Help From Above
“And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen” (Mark 16.20).
The last verse of the gospel of Mark is a promise that we are never alone if we are doing God’s work. Mark says they “preached everywhere, the Lord working with them.” Like a child grasping daddy’s hand as he jumps across a mud puddle, God holds our hand, helping us to jump the puddles of life.
The book of Acts records many of the accomplishments of this divine-human partnership. There were healing miracles, crowds baptized in a day, and amazing accounts of individuals high and low who were won to Christ. Perhaps the best story
was the conversion of the famous enemy of the church, Saul of Tarsus, who became the greatest champion of the gospel. He was the unlikeliest convert, and that is what makes his case so interesting.
In all these examples, God used people in one way or another.
Today it is no different. God wants to be your Helper. He enjoys blessing the efforts of sincere workers, often in unusual ways. Some time ago, a deep sea diver noticed something at the bottom of the sea that caught his attention: an oyster on a rock, clamping a piece of paper. The diver got the paper loose and started to read it. He discovered that it was a gospel tract. He had been thinking about becoming a Christian, and now this! The message came to him in such a strange and unexpected way that it stirred conviction in his heart right there. He was converted…while deep underwater.
Someone wrote a tract. Someone else accidentally dropped it into the ocean. An oyster grabbed it. Quite a team of workers. Finally, a man read it and believed. Truly, “the Lord was working with them.”
You may never experience helping someone by this underwater method, but God may have more interesting plans for you. The important thing is to keep trying. You are not alone as you feed the hungry, donate to a cause, say a kind word, or invite someone to hear the good news. As a radio preacher once said, “Go with God and He will go with you.”
By Barry Kimbrough
Pastor, Gold Beach, Brookings, and Cave Junction Seventh-day Adventist Churches
