The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
" Get To!" - Revisited
In the nursing section of one of the retirement communities where Frances and I conduct services, our meetings have been suspended for the last 2 months because of an uptick in the Covid virus. Thankfully, Frances received a call from the activities director of the facility yesterday, inviting us to return to our normal service schedule. I love the way Frances informed me: "Jessica called, and we get to start services again!" This joyously reminded me of an Orange Moon devotional I wrote in 2015, which follows:
One morning during the first years of conducting the services, I shared with Frances my itinerary for the day. I mentioned several morning responsibilities, and then remembered, "Oh yes, we have to go to Gordon Oaks this afternoon." Immediately, a more appropriate thought occurred to me. "Let me rephrase that," I said. "Actually, we get to go to Gordon Oaks this afternoon!"
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now" (Philippians 1:3-5).
Frances and I consider our ministry at the facility a responsibility. We conduct four services a week there, and believe we should show up on time with hearts and minds prepared to fulfill our God-called duties. However, our dominant sensibility and feeling involves the awareness of how privileged we are to be given such an opportunity. Our Lord has so often met us through the hearts, lives, and faces of many of His people at Gordon Oaks. He has blessed us over and over and over again in ways that only God can create and bestow. We will see Christ in people who seek and trust Him in challenging situations, and who come to our services as the expression of their devotion to the Lord Jesus. We have so have looked out at congregations of people, many in wheelchairs, and been keenly aware of the undeserved privilege to be in the presence of so many beautiful and Christ-filled hearts. Oh yes, privilege. We get to…
God gave us a gift many years ago, a gift that, as the saying goes, keeps on giving. He gave to us the privilege of a special fellowship with many of His trusting sons and daughters in Christ. I feel this way about all our ministries. "We get to." I suspect that if such a sensibility is not resident within our hearts and minds regarding the callings of life, well, they may not be callings. Indeed, when the sense of duty gives way to the realization of privilege regarding any responsibility, joy awaits us as the Lord Jesus fills us with His heart of service and devotion to our Heavenly Father and others...
"Thou wilt show me the path of life. In Thy presence is fullness of joy, at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore."
(Psalm 16:11)
"I was glad when they said unto me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord!"
(Psalm 122:1)
Weekly Memory Verse
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."
(II Corinthians 4:5)
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