There once was a man who per chance attended Revival meetings at a particular church. He had heard the music would be really great and thought it might be enjoyable to check it out.
He attended Sunday through Friday, and to his surprise he actually enjoyed the sermons as well as the song services.
The evangelist ministered on the Power of the Blood of Jesus Christ. He preached about the Holy Spirit coming to dwell in Believers. The man learned that not only had God created everything seen and unseen but he also created everything that all of those things are made of. The Holy Spirit moved mightily on Friday night, the last night of the Revival, and this man whom we will now refer to as John found himself at the alter humbling himself before God. He confessed to God that he had been a horrible sinner and pleaded with the Lord to save him by applying the shed blood of Christ to his life. The Lord saved him and touched his heart and soul that night and his sins were nailed to the Cross of Christ.
The pastor of this little church encouraged him to start coming to church on Sundays, explaining that it would be good for his spiritual growth and well being. He would learn things in Sunday School and church that would help him immensely. He began to attended church as often as was possible for him to do so. He soon received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. He was of course thrilled that the Lord had dealt so graciously with him, and thanked the Lord for his mercy and the salvation which had been given to him through Gods Great Grace.
When John got up in the morning each day he paused to contemplate all that Jesus had accomplished on the Cross just to save sinners such as himself. He thought of the Crown of Thorns, the Stripes which were laid to his back, and the spikes which were driven through His hands and feet. He visualized the blood running down his body and thanked the Lord for this incredible sacrifice, which had both paid the penalty for broken Law and had removed the Curse of the Law.
John begin to realize that although he had been saved by Grace through Faith, and his salvation was to be credited to Gods goodness only and not to anything he himself had done or could do, still he felt he needed to walk in love toward people, and especially his brothers and sisters in the church. John expressed his feelings to the Pasture of the Church. The Pasture of this Church was really glad to hear John express his wish to walk in the Spirit by showing Christ’s love that now resided in him.
His pastor told him, “We have some elderly people in our Church who are always in need of some kind of help with yard work and some various household chores which require a little more physical strength than they can sometimes muster. If you would be interested, I can introduce you to Mrs. Helms, she has a difficult time preparing for the winter months.”
After meeting with Mrs. Helms, John begin right away helping her with her yard work, and other projects which she deeply appreciated. She tried to pay him but he refused to take money because he was doing it as unto the Lord.
John felt such an uplifting feeling from helping Mrs. Helms that he soon decided he would like to help someone else also. After all he had plenty of free time. He discovered that a Mrs. Voss from the Church also very much needed some help. Soon he was spending as much time as possible helping each of them out as much as he could.
In the mornings before beginning his day he would stop and think about how much Jesus had done for him. He would thank him for The Precious Blood which he had shed to deliver him from sin. And was thankful because he knew he could in no way have been able to save himself. He also thanked the Lord for giving him something he could do as unto the Lord.
After a couple of weeks the Pastor asked him if it would be possible to help out a Mr. Hanson who was from their Church and was having a hard time with preparing meals and some other household chores. John was more than happy to oblige and was thrilled with the prospect of being able to do more for the Lord.
In the mornings before starting his day he would now thank the Lord for saving him, and also thank him for allowing him to be used in this small way by helping people.
John continued going to Church as often as he could. He liked the song sevices and he enjoyed hearing the messages given by the Pastor of their Church. He would always find himself feeling very thankful for all he had been able to do for the Lord. He was overjoyed whenever he was able to go over to Mrs. Voss’s, Mr. Hanson’s, or Mrs. Helms house to do something for them. He realized that he had pretty much caught up the work that needed to be done for these people though and so he started an outreach program in the Church for the purpose of helping anyone who needed any kind of help. A couple of men from Church volunteered to help and they did a lot of work for many people in their Church.
In the mornings John would now thank the Lord for using him for this work in helping people in the Church. He thanked him for keeping him healthy and for the ability to do the various tasks which were set before him. Oh, and thanks for saving me too.
New neighbors moved into the house beside John one day. He was glad to see people move into the old house. He was afraid that being unattended, the old house would one day just fall to the ground.
The day after the folks had moved in next door, John was out mowing his yard when the neighbor seen him and came over to get acquainted. They talked for some time about whatever came into their minds. Finally, after talking about most everything else, his new neighbor (we’ll say his name is Jeff) asked John if he was a Christian. After a slight pause(the first thing that actually entered Johns mind was; of course I am. Obviously this man having not lived around here did not realize what a fine ministry John had developed and nurtured within his Church), John answered yes, and explained about where he went to Church and filled Jeff in on the various programs which were in place at their Church, including the ministry of helping the elderly, which he had been working on personally. He then invited Jeff to come with him to Church on Sunday.
It bothered John however, that Jeff hadn’t somehow known that he was a Christian. He decided that he would start telling more people about the ministry which the Lord had placed him into, in regards to helping the elderly.
He soon had told many of the people where he worked of his ministry, and had hopes of getting some of them to join his Church, trying to convince some of those people that doing this work for the Lord was the greatest thing which he had ever done.
In the mornings now, John would thank the Lord for giving him this great ministry, seldom even mentioning the Blood of Jesus or that it was Christ who had accomplished his salvation.
