November 11, 2002
TOGETHER:
Christians are better useful than safe
___As Donovan Phipps and Dick Talley drove away from the Texas Baptist Men's missions equipping center in east Dallas headed for New York, I asked God to keep them safe. And I thanked God that he had made them so useful.
___They were delivering a one-ton diesel pickup truck and a specially equipped 40-foot gooseneck trailer to Baptists in New York. Baptist Men in the lower Rio Grande Valley had converted the trailer into a mobile disaster-relief unit, complete with a generator, water purifier and all the equipment needed to prepare up to 15,000 meals a day.
___Our Texas Baptist Men and others went to New York last year to minister in the days and weeks following the shocking 9/11 disaster. And our Texas Baptist churches gave generously to the disaster-relief fund.
___New York Baptists ha
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CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
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d a small cooking trailer, but it wore out from constant use. Our men wanted to help. With careful management of resources and a lot of volunteer help, they were able to purchase a truck and trailer, fully equip them for service and send the larger unit as a gift from Texas Baptists to our brothers and sisters in New York.
___And when New York Baptists heard what Texas Baptists wanted to do, they refurbished their own worn-out trailer and are presenting it to the Pennsylvania Baptist Men for them to use. No one can ever trace the good that flows in so many directions, through so many lives, when God's people are generous, unselfish, resourceful, alert and responsive. It is good to be safe. It is better to be useful.
___Do you remember the Apostle Paul's powerful affirmation of God's providential care: "Through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything" (2 Corinthians 6:8-10)?
___Paul was not always safe, but he was always useful--just like all who follow Jesus for any length of time.
___When our church sent our young people off on a mission trip, that was my prayer: "Lord, this church thanks you for loving and calling our children. We ask you to keep them safe as they go, but more, we ask that you make them useful." That is not easy for parents to pray. It is hard to take our hands off and simply trust our children to God. But in time, we learn that is really the only prayer worth praying for our children.
___It is no good just to be safe in a dangerous world. For Christians, we must also be useful to God.
___Many people are safe, but their lives never make a difference for God. Some of those who have made the most difference have gone through terrible dangers. Sometimes they have not been safe--except as God always keeps us safe in his arms even though we may die in his safekeeping.
___Texas Baptists are dreaming new dreams about getting all our churches and all our people involved in hands-on missions ministry. Let this be our prayer: "God, keep us safe, if you will. But more than anything, let us be useful to you in advancing all the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom."
___We are loved ... wherever we go.
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