LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, February 18, 2021

Twenty-six years ago, Scott Wesley Brown released a song that immediately connected with many of our hearts. Unfortunately, it described too many of us.

Oh Lord I am your willing servant
You know that I have been for years
I’m here in this pew every Sunday and Wednesday
I’ve stained it with many a tear
I’ve given You years of my service
I’ve always given my best
And I’ve never asked you for anything much
So, Lord I deserve this request

I’ll see that the money is gathered
I’ll see that the money is sent
I’ll wash and stack the communion cups
I’ll tithe eleven percent
I’ll volunteer for the nursery
I’ll go on the youth group retreat
I’ll usher, I’ll deacon, I’ll go door to door
Just let me keep warming this seat

Please don’t send me to Africa
I don’t think I’ve got what it takes
I’m just a man, I’m not a Tarzan
Don’t like lions, gorillas or snakes
I’ll serve you here in suburbia
In my comfortable middle class life
But please don’t send me out into the bush
Where the natives are restless at night

I remember my parents teaching me as a child that I should never tell God where I wouldn’t go to serve Him. They warned me that I would probably end up there. They were right. Here I am in Packer country.

Maybe you aren’t called to go somewhere around the world to serve Jesus. However, are you willing to serve Him so faithfully that if the result is death you would follow Him there? This is the very principle of serving and following that Jesus taught in John 12:26.

 “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

When serving Jesus, there is honor in death. Yet our parameters for how far we will follow Jesus fall far short of death. We limit our expression of faith to circumstances where we feel confident that criticism, financial loss, embarrassment, ridicule, and persecution can be avoided.

My friends, the Day of the Lord is approaching, and as it does the persecution of Christians will increase. Many around the world are already following Jesus to the point of death.

Are you prepared?

Pastor John