Volunteers
We often hear our friends and colleagues complain about work. We are sometimes guilty of this ourselves. Many of us regard work as a burden we endlessly churn through as part of the machinery of life. We look forward to weekends and dread Mondays.
Contrast this with volunteering. When we volunteer, we choose to do work for no financial gain. We give up our time. Sometimes, we even sacrifice our precious weekends.
Yet people who volunteer often find greater levels of satisfaction. Research has shown that people who volunteer are generally healthier and happier than those who don’t.
Perhaps it’s because people normally volunteer for causes they feel strongly about. Or maybe it’s because they are doing something beyond themselves. For most people, volunteering is not motivated by money or fame or recognition. It is for something far greater – giving up a bit of yourself in service of others. The gratification that comes with giving can transcend any financial rewards we accumulate.
Our time on this earth is limited. God calls each of us to do our bit to help those in need.
How are you going to use your gifts?
Reflection: Thank God for all our wonderful volunteers who give their time to serve their community. International Volunteer Day is celebrated every year on 5 December. This is a timely opportunity for us to reflect on Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
Brian Lee
Image by Chesapeake Bay Program via Flickr
A Story of Divine Compulsion
In 1923, my father, aged 25, gave into a ‘divine compulsion’. He was a Victorian Mallee man working on his father’s farm, engaged to my mother and considering purchasing a farm which had become vacant in the same area.
In his own words: “I was engaged in the work of a local preacher and, as time went by, I began to be aware of a certain ‘divine compulsion’ to offer for the ordained ministry of the Methodist Church.” There was some consternation involved in this – training postponed to meet the needs of the church and marriage delayed for the term of six years’ probation! So began his life-time as a Methodist minister.
As a child, I loved to accompany him as he conducted four services nearly every Sunday. On one of these Sundays, we would set out in the Willys 77 for an 11am service at Albacutya, then to Yaapeet and the Wheatlands for the 2pm and 3:30pm services. The day finished with an evening service in Rainbow.
Reflection:
I heard my father preach his last sermon entitled ‘Maintaining the Spiritual Glow’ at the age of 95. He used the text from Romans 12:11 – ‘have your spirits aglow as the Lord’s own servants.’ The NRSV amplifies this as ‘Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, extend hospitality to strangers’. This is why I long to hear at the conclusion of Prayers of the People –
“We remember all who have died in the faith
Those whose hearts have blazed with love for you.”
Joan Addinsall
Proportional Giving
The gospel reading Mark 12:38-44 is another example of how it is not the outward appearances, but the inward condition of the heart that captures God’s attention. No one but Jesus notices the widow and her meagre gift. The conclusion is very clear. It is not the amount of the gift, but the proportion of the gift that counts. The widow gives much more in the eyes of God than the wealthy who give out of their abundance. They have plenty left – she has her faith in God alone because she gave everything she had.
It is obvious that God does not really need our gifts – it is not as though God’s kingdom would fail for the lack of monetary support. The widow's gift is a gift of complete devotion and trust. The kingdom is built with persons like her. Note how Jesus makes a special point of calling his disciples to observe what is taking place and teaches them what it means to give.
Reflection: Lord God, we praise and magnify your name that you have set your seal upon our inmost being. We bless you for that knocking at our hearts' doors that warns us of your waiting presence. We bless you for your hand upon our lives, knowing that there is no greater blessing, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (adapted from John Baillie)
Rev Mark Dunn
Image by Mark Bitton via Flickr
A MEMO FOR 2016
The prophet Habbakuk had not heard from God. So many earnest prayers, but no answer. How earnestly you and I pray, yet we hear nothing.
Habbakuk had an idea. He went to the top of his watchtower, and looked for an answer for his complaint.
It came loud and clear. He had to learn the lesson of patience. “Though the vision seems slow, wait for it, because it will surely come.”
There is our time – the time of years, days, hours, minutes and seconds. Clock time. The time of impatience. And there is God’s time – the time of waiting, faithful expectation, fulfilment. The time of the God, who is acting, and acts, when all is ready.
What are your church’s plans, for the New Year? What do you hope for your children, your families, and for this troubled world? As Christian men and women, who belong to the family of faith, let us with earnest prayer, and a measure of the virtue of patience, commit this year to the Lord. Let us go about our discipleship, living humbly and giving daily. Sometimes our contributions may seem small, but added together with God, all things are possible.
Reflection: Read Habbakuk 2:1-4.Note the message of Hebrews 12:1-2 – let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
Bill Pugh
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