[Faith-talk] FW: [masterslist] Selfless Dedication

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "Dean Masters" <dwmasters at earthlink.net>
To: "masters list" <masterslist at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [masterslist] Selfless Dedication
Date: 
Fri, 20 May 2011 11:45:05 -0400

Selfless Dedication
by Charles R. Swindoll

Read
Exodus 2:15--25

Moses, the Prince of Egypt, alias Prince Charming, watering animals? Why?

Because Moses had just choked down the biggest wedge of humble pie you
can 
imagine.
By now, the man was ready to do anything. Isn't it interesting, though,
that 
in this incident Moses was allowed to be a deliverer on an immensely
smaller
scale? Earlier, he had thought he was going to deliver a nation. He had 
grand dreams and mighty schemes. But this time God said, "You want a job
as 
deliverer?
Then stand up and do it, son. Start here. There are seven women here in 
Midian who need a champion at this moment."

Moses could have shrugged it off. He could have said, "Aw forget it. I'm
out 
of the delivery business. Let someone else do the job." But he didn't. It
was here Moses took his first steps in becoming a man of selfless 
dedication. The young women would later tell their father, "An Egyptian 
delivered us
from the hand of the shepherds, and what is more, he even drew the water
for 
us and watered the flock" (v 19).

That thought moves me. If you can't do the good you would, do the good
you 
can. You may have had big-time plans in your life---major league dreams
that
haven't panned out. You were going to write a best-selling book, but the 
opportunities just haven't come along. Are you willing to write for your 
church
newsletter?

Maybe you wanted to teach in seminary or Bible school, but the pressures
of 
life forced you in a different direction. Are you willing to teach a 
fourth-grade
Sunday school class? Are you up for leading a small group Bible study? Is
it 
really the teaching that draws your heart, or is it the prestige that
goes
along with the position?

Failure, you see, teaches us a servant's attitude. And what does a
servant 
do? He does "the next task." She does what is available and ready for her
to
do. Those without such an attitude resist getting their hands dirty. They

never want to get involved in the messy part of working with people. They

always
want the polished part, the popular part. But the tough stuff behind the 
scenes? Well, give that to someone else.

God, however, will use our failures and setbacks to cultivate within us a

servant's heart. That's step one. It's all part of the process.


Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll,
Great Days with the Great Lives
(Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. 
Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.


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Dean Masters, owner of the Masters List

"I would rather walk in the dark with Jesus than to walk in the light on
my 
own."
Wayne Watson

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/masterslist