Something to Think About

The message for the past two Sundays has focused on the challenge we face to be sincerely interested in the needs of those people that God has placed in our lives as well as those people that God will bring into our lives on a daily basis. Am I too busy to recognize these opportunities to make a difference in the live of someone that is in need of assistance? We can all be captured by the "busyness" of our personal lives and never fully recognize the opportunity to serve someone else.

I would like to share an excerpt from yesterday's message. Hopefully these thoughts will challenge you as they did me during the time of preparation as well as presentation.

One day Hudson Taylor was traveling on a Chinese junk from Shanghai to Ningpo.   He had been witnessing to a man named Peter who rejected the gospel but was under deep conviction.   In the course of events, Peter fell overboard, but no one made any effort to save him.   Taylor sprang to the mast, let down the sail, and jumped overboard in hopes of finding his friend. But no one on board joined Taylor in his frantic search.   Taylor saw a fishing boat nearby and yelled to them to help, but they wouldn't do it without money.   Finally, after bartering for every penny that Taylor had, the fishermen stopped their fishing and began to look for Peter.   In less than a minute of dragging their net, they found him, but it was too late.   They were too busy fishing to care about saving a drowning man. 

We can easily condemn the selfish indifference of those fishermen, but by indicting them, we may condemn ourselves.   Are we too busy with our jobs and other activities to take the time to rescue those who are perishing without Christ? 

I firmly believe that the passage of truth found in Genesis 4 reminds us that we do have a responsibility to care for and love one another.   Let us be real with each other for a moment and understand that we can become so captured by the “busyness” of life that we are prone to overlook the people that are around us.   There are things that we know we “should do” but we are always more comfortable doing the things that we “want to do.”   Let me hasten to add that not all of our wants or desires or evil ones but we must be careful and not overlook the opportunity to fulfill our biblical responsibility to one another.