A UNC grad came home from her first day commuting into the city. Her mother noticed she was looking a little peaked and asked, "Honey, are you feeling all right?"
"Not really," the UNC grad replied. "I'm nauseous from sitting backward on the train."
"Poor dear," Mom said. "Why didn't you ask the person sitting across from you to switch seats for a while?"
"I couldn't," replied the UNC grad, "there was no one there."
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A UNC professor is driving along the road when he sees a sign on a plot of land that reads "40 acres for sale" and lists a phone number and in big bold letters the words "WILL DIVIDE". The man has been considering buying a bit of land for investment purposes. He calls the number and when a lady picks up, he asks her, "Is Mr. Divide in?"
I've heard it said, "Whether these are the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got."
That is a good reminder for us, as God's ambassadors. This is our moment in history. We must serve the Lord daily during the time we have now. But how can we serve? How can we be victorious for Christ during our lifetime? What characterizes a genuine and successful ambassador for Christ?
Many Christians believe that if they work hard enough and pray long enough, then they'll be successful. That's the essence of legalism. As sincere as a legalist may be, if he is relying on himself, then he is heading for a terrible fall.
This was the case with Moses when he killed the Egyptian who had been beating a Hebrew slave. He was sincere in his intentions, but he was relying on his own power, the weapons of the flesh.
And this was my situation when I came to the United States in 1960 to further my biblical studies. I had big dreams I wanted to see quickly accomplished. My impatience led me to rely on my own power, not on the Lord's.
During one of the last chapel services before Christmas break, our speaker was Major Ian Thomas, founder of the Torchbearers in England. Major Thomas's theme was "Any Old Bush Will Do, As Long As God Is in the Bush."
He pointed out that it took Moses forty years in the wilderness to realize he was nothing. God was trying to tell Moses, "I don't need a pretty bush or an educated bush or an eloquent bush. If I am going to use you, I am going to use you. It will not be you doing something for Me, but Me doing something through you."
Major Thomas suggested that the bush in the desert was likely a dry bunch of sticks that had hardly developed, yet Moses had to take off his shoes. Why? Because this was holy ground. Why? Because God was in the bush!
I was like that bush. I could do nothing for God. All my reading, studying, asking questions, and trying to model myself after other people was worthless. Everything in my ministry was worthless unless God was in me! No wonder I felt so frustrated: Only He could make something happen.
When Major Thomas closed with Galatians 2:20, it all came together: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
I realized the secret to being a successful ambassador for Christ was depending on the indwelling, resurrected, almighty Lord Jesus Christ, and not on myself. God was finally in control of this bush!
I had tremendous peace because I realized I didn't have to struggle anymore. How sad that I had wasted eight years of my life trying to do everything in my own power.
Perhaps that is your situation today. Remember, we cannot work or earn our victories through self-effort, any more than we can work for our salvation.
Our inner resource is God Himself, because of our union with Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:9-15). Out of this understanding comes a godly sense of self-worth. I'm God's child! His pilgrim! His servant! His ambassador!
Although our days on earth are short, they can be the best of times for us. They can count for eternity if we will only come to the end of ourselves and say, "Not I, but Christ living in me." habits@palau.org