Devotion for the Week of Pentecost 2009

We have a greater burden as God's people than anyone else on earth. We must always lift up a higher standard of living and loving.

In one of Garfield's cartoons he is shown resting droopy-eyed in his bed thinking to himself: "One of my pet peeves," he says to himself, "is people who never finish what they start." As he cracks a knowing smile, he says, "I do not happen to be one of those people." The last frame shows him under the bed covers saying, "My philosophy is, 'Never start anything.'"

"Never start anything" cannot be our philosophy as God's people. You see, we must care about our world because God cares. We must care about people because God cares. We must care about those in need because God cares. God cared enough about us to send a savior Jesus Christ. God cared enough to send the Holy Spirit.

We must care too. We must care enough to make our church and community stronger. What is God calling you to do? Are you being called to help tutor a child struggling in with his or her education? Are you being called to be a Sunday School teacher? Are you being called to share your talents with the church, the community or the world? If you and I don't do it, who will?
We have a greater burden as God's people than anyone else on earth. We must always lift up a higher standard of living and loving.

God is counting on you and me. Why? Because we can count on God to give us the resources we need to accomplish God's will.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8