“Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.”
John 12:3 (NKJV)
By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”
Most of the Christians I know want to be pleasing to God, and they want to do things for Him. Many of them are waiting for a perfect time when they’ll finally have the leisure and resources to do many things for Him. But here’s a quote I made up, and I think it’s worthy of full acceptance: “You’ll never do many things for the Lord until you finally do one thing for Him.”
The truth is as plain as the nose on your face. If you’re going to serve the living God, you’ve got to start somewhere.
I’m sure you’ve read the story from the Scripture text at the top. It’s the one about the woman who bought an expensive bottle of perfume and poured the whole thing on Jesus’ feet. Then she wiped his feet with her hair.
She caught a lot of flack from the disciples about the money that was “wasted”, but the Lord Jesus praised her. You see, that woman loved the Lord, and she wanted to do something for Him. So she picked out her one thing to do for Him, and then she did it.
She’s a great example of the “One-Thing Principle”. “You’ll never do many things for the Lord until you finally do one thing for Him.” And I’ll bet that anointing Jesus’ feet wasn’t the last thing she ever did for Jesus. Because after you do one thing for the Saviour, you’re in a position to do many things for Him.
So, you’ve got homework this week. You need to pick out the one thing you’re going to do for God. And then you need to do it.
I’ll give you some ideas to get you thinking. I’ll tell you one thing I do for the Lord. I record television shows and send them to missionaries. After a hard day of spreading the gospel, missionaries like to sit down and watch a little TV and relax, just like you do. And, just like you, they would prefer to watch a program in their native language.
So I ask our missionaries what programs they like to watch, and then I record those and burn them onto DVD’s and mail them overseas. After they watch those shows, very often they send me an email with a list of more episodes they would like to see. It may not be a big thing. But it is one thing I do. And it puts me in a position where I can do more things for God.
Have you chosen what you will do for the Lord this week? I’d love to hear your plans! E-mail me at extramailbox@juno.com.
May God bless you this day!
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad” * He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and is beginning his 25th year of being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 18) and Seth (age 15) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (whose missionaries particularly like to watch old episodes of “Touched by an Angel”). You should write him at extramailbox@juno.com.
