1 Corinthians 15 Amplified Bible
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord [always doing your best and doing more than is needed], being continually aware that your labor [even to the point of exhaustion] in the Lord is not futile nor wasted [it is never without purpose].
I love the Amplified Version of the Bible. I study and do everything else in the King James Version, but it’s always a treat to see how the Amplified version puts things. Excellence is the effort, the heart, not the outcome.
Pastor Purdue is probably the best Pastor I have ever had. (Salisbury Baptist Temple in Maryland). Although the church and the elder congregation is pretty worn & old, and needs a lot of work, it’s probably the most excellent, vibrant church I was ever a part of.
I loved it, although it was completely different than the church we went to before.
By no means would a casual observer walk in and call it an excellent church. But after a few weeks, Winnie and I both agreed that the church was excellent. Excellent for us. Excellent for our kids, in a very bad time in our lives. The church excelled in everything, with the little they had.
Why do I say that? Because with an extremely limited budget they did a fantastic job!!
The ‘excellence’ this church had wasn’t as obvious as the typical million dollar megachurch’s excellence. Walk into Joel Osteen’s or a big Calvary Chapel for example, everything looks and smells like excellence!
However, this small humble country church far ‘excelled’ those churches with unlimited budgets.
A megachurch has tens of thousands of dollars and a staff of 150 full time workers with 20 dedicated to maintenance, to fix a carpet problem. This small church, with only a few hundred dollars and 10 joyful volunteers, who came during their off time from jobs paying minimum wage, did a great job! I couldn’t tell the difference in the carpets. Excellence with the little they had!
All week long I’ve been receiving the words from God, I believe, of ‘selfless and excellence’. I thought it was condemnation because I am not excellent. Radio, a book report, tapes, facebook, friends have been repeating these words to me. That’s usually the way God speaks to me. From many different sources. Am I selfless? No doubt I am. Winnie and I have laid out our lives for 30 years down here. As in wrestling, we would say ‘we left it all out on the mat’, Winnie and I have laid it all out on the mission field. Our health, our savings, our energy all laid out on the mission field. The love of Christ constrains us. Selfless? Yes. Excellent? Not even close! No where near.
I am not excellent by any means. I’m sloppy and overweight. I’m a pretty sucky husband and dad. Try hard, but not very good. My daily 1 hour work outs aren’t excellent. My Spanish by far isn’t excellent.
Bible study and daily devotions? not excellent. Preaching and teaching abilities? Not good. Soul winning? Feel like I am getting worse instead of better. Paperwork and accounting? Horrible! Counseling, especially marriage counseling? Laughable! Feeding, educating and taking care of children? Mediocre at best. I was kicking myself. I don’t have the resources to do things better, more excellently. I would love to, and I do improve, but no where near as I would like to. I compare myself physically to DEVGRU soldiers, my Spanish to nicaraguan born Spanish speakers, my preaching and teaching, to Phd ministers / preachers, my leadership skills to CEO’s, CFO’s and my non-profit to Million dollar non-profits. But it’s just me and Winnie. I still push myself more, but I can’t hire people to help me, and the day only has 24 hours.
But then yesterday I had an epiphany. After talking to Pastor Howard, (another great encourager from CCMI) I read 1 Cor 15:58 and remembered Pastor Purdue’s words, ‘do your best’. That I do, with all I have. My best is not excellent, but it’s my best! The words of the Lord were to encourage me not condemn me! I am happy!!!
Each day, I keep going.
Each day, I start fresh.
Each tomorrow is hours away.
Tomorrow, I KNOW I will do my best.
And I keep doing these things each day. I doing the best with what I have to work with, always striving to be better, to be excellent.
Reminds me of the widows mite. And Jesus was watching and was happy with her. Probably the smallest donation but He knew her heart and her limitations. Hope He’s happy with me!
Mark 12:43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: