Peter Pollock
I remember when I was still at school, my grandfather, my father, my uncle, and I went with great excitement to Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church in Benoni to see Peter Pollock, who was coming to preach there.
Peter Pollock was a great cricketer who had become a preacher and a minister. He's the father of Shaun Pollock, who was South Africa's captain in the 2000s.
But I remember being so excited to go and see him. I had a book of his called God's Fast Bowler, which was his life story and told about how he came to God and how he answered the call to ministry later in his life. I was very excited to take the book with to get him to sign it and everything, and his story of going into the ministry was very inspiring to me.
Called To Serve
But a simple thought for you today comes from the title of his book, God's Fast Bowler. He was a great bowler for South Africa back in the '60s, but he saw himself as God's fast bowler. That's pretty profound.
Could you say the same about yourself—that whatever it is you do for a living, you do it for God? You're God's teacher, God's businessman, God's worker of whatever description?
Or maybe you're retired and you see yourself as God's retiree. You use your retirement to find ways to glorify God and spread His love.
Belonging To God
There's a lovely verse in Isaiah 44:5. God is talking about how He will save His people through Jesus, and He says: "Some will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’; others will call themselves by the name of Jacob; still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel."
Can you say that you belong to the Lord? Will you put the Lord's—or God's—before whatever it is you define yourself by? Because that's ultimately what our identity is.
Live For Christ
Peter Pollock was God's fast bowler. Whatever it is you do with your life, do it for God's sake. Because remember what we learned yesterday from CT Studd? Only what we do for Christ will last.
