We tend to worry about our life more than anything else. The following quotes, from a sermon by Robert Morgan, helps us put this in its proper perspective:
The Lord has a job that only you can do, and He has placed us here for a certain period of time to do it. The 17th century British preacher, Thomas Fuller, once said: God’s children are immortal while their Father hath anything for them to do on earth.
David Livingstone, in a letter describing the death of Bishop Mackenzie, March, 1862, said: Men are immortal until their work is done.
On Thursday night, September 21, 1871, Charles Spurgeon was preaching at a church in Newington, England, and this is what he said to the congregation: Whatever occurs around us, we need not be alarmed. We are immortal until our work is done. And amidst infectious or contagious diseases, if we are called to go there, we may sit as easily as though in balmy air. It is not ours to preserve our life by neglecting our duty. It is better to die in service than live in idleness-better to glorify God and depart, than rot above ground in neglecting what He would have us to do. Unto God belong the issues from death. We may, therefore, go without temerity into any danger where duty calls us.
The Bible says: My times are in Thy hand, or, as the old song says, “We’ll work till Jesus comes, then we’ll be carried home.”
Sometimes the work God has for us to do is within the parameters of our church ministries. We’re always looking for teachers and musicians and greeters and ushers and nursery workers and children’s ministers–and about a thousand other kinds of ministries. Often our ministry is outside the organized programs of our church. It might be caring for a loved one in a nursing home, volunteering at the Crisis Pregnancy Support Center, or seeking to win your co-workers to Christ.
I read about a woman who went to her pastor complaining of her work environment. It was so crass and crude, her co-workers used bad language, and she was the only Christian there. “I don’t think I can put with it!” she said. Her pastor asked her just one question of five words, and it completely changed her perspective. From that point, she understood why God had placed her there, and she went to work each day with a new purpose and attitude. His simple question was: “Where do you put lights?”
There’s a need, and we must fill it. There’s a work, and we must do it. There’s a crown and we must win it.
