Morning Devotional

March 20, 2004

"His Word" 

by Don Emmitte

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Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the people turn from their wicked deeds. Let them banish from their minds the very thought of doing wrong! Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. "My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. "The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!  (Isaiah 55:6-12 NLT).

Many years ago the Rev. Robert Burris, now over 90 years of age, worked for four and one-half years as a missionary in South China. As part of his ministry he journeyed into the mountains carrying copies of the Bible translated into Chinese for distribution. In this way, even though he could not speak fluent Chinese, the people were given God's word.

Toward the end of his term Mr. Burris and three companions began a 180-mile journey with 4,000 copies of the Chinese New Testament. In the first ten days about half of these New Testaments had been distributed. Then, in the remote countryside, five armed bandits who took everything they had stopped them. They lost their money, clothing, shoes, and the remaining 2,000 copies of the New Testament. Mr. Burris and friends limped home barefooted in their shirts and trousers, glad to be alive.

Approximately 25 years later when Mr. Burris was the pastor of a church in Ohio, he and his wife attended a lecture with slides presented by a missionary to South China. Among the slides shown was a picture of the very place in which he had been robbed by the bandits. "Now," the missionary said, "we come to the most important slide in my collection.

I call it The Miracle Church." The picture on the screen showed a large rough empty building. "This is The Miracle Church," the missionary continued, "Because no one knows who started it, or how, every Sunday, 400 people attend, each with a copy of The New Testament in Chinese. No one knows were they got these New Testaments. So far as is known, no missionary or distributor ever went into these mountains, which are infested with bandits and robbers. Yet today, the church is there and the people have God's Word". Mr. Burris smiled in gratitude. God's Word, taken from him that day by bandits had been building it's own church in China for 25 years.

You may not be able to carry an actual copy of the Bible with you. However, you can be the “word of God” to others through the things you say and do. It will not return void! Don’t underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit to use your life in the lives of others.