12-07-07 Our job -- John 1:31
We show people how to experience God's love. Out of that encounter flows everything good – healing, growth, obedience, sacrifice, mission. As you plan your year-end giving, remember that a gift to Dwight Clough Ministries Inc. empowers us to help people on every continent to experience God's love, sometimes for the very first time. Details... the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed ... -- John 1:31
John the Baptist is getting at more than just the reason for his ministry. He is getting at the reason for everything we do. Why do I hug my children? So Jesus might be revealed. Why do I pay my taxes? So Jesus might be revealed.
Our lives make room for Jesus to show up. John's baptizing could never change a nation. But, by leaving room for Jesus to show up, the whole world was changed. There is a role for our inadequacies. It is to remind us to make room for Jesus to show up.Jesus, of course, was here all along. But we need life as a visual aid to help us see Him. Jesus was obscure and unknown until after John started baptizing. So also, He may be obscure and unknown to someone in your world or in mine. But we do what God calls us to, and we can tell if we are successful by remembering John's word's, "He must increase, and I must decrease."
The people who produced the movie series, Lord of the Rings, made a statement that struck me: "If you say to me, 'Wow, that was a great special effect,' then we have failed. Our job is to make the special effects look like the real thing."
It isn't about us and our work. If we are successful, people aren't looking at us. Rather, they are all looking at Him.
Be encouraged!
Dwight
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