When we arrived in New Zealand, our first table was a wooden packing case, and we sat on old wooden nail boxes, and we had a knife, a fork and a spoon each.” These were the words of a Dutchman who had immigrated to New Zealand in the 1960s. I have heard similar stories from people who probably had grossly exaggerated their hardships, but I believed this man. Everything about him spoke of a man who understood that his family’s progress depended on careful management of their meagre resources—everything was to be prioritised and planned out in advance.
Scripture speaks to such wisdom:
“First get your fields ready, next plant your crops, and then build your house” (Proverbs 24:27).
When Jesus sent out the disciples on The Limited Commission, he told them to leave everything but the clothes they were standing up in behind (Matthew 10:9-10). They had a job to complete, and they were not to be distracted by extra baggage.
Jesus was working to a timeline. With his face set towards the cross, he spent his days preparing his apostles for the job of changing the world.
Everything about Jesus (the apostle John tells his readers), “Which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. (1 John 1:1).
The teachings of Jesus that the Holy Spirit brought to the remembrance of the apostles were combined with their everyday experiences. They were participants in the ministry of Christ, and witnesses of his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus was their daily example of divine love, compassion, uncompromising truth, and sacrifice.
You and I must order our lives for the daily training of the Lord. Our daily prayer is that we too are participants in the ministry of Christ.
Then we will find that our experience of that divine love, compassion, uncompromising truth, and sacrifice of our Saviour will be a powerful witness to all.
John Staiger
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