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Servant
In 1972
NASA
launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time
the satellite's primary mission
was to reach Jupiter
photograph the planet and its moons
and beam data to
earth about Jupiter's magnetic field
radiation belts
and atmosphere.
Scientists regarded this as a bold plan
for at that time no earth satellite
had ever gone beyond Mars
and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the
satellite before it could reach its target. But Pioneer 10 accomplished its
mission and much
much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973
Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward
the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun
Pioneer 10
passed Saturn. At some two billion miles
it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at
nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997
twenty-five years after its launch
Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles
from the sun.
And despite that immense
distance
Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on
Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable
" writes Jaroff
"those signals
emanate from an 8-watt transmitter
which radiates about as much power as a
bedroom night light
and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.'" The
Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers
designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going
and going. By simple longevity
its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished
more than anyone thought possible.
So it is when we
offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through someone with
8-watt abilities. God cannot work
however
through someone who quits.── Philippians 3:12-14 Hebrews 12:1
Mark 10:45
Craig Brian Larson
Pastoral
Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay
Bethany.
The great violinist
Niccolo Paganini willed his marvelous violin to city of Genoa on condition that
it must never be played. The wood of such an instrument
while used and
handled
wears only slightly
but set aside
it begins to decay. Paganini's
lovely violin has today become worm-eaten and useless except as a relic. A
Christian's unwillingness to serve may soon destroy his capacity for
usefulness. ── J.K. Laney
Marching
Orders
p. 34.
John Kenneth
Galbraith
in his autobiography
A Life in Our Times
illustrates the
devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson
his family's housekeeper: It had been a
wearying day
and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap.
Shortly thereafter the phone rang. Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White
House. "Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson." "He is
sleeping
Mr. President. He said not to disturb him." "Well
wake him
up. I want to talk to him." "No
Mr. President. I work for him
not
you”. When I called the President back
he could scarcely control his pleasure.
"Tell that woman I want her here in the White House." ── Houghton Mifflin in Reader's Digest
December
1981.
"Servant"
in our English New Testament usually represents the Greek doulos (bondslave).
Sometimes it means diakonos (deacon or minister); this is strictly accurate
for doulos and diakonos are synonyms. Both words denote a man who is not at his
own disposal
but is his master's purchased property. Bought to serve his
master's needs
to be at his beck and call every moment
the slave's sole
business is to do as he is told. Christian service therefore means
first and
foremost
living out a slave relationship to one's Savior (1 Corinthians.
6:19-20).
What work does
Christ set his servants to do? The way that they serve him
he tells them
is
by becoming the slaves of their fellow-servants and being willing to do
literally anything
however costly
irksome
or undignified
in order to help
them. This is what love means
as he himself showed at the Last supper when he
played the slave's part and washed the disciples' feet.
When the New Testament
speaks of ministering to the saints
it means not primarily preaching to them
but devoting time
trouble
and substance to giving them all the practical help
possible. The essence of Christian service is loyalty to the king expressing
itself in care for his servants (Matthew 25: 31-46).
Only the Holy Spirit
can create in us the kind of love toward our Savior that will overflow in
imaginative sympathy and practical helpfulness towards his people. Unless the
spirit is training us in love
we are not fit persons to go to college or a
training class to learn the know-how or particular branches of Christian work.
Gifted leaders who are self-centered and loveless are a blight to the church
rather than a blessing. ── James
Packer
Your Father Loves You
Harold Shaw Publishers
1986.