiply the loaves and fishes. In times of sorrow, joy was waiting, just off
stage to make an entrance when we’d lift our heads to the Author of our faith. And in times of success, the enemy was hiding
(sometimes in plain view) to steal God’s thunder with his deceiving offers.
What I’m trying to
say is that God was always going before us in a prevenient grace that made our
way possible, and profitable. In gains
and losses nothing matters except that others see what God is doing in you as
His representative. This is how we are
his witnesses.[1] With Christ
living in us, we are filled with the richness of His life, and we live in
thankfulness and praise!
For You Today
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper explore
some of these: Getting Dressed Part
1 Part
2 Part
3 Part
4 Part
5
Title Image: Pixabay.com Images without citation are in
public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
