"He Can Always Make More"

Great deeds are accomplished in faithful attention to small tasks: this was the message of Tim Spivey at last weekend's Renew Conference. With a title of "He Can Always Make More", his message focused on Jesus' feeding of the 5,000, as told in Luke 9:10-17.

"Do the good work right in front of you," Spivey advised, "as the book of James says:

"If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom." James 3:13 (New Living Translation)

"We try to change the world and we often change nothing," Spivey observed. "But, when we just do the good in front of us, one day we wake up and find out we changed the world!"

Or, put in slightly different words, he said:

"We want to change the world but we forget tot change the diapers!"

He advised that each of us work in what he called the "mustard seed fashion" (referring to Jesus' comparison to the Kingdom of Heaven being like a mustard seed in Matthew 13:31,32). "We must be totally surrendered to God and willing to do the small jobs in front of us."

When we have plenty of resources, whether it be time, money, good health or friends, it is easy to be generous with others and with God's work, he explained. But, when resources are tight, we have a much more difficult time being generous.

"But God can make more," he reminded us, just like he did when Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish! "It's more about surrender (to God) than it is about creativity," he reminded us. "The resources God provides are for the world, not just for us! The storehouse of God's resources is not mine, God owns it and stocks the storehouse! And God will make sure you never run out if you share!"

When church members forget about God's provision, about the reality that God can always make more, spiritual dry rot sets in, Spivey warned. Instead of being generous with God's resources, we try to conserve them for our own use. But God's Kingdom is advanced through sharing, not through hoarding.

"He Can Always Make More!"

--Posted by Mama O.