Illustration: A missionary in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, reports that recently an African pastor passed through on his way home to Chad, where civil war was raging. "What would you like to take to complete your forty-four pounds of baggage allowance?" asked the missionary. "Sugar? Powdered milk? Medicine?" "If I could have some Bibles or a few good books..." said the African Pastor. ”How’s that?" the missionary asked. "Back home we lost everything in the war, and we learned to place less importance on that which passes away and more importance on that which lasts." The missionary mused: "Was I dreaming? We have heard so often ’The hungry stomach has no ears’ that we misread the Epistle to the Romans to say, ’Faith comes from what one eats,’ instead of ’Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ "We must not fail to share our bread with those who are hungry, but neither dare we forget that ’man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God ’"
It is the acts of love and fellowship that let others know that good doctrine is in fact at work in our lives!
Illustration: A man came to the pastor one time and said, "I don’t know what’s wrong with my life, but that first Christian joy I knew has passed by. I still live a moral life. I go to church. But how can I recover the lost radiance of my faith?" His pastor said, "this is what you should do: go to the store and buy a big basketful of groceries and go to an address of a poor family I will give you. Then when you have given your gift, you sit down with them to find out what they need. Let them know that you are interested in them and that you are their friend. Then lead them in the Lord’s Prayer before you leave, and the radiance will come back.”
Worship is not just an act or a programmed list, it is to reflect the passion of our hearts, and show devotion so strong
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