|
A very good friend, whom you have not seen for about a year calls you, "We're coming to town for a long weekend, arriving on Thursday.
Could we take you out for dinner?"
Well, that was a sudden, unexpected joy and you just love to eat out, especially with old friends.
You can already anticipate what fun you will have together. Just before you hang up, after having heartily affirmed that they could spend the weekend with you beginning with the supper, a thought strikes you.
Thursday night -that's Ladies Night Out and I'm suppose to lead the singing.
Oh, well, that's not important. It would be different if l was in charge of the lesson.
But singing, anybody can pick out a couple of songs on the spur of the moment.
I'll go to supper with my friend. The ladies will understand. So it will be okay."
But will God cast His vote with you?
A person for all seasons -whose word is a word that you can count on -today that' a rare specimen, almost a forgotten species.
Not so with Timothy. Paul gave him this testimony, "For I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state.
For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." (Phil. 2:20-21)
Previously in this chapter Paul had described the submission of Christ, how He had left all of heaven's glory to become man and become obedient even unto death which led to praise and victory. Now he gives us Timothy's example of Christ-likeness.
Speaking of Timothy, he says, "You know the proof of him" (v. 22).
The work "proof" means
caliber. You know what he's made of because he has shown it over and over again.
What had he shown? He was "like-minded" which means more than the same opinion.
It is like-souled. He carried Paul's burden for the lost.
Timothy naturally cared for the Philippians
|
-not from blood-kinship, but fathering them in the Lord. He genuinely cared. He also sought for the things
of Jesus Christ-not his own (v. 21). He had put things in proper perspective. Christ - His cause -always came first. Many of our parents were that kind of people. Commitment meant sacrifice,
loyalty, and stick-to-it-ness.
But what does that have to do with accepting a supper engagement with a friend instead of going to Ladies Night Out or any other church meeting? Humanly speaking it seems valid enough.
But where is commitment, like-mindedness, caring, priorities? Take care of your commitment first. You can easily enjoy both. Supper can be early or late and why not bring your friend along to Ladies Night Out. The
testimony of your love for the Lord will out last a dinner and both of you will be blessed. Other- wise, before you know it, you'll find it easier to let tiredness, distance, family dinners,
inconvenience, indifference, etc, give cause for absences.
In Paul's ministry the "Timothy-sort" were few in kind, as today, but needed and are the back-bone on which the true, caring church of God is
built. Enlist today to be one of the rare species -totally committed to Jesus Christ and
His cause.
June Wiebe
|
|