Where is the power in your life?
I once heard it said, “If you want to know who is in charge, follow the money.” Despite it’s crassness, I have found the saying to be true. When at a convention if you want to find the coordinator stand at the registration table; where the money is collected and before long you will see either the one in charge or someone working for him or her.
Where is the power in your life? What truly has dominion over you? Humans have always had trouble knowing real power when they see it. We sometimes think we have found true power only to learn it has none.
Knowing real power when you see it is key. Ask any electrician when they are working on an open service panel, where is the real power? Some combinations of wires, when held have no power at all. While others have enough to kill you. Knowing where the power really is makes all the difference in the world. Whether you are a PhD in Electrical engineering or a high school co-op student. 100 amps of 240 volts makes you just as dead, either way.
In Mark 9 we read about a remarkable display. Jesus’ glory is displayed to Peter, James, and John. In case there was any question, Jesus returns and faces off with a demon that none of the disciples could cast out. The frazzled father of the boy begs Jesus, “Please have pit and help us if you can.” (Mark 9: 22) “If I can?”, Jesus asks, “Anything is possible for him who believes.”
The father responds like many of us, “I do believe! Help my unbelief!” With that Jesus commands the demon, “Come out of the boy. Don’t ever bother him again” (Mark 9: 25).
Next we read of the disciples arguing about who is going to be in charge in the new Kingdom. With these miracles still fresh in their minds they, like us, still live by sight, and not by faith. The real power is not in your position. It is in your subjection to the one who’s name is above all names (Phil. 2: 10)
There isn’t a believer on earth who has a ministry that is too small to be important.
Where is your power? In the office you hold? In the title that you have been given? Or is it in the one whom you have placed your faith in. There isn’t a believer on earth who has a ministry that is too small to be important. Our greatest service to God is never some future achievement in His Kingdom; It is a small act of kindness that you can do today!
Robert A. Jaffray was an intelligent and well educated in Toronto at the turn of the 20th Century. He was heir to the Globe and Mail, a successful Toronto newspaper and was fleuent in Chinese as well as English. Despite having family fortune and ample political connections he knew a worthy task when he saw one.
He was offered a huge salary by the Standard Oil Company of New York and was asked if he would help them set up an office in Hong Kong. He said, “No thank-you.” They later returned and doubled the salary offer. “No thank-you”
Finally they sent him a telegram with one sentence: “Jaffray, at any cost.”
He replied with one line, “Your salary is big. Your job is too small.”
Robert A. Jaffray was instead a missionary in China for more than 35 years. He worked in translating the New Testament into Cantonese and He wrote for and edited Bible Messenger, published by South China Alliance Press He used this publication to send training materials to Cantonese Missionaries and then later to others, reprinted in their “colloquial language versions.”
He was arrested in 1942 by the Japanese, he was kept in internment camps, until he died in 1945 from illness and malnutrition.
Jaffray said, “The supreme and crying need of this lost world is the gospel. Shall we not rise at Christ’s command to carry the blessed saving news to every perishing one?”
Don’t ever let yourself get distracted into doing a job that is too small.
ephesians2eight 