A friend once saw Michael Angelo at work on one of his statues. Some time afterwards he saw him again and said seeing so little done. “ Have you been idle since I saw you last?
“By no means” replied the sculptor, “I have retouched this part and polished that; I have softened this feature and brought out that muscle; I have given more expression to this lip, and more energy to this limb.”
“Well Well” said the friend, “all these are trifles”
“It may be so,” replied Angelo; “but recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle”.
There is a beautiful Rabbinical story, that, when Moses was tending Jethro’s flock in Midian, a kid went astray. He sought it and found it drinking at a spring. “Thou art weary, “he said, and lifted it on his shoulders and carried it home. And God said to him, “Since thou has had pity for a man’s beast, thou shalt be shepherd of Israel, My flock.
1. The Law of Inward growth: The Lord of our nature knew that it was ‘in human being’ to do any act more readily and easily the second time than the first, third than the second. Every disposition, faculty, principle, grows by exercise. This is true in the physical, the mental and also in the spiritual sphere. One who is faithful today will find it a simpler and easier thing to be faithful tomorrow.
2. The Principle of Divine Reward: God blesses uprightness in the very act for He makes the upright man something the better and the stronger for his act of faithfulness. He holds out to faithfulness the promise of a reward in the future. The promise is twofold 1) one of heavenly wealth of the higher order 2) inalienable wealth.
3. Fidelity in small things prepares for and opens the way to a wider sphere of service. Every time that a Christian acts for the sake of Christ that motive is made strong in his soul.
4. Unfaithfulness in the use of money and possessions disqualifies a person from true, heavenly riches. A person may think his life and possessions are his/her own to do with it as he/she wills, but they are not. His/her life and possessions are God’s. God has trusted the person with life and possessions only as long as he/she is on this earth. The holder is only a manger of all he/she is and has. Scripture says that the true heavenly riches and rewards are beyond comprehension
Examples for heavenly riches
· Being adopted as a son of God (Gal 4: 4-7)
· Being made blameless and harmless (Ph 2: 15)
· Being given eternal life (Jn 3: 16)
· Being given a glorious body (Ph 3: 11, 21)
5. No slave can serve two masters: Nowadays, it is quite easy to do two jobs and work for two people, for instance, working in an office by day and as a musician by night. Many people augment their income or find real interest in a spare-time occupation. But a slave had no spare time; every moment of his day, and every ounce of his energy, belonged to his master.
“By no means” replied the sculptor, “I have retouched this part and polished that; I have softened this feature and brought out that muscle; I have given more expression to this lip, and more energy to this limb.”
“Well Well” said the friend, “all these are trifles”
“It may be so,” replied Angelo; “but recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle”.
There is a beautiful Rabbinical story, that, when Moses was tending Jethro’s flock in Midian, a kid went astray. He sought it and found it drinking at a spring. “Thou art weary, “he said, and lifted it on his shoulders and carried it home. And God said to him, “Since thou has had pity for a man’s beast, thou shalt be shepherd of Israel, My flock.
1. The Law of Inward growth: The Lord of our nature knew that it was ‘in human being’ to do any act more readily and easily the second time than the first, third than the second. Every disposition, faculty, principle, grows by exercise. This is true in the physical, the mental and also in the spiritual sphere. One who is faithful today will find it a simpler and easier thing to be faithful tomorrow.
2. The Principle of Divine Reward: God blesses uprightness in the very act for He makes the upright man something the better and the stronger for his act of faithfulness. He holds out to faithfulness the promise of a reward in the future. The promise is twofold 1) one of heavenly wealth of the higher order 2) inalienable wealth.
3. Fidelity in small things prepares for and opens the way to a wider sphere of service. Every time that a Christian acts for the sake of Christ that motive is made strong in his soul.
4. Unfaithfulness in the use of money and possessions disqualifies a person from true, heavenly riches. A person may think his life and possessions are his/her own to do with it as he/she wills, but they are not. His/her life and possessions are God’s. God has trusted the person with life and possessions only as long as he/she is on this earth. The holder is only a manger of all he/she is and has. Scripture says that the true heavenly riches and rewards are beyond comprehension
Examples for heavenly riches
· Being adopted as a son of God (Gal 4: 4-7)
· Being made blameless and harmless (Ph 2: 15)
· Being given eternal life (Jn 3: 16)
· Being given a glorious body (Ph 3: 11, 21)
5. No slave can serve two masters: Nowadays, it is quite easy to do two jobs and work for two people, for instance, working in an office by day and as a musician by night. Many people augment their income or find real interest in a spare-time occupation. But a slave had no spare time; every moment of his day, and every ounce of his energy, belonged to his master.
All service ranks the same with God
If now, as formerly He trod
Paradise, His Presence fills
Our earth, each only as God wills
Can Work – God’s puppets best and worst
Are we; there is no last nor first’
Say not “a small event”! Why “small”?
Costs it more pain that this, ye call
A “great event,” should come to pass,
Than that? Untwine me from the mass
Of deeds which make up life, one deed
Power shall fall short in or exceed
Browning (Pippa Passes)
If now, as formerly He trod
Paradise, His Presence fills
Our earth, each only as God wills
Can Work – God’s puppets best and worst
Are we; there is no last nor first’
Say not “a small event”! Why “small”?
Costs it more pain that this, ye call
A “great event,” should come to pass,
Than that? Untwine me from the mass
Of deeds which make up life, one deed
Power shall fall short in or exceed
Browning (Pippa Passes)
Courtesy
The Great Texts of the Bible
The Pulpit Commentary
William Barclay’s The New Daily Study Bible
The Preacher’s Outline and the Sermon Bible
The Great Texts of the Bible
The Pulpit Commentary
William Barclay’s The New Daily Study Bible
The Preacher’s Outline and the Sermon Bible
No comments:
Post a Comment