Just a cup of cold water in His Name

Thirty-one years ago, a call from the local police came to my church office asking if we could assist a woman and child who had no place to go, no one else to whom to turn for help.  Bev and I opened our home, never realizing that what started that day would become a life-long friendship. Margarita moved in and out of our lives over the next decade. We prayed for her, cried over her, got angry with her, loved her. Finally, Christ Jesus became her Lord and Savior.  She married, formed a home, became part of a Spirit-filled church, and joined her husband in ownership of a thriving business. Yesterday, they visited with Bev. Just before they left, she said, “You prayed for me so many times, now I want to pray for you.”  And she went on to talk to the Lord in a way that left Bev and I wrecked emotionally – in the best way! “Make the most of every opportunity,” the Word says (Ephesians 5: 16) I had no inkling of what would come of answering a call for help. That day, I thought it was just giving someone a safe place to sleep. God planned to change the destiny of several lives. 

We make small investments, God gives big returns!  Jesus said, "If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded." (Mark 9:41, NLT)  Many times, when I was a younger pastor, I prayed to make a difference in the world.  My concept of fulfilling that prayer was to do something effecting thousands of people.  But, God’s call for me is to touch one life at a time, in small places.  Every now and then, He lets me see how those ‘cups of cold water’ offered in His Name turn into springs of living Water.  The key, Christian friend, is faithfulness in the moment.

60 Minutes reported the story of a young man from London, who turned a 2 week vacation into 1938, into a mission to save the lives of 669 Jewish children, mostly Jews, from almost certain death in Prague. Nicholas Winton, 104,  never said too much about what he did at the time. He saw a need, responded with his best efforts, and brought children that governments and agencies overlooked out of Czechoslovakia just days before the Nazis marched into that country and started their evil campaign to purge Jews from society.  The story summed up this way:  “In 1939, Nicholas Winton used a two week vacation to go to Prague and ended up saving the lives of 669 children. In the decades since, of course, the children had children, who then had children and so on...and the numbers multiplied.”   15,000 people are alive today!

(Watch the video and read the story)

Are you listening for God’s voice?

Are you praying for eyes to see what He’s doing?

Are you ready to spend yourself in pursuit of His plans, big or small?

Here’s the word from the Word.  I pray it makes us ready to serve, faithfully, trusting the results and rewards to the One who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end.  "I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God’s workers." (1 Corinthians 3:6-9, NLT)

_____________

Pass It On

It only takes a spark

To get a fire going.

And soon all those around

Can warm up in its glowing.

That's how it is with God's love,

Once you've experienced it.

You spread His love, to ev'ryone,

You want to pass it on.

I wish for you, my friend,

This happiness that I've found.

You can depend on Him,

It matters not where you're bound.

I'll shout it from the mountain top,

I want my world to know,

The Lord of love, has come to me,

I want to pass it on.

Kurt Kaiser

© 1969 Bud John Songs, Inc. (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055