By Chaplain Don Moldstad, Bethany Lutheran College
Dr. Martin Luther once said that if the only reason God gave you faith in Christ was to
bring you to heaven, He would have ‘zapped’ you there immediately upon your Baptism.
However, God has chosen to leave you here on this earth in order to fulfill His purpose of
using you to bring others along with you to that wonderful eternal home.
Time is an extremely precious commodity. The older I get the more I have come to
realize this truth. With aging hopefully will come greater wisdom, and a deeper
appreciation of the precious days and hours we are permitted to serve our gracious Savior
on this earth.
After his beautiful words regarding our salvation by grace as a gift from God, St. Paul
instructs us that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). This is an amazing way to view
your life. To think that God has prepared ahead of time opportunities for you to serve His
Kingdom of Grace. Just like a mother in the kitchen walking her 6-yr old daughter
through a simple recipe, placing in front of her each step or ingredient in the process, so
God has prepared good works for us to demonstrate our gratitude to Him for His grace.
On the wall by my office phone I have posted a simple question in bold type that was
given to me years ago by an elderly Christian. It reads: How can God use me today to
advance His Kingdom of Grace? In this age of such tremendous technology, and the
ability to connect with so many so quickly, how can we use even our time on the web to
advance God’s Kingdom of Grace? In what subtle ways can we encourage and direct
others to hear the precious message of our salvation?
May God give us wisdom to use the hours of our life in service to Him and for the
advancement of His Kingdom as we look forward to our future Home.