Helpers
I said yesterday that we need to be people of prayer. But having said that, I would not want us to be a church that spends so much time on our knees that we never do any good work.
I want us to be passionate pray-ers… and passionate helpers of all.
Look at these words of Paul: “You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.” (2 Timothy 1:16–18 NIV11)
Serve with Action
Onesiphorus was a man who didn’t just talk the Christian talk. He walked the walk and HELPED Paul in many ways. His love for Paul extended beyond praying for him. When there was an opportunity to help, he helped! He got stuck in! He put in time and effort to help!
Do you know the name Sir Henry Bartle Frere? He was High Commissioner of Southern Africa in the 1870s, and by all accounts was not the greatest leader. But it was said of him that he was always helping someone. Once his wife was going to a railway station to meet her husband with a servant who had never seen him before. “Madam, how will I recognize him?” asked the man. “Look for a tall gentleman helping someone,” replied Lady Frere, and sure enough the description was correct, and they found Sir Bartle helping an old lady out of a railway carriage.
Look for the one helping! What a witness to the type of character Jesus wants in his people. What if we Christians were known because we’re always helping people? What if people think of your church as the place where you can always find someone to help?!
I’ve been blown away by the way my own congregation has stepped up to help when the church has needed help. Christmas carols services, Easter sunrises, movie nights, outreaches, funerals… people just show up and help! For me, I will always remember the help that this church provides when there’s a need.
Always Be Helping
But what about outside our walls? What about at home, at work, in the checkers and the Spur, in our cars?
We must be like Onesiphorus, or Sir Henry Bartle Frere – helping always, in many ways, in the name of our Lord.
What a witness we might be to this broken world, if the church is always there to help.
On that note, I want to thank you for helping me keep this ministry spreading by sharing these messages around. And I want thank those who are able to contribute towards the work I do here, I am so grateful for your help!
So may God bless you my friends, and may our lives continue to be people-centred, because with God in the centre, He’ll always bring His people along with Him.
