I was watching the BYU (Brigham Young University) channel yesterday. I am not a Mormon, but am a Christian. The channel has some good, interesting programs. We Christians should love and support one another and not let our doctrines get in our way. When we let doctrine cause rifts and fighting between us, it interferes with our mission to spread the Good News. We should stand united before the world as brothers and sisters in our Lord.
The host of the program I was watching told a story from the 1800's. The story was about an old gentleman that sat on the porch of his seaside home somewhere along the southern Atlantic coast of the US. He sat there watching a boy throwing starfish back in the ocean that had been stranded as the tide moved out. The man eventually walked down to where the boy was busy throwing the starfish back to the ocean. He remarked to the boy, "son, there are thousands upon thousands of starfish along the beach. What difference are you going to make by throwing a few back? You can throw them back all day and not make a dent in them." The boy stopped what he was doing and held up a starfish saying, "I'm making a difference to this one." The rest of the afternoon one saw the boy along with the old man throwing starfish back into the receding ocean.
This really made a deep impression on me. Our Lord is always teaching if we but listen. The lesson he taught me is this: As Christians, we go about our lives most of the time passing up opportunities to save one lost soul. Thinking, what dent can I make in the millions of the unsaved upon this earth at just this point in time? Not realizing that we would be making a huge difference to that one person we saved and gave eternal life to. If each of us brought just one soul to Christ in this lifetime, what a mammoth impact that would make in the big picture of life. Never discount the impact you can make by what you perceive as an insignificant contribution. It may, and most likely will, influence others to do the same. The ripple effect is tremendous when each of those persons influence several others to do the same.
The host of the program I was watching told a story from the 1800's. The story was about an old gentleman that sat on the porch of his seaside home somewhere along the southern Atlantic coast of the US. He sat there watching a boy throwing starfish back in the ocean that had been stranded as the tide moved out. The man eventually walked down to where the boy was busy throwing the starfish back to the ocean. He remarked to the boy, "son, there are thousands upon thousands of starfish along the beach. What difference are you going to make by throwing a few back? You can throw them back all day and not make a dent in them." The boy stopped what he was doing and held up a starfish saying, "I'm making a difference to this one." The rest of the afternoon one saw the boy along with the old man throwing starfish back into the receding ocean.
This really made a deep impression on me. Our Lord is always teaching if we but listen. The lesson he taught me is this: As Christians, we go about our lives most of the time passing up opportunities to save one lost soul. Thinking, what dent can I make in the millions of the unsaved upon this earth at just this point in time? Not realizing that we would be making a huge difference to that one person we saved and gave eternal life to. If each of us brought just one soul to Christ in this lifetime, what a mammoth impact that would make in the big picture of life. Never discount the impact you can make by what you perceive as an insignificant contribution. It may, and most likely will, influence others to do the same. The ripple effect is tremendous when each of those persons influence several others to do the same.
Sing to the LORD! Bless his name! Proclaim his deliverance every day!
Psalm 96:2
No comments:
Post a Comment