Based on Matthew 28:16-20 with the emphasis on the last sentence “And surely I am with you always. to the very end of the age”.
As a young boy I use to be amused by certain statements in the Bible. Eg. The father of the prodigal son when he saw him as he returned to his home, ran out and fell on his neck and kissed him. The saying ‘fell on his neck’ meant to me, he fell over. I had visions of the father just about to reach his son, fell over the got up and kissed his son.
As I grew into a teenager our Sunday School teacher taught us many things from God’s word. He spoke about Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Samson, Gideon, David and many others. These were mighty men who did wonderful things for God. I put them on a pedestal and considered them far above, we plebs. They did mighty things, they were Super Heroes to me.
I slowly realised that they were men just like ourselves, flesh and blood and as they trusted God, God used them to accomplish His works. Not only did God give them a job to do but he provided for them eg. Moses leading the Children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan.
Not only did God provide for them He had a plan for their lives and He has a plan for our lives also.
When I was 17 I joined the Royal Australian Navy and was sent to The communications School south of Frankston. I qualified as a radio operator and was posted to my first ship, HMASD Wagga Wagga, a minesweeper corvette. My secondary job on board was assistant to the navigator. This was in the days when the highest piece of technical equipment was a radio. To obtain our speed we use to trail a log, which is shaped like a torpedo and about 50 centimetres long from the stern of the ship. The log was attached to the ship via a long length of rope and the blades on the log made it spin which gave us our speed through the water. My job was to read the speed each hour and report it back to the navigator who used it, along with other bits of information, to deduce our position.
One night while crossing Bass Strait heading to Hobart I had to read the log and as I approached the stern a huge wave crashed over it, knocked my off my feet and I slid along the deck and the only thing that saved me was that my legs straddled a vertical post as a metre of water washed over me.
God looked after me that night because I could have been washed overboard never to be seen again.
God has a plan for each of our lives, even though we may not think we are very useful or don’t measure up to the Old Testament men. God can use each one of us and as we look back on our lives and reflect on them we can see God’s hand gently guiding us along the way.
We may not think we are important but can you name the man who witnessed to Billy Graham and as a result of his witness, Billy Graham accepted the Lord as his Saviour?
We in our small way, singing in the choir, maybe the means of the Lord using us for the conversion of some soul.
