When it pleased God…to reveal
His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
{CHAMBERS} “The call of God is not a call to serve Him in any
particular way. My contact with the nature of God will shape my understanding
of His call and will help me realize what I truly desire to do for Him. […] Service
is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But
strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the
relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God.
Service becomes a natural part of my life. God brings me into the proper
relationship with Himself so that I can understand His call, and then I serve
Him on my own out of a motivation of absolute love. Service to God is the
deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is an
expression of my nature, and God’s call is an expression of His nature. […] The
Son of God reveals Himself in me, and out of devotion to Him service becomes my
everyday way of life.”
{ELGIN} As I type this devotion this morning, it is 22 degrees in
Pasadena, Texas, and pretty chilly in the room I am sitting in. I am wearing a read hooded Carhartt work
jacket. Why am I telling you this? Because it has to do with the point of this
devotion. About 12 years ago, I was standing in a parking lot of a church in
Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, doing pretty much what I am doing now. Not typing
a devotion, but serving the people affected by a disaster, however without this
red coat.
It was cold … colder than I
thought it would be on the Gulf Coast. I
had not dressed for the weather … didn’t have a coat. I wasn’t thinking about being cold, but about
getting the volunteers to the work that they had come to do. That’s when a young man walked up to me. He asked me if I had a coat, I told him
no. Then he did something that has been
with me since that day, he took his coat off, a red Carhartt work coat and gave
it to me. He said, “here you can have
this one.” Well, I am a great giver …
but like most givers, struggle with receiving.
But ….. I did accept the coat. I
recognized the sacrifice he was making … I saw Jesus … I saw something holy
that was taking place … an expression of sacrifice … (John 15:13) “No greater love has one man than this, then that he
lay down his life for his friends.” A
sacrifice costs the one sacrificing something that is dear to them. In a flash, I was reminded of Matthew 22 and
the parable of the sheep and the goats … “Lord when did we see you …?” It is a
coat … not a sacrifice on the cross … but that is not the point … it’s the
heart that made the sacrifice that makes the coat significant. This coat hung in a closet for the four years
we served in Haiti. But even then, each
time I saw it there, my heart was rended (sp) and I was taken back to that parking lot. I was reminded of what is important in
life. I am sure that the young man had
no idea what the gesture would mean to me years later. And likewise my friend, you have no idea what your kindness toward others,
your sacrifice from the heart will mean to them. That is not the motive for our doing and
serving … our motive … our motivation … our reason … is the love of God that we
bear in our hearts that has found a way to express itself and bring glory to
the Father.
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