Devotional - 99-05-31 - May I Polish Your Floor?

Memorial Day - 1999

Deuteronomy 7:9 "know therefore that the Yehweh your God, is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and steadfast love to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments."

For several months, nurses have been baffled to find a patient dead in the same bed every Friday morning at the Pelonomi Hospital in Free State, South Africa. There seemed to be no reason for any of the deaths. They checked the air flow systems, looked for bacterial infections and still found no clues. Further inquiries have now revealed the cause of these deaths.

It seems that every Friday morning a cleaning lady would enter the ward, remove the plug that powered the patient's life support system, plug her floor polisher into the vacant socket, then go about her business. When she finished, she would plug the life support machine back in and leave, unaware that the patient was now dead.

A spokesman said, "We are sorry, and have sent a strong letter to the cleaner in question. Further, the Free State Health and Welfare Department is arranging for an electrician to fit an extra socket, so there should be no repetition of this incident. The inquiry is now closed." (Cape Times).

We live in a world on life support. It doesn't always look like it because people all around us are busy, busy, busy. Still many are no better than lying on a bed in South Africa on life support. They are just as close to eternity.

There is a need in 1999. It is the same need that existed 10, 219, and 1800 years ago. We don't need more theologians, just about anyone is a theologian, --ask them. We don't need more money given to the work of the Lord, God owns everything anyway, He is more than able to allocate as He pleases. We don't even need more cross-cultural missionaries, and although "the more the better," is a common understanding, it is not what we really need.

We need more faithfulness. In a world on life support faithfulness stands out. We need men and women, sold on the truth of God's Holy Word, who actually live it. We need truck drivers, nurses, students, pastors, and accountants who faithfully apply the truths of the gospel in their various callings. May God visit us with such a vision for our lives and for seeing it develop in the lives of others.

One of the ways we learn faithfulness is by remembering that God has been faithful to us and by calling to our minds His sufficiency in all things. "God's powerful word and providence reacheth to the whole world, this lower part here upon earth, as well as the uppoer part in heaven." --Thomas Manton

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

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